COMMENTARY

Salzman's commentary initially examines two theoretical considerations of the genesis of substance abuse. He elaborates on the hypothesis that changes in the family precede abuse and relates it to conceptual similarities with research on schizophrenic families. He points out that the proposed research that focuses on ongoing processes rather than causality also fails to identify factors leading to the selection of symptomatology. The author concludes with comments on his work in the area of psychoactive drugs and group functioning and suggests that the inclusion of the following methodologies in research design might be instructive: (a) the combining of self, group, and experimenter observations; (b) the comparison of family interactional patterns when the drug-abusing member is under chemical influence and when he is not; and (c) informal observations and discussions focused on the family's perception of the research as well as on task performance.     

BETWEEN TRANSLATION AND COMMENTARY

Translation played an important role in the history of Old Yiddish literature. To highlight the problems posed by translation, I have chosen to analyse an ethical-mystical bilingual text, the Kav ha-Yosher by Tsvi Hirsh Koidanover (Frankfurt, 1705 and 1709). This text demonstrates the popularization of Kabbalah in Jewish Ashkenazi culture (seventeenth to eighteenth centuries). I analyse the discrepancies between the Hebrew and the Yiddish texts. The vernacular text is a midrashic commentary, which intertwines the literal adaptation of the original Hebrew text and interpretative extensions. I study the discursive structures, the changes due to the shifts of readership and the differences in cultural tradition between “lay” and “learned” tradition, especially concerning magic, demonology, social criticism, tales, legends and censorship. The Kav ha-Yosher is a remarkable laboratory for an understanding of the nature of translation in vernacular Jewish literature.     

COLUMBINE: A COMMENTARY

A "poemtage" was created to express my thoughts and feelings about the massacre that took place at Columbine High School, Littleton, Colorado, on April 20, 1999. The story behind the creation of this poemtage is shared.     

COMMENTARY ON THE SCIENCE-RELIGION CONTROVERSY

Abstract. The science-religion exchange in failing to address fundamental issues is popular but ineffective. Reductionism and determinism, teleology, the assumed centrality of ethics in religion and progress must be reexamined to unify the task of science and religion into a common search for meaning in its eschatological dimension     

EDITORIAL COMMENT: GUEST COMMENTARY

A pervasive problem faced by children in both classroom and clinic is the lack of transfer from the apparent learning of “skills” to improved overall reading performance. For varied reasons, “skills” learned by children fail to become integrated to enhance reading fluency. A related problem derives from the lack of automaticity that many children fail to achieve either in specific facilitating “skills” or in the reading task generally.