ALS är en förkortning av Amyotrofisk lateral skleros. Nervceller som styr kroppensmuskulatur förtvinas och leder till förlamning. Till slut påverkas andningsmuskulaturen och man får svårigheter med andningen, vilket till sist leder till döden. Sjukdomen delas in i grupper och det skiljer sig åt i symptom och aggressivitet dock är utgången densamma. Överlevnaden är vanligtvis 3-5 år. Det bedrivs mycket medicinsk forskning men än så länge har man inte hittat botemedel. Orsaken är oklar men det finns vissa teorier. Behandlingen går ut på att lindra symtom och bromsa sjukdomförloppet. Syftet med denna studie är att belysa upplevelsen att leva med ALS.  Därför gjordes en litteraturstudie ur ett vårdvetenskapligt perspektiv, utifrån nio forskningsartiklar. Sökningar har gjorts i databaserna Cinahl, PubMed och Medline.I analysen framkom två teman: Förändrad livsvärld och Välbefinnande. Under Förändrad  livsvärd  framkommer  tre  underteman:  Lidande,  Skuld  och  skam  samt Vården av en anhörig. Under Välbefinnande hittades två underteman: Finna mening i livet och Konsten att leva i nuet. Studien visar att ALS skapar mycket lidande och existentiella funderingar både för patient och anhöriga. Den visar också att det är de anhöriga som står för den mesta vården och tar ett stort ansvar för patienten. Mitt i allt lidande kan man trots allt finna glädje och välbefinnande, vilket familj och vänner bidrar till.

This dissertation examined the relationship between attachment insecurity and complicated grief by testing a path model of variables that were hypothesized to mediate this relationship. Three meaning-making variables were tested as potential mediators: benefit-finding, sense-making, and positive reappraisal. First, a series of principal components analyses were performed to determine the factor structure of these meaning-making variables. After these constructs were identified, a series of hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to determine the unique contribution of each of the primary variables in predicting either complicated grief or one of the meaning-making variables. As hypothesized, some of the attachment and meaning-making variables were highly associated with complicated grief. Attachment insecurity variables were also associated with some of the meaning-making variables suggesting that attachment may have some influence on how individuals use meaning-making strategies in the midst of a loss. These variables were then entered into a path analysis that accounted for other relevant risk factors. It was found that, contrary to the main hypothesis, the meaning-making variables did not appear to mediate the relationship between attachment insecurity and complicated grief. Multiple regression was used to determine the relative impact of meaning-making and attachment variables on complicated grief because these variables have not been previously included in one statistical model. The results suggested that both meaning-making and attachment insecurity variables can play an important role as risk factors for complicated grief and that these relationships are still present after accounting for the closeness that an individual reported towards the deceased. It was concluded that both sets of variables, attachment and meaning-making, should be included in models of the development of complicated grief and that both may have clinical implications in terms of how to approach counseling for individuals struggling with complicated grief. More research on this topic is needed to look at similar research questions within specific populations. It was also suggested that in the future, researchers need to find better ways to measure meaning-making constructs because the current findings suggest that meaning-making may be even more multifaceted than has been suggested in previous literature. / text

Pragmatic Conceptual Analysis is a proposed methodology for attributing correct application conditions, or 'meanings', to concepts. This methodology involves two stages: first, we seek an empirical understanding of the ways in which usage of a given concept has regularly delivered benefits, and, second, we seek an explication of that concept which is optimally capable of delivering benefits in these ways. Such an explication captures the 'pragmatic meaning' of a given concept. Chapters 1-3 articulate Pragmatic Conceptual Analysis and the notion of pragmatic meaning, and show how these are related to other philosophical methodologies and accounts of concept-meaning.Chapter 4 uses a 'bootstrapping argument' to establish that Pragmatic Conceptual Analysis has two important virtues. The first phase of this argument establishes that Pragmatic Conceptual Analysis has normative authority - it reveals explications that we have practical and epistemic reason to adopt, whether we take these explications to be semantically revisionary or not. This normative authority licenses using Pragmatic Conceptual Analysis, in the second phase, to explicate our shared concept of concept-meaning. This yields the conclusion that we have epistemic reason to adopt the notion of pragmatic meaning as our explication of 'concept-meaning'. Having explicated our concept in this way, we see that Pragmatic Conceptual Analysis also has descriptive authority - it is a semantically conservative tool that reveals concept-meaning, thus explicated.The initial presentation of the bootstrapping argument considers only one sort of work that our concept of concept-meaning does - helping to guide our application of other concepts. But this concept also regularly delivers benefits in a second way - by helping us to give good explanations for the behavior and behavioral success of various concept-users. Chapter 5 uses the normative authority of Pragmatic Conceptual Analysis to justify a particular account of how good explanations work. Chapter 6 draws upon this account to argue that, in order best to explain people's behavioral successes, we need an explication of concept-meaning that is closely related to the one presented in Chapter 4.Chapter 7 considers several objections and hard cases, and argues that Pragmatic Conceptual Analysis weathers these storms in good shape.

It is a terrible shock to parents when they hear from a medical specialist that their child is not normal like other children, bUt retarded. Such parents are traumatized to the same extent as other parents may be when they lose a child to death. They go through the same phases of shock, denial, anger and mourning. A complicating factor is that these parents cannot recover from this loss as they are reminded of this sorrowful fact on a daily basis and to an increasingly difficult level. The aim of this investigation is firstly to determine the effect that severely retarded child has on the functioning of the family. Secondly, to determine what the needs of such a family are in respect of pastoral care; and finally, to provide guidelines for the care of a family with a severely retarded child. This research Is based on the practical-theological model of Zerfass and comprises: • A basis-theory that reveals Biblical perspectives that have been researched about the topic; • A meta-theoretical assessment based on the literature survey (also in related fields), as well as empirical research. The empirical study Is based on a number of interviews that were undertaken with families who have severely retarded children; • Theory for application that proposes guidelines for the pastoral care of the family with a severely retarded child in their care. The research resuits reveal lacunas that exist in available literature in respect of pastoral care for families with a severely retarded child. It is also clear from the resuits of the empirical research that ignorance about this type of pastoral care is common. The conclusion of this research is that these families who have severely retarded children do not enjoy the benefit of proper pastoral care. This happens because both pastoral care-givers as well as members of the parish underestimate the influence that such a child has on the family. The research results could assist in educating people who are, to a large extent, Ignorant in this regard; as wen as equipping pastoral care-givers with guidelines to care for families with severely retarded children. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Practical Theology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

This research explores the meaning that older persons ascribe to the friendships in which they engage. Previous research mostly focuses on the strain that the older population places on the self-reliant community. The older person is faced by many challenges, such as sickness, loss of social and emotional support and death. Friendships serve as a support for physical and emotional needs which could not always be addressed by the family. The aim of this research is to explore the type of friendships in which older persons prefer to engage and the meanings they assign to it. A qualitative study was identified as the most appropriate method and focus groups and personal interviews were used as methods of data collection. Data was analysed by means of thematic content analysis. Findings indicated that different types of friendships exist and that different meanings were attached to friendships. Meaning in friendships is promoted by trustworthy friends who are able to form a deepened level of connection through the support and the compassion they are able to give each other. The experience of connection in friendships is furthermore enhanced through mobility, proximity and technology that facilitate better emotional as well as physical support for the older individual. Informal friendships with younger people ensure that older people are more mobile and are able to maintain their friendships. It is also a great source of support in cases where family members are not able to provide support, due to whatever reason. Further exploration of the value of friendships is recommended, so as to plan more specific intervention strategies. Some insights have already been gathered in this study concerning the way in which mobility, proximity and modern technology can make it possible to sustain a friendship. Further studies could explore ways to empower older people through providing better mobility, proximity and the use of modem technology. Such studies may also explore the needs which an old age home fulfils, such as improving the residents' access to one another, for mutual support. Proximity might be a solution for the immobility experienced in the older community, and when older people are taught to use modern technology they will be enabled to maintain their friendships better. / Thesis (M.A. (Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

This thesis is an exploration of the symbolic dimensions of activism in the SOA Watch movement, which seeks to close the School of the Americas (SOA), a U.S. training facility for Latin American military and police. Through historical analysis, participant observation, and ethnographic interviews with activists, I examine the practices of activism in the SOA Watch movement and the systems of meaning that inform them. As activists in the movement engage a system of power they seek to change, they construct and locate this system in space and time. By inserting themselves into the history and geography of the SOA through practices of resistance, activists construct and enact their own agency.

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The aim of this paper was to examine how grief affects the physical, social, psychological and spiritual dimensions according to Van Deurzen’s existential psychology theory, and how grief is handled according to Parks’ meaning-system theory. The human being is controlled, according to Van Deurzen, by physical, psychological, social and spiritual forces, also called dimensions. These forces are challenged when we experience a crisis. The search for meaning is important to humanbeings according to Park. Religion can offer a meaning-system that helps people manage crisis. The empirical study involved a qualitative approach with a primarily theory-driven analysis. Eight semistructured interviews were conducted with mourners that had lost their spouses and had attended a grief group organized by the local parish. The results showed that grief affected the respondents’ different aforementioned dimensions in different ways. Not all respondents’ dimensions were affected by grief. In some cases there was no change. The results showed above all that many respondents’ developed the social dimension despite the loneliness they felt after their spouse’s death. The results indicated that several respondents’ used religion as a meaning-system, and for others ‘the feeling of being needed’ was also of importance as a meaning-system. Several respondents expressed the significance of attending the local parish grief group as providing a positive impact on how they were able to cope with their grief. Suggestions for future research are provided.

The purpose of this essay is to examine how to clarify and emphasize the relationship between emotions and meaning. I have explored how to make an adequate conceptualization of the role of emotions in the experience of existential meaning. To do that I have used a theory of emotion by Martha Nussbaum and an phenomenological theory of meaning by Martin Holmberg. To form an adequate conceptualization I have raised four analytical questions to the choosen material and I have also analyzed the material based to embrace the theories. The theories are the basis for the essay. The four questions I have chosen is; (1) What is emotion and meaning?, (2) What are the conditions for meaning and emotions?, (3) When do emotions arise that are involved in creating meaning and why?, (4) What role can religious emotions play?  Based on the questions and the theories I have come up with a model I consider to be adequate for the role of emotions in the experience of meaning.

Making sense of anguish is an important process leading to personal growth, development, and overall meaning making. Today's quarterlife students (students between the ages of 20-25) may face a variety of traumatic life events that influence how they grow as individuals and are able to move forward from these experiences. I examine several topics that many quarterlife students experience during these challenging years. As a gay identified individual, I examine aspects of `coming out' and the reluctance of blooming into the individual that I wanted to be. I examine the impact of resenting those individuals who may have hurt you and the ultimate growth that results from the pursuit of forgiveness. I then examine the importance of not sacrificing who you are within romantic relationships, and how being in abusive relationships can inhibit one's ability to be happy. Lastly, I close with how despite all of the traumatic experiences one must overcome, we all have the ability to be happy and construct positive meaning from such times of anguish. Written within a scholarly personal narrative methodology, my thesis examines several generational life events that have the potential to cause anguish, and how one can harness personal growth and meaning making from traumatic past experiences.