Search

Background The denial of death in Western society deprives young people of the tools to derive meaning from experiences of death and dying. Literature shows that death education may allow them to become familiar with this topic without causing negative effects. This article describes the effects of a death education course with adolescents, wherein participants were given the opportunity to meet palliative doctors and palliative psychologists at school and in a hospice, where they were able to converse with the families of the dying. Methods This study used mixed methods and included an evaluation of a death education intervention with longitudinal follow-up of outcomes. The course involved 87 secondary school students (experimental group) aged between 16 and 20 years. We also recruited a control group of 76 similarly-aged students to observe differences. The variables we examined were: alexithymia, representation of death, value attributed to life and spirituality. These were measured with the following instruments: the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20, the Testoni Death Representation Scale, the Personal Meaning Profile and the Spiritual Orientation Inventory, respectively. To better understand how the students perceived the experience, we asked the experimental group to answer some open-ended questions. Their answers were analysed through thematic analysis. Results The study showed that death education and the hospice experience did not produce negative effects, but rather allowed students to decrease alexithymia, improving their ability to recognise and express emotions. Thematic analysis revealed that all participants perceived the experience as very positive. Conclusions Our findings affirm that death education programs can be successfully implemented in high schools, and that they can usefully involve local hospices and palliative care professionals, especially physicians and psychologists.

(1) Background: The Italian Constitutional Court’s decision n. 99/2019 abolished the distinction between physical and psychological health care in the Italian prison system. However, this and other changes to the penitentiary system present challenges to prison staff, which may vary based on their roles and backgrounds, (2) Purpose: To create a process of dialogue and collaboration that include different points of view, needs, and proposals regarding mental health in prisons, this study collects and integrates the perspectives of 91 prison staff who work in various capacities in eight prisons in northeast Italy. (3) Methods: Each participant was involved in either a focus group or a semi-structured interview, and thematic analysis was used to process the resulting transcripts, (3) Results: Through this process, 10 themes were derived that highlight the difficulties of working with prisoners with psychiatric disorders or psychological distress, including lack of human and economic resources, lack of positive communication between prisoners and society and a sense of professional incompetency, (4) Conclusions: Based on these themes, the need for increased points of view, dialogue, and collaboration between prison professionals and between prison and society is discussed, and the current feasibility of treating psychiatric disorders in prison is considered.

The study presents the results of qualitative research carried out within a death education project dedicated to advance treatment directives (ATDs) in which it was proposed to participants to empathize with people who had received a diagnosis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). The study involved 104 people who discussed and reflected on issues related to the knowledge of having to die, palliative care and ATDs, investigating what choices they would have made if they had received such a diagnosis. Finally, they were asked to write a paper describing their impressions and hypothetical choices. Qualitative analysis has elucidated among fundamental themes. Four thematic areas emerged from the data analysis: (1) ATDs and the family, (2) the importance of reducing pain and suffering, (3) emotions and considerations regarding death, illness and spirituality, and (4) opinions on the DeEd course. It has emerged that some people are unfamiliar with palliative care or the right to self-determination and that addressing these issues helps manage the thought of the future with less terror. The experience of death education has therefore proven to be very positive in dealing with complex and often censored issues, allowing thinking about death in a less distressing way.

The systematic removal of death from social life in the West has exposed people living in areas affected by COVID-19 to the risk of being unable to adequately manage the anxiety caused by mortality salience. Death education is a type of intervention that helps people manage their fear of death by offering them effective strategies to deal with loss and anxiety. To that end, a path of death education has been carried out with University students of psychology. The main purpose of the research is to understand how students who participated in the death education course perceive the lockdown experience in light of course teachings. The research was carried out at a University in northern Italy in an area severely affected by COVID-19, during the first year of the pandemic. The group of participants included 38 students, 30 women and 8 men, with an average age of 25.45 years (SD = 7). At the end of the course, the students could respond on an optional basis to the request to comment on the training experience according to what they experienced during the pandemic. A thematic analysis was subsequently carried out on the texts, which made it possible to identify the most relevant thematic areas for the students. The qualitative analyses permitted recognition of three main forms of discovery: the removal of death in contemporary culture; the importance of community, ritual and funeral, and spirituality; and the significance of death education for future health professionals. The texts have highlighted how the removal of these issues exposes people to the risk of being unable to handle extremely painful events such as those related to dying. The results show the positivity of death education pathways conducted at the University level to help students reflect on these issues and manage the related anguish.

This article presents the results of a qualitative study aiming to consider the relationship between ambiguous loss and anticipatory mourning amongst relatives of missing people in Italy. Eight people participated in the research, narrating their experiences of losing a beloved person (one found alive, three found dead, and four still missing). Findings suggest the presence of a particular form of ambiguous loss, characterised by traits typical of both prolonged and traumatic grief. These findings describe how families are faced with an emotional vortex related to a never-ending wait, and how the mourning is solved only when the missing person is found dead or alive. The discovery of a corpse is traumatic but it allows mourners to fully recognise their grief. When a person is found, it changes the relationship in a positive way. When neither of these events happen, mourners have two different kinds of reactions: they experience either a prolonged grief or a drive to solve their suffering by helping other people (post-traumatic growth). In this study, it is highlighted how a community can be useful or detrimental in this process, and the importance of psychological and social support to prevent significant clinical outcomes is stressed.

Background: In Western society, discussions about death have shifted from the domain of the everyday to the domain of medicine. Such censorship does not reduce the fear of death; rather, it deprives people of the means to elaborate their experiences of death, generating negative effects such as difficult mourning and stigmatisation of palliative care environments. The objective of this follow-up study was to detect whether and how death education can help to improve individuals’ relationship with death. Methods: This was a qualitative research study based on grounded theory. We conducted semi-structured interviews with both palliative care professionals and teachers who had taken part in a death education intervention three years earlier. The interviews were interpreted through thematic analysis. Results: The results confirmed death education’s positive effect for both palliative care professionals and teachers. These individuals reported that the education initiative helped them to positively modify their perspectives on death and dying, as well as their attitudes towards life. It also helped to improve community attitudes towards the hospice and its workers. Conclusions: This study confirmed that school education initiatives can create continuity between hospices and local communities. The death education project provided an educational space in which it was possible to elaborate experiences linked to death and to re-evaluate and appreciate hospices and their staff.

Unclear communication of inauspicious prognoses may disorientate both patients and their relatives, drastically jeopardizing the planning of palliative care. This paper considers the issue of truth-telling in the communicative problems of nurses and students of nursing with terminally ill patients. The fundamental objective is the analysis of the difficulties related to the lack of truth-telling and how it might impact their professional and personal lives. A qualitative study was realized, involving 47 participants, both nurses (25) and nursing students (22), working in palliative care units or in associations of volunteers for the assistance of oncological patients. The exploration was focused on the way they relate to patients who are not aware of their real health conditions and their consequences. Particular attention was paid to their opinions concerning what could be done in order to manage such problematic situations in the near future.

The transport and regulation of metals in eukaryotic cells is a complex process, dependent on protein transporters that respond to cell needs. The application of dynamic mathematical models can provide valuable insights into these transport mechanisms. Mathematical simulations of transport processes may not directly predict transport mechanisms but can guide experimental design or identify inconsistencies between observation and hypotheses. Copper is an essential metal in eukaryotic cells as a catalytic co-factor in metallochaperone proteins and is therefore tightly regulated in living systems, making it valuable for quantifying biological transport mechanisms. In order to test our modeling system, a culture of baker’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) was grown, copper concentrations were obtained from the cells and growth media, and a mathematical model was developed to investigate transport mechanisms between the growth media and the cells. A model based on conservation of mass was presented as a system of equations upon which to develop. This system of equations was developed to include an active transport term that describes a homeostatic concentration that cells actively maintain through negative feedback, and with a delayed activation, the model was more accurate at predicting the experimental data. The hypothesis and dynamic model derived in this work provide a novel framework that may be applied to additional metals or used to describe other transport mechanisms in biological systems.

This article aims to draw attention to a social organization which impels us to the search for a type of life organization, for the satisfaction of our attachment needs; recognition; belonging; acceptance; and finally well-being or even happiness, by means of conjugality relations or love relations. It is expected, in addition, for those relationships to be the basic support of what is called “nuclear family”. On the other hand, is also underlined that this kind of relationships is so conditioned by the religious, legal regulatory bodies, and even by science that becomes possible to typify the outbreaks of malaise leading to support requests. The authors elect psychodrama as the social/group and individual reflection model on analyzing these relationships and organization.

PhotoTherapy represents a recent psychotherapeutic intervention which, through the medium of photography, has the objective of helping a patient reach a higher self-knowledge and explore thoughts, desires, and intimate perceptions that would otherwise remain hidden. Because of this, it may help people overcome their cognitive and emotional boundaries and bring out their interiority, even when exploring some of the most distressing themes. The objective of the present research was to demonstrate that the elaboration and expression of inner desires, fears and needs of wellbeing among adolescents and young adults, who were either sick or had been cured of cancer, could be facilitated through the use of PhotoTherapy. Their responses were also compared with those of healthy young adults, in order to be able to explore the kind of impact such a pathology can have on those who are affected by it and highlight eventual differences in the kind of desires and needs expressed instead by those who never had a diagnosis of cancer. A qualitative research design was adopted. 45 people took part in the study, aged between 12 and 25 (mean age 19). The participants were divided into three groups: those currently being treated for cancer, those with a history of cancer and those who had no experience of cancer (third group). From the data analysis, different preferences and attitudes toward the presented pictures and themes emerged among the participants, depending on the specific group they belonged to. The article discusses these preferences and considers how PhotoTherapy can help treat psychological distress caused by cancer.

Transhumanists propagate the possibility of physically and mentally 'enhancing' and 'overcoming' the human race by using technology and science. In doing so, they present a liberal self-conception that is supposedly compatible with democratic structures. In contrast to this line of thought, this thesis shows that transhumanist ideology inherently carries technocratic features. To this end, it draws on Helmut Schelsky's theories on the technical state. In 1961, Schelsky affirmatively diagnosed an emerging technocracy of the scientific civilization. According to this argument, the universalization of the scientific method transforms negotiable issues into undeniable constraints and thus gradually dissolves classical parliamentary democracy. This thesis shows that contrary to its liberal self-conception, contemporary transhumanism reproduces Schelsky's basic technocratic ideas.

The censorship of death-related issues is widespread in contemporary Western culture because the boundary between death and life is substantially managed in medical areas. In the context of Italian educational initiatives, to remove this limitation, 215 high school students in Southern Italy were educated on death through conventional and informal lessons. The students answered a questionnaire with open questions to survey their emotional and reflective experiences. Their answers were qualitatively, thematically analysed to explore how the representation of death can follow a death education course, and if this experience can be managed without harmful effects. The students&rsquo, answers narrated how the course reduced their anxiety linked to these themes, on the one hand improving communication between peers by making it more authentic and empathic and, on the other, providing alternative perspectives on life. Indeed, the project offered an opportunity to discuss something strongly heartfelt but rarely faced, and the survey confirmed that the research objectives were fully achieved.

Spontaneity has been defined as an adaptive response to varying situational conditions. In this regard, it may be considered as a major contributor to well-being and mental health which could play an essential role within the context of psychotherapy. Despite its potential importance empirical research on spontaneity has been lacking until recently. As a remedy, the present paper introduces the German translation of the Revised Spontaneity Assessment Inventory (SAI-R; Kipper and Shemer, Group Psychother Psychodrama Sociom, 59(3):127–136, 2006) as a qualified self-report measure of spontaneity.

The study discusses the construct of spontaneity and its causal relation- ship with psychological well-being. It develops a preview phase of validation of the SAI-R and its correlation with the Clinical Outcomes for Routine Evaluation- Outcome Measure (CORE-OM) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) and assumes the hypothesis that a high level of spontaneity is correlated negatively with low level of well-being and positively with depression. The research involved Italian and Austrian participants, consisting of 166 Italian and 146 Austrian univer- sity students. The o ndings suggested a causal relationship between low spontaneity and psychological suffering. The results obtained cono rm the hypothesized model, showing signio cant negative causal relationship. The verio cation of this theoretical model on non-clinical samples allows us to set the ground for future use in clinical samples. Furthermore, this result encourages the development of further research into the use of SAI-R.

Dieser Beitrag gibt einen Uberblick uber die wichtigsten Inhalte der Hauptvortrage bei der Tagung zur praxisorientierten Psychotherapieforschung, die am 7. und 8. November 2014 in Wien stattfand. Exemplarische Eindrucke aus den Workshops der Konferenz widerspiegeln einen Ausschnitt einer kreativen Arbeitsatmosphare, offenen und anregenden Diskussion zu aktuellen Themen der Psychotherapieforschung, wie Wirksamkeits- und Versorgungsforschung, Prozessforschung, Ausbildungsforschung und Forschungsmethodik. Das langerfristige Ziel der stetigen Qualitatssteigerung und Kompetenzentwicklung in der Psychotherapieforschung und die Einbeziehung der Praktizierenden wurden durch die Tagung unterstrichen.

Die Strasenbrucke Horsterdamm in Lauenburg kreuzt den Elbe-Lubeck-Kanal und die Eisenbahntrasse Luneburg-Lubeck. Die alte Strasenbrucke, eine genietete Fachwerkbrucke mit untenliegender Stahlbetonfahrbahn aus dem Jahr 1939, wies erhebliche Schaden auf und musste ersetzt werden. Die neue Brucke wurde als Stabbogenbrucke mit einer Stahlbetonfahrbahn als Verbundkonstruktion geplant und realisiert, wobei zahlreiche Leitungen ein Verschalen auf der Unterseite nahezu unmoglich machten. Zur Realisierung der Fahrbahnplatte wurde daher auf Stahlbetonfertigteile mit Ortbetonerganzung zuruckgegriffen. Im Folgenden werden die planerischen und baubetrieblichen Erfahrungen zusammengefasst dargestellt. Abschliesend wird auf Vorteile im Hinblick auf Zwangsbeanspruchungen und Erstrissbildung infolge abfliesender Hydratationswarmeentwicklung eingegangen. Concrete deck with precast elements and cast in place topping employed at the new road bridge Horsterdamm The new road bridge Horsterdamm in the city of Lauenburg crosses the Elbe-Lubeck-Canal and a railway line. The old bridge, a riveted truss bridge, built in 1939, showed severe defects and had to be replaced. The new bridge is designed as an arched bridge with a composite concrete slab. A bunch of pipes and wires under the bridge lead to the decision to employ precast elements with a cast in place topping. The paper deals with some special design aspects and experiences during erection. Special attention is given to the advantages of the precast elements with respect to crack development due to hydration heat and constraint.

Der Beitrag gibt einige Eindrucke und Tendenzen des Workshops wieder, zu dem sich die Veantwortlichen fur Wissenschaft und Forschung der Fachspezifika zum Erfahrungsaustausch im Juni 2015 auf Einladung des Bundesministeriums fur Gesundheit/Gesundheit Osterreich Gmbh in Wien getroffen haben. Das Treffen diente der Vernetzung und Verankerung der Prinzipien wissenschaftlicher Qualitat in den Ausbildungseinrichtungen.

Psychodrama: Empirische Forschung und wissenschaft. Ein Feld, das im deutschsprachigen raum leider lange Zeit nicht gerade brach lag, aber sicher nicht in ausreichendem rahmen Beachtung fand. Psychodramatische therapie, Beratung und Supervision sind wirksam, das konnen nicht nur Generationen von PsychodramatikerInnen bezeugen, sondern auch die zahlreichen KlientInnen und PatientInnen, die mit diesem Verfahren in Beruhrung kamen. Qualitative Studien und Fallstudien liegen in groser Zahl vor, damit haben wir eine ausgezeichnete praxis-orientierte qualitative Evidenz im Psychodrama. Die Anforderungen von wissenschaft an ein Verfahren wie das Psychodrama bezieht selbstverstandlich diesen Sachverhalt ein, auch ist langst die qualitative Sozialforschung ein anerkannter Zweig der Forschung, wie der Beitrag von Hintermeier in diesem Band belegt, aber die Erganzung um quantitative Daten war langst uberfallig im Sektor PD. Fur den vorliegenden Band konnten wir eine reihe interessanter AutorInnen gewinnen, die einen Beitrag zur empirischen Psychodrama-Forschung geleistet haben. Darunter sind renommierte AutorInnen ebenso wie engagierte NewcomerInnen. Der Band gliedert sich in vier grose Bereiche: Grundlagenbeitrage zur Forschung, Beitrage zum themenfeld Kinder und Jugendliche, Storungsorientiertes Psychodrama und Psychodrama-Forschung in Ausund weiterbildung sowie Supervision. Der Band beginnt mit einem historischen Beitrag: John H. Mann und Carol Honroth Mann haben bereits vor langer Zeit einen wichtigen Beitrag zur systematischen Erforschung des psychodramatischen rollenspiels geliefert. Sie weisen in ihrer Studie den Effekt des rollenspiels auf die Fahigkeit der rolleneinnahme anderer rollen in anderen Kontexten nach. Die Untersuchung wurde an 96 zufallig ausgewahlten ProbandInnen durchgefuhrt. Das Design umfasste mehrere Versuchsund Kontrollgruppen sowie externe BeobachterInnen. Der Einfluss von einer Rollenspiel-Erfahrung auf die generelle Fahigkeit zum rollenspiel wurde mit Hilfe von a) Einschatzung durch Mitglieder in der rolle der ZuschauerInnen, b) Einschatzungen durch andere rollenspielerInnen, c) Selbsteinschatzung der rollenspielerInnen, d) Einschatzungen von BeurteilerInnen, die Z Psychodrama Soziometr (2011) 10:1–7 DoI 10.1007/s11620-011-0133-6

Der vorliegende Beitrag uberpruft zehn empirische Studien zur Hypothese, dass es sich bei der Spontaneitat um eine positive Personlichkeitseigenschaft handelt. Er untersucht die theoretische Behauptung, dass Spontaneitat einen positiven Bezug zu Wohlbefinden und einen negativen zu psychischen Anpassungsstorungen aufweist. Diese Untersuchungen werfen ein neues Licht auf die Natur und die Bedeutung von Spontaneitat, und versuchen Probleme, Verwirrungen und die fur die traditionelle Definition der Spontaneitat so typischen Inkonsistenzen zu vermeiden. Die empirischen Untersuchungen zur Spontaneitat wurden durchgefuhrt mithilfe des uberarbeitetenSpontaneitat Assessment Inventars (SAI-R) und dessen Vorganger, demSpontaneitat Assessment Inventar (SAI). Der Uberblicksartikel diskutiert die Probleme mit der traditionellen Definition der Spontaneitat und die Grunde, warum bislang keine empirischen Untersuchungen durchgefuhrt wurden. Es wird einerseits eine alternative Daten-basierte Definition vorgeschlagen, andererseits ein neues Untersuchungs-Tool fur die quantitative Forschung zuganglich gemacht. Die Uberprufung beschreibt die Ergebnisse einer Serie von Studien, erlautert ihre Bedeutung und Implikationen fur zukunftige Forschung.

The study discusses the construct of spontaneity and its causal relationship with psychological well-being. It develops a preview phase of validation of the SAI-R and its correlation with the Clinical Outcomes for Routine Evaluation- Outcome Measure (CORE-OM) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) and assumes the hypothesis that a high level of spontaneity is correlated negatively with low level of well-being and positively with depression. The research involved Italian and Austrian participants, consisting of 166 Italian and 146 Austrian university students. The findings suggested a causal relationship between low spontaneity and psychological suffering. The results obtained confirm the hypothesized model, showing significance negative causal relationship. The verification of this theoretical model on non-clinical samples allows us to set the ground for future use in clinical samples. Furthermore, this result encourages the development of further research into the use of SAI-R.

Social networks and their characteristics in different cultures were analyzed regarding their correlation with life satisfaction. Based on their questionnaire responses participants from Hong Kong and Hungary were assigned to one of three types of network (centralized, decentralized, distributed) and their life satisfaction was surveyed using Diener Scale (Diener et al., J Pers Assess 49:71–75, 1985). The outcome of our explorative study was combined with the results of a study from 2009, which explored samples from Germany/Austria, Israel and Nigeria focusing on the same issues. The individual cultures differ significantly in terms of network types and life satisfaction. The findings promote a culture-sensitive psychotherapy practice.

Die Auffassung Klaus Grawes und seiner Mitarbeiterinnen zum wissenschaftlichen Stellenwert der Psychodrama-Psychotherapie im Bereich der psychotherapeutischen Methoden wird dargestellt und sowohl methodisch als auch inhaltlich hinterfragt. Zur Fundierung der Eigenstandigkeit der Psychodrama-Psychotherapie wird weitere Forschung angeregt.

Die vorliegende Studie dient der Evaluation psychodramatischer Gruppentherapie von Abhangigkeitserkrankungen. Die Ergebnisse der Katamneseerhebung der Psychosozialen Beratungs- und Behandlungsstelle (PSB) Sigmaringen warden diskutiert. In die Stichprobe gingen 70 PatientInnen – hauptsachlich Alkoholabhangige – ein, die in den Jahren 1993–1997 an einer ambulanten psychodramatischen Gruppentherapie teilgenommen hatten. Die Ausschopfungsrate lag bei rund 64 %. Es wurde eine Abstinenzrate von 72,9 % erreicht. Bei den abstinenten PatientInnen zeigte sich eine significant hohere Zufriedenheit mit unterschiedlichen Lebensbereichen als bei den Ruckfalligen (r = 0,38, P ≤ 0,01). Die PatientInnenzufriedenheit mit der Behandlung in der PSB Sigmaringen wurde von der uberwiegenden Anzahl der Katamneseteilnehmer mit "sehr gut" und "gut" bewertet. In der Zusammenschau der Ergebnisse der Untersuchung sowie der psychodramatischen Praxisberichte kann von einem Behandlungserfolg und einer positiven Wirkung der psychodramatischen Gruppentherapie in der ambulanten Behandlung von Abhangigkeitserkrankten gesprochen werden.

For many companies the optimisation potential in quality, process, and cost has become smaller and smaller in the last years. Systems engineering has played an important role in that process. Now, an almost untouched and in many companies often ignored domain has become the target of interest: services! A systematic development of services is supposed to be a key factor in the future in order to diversify the own company from the competitors. As customers more and more call for integrated solutions goods will not be sold in future on their own anymore. They will have to be integrated in services. Those one, who will be able to offer new services in a shorter period of time, that meet exactly the customers' needs, will have a main advantage in a global market. To do so, methods and tools are required. This paper describes the current situation of services, their role in the world economy and why it is so important not to ignore the services any longer. It is shown how services can be characterised and it is discussed if current systems engineering models can be transferred to the “immaterial” world of services.

In recent years rapid developments in information technology have dramatically changed the availability of information. It is now almost possible to get any information at any place in the world at any time. The economy has adapted to these changes and will continue to do so in the future. To keep up with competitors strategic alliances can be observed in many markets. Virtual enterprises and communities are the consequence. Due to the globalisation of markets the economy is getting increasingly networked and consequently complex. It will be significant in future to analyse and model these processes and it must be clarified to what extent systems engineering methods/tools can be used to handle this complexity. The strategy how to initiate and scale modern networking is described on the basis of two projects in the European satellite business.