H. Tristram Engelhardt,Jr., The Foundations of Christian Bioethics

Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics -     

A libertarian critique of H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr.'s The Foundations of Bioethics

Conclusion: Although Engelhardt's The Foundations of Bioethics is an impressive work, it is plagued by problems of justification, conceptual confusion, and inconsistencies....A libertarian theory can arrive at the same basic requirements of mutual respect, autonomy, nonuse of force, and tolerance for a wide range of diverse life styles without relying on a lowest-common-denominator principle and without depriving fetuses, infants, and the mentally retarded of their status as persons. This can be done by taking a deontological approach to libertarian theory that denies that all moral beliefs are worthy of respect. Some beliefs, such as Engelhardt's belief that fetuses, infants, and the mentally retarded are nonpersons, simply fall beneath the floor of acceptable moral alternatives, even in a libertarian society, because such beliefs are based on a misunderstanding of personhood and violate the principle of mutual respect.     

The politics of communities: a review of H. Tristram Engelhardt Jr.'s The Foundations of Bioethics

This review essay examines H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr.'s The Foundations of Bioethics, a contemporary nonfeminist text in mainstream biomedical ethics. it fo-cuses upon a central concept, Engelhardt's idea of the moral community and argues that the most serious problem in the book is its failure to take account of the political and social structures of moral communities, structures which deeply affect issues in biomedical ethics.     

Strens,traumas, and trauma resolution

With both primary and early secondary prevention in mind, this investigation sought to answer several basic questions regarding the resolution of traumas and their conversion into strens - growth-potentiating experiences. College volunteers (N = 40) described in detail their significant positive and negative experiences. The results indicate that many people did experience a trauma that was converted into a stren, and the resolution appeared to be primarily a cognitive process, usually done by the subject himself, and it most frequently occurred between 2 weeks and 4 months after the precipitating event.     

The influence of episodic memory decline on value-based choice

Recent studies suggest the involvement of episodic memory in value-based decisions as a source of information about subjective values of choice options. We therefore tested the link between age-related memory decline and inconsistencies in value-based decisions in 30 cognitively healthy older adults. Within the pre-registered experiment, the inconsistencies were measured in two ways: i) the consistency between stated preferences and revealed choices; ii) the amount of intransitivities in choice triplets, revealed in a forced paired choice task including all possible pairings of 20 food products. Although no significant association of memory functions to number of intransitive triplets was observed, participants with lower memory scores were more likely to choose the item for which they stated a lower preference. The results suggest a higher noise in the underlying preference signal in participants with lower memory. We discuss the results in the context of the unique needs of elderly consumers.     

Impoverishment of psychoanalysis. On the decline of psychoanalytic education

Anyone wishing to practice the "impossible profession" must once again overcome the resistances that originally produced the insights of psychoanalysis. Training analysts and institute faculty members pass on their successful as well as their failed attempts to surmount these resistances to the next generation. Herein lies the danger that the quality of training may decline as well as the opportunity to enrich psychoanalytic knowledge.     

Emotional disclosure about traumas and its relation to health: effects of previous disclosure and trauma severity.

This study sought to replicate previous findings that disclosing traumas improves physical health and to compare the effects of revealing previously disclosed versus undisclosed traumas. According to inhibition theory, reporting about undisclosed traumas should produce greater health benefits. Sixty healthy undergraduates wrote about undisclosed traumas, previously disclosed traumas, or trivial events. Contrary to expectations, there were no significant between-groups differences on longer term health utilization and physical symptom measures. However, Ss who disclosed more severe traumas reported fewer physical symptoms in the months following the study, compared with low-severity trauma Ss, and tended to report fewer symptoms than control Ss. Results suggest that health benefits occur when severe traumas are disclosed, regardless of whether previous disclosure has occurred.