Psychosis, Pain, and Time: A Personal Reflection

While narratives of gender politics and female identity in Western visual culture have become more dynamic with the passage of time, one of the most contentious spheres of discussion in mass media surrounds that of Ian Fleming’s ultimate fictional creation, James Bond. Female sexuality and gender politics in the Bond universe has been robustly, and rightfully, scrutinised by academic and casual spectators for at least 50 of the 70 years since his inception. Yet, one of the most enduring characters in the cinematic canon has not yet been given this discerning treatment, in earnest. Originally called "Fiona Kelly" by screenwriters Richard Maibaum and John Hopkins, Fiona Volpe was portrayed by Italian actress Luciana Paluzzi-Solomon in Terence Young’s 1965 film adaptation of Thunderball. In November 2017, I had the opportunity to interview Mrs. Paluzzi-Solomon for a now-abandoned book concept. As one of the few actresses from the Sean Connery-era who are still living, she was remarkably forthcoming regarding her professional and personal experiences on set. Without pride or prejudice, Mrs. Paluzzi-Solomon’s account proved to be not only to be illuminating in and of itself as an interview, but also served as a foundation to better understand the origins, development, and public reception of the gold standard femme fatale of the Bond films. This article will explore the character of Fiona Volpe, her origins, plot function, and legacy, from the unique perspective of the woman who brought her to life.

The Covid-19 pandemic during its early phases posed significant psychological threats particularly for medical frontline personal. It is unclear whether the medical workforce with the passage of time has adapted to these threats or have generalized to wider medical settings. An online survey was conducted reaching 1476 physicians in Germany with valid data from 1327 participants. Depression and anxiety were screened with the PHQ-2 and the GAD-2. Among a subtotal of 1139 (86.6%) physicians reporting personal treatment experiences with Covid-19 patients, 553 (84.8%) worked in a private practice (PP) and 586 (88.3%) in a hospital (HP). Covid-19 provoked profound conflicts between professional and ethical values: more physicians in PPs than HPs reported external constraints on their medical care being in conflict with the code of medical ethics (39.1 vs. 34.4%, p < 0.002) and significantly more HPs failed to maintain the dignity of their patients during the pandemic (48 vs. 27%, p < 0.0001). Comparison with reference groups among physicians with comparable size and settings during the first wave of Covid-19 revealed a significant increase in the prevalence of depression (23.0%) and anxiety (24.16%). Feelings of helplessness (63.3% in HPs and 53.4% in PPs) were associated with female sex, minor years of medical experience, sleeping problems and being encountered to unsettling events. Exposure to unsettling events and helplessness was significantly mediated by sleep disturbances (ß = 0.29, SE = 0.03, p < 0.0001). Covid-19 induced stress job content issues have broadened to medical disciplines beyond frontline workers. Emotional perturbations among physicians have attained a critical magnitude.

This study's purpose was to learn about survivors' raw personal experiences of the Oklahoma City bombing in terms of reported actions, thoughts, and feelings, and to examine the evolution of their feelings with the passage of time, post-disaster. A randomly selected sample of 182 directly-exposed survivors of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing were interviewed approximately six months after the disaster and asked four open-ended questions about reactions to the bombing and to reminders of it. Responses to questions were conceptually divided, providing structure for a subsequent qualitative content analysis. Initial thoughts and actions at the time of the bomb blast included efforts to make sense of what was happening and helping themselves and others to safety. Feelings evolved in type and intensity, with varied time courses. Based on these findings, responders, clinicians, and health authorities can anticipate different emotional responses over time, allowing tailoring of mental health interventions to needs.

In this article, the author examines the relationship between power, time, and human reality. Using a novel by the Bosnian writer Meša Selimović as a case study, the author tests two metaphysical claims: power submits to power only, and the passage of time empties the significance of each and every human activity. The author finds that Selimović’s novel confirms both. The conclusion is profoundly pessimistic. The lives of human beings are doubly unhappy: they are spent in protracted struggles for resources and recognition that yield power, and also even the accomplishments of the victorious in these struggles will be erased by the passage of time. However, the understanding of the second claim might retroactively ameliorate the conditions of human life. Yet as evidenced by Selimović’s novel, in the world dominated by power, this does not happen. The case of Šehaga Sočo shows that even the one whose personal experience convinced him of the meaninglessness of it all is unable to break out of the cycle of rivalry and revenge. At his deathbed, he orders the death of his rivals, though he knows that to him dying, it makes no difference whether they live or die. Why not opt for forgiveness? Because, as Selimović emphasizes, power’s insistence on self-perpetuation is illogical, and it is logic that tells us not to engage in meaningless tasks. In other words, human reason is powerless to provide us with a more tolerant world.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the narrative nature of organizational spaces and how these narratives influence human action. The study introduces a notion of “narrating space” that emphasizes a narrative construction of space that is dynamic and performative. The study joins the recent material and spatial turn in organization studies where spaces are not considered merely as a container or a context to organizational action, but as a dynamic and active force.Design/methodology/approachThe study draws on the triadic conception of space of Henry Lefebvre (1991). Lefebvre developed three interconnected dimensions of space: conceived, perceived and lived space. Space can be conceived as an abstract architectural plan or perceived through the practice of space. The dimension that integrates these two is the lived space. Spaces are experienced through emotions, imagination and embodied sensations. Instead of being a passive object, spaces become active and performative through the human engagement. They carry narratives that change their form as time passes by. The study embraces aesthetic, embodied epistemology where sensuous perceptions are considered as valid knowledge.FindingsThe study applies an aesthetic and dynamic approach to space and illustrates how spaces carry performative and processual narratives. These narratives are based on lived experience through personal, embodied experience, memories and sensuous perceptions. The illustrations also show that narratives change over time.Research limitations/implicationsA narrating space concept is characterized by being subjective, dynamic and temporal. Furthermore, it is pointed out that space is constructed through sense-based experiences. A metaphor of an amoeba is offered to depict the nature of the phenomenon. The amoeba metaphor points out that space narratives are dynamic and changing. The study adds to a better awareness of space as a sensuous narrative. Beyond being an isolated personal experience, the study and the illustrations enhance a material view to organizational narratives.Practical implicationsThe study suggests that managers, architects and designers should take notice of spaces as narratives that involve temporal and sensuous experiences when planning and (re)designing work environments. Due to the subjective and temporal nature of organizational spaces they are manageable only to a limited extent. Therefore, to appreciate an active narrating nature of organizational spaces, employee involvement in planning and (re)designing spaces is encouraged.Originality/valueFirst, the paper enhances the awareness of organizational spaces as sensuous narratives. Second, it adds a material aspect to narratives. Third, it advances an aesthetic and embodied approach to narrative organization research.

Apparently a number of things about human sensory experience change as time passes, but all such changes have not as yet come under discussion or experimental investigat~on. W e know that young children toddle and that a form of the same thing is typical in quite old persons. In the child, we look at toddling and the later disappearance of it as part of a learning process. When we are concerned at all about unsteadiness of gait in elderly persons, we attribute it to muscular weakness and just it for granted without any inquisitiveness about its basis, either as stemming from the person or from outside circumstances. It has occurred to me that this rightly constitutes a problem area in human behavior. It is worth discussing. The tiny youngster is unable to report personal experiences to an extent useful to an inquiring adult, and it is also likely that the oldster has given little thought to the exact form of the change in his walking and standing actions and experiences. Let us take a look at one of the situations and experiences to which I refer. Let's deal with my own experiences and motor behavior. I wear low heel shoes. I like laced oxfords rather than the slip-on type so that when I wear shoes I want them to be snugnot to slip up and down on my heels. Let's say I stand and test how the shoes feel on a smooth bare floor. Since the floor is smooth and horizontal, one would expect that one's foot ought to feel as though on a practically horizontal stable surface. This is not the case. It feels as though one is standing on a surface which can (and does) tip in any one of several directions in accord with the way the weight is put on the bottom of the foot. Accordingly, this means that while I have these shoes on, the floor I'm standing on is not stable, but quite variable. Add to this, what happens if the floor is carpeted with deep nap carpet which actually allows the shoe to tilt in it in accord with the way weight is placed on the foot. Keep in mind we are talking here about three things, (1) muscle action, ( 2 ) its needed adjustment from instant to instant, and ( 3 ) the kind of complex sensory experience that surprisingly results. This situation, it would seem, because it is new, would require a learning process of some kind so that it might be accomplished with little awareness and possibly greater skill. Most routine motor activity when it becomes the basis for a preponderant sensory (proprioceptive) experience is hardly doing what it best can do to take care of the mechanical needs of the situation. At least in the early stages of the lecurrences of this situation, the individual has far more on his hands in order to perform gracefully than he did earlier. All we see as onlookers is a form of awkwardness and s3y that the person is.getting old. W e may give it little further thought, or it may simply evoke passing attention. No form of inquisitiveness generally ensues. I have called this state, the childhood of proprioception but I have never heard it discussed from the standpoint of the one in his second Other features of the person's behavior have generally attracted more curiosity, discussion and even experimental investigation. Why not this one? You will note I have not yet come to what all this means to the oldster and what he does about it. Let those interested in research in learning consider what is involved both in learning to stand and to walk both in first childhood and then in the childhood. This is a clinical as well as an experimental problem.

Tragedy plus Time: National Trauma and Television Comedy