Dreams in ancient Greek Medicine.

Dreams preoccupied the Greek and Roman world in antiquity, therefore they had a prominent role in social, philosophical, religious, historical and political life of those times. They were considered as omens and prophetic signs of future events in private and public life, and that was particularly accentuated when elements of actions which took place in the plot of dreams were associated directly or indirectly with real events. This is why it was important to use them in divination, and helped the growth of superstition and folklore believes. Medicine as a science and an anthropocentric art, could not ignore the importance of dreams, having in mind their popularity in antiquity. In ancient Greek medicine dreams can be divided into two basic categories. In the first one -which is related to religious medicine-dreams experienced by religionists are classified, when resorted to great religious sanctuaries such as those of Asclepius (Asclepieia) and Amphiaraos (Amfiaraeia). These dreams were the essential element for healing in this form of religious medicine, because after pilgrims underwent purifications they went to sleep in a special dwelling of the sanctuaries called "enkoimeterion" (Greek: the place to sleep) so that the healing god would come to their dreams either to cure them or to suggest treatment. In ancient Greek literature there are many reports of these experiences, but if there may be phenomena of self-suggestion, or they could be characterized as propaganda messages from the priesthood of each sanctuary for advertising purposes. The other category concerns the references about dreams found in ancient Greek medical literature, where one can find the attempts of ancient Greek physicians to interpret these dreams in a rational way as sings either of a corporal disease or of psychological distress. This second category will be the object of our study. Despite the different ways followed by each ancient Greek physician in order to explain dreams, their common intention was to give a rational answer for the creation and content of dreams setting aside any supernatural beliefs. In addition they tried to explain in a scientific way the correlation that could have emerged between the story that took place in dreams and the events that happened in everyday life. Nevertheless, ancient Greek physicians focused especially on nightmares, which were associated with physical problems. For those physicians these nightmares included information about the corporal disease of the patient, which had a reflection in the dream, and they could help them to diagnose the problem in order to restore balance of the body.

["Should the staff's attitude towards the patients remain unchanged, I will not guarantee anything." Protest masculinity and coping of "rebellious patients" at the Heidelberg University Psychiatric Hospital on the eve of deinstitutionalization]. / "Sollte sich die Einstellung des Personals gegenüber den Patienten nicht ändern, garantiere ich für nichts mehr!" Protestmännlichkeit und KrankheitsbewäItigung von "aufsässigen Patienten" der Psychiatrischen Universitätskinik Heidelberg am Vorabend der Psychiatriereform.

This article analyses the illness experiences of male patients from the Heidelberg University Psychiatric Hospital during the protests against Psychiatry in the year 1973. Protest is one of the most important expressions of masculinity in socially disadvantaged men, such as men with mental disorders. The analysis of 100 medical records shows that some patients tried to construct themselves as men in a way that was explicitly motivated by antipsychiatric ideas: They questioned psychiatric authority, behaved "sexually inappropriate", or used drugs. On the eve of psychiatric reform in West Germany those patients were well aware that the alternative--complying with the treatment--would put them at considerable risk. In addition to the usual inference of hegemonic or normative masculinities as risk-factors, the behavior of those ,,rebellious patients" has to be interpreted as individual coping strategies.

[History of medicine in the Amazon region. Disappearance of the shaman and Christianization of healing rituals among the tariano Indians, at the urban outskirts of Manaus]. / Histoire de la médecine en Amazonas. Disparition du chamane et christianisation des rites de guérison chez les indiens tariano, a la périphérie urbaine de Manaus.

A brief history of medicine in Amazonas: the end of shamanism and the progressive Christianisation of therapeutical rites among the Tarianos, in the suburbs of Manaus.

[The relations between music and medicine in history and present]. / Die Beziehung von Musik und Medizin in Geschichte und Gegenwart.

Since the ancient world relations exist between music and medicine. In the prehistoric music, dance, rhythm and religious practice were important parts of shamanism and early medical procedures. Important philosophers of the classic period already began with the scientific research of musical and medical questions. During the middle age convents conserved ancient knowledge. They offered medical care and taught the ancient knowledge of medicine, arts and music. The Gregorian choral was created. Traditions of popular believe expressed the relations between music and medicine. The Renaissance became the great époque of art, music and science. Leonardo da Vinci and Andreas Vesalius presented a new style of artistic working and scientific knowledge. Also the basics of western music, like tonality was developed. With the separation of scientific subjects in natural sciences and humanities, the relationships between music and medicine fall into oblivion. During the classic and romantic era music and art were important parts of cultural live of the well educated society. With the development of neurology, psychiatry and psychoanalysis more physicians and scientists were interested in musical questions. Questions about the role of music in human behavior and the ancient method to use music in medical treatment became popular. In the early 20th century the music therapy was developed. Today the effects of music to the human brain are investigated with radionuclear methods. A lot of investigations showed the effect of music and music performance to humans. Music plays an important part in psychotherapy, therapeutic pedagogy and medical care, the importance of music and music therapy increases. In the 80ies of the 20th century the performing arts medicine was developed, which asks for the medical problems of performing musicians.

Football and post-war reintegration: exploring the role of sport in DDR processes in Sierra Leone.

Growing enthusiasm for 'Sport for development and peace' (SDP) projects around the world has created a much greater interest among critical scholars seeking to interrogate potential gains, extant limitations and challenges of using sport to advance 'development' and 'peace' in Africa. Despite this interest, the role of sport in post-conflict peace building remains poorly understood. Since peace building, as a field of study, lends itself to practical approaches that seek to address underlying sources of violent conflict, it is surprising that it has neglected to take an interest in sport, especially its grassroots models. In Africa, football (soccer) in particular has a strong appeal because of its popularity and ability to mobilise individuals and communities. Through a case study on Sierra Leone, this paper focuses on sports in a particularly prominent post-civil war UN intervention­the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) process­to determine how ex-youth combatants, camp administrators and caregivers perceive the role and significance of sporting activities in interim care centres (ICCS) or DDR camps. It argues that sporting experiences in ddr processes are fruitful microcosms for understanding nuanced forms of violence and healing among youth combatants during their reintegration process.

Press coverage of the new psychology by the New York Times during the progressive era.

Press coverage of psychology by the New York Times was examined for the Progressive Era. Following a period in which psychology was associated with spiritualism, psychoanalysis, and the Emmanuel movement, the Times gave editorial preference to reports about psychology's applications. Reaching an audience that was both affluent and influential, the topics emphasized by the Times included the lie detector, psychological applications in the work place, mental tests, and child psychology. These areas reflected issues of social concern to Progressives, publicized the rise of the psychologist as expert, and aided psychology in its challenge to common sense.

[Shamanism as medical prevention? A case study from Ladakh, Northwest-India]. / Schamanismus als medizinische Prävention? Ein Fallbei- spiel aus Ladakh (Nordwest-Indien).

Relating to a research project in the trans-Himalayan region of Ladakh, Northwest-India, the paper examines indications that the shamanic vocation and practice grew significantly in this region. The author tries to link this increase to severe psychological pressures imposed by the heavy presence of the Indian Army, political and administrative ties to the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir (with a predominantly Muslim population), and the region's status as a popular tourist destination. The paper argues that shamanic rituals performed by so-called oracles that embody deities of the Buddhist pantheon in trance (lhamo, lhapa) not only provide important services of healing and divination, they contribute significantly to medical prevention in times of growing competition and the deterioration of value systems. Turning from a local (Ladakh, the Tibetan Plateau) to a global perspective, it is further argued that the preventive function of shamanism has often been overlooked in previous ethnographic research and might be neglected by increasing efforts (also fostered by indigenous ritualists themselves) to establish and legitimize traditional ritual practices as part of modern health care systems which might eventually lead to the medicalization of traditional ceremonies--in short: "shamans do a lot more than just heal people".

Life satisfaction in chronic pain patients: the stress-buffering role of the centrality of religion.

Chronic pain (CP) is a stressful condition that severely impacts individuals' lives. Researchers have begun to explore the role of religion for CP patients, but the literature is scarce, especially for West European populations. Drawing from the transactional theory of stress, this study examined the associations between the religious meaning system and the life satisfaction for a group of CP patients who were members of a Flemish patients' association. To take into account the religious landscape of West European countries, the centrality of one's religious meaning system, rather than religious content, was the focus. Results from the questionnaires completed by 207 patients suggest that the centrality of a meaning system is an important factor in the promotion of life satisfaction for this group, above and beyond the influence of several control variables. Furthermore, the centrality of the religious meaning system moderated or buffered the detrimental influence of pain severity on life satisfaction.

Working through mass incarceration: gender and the politics of prison labor from east to west.

This article explores the politics and practices of labor in two penal institutions for women: a maximum security facility for women in Hungary and a community­based facility for women in California. Diverging from other accounts of imprisonment that tend to operate at either the individual or macroeconomic level, this article analyzes the concrete institutional relations of prison and complicates the assumption that they simply reflect the logic of the prison­industrial complex. Based on years of ethnographic work in two very different penal systems, I describe variation in how prisons institute labor within and across institutions and cultures: the Hungarian facility positioned wage labor as a right and an obligation that formed the basis of women's social relationships and ties to others, while the U.S. prison excluded wage labor from women's lives so they could get on with the work of self­improvement and personal healing. From the comparison, I reveal how prisons can both draw on and subvert broader social meanings assigned to women's work, making it difficult to view prison labor as wholly exploitative or abusive. I also argue that refusing to allow female inmates to engage in wage labor can be a more profound form of punishment than requiring it of them. By juxtaposing the discourses and practices of work in two very different penal contexts, this article offers a critical reflection on the political economy of prison labor from the ground up.

Norman Vincent Peale, Smiley Blanton and the hidden energies of the mind.

This article on Norman Vincent Peale and Smiley Blanton, who cofounded the American Foundation of Religion and Psychiatry in 1937, focuses on books that they wrote in the 1950s: Peale's The Power of Positive Thinking (1952) and Blanton's Love or Perish (1956). Similarities between Peale's problem-solving techniques and Milton E. Erickson's psychotherapeutic methods are demonstrated, and Blanton's indebtedness to psychoanalytic theories and methods is also shown. The Peale-Blanton collaboration suggests that pastoral counselors may legitimately employ these very different therapeutic approaches depending on the needs of the individual counselee. On the other hand, the fact that they subscribed to very different therapeutic approaches raises the question as to whether the two men shared anything in common as far as their professional work with individuals was concerned. The answer is that both believed that we humans possess an enormous reservoir of untapped energies that, when released and appropriately directed, are capable of effecting fundamental changes in an individual's life.

[The struggle of early Christians against Isis medica: breaks and continuity in traditions in the context of health and healing]. / Zum Kampf der frühen Christenheit gegen die Isis Medica--Bruch und Kontinuität von Traditionen im Ubergangsfeld von Heil und Heilung.

The study of health and healing gods may offer significant examples of how certain ideas survive, with hardly any substantial loss, across periods of great change. It is no surprise that, following centuries of struggle by early Christians against the worship of pagan gods, some originally heathen ideas and elements of thinking should have been in due course, if with prudence, adapted to Christian needs and sensibilities. A most remarkable instance of such practice is to be found, somewhat surprisingly, in the life of the bishop St. Cyril of Alexandria. He opposed rigorously the cult of Isis, above all in Egypt, but nevertheless adapted features of Isis to his conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary as 'Theotokos'. In this manner Isis, the goddess-mother, with her child Horus became--in a certain measure--a type of the Blessed Virgin Mother of God, accompanied by the Infant Jesus. The legendary arson perpetrated at the start of the 6th century A.D. against a temple in Cologne wherein a healing deity was worshipped should, it is argued here for the first time, be understood in the context of conflict between early Christianity and the cult of Isis. There is good reason to believe that the aforementioned temple set on fire by Gallus, later Bishop of Clermont, was in fact the shrine of Isis in Cologne.

From Psychical treatment to psychoanalysis: considerations on the misdating of an early Freud text and on a hitherto overlooked addition to it (here reproduced).

Freud's early paper Psychical (or mental) treatment, first published in a family reference book for educated lay persons, was reproduced in the Gesammelte Werke with a stated publication date of 1905. This date was subsequently called into question owing to certain parts of the subject-matter (the use of hypnosis and suggestion in 'mental treatment'), and the contribution was erroneously assigned, for instance by James Strachey, to the year 1890. This error is corrected in the present paper. Furthermore, the existence of a second edition of this reference book, which contains an addition to Freud's text and appeared in 1918-19, has previously gone unnoticed. The first edition had been published in 1905-6. Freud's contribution must, however, have been written at an appreciably earlier date. The probable time of its genesis is discussed. Freud's new text is reproduced (in English translation) for the first time in an appendix to this paper.

[Displacement and isolation. Mental illness in the city of Medellín. 1878-1930]. / Desplazamiento y aislamiento. Alienados mentales en la cuidad de Medellín. 1878-1930.

The observation in the city of Medellín within the framework of urban history generated a surprising picture of subjects in hygiene and public health, among which we found the case of mental illness and the control systems proposed by civilian authorities and doctors. In Medellín, between 1880 and 1950, the modernization process went on, turning its pole of attraction on population displacements to the interior of the province of Antioch. As a result of Railroad I, there was a massive mobility of population from the neighboring towns, including some mentally ill people. At the end of the 19th century, the authorities created a house of asylum for these people, which became the Mental Hospital in the middle of the 20th century. The isolation of the mentally ill people reports both medical authority and the beginning of the constitution process and institutionalization of the psychopathology and medicalization of mental disease in Antioquia at the beginning of the 20th century.

Exercises for mind and body: Giulio Mancini, collecting, and the beholding of landscape painting in the seventeenth century.

This article explores the intellectual foundations for the development of princely art collections, and of Italian picture galleries in particular, as spaces for combined physical and mental exercise and recreation. This study then establishes the relationship between the therapeutic function of picture galleries and the manner in which landscape paintings produced for princely collectors at this moment in Italy embodied ideals of both exercise and repose.

Chamanismo: consideraciones históricas y contemporáneas / Shamanism: historical and contemporary considerations

Se revisan las principales características del chamanismo tradicional histórico, ejemplificadas mediante el relato de 3 casos obtenidos en la literatura especializada (mapuche, andino y mazateco). Luego se analizan ciertas características adquiridas por el chamanismo tradicional actual en la región hispanoamericana, según 2 casos de conocimiento directo del autor (machi migrado a Santiago y sanador espiritualista trinitario mariano, de Chiapas, México). En tercer lugar se agregan otras referencias generales a desarrollos chamánicos actuales no tradicionales, obtenidas de diferentes fuentes bibliográficas (también denominados genéricamente neochamanismo). Luego de esta revisión, se proponen algunas consideraciones sobre el actual estado de la actividad.