Freud (and later commentators) have failed to explain how the origins of psychoanalytical theory began with a positivist investment without recognizing a dual epistemological commitment: simply, Freud engaged positivism because he believed it generally equated with empiricism, which he valued, and he rejected "philosophy," and, more specifically, Kantianism, because of the associated...
October 1, 2009Ravi Prakash, S. Sarkhel, P. Rastogi et al.
Abstract The Yogic literatures are replete with examples of several unique mystical experiences in deeper states of meditation. These experiences have nevertheless remained largely untouched by the scientific community, possibly because of the extreme inexplicability of such states and the lack of sophistication in evaluating them. More amenable to scientific research, however, would seem to be...
BACKGROUND: Parasomnias are undesirable experiences or motoric phenomena that occur in association with sleep. We have described characteristics of parasomnia subtypes. MATERIAL AND METHOD: This review is based on the authors' research and clinical experience, and articles identified by non-systematic searches of Pubmed. RESULTS: Parasomnias are categorized into disorders of arousal (non-REM...
Dream recall has been investigated via various means, often relying upon self-report judgments. Such methods, as well as individual differences and cognitive correlates of dream recall, rarely acknowledge models, theory, or empirical work concerning waking memory. Study 1 presents the development and psychometric validation of the Memory Experiences and Dreaming Questionnaire (MED-Q)—a 30-item...
The classification of psychoactive substances (stimulants, entactogens, hallucinogens) in the frame of psychopharmacology was not worked on since the 1960s. Based on the authors empirical and theoretical research about the psychophysical correlates of waking altered states of consciousness, he lecture will present a recently developed new classification of psychoactive substances. Method: The...
Pyramidal neurons in layer 5 of the cerebral cortex are involved in learning and memory and have complex connections with other neurons through a very large array of dendrites. These dendrites can switch between long term depression and long term potentiation depending on global summation of various inputs. The plasticity of the input into pyramidal neurons makes the neuronal output variable....
A phenomenological approach using the states of spin-like observables is developed to understand the nature of consciousness and the totality of experience. The three states of consciousness are taken to form the triplet of eigenstates of a spin-one entity and are derived as the triplet resulting from the composition of two spins by treating the subject and the object as interacting two-state,...
Introduction: We tested the hypothesis that REM sleep contributes to core features of cognitive dysfunction of anxious depression including negative self-appraisals, biased memory processing and unpleasant dream content. Methods: After a habituation night in a sleep lab, a convenience sample of 35 healthy college students and 20 depressed/anxious students were awakened 10 min into a REM sleep...
BMJ Case ReportsJuly 7, 2009Ingo Kleiter, Ralf Luerding, Gerhard Diendorfer et al.
The case of a 23-year-old mountaineer who was hit by a lightning strike to the occiput causing a large central visual field defect and bilateral tympanic membrane ruptures is described. Owing to extreme agitation, the patient was sent into a drug-induced coma for 3 days. After extubation, she experienced simple and complex visual hallucinations for several days, but otherwise largely recovered....
Background: "Spice" and other herbal blends were marketed in Germany until January 2009 as substances purportedly exerting similar effects to cannabis, yet containing no cannabinoids. These products were recently forbidden in Germany under the provisions of the German Narcotics Law after they were found to contain undeclared, synthetic cannabinomimetic substances. The authors describe physical...