Preben Bertelsen

Attachment, Mentalizing and Personality Pathology Severity in Premeditated and Impulsive Aggression in Schizophrenia

Decades of research have displayed a robust relationship between schizophrenia and aggression, with the majority of studies focusing on the role of comorbid Axis I disorders, including drug and alcohol abuse, psychosis, and other sociodemographic and clinical variables. However, only a few studies have examined the role of mentalizing abilities (i.e., the ability to understand mental states) and personality pathology severity, and none have examined the role of attachment representations believed to play a role in aggression. Furthermore, there is a paucity of research that differentiates between premeditated and impulsive aggression in schizophrenia. To this end, we conducted a cross-sectional study of 108 patients with schizophrenia to explore if a specific combination of mentalizing abilities, attachment representations and personality pathology severity pertain to premeditated aggression, while controlling for clinical and sociodemographic variables. Findings reveal that a constellation of diminished mentalizing, an attachment pattern characterized by positive self-representations and negative representations of the other, and severe personality pathology, was associated with premeditated aggression. These results suggest that risk assessment of aggression and future intervention programs targeted at reducing severe aggression in schizophrenia could benefit from including psychological functions such as mentalizing, as well as assessing personality pathology severity and attachment representations.

Intentional activity and free will as core concepts in criminal law and psychology

Whether or not intentional actions initiated and formed by free will exist, it can be shown that lack of belief in such behavior makes people behave less ethically and less law-abidingly (they cheat more). Therefore, this phenomenon—often called a necessary illusion—is crucial to moral as well as legal social-life-forming activities. However, societal coherence based on this kind of illusion is indeed very fragile, and thus we would be better off if we could prove that the quality of free will in intentional activity is more than a convenient illusion. This article presents an interdisciplinary model within the domain of criminal law and psychology explaining human intentional actions based on a scientific notion of free will as a real-world phenomenon.

“Grab your culture and walk with the global”: Ladakhi students’ negotiation of cultural identity in the context of globalization-based acculturation

The globalization-based acculturation process in the Indian Himalayan region of Ladakh represents a highly complex network of intercultural interactions. Ladakhi youth negotiate their cultural orientation and identity in relation both (a) to indirect intercultural exposure through media and (b) to intermittent cultural contact through tourism in Ladakh. Additionally, many Ladakhi students take sojourns in large Indian cities. Like other Eastern populations exposed to cultural globalization, young Ladakhis are influenced by several local and global cultural streams. Within this acculturative process, Ladakhi youth are caught between ambiguous societal pressures toward both tradition and change. Through in-depth interviews, in the present study we investigated the negotiations of eight Ladakhi students’ cultural identity in Leh (Ladakh) and Delhi. In doing so, we drew pragmatically on theories of multiculturalism and dialogical self. Participants reported negotiating their cultural identity through dialogue between various personal, cultural, religious, and social voices, where these voices require selectively incorporating various cultural elements within the parameters established by societal constraints. Results indicate the vast complexity and dynamics within the Ladakhi acculturation process, with multiple interacting cultural streams, religions, and significant sociohistorical factors calling for an in-depth qualitative approach to elucidate the processes underlying globalization-based acculturation.

Will and Self in Augustine Double-Bind and Taboo

The crystallization of the Modern self can be found in Augustines writings. He developed a discourse wherein central currents from Antiquitys reflections, religions, understanding of the world and of humanity are brought together and crystallized with the main components of Modern psychological self-knowledge: cognition, emotion and conation. Such a discourse provides the fundamental phenomenological material whereby one acquires the possibility of being able to think, to feel and to strive for something in a consciously reflective way. In fact it is only when the will is crystallized as an independent discursive component of understanding that we possess the complete possibility for being a self in the Modern sense. Augustine opened the gates to Modern self-consciousness-but he also infused his discourse with a double-bind, which is still troubling to our contemporary self-understanding and self-consciousness.

General Psychological Principles i n kOhut's Self Psychology Reconsidered From a Phenomenological Perspective

Self psychology is the study of the psychodynamics that come into existence with self reflection-that is, the intentions that emerge with introspection. In this respect, self psychology is different from Freudian psychoanalysis and intimately related to the phenomenological-existential perspective. In this paper, I examine how a general psychological model of intentional reflection (the self) can be developed on the basis of Kohuts self psychology, a model that illustrates one of the central organizational principles of human psychology. I conclude with a discussion of the general psychological concepts of self, life-project, and activity in the light of self psychology.

Who Goes, Why, and With What Effects: The Problem of Foreign Fighters from Europe

Abstract This article explores the phenomenon of Islamist foreign fighters, more specifically the movement of European Muslims to participate in the insurgencies in Syria and Iraq connected to the Islamic State/Daesh as well as the anti-Assad forces in Syria and the implications for European state stability. Drawing on personal psychology, social psychology, and social movement theory the article offers an integrated theoretical framework to analyze the radicalization of Islamist foreign fighters. Building on Danish data of Islamist foreign fighters, the article provides a first test of the analytical usefulness of this framework. The article further considers what distinguishes the Islamists that go from those that under similar circumstances stay behind, and whether this is a differences of kind or a difference of degree. Finally, we discuss the question of how much of a threat foreign fighter returnees pose to European states.

Evilness as Intention: The Intentional Detachment from and Destruction of the Human Condition of Co-existence

The purpose of this article is to examine on which psychological foundation we might be able to identify evil as an independent psychological phenomenon which requires its own non-clinical concept and diagnostics. An evil act, it is proposed, is something that a person does intentionally and can be held responsible for. A basic model of human activity is presented based on human connectedness to the world in general and on co-existence as a core of the human condition in particular. Genuine evilness is defined as intentional detachment from and destruction of human co-existence. This definition presupposes a level of self-organization where co-existence can be an intentional project in itself. Only beings that can have co-existence as an intentional project in itself can intentionally detach from it and act destructively towards it in a genuinely evil manner.

Capturing violent radicalization: Developing and validating scales measuring central aspects of radicalization

Violent radicalization has emerged as an important topic of theoretical and empirical investigation motivated by the devastating face of terrorism and by the aim of preventing such expressions of extremism. One central aspect of such research inquiries is the foundation of solid measurement. In this article, we develop and validate two generic scales pertaining to (1) endorsement of extremism and (2) acceptance of violent and/or illegal means. In conclusion, the scales yielded sound psychometric properties and cross-cultural equivalence, providing a solid measure of the important aspects of extremism which can be empirically employed in elucidating generic mechanisms of violent radicalization processes.

Value Formation of Basic Anthropological Connectivities A General Political-Psychological Model

Human beings live and thrive in surroundings based on the human condition of certain basic anthropological connectivities. Amongst the vital political life, tasks can be mentioned establishing, maintaining and critically/ conformably developing these basic conditions and their political value formations. In this regard, the interdisciplinary contribution of psychology is to explore how humans as active participants can and will participate in handling such value tasks. The article presents a general, theoretical, political-psychological model, which unites precisely these two aspects: the political value formations of the basic anthropological conditions in human life, and the capability and will to participate in solving the subsequent value tasks.