British Journal of Medical Psychology
June 1, 2001
Oliver J Mason, Isabel Hargreaves
242 citations
Psychotherapeutic interventions containing training in mindfulness meditation have been shown to help participants with a variety of somatic and psychological conditions. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is a meditation-based psychotherapeutic intervention designed to help reduce the risk of relapse of recurrent depression. There is encouraging early evidence from multi-centre...
British Journal of Medical Psychology
March 1, 2001
Researchers and theoreticians across widely varying disciplines have increasingly stressed how sense of self is inherently 'dialogical', or the product of ongoing dialogue both within the individual and between the individual and others. This perspective emphasizes that self-awareness is not an awareness of an isolated or seamless viewpoint, but a collective of numerous complementary,...
British Journal of Medical Psychology
September 1, 1996
Eliezer Witztum, Nimrod Grisaru, Danny Budowski
30 citations
This article describes a cultural pattern related to altered states of consciousness, observed amongst new immigrants from Ethiopia in Israel. The belief in possession by Zar spirits is one of the most common possession phenomena in Africa and in other continents. Possession by Zar is expressed by a wide range of behaviours, such as involuntary movements (often resembling epileptiform...
British Journal of Medical Psychology
September 1, 1994
Samuel Pfeifer
86 citations
Belief in demons as the cause of mental health problems is a well-known phenomenon in many cultures of the world. However, there is little literature on this phenomenon in Protestant subcultures of the West. The author conducted a systematic investigation of the prevalence of this attribution in 343 mainly Protestant out-patients of a psychiatric clinic in Switzerland, who described themselves...
British Journal of Medical Psychology
December 1987
A Grounds
The later work of Wittgenstein was a major contribution to the philosophy of mind. One theme in his writings was a critique of the assumption that reports of psychological experience in ordinary language can be regarded as descriptions of inner states and processes. Some implications of this critique for our understanding of descriptive psychopathology and the use of psychological models in...
British Journal of Medical Psychology
June 1, 1986
C Moran
This paper examines the role of uncontrolled depersonalization associated with marijuana use in the development of agoraphobia. Cases of six people are described, all of whom reported first experiencing depersonalization while using marijuana, and subsequently experiencing depersonalization while not using the drug. A fear of this 'uncontrolled' depersonalization resulted in considerable...
British Journal of Medical Psychology
March 1985
P Fenwick, S Galliano, M A Coate et al.
The 'psychic' experiences of 17 students (sensitives) from the College of Psychic Studies were compared with those of 17 church-going control subjects, who were matched for age, sex, and approximate intellectual level. At interview, 67 items of information relating to the medical history, family history, 'psychic gifts', head injuries, and mystical experiences were obtained. The shortened WAIS,...
British Journal of Medical Psychology
December 1, 1982
F. Kräupl Taylor
The symptoms of depersonalization are examined in the light of the phenomenological views evolved by Franz Brentano. He had come to the conclusion that our conscious experiences are primarily directed towards objects (contents) that are ‘phenomenal’ or ‘intentional’ in the sense that they do not necessarily have counterparts in the external world. In experiencing such an object, a person...
British Journal of Medical Psychology
March 1, 1980
M Cramer
11 citations
The so-called mystical possession of Juan Jose Fong, a socially marginal Chinese-Mexican of hysterical personality is directly related to the subject's psychological conflicts and emotional complexes and familial and social standing within the immediate cultural context. The subject is seen as suffering from conflicting emotions and cognitions centering around guilt, inferiority and...
British Journal of Medical Psychology
September 1, 1979
Peter Buckley, Marc Galanter
A contemporary ‘enthusiastic’ religion, the Divine Light Mission (DLM), was studied by the authors in an attempt to elucidate some of the psychological factors underlying the burgeoning appeal of this charismatic religious sect for American youth. The DLM is constituted of followers of the Guru Maharaji, an Indian who first came to the United States in 1972 at the age of 14. Method. The study...