Volume 40 Issue 2

Volume 40 (2025)

Publication date: 08.01.2026

Description

Cover design: Andrzej Franaszek

Licence: CC BY 4.0

Editorial team

Editor-in-Chief Dr hab. n. med., Prof. ANS Joanna Bonior

Deputy Editor-in-Chief Dr hab. n. hum., Prof. UEK Marek Motyka

Secretary Mgr Beata Jakubczyk

Issue editors Dr hab. n. med., Prof. ANS Joanna Bonior, Dr hab. n. hum., Prof. UEK Marek Motyka

Issue content

Od redakcji

Marek Motyka, Joanna Bonior

Art of Healing, Volume 40 Issue 2, Volume 40 (2025), pp. 7-11

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EMPIRICAL STUDIES AND RESEARCH REPORTS

Charakterystyka niepokoju i lęku u chorych zakwalifikowanych do pomostowania aortalnowieńcowego – obserwacje anestezjologiczne

Małgorzata Barud, Alicja Nasiłowska-Barud

Art of Healing, Volume 40 Issue 2, Volume 40 (2025), pp. 15-22

https://doi.org/10.4467/18982026SZL.25.010.22436

Every disease and hospitalization related thereto puts a strain on mental regulatory mechanisms. Cardiac surgery has a special place in this respect.
The aim of this study is to analysis the structure of anxiety and fear, and its main sources in patients scheduled for coronary artery bypass grafting.
To assess the level of anxiety and fear the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), and our own questionnaire covering the main sources of anxiety and fear were used.
The results obtained allowed to conclude that the patients scheduled for heart surgery reacted with a high level of anxiety as a response to a direct threat to health and life, and with an equally high level of anxiety as a personality predisposition to react with fear. The main sources of anxiety were the fear of dying during the operation or immediately after it, medical malpractice, not waking up after the operation, becoming mentally or physically disabled, the fear of pain and suffering, and fear of their family and close relatives suffering as well.

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Obraz własnego ciała i satysfakcja z życia seksualnego kobiet pochodzących z rodzin z problemem alkoholowym

Dominika Długosz

Art of Healing, Volume 40 Issue 2, Volume 40 (2025), pp. 23-34

https://doi.org/10.4467/18982026SZL.25.011.22437

For many decades, psychologists have been interested in the influence of the family environment on an individual’s life, particularly in situations where this environment is dysfunctional. A family in which one of the parents drinks harmfully or is addicted to alcohol creates a specific upbringing environment filled with uncertainty, fear, and often also violence. Since the 1960s, researchers have been examining the consequences of growing up in a family with an alcohol problem; however, the topics of these studies have rarely focused on corporeality and sexuality. A questionnaire-based study relying on self-reporting was conducted to determine whether there are differences in perceived sexual satisfaction and body image between women from families with alcohol problems and women who did not experience this issue. A questionnaire consisting of the Children of Alcoholics Screening Test (CAST), Sexual Satisfaction Scale for Women (SSS-W-R15), and Body Esteem Scale (BES) tests was administered to 169 adult women aged 18–48. Women whose parents were likely to be alcoholics rated their bodies worse on scales of weight control, sexual attractiveness, and physical condition than those women whose parents did not abuse alcohol. No statistically significant differences were found between these groups in terms of sexual satisfaction.

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THEORETICAL AND REVIEW ARTICLES

Cierpienie i nadzieja

em. Józef Makselon

Art of Healing, Volume 40 Issue 2, Volume 40 (2025), pp. 37-41

https://doi.org/10.4467/18982026SZL.25.012.22438

Starting off from the assumptions of the personalistic vision of man as well as humanistic and existential concepts, the author first describes some manifestations of the attitude towards suffering and poses the central question about its meaningfulness. Referring to the analyses contained in John Paul II’s Salvifici Doloris, the author shows three dimensions of the possible search for the intentionality of suffering.
The second part of the paper is an attempt to describe the phenomenon of hope and its role not only within the experience of suffering. The richness of connotative meanings of the word hope often makes it associated with shallow optimism or, on the contrary, functions as the most important value.
Hope dies last, but love lasts forever. Therefore, expanding the cooncpet of hope to include faith (credibility) and love (approval of the person) shows a broader perspective of understanding suffering. It is then not only a fact, a problem, but also a mystery, because it can reveal the depth of the human person.

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Gerontogogiczne aspekty inkluzji i ekskluzji społecznej. Próba typologii stereotypów w tym obszarze

Janusz Mastalski

Art of Healing, Volume 40 Issue 2, Volume 40 (2025), pp. 43-54

https://doi.org/10.4467/18982026SZL.25.013.22439

The article deals with the issues related to the marginalization of seniors. In the first part of the text, the author clarifies such concepts as: social exclusion, social inclusion and stereotypes. In the next part of the article, seven gerontologic stereotypes are discussed. These are: the stereotype of uselessness, the stereotype of incompetence (digital exclusion), the stereotype of embarrassment, the stereotype of living with memories, the stereotype of promoted Juvenism, the stereotype of deep and mature religiosity, and the stereotype of self-marginalization. The article ends with postulates. There is a great need for inclusive activities towards seniors. There is no doubt that an important foundation for the inclusion of seniors is their social capital. It is all about identifying it, launching it and, consequently, using it. For this to happen, it is necessary to change the thinking of the whole society about the elderly and their social role.

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Psychosomatyka – powrót do znaczenia traumatycznego dzieciństwa

Dorota Kubacka-Jasiecka

Art of Healing, Volume 40 Issue 2, Volume 40 (2025), pp. 55-72

https://doi.org/10.4467/18982026SZL.25.014.22440

The study returns to the classic approach towards psychosomatic medicine, considering the impact and significance of childhood trauma as a crucial risk factor for psychosomatic disorders. In the current psychosomatic approach, which accentuates the holistic nature of health determinants – i.e. combining biological and psychosocial conditioning – nearly all diseases are perceived as psychosomatic. When the factor of traumatic childhood is ignored in the analysis of a given stressful situation along with the person’s resources and coping strategies, the disorders that have been traditionally considered as psychosomatic are not distinguished as separate conditions. Simultaneously, some current concepts link modern psychosomatics to alexithymic traits and behaviour patterns (personalities type A, C, D, or A+C – anxiety plus aggression) and view these as a consolidated legacy of protective and adaptive strategies originating in childhood trauma. In this modality, their dynamics may be understood as a determinant of psychosomatic conditions. The paradigm presented by the author in this paper shows the continuity of childhood somatoform behaviour and the development of psychosomatic disorders in adults. The underlying adaptive and protective strategies, formed in childhood and modified in adulthood, are also determinants of the person’s attitude towards illness.

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Od magii do wielodyscyplinarnego leczenia skojarzonego. Krótka historia leczenia raka piersi. Część II: Średniowiecze i nowożytność

Kornelia Kręciszewska, Karolina Żyto, Gabriela Ciszek, Karolina Duczmal, Zofia Kowal, Zuzanna Słowińska, Katarzyna Pękacka-Falkowska

Art of Healing, Volume 40 Issue 2, Volume 40 (2025), pp. 73-85

https://doi.org/10.4467/18982026SZL.25.015.22441

The present article constitutes the second instalment in a three-part series devoted to the history of breast cancer treatment from antiquity to modern times. This text serves as a direct continuation of the first part, which addressed this subject in the context of antiquity and was published in the previous issue of the journal. In the following section, treatment methods and concepts of the pathogenesis of the aforementioned condition are discussed as reflected in historical sources from medieval Europe, the medieval Islamic world, Byzantium, as well as the Renaissance, Baroque, and Enlightenment periods.

LETTERS TO EDITOR

Arteterapeutyczna siła krajobrazu

Weronika Madryas-Szyba

Art of Healing, Volume 40 Issue 2, Volume 40 (2025), pp. 89-98

https://doi.org/10.4467/18982026SZL.25.016.22442

The article is the author extending their research interests to include the art therapeutic properties of landscapes and therapeutic gardens. Hitherto, attention has focused on the healing power of art and literature, and its application in narrative medicine. The belief that illness is actually a kind of story underpins exploration of communication between patients and medical staff. Harnessing the potential of nature provides a new space for conversations with patients, and for art therapy. Rita Charon stresses that mindfulness is the foundation of effective communication. The aim of the publication is to demonstrate that the landscape, therapeutic garden, art, and literature will support this mindful dialogue, which often determines the diagnosis, course, and effectiveness of treatment. Landscape therapy will be presented in the context of bibliotherapy, music therapy, art therapy, and related therapies, silvotherapy and thalassotherapy.

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Słowa kluczowe: anxiety, ischemic heart disease, coronary artery bypass graft, anxiety-state, anxiety-trait, sexual satisfaction, body image, adult children of alcoholic, alcoholism, suffering, hope, love, exclusion, inclusion, stereotype, senior, typology, childhood trauma, psychosomatics, alexithymia, dissociative defence mechanisms, personality types, history of medicine, breast cancer, treatment, Medieval Times, Early Modern Period, landscape, art therapy, therapeutic gardens