International Journal of Body, Mind and Culture
Volume:4 Issue: 1, Winter -Spring 2017

Today, anyone who has travelled a little through history or reflected on social systems knows that although they are established and designed to satisfy our needs and demands, they have needs of their own which guarantee their life and may precede our needs. Hence, these systems, which were supposed to serve us obediently like the magic lamp genie, make us serve them in different ways. Medicine is one of such social systems which were undoubtedly established to satisfy our vital need to care and cure. To exist and develop, medicine needs to know and control personal and social conditions, and to satisfy these, it needs knowledge, money, and, perhaps prior to all of these, it needs to be trusted. To be known, man should be completely uncovered, observable, and dissected into his parts and the relationship between his parts should be explained in simple models. And to direct the condition toward maximum health, man should be converted into a statistical entity and his individual differences, conditions, and narratives have to be ignored so that he becomes predictable and, consequently, controllable creature. The story of relative, and almost necessary, conflict between man and medicine is as simple as it is explained. Before we go any further into the discussion, we should remember that a real man, with his whole phenomenological world and new-emergent and unique properties of autonomy and consciousness, may suddenly behave like a joker and disturb all the rules of medicine's play. It is natural that such subtleties cannot be tolerated by a materialistic model which is relied on knowledge of mechanistic organization of parts. The aim of this theoretical essay is to increase the readers' awareness of biomedical model restrictions and organized cruelties it imposes on man in practice and theory. The discussion of alternate models which we are turning to recently are dealt with in other essays.

The concept that an essence independent of man's volition exists for technology, from the point of view of any thinker, has extensive effects on the whole system of his reflections on technology. Heidegger has been known to grant an independent essence for technology (essentialists). This highlights and complies with some other parts of his thoughts on technology. This belief even extends to the utmost of his philosophy of technology, where he finds the way of release from the Gestell of technology. The current paper tries to extend Heidegger's reasons and evidences on technology to medical technology. Then, it deals with possible criticisms of these reasons and evidences. Finding the foundations of Heidegger's ideas on technology in his first classical work "Being and Time" is the purpose of this article.

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a prevalent functional gastrointestinal disorder (FGID). Most individuals with this disease have problems in expressing their feelings. Negative emotions and specific cognitive attitudestoward life can contribute to the development of depression and worsening of symptoms. This research aimed to compare the emotional schemas of patients with IBS with that of a control group and to investigate the relationship between psychological symptoms and emotional schemas.

The present causal-comparative research was performed on 98 patients with IBS referred to a gastroenterologist in Isfahan, Iran, in the winter of 2016. In addition, the 97 participants in the control group were selected from among caregivers and university staff through convenience sampling method. The data collection tools consisted of the ROME-III scale, structured clinical interview for DSM-IV(SCID-I), Persian version of the Emotional Schemas Questionnaire (ESS-P)‎,and the 21-item Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scales (DASS-21). The data were analyzed in SPSS software.

The results showed that there was a statistically significant difference between the patients with IBS and control groups in terms of all schemas (P ≤ 0.05), except emotional schemas of trying to be rational and being comprehensible (P > 0.05). Moreover, the results indicated that some emotional schemas were related to psychological symptoms (P ≤ 0.05).

According to the findings, it seems that it is necessary to instruct individuals with IBS regarding emotional schemas. Increased awareness of emotional schemas will result in the acceptance of undesirable emotions as a part of the complex human nature, and thus, less experience of anxiety, depression, and stress.

The present study assessed the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) for couples on couples’ quality of life (QOL), emotional regulation, marital satisfaction, general health, and mindfulness.

This semi-experimental study was performed on 50 couples selected from among 150 couples referring to Zehn Agah Clinic, Bonyad-e Shahid Centre, and the counseling center of Kargarnezhad Hospital in Kashan, Iran, in 2015. The subjects were divided into 2 equal groups including ACT and treatment as usual (TAU). The first group received psychological treatment while the second did not receive any intervention. QOL was assessed in both groups using the Short Form-12 (SF-12) and the ENRICH marital satisfaction questionnaire during pretest and posttest.

A significant differences was observed in the mean scores of marital satisfaction and QOL between the two groups (P < 0.001).

It can be concluded that ACT for couples can enhance marital satisfaction and QOL. It appears that ACT for couples is an effective intervention for the treatment of clients with marital problems.

The present study was designed to compare climacteric symptoms, self-esteem, and quality of life (QOL) between women from two different cultures in China (Mosuo and Han Chinese) and to evaluate the interaction among these variables. Mosuo is a small ethnic group in southwest China, which is described as a matriarchal society, while Han Chinese is the largest ethnic group with a patriarchal system.

This cross-cultural study was conducted on 54 Mosuo women and 52 Han Chinese women between 40 and 60 years of age. The subjects were selected through convenience sampling. They answered a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Menopause Rating Scale (MRS), the Self-Esteem Scale (SES), and the 12-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-12).

In our sample, Mosuo women obtained lower scores on the psychological and somato-vegetative subscales of the MRS, but higher scores on SES and the mental health-related QOL (SF-12/MCS) than Han Chinese women. However, the correlation between climacteric symptoms, self-esteem, and QOL was weaker in the Mosuo group compared to the Han group. Multiple linear regressions indicated that climacteric symptoms have negatively affected women's QOL.

In accordance with the study hypothesis, Mosuo women showed milder symptoms, a higher self-esteem, and a better QOL compared to the Han Chinese women during the climacteric. The interaction between climacteric symptoms, psychosocial variables, and QOL revealed cultural differences.