What Can Philosophers Learn from Psychopathy?

Many spectacular claims about psychopaths are circulated. This contribution aims at providing the reader with the more complex reality of the phenomenon (or phenomena), and to point to issues of particular interest to philosophers working in moral psychology and moral theory. I first discuss the current evidence regarding psychopaths’ deficient empathy and decision-making skills. I then explore what difference it makes to our thinking whether we regard their deficit dimensionally (as involving abilities that are on or off) and whether we focus on primary or secondary psychopathy. My conclusion is that most grand claims about psychopathy settling long-standing debates in moral philosophy and psychology are overblown, but there is much to be learnt from this disorder when it comes to formulating modern theories of moral psychology

Philosophical foundations of the theory theory of folk psychology

The Theory Theory is one account of our practice of attributing psychological states to ourselves and others. In the late 1980s, the advent of an alternative account, the Simulation Theory, provoked a new debate about the correctness of Theory Theory. In this debate, much confusion has arisen about the nature of Theory Theory. In this thesis, I try to dispel some of this confusion by outlining what must be the philosophical foundations of the Theory Theory. The thesis makes five main claims. First, I argue that it is unhelpful to regard any body of knowledge whatsoever as a theory. To do so does not illuminate the idea of a theory, and it makes the distinction between Theory Theory and Simulation Theory quite obscure. Second, I argue that we should understand the relevant sense of 'theory' in terms of the idea of a scientific theory. A scientific theory is composed of lawlike generalisations that contain interrelated terms that refer to entities and properties that are explanatory of the data, for example by being causally efficacious in the production of them, or by being related to them in some lawlike fashion. Third, I argue that Theory Theory is not committed to common sense functionalism, in either its semantic or metaphysical versions. Fourth, Theory Theory is not committed to us attributing psychological states to others and to ourselves on the same basis. Hence, it can allow that we can have distinctive knowledge of our own minds. Finally, I argue that Theory Theory should not maintain that we have tacit knowledge of folk psychological theory. From what we know of looks like, and from what current theories of tacit knowledge hold to be defining features of tacit knowledge, we must conclude that this knowledge is not tacit. The above conclusions form a basis of the Theory Theory which will make possible more specific formulations of it, and will facilitate and clarify further debate

The project “understAID”, a platform that helps informal caregivers to understand and aid their demented relatives

[Abstract] “UnderstAID” is a platform that helps informal caregivers to understand and aid their demented relatives. It is an international project initiated by Denmark, Poland and Spain. The aim of the project is to design, and implement the multimedia platform “understAID” to support informal caregivers of dementia patients. The project was launched in April 2013 and is expected to end 36 months later. The project is divided into five tasks concerning the final aim. The aim of task 1 is the management of the project, as well as the exploitation and dissemination of gathered information. Task 2 is meant to define the contents and solutions of the CarePlatform based on the knowledge gained from real-case studies. Demented elderlies from each country (n = 40) suffering from different degrees of dementia were evaluated by formal caregivers and dementia professionals. The aim of task 3 is the development of the social learning interface. Task 4 focuses on the CarePlatform development and system integration. Finally, task 5 assumes testing and validation of the platform. The platform is devised to be available in two versions, namely the light one for mobile appliance and the premium version. Also different activities leading to the popularization of the platform are planned

What causes grief in dementia caregivers?

[Abstract] Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most prevalent neurodegenerative disease in the world. Most AD patients become dependent on their relatives, i.e. family caregivers. Providing care to a person with AD influences caregiver’s life and leads to feelings of grief, which often precede caregiver depression. The purpose of the article was to evaluate the Meuser and Marwit Caregiver Grief Inventory (MM-CGI-50) for use in Polish family caregivers and to find out determinants of grief of family caregivers of AD individuals living in Poland. A sample of 151 spouse and adult child caregivers of community-dwelling AD patients (95 females and 56 males) was interviewed to determine the influence of such factors as caregiver’s age, gender, family relation to the care recipient (CR) and caregiving-related changes in caregiver’s working time, leisure time and material status to find out the impact of caregiving role on intensity of caregiver grief. Caregiver grief was measured by means of MM-CGI-50. Additionally, carers were administered a questionnaire including patient’s and caregiver’s demographics. Also, CR’s dementia assessment was informant-based and determined with investigator-administered clinical dementia rating (CDR) scale. Of all analyzed factors, only caregiver’s informant dementia rating significantly influenced caregiver grief. To conclude, the effect of caregiver’s age, gender, family relation to the CR and caregiving-related changes in caregiver’s working time; leisure time and material status could not be found. To add, MM- CGI-50 can be effectively used to assess grief in Polish family caregivers of AD patients

RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE INTERNATIONAL CONCERNING THE CARE OF PATIENTS WITH DEMENTIAAND THE SITUATION IN POLAND

According to data of WHO research, there are an estimated 36,5 million people with dementia worldwide. They need long-term care. The nature of this care depends on economic situation of the country - the higher developed it is, the bigger participation of institutions specialized in long-term care and smaller participation of home care. In high income countries around one-third to one-half of people with dementia are cared for in care homes. Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI) predicts that by 2030 number of patients with dementia will double and triple by 2050. This prognosis requires advanced planning, monitoring and coordination actions to improve system of long-term care. To achieve this goal, ADI recommends: promoting broad public awareness of dementia and combating stigma, identifying dementia capable support services at all stages of the disease, assessing and improving the quality of health care, social care and long-term care support and services, assessing availability and access to diagnostic services, promotion of brain health. Caregivers should be valued by society for they demanding and difficult work. Also patients should keep their autonomy and choice. 92% of suffering from dementia patents in Poland are cared at home since beginning of disease until their death. Other 8% stays at different types of home cares. There are also short-term care, daily care and ambulatory care available. The reasons of small participation of those institutions are: maladjusted to growing number of patients with dementia system of care, complicated administrative procedures, lack of money to cover up costs of care and lack of knowledge about dementia in society

UnderstAID, an ICT platform to help informal caregivers of people with dementia: a pilot randomized controlled study

[Abstract] Information and communications technology (ICT) could support ambient assisted living (AAL) based interventions to provide support to informal caregivers of people with dementia, especially when they need to cope with their feelings of overburden or isolation. An e-learning platform (understAID application) was tested by informal caregivers from Denmark, Poland, and Spain to explore the technical and the pedagogical specifications, as well as evaluating the impact of its use on the psychological status of the participants. 61 informal caregivers completed the study taking part in the experimental (n=30) or control (n=31) groups. 33.3% of the caregivers were satisfied with the application and around 50% of the participants assessed it as technically and pedagogically acceptable. After using understAID the caregivers in the experimental group significantly decreased their depressive symptomatology according to the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale, but a possible benefit on their feelings of competence and satisfaction with the caring experience was also observed. The low scores obtained for satisfaction were highlighting issues that need to be modified to meet the informal caregivers’ needs in national, social, and cultural context. Some possible biases are also considered and discussed to be taken into account in future improvements of understAID application.European Commission; AAL-2012-5-10

“The Neuroscience of Responsibility”—Workshop Report

This is a report on the 3-day workshop “The Neuroscience of Responsibility” that was held in the Philosophy Department at Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands during February 11th–13th, 2010. The workshop had 25 participants from The Netherlands, Germany, Italy, UK, USA, Canada and Australia, with expertise in philosophy, neuroscience, psychology, psychiatry and law. Its aim was to identify current trends in neurolaw research related specifically to the topic of responsibility, and to foster international collaborative research on this topic. The workshop agenda was constructed by the participants at the start of each day by surveying the topics of greatest interest and relevance to participants. In what follows, we summarize (1) the questions which participants identified as most important for future research in this field, (2) the most prominent themes that emerged from the discussions, and (3) the two main international collaborative research project plans that came out of this meeting