Postmodernism

This article studies resemblances between academic postmodernism and today's popular contestations of the authority of science by means of a qualitative content analysis of 657 critical online comments on a Belgian newspaper article about the COVID-19 crisis that features a prominent Belgian virologist. The comments portray scientists as (1) prophets who pretend their knowledge to be superior to competing understandings of the world; (2) puppets who figure in hidden schemes that cannot stand the light of day; and (3) pinheads who lack the intellectual competence to give solid scientifically informed advice...

The dazzling characteristics of postmodernity in the form of social flexibility, economization and virtualization can be understood as an expression of a cultural configuration that is by no means natural and irreversible, but is particularly media-related. Bulimia seems, more than Anorexia, a prime example of this.With regard to the historicity of symptoms in their various forms and disorders over time, consideration is given to how anorexic and bulimic symptoms position themselves in it. If the development toward postmodernity is to be understood as the pathology of modernity, in the course of the social pervasion of visual media there is a sociocultural turnabout to the fragile self, in which the theoretical polarity of conflict and structure can no longer be displayed...

This paper explores how ideas and practices of elder-care may be changing for the new Chinese middle class. This paper draws on in-depth interviews with the members of different generations of ten middle class families in the Chinese city of Tianjin. It explores how increased resources but also increased pressure are affecting the care of older people and the expectations around elder-care. Thematic analysis of transcripts entered into NVIVO revealed three findings. Firstly, that the generation born in the 1950s and 1960s are often negotiating their care responsibilities between their parents and their grandchildren...

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Social class structures life chances and exposure to socioeconomic risk, but the extent to which this is still the case is subject to debate. While some assert a relevant middle-class squeeze and consequent polarisation, others argue for the disappearance of social class and a 'democratisation' of social and economic risk for all segments of postmodern society. We focused on relative poverty to interrogate the extent to which occupational class still matters and whether traditionally 'safe' middle-class occupations have lost their capacity for sheltering people from socioeconomic risk...

Pericardial effusion is a relatively common cardiac pathology associated with various infectious and non-infectious etiologies. In developed countries, viral pericarditis and idiopathic reasons are the two most common causes of this condition. Mycobacterium tuberculosis is prevalent in developing countries and is the most common cause of pericardial effusion in these regions. Parasitic and bacterial etiologies are encountered less frequently. In this report, we describe the case of a large pericardial effusion in a patient with HIV and latent tuberculosis (TB)...

This article intends to reflect on the validation of psychiatric semiology and nosography that is taught in clinical psychologists and psychiatrists training programs. The vision of academic psychiatry of our times, strongly influenced by scientific narrative, seeks to consolidate an universal nosography that aims to erase the culture marks. However, the prevalence of certain diagnoses over others is determined by the social context and cultural changes that determine, in turn, the classifying standards of professionals...

In this article, we argue that the government's post 9-11 torture program was a big lie, in that the designers, executors and enablers knew all along that torture does not elicit reliable information. We review the government's own research on the matter, and we discuss the ways in which methods known to be unreliable were implemented, most saliently at the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay. We review the secrecy and propaganda surrounding the scope and horror of the torture program at Guantánamo and black sites around the world, and the painful truth of how the government knowingly adopted the terror policies of the torture program, against their own knowledge, against international human rights, and against the law...

BACKGROUND: Advances in drug therapy for pulmonary tuberculosis have had an extraordinary impact on the incidence of tuberculosis in the United States in the past century, which has decreased from 113/100,000 persons in 1920 to 2.2/100,000 in 2020. Modern treatments have contributed to a remarkable decrease in hospitalizations and mortality and have had a significant impact on the duration and severity of illness, quality of life, and work potential of affected persons. STUDY QUESTION: What are the milestones of the changes in the expert approach to the pharmacological management of pulmonary tuberculosis in the past century? STUDY DESIGN: To determine the changes in the experts' approach to the management of pulmonary tuberculosis, as presented in a widely used textbook in the United States...

Currently, it is possible to observe a slowly (but surely) growing volume of claims seeking to disprove Foucauldian ideas about knowledge and power as overlapping basic theories of epistemic justice. Prompted by these claims, alongside adopting tenets of Critical Race Theory to address injustices inflicted upon people facing mental health challenges, I propose applying decolonizing deconstruction to Foucault's terminology, toward identifying opportunities to enhance epistemic justice, primarily in direct interventions in mental health services...

In this article, we explore the act of resistance by nurses and midwives at the nexus of abortion care and gender-based violence. We commence with a brief overview of a multiphased extended grounded theory doctoral project that analysed the individual, situational and socio-political experiences of Australian nurses and midwives who provide abortion care to people victimised by gender-based violence. We then turn to Essex's conceptualisation of resistance in health and healthcare and draw upon these concepts to tell a unifying and cohesive story about how nurses and midwives exercise their politics...

Susan Sontag, in her classic 1967 essay, "The Pornographic Imagination," argued: "Tamed as it may be, sexuality remains one of the demonic forces in human consciousness …. "In the last half-century, Sontag's demonic force of sexuality has transformed pornography and the "pornographic imagination"-let along social relations between women and men. In this essay, I adopt Walter Benjamin's concept of phantasmagoria-a magic-lantern show of optical illusions, rapidly changing size and blending into one another-as the metaphoric commodity form of postmodern capitalist society, fetishism-on-display...

Fredric Jameson's cultural theory forms a crucial part of the Western Marxist theory. Jameson's postmodern cultural theory includes cultural expansion, cultural history, cultural hyperspace, cultural ideology, and so on. The cultural expansion includes the outline of popular sports culture. (1) Content: In order to further understand the acceptance of Jameson's cultural theory in China, this paper explores the communication of Jameson's cultural theory in different cultural groups, different regions, and different communication channels in China based on the questionnaire survey in a larger span of social groups...

Primarily based on theoretical studies of multicultural pedagogy, anthropology of music, and postmodern music education concepts, techniques combining qualitative and quantitative research are used. Eight types of design guidelines are then proposed according to different intelligence characteristics, according to intelligence characteristics and context of conversational design. Finally, based on the perspective of multicultural learning environments, this work will explore and provide insights into new concepts of piano teaching in multicultural learning environments in three areas: new piano teaching, new instruction, and new piano learning materials...

In "Lord of the Flies," William Golding integrates the living conditions of human beings into the relationship of the community of destiny between man and nature and reveals the neglect of ecological morality in the modern Western ethical value system with modernity as the core, showing a postmodern ecological ethics consciousness beyond modernity. The novel embodies the ecological integrity of the nonbinary opposition between man and nature, criticizes anthropocentrism and technological rationality that destroy the ecological integrity, and points out that modern science and technology have led to greater ecological disasters due to the lack of ecological ethics...

In hindsight, the early response of liberal governments to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic was chaotic and generally inefficient. Though one might be tempted to attribute these failures to the incompetence of certain political decision-makers, we propose another explanation. Global threats require a coordinated international response, which is only possible if the threat is perceived in the same way by all, and if government priorities are similar. The effectiveness of the response also relies on massive adhesion of citizens to the measures imposed, which in turn requires trust in government...

It is fundamental for analytical psychology to understand images symbolically. However, Jung was aware of the non-symbolic and direct appearance of image in synchronistic visions and dreams. Therefore, there are two aspects of the non-symbolic: literal and synchronistic. Firstly, the pathology of the non-symbolic was explored in psychosomatic syndromes, trauma, borderline syndromes and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Then the historical and cultural considerations show that dreams were shared and understood directly and non-symbolically in Japanese medieval times...

Objective: Therapeutic intervention can improve the overall level of mental health of American postmodern fiction writers by improving their social communication skills and overall well-being. This paper discusses the application of art therapy in the mental health education of American postmodern novel creators and proves that expressive art therapy intervention is effective in improving the mental health level of American postmodern novel creators. Method: This article attempts to help American postmodernist novel creators understand their own mental health status by means of individualized assessment and therapeutic intervention and to analyze and discover their own potential mental health problems...

BACKGROUND: Clinical teaching-learning is a context-bound phenomenon. One of the problems related to field of medical education research is the lack of sufficient attention to context-appropriate methodologies. The purpose of this qualitative inquiry is to explain and represent teaching-learning in the clinical education of general medicine in Iran using the three types of maps situational, social worlds/arenas, positional, in combination with discourse analysis. METHODS: In this study, the authors used the situational analysis approach as a postmodern version of grounded theory...

We report on the performative score "Sharing Perspectives" from the art/science research collaboration, Experimenting, Experiencing, Reflecting. Sharing Perspectives (SP) is developed as a score, inspired by choreography and the postmodern dance form Contact Improvisation, to stage exploration and improvisation, exploring uncertainty, creativity, togetherness, and the relationship between bodies and between bodies and space and artworks. The SP score acts as an experiment in how a brief intervention may affect the way art exhibitions are experienced, exploring how deeper and more sensorial engagement with art may be facilitated, for the benefit of visitors, galleries and artists...