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Frontiers in Psychology 2022Accepting the idea that the mental representations of concepts, diagrams, relations, plans, etc., are thought-shapers, I suggest going a bit further. Any kind of...
Accepting the idea that the mental representations of concepts, diagrams, relations, plans, etc., are thought-shapers, I suggest going a bit further. Any kind of representation, be it mental or public, i.e., accessible to others, bears thought-shaping potential, albeit not in the same manner. Just as the idea of embodied cognition takes into consideration environmental facilities and obstacles, I suggest investigating thought processes in a broader context, i.e., placing thought-shapers in the context of their formation. I propose that the elements of the above mentioned definition of thought-shapers are built upon a structure that consists of representational skills, means, and institutions. In accordance with the idea of embeddedness and enactment, the need for communication and the given cognitive and physical aptitudes result in different kinds of expression, i.e., different kinds of representations available to others. When an expressional mode solidifies, it opens up new possibilities and limitations. I propose that mundane, almost unnoticeable affordances and their accompanying limits do shape our thoughts thoroughly. In my argument for the thought-shaper potential of the generative technique of public representations, I will delineate a historical overview of representational means in tandem with the main characteristics of different eras' crucial ideals and patterns of reasoning. I will close the historical overview with a terminological excursion exploring how publicly available representation and mental representation relate to each other and the kinds of ambiguities that accompany the latter term's use. Accordingly, embedding thought-shapers, I will outline the evolution of different representational techniques and skills. Then, because language is a decisive representational means, I will investigate its orientating and distortive potential. I will rely on some of Bergson's lesser-known remarks. I will illuminate how ocular-centrism was able to be a decisive metaphor in science and philosophy for long centuries, until recently even. In conclusion, as a case study, I will illuminate how the term "mental representation" as a highly abstract term facilitates and at the same time hinders philosophical and scientific inquiry.
PubMed: 35928426
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.918820 -
Tijdschrift Voor Psychiatrie 2023Clear and unambiguous description of psychiatric symptoms is a prerequisite for a personalized and reliable mental state examination.
BACKGROUND
Clear and unambiguous description of psychiatric symptoms is a prerequisite for a personalized and reliable mental state examination.
AIM
To draw attention to the correct use of psychiatric language.
METHOD
Description of persistent linguistic errors and relevant but too little used terms, and a new Dutch translation for some psychopathological terms.
RESULTS
The following linguistic errors are presented: ‘concentration’ as if it means the sustaining of attention; ‘compulsive behaviour’ that is not really compulsive; ‘no diagnosis’ while no disorder is diagnosed; ‘no psychopathology’ as if the patient has no science of psychopathology; ‘to impress as’ for characteristic that are not impressive; ‘mild’ while psychiatric disorders are never mild; ‘inhibition’ as if we can observe that subjective phenomenon; ‘signs’ for symptoms that do not appear to us at all; ‘weather and climate’ for affect and mood, while the mood generally changes somewhat faster than he climate. Attention is drawn for the terms chronognosia, overvalued idea, sensory hyporeactivity and disorders of self-awareness. New Dutch translations for dysmorphic disorder, délire de négation, and paranoic are explained.
CONCLUSION
Psychiatrists, watch your language!
Topics: Male; Humans; Mental Disorders; Language; Psychiatry
PubMed: 36951767
DOI: No ID Found -
The Hastings Center Report Nov 2017In one way or another, several pieces in the November-December 2017 of the Hastings Center Report reflect an insistence on turning away from abstractions to learn how a...
In one way or another, several pieces in the November-December 2017 of the Hastings Center Report reflect an insistence on turning away from abstractions to learn how a whole community understands a problem at issue-how a community understands what's at stake in individuals' autonomous choices, how a community understands the results of a clinical trial, how a community understands, and generates and adjusts, medical standards. In the lead article, Kayte Spector-Bagdady and colleagues argue that, given extensive research showing that electronic fetal monitoring during childbirth offers very little benefit to the mother and child, a mechanism is needed to ensure that the medical standard of care is based on the right kinds of considerations. The core claim of the second article, by Laura Bothwell and Aaron Kesselheim, is that adaptive-trial designs are premised on the idea that trial designs should be maximally persuasive to the medical community. In the third article, Frederick Zimmerman argues that a richer understanding of autonomy makes it possible to see that public health is more frequently compatible with autonomy than is commonly recognized. A supplement to the issue contains a special report that explores what "just reproduction" means "in the face of multifarious understandings of both justice and autonomy and in light of increasingly complex and costly reproductive technologies."
Topics: Biomedical Research; Cardiotocography; Diffusion of Innovation; Humans; Malpractice; Public Health; Research Design
PubMed: 29171052
DOI: 10.1002/hast.776 -
Sante Publique (Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy,... 2022Introduction : The idea of therapeutic fasting with healing virtues is circulating among cancer patients. Our study aims to improve knowledge of this practice,...
Introduction : The idea of therapeutic fasting with healing virtues is circulating among cancer patients. Our study aims to improve knowledge of this practice, which is contraindicated in France during chemotherapy, and to establish recommendations to facilitate exchanges between doctors and patients.Methods : Chemotherapy patients completed a self-questionnaire on diet, therapeutic fasting and alternative medicine. A subsample of patients intending to follow dietary restrictions were interviewed.Results : Among the 133 participants, more than half had changed their diet and/or had heard of therapeutic fasting. Twenty-one patients intended to fast or have dietary restrictions during chemotherapy. These were mainly women, with an average age of 56 years, being treated for breast cancer, using alternative medications. They had little interaction with the health care team but would have liked to have had some with their oncologist. Nine patients were interviewed. They had tested short fasting and/or a ketogenic diet to improve treatment efficacy, reduce side effects and/or gain more control over their management. They did not dare to talk about it with the oncologist but regretted their silence. They are often advised by naturopaths and have tested homeopathy to accompany their treatment.Conclusions : Patients explain that they want to put all the odds in their favor. They would like the medical profession to offer times for discussion on fasting, silence being perceived as potentially harmful.
Topics: Humans; Female; Middle Aged; Male; Diet; Treatment Outcome; Breast Neoplasms; Emotions; Fasting
PubMed: 36577676
DOI: 10.3917/spub.224.0481 -
Topics in Cognitive Science Jul 2018To explain how abstract concepts are grounded in sensory-motor experiences, several theories have been proposed. I will discuss two of these proposals, Conceptual... (Review)
Review
To explain how abstract concepts are grounded in sensory-motor experiences, several theories have been proposed. I will discuss two of these proposals, Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Situated Cognition, and argue why they do not fully explain grounding. A central idea in Conceptual Metaphor Theory is that image schemas ground abstract concepts in concrete experiences. Image schemas might themselves be abstractions, however, and therefore do not solve the grounding problem. Moreover, image schemas are too simple to explain the full richness of abstract concepts. Situated cognition might provide such richness. Research in our laboratory, however, has shown that even for concrete concepts, sensory-motor grounding is task dependent. Therefore, it is questionable whether abstract concepts can be significantly grounded in sensory-motor processing.
Topics: Concept Formation; Humans; Metaphor; Psychological Theory
PubMed: 29214726
DOI: 10.1111/tops.12311 -
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal... Aug 2018Grounded theories of cognition claim that concept representation relies on the systems for perception and action. The sensory-motor grounding of abstract concepts... (Review)
Review
Grounded theories of cognition claim that concept representation relies on the systems for perception and action. The sensory-motor grounding of abstract concepts presents a challenge for these theories. Some accounts propose that abstract concepts are indirectly grounded via image schemas or situations. Recent research, however, indicates that the role of sensory-motor processing for concrete concepts may be limited, providing evidence against the idea that abstract concepts are grounded via concrete concepts. Hybrid models that combine language and sensory-motor experience may provide a more viable account of abstract and concrete representations. We propose that sensory-motor grounding is important during acquisition and provides structure to concepts. Later activation of concepts relies on this structure but does not necessarily involve sensory-motor processing. Language is needed to create coherent concepts from diverse sensory-motor experiences.This article is part of the theme issue 'Varieties of abstract concepts: development, use and representation in the brain'.
Topics: Cognition; Concept Formation; Feedback, Sensory; Humans; Language; Learning; Models, Psychological
PubMed: 29915000
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2017.0132 -
Journal International de Bioethique Et... 2024The idea of collaborative governance is gaining popularity. However, how can it be truly collaborative? Decision-making systems with diverse stakeholders must deal with...
The idea of collaborative governance is gaining popularity. However, how can it be truly collaborative? Decision-making systems with diverse stakeholders must deal with different positions, roles, interests, missions, observations, and values. The co P·R·I·M·O·V (Position, Role, Interest, Mission, Observation, Values) bioethics tool aims to improve the practice of sustainable, collaborative, and democratic development of technosocial initiatives through its user-friendly format for professional ethicists. The tool follows the logic of Conflict of Interest (CoI) analysis used in organizational ethics frameworks. CoI, as an analytical unit in ethics, allows the anticipation and management of problems that may compromise the short- and long-term activities of a program and its governance. This tool was built on a case study for the implementation of monitoring of antibiotic use in animal health in Quebec, Canada. The use of this bioethics tool is strategic and can help negotiate positions and thus co-construct a common frame of reference between the stakeholders in view of a collaborative governance favoring cooperation.
Topics: Humans; Bioethics; Ethicists; Canada; Quebec
PubMed: 38423970
DOI: 10.3917/jibes.343.0103 -
Recherche En Soins Infirmiers 2020The problematic, an essential step in the scientific research process, includes different components that must be articulated in the same temporality, hence its...
The problematic, an essential step in the scientific research process, includes different components that must be articulated in the same temporality, hence its complexity. There is no consensus on definitions and a relatively short description of construction modalities in the literature. The problematization process is an intellectual, reflexive, questioning, documentation, and choice process aimed at moving from an idea or subject to a specific research question to be answered. The construction of the problem makes it possible in particular to specify the theoretical, methodological, and analytical orientation of the research. This step is an essential step which positions research in a continuum of disciplinary knowledge, and in this case, in the history of nursing knowledge. The objective of this article is to show, using a concrete example, how the analysis of clinical observations allows the development of a nursing research problem that integrates a project and then a research program. The clinical situation concerns the sexual health of women with multiple sclerosis. Beyond personal experience and the narrative of a singular, reinterpreted approach, it is a twofold movement to illustrate concretely, based on a situation and empirical observations, abstract elements and to transform them with the support of theoretical knowledge into communicable and transferable information useful in the construction of the research problem. The presentation of the invisible history of the construction of this problem can have an impact on teaching but also reflects the conceptual framework drawn from nursing sciences and mobilizable in this context of care. Through this example, it is therefore necessary to illustrate, through a retrospective analysis, the construction of nursing knowledge both on research methods and on theoretical models useful for care.
PubMed: 35724057
DOI: 10.3917/rsi.139.0123 -
Soins. Psychiatrie 2022An exploration of all Freud's writings on trauma from 1885 is proposed. Trauma, a central concept in his first works, always kept a place in his theory. He conceived it... (Review)
Review
An exploration of all Freud's writings on trauma from 1885 is proposed. Trauma, a central concept in his first works, always kept a place in his theory. He conceived it as a consequence of an external perception leading to a sudden affect which cannot be mastered by the psyche. For him, the excitation is so strong that it threatens the ego and provokes a breach of the protective shield. The idea that he would have renounced to this topic at the end of the nineteenth century is irrational.
Topics: Humans; History, 20th Century; Freudian Theory; Psychoanalysis
PubMed: 36522031
DOI: 10.1016/j.spsy.2022.10.010 -
Ugeskrift For Laeger Apr 2024This review delves into the possible role of artificial intelligence (AI) in medical research, from planning to publication. AI can aid in idea generation, data... (Review)
Review
This review delves into the possible role of artificial intelligence (AI) in medical research, from planning to publication. AI can aid in idea generation, data analysis, and writing, with tools like chatbots and transcription systems enhancing efficiency. However, AI's limitations, including the "hallucination" problem in which it generates false information, require careful use and verification. Ensuring anonymity compliance with sensitive data is also vital. AI's transformative potential in research brings opportunities for innovation, necessitating mindful application to manage biases and data accuracy.
Topics: Artificial Intelligence; Biomedical Research; Humans; Data Accuracy
PubMed: 38704722
DOI: 10.61409/V08230532