`In pursuit of the Nazi mind?' the deployment of psychoanalysis in the allied struggle against Germany

This paper discusses how psychoanalytic ideas were brought to bear in the Allied struggle against the Third Reich and explores some of the claims that were made about this endeavour. It shows how a variety of studies of Fascist psychopathology, centred on the concept of superego, were mobilized in military intelligence, post-war planning and policy recommendations for ‘denazification’. Freud's ideas were sometimes championed by particular army doctors and government planners; at other times they were combined with, or displaced by, competing, psychiatric and psychological forms of treatment and diverse studies of the Fascist ‘personality’. This is illustrated through a discussion of the treatment and interpretation of the deputy leader of the Nazi Party, Rudolf Hess, after his arrival in Britain in 1941

Inter-Individual Variation in Response to Estrogen in Human Breast Explants

Exposure to estrogen is strongly associated with increased breast cancer risk. While all women are exposed to estrogen, only 12% are expected to develop breast cancer during their lifetime. These women may be more sensitive to estrogen, as rodent models have demonstrated variability in estrogen sensitivity. Our objective was to determine individual variation in expression of estrogen receptor (ER) and estrogen-induced responses in the normal human breast. Human breast tissue from female donors undergoing reduction mammoplasty surgery were collected for microarray analysis of ER expression. To examine estrogen-induced responses, breast tissue from 23 female donors were cultured ex- vivo in basal or 10 nM 17β-estradiol (E2) media for 4 days. Expression of ER genes (ESR1 and ESR2) increased significantly with age. E2 induced consistent increases in global gene transcription, but expression of target genes AREG, PGR, and TGFβ2 increased significantly only in explants from nulliparous women. E2-treatment did not induce consistent changes in proliferation or radiation induced apoptosis. Responses to estrogen are highly variable among women and not associated with levels of ER expression, suggesting differences in intracellular signaling among individuals. The differences in sensitivity to E2-stimulated responses may contribute to variation in risk of breast cancer

Introduction : narcissism, melancholia and the subject of community.

Sigmund Freud’s twin papers, ‘On Narcissism: An Introduction’ (1914) and ‘Mourning and Melancholia’ (1917 [1915]), take as their formative concern the difficulty of setting apart the ‘inner’ and the ‘outer’ worlds, and of preserving a stable image of a boundaried self. Whilst it is true that the term narcissism especially has come to be deployed in ways that seem foreign to the complexities of Freud’s 1914 paper (by its reduction to a personality disorder or its use as a broad-brush cultural diagnosis), we suggest in this introductory chapter that neither narcissism nor melancholia can be thought about today without expressing some debt to Freudian metapsychology. However, whereas Freud was most evidently concerned to describe the structure of ego-formation, subsequent commentators have preferred to emphasize the cultural and normative dimensions of these terms. Accordingly, we consider the respective discursive histories of narcissism and melancholia and find that although they have been put to work in very different ways they remain grounded by a shared concern with mechanisms of relation and identification. Indeed, this shared concern is the basis upon which they’ve been most productively reanimated in recent years: the rise of melancholia as a critical aid to the study of cultural displacement and dispossession, and the determined redemption of narcissism from its pejorative characterization as fundamentally anti-social. We argue that what is most noteworthy in this post-Freudian literature is the increasing relevance of metapsychology to social and political theory. The language of psychoanalysis, extrapolated from the clinic, permits a detailed examination of the boundaries which construct and challenge the terms of social solidarity. Specifically, this takes place though careful reading of the complex practices of (dis)identification at the heart of ego-formation (at both individual and group levels), and the associated mechanisms of defence, for example: introjection, incorporation, projective-identification, and splitting. By recognising the complexity of how communities get made, and connecting this with recent literature on counter publics and the commons, we demonstrate that Freud’s frameworks of narcissism and melancholia remain essential for any contemporary understanding of political association

Psychotherapy in historical perspective

This article will briefly explore some of the ways in which the past has been used as a means to talk about psychotherapy as a practice and as a profession, its impact on individuals and society, and the ethical debates at stake. It will show how, despite the multiple and competing claims about psychotherapy’s history and its meanings, historians themselves have, to a large degree, not attended to the intellectual and cultural development of many therapeutic approaches. This absence has the potential consequence of implying that therapies have emerged as value-free techniques, outside of a social, economic and political context. The relative neglect of psychotherapy, by contrast with the attention historians have paid to other professions, particularly psychiatry, has also underplayed its societal impact. This article will foreground some of the instances where psychotherapy has become an object of emerging historical interest, including the new research that forms the substance of this special issue of History of the Human Sciences

Weight changes and lifestyle behaviors in women after breast cancer diagnosis: a cross-sectional study

Background: Weight gain rather than weight loss often occurs after breast cancer diagnosis despite breast cancer survivors frequently reported making healthful lifestyle changes. This study describes the prevalence and magnitude of changes in weight before and after breast cancer diagnosis and examines lifestyle behaviors of breast cancer survivors with stable weight, weight gain or weight loss. Methods. Respondents were 368 women with breast cancer characterized by stages I, II and III. All were recruited from hospitals or breast cancer support groups and had completed conventional treatment. Current weight and height were measured while weight at cancer diagnosis and 1 year before diagnosis were self-reported. Weight change was calculated as the difference between current weight and weight a year preceding breast cancer diagnosis. A 24-hour diet recall and Global Physical Activity Questionnaire assessed dietary intake and physical activity, respectively. Differences in lifestyle behaviors among weight change groups were examined using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). Results: Mean weight change from a year preceding diagnosis to study entry was 2.73 kg (95% CI: 1.90-3.55). Most women (63.3%) experienced weight gain rather than weight loss (36.7%) with a higher percentage (47.8%) having at least 5% weight gain (47.8%) rather than weight loss (22%), respectively. Compared to other weight change groups, women in >10% weight gain group had the lowest fruit and vegetable servings (1.58 servings/day; 95% CI: 1.36-1.82) and highest servings of dairy products (0.41 servings/day; 95% CI: 0.30-0.52). Conclusions: Weight gain was evident in this sample of women after breast cancer diagnosis. Information on magnitude of weight change after breast cancer diagnosis and lifestyle behaviors of breast cancer survivors with varying degrees of weight change could facilitate the development and targeting of effective intervention strategies to achieve healthy weight and optimal health for better survival

Weight change during chemotherapy changes the prognosis in non metastatic breast cancer for the worse

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Weight change during chemotherapy is reported to be associated with a worse prognosis in breast cancer patients, both with weight gain and weight loss. However, most studies were conducted prior to the common use of anthracycline-base chemotherapy and on North American populations with a mean BMI classified as overweight. Our study was aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of weight change during anthracycline-based chemotherapy on non metastatic breast cancer (European population) with a long term follow-up.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Patients included 111 women diagnosed with early stage breast cancer and locally advanced breast cancer who have been treated by anthracycline-based chemotherapy regimen between 1976 and 1989. The relative percent weight variation (WV) between baseline and postchemotherapy treatment was calculated and categorized into either weight change (WV > 5%) or stable (WV < 5%). The median follow-up was 20.4 years [19.4 - 27.6]. Cox proportional hazard models were used to evaluate any potential association of weight change and known prognostic factors with the time to recurrence and overall survival.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Baseline BMI was 24.4 kg/m2 [17.1 - 40.5]. During chemotherapy treatment, 31% of patients presented a notable weight variation which was greater than 5% of their initial weight.</p> <p>In multivariate analyses, weight change (> 5%) was positively associated with an increased risk of both recurrence (RR 2.28; 95% CI: 1.29-4.03) and death (RR 2.11; 95% CI: 1.21-3.66).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results suggest that weight change during breast-cancer chemotherapy treatment may be related to poorer prognosis with higher reccurence and higher mortality in comparison to women who maintained their weight.</p

Triple-A syndrome with prominent ophthalmic features and a novel mutation in the AAAS gene: a case report.

Triple-A syndrome (Allgrove syndrome) is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by adrenal insufficiency, alacrima, achalasia, and - occasionally - autonomic instability. Mutations have been found in the AAAS gene on 12q13

Pilot randomised controlled trial of Weight Watchers® referral with or without dietitian-led group support for weight loss in women treated for breast cancer: the BRIGHT (BReast cancer weIGHT loss) trial

RN was supported by a PhD studentship from the Fraserburgh Ladies Moonlight Prowl and Cancer Research Aberdeen and North East Scotland (CRANES). LCAC and GMcN acknowledge support from the RESAS programme of the Scottish Government.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Evolution in the Brain, Evolution in the Mind: The Hierarchical Brain and the Interface between Psychoanalysis and Neuroscience

This article first aims to demonstrate the different ways the work of the English neurologist John Hughlings Jackson influenced Freud. It argues that these can be summarized in six points. It is further argued that the framework proposed by Jackson continued to be pursued by twentieth-century neuroscientists such as Papez, MacLean and Panksepp in terms of tripartite hierarchical evolutionary models. Finally, the account presented here aims to shed light on the analogies encountered by psychodynamically oriented neuroscientists, between contemporary accounts of the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system on the one hand, and Freudian models of the mind on the other. These parallels, I will suggest, are not coincidental. They have a historical underpinning, as both accounts most likely originate from a common source: John Hughlings Jackson's tripartite evolutionary hierarchical view of the brain