BackgroundKetamine and its enantiomers are widely researched and increasingly used to treat mental disorders, especially treatment-resistant depression. The phenomenology of ketamine-induced... Show moreBackgroundKetamine and its enantiomers are widely researched and increasingly used to treat mental disorders, especially treatment-resistant depression. The phenomenology of ketamine-induced experiences and their relation to its psychotherapeutic potential have not yet been systematically investigated.AimsTo describe the phenomenology of patient experiences during oral esketamine treatment for treatment-resistant depression (TRD) and to explore the potential therapeutic relevance of these experiences.MethodsIn-depth interviews were conducted with 17 patients after a 6-week, twice-weekly ‘off label’ generic oral esketamine (0.5–3.0mg/kg) treatment program. Interviews explored participants’ perspectives, expectations, and experiences with oral esketamine treatment. Audio interviews were transcribed and analyzed using an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) framework.ResultsThe effects of ketamine were highly variable, and psychological distress was common in most patients. Key themes included (a) perceptual effects (auditory, visual, proprioceptive), (b) detachment (from body, self, emotions, and the world), (c) stillness and openness, (d) mystical-type effects (transcendence, relativeness, spirituality), and (e) fear and anxiety. Key themes related to post-session reports included (a) feeling hungover and fatigued, and (b) lifting the blanket: neutralizing mood effects.ConclusionPatients reported several esketamine effects with psychotherapeutic potential, such as increased openness, detachment, an interruption of negativity, and mystical-type experiences. These experiences deserve to be explored further to enhance treatment outcomes in patients with TRD. Given the frequency and severity of the perceived distress, we identify a need for additional support in all stages of esketamine treatment. Show less
Brouwer, M.M.; Oman, K.A.; Valentijn, E.A.; Bilicki, M.; Heymans, C.; Hoekstra, H.; ... ; Visser, M. 2021
The photographic surface is the pivotal carrier of information – be it the mediated image or material indications about the object. It is presented here as the entrance into the study of... Show moreThe photographic surface is the pivotal carrier of information – be it the mediated image or material indications about the object. It is presented here as the entrance into the study of photographic materiality that unfolds in a profound scanning of a photograph’s multi-layered dimensionality and of all the interactions that (can) take place in its lifetime – ranging from human to molecular. The chosen case studies are photoworks (hybrid photographic works of art) that are partially overpainted and show (first) signs of degrading photographic material. The different (material) properties of the two interacting media with their distinct surfaces pose challenging questions on a representational, chemical, conservational as well as a theoretical level. The key concern is: How does the photographic surface act in hybrid photoworks as interface between substances and their surrounding space? By panning back and forth between material, technical, and theoretical studies and the case studies – Tacita Dean’s (*1965) Crowhurst II (2007), and two photoworks by Ger van Elk (1941-2014): Dutch Grey (1983/84) and Russian Diplomacy’s (1974) – I follow the methodological path of a multi-angled analysis of photoworks in order to respond to their hybrid nature and to think with their materiality and subject matter. The result is an in-depth theoretical investigation of the photographic surface as interface between substances and spaces within photoworks in particular, and ontologically in any chemically created photograph. It ties together philosophical, esthetical, technical and ethical point of views and therewith creates a deep understanding of photographic materiality at the verge of digital dominance. Show less
The work in this thesis focuses on investigation of the appearance of depression in later life. Although a different presentation of late-life compared to early-life has been suggested for... Show more The work in this thesis focuses on investigation of the appearance of depression in later life. Although a different presentation of late-life compared to early-life has been suggested for many decades, it remains unclear whether this really is the case. Our studies focus on the impact of age and somatic diseases on the appearance of late-life depression. Somatic diseases in older age may affect both the symptom profile and the course of depression. We found that neither higher somatic disease burden nor higher age contribute to more severe somatic symptoms of late-life depression. However, higher somatic disease burden does contribute to higher severity of mood symptoms of late-life depression. Furthermore, we found that older old compared with younger old depressed persons show less mood and motivational symptoms of depression. This finding implies that, particularly in older old persons aged ≥70 years, late-life depression may not be recognized properly. In line with previous studies, we confirmed that the overall somatic disease burden is associated with a poor course of late-life depression. The course of late-life depression is particularly unfavourable in the presence of cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal disease and chronic non-specific lung diseases. Show less
The Guava Platform, which is at the centre of this PhD thesis, was initiated in 2014 as a conceptual framework of my art practice and research. The aim of the Guava Platform is to research and... Show moreThe Guava Platform, which is at the centre of this PhD thesis, was initiated in 2014 as a conceptual framework of my art practice and research. The aim of the Guava Platform is to research and create possible techniques of art-actions that are part of my quest to continue to live in the conflicted landscape, east of the Mediterranean, as an artist.This dissertation assembles the Guava art-actions: i.e. a series of three short films, an online radio station, two performances, a geotagging website, and a scent collection as well as the research into a combined space. Both the art-actions and the research convey the Guava Platform. The leading questions of the thesis are: How can time-based art-actions in a conflicted landscape induce and take part in an embodiment of constructive political imagination? If both physical and conceptual ‘movement’ are the actions’ impetus, how can these actions adjust the socio-political impasse of the landscape? And how can they contribute to a socio-political discussion of the landscape I live in?The outcome of this research is presented on a website. Here, the different components, the art-actions and texts, are not bound to a hierarchical relationship between theory and practice that might restrict their possibility to interact. Instead, the website enables the visitor to navigate between the different artistic and discursive elements in a nonlinear way. Show less
This thesis investigates Søren Kierkegaard’s place in Martin Heidegger’s first Freiburg period lecture courses. The principal questions asked are: what is Heidegger searching for in his first... Show moreThis thesis investigates Søren Kierkegaard’s place in Martin Heidegger’s first Freiburg period lecture courses. The principal questions asked are: what is Heidegger searching for in his first Freiburg period and where does he turn to Kierkegaard? The point of departure is taken from the question which Heidegger himself raises in these lecture courses: ‘what is philosophy?’ The replies given to this explicitly asked question lead to the central claims of this thesis. First, I claim that Heidegger rethinks philosophy in two directions. On the one hand, philosophy is philosophizing, a mode of access in the living situation. On the other hand, philosophy is about a proper methodology for accessing and expressing its subject matter: it is a mode of investigation. Second, I claim that Kierkegaard appears in one of these directions: when Heidegger considers access in the living situation. In addition, I show that two dominant approaches to Heidegger’s philosophy emphasize either one or the other side of what Heidegger puts forth. This insight, together with the view of how Kierkegaard appears in Heidegger’s path, makes it possible to account for the contradictory takes on Kierkegaard’s role in Heidegger’s philosophy that emerge in the secondary literature. Show less
Luigjes, J.; Lorenzetti, V.; Haan, S. de; Youssef, G.J.; Murawski, C.; Sjoerds, Z.; ... ; Yücel, M. 2019
Compulsive tendencies are a central feature of problematic human behavior and thereby are of great interest to the scientific and clinical community. However, no consensus exists about the precise... Show moreCompulsive tendencies are a central feature of problematic human behavior and thereby are of great interest to the scientific and clinical community. However, no consensus exists about the precise meaning of ‘compulsivity,’ creating confusion in the field and hampering comparison across psychiatric disorders. A vague conceptualization makes compulsivity a moving target encompassing a fluctuating variety of behaviors, which is unlikely to improve the new dimension-based psychiatric or psychopathology approach. This article aims to help progress the definition of what constitutes compulsive behavior, cross-diagnostically, by analyzing different definitions in the psychiatric literature. We searched PubMed for articles in human psychiatric research with ‘compulsive behavior’ or ‘compulsivity’ in the title that focused on the broader concept of compulsivity—returning 28 articles with nine original definitions. Within the definitions, we separated three types of descriptive elements: phenomenological, observational and explanatory. The elements most applicable, cross-diagnostically, resulted in this definition: Compulsive behavior consists of repetitive acts that are characterized by the feeling that one ‘has to’ perform them while one is aware that these acts are not in line with one’s overall goal. Having a more unified definition for compulsive behavior will make its meaning precise and explicit, and therefore more transferable and testable across clinical and non-clinical populations. Show less
In contrast to a traditional ethno-archaeological approach, in which contemporary communities are mined for information that can be applied to the past, this study considers that the interpretation... Show moreIn contrast to a traditional ethno-archaeological approach, in which contemporary communities are mined for information that can be applied to the past, this study considers that the interpretation of Maya material culture belongs to the people whose identity has been formed within the natural and material environments of that area, and through the effects of cultural interactions and differences (such as the Spanish Conquest and modernity) alongside certain continuities. The aim of this investigation has been to make this study of the past relevant to the present, specifically to people in the Maya area. As such, the theoretical framework, alongside anthropological and archaeological research, looks to philosophies surrounding personhood and materiality that have been extracted from interviewees from the Maya community of Santa Elena, in Yucatan, Mexico. European and Maya theories have been used together to re-position the philosophies behind the investigation of what we call Maya __art.__ Show less
In our culture, vocal harmonics fuction as independent musical elements since only a few decades. Thresholds of the audible explores the changing relationship between singers, listeners and... Show moreIn our culture, vocal harmonics fuction as independent musical elements since only a few decades. Thresholds of the audible explores the changing relationship between singers, listeners and harmonics. As a research method a series of compositions (Nulpunten/’Zeropoints’) has been developed, which attempt to make a fresh approach to overtone singing and to the sonic source material of the human body. They spark off further investigations of reality and illusion of our auditory world. Using his experiences with Tibetan monks and Sardinian brotherhoods and the ‘transverbal’ oeuvre of Michael Vetter, Mark van Tongeren develops his notion ‘multiphony of the body’. The last word, according to him, must be given to readers/listeners, who are challenged to shift their thresholds of the audible with the cd It starts here and the performance Incognito ergo sum. Show less
The key questions posed in this dissertation are centred on the interaction between spectator and artwork. What happens between a spectator and an artwork? How do we experience ‘meaning’ in an... Show moreThe key questions posed in this dissertation are centred on the interaction between spectator and artwork. What happens between a spectator and an artwork? How do we experience ‘meaning’ in an artwork? How may the process of interpretation be understood and articulated? Key concepts of reception theory are extensively discussed, such as ‘the aesthetic object’ and ‘blank space’. To the extent that this is deemed necessary they are given a new denotation and a new theoretical context. Much attention is paid to the theory of German the art historian Wolfgang Kemp. Different notions of spectatorhood are put forward and critically analyzed. The research is based on an art critical practice of many years and on the personal experience of artworks.The research is focused on unravelling and problematising the theoretical terminology of the interaction between artwork and spectator, with the aim of building a new theoretical foundation for this terminology. Hermeneutics and phenomenology, especially the thinking of Hans-Georg Gadamer and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, play an important role in the construction of the argument. Different concepts of spectatorhood are extensively discussed. The dissertation proposes a new set of theoretical concepts to understand the interaction between artwork and spectator. The argument is sustained by concrete examples from contemporary art and art history. Show less
