Chez Augustin et chez Sartre, l’homme se confronte au trouble tout au long de son existence. Cette existence est un processus de réalisation pratique fondé sur la liberté de ses actions dans le monde. Toutefois, en l’absence de compréhension de ce que cette existence pourrait être, perdu, ignorant et isolé, il recherche le sens à lui donner. Son expérience initiale du trouble le mène à comprendre qu’il peut intentionnaliser un devenir, c’est-à-dire affirmer par ses actes une vérité qui lui est révélée par son expérience, que cette vérité soit immuable (Augustin) ou relative(Sartre). C’est en se confrontant activement à l’hostilité du monde dont il est partie que l’homme peut alors façonner son devenir. Contraint néanmoins dans son élan parles conditions du monde qui s’exercent à son encontre, il prend conscience de la limitation de sa liberté et de la nécessité de la transformer afin de la réaliser pleinement. Il comprend alors que la socialité, qui conditionne et trouble l’homme tout au long de son existence, peut et doit être utilisée afin de faire émerger sa liberté conjointement avec celle des autres, et que des liens forts peuvent être créés.L’affirmation collective d’une vérité constituante du groupe fonde alors le processus politique, aboutissement de l’existence. Cet épanouissement est pourtant lui aussi porteur de trouble, au sein du groupe comme entre les groupes. L’homme, singulier comme collectif, doit alors défendre sa liberté en projetant sa vérité avec abnégation vers une universalité historique (Sartre) ou eschatologique (Augustin). / In Augustine and Sartre, the man is confrontated to the trouble all his existencelong. This existence is a practical realization process based on the liberty of hisactions in the world. Nonetheless, missing the understanding of what this existencemight be, lost, ignorant and isolated, he looks for the meaning to give to hisexistence. His initial experience of trouble leads him to understand that he can decidethe direction of his becoming through his intentionality, which means to affirm byhis actions a truth revealed by his experience, whether this truth is immutable(Augustine) or relative (Sartre). It is by confrontating himself to the hostility of thisworld he is a part of that the man can therefore shape his becoming. Constrainedhowever in his impetus by the world’s conditions against him, he realizes thelimitation of his liberty and the necessity to transform it in order to realize it totally.He thus understands that sociality, which preconditions and trouble the man all alonghis existence, can and should be used to bring his liberty out, together with the one ofthe others, and that strong ties can be establish. The collective affirmation of aconstituting truth found therefore the political process, outcome of the existence.This fulfillment is however also carrying troubles, inside the group as between thegroups. The singular as collective man should therefore defend his liberty byprojecting his truth with abnegation toward a historical (Sartre) oreschatological (Augustine) universality.

Although response effort is considered a dimension of the cost to obtain reinforcement, little research has examined the economic impact of effort on demand for food. The goal of the present study was to explore the relationship between effort and demand. Three Sprague Dawley rats were trained to press a force transducer under a series of fixed-ratio schedules (1, 10, 18, 32, 56, 100, 180, 320, and 560) under different force requirements (5.6 g and 56 g). Thus, nominal unit price (responses / food) remained constant while minimal response force requirements varied. Using a force transducer allowed the measurement of responses failing to meet the minimal force requirement (i.e. “subcriterion responses”), an advantage over prior approaches using weighted levers to manipulate effort. Consistent with prior research, increasing the unit price decreased food consumption, and raising minimum force requirements further reduced demand for food. Additionally, increasing the force requirement produced subcriterion responses. Analysis indicated that subcriterion responses did not create incidental changes in unit price. Obtained force data revealed that including obtained forces in unit price calculations provided better predictions of consumption when compared to using criterion force requirements.

Religion is a known contributor to suicide risk, with both positive and negative effects. Negative religious experiences, such as spiritual struggle, can exacerbate suicide risk. Alternatively, religion may promote positive psychological characteristics associated with reduced suicide risk, such as forgiveness, gratitude, and humility. However, research has yet to assess how religious changes, including conversion and deconversion, affect the linkage between religious risk and protective factors and suicidal behavior. We conducted three studies assessing these associations across four belief status groups: life-long religious believers, former religious non-believers who now believe, life-long religious non-believers, and former religious believers who no longer believe. Participants recruited online completed the Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire – Revised, the Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale, the Heartland Forgiveness Scale, the Gratitude Questionnaire, and the Comprehensive Intellectual Humility Scale. In our first study, we assessed differences in mean levels of spiritual struggle, forgiveness, humility, and gratitude, across each group. In our second study, we assessed the association between forgiveness, gratitude, humility, spiritual struggle and suicide risk, and differences in these relations across each group. In our final study, we assessed the potential moderating effect of forgiveness, gratitude, and humility on the relation between spiritual struggle and suicide risk, and differences in these moderating effects for each group. Our results indicate that some positive psychological virtues, and their impact on suicide risk may differ based on religious belief status. Similarly, our results suggest that while spiritual struggles are associated with suicide risk regardless of religious belief status, positive psychological variables (i.e., forgiveness, gratitude, humility) may mitigate suicide risk differently based on one’s religious belief status. Changes in, or the maintenance of, one’s religious beliefs may be an important consideration in the development of positive psychological interventions (e.g., forgiveness therapy, gratitude diary) aimed at ameliorating suicide risk in the context of spiritual struggle. Additionally, religiously oriented psychotherapies (e.g., RI-CBT) may be an important therapeutic intervention for individuals at high risk for suicide experiencing spiritually related distress.

Although a great deal has been written over the past two decades on the armed struggle in South Africa and the role that the African National congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party (SACP)have played in it, virtually nothing of academic value has been written on the main vehicle of the struggle, namely Umkhonto we Sizwe or 'MK' as it is more commonly known. Besides the research undertaken by Edward Feit in the 1960's and the account left to us by Bruno Mtolo on the formation and activities of Umkhonto in Natal prior to the Rivonia events, most of the material that has been written on the subject of Umkhonto makes no meaningful contribution to the history and activities of the organisation. As a result a serious vacuum has been left in the history of the liberation movement but particularly the armed struggle in South Africa. There was therefore an urgent need for a systematic and detailed study of Umkhonto and the specific role it played in the liberation struggle since 1961. Identifying the need for this study vas however the easy part. Writing it on the other hand presented numerous complex problems, part of which was brought about by the lack of suitable source material, and the fact that the organisation vas proscribed by law. The problem was further compounded by the fact that although Umkhonto was created to be independent (initially at least) of the ANC and to fulfill a function that the ANC could not do in the 1960's, the two organisations became so closely associated with one another and with the SACP that most of the time it is very difficult if not nearly impossible, to always draw a clear distinction between the three of them. Of course the problem has not been made easier by the Press which, for the sake of simplicity and expediency, have chosen to equate the ANC and Umkhonto with one another. Virtually none of the newspapers which have reported on the armed struggle over the years have taken the trouble to draw any meaningful distinction between the organisation and activities of the ANC on the one hand and Umkhonto on the other. While it is true that the two organisations have very close ties and there is a strong degree of overlapping between both members and leaders, this research will show that the two organisations are nonetheless different from one another and have organisational structures and functions that support this. The main difference between the two organisations has always been the fact that while Umkhonto was specifically created as the military component of the ANC-SACP alliance, the ANC on the other hand has remained the main political instrument of the liberation movement. As such, members of the ANC were not supposed to undertake any direct military missions against apartheid targets in South Africa. At best they fulfilled a supportive role such as the distribution of propaganda, the provision of transport, the supply of weapons and the creation of weapons caches etc., to support Umkhonto's cadres in the field. The members of the ANC thus concerned themselves primarily with political and diplomatic work in the armed struggle. By the middle of the 1980's however, the relationship between the ANC and Umkhonto began to change when the political and military functions of the two organisations were brought together under the control of the newly created political-military-council (PMC)following the collapse of the ANC and Umkhonto's organizational structures in the frontline states of Mozambique and Swaziland, as a result of the South African government's persistant counter-insurgency operations. The new organisational structure that was set up by the beginning of 1983 to replace the defunct Regional Command and was sanctioned by the ANC and the SACP and accepted at the former's National Consultative Conference at Kabwe, Zambia, in 1985. This new direction in the armed struggle was further reflected in the decision to introduce compulsory military training for all members of the combined liberation movement. In theory thus, after 1985, all members of the ANC and the SACP were subjected to military training in Umkhonto's training camps in Angola and elsewhere. This move further helped to blur the lines between the ANC, the SACP and Umkhonto. Much of this will become clear in the course of this thesis. Where possible, interpretations will be attached to the facts to highlight certain developments in the armed struggle. Unfortunately, the facts pertaining to Umkhonto is not always volumous or conclusive enough to make statements that will withstand the test of time. The aim of this study is to examine the history of Umkhonto from its origins in 1961 to the end of 1988 when as a result of the New York Accord between South Africa, Cuba and Angola the ANC and Umkhonto were forced to remove all their military bases and personnel from Angola with immediate effect. Although this particular move severely crippled the ability of Umkhonto to continue with its armed struggle it vas not the only factor influencing its performance and status by the end of 1988. A host of other factors such as poor organisation, weak leadership, dissention, dissatisfaction with the role of the SACP in the liberation movement, and lack of sufficient funds among others also contributed to its weakened position by the end of the 1980's. These and other factors effecting the position and performance of Umkhonto are extensively dealt with in the second half of this study. Although increased cooperation between the military and political segments of the liberation movement became an important element in the armed struggle after 1985, the leadership of the ANC, the SACP and Umkhonto were not always in agreement on important issues. This became increasingly apparent towards the end of the 1980's when the combined effect of the South African government's counter-insurgency operations and the changes that were taking place in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe were beginning to have a direct affect on the position and future of the liberation alliance led by the ANC and the SACP. Although the ANC, like most political organisations, always had a fair share of dissention in its ranks the formation of Umkhonto in 1961, the destruction of the organisation's underground structures inside South Africa by the mid-1960'S and the growing hegemony of the SACP over both the ANC and Umkhonto's leadership since, have produced some serious dissention in the ranks of the liberation movement. The first came in 1975 with the expulsion of the African National Congress African nationalist faction from the ranks of the ANC. The second came with the isolation of the Okhela organisation which was reported to have been a predominantly white anti-communist organisation inside the ANC. The third attack was on the leadership of the liberation movement was averted with the expulsion of the dissident Marxist group known as the “Marxist Tendency within the ANC” in the early 1980's. Although the ANC and the SACP have always denied that the influence of these attacks on its combined leadership were in anyway serious, this study has shown that these developments in association with other developments had indeed a deep effect on the effectiveness of Umkhonto and the outcome of the armed struggle. The latter is particularly evident in the decision by Chris Hani, who was Chief of Staff of Umkhonto and his protégé, Steve Tshwete, to challenge the ANC's National Executive committee in 1981 to allow them to execute the decision taken at the Kabwe conference to extend Umkhonto's attacks to include white civilian targets inside South Africa. Although the ANC had accepted such action in principle at its Kabwe conference in 1985, it remained reluctant to fully implement it out of fear that such action could tarnish its image internationally and loose its much needed international support, particularly among the nations and people of Western Europe. Such considerations seemingly did not carry much support with Marxist radicals and militants such as Hani and others who preferred a military to a political or negotiated settlement in South Africa. With the support of the central Committee of the SACP (or rather. key elements of it) behind them, Hani and Tshwete issued a directive to all Umkhonto commanders in 1987 to extent their attacks to white civilian targets. The fact that the ANC did nothing to stop the directive or to counter Hani's actions is clear indication of the position that the military hardliners had come to occupy in the ANC-SACP alliance and Umkhonto by the latter part of the 1980's. Unfortunately for Hani and his followers, the signing of the New York Accord at the end of 1988 came as a severe setback to their plans and left them with a cause that was becoming increasingly difficult to execute successfully. This research will show that as a result of these developments and the changes that were taking place in the Soviet Union particularly with regards to Soviet Third World policy, the military hardliners in the ANC-SACP alliance and Umkhonto were increasingly forced to take a backseat to the views and activities of more moderate leaders such as Thabo Mbeki, who was the ANC's Chief of Foreign Affairs. In view of the above this study will show that the SACP since the early 1970'S has taken steadily control of the ANC and the liberation struggle in South Africa and that by the end of the 1980'S Umkhonto was more a fief of the SACP and its Central Committee than of the ANC and its National Executive Committee, which had a clear majority of communist members by 1988. Although some major developments have taken place since the signing of the New York Accord in December 1988, such as the unbanning of the ANC, the SACP and Umkhonto and the release of many political prisoners, these events and developments falls outside the scope of this study and are dealt with in the postscript. / Thesis (DPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Historical and Heritage Studies / unrestricted

In this study I investigate how and to what extent socio-economic rights litigation can be used as a pragmatic strategy in the struggle for social justice in South Africa. In response to arguments that litigation lacks potential to change the socio-economic conditions that poor people often contest, I examine its potential to create social transformation. My analysis is premised on the fact that the constitutional project promises to construct South African society among others on the pillar of social justice, where the potential of every individual to enjoy improved quality of life is guaranteed. However, I illustrate how apartheid legacy and the neo-liberal politics of the post-apartheid government have conspired to keep the poor in perpetual deprivation. While much has been achieved in terms of the provision of basic services, millions of South Africans continue to battle with escalating poverty, deprivation and inequalities in resource redistribution. Consequently, a number of academic commentaries on the post-apartheid experience have expressed uncertainty that the constitutional experiment will result in improve livelihood. In interrogating this claim I construct a theoretical analysis, from a socio-legal point of view, in which I explain the concept of socio-economic rights litigation. I examine the instrumental role of civil society, including the activism of social movements in converting political demands into legal claims framed in the language of socio-economic rights. I explain how recourse is had to the courts to challenge political conduct, to contest the unconstitutionality of state policies and to demand the fulfillment of political promises with the aim to achieve redistributive justice. In examining the context within which socio-economic rights litigation applies I identify three phases in its trajectory, which include a period of contestation, a first decade and a second decade of litigation. These phases illustrate significant trends that have developed in socio-economic rights litigation over the years. Thus I argue that socio-economic rights litigation has potential to engineer social transformation but that potential has not adequately been explored. Given the magnitude of socio-economic challenges that need to be redressed, I further argue that socio-economic rights litigation needs to be developed as a pragmatic strategy in the struggle to achieve social justice. To substantiate this argument I analyse the decisions of the Constitutional Court in Mazibuko, Modderklip, Abahlali baseMjondolo and Schubart Park to illustrate the practical dimensions how and to what extent litigating socio-economic rights has contributed to social transformation. Based on the analysis of the judgments, I identify certain determining and necessitating factors that either cause litigation to happen or facilitate the process. I then further examine some challenges and constraints that inhibit the potential of litigation with the aim to point out flaws that need to be overcome when planning future socio-economic rights litigation. I conclude by looking at prospects for the future of socio-economic rights litigation in driving not only social transformation but also in creating possibilities for the advancement of the law, the further development of jurisprudence on socio-economic rights as a pragmatic strategy in the broader commitment to achieve social justice. I argue that to develop the potential of litigation for social change entails developing a balanced jurisprudence that provides a forum for the prevalence of social justice to ensure that benefits accrue equitably to the poor. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Public Law / unrestricted

The essay Let us be the second body is a written pensive and companion in the process of creating a performance with the same title performed in January 2021 at SKH in Stockholm. It describes the main task of the project which was about realizing interdependencies, in a search for political movement towards a non-violent way of relating with and within the world. In the essay, it is described how this can be imagined like crawling through a compost pile. What you find digesting in the pile are conversations and encounters with strangers on the street such as Blurry-Believes/ Pretend-Poems/ Slippery-Statements, and composed fragments of thoughts from thinkers like Maria Lugones, Judith Butler, Ta-Nehsi Coates, and Michael Ende. Composing those fragments within this essay is forming the sentence: “I cannot be out of violence until the system that I am living in is, even though I am not the target of that violence. The essay is longing to get into the muddy work of investigating the concepts of ‘transformation’ and ‘change’. A work that is meant to be, as the structure of the text, mirrored, messed up and ambiguous.  (And through being honest in that ambiguity the essay regains a response-ability.) Concretely, the essay reflects on how I use this ambiguity as a tool for creating the performance Let us be the second body, in which textile art, scenography, sound design and dancing linger in interdependence with the realm of transformation. I will and I will not change the world with this essay. So, I guess you will and you will not be changed by this essay. / <p>This master work includes both a performing and a written part.</p>

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This dissertation takes Chris Hani beyond the conventionally biographic by thinking through his multiple lives and deaths and engaging with his legacy in ways that cannot be contained by singular, linear narratives. By doing so, I offer alternative routes through which to understand historical change, political struggle and subjectivity, as well as biographical and historical production as a conflicted and contested terrain. I attend to these conflicting narratives not as a means through which to reconcile the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ sides of history, struggle, or the political subject. Nor do I sacrifice either to what Frederick Jameson has referred to as a dialectical impasse: a “conventional opposition, in which one turns out to be more defective than the other”, and through which “only one genuine opposite exists… [therefore sharing] the sorry fate of evil… reduced to mere reflection.”1 Instead I place contested narratives about Hani and the anti-apartheid struggle into conversation with one another, and treat them as “equally integral component[s]”2 of the life and legacy of Hani. This I argue, provides fertile ground through which to rethink the lives and times of Martin Thembisile ‘Chris’ Hani, and the political subject more generally. Through a study that focuses on performance and memorialisation, violence, revolution, and spectrality, this dissertation also engages with a number of issues surrounding Hani’s assassination, the transitional period in southern Africa, justice, armed struggle, and the work of mourning in a postapartheid society. It begins by revealing the contested ways in which Hani’s legacy was produced during the anti-apartheid struggle, and how it was contained and acted out in the immediate aftermath of his assassination. This study then goes on to trace how the postapartheid state’s narrative about the struggle against apartheid, has been challenged and undermined, and how differing modes of narrative emplotment have shaped the ways in which we understand this period. Critically, I argue that the operative and contested qualities of historical production mean that Hani’s revolutionary legacy is always already uncontainable. As such this type of legacy and politics haunts the ANC’s postapartheid project and, to paraphrase Jameson, makes the present waver like a mirage on the landscape of postapartheid South Africa.3 Within this framework I ask if rumour and conspiracy surrounding Hani’s assassination merely represent a yearning for ‘truth’, or if these have become a means through which the nation comes to terms with the violence that remains in the wake of apartheid and colonialism, and to call on activists like Hani to judge and denounce capitalism, state violence, corruption, and exploitation. Rather than attempting to reveal the truth of his assassination and political legacy, I end by asking what possibilities might be opened up when we dwell upon the uncertainty and plurality of Hani’s lives and deaths and take seriously the continued presence of Hani and the spectralities that remain. I do so in order to work against the monumental projects of nationalism and the nation-state, and to keep open our horizon of expectation in the face of what David Scott has called the ‘stalled present’ of postcolonial and postsocialist worlds.4

Bakgrund: Ångest är en av de vanligaste folksjukdomarna i Sverige och står för ca 40% av alla sjukskrivningar. Sjukdomens orsak beror på flera faktorer och drabbar främst kvinnor. Nästan var tredje person som lider av ångest behöver psykiatrisk vård efter 10 år. Ångest riskerar att skapa både fysisk och psykisk skada och har stor effekt på individens sociala liv. Genom studien kan sjuksköterskor ta del av unga vuxnas erfarenheter av att leva med ångest och med hjälp av detta kunna förbättra vården. Syfte: Att belysa unga vuxnas upplevelser av att leva med ångestsjukdom. Metod: Det är en kvalitativ studie som baseras på narrativer tagna ur bloggar. Resultat: Ur analysen framställdes 2 huvudteman: ”Ångestens reglering av vardagen” och ”en ständig inre kamp”. Detta följt av åtta stycken underteman: Att alltid dölja, ständig oro, brist på kontroll, fysiska uttryck, att känna skuld, att känna hopplöshet, känslomässig berg och dalbana och personlighetsförändrad. Konklusion: Unga vuxna som lider av ångest isolerar sig från vänner, bekanta och familj. De tenderar att umdvika sociala sammanhang och en stor del av det vardagliga livet försvinner på grund av begränsningar. För att tillfriskna från ångesten behövs en större kunskap om sjukdomen hos vårdpersonal samt människor i sin omgivning. / Background: Anxiety is one of the most common public diseases in Sweden and accounts for about 40% of all sick leave. The cause of the disease depends on several factors and mainly affects women. Almost every third person suffering from anxiety needs psychiatric care after 10 years. Anxiety risks creating both physical and mental damage and has a great effect on the individual's social life. Through the study, nurses can take part in young adults' experiences of living with anxiety and with the help of this be able to improve care. Aim: To illustrate young adults' experiences of living with anxiety disorder. Method: It is a qualitative study based on narratives taken from blogs. Results: From the analysis, 2 main themes were presented: "The regulation of anxiety in everyday life" and "a constant inner struggle". This was followed by eight sub-themes: To always hide, constant anxiety, lack of control, physical expression, to feel guilt, to feel hopelessness, emotional roller coaster and personality change. Conclusion: Young adults suffering from anxiety isolate themselves from friends and family. They tend to avoid social contexts and a large part of everyday life disappears due to limitations. In order to recover from the anxiety, a greater knowledge of the disease is needed among healthcare professionals and people in their environment.

Agtarap, Wright, Mlynski, Hammad, and Blackledge took an initial step in providing support for the predictive validity of a new conceptual analysis concerned with behavioral restraint, defined as active resistance against a behavioral impulse or urge. The current study was designed to partially replicate and extend findings from their study, employing a common film protocol and a procedure for inducing low- and high levels of fatigue. Analyses on key data indicated that the fatigue manipulation was ineffective. On the other hand, they supported the suggestion that behavioral restraint should be proportional to the strength of an urge being resisted so long as success is perceived as possible and worthwhile. Analyses also provided evidence of gender differences for this behavioral restraint task. Women showed relatively enhanced CV responses to my manipulation of urge magnitude, performed less well, rated the behavioral restraint challenge as harder, and rated success on the more difficult behavioral restraint task as more important. A broad indication is that men and women can differ in the strength of impulses they experience in response to stimulus presentations as well as in the importance they place on resisting the impulses.

The Syrian civil war has been one of the most complex armed confrontations in modern era. In thiscontext, the military participation of Kurdish female fighters of the YPJ Units has received globalmedia coverage. This thesis explores the gendered dimension of media representations of YPJfighters and the representation of the construction of their military identity. Firstly, it asks howBritish media represent their appearance and background, their ability to fight and their motivation.Moreover, it explores how pro-Kurdish media and on-line platforms represent the construction oftheir military identity and the way the YPJ is formed into a group. The data comes from 23 Britishand 8 pro-Kurdish media articles and is analysed with discourse analysis. The thesis finds thatBritish media representations echo the hegemonic discourse about women’s role as victims duringwar, while only the more liberal media represent motivations connected with a struggle againstpatriarchy, capitalism and the nation-state. Moreover, it finds that pro-Kurdish media represent YPJfighters as breaking stereotypical notions of femininity through a repetition of performativemilitary acts and about precarity being the condition of the group’s coherence. It also finds that thearticles function as interpellation to new fighters.