Jagiellonian University Repository
May 12, 2015
Jarosław Zapart
The primary aim of this article is to outline the Buddhist idea of a pure, luminous mind. First, the conception of a “luminous mind” (pabhassara citta) from the Pāḷi Nikāyas is considered. Two functions ascribed to this idea are examined: its soteriological role, i.e. pure mind as a enlightenment-enabling factor, and its role as a “link” between consecutive saṃsāric existences. Next comes the...
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
April 7, 2015
Cees van Leeuwen
The qualitative character of consciousness, its "what-it-is-likeness", is a contested issue, both in philosophy and psychology. I argue that, rather than by conceptual analyses, the status of "what-it-is-likeness" has to be decided by empirical investigation. Pending the outcome, we should maintain an agnostic stance, in order to remove the bias in favor of fictionalism from our study of...
Schizophrenia Bulletin
April 5, 2015
Matthew M. Nour, Alvaro Barrera
A number of recent articles, many appearing in Schizophrenia Bulletin, signal a renewed interest in phenomenological approaches to our understanding of schizophrenia. These approaches conceptualize schizophrenia as a disorder of altered self-awareness and decreased prereflective social attunement, which may manifest as an impaired understanding of self, others, and the physical world....
Cognitive Processing
January 29, 2015
William Benjamin St Clair, David C Noelle
Is conceptual space continuous? The answer to this question depends on how concepts are represented in the brain. Vector space representations, which ground conceptual states in the instantaneous firing rates of neurons, have successfully captured cognitive dynamics in a broad range of domains. There is a growing body of evidence, however, that conceptual information is encoded in...
Journal of Affective Disorders
January 15, 2015
Giovanni Stanghellini, Andrea Raballo
It is a current trend in psychiatry to discard the Kraepelinian dichotomy schizophrenia vs. manic-depressive illness and use the overinclusive label 'psychosis' to broadly indicate the whole spectrum of severe mental disorders. In this paper we show that the characteristics of psychotic symptoms vary across different diagnostic categories. We compare delusions in schizophrenia and major...
Frontiers in Psychology
2015
Talis Bachmann
Perceptual phenomena such as spatio-temporal illusions and masking are typically explained by psychological (cognitive) processing theories or large-scale neural theories involving inter-areal connectivity and neural circuits comprising of hundreds or more interconnected single cells. Subcellular mechanisms are hardly used for such purpose. Here, a mechanistic theoretical view is presented on...
International Journal of Drug Policy
January 2015
Marie Claire Van Hout
The non-medical use of pharmaceutical opioids such as codeine is of increasing public health concern. The aim of the study was to describe codeine intoxication experiences amongst recreational drug users, as posted on public Internet forums. Internet searches were carried out by using the specific key word 'codeine' and in combination with 'experience', 'report', 'trip' and 'forum'. 96 Trip...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
2015
Leonor Irarrázaval
This paper provides the results of a phenomenological study of patients with schizophrenia during their first psychiatric hospitalization. The study aims at clarify aspects related to the diagnosis of schizophrenia and to reach a greater understanding of the illness, with a view to contribute to prevention and psychotherapeutic intervention models. First, the paper offers a description of the...
Frontiers in Psychology
2015
Sarah F. Fielding-Smith, Mark Hayward, Clara Strauss et al.
A primary goal of cognitive behavior therapy for psychosis (CBTp) is to reduce distress and disability, not to change the positive symptoms of psychosis, such as hearing voices. Despite demonstrated associations between beliefs about voices and distress, the effects of CBTp on reducing voice distress are disappointing. Research has begun to explore the role that the psychological construct of...
American Journal of Applied Psychology
2015
Cristina-Georgiana Voicu
This article starts from the interpretation of subjective experience and narrative hermeneutics, suggesting a cognitive re-evaluation of egotic intentionality from the “first-person perspective” and showing together the conjunction between phenomenology and cognitivism (the egotic self). The article also addresses the phenomenal consciousness according to D. Dennett’s theory of intentionality....