Bringing the "self" into focus: conceptualising the role of self-experience for understanding and working with distressing voices

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 “self” (which includes numerous facets such as self-reflection, self-schema and self-concept) might play in causing and maintaining distress and disability in voice hearers. However, attempts to clarify and integrate these different perspectives within the voice hearing literature, or to explore their clinical implications, are still in their infancy. This paper outlines how the self has been conceptualised in the psychosis and CBT literatures, followed by a review of the evidence regarding the proposed role of this construct in the etiology of and adaptation to voice hearing experiences. We go on to discuss some of the specific intervention methods that aim to target these aspects of self-experience and end by identifying key research questions in this area. Notably, we suggest that interventions specifically targeting aspects of self-experience, including self-affection, self-reflection, self-schema and self-concept, may be sufficient to reduce distress and disruption in the context of hearing voices, a suggestion that now requires further empirical investigation

Placental Calcium Provision in a Lizard With Prolonged Oviductal Egg Retention

A prominent scenario for the evolution of viviparity and placentation in reptiles predicts a step-wise pattern with an initial phase of prolonged oviductal egg retention accompanied by progressive reduction in eggshell thickness culminating in viviparity; calcium placentotrophy evolves secondarily to viviparity. Saiphos equalis is an Australian scincid lizard with a reproductive mode that is uncommon for squamates because eggs are retained in the oviduct until late developmental stages, and the embryonic stage at oviposition varies geographically. We studied calcium mobilization by embryos in two populations with different oviductal egg retention patterns to test the hypothesis that the pattern of nutritional provision of calcium is independent of the embryonic stage at oviposition. Females from one population are viviparous and oviposit eggs containing fully formed embryos, whereas embryos in oviposited eggs of the second population are morphologically less mature, and these eggs hatch several days later. The reproductive mode of this population is denoted as prolonged oviductal egg retention. Yolk provided the highest proportion of calcium to hatchlings in both populations. Eggs of both populations were enclosed in calcified eggshells, but shells of the population with prolonged egg retention had twice the calcium content of the viviparous population and embryos recovered calcium from these eggshells. Placental transfer accounted for a substantial amount of calcium in hatchlings in both populations. Hatchling calcium concentration was higher in the population with prolonged egg retention because these embryos mobilized calcium from yolk, the eggshell and the placenta. This pattern of embryonic calcium provision in which both a calcified eggshell and placentotrophy contribute to embryonic nutrition is novel. The reproductive pattern of S. equalis illustrates that calcified eggshells are compatible with prolonged oviductal egg retention and that viviparity is not requisite to calcium placentotrophy

Deuteronomy-Kings as emerging authoritative books : a conversation

Introducción: The existence of a “Deuteronomistic History,” consisting of the books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, is under review.1 Is this scholarly construct an accurate understanding of what ancient writers of the Hebrew Bible conceived to be a coherent sequence of books that should be read together? Did the books ever form an independent collection, without Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers prefixed, or without Genesis- Numbers prefixed? If we are not as certain as past generations that they ever formed a recognized literary unit,2 why ask what was deemed authoritative about these five books in the late Persian and early Hellenistic periods, by which time it is generally agreed they existed close to their current final forms? The purpose of the present volume is not to focus on the important debate about the status of the so-called Deuteronomistic History, though the results might contribute toward framing arguments on one side or the other. Instead, it is to try to understand the element of authority in relation to each book, which can be construed in two different ways. On the one hand, it can lead us to ask why we have each of the five individual books and what concerns led to their creation using which older materials to address those issues, because these earlier traditions carried some weight of authority for the community of scribes who penned the narratives as well as for their implied target audience(s). Currently, the dates of composition for the various books are generally assigned to the late monarchic period, the Neo-Babylonian period, or the early Persian period. In all three cases, a second question naturally arises then that needs a reasoned response: once created, why would the concerns addressed have had ongoing relevance and resonance for audiences in the late Persian and early Hellenistic periods