The purpose of this paper is to engage with the readers in a theoretical reflection on nursing practices in forensic psychiatric settings. In this paper, we argue that practices of exclusion in forensic psychiatric settings share some common ground with Agamben's description of sovereign power and, consequently, the possible creation of zones of exception in this environment. The concept of exception is, therefore, purposely used to shift our thinking, highlight the political forces surrounding exclusionary practices in forensic psychiatric nursing, and (...) explore the ethical tensions that arise for nurses who become entangled in the control of these zones of exception. We argue that ethical and political discussions regarding this phenomenon are necessary if we wish to further understand the complexities of this field of practice and promote constructive change. (shrink)

Background:Psychiatric nurses are regularly confronted with the uses and effects of control interventions such as mechanical restraints. Although there are evident tensions in the literature regarding the use of mechanical restraints, very little research has focused on the lived and embodied experience of their use, whether from the patient’s perspective or the perspective of nursing staff responsible for their application.Research aims: to gain access to the bodily phenomenon of being placed in mechanical restraints; to give voice to the intimate experiential (...) understanding of this experience; and through phenomenological interpretation, to understand the subjective processes and meaning-making of this experience.Research design:For this research, we adopted a distinctly ethics-oriented application of the methodology known as interpretative phenomenological analysis, that is, the interpretive dimension of the research focused on ethical practice in mental healthcare – one that is informed by experiential accounts of the lived body.Participants and research context:A total of 40 in-depth semi-structured, nondirected interviews with both nurses and patients we conducted to meet the aims of this article. Participants were recruited from an inpatient psychiatric unit of a Canadian general hospital.Ethical considerations:The research received research ethics board clearance from both the hospital where the study took place and the University of Ottawa.Findings:The comparative analysis is presented under the following headings: context of care, meaning of quality of care, emotional reactions and nurse–patient relationship, meeting the needs and need for alternatives.Discussion/conclusions:The research findings are discussed in light of current literature and implications for practice. (shrink)

Humanism in forensic psychiatry: the use of the tidal nursing model The humanist school of thought, which finds resonance in many conceptual models and theories designed to guide nursing practice, needs to be understood in the context of the total institution, where the individual is subjected to a mortification of the self, and denied autonomy. This article will engage in a critical reflection on how humanism has influenced nursing theorists and the subsequent production of conceptual models and theories, especially as (...) they relate to the field of forensic psychiatric nursing. Although humanism provides optimism for nurse–patient relations, this article explores the incapability of such a philosophy to acknowledge the power relationships between individuals and its inability to explain the day‐to‐day realities experienced in forensic nursing, where the possibility of interpersonal violence reshapes nursing care. The tidal model will be discussed in detail as an example of a recently developed humanistic nursing model. Viewed from this perspective, it is clear that humanistic philosophy and its subsequent models of care are in discordance with the highly specialized field of forensic nursing. (shrink)

In the Canadian forensic psychiatric context, the concepts of risk and dangerousness interact, intersect, and morph into the notion of significant threat to the safety of the public. Stemming from the results of a critical ethnography of the Ontario Review Board, this article unpacks the central role of forensic psychiatric nursing, as an example of a 'psych' discipline (e.g., psychiatry and psychology), in a system that is built to produce risky persons and to legitimize their detention and supervision. By using (...) excerpt of interviews conducted with nurses, ethnographic observations of Review Board hearings, and other documentary artifacts, the findings illustrate how rationalizations of risk and dangerousness are contingent on space, time, and observer. Depending on the time of the assessment or on the health‐care professional who performs it, different elements including, but not limited to, mental illness, interpersonal relationships, financial instability, and sexual vulnerability, are relied upon in very fluid, interchangeable, and discretionary ways to justify findings of dangerousness. Such a dynamic expands the reach of psychiatry's legitimacy at identifying risky conduct and controlling risky persons to domains very loosely associated with the notion of dangerousness. The work of Foucault and Castel provides the theoretical backdrop on which rests the discussion and the implications for nursing. (shrink)

The American Journal of Bioethics, Volume 12, Issue 9, Page 57-59, September 2012.

Given its non-invasive nature, there is increasing interest in the use of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation across basic, translational and clinical research. Contemporaneously, tVNS can be achieved by stimulating either the auricular branch or the cervical bundle of the vagus nerve, referred to as transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation and transcutaneous cervical VNS, respectively. In order to advance the field in a systematic manner, studies using these technologies need to adequately report sufficient methodological detail to enable comparison of results between (...) studies, replication of studies, as well as enhancing study participant safety. We systematically reviewed the existing tVNS literature to evaluate current reporting practices. Based on this review, and consensus among participating authors, we propose a set of minimal reporting items to guide future tVNS studies. The suggested items address specific technical aspects of the device and stimulation parameters. We also cover general recommendations including inclusion and exclusion criteria for participants, outcome parameters and the detailed reporting of side effects. Furthermore, we review strategies used to identify the optimal stimulation parameters for a given research setting and summarize ongoing developments in animal research with potential implications for the application of tVNS in humans. Finally, we discuss the potential of tVNS in future research as well as the associated challenges across several disciplines in research and clinical practice. (shrink)

Given its non-invasive nature, there is increasing interest in the use of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation across basic, translational and clinical research. Contemporaneously, tVNS can be achieved by stimulating either the auricular branch or the cervical bundle of the vagus nerve, referred to as transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation and transcutaneous cervical VNS, respectively. In order to advance the field in a systematic manner, studies using these technologies need to adequately report sufficient methodological detail to enable comparison of results between (...) studies, replication of studies, as well as enhancing study participant safety. We systematically reviewed the existing tVNS literature to evaluate current reporting practices. Based on this review, and consensus among participating authors, we propose a set of minimal reporting items to guide future tVNS studies. The suggested items address specific technical aspects of the device and stimulation parameters. We also cover general recommendations including inclusion and exclusion criteria for participants, outcome parameters and the detailed reporting of side effects. Furthermore, we review strategies used to identify the optimal stimulation parameters for a given research setting and summarize ongoing developments in animal research with potential implications for the application of tVNS in humans. Finally, we discuss the potential of tVNS in future research as well as the associated challenges across several disciplines in research and clinical practice. (shrink)

Jean-Daniel Causse | Résumé : « Moi, la vérité je parle ». Par cette formule, Jacques Lacan avait désigné cette vérité qui, du lieu de l’inconscient, prend la parole alors même que le sujet ne cesse de la refouler pour ne rien en savoir. Dans un premier temps, cet article met en lumière le statut que Lacan accorde à la question de la vérité dans la théorie psychanalytique. Si la vérité parle, y compris et peut-être surtout sous son (...) envers, elle est aussi marquée par une incomplétude structurelle qui lui donne paradoxalement sa puissance. Ce parcours permet alors, dans un second temps, de reprendre le problème de la vérité dans le christianisme et de la fonction du témoin. Ici, le motif pascal occupe une fonction centrale, car il désigne une vérité soustraite au savoir que le témoin a pour charge d’énoncer. Enfin, en dialogue avec le « Moi, la vérité je parle » de Lacan, on s’interroge sur le sens du « Je suis la vérité » que prononce le Christ selon l’Évangile de Jean. |: “I, truth, speak”. Saying this, Jacques Lacan pointed to the truth which, from the seat of the Unconscious, is speaking, even though the subject keeps repressing it in order to know nothing of it. This article first highlights the status of the question of truth in psychoanalytic theory according to Lacan : if truth speaks, including and especially as its own reverse, it is also stamped with a structural incompleteness which gives it, paradoxically, its potency. We then, in a second part, question anew the problem of truth in Christianity and the function of the witness. The paschal motif is here central, as it points to a truth removed from the knowledge which the witness is responsible for sharing. In a third movement, we shall question the meaning of “I am the truth” as uttered by Christ according to John’s Gospel, in dialogue with “I, truth, speak”. (shrink)

La compréhension paulinienne de la loi a fait l’objet d’une réception dans la théorie psychanalytique de Jacques Lacan, en particulier le chapitre 7 de l’Épître aux Romains. Sur ce thème, plusieurs travaux récents en psychanalyse défendent la thèse selon laquelle Paul n’a pas su distinguer la loi symbolique du surmoi et, prenant l’un pour l’autre, a organisé tout un monde de la culpabilité, de la haine et de la persécution. Lacan adopte un point de vue assez différent. Sans ignorer la (...) part du surmoi, il attribue une dimension plus structurelle à la loi paulinienne. Dans la compréhension de la loi chez Paul, il voit une dialectique, centrale en psychanalyse, où le désir se porte vers ce qu’il ne doit pas obtenir. De ce fait, l’originalité de Paul est d’avoir indiqué que le péché se découvre paradoxalement sur l’axe d’un Bien et dans le mouvement de la fidélité à la loi. C’est ce que cette contribution met en lumière pour reconsidérer, à partir de là, le sens de l’amour et de la grâce. Paul’s understanding of the Law, especially in chapter 7 of the Epistle to the Romans, was taken into account by Jacques Lacan in his psychoanalytical theory. On this issue, recent studies in psychoanalysis defend a thesis according to which Paul did not distinguish between the symbolic law and the superego and, taking one for the other, organized a whole world of guilt, hatred and persecution. Lacan’s point of view is quite different. Without ignoring the share of the superego, he attributes a more structural role to the Law as understood by Paul. In Paul’s understanding of the Law, Lacan sees a dialectic stance, one central to psychoanalysis, where desire is aimed at what it must not get. Thus, Paul’s originality was to show that sin is paradoxically discovered on the axis of Good, in the movement of faithfulness to the Law. This contribution aims at bringing this to light, so as to reconsider the meaning of Love and of Grace. (shrink)

Appartenant au registre du symbolique, la loi ne se confond nullement avec une série d’interdictions morales. Elle a pour fonction d’interdire l’accès à une complétude toujours fantasmatique de soi-même. Le récit de la Genèse met cela en scène avec l’arbre interdit, situé au centre du jardin. L’apôtre Paul y fait écho pour interpréter le drame de l’être humain qui se rêve à la source de lui-même. La loi n’est plus alors une instance qui inscrit chacun dans sa propre humanité, mais (...) elle devient l’impératif de devoir se mesurer à des figures idéalisées de soi-même. Le concept de « loi » se caractérise ainsi par une certaine ambivalence qu’il convient d’analyser dans un rapport critique à une compréhension de l’autonomie qui entend par « sujet » l’individu auto-fondé. Posant le problème d’une obéissance à la loi, qui paradoxalement peut exclure le sujet au lieu de le requérir, l’auteur relève les conditions de possibilité d’un authentique sujet de l’acte. (shrink)

This book is a reevaluation and a reinterpretation of Pierre Charron (1541-1603)--in particular La Sagesse--and of the impact of his writings. Jean Daniel Charron sheds new light upon this great figure in French literature, and argues that he should be considered more important and original than previously thought.

While it is possible to consider that the pandemic and the lockdown have produced a collective awareness of our fragility, it is also possible to go further by considering that fragility uncovers ….

De 1806 à 1822 une discussion est entamée par trois ecclésiastiques hispaniques éclairés, Funes, Mier et Llorente, autour de l’Apologie de Las Casas, lue par l’abbé Grégoire en 1800, qui dégageait le vigoureux défenseur des Indiens de toute responsabilité dans la traite des Noirs. Si la publication en 1875 de l’Historia de las Indias a donné a posteriori raison sur le fond à Grégoire, son raisonnement ne doit pas, à la lecture des propos des débatteurs, être complètement pris pour argent (...) comptant. C’est de manière abusive et contradictoire que Grégoire taxe l’historien Herrera de malveillance et de légèreté. De plus, les silences publics de Las Casas, comme son Historia Apologetica longtemps inédite, accréditent aussi certaines objections de Funes et de Llorente. Between 1806 and 1822 three enlightened Hispanic clergymen, Funes, Mier, and Llorente, opened a debate about the Apology of Las Casas read by Father Grégoire in 1800, a text which denied to the energetic advocate of the Indians any responsibility in black slave trade. Although the publication of the Historia de las Indias in 1875 proved Grégoire essentially right, close reading of the discussions of the three debaters shows that his argument should not be taken at face value. In an improper and contradictory way Grégoire accuses the historian Herrera of ill will and thoughtlessness. Moreover, Las Casas’ public silence, like his Historia Apologetica which remained unpublished for a long time, also substantiated some objections from Funes and Llorente. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic raises questions how churches respond to an extraordinary situation where not only health and economic issues are at stake, but also the understanding of what church is all about and how ecclesial life is practised. Furthermore, do the current experiences have any bearing about the way churches of different traditions relate to each other? This article introduces the issues raised by first reviewing how Christians in past centuries have faced pandemics. Second, the text will look at current (...) responses by large church bodies and organizations. Thirdly, a small survey will focus on the responses by local churches across the globe as to the benefits and challenges associated with the present coronavirus crisis. Finally, the paper addresses what the various reactions tell us about a reassessment of the nature of the church, both in the local context and with regard to the wider Body of Christ. (shrink)

Les défis permanents, mais très actuels, liés aux questions éducatives nécessitent d'enrichir les ressources à disposition des enseignants, des formateurs, des éducateurs... Cet ouvrage propose de re-découvrir des réflexions et des propositions d'auteurs soucieux de renforcer la relation entre l'apprenant et le savoir, entre apprenants, entre apprenants et adultes-référents favorisant l'émergence d'un homme rigoureux intellectuellement et pleinement équilibré. Ce travail s'appuie sur des contributions diversifiées permettant de disposer de nouvelles clés pour exercer au quotidien un métier sans cesse en questionnement. (...) On appréciera ce travail de synthèse mettant à la portée de chacun les enseignements de Jung, Krishnamurti, La Garanderie, Rogers, Steiner, mais également les apports du yoga, d'une éducation à la joie, à la recherche du sens... (shrink)

O mandamento "amarás o Senhor teu Deus como a ti mesmo", situado no coração da moral judaica e cristã, constituiu objecto de um questionamento radical por parte de Sigmund Freud. O autor do presente artigo propõe-se voltar a esta critica para depots a completar com a aportação de Jacques Lacan, antes de proceder a uma releitura da parábola do Bom Samaritano no Evangelho de S. Lucas, onde a questão da lei do amor se resolve de maneira inesperada. Aqui, com efeito, (...) o cristianismo não defende uma lógica que estende até ao infinito a exigência do amor, mas efectua uma viragem em que a identidade subjectiva se constitui em funcao de um amor recebido sem contrapartida. O artigo mostra, finalmente, até que ponto esta compreensão do amor cristão abre para nós uma possibilidade de ser e de agir de forma renovada. /// The commandment "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" central to Judeo-Christian morality, has been fundamentally questioned by Sigmund Freud. The author of the present article sets out to comment on this critical reading, before completing it with Jacques Lacan's theoretical contribution; he then undertakes to reinterpret the parable of the good Samaritan in the Gospel of St. Luke, where the issue of the law of love is fully addressed in an unexpected manner. Indeed in this very text Christianity does not uphold a kind of logic that stretches beyond limits the call for love; rather it alters the perspective so that subjective identity gradually defines itself according to a gift of love that does not call for reciprocity. Such an understanding of Christian love allows as a consequence the possibility to be and to act in a renewed way. (shrink)

Pazifismus polarisiert: Während die einen ihn für unverantwortlich und gefährlich halten, sehen andere in ihm den Schlüssel zu einer friedlichen Welt. 16 Originalbeiträge namhafter Autor/innen aus Philosophie, Theologie und Friedenspolitik beleuchten im vorliegenden Sammelband die pazifistische Position im Detail: Ist der Pazifismus heute noch plausibel? Darf militärische Gewalt aus moralischer Sicht kategorisch abgelehnt werden? Kann eine pazifistische Position legitimiert werden?

Résumé Pour parler vulgairement l’alcoolique a un problème avec le monde et avec l’altérité en raison de sa double figure : il est familier et étrange, toujours ailleurs. Autrement dit, c’est son problème d’identité ou le fait de « rester soi-même » (ipséité) qui est ici questionné car on ne doute pas qu’il est mais on ne sait plus ce qu’il est lorsqu’il boit. Le problème du soi chez l’alcoolique est un problème central lorsque nous envisageons le boire ou l’alcoolisme. (...) Il sera abordé ici dans sa dimension anthropologique, philosophique et clinique. Nous verrons en chemin que nous serons confrontés à une forme de limite qui interroge la place du soignant et la notion de thérapeute. C’est de notre place de soignant que nous parlons. (shrink)

We discuss models that attempt to provide an explanation for the violation of Bell inequalities at a distance in terms of hidden influences. These models reproduce the quantum correlations in most situations, but are restricted to produce local correlations in some configurations. The argument presented in (Bancal et al. Nat Phys 8:867, 2012) applies to all of these models, which can thus be proved to allow for faster-than-light communication. In other words, the signalling character of these models cannot remain hidden.

During the set-up phase of an international study of genetic influences on outcomes from sepsis, we aimed to characterise potential differences in ethics approval processes and outcomes in participating European countries. Between 2005 and 2007 of the FP6-funded international Genetics Of Sepsis and Septic Shock project, we asked national coordinators to complete a structured survey of research ethic committee approval structures and processes in their countries, and linked these data to outcomes. Survey findings were reconfirmed or modified in 2017. Eighteen (...) countries participated in the study, recruiting 2257 patients from 160 ICUs. National practices differed widely in terms of composition of RECs, procedures and duration of the ethics approval process. Eight countries used a single centralised process for approval, seven required approval by an ethics committee in each participating hospital, and three required both. Outcomes of the application process differed widely between countries because of differences in national legislation, and differed within countries because of interpretation of the ethics of conducting research in patients lacking capacity. The RECs in four countries had no lay representation. The median time from submission to final decision was 1.5 months; in nine approval was received within 1 month; six took over 6 months, and in one 24 months; had all countries been able to match the most efficient approvals processes, an additional 74 months of country or institution-level recruitment would have been available. In three countries, rejection of the application by some local RECs resulted in loss of centres; and one country rejected the application outright. The potential benefits of the single application portal offered by the European Clinical Trials Regulation will not be realised without harmonisation of research ethics committee practices as well as national legislation. (shrink)

Né en 1921, Edgar Morin est un penseur connu, mais heureusement pas toujours reconnu dans les milieux scientifiques. Sa ronflante Méthode, qui établit que les effets d’une action échappent souvent à son auteur en provoquant des conséquences méconnues, comble surtout des médias trop heureux d’avoir sous la main un théoricien tout-terrain aux analyses grandiloquentes. D’ailleurs, la femme, l’entreprise, le football, la France, l’Europe, les pays de l’est, les pays arabes, le monde... sont, pour Edgar Morin, complexes. En quelques années, Edgar (...) Morin a ainsi réussi à amener la gauche à jeter Marx et ses analyses tranchées aux poubelles de l’Histoire. Car avec Edgar Morin, c’est beaucoup plus complexe et parfois même un tantinet ésotérique. Il est donc insensé de faire preuve de volontarisme politique. (shrink)

Grice, Lewis, and Skyrms proposed similar distinctions between kinds of meaning. The meaning of terms in human language, as Lewis and Skyrms had it, is ‘conventional’. Skyrms presented models showing how it is possible for conventional meaning to evolve in a population without reliance on pre-existing meaning. But one might think of conventionality as coming in degrees, based on whether the evolutionary process begins with ‘natural saliences’. We propose a theory of natural salience and several extensions of Skyrms’s models to (...) capture this notion. These models reveal that natural saliences can hinder, as well as help, the evolution of language. (shrink)

Textual entailment is a relationship that obtains between fragments of text when one fragment in some sense implies the other fragment. The automation of textual entailment recognition supports a wide variety of text-based tasks, including information retrieval, information extraction, question answering, text summarization, and machine translation. Much ingenuity has been devoted to developing algorithms for identifying textual entailments, but relatively little to saying what textual entailment actually is. This article is a review of the logical and philosophical issues involved in (...) providing an adequate definition of textual entailment. We show that many natural definitions of textual entailment are refuted by counterexamples, including the most widely cited definition of Dagan et al. We then articulate and defend the following revised definition: T textually entails H = df typically, a human reading T would be justified in inferring the proposition expressed by H from the proposition expressed by T. We also show that textual entailment is context-sensitive, nontransitive, and nonmonotonic. (shrink)

There has been a growing concern over establishing norms that ensure the ethically acceptable and scientifically sound conduct of clinical trials. Among the leading norms internationally are the World Medical Association's Declaration of Helsinki, guidelines by the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences, the International Conference on Harmonization's standards for industry, and the CONSORT group's reporting norms, in addition to the influential U.S. Federal Common Rule, Food and Drug Administration's body of regulations, and information sheets by the Department of (...) Health and Human Services. There are also many norms published at more local levels by official agencies and professional groups.Any account of international standards should cover both scientific and ethical norms at once – the two are conceptually intertwined. Recent sources recognize that “[s]cientifically unsound research on human subjects is unethical in that it exposes research subjects to risks without possible benefit.”. (shrink)

Mehr et al.'s hypothesis that the origins of music lie in credible signaling emerges here as a strong contender to explain early adaptive functions of music. Its integration with evolutionary biology and its specificity mark important contributions. However, much of the paper is dedicated to the exclusion of popular alternative hypotheses, which we argue is unjustified and premature.

Medical research data is sensitive personal data that needs to be protected from unauthorized access and unintentional disclosure. In a research setting, sharing of data within the scientific community is necessary in order to make progress and maximize scientific benefits derived from valuable and costly data. At the same time, convincingly protecting the privacy of people participating in medical research is a prerequisite for maintaining trust and willingness to share. In this commentary, we will address this issue and the pitfalls (...) involved in the context of the PEP project1 that provides the infrastructure for the Personalized Parkinson’s Project,2 a large cohort study on Parkinson’s disease from Radboud University Medical Center, in cooperation with Verily life Sciences, an Alphabet subsidiary. (shrink)

Attentional control has grown in importance within theoretical and predictive models of psychopathology over past decades. The Attentional Style Questionnaire is a novel measure of internal a...