Search

Much creative-critical writing is characterized by a desire to find space within academia for otherwise marginalized experiences. This is often a case of drawing on personal, emotional, or spiritual registers typically excluded from academic writing, and thus rendered illegitimate. This thesis is a case in point, as it draws, inter alia, on my dreams, my Christian faith, my middle name, and, indeed that I was born, as they say, outside of wedlock – illegitimate, if you will, outside the law. My primary text is Jacques Derrida’s “Envois,” the opening section of his book The Post Card: From Socrates to Freud and Beyond (University of Chicago Press, 1987). It has often been read in purely philosophical terms but Derrida, alluding to Freud’s talk of “theoretical fiction,” describes it as a “project for a ‘fiction.’” “Envois” is, then, a text that could itself be said to be a work of creative-critical writing – not least because of its very personal character. “Envois” takes the form of hundreds of postcards to an unnamed lover. Central to my exploration is a figure called ‘Daniel.’ In some respects, he is myself, since my middle name is Daniel, and in some respects, he is Daniel Agacinski, Derrida’s unrecognized son. This Daniel was born in 1984 to Sylviane Agacinski, the woman who is believed to be the unnamed lover addressed throughout “Envois.” As Derrida’s biographer, Benoit Peeters, writes, “everything suggests that the original version [of “Envois”] was written for Sylviane Agacinski.” One of “Envois’” key conceits is that it is “the preface to a book […] not [yet] written.” Taking, as my cues, fleeting references to the biblical book of Daniel and George Eliot’s novel Daniel Deronda, I proceed as though “Envois” is a preface not so much to an unwritten book but to the text that is the name ‘Daniel.’ My own theoretical fiction, then, is the story of my succumbing to the temptation to see myself mirrored in Daniel Agacinski – a Daniel who, like myself, and indeed my thesis, is what one might call a bastard.

The current study aims to test whether religious identity moderates the association between fearlessness about death and suicidal ideation. Religion is a particularly salient aspect of patient background in treatment (Knox, Caitlin, Casper, & Schlosser, 2005; Lindgren & Coursey, 1995; Pargament, 1997; Puchalski, Larson, & Lu, 2001). For some patients, religion provides a source of comfort and meaning that they feel aids their healing process (Pargament, 1997). However, the role of religion in some aspects of mental illness, particularly suicidality, is understudied, and what literature does exist on the topic presents inconsistent findings (Gearing & Alonzo, 2018). The Interpersonal-Psychological Theory of Suicidal Behavior (IPTSB) (Joiner, 2005; Orden et al., 2010), a leading theory of suicide, suggests that fearlessness about death should correlate with willingness to attempt suicide. How religious identity interacts with this theory is uncertain, as religious identity has been correlated with both a reduced fear of death (Ellis & Wahab, 2013; Jong et al., 2018) and reduced willingness to attempt suicide (Lawrence et al., 2016), although the literature is inconsistent. These findings are counterintuitive to the IPTSB. The current study seeks to (1) clarify the association between religious identity and fearlessness about death in a psychiatric sample and (2) test whether religious identity moderates the association between fearlessness about death and suicidal ideation. We use a de-identified dataset from a transdiagnostic partial hospital program. We will first conduct t-tests comparing fearlessness about death in patients who do and do not identify as religious. Second, we will conduct a regression model predicting suicidal ideation from fearlessness about death, as well as the interaction of religious identity and fearlessness about death. We will present results from 405 patients. Results inform theories of suicide and elucidate whether religious identity changes the predicted relationships for specific risk factors for suicidal ideation. Results may also highlight the significance of religious identity in treatment.

Please see Social Connectedness and Suicidal Ideation During Covid19 for a detailed pre-registration.

Rates of suicidal thoughts and behaviours are elevated among transgender and non-binary individuals. However, studies directed at understanding suicide risk among transgender and non-binary people are scarce which potentially limits the development of empirically informed suicide prevention strategies for transgender and non-binary people. Previous research has demonstrated that childhood maltreatment, gender minority stress, and non-suicidal self-injury are reliable correlates of suicidal thoughts and behaviours but findings within transgender and non-binary samples are limited. The goal of this study is to test a multiple mediation model that will examine whether a hypothesized direct effect of childhood maltreatment on more frequent suicidal ideation is mediated by increased non-suicidal self-injury behaviour and more severe gender minority stress. Conducting this research will extend preliminary research showing that these variables are concurrently associated. These results have implications for integrating leading gender minority stress models with suicide theory. More broadly, improved understanding of the progression of suicidal ideation among transgender and non-binary people may inform more tailored prevention.

The overall goal of this study is to assess the construct validity of images depicting violent and/or suicidal behaviors. First, we will test whether the images represent the category of suicide well and are being interpreted as real and obvious depictions of suicide. Further, we will examine whether suicide images differ from other types of images (neutral, pleasant, and other-directed violence) in terms of complexity and realism. Second, we will examine whether certain features of suicide images impact participants' evaluations of the degree to which these images depict suicide. We will focus on (1) the presence of blood and/or gore in the image, (2) suicide method, and (3) sex of the actor in the image. Third, we will test bivariate associations among image ratings within the suicide images. We are particularly interested in how ratings of violence are associated with ratings of suicide intent. Finally, we will evaluate whether individual differences in prior suicidal behavior are associated with how participants rate suicide images.

We aim to better understand the relationship between decision-making and people’s mental health symptoms, personality traits, and history of risky and self-destructive behaviours. Furthermore, we are interested in how different feedback and emotional states (e.g., mood and negative thoughts) may influence the ability to make “good” choices.

Testing the Painful and Provocative Events Scale (PPES) as a formative measurement model.

Variance-covariance matrices used to generate the models.

Syntax used to generate the results.

Z-curving studies that focus on self-injurious thoughts and behaviours in youth.

All measurements used for the project.