Autonomy,life as an intrinsic value,and the right to die in dignity

This paper examines two models of thinking relating to the issue of the right to die in dignity: one takes into consideration the rights and interests of the individual; the other supposes that human life is inherently valuable. I contend that preference should be given to the first model, and further assert that the second model may be justified in moral terms only as long as it does not resort to paternalism. The view that holds that certain patients are not able to comprehend their own interests in a fully rational manner, and therefore ‘we’ know what is good for these patients better than ‘they’ do, is morally unjustifiable. I proceed by refuting the ‘quality of life’ argument, asserting that each person is entitled to decide for herself when it is worth living and when it is not. In this connection, a caveat will be made regarding the role of the family. The author’s research interests include bioethics, free speech, tolerance and ethics in the media.     

We Are the World—and They Are Not: Prototypicality for the World Community,Legitimacy, and Responses to Global Inequality

The relation between developed and developing countries is characterized by inequalities that sometimes hinder actions against worldwide problems. The current research presents an intergroup approach, based on the ingroup projection model, towards an analysis of psychological processes that perpetuate global inequality on a social group level. Precisely, we argue that people from developed countries perceive their group as more prototypical for the world population than they perceive people from developing countries. These perceptions of ingroup prototypicality should in turn relate to legitimacy beliefs and predict unfavorable behavioral intentions towards developing countries. We present two studies that corroborate our hypotheses: In Study 1, participants from a developed country perceived their ingroup as more prototypical for the superordinate group (i.e., world population) than the outgroup (i.e., developing countries), which in turn was related to beliefs that global inequality is legitimate. This finding was replicated in Study 2, and the predicted effect of ingroup prototypicality on behavioral intentions was mediated by legitimacy beliefs. These findings demonstrate that intergroup processes can contribute to perpetuating global inequality.     

Global hip‐hop identities: Black youth,psychoanalytic action research,and the Moving to the Beat project

The paper presents a psychoanalytically informed analysis of the concept of hip‐hop identity through the lens of a four‐year social action research and documentary film project, titled Moving to the Beat (M2B). The M2B project sought to document and unpack key psychological and social dynamics behind the struggle for a global identity among Black hip‐hop activists in Africa and America. Two groups were formed, one in Portland, Oregon and a second in Freetown, Sierra Leone, with the aim of enlisting hip‐hop as a mode of cross‐cultural dialogue and as a forum for activism. Three key themes are discussed as they emerged as sites of creative conflict through the M2B project: the struggle to establish a progressive identity over against politically and psychologically regressive currents in hip‐hop culture, the search for authenticity in the context of globally manufactured identities, and differing conceptions of rebellion and intergenerational conflict. The paper describes how psychoanalytic theory informed the process of producing the Moving to the Beat documentary film and working through these sites of conflict in negotiating the borders of hip‐hop global identities. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.