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The paper aims to grasp a contemporary phenomenon known as depression from another, i.e. spiritual angle. The experience described by a Carmelite monk and mystic John of the Cross as "dark night" requires a new scientific panorama with reference to contemporary mental disorders. It constitutes a highly complex physical, mental and spiritual phenomenon. Therefore, it cannot be defined without in-depth, credible, responsible and well-justified interdisciplinary research. In this paper, we propose a new model of diagnosis, therapy and treatment of the "liminal spaces" states regarded as depression with the use of quantitative and qualitative mixed-methods and tools in social sciences and humanities, including digital humanities and applied linguistics. Further research may and should lead to a common model developed also with medical scientists. We also see a great and very promising potential of our model developed together with the achievements of medical informatics, narrative and translational medicine and translational sciences in general.

De facto states are entities that resemble normal states, except for one difference: they lack international recognition or enjoy it only to a limited extent. Scott Pegg initiated a scholarly inquiry on these entities in 1998 when he published his seminal book, International Society and the De Facto State. Counting about twenty years after the birth of de facto state studies, scholars have started publishing their reflections on the problems that these studies face and directions for future research. I follow this reflective trend in my essay, drawing on my nearly two-decade-long experience of researching de facto states. More precisely, I discuss four problems of de facto state studies and suggest how they can be solved. These problems are as follows: 1. no consensus on a definition of a de facto state, 2. imperfect existing definitions, 3. insufficient engagement with the non-Western literature, and 4. indifference to other concepts and frameworks when studying de facto states.

The British political system is unusual in many aspects. First of all, Britain lacks a written constitution. The country's political system has long appeared a model of stability in a changing world. It should be noted that European integration has had a considerable impact on the British political system. However, the election of Tony Blair government in 1997 was a starting point towards serious constitutional reforms. One of the most important was the devolution and The House of Lords reform. Apart from it Human Rights and Freedom of Information Act were introduced. In 2000 a directly elected mayor of London was elected. In 2010 a coalition government was established with David Cameron as the Prime Minister from the Conservative Party. The second were the Liberal Democrats. This coalition in itself was unusual in Britain's post-war history. The set of changes in the British political system was an important part of the coalition agreement. The first stage was The Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 which provided for a referendum on the voting system for UK Parliament and reduced the number of constituencies. The second was The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 which set the date of the next general election as 7th May 2015 and on the first Thursday in every fifth year there after. There are only two circumstances when early elections can be held. The Monarch no longer dissolves Parliament, but the Act does not affect her/his power to prorogue Parliament. In 2011 proposed reforms to the royal succession were also announced. They changed the rules of succession and the fi rst-born child of a monarch would be heir apparent regardless of gender. Apart from it there were plans to reform the House of Lords again. Its current serving members were to be replaced by a semi-elected house of as few as 300 members (240 elected and 60 appointed). The plans failed, because they did not gain acceptance. Constitutional changes since 1997 have been extensive, but there was no holistic view on the reform process. Nowadays the country faces the possible separation of Scotland, which could lead to the breakup of the United Kingdom. It could be a revolutionary change of the British political system. However, there are close links between Scotland and the rest of the country and in all probability the status quo will prevail.

One of the most important factors affecting British politics is its membership to the European Communities (EC) and latter the European Union (EU), which has already had massive implications for this country. Th e relationship between Britain and Europe has always been problematic. In Britain there has been little enthusiasm for European integration per se, and equally little understanding of the enthusiasm felt on the continent. Europe has been seen as a menace rather than an opportunity and very few British politicians have attempted to argue (as is commonplace on the continent) about monetary union, for instance, it is the only way of regaining control over financial policy. The European idea of pursuing economic integration as a means to political union has also been met with blank incomprehension, if not outright hostility. Britain has always been attempting to slow down the process of integration and, consequently, has often fallen behind and had no choice but to catch up. However, the portrayal of Britain as a "difficult partner" or "laggard leader" in European affairs is only partly justified. Based on its specific understanding of national sovereignty, Britain has developed a much more pragmatic and instrumental approach towards Europe than most of its partners on the continent. Nevertheless, the country was a strong driving force in favor of integration in many crucial policy fields like the single market or trade policy. According to Alan Milward, the process of European integration entails "pooling" the sovereignty in order to protect national interests and extend national governments' control of their own destinies. In Britain, contrary to the continent, national interests dictated a different line and it was only when exclusion from the Communities appeared to threaten them that the then British government began to accept the need for membership. The very different motivation behind British entry ensured that the British aims inside the Communities would be limited or "defensive". The most controversial aspect of Britain's membership of the EC has always related to "erosion" of its sovereignty.

The aim of the paper is to describe the main stages of development of the Institute of Pedagogy of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin and to describe the key scientific achievements of the Institute's academic staff. The content is presented from both historical and theoretical perspective. The author indicated the main stages of development of the Institute of Pedagogy of the Catholic University of Lublin in the context of the development of pedagogy in Poland. The significance of the achievements of the staff of the Institute of Pedagogy of the Catholic University of Lublin was shown in relation to the specificity of personalistic upbringing, especially in the context of the Marxist model of pedagogy dominant in Poland after World War II.

A questionnaire-based study conducted in October 2021 provided analytical material on the degree and sources of disinformation in Polish society. The material has representative qualities and is the first comprehensive research project in Poland to cover issues regarding information security in such breadth and detail. The paper aims to analyse and present a study on disinformation in Polish society conducted on a representative group of Poles in 2021. The project's key research questions are: How receptive is the Polish public to disinformation content? What are the channels of information provided to Poles? Is the notion of disinformation familiar to the Polish audience, and do the recipients of media content search for methods to verify disinformation? The analysis and interpretation of the results identified some important features of the Polish disinformation map. The concept of disinformation is now commonly familiar to the Polish public (86%), and the sensitivity to content credibility can be regarded as high; the respondents were found to verify information, actively searching through various sources. Disinformation is rife in climate, energy (52%), and health (44%).

Cybersecurity belongs to the area of activity of state and supra-state actors, giving direction to national and international systems of law as components of national and supranational systems of political, economic, military cooperation, etc. Still, the state has a monopoly on the causality of lawmaking, which forms the basis of cyberspace use security activities. The state responds to national security needs by actively participating in the formation of the collective security order of the supranational level. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the significance of the national Cybersecurity Strategy of the Republic of Poland for ensuring the safe use of cyberspace. The Strategy, while referring to the national order, is at the same time an implementation of supranational arrangements within the scopes adopted by the state authorities, which means that the Strategy is subjected to logical evaluation depending on the impact of cyber conditions or binding arrangements of the international environment. The text is based on two research methods: the doctrinal legal research method to analyse the applicable legal regulations governing the issues related to the strategic aspects of cybersecurity and the law theory method aimed at evaluating the strategic solutions in respect of security in cyberspace.