Objetivos: Definir o perfil sociodemográfico e a saúde mental em médiuns espíritas,bem como a fenomenologia e o histórico de suas experiências mediúnicas. Métodos: 115 médiuns em atividade foram selecionados aleatoriamente de centros espíritas de São Paulo. Numa primeira etapa foram aplicados os questionários: sociodemográfico e de atividade mediúnica, SRQ (Self-Report Psychiatric Screening Questionnaire) e EAS (Escala de Adequação Social). Todos os médiuns com provável psicopatologia pelo SRQ (n=12) e o mesmo número de controles foram entrevistados com base no DDIS (Dissociative Disorders Interview Schedule), SCAN (Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry) e através de uma entrevista qualitativa. Resultados: 76,5% da amostra eram mulheres, idade média 48,1 ± 10,7 anos, 2,7% de desemprego e 46,5% de escolaridade superior. Eram espíritas, em média, há 16,2 ± 12,7 anos e possuíam uma média de 3,5 tipos de mediunidade (incorporação 72%; psicofonia 66%; vidência 63%; audiência 32%; psicografia 23%). Cada modalidade mediúnica era exercitada entre 7 a 14 vezes por semana em média, não havendo diferença entre os sexos. 7,8% dos médiuns ficaram acima do ponto de corte para transtorno psiquiátrico menor pelo SRQ e a amostra alcançou uma pontuação de 1,85 ± 0,33 na EAS. Houve correlação significativa entre os escores de adequação social e de sintomas psiquiátricos pelo SRQ (r= 0,38 p<0,001). Não houve correlação entre a intensidade de atividade mediúnica e os escores SRQ e adequação social. Os médiuns diferiam das características de portadores de transtornos de identidade dissociativa e possuíam uma alta média (4) de sintomas Schneiderianos de primeira ordem para esquizofrenia, mas estes não se relacionaram aos escores do SRQ ou do EAS. Foram identificados quatro grupos de relatos de surgimento da mediunidade: sintomas isolados na infância ou na vida adulta, quadros de oscilação do humor e durante o curso de médiuns. A psicofonia/incorporação possui como pródromos uma sensação de presença, sintomas físicos diversos e sentimentos e sensações não reconhecidos como próprios do indivíduo. Posteriormente, é sentida uma pressão na garganta e mecanicamente começa-se a verbalizar um discurso não planejado. Aintuição foi caracterizada pelo surgimento de pensamentos ou imagens não reconhecidos como próprios. A audição e a vidência se caracterizaram pela percepção de imagens ou vozes no espaço psíquico interno ou objetivo externo. A psicofonia só ocorria no centro espírita, as demais modalidades mediúnicas ocorriam tanto dentro como fora dos centros espíritas Conclusões: Os médiuns estudados evidenciaram alto nível socioeducacional, baixa prevalência de transtornos psiquiátricos menores e razoável adequação social. A mediunidade provavelmente se constitui numa vivência diferente do transtorno de identidade dissociativa. A maioria teve o início de suas manifestações mediúnicas na infância, e estas, atualmente, se caracterizam por vivências de influência ou alucinatórias, que não necessariamente implicam num diagnóstico de esquizofrenia.¶ / Objectives: This study describes the social-demographic profile and psychopathology of Spiritist mediums, history and phenomenology of their mediumistic experiences. Methods: One hundred fifteen actively practicing medium subjects (27 male and 88 female) were randomly selected from different Kardecist Spiritist Centers in the City of Sao Paulo, Brazil. In the early phase of the study, all participants completed social-demographic and mediumistic activity questionnaires, SRQ (Self-Report Psychiatric Screening Questionnaire) and SAS (Social Adjustment Scale). All medium subjects (n = 12) identified by the SRQ with probable psychopathology, and a control group (12 healthy subjects) were submitted to interview using: the DDIS(Dissociative Disorders Interview Schedule), SCAN (Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry), and a qualitative interview. Results: Females were 76.5% of the sample, sample mean age was 48.1 ± 10.7 years; 2.7% of the subjects were currently unemployed; and 46% of the sample had a college degree. Participants indicated being Spiritist for an average of 16.2 ±12.7 years, having a mean of 3.5 different types of mediumistic abilities (receiving/embodiment of an spiritual entity 72%; seeing 63%; hearing 32%; and automatic writing 23%). Each mediumistic modality was carried out an average of 7 to 14 times a week with no gender difference; 7.8% of the medium subjects exhibited a minor psychiatric disorder according to the SRQ, and the entire sample scored 1.85 ± 0,33 points in the SAS. There was a significant correlation between social adjustment scores and SRQ psychiatric symptoms (r= 0,38 p<0,001). There was no significant correlation between the degree of mediumistic activity and either SRQ or SAS scores. Medium subjects differed from dissociative identity disorders subjects and displayed 4 Schneiderian first rank symptoms for schizophrenia that were unrelated to either the SRQ or SAS scores. Four distinct modes of emergence of mediumistic symptoms were recorded: isolated symptoms during childhood, isolated symptoms during adulthood, spontaneous mood fluctuations, and formal courses in mediumistic ability development. A full mediumistic trance process begins with: sensing another presence, experiencing a variety of physical symptoms and feelings, and experiencing vibratory frequencies which subjects attributed to an external source, or spiritual entity. Subsequently, subjects begin to feel pressure in the area of the throat and an unplanned speech is mechanically voiced. Intuition is characterized by the emergence of thoughts and/or images not recognized by the subjects as their own. Hearing and seeing are characterized as the awareness of images and voices within the internal psychic space or as an external object. Full mediumistic trance was recorded exclusively within the Spiritist Centers however all other mediumistic experiences were recorded both inside and outside these centers. Conclusions: The medium subjects included in this analysis displayed evidences of having a high social-educational level, a low prevalence rate of minor psychiatric symptoms and a sound level of social adjustment. Mediumistic trance is very possibly an experience other than a Dissociative Identity Disorder. The majority of the subjects experienced the onset of mediumistic experiences during childhood, and the mediumistic process was characterized by experiences of replacement of the ego mind, or visual and/or auditory hallucinations not necessarily related to a definite diagnosis of schizophrenia.

O presente estudo teve como objetivo avaliar se as mães de crianças com cardiopatia congênita utilizam a espiritualidade/religiosidade como estratégia de enfrentamento e se utilizam de forma negativa ou positiva. Também avaliou a qualidade de vida destas mães e suas associações com as estratégias de enfrentamento além das variáveis: idade, estado civil, profissão, primeira cirurgia e já ter realizado outras cirurgias, tempo de internação, conhecimento sobre a data da cirurgia e grau de escolaridade. Foi aplicado um questionário semi estruturado com o objetivo de obter dados referentes à religiosidade/espiritualidade, o instrumento que avalia a qualidade de vida WHOQOL-bref (World Health Organization Quality of Life - versão abreviada) e o instrumento CRE (Coping Religioso Espiritual) que avalia aspectos relacionados à: religiosidade/espiritualidade. A amostra foi composta por 48 mães de crianças portadoras de cardiopatia congênita que encontravam-se internadas aguardando procedimento cirúrgico. O presente estudo demonstrou através dos achados descritos que ser mãe de uma criança portadora de doença crônica, assim como a cardiopatia congênita, é um fato estressante devido às freqüentes internações, mudança na rotina, ansiedade com a cirurgia, medo da perda, entre outros. Estas mães diante desses eventos utilizam estratégias religiosas positivas e que estas estão correlacionadas com qualidade de vida / The present study aimed to evaluate whether mothers of children with congenital heart disease use spirituality or religiosity as a coping strategy and are used negatively or positively. We also evaluated the quality of life of these mothers and their associated coping strategies besides their variables: age, marital status, occupation, first surgery and other surgeries that were already performed, length of stay, knowledge of the date of surgery and schooling . We applied a semi-structured questionnaire in order to obtain data on religiosity or spirituality, the instrument that assesses the quality of life WHOQOL- BREF (World Health Organization Quality of Life - short version) and the instrument CRE (Religious Coping Spiritual) which evaluates aspects related to: religiosity or spirituality. The sample consisted of 48 mothers of children with congenital heart disease who were hospitalized awaiting surgery. The present study demonstrated by the findings reported to be a mother of a child with chronic illness, as well as congenital heart disease, it is a stressful fact due to frequent hospitalizations, change in routine, anxiety with surgery, fear of loss, among others. These mothers before these strategies use positive religious events and these are correlated with the quality of life

O presente estudo teve como objetivo avaliar se as mães de crianças com cardiopatia congênita utilizam a espiritualidade/religiosidade como estratégia de enfrentamento e se utilizam de forma negativa ou positiva. Também avaliou a qualidade de vida destas mães e suas associações com as estratégias de enfrentamento além das variáveis: idade, estado civil, profissão, primeira cirurgia e já ter realizado outras cirurgias, tempo de internação, conhecimento sobre a data da cirurgia e grau de escolaridade. Foi aplicado um questionário semi estruturado com o objetivo de obter dados referentes à religiosidade/espiritualidade, o instrumento que avalia a qualidade de vida WHOQOL-bref (World Health Organization Quality of Life - versão abreviada) e o instrumento CRE (Coping Religioso Espiritual) que avalia aspectos relacionados à: religiosidade/espiritualidade. A amostra foi composta por 48 mães de crianças portadoras de cardiopatia congênita que encontravam-se internadas aguardando procedimento cirúrgico. O presente estudo demonstrou através dos achados descritos que ser mãe de uma criança portadora de doença crônica, assim como a cardiopatia congênita, é um fato estressante devido às freqüentes internações, mudança na rotina, ansiedade com a cirurgia, medo da perda, entre outros. Estas mães diante desses eventos utilizam estratégias religiosas positivas e que estas estão correlacionadas com qualidade de vida / The present study aimed to evaluate whether mothers of children with congenital heart disease use spirituality or religiosity as a coping strategy and are used negatively or positively. We also evaluated the quality of life of these mothers and their associated coping strategies besides their variables: age, marital status, occupation, first surgery and other surgeries that were already performed, length of stay, knowledge of the date of surgery and schooling . We applied a semi-structured questionnaire in order to obtain data on religiosity or spirituality, the instrument that assesses the quality of life WHOQOL- BREF (World Health Organization Quality of Life - short version) and the instrument CRE (Religious Coping Spiritual) which evaluates aspects related to: religiosity or spirituality. The sample consisted of 48 mothers of children with congenital heart disease who were hospitalized awaiting surgery. The present study demonstrated by the findings reported to be a mother of a child with chronic illness, as well as congenital heart disease, it is a stressful fact due to frequent hospitalizations, change in routine, anxiety with surgery, fear of loss, among others. These mothers before these strategies use positive religious events and these are correlated with the quality of life

Ho-Yee Ng. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 597-642). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Joseph Butler's moral thought and the ethical rationalism of Samuel Clarke, and his followers, John Balguy and Richard Price, are frequently distinguished, as a result of: (a) Butler’s empirical method (e.g., Kydd, Sturgeon); (b) Butler's emphasis upon self-love in the 'cool hour passage' (e.g., Prichard, McPherson); (c) Butlerian conscience, where, on a neo-Kantian reading, Butler surpassed the Clarkeans by conveying a sense of Kantian 'reflective endorsement' (e.g., Korsgaard, Darwall). The neo-Kantian criticisms of the Clarkeans in (c) are consistent with (d) Francis Hutcheson's and David Hume's criticisms of the Clarkeans; (e) modern criticisms of rational intuitionism that follow Hutcheson and Hume (e.g., Mackie, Warnock); and (f) the contention that the Clarkeans occupied an uneasy position within 'post-restoration natural law theory' (e.g., Beiser, Finnis). (d)-(e) thus underpin the distinction between Butler and the Clarkeans in (a)-(c), where the Clarkeans, unlike Butler, are criticised for representing moral truth as the passive, and self-evident, perception of potentially uninteresting facts. This study responds to (a)-(f), by arguing that Butlerian and Clarkean conscience possessed more than one referent; so that conscience meant an individual's experience of his own judgement and God’s judgement and the rational moral order. As a result of their shared theory of conscience, Butler and the Clarkeans held the same theory of moral development: moral agents mature as they move from obeying conscience according to only one of conscience's referents, to obeying conscience because to do so is to satisfy each of conscience's referents. In response to (a)-(b), this study demonstrates that the Clarkeans agreed with Butler’s method and 'cool hour': natural considerations of individual judgement and self-interest were necessary aspects of the progress towards moral maturity in both Butler and the Clarkeans. With respect to (c), it is argued that Butler and the Clarkeans shared the same understanding of practical moral reasoning as part of their shared understanding of conscience and moral development. This study places limits upon proto-Kantian readings of Butler, and neo-Kantian criticisms of the Clarkeans, while making it inconsistent to divide Butler and the Clarkeans on the basis of Butlerian conscience. In answer to (c)-(f), Clarkean conscience shows that the Clarkeans were neither complacent nor ‘externalists’. Clarkean conscience highlights how the Clarkeans positioned themselves within the tradition of Ciceronian right reason and Thomistic natural law. Consequently, in both Butler and the Clarkeans, the intuition of moral truth was not the passive perception of an 'independent realm' of normative fact, but the active encounter, in conscience, with reason qua the law of God’s nature, human nature, and the created universe.

Social theorists have long argued that literacy is one of the principal causes and hallmark features of complex society. However, the relationship between literacy and social complexity remains poorly understood because the relevant data have not been assembled in a way that would allow competing hypotheses to be adjudicated. The project set out in this thesis provides a novel account of the multiple origins of literate behaviour around the globe, the principal mechanisms of its cultural transmission, and its relationship with the cultural evolution of large-group human cooperation and complex forms of socio-political organisation. A multi-method large-scale cross-cultural approach provided the data necessary to achieve these objectives. Evidence from the societies within which literate behaviour first emerged, and from a representative sample of ethnographically-attested societies worldwide (n=74), indicates that literate behaviour emerged through the routinization of rituals and pre-literate sign systems, eventually spreading more widely through classical religions. Cross-cultural evidence also suggests that literacy assumed a wide variety of forms and socio-political functions, particularly in large, complex groups, extending evolved psychological mechanisms for cooperation, which include reciprocity, reputation formation and maintenance systems, social norms and norm enforcement systems, and group identification. Finally, the results of a cross-cultural historical survey of first-generation states (n=10) reveal that simple models assuming single cause-and-effect relationships between literacy and complex forms of socio-political organisation must be rejected. Instead, literacy and first-generation state-level polities appear to have interacted in a complex positive feedback loop. This thesis contributes to the wider goal of transforming social and cultural anthropology into a cumulative and rapid-discovery science.