ABSTRACT
This chapter describes a model of 'perverted containing' to explain escalating destructive social processes rooted in phantasies of omnipotence and nourished by unconscious fears of annihilation, using the example of Donald Trump-a prime example of a destructive narcissistic populist who offers omnipotence as salvation. It combines Rosenfeld's theory of destructive narcissism and Bion's theory of the container/contained to describe the powerful dynamic existing between Trump and his voters in which the omnipotent appeal of the demagogue held his followers in thrall. Trump offers his supporters omnipotence as perverted containing. He embodies omnipotence as a person;therefore, he appears convincing, so people can easily believe in him-especially those who, on an early level of intensive anxieties, feelings of persecution, and longing for symbiosis, prefer to attach themselves to one person. Thus, he accommodates their desires to identify and bond symbiotically with one person in total consensus-without triangulation, without doubting and space to develop individual perception and judgment. In the 2020 COVID-19 crisis, Trump first used his usual means: distortion and denial of reality, self-praise and directing accusations towards the usual 'enemies'. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
The reality and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic question God's omnibenevolence and omnipotence. Two questions that stare us in the face are a) is God omnibenevolent given the current reality? b) is God omnipotent? This paper addresses these questions from the African place using the African theory of duality and its underlying logic, Ezumezu. We argue that the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic and its adverse effects (such as death, hardship and social isolation) do not negate God's benevolence and powerfulness. We assert that while the current reality cannot sustain a defence of the traditional theistic qualities of omnipotence and omnibenevolence, the notions of a powerful and benevolent God are not necessarily undermined by the reality of Covid-19. In the light of the African theory of duality and Ezumezu logic, we contend that the COVID-19 pandemic brings out the argument that inherent in God's benevolence is wickedness and inherent in God's powerfulness is weakness © 2022, Filosofia Theoretica.All Rights Reserved.
ABSTRACT
Nurses are at high risk for developing compassion fatigue due to the nature of their job (Duarte & Pinto-Gouveia, 2017). The main goal of this study was to explore the relationships between empathy, guilt (omnipotent and survivor guilt), and components of compassion fatigue (burnout and secondary traumatic stress) using recent guidance for the operationalization and measurement of the construct of empathy and compassion fatigue. Four basic mediational models were examined using Survivor Guilt and Omnipotent Guilt as the individual mediators between empathy and components of compassion fatigue (i.e., Burnout and Secondary Traumatic Stress). We tested a more recent and psychometrically sound operationalization of empathy proposed by Wang and colleagues (2020), which entails the use of a combined score of the Perspective Taking and Empathic Concern scales in the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI;Davis, 1980). In our original sample (N = 63), we did not find the expected mediation relationships or the expected correlations between empathy and the various components of compassion fatigue (burnout and secondary traumatic stress), although there was a significant correlation (r = -.29, p < .01) between secondary traumatic stress scores and exposure to patients diagnosed with COVID-19. Results from a subsample in our study (n = 16) highlights that those nurses with less clinical experience and those who are younger in age may be at greater risk for compassion fatigue. Overall, this research may assist healthcare organizations to create a culture addressing the negative effects of empathy that lead to compassion fatigue, and provide additional supports related to education, practice, and dialogue about self-care or protective factors. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
The author explores the unconscious meanings of the physical absence of the three-dimensional world of people and how these play a critical role in children's reactions to restrictions in human contact during the COVID-19 pandemic. When children are deprived of the corporeality of loved ones, the children's continuously emerging and unstable self-and-other arrangements may trap normative feelings of envy, jealousy, hatred, rivalry, love, and idealization. During lockdowns, there is no place where these raw emotions can be tested, so they remain untempered by the real presence of others and by interactivity with them, feeding aggression that is turned back against the child with frightening ferocity. How do children who must reside in such abstinence during a pandemic pull themselves up the ladder of growth when others whom they rely upon to help them discover who they are, are not there? A description of an observation of a young child attending a Zoom classroom is included, with accompanying commentary.