Mandalas were first used in therapy by Carl Jung, who found that the act of drawing mandalas had a calming effect on patients while at the same time facilitating psychic integration. There is a scarcity of controlled empirical studies of the healing impact of mandalas on mental health. Based on the efficacy of James Pennebaker's written disclosure paradigm in promoting mental well-being (Pennebaker, 1997a, 1997b), the purpose of our study was to examine the benefits for those suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) of processing traumatic events through the creation of mandalas. Benefits to participants were measured in terms of changes in the variables of PTSD symptoms, depressive symptoms, anxiety, spiritual meaning, and the frequency of physical symptoms and illness. Relative to those in the control condition, individuals assigned to the experimental mandala-creation group reported greater decreases in symptoms of trauma at the 1-month follow up. There were no other statistically significant outcome differences. Alternative modes of processing traumatic events (e.g., visually symbolically) may serve individuals who are either reluctant or unable to write about their experiences.
This study investigated the interaction of genetic, environmental, and psychological factors in predicting depression and anxiety symptoms in medical students. First-year medical students (n = 141) completed measures of anxiety, depression, hope, and spiritual meaning at three time points during the first year. Buccal samples were utilized to genotype each individual at the s/l variant in the promoter region of the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR). A subset (n = 91) completed a measure of recent stressors. Mean levels of depression increased during year one of medical school. Presence of the s/s genotype in the promoter region of the 5-HTT gene was associated with greater increases in depression, but only in association with higher numbers of recent stressors. Spiritual meaning and hope were found to counteract genetic susceptibility to stress-related depressive symptoms in the more vulnerable s/s group.
Chinese characters originated as a semiotic system independent from spoken language and in the Japanese language they function non-phonetically with speakers exhibiting right-hemispheric advantage in their processing. We tested the hypothesis that Chinese characters are archetypal images and therefore part of our collective unconscious memory. Our study builds on the first empirical study of archetypal memory of Rosen et al. (1991) which demonstrated that archetypal symbols presented matched with their correct meaning were better learned and recalled. In a series of three experiments we used 40 Chinese characters instead of the archetypal symbols used by Rosen, et al. (1991). The results provided empirical evidence that Chinese characters matched with their correct meaning were significantly better recalled than the ones that were mismatched. Thus, we demonstrated that there appears to be unconscious knowledge of the meaning of the Chinese characters which was triggered as a result of priming when the characters were correctly matched with their meaning. On this basis, we suggest that Chinese characters exhibit the same cognitive qualities as archetypal symbols. Thus, in the Japanese language an archetypal image is integrated non-phonetically into the system of language and signifies the concept independent from the phonetic signifier and is equal to it.
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