The critical voice; A heuristic enquiry into the experience of hearing a critical inner voice to deepen our understanding of its meaning and purpose

The purpose of this thesis is to discover new ways of thinking about and understanding one’s critical inner voice. The critical voice is defined as words that are heard internally, are typically negative towards the self and others and not Auditory Verbal Hallucinations. The research question asks if there is a meaning or purpose to the critical voice as this has often been overlooked in previous research and literature. Theories on the aetiology of the critical voice come from a Psychodynamic perspective, however by applying an Existential Philosophical perspective it is possible to widen the lens in order to discover more about it. The chosen methodology is Heuristic which elucidates participant’s lived experience and personal meanings. Heuristics provides a richness of data by using verbatim extracts and this showcases the texture and grain of participant’s thought processes. Seven adult women participated in this study aged between 30 and 56. The interviews were semi-structured with emphasis on talking about what was important to them. The criteria for participation were for adults over eighteen and therefore the participant’s gender and age range proved interesting. The results yielded exciting and novel findings, which are grouped into thirteen Gathered Themes, each of which have sub themes. For example, the critical voice is ‘Not All Bad’; it can be a ‘Little Friend’; it ‘Changes Throughout Life’ and the Menopause can effect it. It was found that the Critical Voice is connected to one’s whole being and also to our external world. Of particular interest are the findings entitled ‘Safe Criticism’ where participants found ways to be critical without harm to the other. The implications for Counselling Psychology are that the critical voice can be both a blessing and a curse; it is interconnected within oneself and to our outer world. The findings suggest that it is important to look to our own beliefs and values so that when working with clients we do not inadvertently overlook a necessary function of the client’s inner world

The reported use and effectiveness of Hypericum (St John’s wort) on affective symptoms in a depression self-help group

A recent meta-analysis suggested that Hypericum perforatum (St John’s wort) is an effective treatment for mild to moderate depression and may have a superior side-effect profile to some antidepressant drugs. The aim of this study was to assess the use of herbal remedies in treating depressive and anxiety symptoms, as reported by members of the UK self-help organization Depression Alliance using self-completed questionnaires. More than 50% of the 452 respondents reported using Hypericum, onequarter of whom also reported concurrent use of traditional antidepressants. Most of the sample reported sufficient symptoms for warranting a diagnosis of major depression, with the majority also describing symptoms suggestive of co-morbid psychiatric conditions. One-half of the Hypericum users experienced symptom improvement, which for most occurred within the first 4 weeks of use. Response was better for those with mild as compared to severe symptoms and poorer for those taking Hypericum alongside other antidepressants. The responders were generally older than non-responders. Adverse effects were reported by one-quarter of users and were mostly psychological in nature. This retrospective survey indicated that use of herbal remedies was common in this population. Although often helpful in relieving symptoms, particularly in those with mild depression, there is a risk of adverse events and drug interaction

Similarity Renormalization, Hamiltonian Flow Equations, and Dyson's Intermediate Representation

A general framework is presented for the renormalization of Hamiltonians via a similarity transformation. Divergences in the similarity flow equations may be handled with dimensional regularization in this approach, and the resulting effective Hamiltonian is finite since states well-separated in energy are uncoupled. Specific schemes developed several years ago by Glazek and Wilson and contemporaneously by Wegner correspond to particular choices within this framework, and the relative merits of such choices are discussed from this vantage point. It is shown that a scheme for the transformation of Hamiltonians introduced by Dyson in the early 1950's also corresponds to a particular choice within the similarity renormalization framework, and it is argued that Dyson's scheme is preferable to the others for ease of computation. As an example, it is shown how a logarithmically confining potential arises simply at second order in light-front QCD within Dyson's scheme, a result found previously for other similarity renormalization schemes. Steps toward higher order and nonperturbative calculations are outlined. In particular, a set of equations analogous to Dyson-Schwinger equations is developed.Comment: REVTex, 32 pages, 7 figures (corrected references

The tails in the Helix Nebula NGC 7293

We have examined a stream-source model for the production of the cometary tails observed in the Helix Nebula NGC 7293 in which a transonic or moderately supersonic stream of ionized gas overruns a source of ionized gas. Hydrodynamic calculations reveal velocity structures which are in good agreement with the observational data on tail velocities and are consistent with observations of the nebular structure. The results also are indicative of a stellar atmosphere origin for the cometary globules. Tail remnants persist for timescales long enough for their identification with faint striations visible in the nebula gas to be plausible.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Fluctuation properties of strength functions associated with giant resonances

We performed fluctuation analysis by means of the local scaling dimension for the strength function of the isoscalar (IS) and the isovector (IV) giant quadrupole resonances (GQR) in $^{40}$Ca, where the strength functions are obtained by the shell model calculation within up to the 2p2h configurations. It is found that at small energy scale, fluctuation of the strength function almost obeys the Gaussian orthogonal ensemble (GOE) random matrix theory limit. On the other hand, we found a deviation from the GOE limit at the intermediate energy scale about 1.7MeV for the IS and at 0.9MeV for the IV. The results imply that different types of fluctuations coexist at different energy scales. Detailed analysis strongly suggests that GOE fluctuation at small energy scale is due to the complicated nature of 2p2h states and that fluctuation at the intermediate energy scale is associated with the spreading width of the Tamm-Dancoff 1p1h states.Comment: 14 pages including 13figure

Systematic Renormalization in Hamiltonian Light-Front Field Theory: The Massive Generalization

Hamiltonian light-front field theory can be used to solve for hadron states in QCD. To this end, a method has been developed for systematic renormalization of Hamiltonian light-front field theories, with the hope of applying the method to QCD. It assumed massless particles, so its immediate application to QCD is limited to gluon states or states where quark masses can be neglected. This paper builds on the previous work by including particle masses non-perturbatively, which is necessary for a full treatment of QCD. We show that several subtle new issues are encountered when including masses non-perturbatively. The method with masses is algebraically and conceptually more difficult; however, we focus on how the methods differ. We demonstrate the method using massive phi^3 theory in 5+1 dimensions, which has important similarities to QCD.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures. Corrected error in Eq. (11), v3: Added extra disclaimer after Eq. (2), and some clarification at end of Sec. 3.3. Final published versio

Systematic Renormalization in Hamiltonian Light-Front Field Theory

We develop a systematic method for computing a renormalized light-front field theory Hamiltonian that can lead to bound states that rapidly converge in an expansion in free-particle Fock-space sectors. To accomplish this without dropping any Fock sectors from the theory, and to regulate the Hamiltonian, we suppress the matrix elements of the Hamiltonian between free-particle Fock-space states that differ in free mass by more than a cutoff. The cutoff violates a number of physical principles of the theory, and thus the Hamiltonian is not just the canonical Hamiltonian with masses and couplings redefined by renormalization. Instead, the Hamiltonian must be allowed to contain all operators that are consistent with the unviolated physical principles of the theory. We show that if we require the Hamiltonian to produce cutoff-independent physical quantities and we require it to respect the unviolated physical principles of the theory, then its matrix elements are uniquely determined in terms of the fundamental parameters of the theory. This method is designed to be applied to QCD, but for simplicity, we illustrate our method by computing and analyzing second- and third-order matrix elements of the Hamiltonian in massless phi-cubed theory in six dimensions.Comment: 47 pages, 6 figures; improved referencing, minor presentation change

Instability of a Pseudo-Relativistic Model of Matter with Self-Generated Magnetic Field

For a pseudo-relativistic model of matter, based on the no-pair Hamiltonian, we prove that the inclusion of the interaction with the self-generated magnetic field leads to instability for all positive values of the fine structure constant. This is true no matter whether this interaction is accounted for by the Breit potential, by an external magnetic field which is chosen to minimize the energy, or by the quantized radiation field.Comment: 13 pages, AMS-LaTe

Metalanguage in L1 English-speaking 12-year-olds: which aspects of writing do they talk about?

Traditional psycholinguistic approaches to metalinguistic awareness in L1 learners elicit responses containing metalanguage that demonstrates metalinguistic awareness of pre-determined aspects of language knowledge. This paper, which takes a more ethnographic approach, demonstrates how pupils are able to engage their own focus of metalanguage when reflecting on their everyday learning activities involving written language. What is equally significant is what their metalanguage choices reveal about their understanding and application of written language concepts