Physical Violence and Scapegoating Within the Family: An Exploration of Biblical Texts and Contemporary Psychology.

To understand physical violence in the family, it is important to define the role of the victim. The term "scapegoat" is a universal anthropological concept, often used in sociological theories, where a certain group of people and/or minorities are often victimized or blamed (e.g., social ills). We may note that the phenomenon of scapegoating is most clearly expressed in the Bible. Therefore, we will use relevant biblical texts that refer to parental use of corporal punishment in which a child is scapegoated and/or victimized by parental violence. In this sense, the Bible is the most profound explanation and manifestation of the cultural, social, and especially religious development of humanity. At the same time, the concept of scapegoating is also demonstrated in psychology and therapy, where it also serves as a basis for understanding, for example, physical violence in the family, and where it is also crucial to define the role of the victim. In this article, therefore, we will explain the biblical background of this concept and highlight two basic dynamics of violence against children in the family: when the child is the "scapegoat" for unresolved tensions in the family and when the child becomes the "sacrifice" or victim of the dysregulated emotional response of his or her parents.

Repetition Compulsion Revisited in Relational Family Therapy: The Discovery of Old in Order to Develop Something New.

Psychoanalysis has always been full of diversity and controversy, in the theoretical field and especially in the plasticity and variety of its modalities and approaches. Yet all these theories are based on the premise that individuals compulsively repeat their old psycho-organic content, both in their personal lives and in analysis; the premise of Relational Family Therapy is that old emotional, behavioral and bodily complications must first be repeated before being fully processed so that something new can be created.

Fear of hypoglycemia, anxiety, and subjective well-being in parents of children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes.

This study explored the association between parental fear of hypoglycemia, anxiety, and subjective well-being in parents of children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes. A total of 120 mothers and 79 fathers participated. Mothers' and fathers' fear of hypoglycemia was significantly associated with anxiety and negative affect as well as with worse glycemic control in child. Paired-samples t-test showed that mothers were more involved in diabetes management and reported more fear and anxiety compared to fathers, but they did not differ in worries about hypoglycemia. The findings suggest screening for fear of hypoglycemia and subjective well-being in all parents regardless of whether their child experienced severe hypoglycemia.

Body Language in Relational Family Therapy.

The mechanism of projective and introjective identification has been re-evaluated in modern analysis. It is no longer just about the transference of mental content to an other, rather it addresses also the deepest psycho-organic sensations and vibrations, which in turn become the basis for interpersonal and family dialogues. The goal of this article is also to lay out the fundamental dynamics of body language as understood by the relational family paradigm. It is a novel analytical perspective on the individual, who is always part of any relational family configuration.

Transformational Analysis and Religious Experience.

The therapeutic process, which taps into the individual's most vulnerable inner experience, can always reach a radical reversal of one's perception of religion and God, which may be askew due to deep trauma. This transformation caused by the therapeutic relationship can reciprocally help to resolve one's deep and complicated issues, while at the same time radically altering their relationship to religion. This is especially apparent among those who were cruelly and traumatically abused in their earliest stages of development.

Emotional Detachment of Partners and the Sanctity of the Relationship with the Analyst as the Most Powerful Curative Factor.

The relationship between partners and the analyst is considered the most basic means for healing in contemporary psychoanalytic theories and analyses. It also holds as one of the most fundamental phenomenon's of psychoanalysis, so it comes as no surprise that it has always been deliberated over as an object of great interest as well as immense controversy. This same relationship, mutually co-created by the analyst and each individual and partner in analysis, represents also the core of sanctity and sacred space in contemporary psychoanalysis.

Sanctity of the Body and the Relational Paradigm.

The individual is in constant interaction with others from birth onwards. The primary experience evolves from the innate need for bodily touch and connection, which form the foundation for the psychobiological structure of the individual. The body's anatomy is made to yearn for another, for building a home with the body of another. This makes the body the focal instrument, which is discernible already in the mother-child relationship, as well as later in male-female or husband-wife relationships. The body thus provides the most sacred space, and deep within it carries a natural yearning for another, for having a relationship with another. Relationships are the means through which the body can come to full realization.

Support Group for Parents Coping with Children with Type 1 Diabetes.

OBJECTIVES: Type 1 diabetes is one of the most common chronic diseases in childhood. Active parental involvement, parental support in the diabetes management and family functioning are associated with optimal diabetes management and glycemic control. The purpose of this study was to assess parental satisfaction with participation in the group and their perceptions of the impact of the intervention on living and coping with childrens T1D. METHODS: A sample of 34 parents of children with T1D participated in this trend study. The participants' experience and satisfaction with support group was measured by a self- evaluation questionnaire, designed for the purpose of the present study. RESULTS: Quantitative data show that parents were overall satisfied with almost all measured items of the evaluation questionnaire (wellbeing in the group, feeling secure, experiencing new things, being able to talk and feeling being heard) during the 4-year period. However, parents from the second and third season, on average, found that the support group has better fulfilled their expectations than the parents from the first season (p = 0,010). The qualitative analysis of the participants' responses to the open-ended questions was underpinned by four themes: support when confronting the diagnosis, transformation of the family dynamics, me as a parent, exchange of experience and good practice and facing the world outside the family. DISCUSSION: The presented parent support group showed to be a promising supportive, therapeutic and psychoeducative space where parents could strengthen their role in the upbringing of their child with T1D.