sense of meaninglessness

The calculation of statistical power has been taken up as a simple yet informative tool to assist in designing an experiment, particularly in justifying sample size. A difficulty with using power for this purpose is that the classical power formula does not incorporate sources of uncertainty (e.g., sampling variability) that can impact the computed power value, leading to a false sense of precision and confidence in design choices. We use simulations to demonstrate the consequences of adding two common sources of uncertainty to the calculation of power...

Two steps are able to lead to a significant decrease in the incidence of skin cancer overall and/or to its parallel and successful surgical treatment. The first step concerns its non-occurrence or less frequent clinical manifestation and is largely related to the modern concept known as prevention, but not the one mainly related to solar radiation, but: 1) informing patients about the possible contamination of certain drugs with carcinogens/nitrosamines/NDSRIs and 2) making clinicians aware of the modern concept of limited to completely eliminated intake of nitrosamines/NDSRIs in medications...

Bovine tuberculosis is usually diagnosed using tuberculin skin and interferon gamma tests. However, it is clear these tests miss infected animals due to poor sensitivity. The Enferplex Bovine TB antibody test has been validated by the World Organisation for Animal Health as fit for purpose in diagnosing bovine TB. A recent paper by Madden and colleagues (Veterinary Research Communications published online 17 August 2023) presented data on the future risk of Enferplex test antibody positive animals developing bovine TB...

BACKGROUND: Seclusion is a coercive measure - temporary confinement in an almost empty, non-stimulating room in a closed psychiatric admission ward to prevent (further) urgent danger due to a mental disorder. Although there is observational research about patients' behaviors during separation (e.g. hitting walls or doors, sleeping, or praying), research into the subjective and existential dimension of the experience of seclusion in psychiatry is rare. AIM: Aim of the current study is to describe and analyze - using the theoretical lenses of Yalom (1980) and Jaspers (1919) - how clients experience their involuntary stay in a seclusion room in a closed psychiatric clinic in existential terms...

The resurgence of psychedelic research explicitly targets treating mental health conditions largely through psychedelics-assisted psychotherapy. Current theories about mechanisms of change in psychedelics-assisted psychotherapy focus on mystical experiences as the main driver of symptom improvement. During these mystical experiences, participants report an enhanced sense of salience, connectedness, and meaning. Simultaneously, a growing psychedelic culture is also cultivating the use of psychedelics as medicine for relieving symptoms of anxiety and depression and promoting cognitive functions...

This letter discusses the current challenge in classification and treatment of DSM-5-TR prolonged grief disorder. Prolonged grief disorder (PGD) is among the new mental disorders included in the DSM-5-TR section II, a chapter about trauma and stressor-related disorders. By definition, PGD is a maladaptive response to the death of a loved one characterized by a period of at least 12 months of persistent yearning for or preoccupation with the deceased and disabling symptoms such as disbelief about the death, avoidance, emotional numbness, identity disruption, intense emotional pain, loneliness, a sense that life is meaningless, and failure to move forward...

Safety is fundamental to any organization; if not based on safety, organizational decision-making and management would be meaningless. For a country, soldiers are responsible for national security; they serve as a barrier that defends a country against external invasive forces, thus assuming great missions and responsibilities on their shoulders. To ensure soldiers fulfill their duties of protecting the country and the people, they should gain clear risk perception, which should be instilled into them during their daily combat readiness training...

COVID-19 struck the world and stretched the healthcare system and professionals. Medical students engaged in the pandemic effort, making personal and professional sacrifices. However, the impact of these sacrifices on students` professional development is still unknown. We applied constructivist grounded theory to individual audio diaries (total time = 5h38 min) and interviews (total time = 11h57min) performed with 18 last-year medical students during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil...

Patients with serious illnesses may experience existential and psychosocial distress contributing to their pain and suffering. Addressing existential distress is challenging and may require a multidisciplinary approach. Often, providers feel uncomfortable or ill equipped to care for patients suffering from this distress. In the sample case, the patient has a life-limiting disease and is concerned about his family forgetting him, experiencing loss of dignity and narrative foreclosure. Loss of dignity is sensing hopelessness and worthlessness and a loss of self-determination...

Delusions are often portrayed as paradigmatic instances of incomprehensibility and meaninglessness. Here we investigate the relationship between delusions and meaning from a philosophical perspective, integrating arguments and evidence from cognitive psychology and phenomenological psychopathology. We review some of the empirical and philosophical literature relevant to two claims about delusions and meaning: (1) delusions are meaningful, despite being described as irrational and implausible beliefs; (2) some delusions can also enhance the sense that one's life is meaningful, supporting agency and creativity in some circumstances...

Globally, humanity is in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic; thus, we question our individual, and collective, behaviours. Long periods of lockdown and ever-escalating death rates have found people asking questions such as "What is the point of carrying on?" This is exacerbated by the world's burgeoning ecological crisis. Humanity is beginning to wonder if it belongs on the planet when its footprint has caused such rampant destruction to forests, oceans, the animal kingdom, and other ecological entities. Existential positive psychology (EPP) seeks to uncover truths about humankind's existence, survival, and, thus, meaning in life...

Looking at scientists (in the life sciences), we focus on the sense of meaninglessness associated with bureaucratization. We define the sense of meaninglessness as a perception of meaning deficit or meaning conflict in particular situations that can be associated with frustration, irritation, and/or boredom. We show that it can be caused by identity disturbance - particularly the incongruence between the ideal self as a researcher and the imposed self as a bureaucrat. We claim that the sense of meaninglessness is more likely to emerge in those activities that are further from an individual's core identity, and more identity work is needed to make them meaningful...

RATIONALE: As the SARS-COV-2 virus spread across the world in the early months of 2020, people sought to make sense of the complex and rapidly evolving situation by adopting mindsets about what the pandemic was and what it meant for their lives. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to measure the mindsets of American adults over the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic to understand their relative stability over time and their relationship with emotions, behaviors, experiences, and wellbeing...

The ability to imitate observed actions serves as an efficient method for learning novel movements and is specifically impaired (without concomitant gross motor impairments) in the neurological disorder of limb apraxia, a disorder common after left hemisphere stroke. Research with apraxic patients has advanced our understanding of how people imitate. However, the role of proprioception in imitation has been rarely assessed directly. Prior work has proposed that proprioceptively sensed body position is transformed into a visual format, supporting the attainment of a desired imitation goal represented visually (i...

OBJECTIVES: Ischemic heart disease (IHD) displays wide social inequalities that are often explained with reference to lifestyle factors. However, research indicates that social support may also play an important role in social inequality in IHD. This study aims to explore the role of social support in the experience of life with IHD for socially disadvantaged patients. METHODS: The study was conducted as a critical hermeneutic qualitative study in Denmark between October 2018 and August 2019...

BACKGROUND: Bereavement is an inevitable event that can cause pain, discomfort, and negative consequences in daily life. Spirituality and religiosity can help people cope with loss and bereavement. Sometimes, however, the death of a loved one can challenge core religious beliefs and faith, which has been found to be a risk factor for prolonged mourning. OBJECTIVES: (1) Determine whether the Italian versions of the Integration of Stressful Life Experiences Scale (ISLES) and Inventory of Complicated Spiritual Grief (ICSG) are valid in translation; (2) Evaluate the impact of socio-demographic variables on ISLES and ICSG dimensions; (3) Test whether Complicated Spiritual Grief mediates the relation between meaning reconstruction after loss and integration of the loss experience; (4) Test whether the representation of death as a form of passage or annihilation further moderated the relation between Complicated Spiritual Grief and integration of the loss...

The aim of this article is to propose that reading Samuel Beckett's novels can improve compassionate acceptance of mental phenomena and human behavior deemed incomprehensible. In a narrative inquiry into all of Beckett's novels, we could discern nihilism and existential insecurity as themes both central to Beckett's prose and relevant in working with people with severe mental disorders. By deconstructing narrative structures and struggling to say the unsayable, Beckett can provide a perspective that goes beyond rational understanding...

Despite the high prevalence of incest, survivors are reluctant to disclose its existence for reasons such as shame, guilt and the presence of an accusatory and stigmatizing social discourse. The current mixed methods study examined the internal discourses of 13 incest survivors in Israel, reflected in self-reported internal dialogs which emerged during interviews. The qualitative analysis revealed a dialectical tension between two themes - one reflecting an internalization of the social discourse (manifested as quotes taken from social discourse and uttered by the survivors) and the other an agentic discourse (manifested in utterances either resisting the social discourse or showing an empowering advertence to one's own fulcrum)...

This article explores ways in which the attitudes of the biblical Job may enrich postmodernist philosophy by addressing some of its inherent problems. The discussion focuses in particular on the biblical Book of Job that can serve as an example of confronting suffering as a dramatic implication of human life that denies the sense of happiness. In an attempt to suppress this fear, the postmodern human contests, in various ways, the truth of their ontic frailty and the fragility of their constructed "happiness"...

Prolonged grief disorder (PGD) is a diagnostic entity now included in the International Classification of Diseases 11th Revision (ICD-11) and soon to appear in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , fifth edition, text revision (DSM-5-TR). A characteristic feature of PGD is distressing, disabling yearning that persists a year or more after the loss. Other characteristic symptoms include disbelief and lack of acceptance of the loss, emotional detachment from others since the loss, loneliness, identity disturbance, and sense of meaninglessness...