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Abstract: This Master’s thesis analyses the influence of intersectionality on the mental health of female characters in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s novel Nervous Conditions. It aims to illuminate the intersecting axes of oppression for each of the female characters to enable a better understanding of the situational context that instigates specific mental disorders in the characters. To foster a better understanding of the characters’ situational context, the Shona’s cultural significance and Zimbabwe’s colonial history are addressed, while the postcolonial theory is used in the analysis of the novel. Furthermore, studies investigating the influence of the intersectional axes of race, gender, culture and class on women’s mental health function as the foundation in the interpretation of the findings of the analysis. Definitions of mental disorders, taken from the World Health Organization and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Illnesses are used in identifying mental disorders in Dangarembga’s female characters. By illustrating the complexity of marginalised experiences, in which the oppressional axes of gender, race, class and cultural identity intersect and result in mental disorders, this thesis also highlights the need for a thorough and holistic approach to understanding women’s mental health in postcolonial societies.
Keywords: Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions, intersectionality, mental health, postcolonialism
Published in DKUM: 29.11.2024; Views: 0; Downloads: 8
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Abstract: Past research has shown that news media may contain a disproportionate amount of negative news. Frequent exposure to such negative information could have detrimental effects on our mental well-being. We aimed to gain further insight into the potentially adverse effects of exposure to soft and hard news, as well as to examine potential reasons why individuals might expose themselves to such negative information. To do so, we conducted an online survey involving 176 participants (66 male, 107 female and 3 other) aged 15–65 years. The study included manipulation and additional (correlational) analyses. In the manipulation, we tested for the potential short-term effects of exposure to soft or hard news on the psychological well-being of our participants (as measured by the semi-projective Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank; Rotter, 1950). This was done by setting three conditions (soft news, hard news and control group) wherein participants were exposed to 15 consecutive front page screenshots of the chosen soft and hard newspapers respectively. Hard news is generally more focused on major issues and breaking events – i.e., news that is important for the individual to understand, while soft news usually focuses on personal stories, is less time-bound, and is more incident-based. The correlational part of our study focused on discovering associations between long-term exposure to (different types of) news and the degree of negative emotions and well-being (measured by the DASS-21, Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995) and Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965). The results did not show statistically significant differences between conditions. When comparing the long-term readers of the chosen hard and soft newspapers, statistically significant differences were found only in anxiety levels, however, a forming trend seemed to suggest that long-term exposure to soft news might be associated with reduced psychological well-being. Our findings are discussed in line with the contemporary psychological literature.
Keywords: hard news, soft news, sensationalism, mental health, schadenfreude
Published in DKUM: 10.07.2024; Views: 119; Downloads: 13
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Abstract: A large proportion of the world's disease burden is attributable to mental illnesses. Although effective interventions are available, many patients still have limited access to evidence-based treatments. Aside from access, treatment gaps, including inappropriate medication selection and monitoring, are also routinely recognised. Mental health clinical pharmacists can help address these gaps and enable patients to receive optimised pharmaceutical care, particularly appropriate medication selection and monitoring. The European Society of Clinical Pharmacy (ESCP) Special Interest Group on Mental Health was established to improve standardised service provision in mental health settings across Europe. The Special Interest Group identified significant barriers (predominantly associated with reimbursement and position within the multidisciplinary team) to effective pharmaceutical care amongst those with mental illnesses. This commentary presents recommendations to address these gaps through improved mental health clinical pharmacy service provision.
Keywords: clinical pharmacist interventions, clinical pharmacy in mental health, European society of clinical pharmacy, mental illnesses and pharmacy, pharmaceutical services in mental health, polypharmacy and clinical pharmacy, psychotropics and clinical pharmacy
Published in DKUM: 15.04.2024; Views: 214; Downloads: 5
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Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected the mental health of the general population. This holds true especially for vulnerable groups, including young people, students, and females. Our study examined cross-sectional changes in depressive symptoms from immediately before the COVID-19 pandemic (January/February 2020) to the second wave of the epidemic in Slovenia (January/February 2021) among female tertiary students. A multivariate analysis of two repeated cross-sectional surveys was performed using relatively homogeneous samples. The pooled sample included 418 young adult female students (Mage = 21.21 years). Depressed affect items were used to measure depressive symptomatology. All three feelings indicating depressed affect increased substantially and significantly from 2020 to 2021: feeling depressed (23% vs. 38%), lonely (16% vs. 43%), and sad (21% vs. 49%). In 2021, female students had almost a three-fold increase in the odds of reporting at least two out of three depressed affect symptoms compared to 2020 (19% vs. 43%; aOR 2.97; 95% CI 1.59–5.54; p < 0.001), adjusted for sociodemographic and socioeconomic confounders. Our findings suggest that Slovenian female students’ mental health deteriorated during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Public health professionals’ efforts to combat the pandemic’s mental health-related negative short-term and potential long-term impacts should thus focus on young people, especially on younger female students.
Keywords: depressive symptoms, depressed affect, students, covid-19, mental health, pandemic
Published in DKUM: 09.04.2024; Views: 266; Downloads: 26
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Abstract: The thesis analyses the influence of fantasy and madness on two female protagonists in The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson and The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. It aims to explain in what ways the fantasizing of two female protagonists suggests the potential madness or mental health issues in the protagonists. The protagonists, Eleanor Vance, and the governess, experience seemingly inexplicable supernatural occurrences while trying to restart their lives in new surroundings. Both literary works of Gothic fiction focus on their narration and explanation of the events and their fantasizing about what could have been. To correctly interpret the results of the analysis and scientific terms, the first part of the thesis deals with the explanation of specific terminology related to the Gothic genre, madness in medical and literary terms in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and psychoanalytic criticism. The theoretical background is significant for the definition of the specific passages that help us understand the ambiguous literary works by Jackson and James. The thesis attempts to discover what mental illnesses could be tormenting the female protagonists and how defining their symptoms could help explain their behaviour and inexplicable occurrences.
Keywords: The Haunting of Hill House, The Turn of the Screw, Shirley Jackson, Henry James, fantasy, madness, mental illness, schizophrenia, Female Gothic
Published in DKUM: 14.03.2024; Views: 234; Downloads: 45
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