The Application of Psychoanalytic Principles to the Study of »Magic«

In this paper Freud’s work on animism and magic is elaborated. Those two subjects are presented mainly in his work »Totem and Taboo« (1913). The true motives, which lead primitive man to practice magic are, according to Freud, human whishes and his immense belief in their power. Importance attached to wishes and to the will has been extended from them to all those psychical acts, which are subjected to will. A general overvaluation has thus come about of all mental processes. Things become less important than ideas of things. Relations, which hold between the ideas of things, are equally hold between the things. The principle of governing magic or the technique of animistic way of thinking is one of the \u27omnipotence of thoughts\u27. The overvaluation of psychic acts could be brought into relation with narcissism and megalomania, a belief in the thaumaturgic force of words and a technique for dealing with the external world – \u27magic\u27 – which appears to be a logical application of these grandiose premises. Recent psychoanalytic authors dealing with the problem of magic emphasize that magic survived culturally to the present days and even in adults who are otherwise intellectually and scientifically \u27modern\u27. Their explanations for that derive from Ferenczi’s and especially Róheim’s work that pointed out that magic facilitates adaptive and realistically effective endeavors. Balter pointed out that magic employs ego functioning, and conversely ego functioning includes magic

Depression in Children and Adolescents

Dugo su vladala dva krajnja uvjerenja: 1. da djeca i adolescenti ne mogu patiti od depresivnih poremećaja i 2. da postoje tzv. “maskirane depresije” ili “depresivni ekvivalenti” u koje su uključivani različiti tipovi emocionalnih problema i poremećaja ponašanja za koje se smatralo da u osnovi imaju depresiju kao glavni uzrok. Veliki depresivni poremećaj čest je i ozbiljan poremećaj čiji je početak često u djetinjstvu. Distimija je blaži, ali više kroničan depresivni poremećaj koji također može započeti u djetinjstvu ili adolescenciji. Depresija je povezana s povećanim rizikom od drugih psihijatrijskih poremećaja, slabim akademskim, socijalnim i radnim funkcioniranjem, zloupotrebom različitih sredstava ovisnosti i suicidom. Komorbidni psihijatrijski poremećaji povećavaju rizik od povratne depresije, duljeg trajanja depresivne epizode, od povećanja broja pokušaja suicida, pogoršavaju funkcionalni ishod, umanjuju odgovor na tretman, povećavaju rizik od drugih medicinskih problema i umanjuju vjerojatnost korištenja službi mentalnog zdravlja. Važno je prepoznati i što točnije dijagnosticirati depresiju i eventualne komorbidne poremećaje u djece i adolescenata kako bi se što ranije moglo započeti s liječenjem. Najdjelotvorniji je multimodalni tretman koji nije usmjeren samo na depresivne simptome, nego na sve probleme u funkcioniranju. U liječenju djece i adolescenata s depresijom medikacija je rijetko, ako ikada, indicirana kao jedina terapijska strategija, izolirana od psihosocijalnih intervencija. Multimodalni i rani tretman može umanjiti rizik od kroničnoga psihosocijalnog oštećenja.Two extreme beliefs have been dominant for a long time, i.e. 1. that children and adolescents cannot suffer from depressive disorders or 2. that there are the so-called “masked depressions” or “depressive equivalents”, which included different types of emotional and behavioural disorders considered to have depression as their main underlying cause. A major depressive disorder is a frequent and serious disorder, with the onset often in childhood. Dystimia is a mild, but chronic depressive disorder that may also start in childhood or adolescence. Depression is associated with an increased risk of other psychiatric disorders, poor academic, social and work functioning, abuse of various addictive substances and suicide. Psychiatric comorbidities increase the risk of recurrent depression, prolonged depressive episodes, and higher incidence of suicide attempts. They aggravate the functional outcome, reduce treatment response, increase the risk of other medical problems and reduce the possibility of use of mental health services. Depression and possible comorbidities should be recognized and diagnosed as early as possible in children and adolescents in order to enable the timely onset of treatment. The most efficient treatment is a multimodal treatment that is not focused on depressive symptoms only, but also on all problems in functioning. Medication is rarely, if ever, indicated as the only therapeutic strategy, isolated from psychosocial interventions, in the treatment of children and adolescents with depression. Multimodal and early treatment can reduce the risk of chronic psychosocial damages

Relationship between Psychopathological Factors and Metabolic Control in Children and Adolescents with Insulin-Dependent Diabetes mellitus

This paper provides a critical overview of the literature on the relationship between psychological/psychopathological factors and metabolic control in children and adolescents with insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). We discuss studies on individual and family psychopathological factors, as well as reports on the effects of psychoeducational/psychotherapeutic interventions on glycemic control in patients with IDDM aged <18 years. The analysis of the literature indicates that while evidence on the relationship between individual factors and metabolic control is still mixed, in part due to methodological issues, results from family studies do suggest that patients in dysfunctional families and children of parents with high degrees of psychopathology present with poor glycemic control. As for the effects of psychoeducational/ psychotherapeutic interventions, limited but increasing evidence shows that they can actually contribute to improve metabolic control. We finally suggest some future underexplored avenues of research in the field, including studies on the psychopathological and neurobiological mechanisms underlying the above mentioned findings. All this body of research should provide a strong empirical rationale for allocating resources in order to include psychiatrists within the interdisciplinary diabetes health care team

The Application of Psychoanalytic Principles to the Study of »Magic«

In this paper Freud’s work on animism and magic is elaborated. Those two subjects are presented mainly in his work »Totem and Taboo« (1913). The true motives, which lead primitive man to practice magic are, according to Freud, human whishes and his immense belief in their power. Importance attached to wishes and to the will has been extended from them to all those psychical acts, which are subjected to will. A general overvaluation has thus come about of all mental processes. Things become less important than ideas of things. Relations, which hold between the ideas of things, are equally hold between the things. The principle of governing magic or the technique of animistic way of thinking is one of the \u27omnipotence of thoughts\u27. The overvaluation of psychic acts could be brought into relation with narcissism and megalomania, a belief in the thaumaturgic force of words and a technique for dealing with the external world – \u27magic\u27 – which appears to be a logical application of these grandiose premises. Recent psychoanalytic authors dealing with the problem of magic emphasize that magic survived culturally to the present days and even in adults who are otherwise intellectually and scientifically \u27modern\u27. Their explanations for that derive from Ferenczi’s and especially Róheim’s work that pointed out that magic facilitates adaptive and realistically effective endeavors. Balter pointed out that magic employs ego functioning, and conversely ego functioning includes magic

Towards an Integration of Psychoanalysis and Neurobiology in 21st Century

The »inner world« of the mind was, in the past, the traditional preserve of psychoanalysis and related disciplines, and it was therefore placed at the margins of neural science. During 1990-ies numerous investigations in the field of neuroscience have led to significant findings, which explain biological correlates of psychological functions. There are much scientific evidence that support association between psychoanalysis and neuroscience. Psychoanalysis offers a unique in-depth perspective on the psychology of human motivation, and furthermore has contributions both to make and to receive in the gathering scientific integration

The Child Behavior Checklist, Teacher Report Form and Youth Self Report Problem Scales in a Normative Sample of Croatian Children and Adolescents Aged 7–18

The main goal of this study was to standardize the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), Teacher Report Form (TRF) and Youth Self Report (YSR) questionnaire problem scales on a normative random sample of children and adolescents (N=3309) aged 7 to 18 throughout Croatia. The second goal was to compare boys-girls problem scales data and CBCLTRF- YSR differences in our sample. The mean value of CBCL scores for the Total Problems scale for different groups (children/adolescents; boys/girls) ranged from 17.07 to 20.71. Overall instruments’ internal consistency ranged from 0.83 to 0.86. In almost all the scales parents reported higher scores than teachers (p<0.01). In all the scales adolescents reported significantly higher scores than their parents and teachers (p<0.01). This study standardized the questionnaires for our specific socio-cultural circle, which satisfy complex psychopathology study criteria. Problem scales results in our sample suggest similarity to previous European researches

Comparison of Self-Reported and Parent-Reported Emotional and Behavioral Problems in Adolescents from Croatia

The first goal of this study was to obtain, Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and Youth Self-Report (YSR) problem-scales data for youths in Croatia, and compare them to the original American sample. The second goal of this study was to compare boys -girls problem scales data and CBCL-YSR differences. The instruments were administered to school adolescents aged between 12–18 comprising a non-referred sample (n=611) drawn from the whole country. Youths, compared to their parents, rated higher scores in all scales in both sexes (p<0.001). According to parents’ reports boys had higher scores in more scales (five out of eleven). According to adolescents’ self-reports girls had higher scores in more scales (seven out of eleven). Consistent with other studies, Croatian sample confirmed a larger number of serious behavioral and emotional problems reported by adolescents. Adolescents were confirmed as the most reliable informants on their problems

CHILD IN CONTEMPORARY CROATIAN SOCIETY

U Zagrebu je 12. prosinca 2009. održan simpozij »Dijete u suvremenome hrvatskom društvu«, koji su organizirali Hrvatsko pedijatrijsko društvo, Hrvatska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti, Ministarstvo zdravstva i socijalne skrbi i UNICEF za Hrvatsku. Predavači su prikazali važne podatke o teškoćama kojima su izložena djeca u Hrvatskoj. Naime, nove bolesti, koje su u suvremenom svijetu sve češće u djece, zahtijevaju od svih koji su uključeni u zdravstvenu zaštitu djece nove pristupe radu, što podrazumijeva i dodatnu edukaciju. To nisu bolesti uobičajene u svakodnevnoj liječničkoj praksi. Pristup društva, zbog raznolikosti teškoća s kojima se djeca suočavaju, može biti samo multidisciplinaran. Temeljni nacionalni interes društva je usmjeriti više pozornosti i financijska sredstva na zdravstvenu zaštitu djece, jer to osigurava opstanak i zdravu budućnost društva. Taj pristup zahtijeva nacionalni konsenzus i jasnu političku odluku svih odgovornih službi.The symposium on the topic »Child in contemporary Croatian society«, organized by Croatian Pediatric Society, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Ministry of health and social welfare and UNICEF Croatia Office, was held in Zagreb on December 12, 2009. The lecturers have shown important information on difficulties the children in Croatia are exposed to. Namely, diseases of the so called »new morbidity«, which are becoming more and more frequent in the contemporary world, demand a new approach of work from all who participate in healthcare for children, including additional education. These diseases are not part of a practitioner’s routine activity. Due to variety of problems children are exposed to, the approach can be only multidisciplinary. Basic national interest of every country (basic interest of every human society) should be to direct more attention and financial resources to the healthcare of children, which would ensure the existence and healthy future of the society. This approach requires a national consensus and clear political decision of all responsible official services