Study of the Association of Insecure Attachment With the Dehumanization and Self-Dehumanization of Patients Hospitalized With Psychotic Disorder and Organic Disease.

Introduction Dehumanization is the phenomenon that concerns the non-attribution of humanness to other human beings and has two dimensions, animalistic and mechanistic. The aim of the present study is to study dehumanization and self-dehumanization in patients with psychosis and organic disease. Methods The sample consisted of 200 people who were hospitalized in Athens, Greece, in 2017. Participants were asked to answer the dehumanization questionnaire, the mechanistic self-dehumanization scale, the human nature and human uniqueness characteristics questionnaire, and the adult attachment questionnaire.  Results It was found that patients with organic disease and patients with psychosis do not perform mechanistic and animalistic dehumanization of themselves. Still, it seems that insecure attachment (anxiety and obsession) contributes positively to their mechanistic dehumanization and negatively to their mechanistic self-dehumanization. From the insecure attachment, only the dimensions of stress and obsession affect the mechanistic dehumanization.  Conclusions It is important to take measures to train specialists in the hospital so that they can establish a safe therapeutic relationship with the patient so that patients will not resort to dehumanization and self-dehumanization as a defense against the stress of hospitalization.

Investigation of the Relationship Between Aggression and Adult Attachment in Healthcare Professionals.

Introduction Multiple references to the violent and especially difficult patient have been presented by the international literature. However, there is little literature on the aggressive behaviors of health professionals in their workplaces. The aim of this research is to record and correlate aggression and attachment type data of adult health professionals. Methods The sample includes 192 individuals (43 men and 149 women) health professionals in the private and public sector, aged 20 to 60 years, who were selected by the method of random sampling. The survey was conducted from February 2018 to May 2018. The Greek version of the Aggression Questionnaire and the Greek version of the Revised Experiences in Close Relationships (G-ECR-R) self-report inventory were used and the analysis was performed with the Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS 26) (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). Results The analysis shows that the dimension of avoidance has a positive correlation with hostility and physical aggression and the dimension of stress has a positive correlation with anger, physical aggression and hostility. It also seems that the stress dimension of the adult attachment contributes significantly positively to the prediction of anger and the stress dimension contributes significantly to the prediction of hostility. The dimension of avoiding adult attachment contributes significantly to the prediction of physical aggression. Conclusions To our knowledge, no studies were found in the literature to examine the relationship between the subscales of aggression and dimensions of attachment. It is important that violence in the workplace is recognized as an underlying occupational risk and not just as a matter of criminal law. Finally, more research is needed to study the phenomenon in order to make it more understandable.

Dehumanization of Hospitalized Patients and Self-Dehumanization by Health Professionals and the General Population in Greece.

Introduction Dehumanization is defined as the denial to people of their humanness. It is distinguished into animalistic and mechanistic dehumanization. The aim of this study is to examine whether professionals in a public hospital dehumanize the patient and self-dehumanize. Methods We used the Dehumanization Questionnaire, the Mechanistic Self-Dehumanization Scale, the Human Nature and Human Uniqueness Characteristics Questionnaire, the General Causality Orientation Scale and the Adult Attachment Questionnaire. The sample consisted of 135 mental health professionals (20 from a general hospital and 115 from a psychiatric hospital), 134 other health professionals from the general hospital and 84 people from the general population. Results  Health professionals dehumanize the hospitalized patient more than the general population. The secure attachment acts protectively on self-dehumanization and negatively on the dehumanization of the hospitalized patient. Finally, autonomous people are not self-dehumanized. Conclusions Our findings indicate that measures should be taken for health professionals so that they do not dehumanize the patient.