Causes and criteria of disharmonies in family system functioning

The article highlights the problem of finding the causes of disharmonies in marital relations and the criteria for the normal functioning of a family system. Dysfunction or disturbances of family functioning are such features of family life that complicate or hinder execution of family functions. A dysfunctional family in a broad sense means a system determining distortions of personal development and, therefore, maladaptive, deviant behaviour or neurotic disorders at one or more of the family members. The aim of the study is to identify the causes of disharmony in marital relations and the criteria for normal functioning of a family as a system. The empirical part of this study was devoted to determining the causes of such disharmonies in marital relationships that subsequently led to divorce. The study was conducted during the family counselling of married men, women and married couples who were in the process of divorce. The next criteria for normal family functioning have been determined: respect for differences; sincerity in expressing thoughts and feelings; dynamic relationships; role sharing; observance of personal boundaries; family openness; emotional and spiritual intimacy.

Connective Memories

This chapter illustrates how families constructed recollections of spiritual intimacy that had the potential to shape new experiences of intimacy upon their return home. Drawing from Randall Collins’s work on the character and function of the emotional energy at work in ritual life, it discusses the emotional weight of ritual memories, symbolic recollections of Camino spiritual intimacy that had the potential to change family relationships and identity. It describes three types of connective memories family members talked about as significant: quiet memories (stories and sensory memories that are generally more private and shared only with intimate others), digital memories (photographs and other media forms of constructed memory), and material memories (printed photographs, symbolic objects such as jewelry, a pilgrim’s stamped credentials, and Camino tattoos). The chapter also discusses distancing memories, negative ritual emotional memories with the potential to sever feelings of family/group identity and solidarity with others and nature.

Spiritual Intimacies

This chapter illustrates how family members’ Camino expectations played out in their descriptions of shared pilgrimage experience. It reveals how their stories matched the self-searching, relational connection, and caring expectations found in larger cultural therapeutic understandings and expectations of family intimacy, and it explores the salience of gender as it relates to the type of spiritual intimacy parents described. The chapter considers how most research participants told stories that demonstrated a larger archetype of travel for transformation; theirs were narratives of journeying through a space that brought change to their everyday relationships upon their return home.

On Adjectival Attributives Blood, Direct, Peaceful as Components of Archaic Nominations of Friends

The article discusses the changes in collocability of the word friend over time. It notes that the works by A.S. Pushkin contain the forms, unexpected for the perception of the native speakers of the modern Russian language: blood friends, direct friend, peaceful friends. The analysis of the specified attributive combinations is carried out applying definitional, contextual, linguocultural analysis methods. The text material from the National Corpus of the Russian language is used. It is proved that the expression "blood friends" could denote "people connected by strong friendship" and "people of the same class". Physical kinship criterion has been proved to serve as a basis for cognitive understanding of spiritual intimacy and social class identification. However, the connection between primary and secondary semantics is not so direct here; it is mediated by the cultural layer – the custom of twinning, a form of artificial relationship noted among many peoples. Most examples of the usage of the phrase "direct friend" mean 'express your opinion to someone honestly, directly'. The expression "peaceful friends" is interpreted as based on a doubling of the meaning 'in a relationship of agreement'. The research results can be used in compiling dictionaries of the Russian language, and also in teaching linguistic disciplines.

„Żółte czereśnie” – matce. Córczyne wiersze Joanny Pollakówny

W szkicu omawiam wiersze Joanny Pollakówny adresowane do matki, Wandy Grodzieńskiej, pisane wkrótce przed jej śmiercią i niedługo później. Szukam, wyrażonej w nich, córczyno-matczynej więzi i zastanawiam się nad specyfiką kobiecego przeżywania żałoby. Wskazuję, że utwory, które Pollakówna pisze do martwej matki, pomimo zawartej w nich perspektywy nadziei (motywy wielkanocne), pomimo pochwytującej myśl o ciągłości intuicji biologicznej kontynuacji (wątki roślinne), mimo testowanych w kolejnych utworach wybiegów, szyfrów i buntowniczego łamania zasad rządzących czasem i przestrzenią wciąż zawracają ku poczuciu straty. Zgodę na opuszczenie przez tę, która urodziła, uniemożliwia fizyczna i duchowa bliskość kobiet, wyrażająca się szczególnie w snach i wciąż żywych wi­zjach. Strata zapisuje się w ciele: córka doznaje jej z wciąż podobną intensywnością, wieloma zmysłami. Śmierć, którą „przygarnia w siebie”, jest już zawsze aktualna. Dla poetki oznacza to konieczność przejęcia schedy po matce, odziedziczenia jej traum. “Yellow Cherries” – to Mother. The Daughterly Poetry of Joanna Pollakówna The present article is a preliminary analysis of Joanna Pollakówna’s poems ad­dressed to her mother, Wanda Grodzieńska, and written shortly before and right after her death. In these works, I search for the expressions of the daughter-mother connection and discuss a specifically female way of grieving. I argue that despite being written from a hopeful perspective (motifs associated with Easter), despite intuitively referring to the concept of biological continuity (plant-related motifs), despite displaying the use of tricks, cyphers, and rebellious attempts to break the rules governing time and space, the pieces which Pollakówna addresses to her deceased mother constantly return to the feeling of loss. Acceptance of the fact that the woman who birthed her is gone is made impossible by the physical and spiritual intimacy of the women, most clearly expressed in dreams and still very vivid visions. Loss becomes inscribed in the body: the daughter continues to experience it with the same intensity. The death which she “embraces within herself” is always present. This obliges the poet to take over the mother’s legacy, to inherit her traumas.

Race, Ethnicity, and the Functional Use of Religion When Faced with Imminent Death

This article uses religious coping theory to theorize about how and why race and ethnic groups on death row frame religious last statements at the moment of imminent death. Unique data (N = 269) drawn from death row inmates in Texas between December 1982 and April 2016 reveal uniformity in the dominance that black, white, and Hispanic inmates assign to relational forms of expressions that draw them closer to God and expressions that facilitate spiritual intimacy with others, over self-focused expressions that represent efforts to gain control over the imminent death experience or signal a transformed life. There is a hierarchy of preferred religious coping methods that changes for each group following the implementation of a new policy allowing the family and friends of murder victims (co-victims) to witness the execution of inmates. It is concluded that race and ethnic groups differ in the premium they place on preferred religious coping strategies when faced with imminent death, and a change in social context, such as the sudden presence of co-victims at executions, increases the religious content of last statements for all groups.

Kepuasan Pernikahan Pasangan Beda Etnis ditentukan Resolusi Konflik dan Intimasi Spiritual

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of conflict resolution and spiritual intimacy on marital satisfaction among interracial married couples. Subjects in this study were 51 interracial married couples in one of the church synods in Indonesia. This study used the conflict resolution scale, the spiritual intimacy scale and the marital satisfaction scale. Data analysis techniques used in this study were multiple and partial regression. The result showed that there is an effect of conflict resolution and spiritual intimacy to marital satisfaction simultaneously. On the other hand, both conflict resolution and spiritual intimacy has their own roles towards marital satisfaction among interracial married couples. Nevertheless, compared with conflict resolution, spiritual intimacy has a bigger impact towards marriage satisfaction.Keywords: Conflict resolution, marital satisfaction, spiritual intimacyAbstrak: Tujuan penelitian ini adalah menguji pengaruh resolusi konflik dan intimasi spiritual terhadap kepuasan pernikahan pada pasangan suami istri beda etnis. Subjek penelitian adalah 51 pasangan suami istri beda etnis pada salah satu sinode gereja di Indonesia. Penelitian ini menggunakan skala resolusi konflik, skala intimasi spiritual dan skala kepuasan pernikahan. Teknik analisis data dalam penelitian ini menggunakan uji regresi berganda. Analisis regresi linier berganda menunjukkan adanya pengaruh yang signifikan dari resolusi konflik dan intimasi spiritual terhadap kepuasan pernikahan secara simultan. Selain itu, baik resolusi konflik ataupun intimasi spiritual masing-masing memiliki peran terhadap kepuasan pernikahan pada pasangan Kristiani beda etnis. Meski demikian, dibandingkan dengan resolusi konflik, intimasi spiritual memberikan pengaruh yang lebih besar terhadap kepuasan pernikahan.

Indigenous and Roman Catholic Canonizations of Nicholas Black Elk: Postcolonial Issues and Implications of Black Elk Speaks

This article explores questions surrounding the status and teachings of Nick Black Elk, in dialogue with certain postcolonial and decoloniality theorists, as well as with commentators on Black Elk’s spirituality. It highlights liberation spirituality and theology in analyzing the religious hybridity of Black Elk and his actions of decoloniality. It also shows how Black Elk’s recent nomination for Roman Catholic canonization might continue to support certain shifts in various areas of Christian spirituality in light of Lakota influences: to respectful approaches to visionary mysticism and dreams; to positive affirmations of embodied spirituality; to ecological connections, consciousness and responsibility; and to a transformed sense of spiritual intimacy with nature.

Sexual Ecstasy Scale: Conceptualizations and measurement

This article describes the development of the Sexual Ecstasy Scale, an instrument designed to measure the specific features that emerge when sexual arousal is the trigger for an ecstatic experience. Drawing from descriptions of features of sexual ecstasy in the phenomenological literature, the authors generated an initial survey of 31 items. In Study 1, the survey was completed by a wide demographic sample (N = 331). Exploratory factor analysis revealed a 4-factor solution that was replicated in Study 2 using confirmatory factor analysis with an independent sample (N = 331) that showed strong fit indices. Internal consistency for the overall scale and subscales was high with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.873. Positive correlations with measures of emotional, sexual, and spiritual intimacy, and a measure of self-transcendence were used to establish convergent validity. The absence of correlations with measures of personal esteem and life satisfaction was used to distinguish the continuum of sexual ecstasy from other personality factors. The results show that ecstatic sexual experience is consistent with other measures of peak experience and heightened emotion while demonstrating the ability to measure the specific features of the construct. Conclusions are drawn regarding the importance of the ecstatic features of sexuality to transpersonal psychology.