1,721,254 research outputs found

    Understanding adjustment and coping to limb loss and absence through phenomenologies of prosthesis use

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    “Adjustment” and “coping” are two interrelated psychologically based concepts which have been applied and explored extensively in research on chronic illness and disability. These areas are often explored using structured, quantitative research methods, where coping and adapting are seen as final adaptive steps or stages made in response to ill health or disability. These concepts and methodological frameworks have similarly been used to explore amputation, congenital limb deficiency or absence and prosthesis use. However, more recently researchers have begun to use phenomenologically based qualitative methods to explore the meanings and experience of illness and disability from the vantage point of those concerned, so that what it is to cope or adapt, and how this is negotiated, is informed by the perspectives of those having the relevant experience rather than through the application of priori theoretical frameworks. Within this chapter, I summarise the findings of a large-scale project, which aimed to explore the meanings and experience of prosthesis use for both people with acquired amputation and congenital limb absence or deformity. The key theme domains to be identified in this work are the embodied experience, personal and social meanings of prosthesis use. This work highlights the subtle and complex ways in which such persons manage, negotiate and experience their identity in everyday life, and therefore how they adapt to and cope with their changing circumstances. The outcomes of this work have a number of implications for health professionals working with this client group which are discussed

    Managing anomalous experience : meaning making and the OBE.

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    A variety of anomalous experiences, including the out-of-body experience (OBE), have been reported in the research literature as enhancing, rather than indicating poor mental health. Within this chapter we report on our qualitative, phenomenological research which sought to investigate the experience of an OBE and its resultant after-effects. The findings from this work reveal how participants managed such experiences. Experients perceived their OBEs as occurring at times of personal significance and these were inextricably linked with participants’ lives beyond their point of occurrence, playing an adaptive role in response to difficult life events. The process of integration was helped or hindered by the varying reactions from others to the disclosure of the OBE. We conclude that the idiographic nature of the present work is instrumental in highlighting the subtle personal and social factors that influence how the OBE is managed and integrated

    Finding Meaning in Near-death Experiences.

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    Near-death experiences (NDEs) have become a topic of increasing interest to medical and psychological researchers over the last 35 years. During the course of this research agenda, several studies have focused on the phenomenology of the experience and its after-effects, mostly from a nomothetic stance. This chapter reports on the experience of having an NDE and the meanings attributed to that experience and its resultant after-effects by taking an idiographic, phenomenological approach. Here we detail how individuals may choose elements of an experience which are most personally meaningful for them and how this is incorporated into their later lives. Of particular interest here is how participants came to new understandings of their lives as a result of their NDE. A process of integration is helped or hindered by physical and psychological factors concomitant at the time of the NDE. Also evident are the challenges the NDE, or elements therein, have on the individual’s sense of self and how they maintain and develop that self in the years following the event

    Intellectuals in the Australian Press

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    The notion of the 'public intellectual' has been a recurring discussion topic within sociology and the humanities for decades. Yet it has been largely neglected within media and cultural studies. Accordingly, few scholars have discussed in much depth how public intellectuals operate within the media and what functions this media role may facilitate. Intellectuals in the Australian Press is an exploration into this generally overlooked area of scholarship. It aims to provide three levels of insight into the topic. Firstly, the study looks closely at the appearance and the function of public intellectuals in the Australian press. It outlines how public intellectuals contribute to the newspapers and how newspapers contribute to Australian public intellectual life. Secondly, the thesis outlines and examines in detail three types of public intellectual in Australia. Specifically, it examines the journalist, the academic and the think tank researcher as types of intellectual who write regularly for Australia's newspapers. Thirdly, Intellectuals in the Australian Press delivers detailed intellectual biographies of three of Australia's most prominent press intellectuals, each of whom exemplifies one of these three categories. These commentators are The Australian's Paul Kelly, The Age's Robert Manne, and the Sydney Morning Herald's Gerard Henderson
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