Clinical and empirical studies have documented significant alterations in self-related thought in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). To our knowledge, however, few studies have examined self-referential cognition by analyzing survivors' written impact statements in individuals whose PTSD is due to interpersonal trauma. In the current study, we performed a linguistic analysis of impact statements (i.e., descriptions of how the trauma has affected the survivors' views of themselves, others, and the world) collected at the start of therapy from women with PTSD that was due to interpersonal trauma, with the goal of determining whether PTSD symptom clusters were associated with altered self-referential thought. We found that higher levels of PTSD-related hyperarousal symptoms were significantly associated with diminished self-related word use, after controlling for depression severity, f 2 = .31. Similarly, diminished negative self-related word use was associated with higher levels of hyperarousal symptoms, f 2 = .47. Our findings align with previous research that has provided evidence for a diminished sense of self in PTSD. These results may help inform targeted interventions aimed at improving social-affective functions in PTSD and other psychiatric conditions.

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Recent developments in both the Bahá’í community and the field of economics have opened up new vistas in the application of Bahá’í principles to economic questions, both in theory and in practice. The Bahá’í community has grown enough that the Universal House of Justice, in its 1 March 2017 message, has called on Bahá’ís to concern themselves increasingly with the inequalities in the world and to bring their personal lives and the actions of their Bahá’í communities more in line with the high moral standards and principles of compassion and service in the teachings of their Faith. At the same time, the economics profession is more open to new directions of thought and research following the financial crisis of 2007–08 and the subsequent global recession, which exposed the shortcomings of the macroeconomic models that the profession had spent the previous several decades constructing. Some of the fields that appear most fertile for the application of Bahá’í principles to current economic problems are reviewed in this article.

Brilliant ideals are fruitless if no effort is made to implement them, while actions can have no useful result unless guided by ideals. Thus a balance and an interplay between goals and actions are necessary. This article attempts to relate the principles and objectives (as we imperfectly understand them) of a “Bahá’í economic system” to current conditions and opportunities, and suggests a number of topics for further research.