SEARCH · PubMed Health
Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
In this article autobiography is defined as a dialogue of the self with itself in the present about the past for the sake of self-understanding. Spirituality involves connectedness to oneself, others, nature and to a larger meaning. It is associated with creativity, play, wisdom, faith, and a sense of oneness. Writing and reflecting on one's autobiography enhances spiritual growth and can be therapeutic freeing people from outlived roles and self-imposed images. After discussing the history of spiritual autobiography as a genre, the author compares and contrasts four approaches to autobiography: the structured life review, the guided autobiography, the intensive journal workbook, and autobiographical work in twelve step programs. For those who work with older persons these techniques should prove very useful.
The archival collection of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences in Vilnius (Wilno) contains many manuscripts relating to the scientific work of Jan Fryderyk Wolfgang (1776-1859), professor of pharmacy and pharmacology of the Wilno University in the years 1807-1831, the founder and main figure in the Wilno pharmacognostic school, a botanist with substantial achievements in wide-ranging research on the flora of the Wilno region, as well as a historian of pharmacy. The most interesting of the manuscripts include Wolfgang's Autobiografia [Autobiography], written in 1850, and a list of his publications covering a total of 57 items (including some that have hitherto remained unknown), a work entitled Historya Farmakologii i Farmacyi [History of pharmacology and pharmacy], and a particularly valuable manuscript (666 + 12 sheets) entitled Farmakologiia [Pharmacology]. Worth mentioning are also two catalogues of books from Wolfgang's library: one compiled by Wolfgang himself (37 sheets) and the other by Adam Ferdynand Adamowicz. The content of the autobiography manuscript is contained on five sheets. The author of the present article analyzes the document, comparing the information contained in it with the biographies of J. F. Wolfgang that hhave been published so far (these being primarily the biography by Dominik Cezary ChodYko, published in 1863, and that by Witold W3odzimierz G3owacki of 1960). The text of the autobiography is quoted in full, together with numerous comments. The analysis of the manuscript as well as the biographical data contained in the above-mentioned biographies indicate that Wolfgang had great achievements as a scientist (in both research and organizational work), as a champion of public causes and as an educator of a generation of botanists-pharmacognostics. It also transpires from the autobiography, as well as from the research by historians, that he was a very good and trustful person, who readily granted access to his research to his collaborators and pupils. This eventually turned against him: he laments the loss of the materials of his floristic research "at untrustworthy hands" and deplores the fact that they were published under the name of other scientists. Jan Fryderyk Wolfgang died on 17 May 1859, in his estate at Po3uknie. He was buried at the no longer extant Lutheran graveyard at Pohulanka. A symbolic grave of Wolfgang is to be found at the Rossa Catholic cemetery in Wilno (sector XIV, grave no. 157).
First-person narratives may have advantages as adjuncts in psychotherapy. They provide an inside view of mental disorders expressed in the person's own words, emphasize issues that the person deems important, are interesting to read with strong story lines, are less didactic than self-help books, and offer identification with a protagonist. Recent trends in published autobiographies are described. There has been an increase in the number of published autobiographies describing mood disorder relative to schizophrenia, of psychotherapists going public with personal experiences of mental disorder, and of books expressing a positive view of treatment. The article includes case vignettes and a practitioner-recommended list of autobiographies on addictive disorders, death and grieving, and mood disorders.
Recent studies encourage educators in nursing to use innovative and non-traditional teaching methods, such as using popular movies, posters, portfolios and surfing the internet, to stimulate students' interest, participation and interaction to enhance academic performance as well as knowledge retention. In this, descriptive cross-sectional study, we used self-administered questionnaires with statements graded on 5-points Likert scale (quantitative measures) and open-ended questions (qualitative measures), to assess the feasibility and students' perceptions regarding the use of Lance Armstrong's autobiography of surviving against cancer as a teaching tool. At the beginning of the lecture copies of selected chapters from: "It's Not About the Bike; My Journey Back to Life" [Armstrong, L., Jenkins, S. 2001. It's Not About The Bike: My Journey Back To Life. Yellow Jersey Press, Random House (Pty) Limited, Great Britain], were given to students. Willing students were requested to read for the whole class while the lecturer interjected periodically to explain and expound on certain pharmacological concepts. Eighty percent (80%) of participants felt that the use of an autobiography stimulated their interesting in cancer drugs and 84% agreed/strongly agreed that it contributed to their knowledge of pharmacology. Using Lance Armstrong's autobiography of survival to teach cytotoxic drugs is a worthwhile and rewarding exercise from the student nurses' perspective.
Reflective topical autobiography (an autobiographical method) belongs to the genre of testimonial research and is located within the postpositivist interpretive research paradigm. Despite the (reflective) topical autobiographical method enjoying a 'rebirth' in recent years and being utilised by a range of researchers in the human and literary disciplines, it remains largely unknown and under utilised in nursing research domains. In this article it is proposed that reflective topical autobiography is an important research method in its own right, and one which promises to make a substantive contribution to the overall project of advancing nursing inquiry and knowledge. This is particularly so where nursing research shares in the affirming projects of interpretive research generally and the relatively new sociology of the emotions in particular apropos: (i) increasing understanding of subjectivity and making subjective experiences more visible and intelligible, (ii) the search for meaning and increasing understanding of the commonality of existential human experience, and (iii) decentring the detached observer and his/her privileging the objectivist illusion in the hierarchy of research discourses, paving the way for the admission of multiple realities and interpretations of lived experience. In this article, a coherent reflective topical autobiographical research method is advanced for use in nursing education and research contexts.
The author outlines a seminar which is aimed especially at improving the capacity of psychiatrists and medical students to understand the emotional conflicts of their black patients as well as the therapists' own race-related attitudes and behaviors. The course is based on the study of black autobiographical literature, which is illustrated here by use of The Autobiography of Malcolm X. The author shows how the black autobiography can be a powerful catalyst for the discussion of issues such as the symbolic value of black skin color and pervasive black-white distrust.
BACKGROUND: Learning conceptions may be studied as specific implicit theories based on theory of mind. Previous studies suggest that a developmental shift from a direct implicit theory of learning to an interpretative one occurs during childhood. Here we explore the development of children's autobiographies of learning to write by adopting this framework. AIMS: We aim to study children's autobiographical accounts of learning to write and whether these accounts change according to the mentioned developmental shift and sociocultural environment. SAMPLE: Sixty children attending public schools in Argentina that were equally distributed according to school level (kindergarten, first grade, fourth grade) and sociocultural environment (middle and marginal). METHODS: Children were interviewed individually at school and requested to write 'as you used to when you were just beginning to write'. This question was repeated for one-year-intervals until child's current age was reached; anticipation of writing next year was also requested. Children's responses were coded into descriptive categories. A multiple correspondence factorial analysis studied the relations among response categories, school grade and sociocultural environment. On the basis of these results, categories were ordered into a Guttman scale. RESULTS: A developmental shift from a focus on isolated products to the integration of procedural and representational changes was evident. School grade and sociocultural environment were statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: Children's writing autobiographies show developmental differences that suit the shift from a direct to an interpretative theory of learning on the basis of hierarchical integration rather than conceptual replacement.
Autobiographical writing offers a vast and virtually untapped resource for the historical phenomenology of aging. This essay interprets the autobiography of Joel Andrews-an aging Yankee farmer whose life spanned the period from the American Revolution to the end of the Civil War. We attempt to recreate the poignance and integrity of this ordinary man's struggle with aging and death within the context of his own historical circumstances and religious beliefs. In particular, the essay argues that Andrews' autobiography both reflects and helps accomplish his central task in old age: the religiously sanctioned transition from physical to spiritual man. Andrews' experience provides an interesting contrast to contemporary ideas about health and vitality in old age.
In the field of biography and autobiography, the "Wolf Man" constitutes a particularl problematic case for the historian of psychoanalysis. The central problem concerns the widespread circulation outside of the Freudian corpus of the fictitious name chosen by Freud to designate a patient. The diverse metamorphoses of this circulation are analyzed here in different texts by authors of varied backgrounds. Components of the "Wolf Man" as a historical case include an analytical account, a testimony, a partial autobiography and a partial biography, as well as autobiographical interviews. In all of these writings, under the biographical guise, a patient is made to talk about himself, but not in his own name. The author does not intend to propose a reinterpretation of the clinical case, but to question the process of "removal" of the patient, instituted by each of these texts individually, and as a whole. This examination is undertaken because it concerns indissociably the analyst and the historian of psychoanalysis.
The lost autobiography of the famous Halle medical professor Friedrich Hoffmann (1660-1742) was recently located in the Manuscripta borussica collection of the Berlin State Library Manuscript Department (Handschriftenabteilung der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin). The autobiography shows new details about his life and work as well as his strategy to shape the picture of his personality for posterity.
Although pain management education results in improved pain control for some patients, it does not work for all patients because some patients remain reluctant or unwilling to use prescribed analgesics to their optimal effect. In a randomized clinical trial that tested the effectiveness of the PRO-SELF Pain Control Program, 11 patients declined to increase their analgesic use despite moderate to severe pain. These patients were selected for a qualitative analysis of their audiotaped discussions about pain management with their intervention nurses. This analysis revealed that these patients often spontaneously provided detailed explanations about why they were reluctant or unwilling to take analgesics in general or opioids in particular. We termed these explanatory accounts pain management autobiographies because of their narrative character and multilayered, richly detailed quality. Pain management autobiographies included stories about (1) previous experience with chronic pain management, including stigmatizing interactions with clinicians and family members; (2) bad experiences with cancer pain management, including severe constipation; and 3) strongly held conventions about medication use, including the belief that all medications are "toxins" that should be avoided. The study findings suggest that a small subset of patients with cancer pain may need interventions such as individual or family counseling or alternative pain management strategies to augment education about opioids.
Unwillingly, Lilian Lindsay started to commit to paper the story of her professional life, although, sadly, this did not progress further than the early years of her distinguished career. Her autobiography, entrusted to one of us with her personal historical notes and manuscripts in 1950, is published here for the first time, with annotations (in italics) to clarify the text by adding biographical details of persons she mentions and commenting on places and events. For some 40 years Lilian studied the history of dentistry, publishing many important papers as well as a book, Short History of Dentistry, but perhaps her most important contribution to dental history is her translation of Fauchard's Le Chirurgien Dentiste.
This article highlights the major descriptive findings of an exploratory, quantitative study of American autobiographies published before 1945. Of particular importance for gerontology, age-cohort distributions of autobiographers are graphed, demonstrating that the genre itself has been created predominantly by men and women aged 55 and over. This study suggests that these writers offer scholars a virtually untapped resource for the historical phenomenology of aging.
Having first considered recent research into the circumstances surrounding the production and publication of the 'autobiography' of Jung, the author concludes that in spite of its being the work of several authors, it nevertheless constitutes a whole. Taken from whichever angle, they all point to Jung's particular inquiry into the unconscious, as it emerges through Jung's own words. The author goes on to suggest both a lateral and a structural reading of MDR (Memories, Dreams, Reflections) which in turn reveals, on the basis of the several dreams reported, the central 'fantasy' which inspired Jung's research and his oeuvre. Finally, he discusses the idea of the collective or impersonal unconscious and highlights the emphasis Jung places on processes which unfold according to rhythms which are associated with distinct scales, depending on whether they are those of the individual, the clan or the culture.
First-person narratives contain an inside view of mental disorder that can be useful in teaching, theory, and research. To bring earlier bibliographies up to date, the authors list eight anthologies and 63 autobiographies of hospitalized mental patients published since 1960.
OBJECTIVE: This article brings to the present earlier bibliographies of books written by former mental patients. These books provide an inside view of mental disorder that can be useful in teaching, public education, theory, and research, and they have played a catalyzing role in mental health reform and in theory development. METHOD: The authors list seven anthologies and 48 autobiographies of former patients published since 1980 and introduce a classification system intended to increase the research value of this important archive. RESULTS: Recent books of this genre show more individuals with a mood disorder and more therapists and more women as authors. CONCLUSIONS: The research potential of these books suggests the value of an electronic database for classifying and retrieving the information they contain.