Att skapa eller icke skapa : En uppgörelse med den konstnärliga blockeringens filosofi och psykologi utifrån Julia Camerons teori om konstutövning

Syftet med detta arbete är att gestalta och analysera författaren Julia Camerons teori om konstutövning, som den uttrycks i två av böckerna i hennes Artist's Way-trilogi. I synnerhet strävar jag efter att uppnå en förståelse av det vanliga fenomenet att människors konstnärliga handlingar stöter på hinder eller blockeringar i form av deras egna tanke- och beteendemönster. Ett annat viktigt syfte är att undersöka vad individen själv kan göra för att bryta sina blockerande mönster och frigöra sin konstnärliga potential. I denna forskning använder jag en hermeneutisk forskningsansats. Min studie visar att grundorsaken till konstnärliga blockeringar är kollektiva, felaktiga föreställningar om vad konst är och vem som är konstnär. Våra kulturella myter om konsten och konstnären ger upphov till en uppdelning av människor i konstnärer och ickekonstnärer, och den resulterande konstnärliga ojämlikheten får negativa konsekvenser för båda grupperna. Jag beskriver Camerons egna teser om konstens verkliga väsen och syfte samt konstnärens verkliga identitet, och utreder och analyserar den konstnärliga blockeringens olika former, uppkomst och mekanismer. Slutligen identifierar jag sex huvudsakliga strategier som varje individ kan använda för att överkomma sina blockeringar och frigöra sin fulla konstnärliga potential.The aim of this thesis is to investigate and analyze author Julia Cameron's theory on creativity, as expressed in two of her books in the Artist's Way trilogy. In particular, I strive to gain an understanding of the common phenomenon that a person's creative actions are obstructed or blocked by their own patterns of thought and behavior. Another important purpose is to investigate what actions the individual person can take to break their blocking patterns and free their creative potential. My research is conducted using a hermeneutic approach. According to my study, the primary cause of creative blocks are collective, faulty ideas about the essence of art and the identity of the artist. Our cultural mythology about art and artists causes a dichotomy between artists and non-artists, and the resulting artistic inequality becomes the cause of negative consequences for both groups. I describe Cameron's own philosophy on the actual purpose of art and the artist's actual identity, and explore and analyze the forms, causes and mechanisms of creative blockage. Ultimately, I identify six major strategies which can be adopted by any individual concerned with overcoming their artist's block and freeing their full creative potential

First direct dating of Late Pleistocene ice-wedges by AMS

We present the first direct dating by C-14-accelerator mass spectrometry of three Late Pleistocene syngenetic ice-wedges from the Seyaha cross-section. They are representative of permafrost with multistage ice-wedges from the North of Western Siberia. The most important result is the clear vertical age stratification of the ice, i.e. the old ice is located beneath the young. This shows that a timescale can be assigned to these ice-wedges penetrating down into the permafrost. The age of the ice shows a depth of not more than 3-5 m for frost cracking; water penetrated into the ice-wedges at that depth. The lower part of the ice-wedges from the Seyaha cross-section has been dated between 21 000 and 14 000 BP. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

On Brain Oedema

Traumatic brain injury and bacterial meningitis may at a glance appear as two different disease entities. The host reaction, however, to both trauma and infection involves a strong inflammatory response, with the classical symptomology of rubor, tumor, calor, dolor et functio laesa. Tumor, swelling, will increase the volume within the closed cranial vault, and may thereby raise the intracranial pressure to critical levels, affecting cerebral blood flow and oxygenation. In this thesis, brain oedema and its origins are investigated in experimental models of brain trauma and bacterial meningitis, and in patients suffering severe head injury. The studies are focused on fluid therapy, blood-brain barrier permeability changes, and their effects on oedema formation. In study I and II, it was shown that plasma volume expansion with crystalloid compared to colloid fluids resulted in increased cortical brain oedema after brain trauma in rats, and increased intracranial pressure in experimental meningitis in cats. Evidence is given that increased permeability of the blood-brain barrier is a key determinant of tissue water content after the insults. In study III, it was shown that post treatment with prostacyclin in experimental meningitis reduces systemic plasma volume loss, and may diminish the rise in intracranial pressure. In study IV, the effect of statin treatment after brain trauma in rats was investigated. No effect on brain oedema, cortical blood flow, or the transfer constant for a small molecule was detected, but capillary patency was better preserved in the statin group. Statin treatment was associated with increased plasma levels of nitric oxide, and decreased levels of prostacyclin. In study V, post-traumatic permeability changes of the blood-brain barrier in 17 brain trauma patients were quantified using contrast enhanced computerized tomography with multiple scanning during 25 minutes. It was shown that blood to brain transfer for iohexol was increased up to 20-fold in traumatized tissue. The relevance of these results regarding our understanding of the pathophysiology of post-traumatic brain oedema, and the implications for the clinical management of brain trauma patients are discussed

Coherent Control of Magneto-optical Rotation in Inhomogeneously Broadened Medium

We extend our earlier investigations [Opt. Commun. {\bf 179}, 97 (2000)] on the enhancement of magneto-optical rotation (MOR) to include inhomogeneous broadening. We introduce a control field that counter-propagates with respect to the probe field. We derive analytical results for the susceptibilities corresponding to the two circular polarization components of the probe field. From the analytical results we identify and numerically demonstrate the region of parameters where significantly large magneto-optical rotation (MOR) can be obtained. From the numerical results we isolate the significance of the magnetic field and the control field in enhancement of MOR. The control field opens up many new regions of the frequencies of the probe where large magneto-optical rotation occurs. We also report that a large enhancement of MOR can be obtained by operating the probe and control field in two-photon resonance condition.Comment: REVTex format, 14 pages including 6 figures, to be published in Optics Communication

Serum Calcium and the Risk of Breast Cancer: Findings from the Swedish AMORIS Study and a Meta-Analysis of Prospective Studies

To investigate the association between serum calcium and risk of breast cancer using a large cohort and a systematic review with meta-analysis. From the Swedish Apolipoprotein Mortality Risk (AMORIS) Study we included 229,674 women who had baseline measurements of serum total calcium and albumin. Multivariable Cox regression was used to assess the association between total and albumin-corrected calcium and breast cancer risk. For the systematic review, an electronic search of MEDLINE and EMBASE databases was performed to identify other prospective cohorts assessing the relationship between serum calcium and breast cancer risk. We pooled the results of our AMORIS cohort with other eligible studies in a meta-analysis using a random effects model. I² test was used to assess heterogeneity. In the AMORIS study, 10,863 women were diagnosed with breast cancer (mean follow-up: 19 years). We found an inverse association between total serum calcium and breast cancer when comparing the fourth quartile to the first quartile (HR: 0.94, 95% CI: 0.88-0.99, p value for trend 0.04) and similar results using albumin-corrected calcium. In the systematic review, we identified another two prospective cohorts evaluating pre-diagnostic serum total calcium and breast cancer. Combining these studies and our findings in AMORIS in a meta-analysis showed a protective effect of serum calcium against breast cancer, with a summary RR of 0.80 (95% CI: 0.66-0.97). No substantial heterogeneity was observed. Our findings in AMORIS and the meta-analysis support an inverse association between serum calcium and breast cancer risk, which warrants mechanistic investigations

The early days of SMIA in perspective

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