Epiphany is a significant feature for a certain kind of short stories. In this essay Anna Westberg studies its importance for her short story writings in comparison to Alice Munro, one of the short story most prominent authors. The analysis is supported by a brief overview of the history of the short story and its development..

Abstract:The purpose of this study is to get increased knowledge of how teachers motivate and teach youth about existential questions at junior highchool. My issue for this composition is to find out how ? and how much ? teachers in fact teach about existential questions in the religious education.I interviewed four teachers at junior highschool, with various experiences. One teacher had about thirty years of experience in teaching, and one teacher was quite young and unexperienced.The result indicates that the youth were interested in a lot of existential questions. The study also indicates the teachers view of youth?s identity-work and their existential questions.The resultat is compared with studies of Dahlin, Hartman and Sjödin..

The purpose of this study is to get increased knowledge of young people and their experience and thoughts about existential questions, and if the adults in Junior highschool take them into consideration. Our purpose to look at the result in a gender perspective was also a part of this work. Our starting point is the theory of youth, their existential questions and the importance of their identity-work in the late modern society. We interviewed six youth at the age of 15-16. We used hermeneutic theory to analyse the text.

The novel American Psycho was first published in 1991. It recieved harsh criticism and was viewed as a work of heterosexism, misogyny and pointless violence. Despite the criticism, the protagonist, a wealthy serial killer yuppie namned Patrick Bateman, fascinated the readers. He hides his monstrosity behind a façade of heteronormativity, but this essay shows that the norms in American Psycho are fragile. Batemans relationships are shallow, his identity is constructed out of traditional masculinitynorms and even though he?s homophobic there?s a homoerotic undertone in the text, as well as gothic patterns that give the novel a fair amount of queerness too.

At two nursing homes for people with dementia a qualitative study was performed. The purpose was to investigate the therapy dog?s meaning to people with dementia from their perspective. Two women and five men with dementia were interviewed, everyone being somewhere between 60 and 87 years of age. All but one had previously owned a dog at some point in their lives.

Background: When a patient suffer from a disease and is in need of palliative care, it is normal to have existential questions and thoughts. For some patients these questions can be painful and the nurse need to have knowledge about dealing with these kind of questions and thoughts to be able to relieve and/or prevent this kind of suffering.Aim: The aim was to describe how the nurse can prevent the existential suffering among patients with palliative care.Method: A literature-based study was based on eight qualitative studies.Results: The results showed that nurses meet patients in the palliative care environment which may suffer from existential problems when their questions and thoughts don´t get answered. It showed that the most important a nurse can do is to give time to these calls and build up a safe relation to the patient. This allows the nurse to read the patients existential questions and observing possibly suffering. The result is organized in two categories "To see and confirm" and " To listen and give support" and see subcategories " Use body language", " Create reliable relationship", respond to the existential questions", "Give the patient time", " take help from others in hard situations" and "to focus on other things"Conclusion: It is easy to only focus on the physical illness while caring for a patient and believe that it is creating suffering.

Background:Existential and spiritual thoughts are a big part of pallative care. The terms existential and spiritual can be understood in many different ways. It may mean thoughts about faith or thoughts concerning life and death. The nurse in palliative care need to have good communication skills, be responsible and be present and supportive in meeting with the patient.Aim:To describe the nurse's experiences of meeting patients' existential and spiritual thoughts in palliative care.Methods:A literature review based on 10 scientific studies have been done. The studies have been downloaded from the following scientific databases; Academic Search preimer, CINAHL Plus with   Full Text, and PubMed.

Background:Existential and spiritual thoughts are a big part of pallative care. The terms existential and spiritual can be understood in many different ways. It may mean thoughts about faith or thoughts concerning life and death. The nurse in palliative care need to have good communication skills, be responsible and be present and supportive in meeting with the patient.Aim:To describe the nurse's experiences of meeting patients' existential and spiritual thoughts in palliative care.Methods:A literature review based on 10 scientific studies have been done. The studies have been downloaded from the following scientific databases; Academic Search preimer, CINAHL Plus with   Full Text, and PubMed.

Introduction: Palliative care is based on an active total care where the patient's independence and participation are included. Few studies have been based on a concept of freedom in relation to this target group.Aim: The aim of this study was to describe the perception the nurse has about "freedom" - its significance and meaning from an existential perspective for patients with palliative care needs.Method: A qualitative content analysis based on a narrated and written down text from focus groups with adequate examples. The starting point in the focus groups was to focus on existential issues in relation to patients near death. Based on the concept of freedom, has the printouts been analyzed, categorized and codedFindings: Nature, identity, integrity and self-esteem are important aspects for our approach to freedom but freedom is also about existential questions where hope, reconciliation, freedom and forgiveness are included.Discussion: Discussion: We all have our own definitions and meanings of freedom. The largest and perhaps most important fullest freedom is our inner freedom - our own existential freedom.

In the society of today more and more employees are reported sick due to illness caused by their place of work. A lot of employees are stressed in their daily work and because of that they get mentally exhausted. These common occurrences are a part of the psycho-social work environment and it is the employers responsibility to avoid them. To rehabilitate an employee is often very expensive and takes a lot of time. Focusing on preventing illness in the work environment, instead of repair when illness is a fact, is an advantage both for the employers and the employees.The purpose with this essay is to illuminate the responsibility that the employers have to prevent psycho-social illness in the work environment.

Today therapy dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) service people more than ever and different categories of work places use therapy dogs to help their caretakers. Many studies have been made on the positive effects in patients when they are given contact with a dog, but very little have been done on how the dog experience its situation and what kind of behaviour a therapy dog shows during its working days. This work was made to investigate the behaviours that educated therapy dogs in Sweden showed when they were in contact with a caretaker and to find out if the dogs showed any signs of stress or some other kind of discomfort. To do this a survey was sent out to 17 educated therapy dog handlers in Sweden that together had 18 educated therapy dogs. The survey contained 39 questions about the daily work of the therapy dogs when they were together with caretakers and some questions about the therapy dogs spare time. A question about what kind of dog breed the therapy dog handlers had were also in the survey to investigate if some breeds were more usual as therapy dogs.

The aim of the study was to illustrate how music therapy can be used in the care of patients with schizophrenia and other psychotic illness.The method used was a literature review. Scientific articles were searched in PubMed, Cinahl, PsycINFO och Scopus databases with an outcome of ten articles, with in total 330 participants, that underwent quality and outcomes analysis.The results showed that music therapy could provide potential improvement in the patients' social functions and that it could also improve negative, some positive and general schizophrenia and psychotic symptoms in some patients. The form of music therapy used was often creative music activities with music therapist, with or without structure, or individually customized. The length of treatment varied widely. It was not possible to draw conclusions about which type of music therapy was best.

This qualitative studie discusses how psychologists can integrate clients' secular or religious philosophies into counseling and psychotherapy, as themes that are psychologically meaningful. The studie also discusses how psychologists can understand and respond to the psychological aspects of clients' existential and religious experiences. Eight psychologists were interviewed and their experiences were analysed using a phenomenological method.The results of the interviews suggested that the eight psychologists could handle the psychological aspects of clients' philosophies, by investigating their own personal philosophies and scientific ontologies. It was also discussed how an awareness of the psychologists' professional boundaries and personal experiences of existential and religious phenomenons, could facilitate an integration of clients' existential and religious experiences..

Animal-assisted therapy had its large breakthrough in the 1960-ties when a psychiatrist named Boris Levinson discovered the great advantages of involving animals in the treatment of patients. Therapy with animals involves that animals are used in a systematic way, in a person's process of treatment. The most distinguished companion animal used within this area is the dog, but horses, cats, rabbits, birds, dolphins and the most common farm animals are used in animal-assisted therapy. Most animals that are to be used for this specific purpose need to be trained in order to maintain their physical and mental health, but also to minimize the risks for the people that are involved. Most studies within this research area are focused on the positive effects on the patients and less on the effects on the animals.

Historically, the horse has in many ways been important to human beings. Today, Equine Assisted Therapy is a form of treatment in which the horse is used as a tool from the treatment of the client. Supported Equine therapy has a therapeutic purpose and may vary depending on the patient's needs and the professionals work competence. Various studies show that animals have a positive impact on people. The aim of our study was to explore how Equine Assisted Therapy is used within the practical fields of social work in Sweden.