Wandering Minds: Tracing Inner Worlds Through a Historical-Geographical Art Installation.

The human act of wandering across landscapes and cityscapes has carved the research interests of scholars in cultural, urban, and historical geography, as well as in the humanities. Here we call for-and take the first steps toward-a historical geography of wandering that is pursued in the head rather than with the legs. We do so through analyzing how our audiovisual installation on mind wandering opened up epistemological and ontological questions facing historical geographies of the mind. This installation both modeled mind wandering as conceptualized at different historical moments and aimed to induce mental perambulation in its visitors. In so doing, it was intended both to stage and to disrupt relations between body and mind, the internal and external, attention and inattention, motion and stillness-and, importantly, between the archival and that which resists archival capture. We reflect on how we interspersed traditional scholarly historical and geographical enquiry with methods gleaned from creative practices. In particular, we consider the challenges that such practices pose for how we conceptualize archives-not least when the focus of attention comprises fugitive mental phenomena.

La acción humana de deambular a través de paisajes rurales y urbanos ha tallado los intereses investigativos de estudiosos en geografía cultural, urbana e histórica, lo mismo que en las humanidades. Aquí nosotros clamamos ­­y damos los primeros pasos al respecto­­ por una geografía histórica del deambular que se persiga más con la cabeza que con las piernas. Emprendemos esa tarea analizando cómo nuestra construcción visual sobre el deambular de la mente abrió cuestiones epistemológicas y ontológicas que enfrentan geografías históricas de la mente. Esta construcción a la vez modeló el deambular de la mente según se le conceptualice en diferentes momentos históricos y apuntó a inducir deambulación mental en sus visitantes. Al hacerlo, se intentó poner en escena y afectar las relaciones entre el cuerpo y la mente, lo interno y lo externo, la atención y la desatención, movimiento y quietud ­­y, muy importante, entre lo archivístico y aquello que se resiste a la captura en archivo­­. Reflexionamos sobre la manera como intercalamos la indagación docta histórica y geográfica tradicional con métodos derivados de prácticas creativas. Consideramos particularmente los retos que plantean tales prácticas sobre el modo como conceptualizamos los archivos ­­menos aun cuando el foco de atención consta de fenómenos mentales huidizos.

Interdisciplinary approaches to the phenomenology of auditory verbal hallucinations.

Despite the recent proliferation of scientific, clinical, and narrative accounts of auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs), the phenomenology of voice hearing remains opaque and undertheorized. In this article, we outline an interdisciplinary approach to understanding hallucinatory experiences which seeks to demonstrate the value of the humanities and social sciences to advancing knowledge in clinical research and practice. We argue that an interdisciplinary approach to the phenomenology of AVH utilizes rigorous and context-appropriate methodologies to analyze a wider range of first-person accounts of AVH at 3 contextual levels: (1) cultural, social, and historical; (2) experiential; and (3) biographical. We go on to show that there are significant potential benefits for voice hearers, clinicians, and researchers. These include (1) informing the development and refinement of subtypes of hallucinations within and across diagnostic categories; (2) "front-loading" research in cognitive neuroscience; and (3) suggesting new possibilities for therapeutic intervention. In conclusion, we argue that an interdisciplinary approach to the phenomenology of AVH can nourish the ethical core of scientific enquiry by challenging its interpretive paradigms, and offer voice hearers richer, potentially more empowering ways to make sense of their experiences.

"Once Upon a Time There Was a Saint ": Re-evaluating Folklore in Anglo-Latin Hagiography.

This article examines methods for identifying folklore in hagiography. Using hagiographical materials from eleventh and twelfth century England, it critiques the current trend of equating folklore motifs with oral transmission and argues in favour of a "performer-centred" understanding of folklore and hagiographical composition.

Economic impact of a specialist outreach team in residential and nursing home settings.

BACKGROUND: The results of a randomized controlled trial have indicated that a training and educational programme for staff in nursing or residential homes may result in reductions in levels of depression and levels of cognitive impairment for residents presenting with an active management problem. The training and educational intervention consisted of members of a hospital outreach team who presented a series of 1 hour seminars on topics which staff had indicated would improve their knowledge and skills. AIMS OF THE STUDY: The aim of this study was to present an exploratory analysis of the impact on costs associated with providing an old age psychiatry outreach team giving training and education for staff in nursing and residential homes. METHOD: For the economic study, a societal perspective was employed. Measures of resource use and costs to the health service, social and community services and the nursing and residential homes were analysed for 120 residents from 12 nursing or residential homes, as part of a randomized controlled trial to assess a training package provided in residential and nursing homes. Cost estimates were based on estimates from generalized estimated equations. To allow for clustering effects within homes, the unit of randomization was the home as opposed to the individual. To ensure models were correctly specified, several tests including the Ramsey RESET test were employed. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in the total cost per person in the homes that received the intervention and the control homes. This study has shown that the additional cost of providing the specialist outreach team was likely to be covered by reductions in the use of other resources such as GP visits to nursing and residential homes. Therefore, though the study had limitations, it appeared that improved care could be provided at little or no extra cost. IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH CARE PROVISION AND USE: The evidence presented suggests that the specialist outreach team was unlikely to add to the total cost of caring for residents in nursing and residential homes. This finding combined with the benefits in terms of lower levels of depression and cognitive impairment suggested that the intervention was good value for money. The intervention should be considered for use in other nursing and residential homes.