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The Art of Bosch - A Mirror to Death and Beyond Oliveira, Abílio; Araújo, Gabriela; Rodrigues, Rute
Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences Vol. 3 No. 9 (2012): Special Issue
Publisher : Richtmann Publishing

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Abstract

Who really pays attention to poetry, philosophy, painting or other art form? We rather seek for what is immediately needed orquickly consumable, what doesn't bother nor disturb us. Emotions and cultural products are strongly linked. But the perception of artdepends on how it impresses us. Art can confront us with a reality. In a civilization dominated by images, through the media, advertisingand virtual worlds, art, like life and death, is rarely valued. We approached on this study, the way in which college students - of bothsexes, from courses of management, history and psychology - interpreted the image/painting ‘Paradise: Ascent of the Blessed’, fromHieronymus Bosch, which alludes to death and beyond-death. We analyzed the thoughts, feelings, images and symbols that emergedfrom their answers, through open questions, after seeing the image/painting. Men revealed security, like they were watching forsomething they see as controllable and far away from them. Women expressed an active emotional involvement, as well as fear, beliefin God and hope in finding a path through the darkness, revealing an intense feeling of proximity before death and immortality. Studentsof psychology, in particular, revealed a more emotional reaction to the image/death, than the future historians. The conceptions of thefirst ones are closer to the women's perspectives, while the others resemble those of men. This work invited us to reflect aboutourselves, the power of images, death, and on what lies beyond death and life.
When Life Hurts... On the Verge of Death Rodrigues, Rute; Oliveira, Abílio
Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences Vol. 3 No. 9 (2012): Special Issue
Publisher : Richtmann Publishing

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Abstract

In this study, anchored in the theory of social representations, we intended to ascertain the existence of risk-taking and selfharmbehaviours, as well as situations of imminent death, in a population of adolescents (boys and girls between 15 and 19). It was alsoour aim to understand how these behaviours might be associated to the social representations of life, death and to musical preferences.Our findings indicate that boys are the ones who tend to find themselves more often engaged in all of the three forms of endangerbehaviours. It is also among the adolescents between 17 and 19 years old that these situations are more common. A preference forfeminine pop is associated to self-harm behaviour and classic pop is linked to risk behaviour. Personal fulfilment seems to be thegreatest indicator of both risk behaviour and self harm: the lower the perception of fulfilment, the greater the chance to adopt these kindof behaviours. Results also support that negative perceptions of well-being, and love for life are linked to risk and self harm behaviours,mainly in girls. Adolescents who shown risk behaviours represented death as a ritual and so did girls who had already found themselveson the verge of dying.