Cholas,Mexican-American girls,and gangs

Based on interviews with twenty-one present and former female gang members, this study focuses on Mexican-American gang girls as they operate within the Mexican-American gang milieu in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California. The violence demanded of gang members is described within the context of the gang subculture. Gang structure, activities, attachment to the group and internalization of the norms of that group, reasons for joining the gang, the group as a source of motivation and support, and sanctions applied to maintain group cohesion are described from the point of view of the gang member herself, providing an internal understanding of her world.Portions of this article from Harris, M. (1983).Cholas, Latino Girls and Gangs. New York: AMS Press. Reprinted by courtesy of AMS Press, New York.     

Multinational efforts in substance abuse prevention

This article is a review of the world-wide efforts of clinicians and researchers in the area of diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of multiple substance abuse. Represented are studies in cross-cultural prevention research and substance abuse which address the new and burgeoning area of clinical prevention research from a multidisciplinary perspective. The article also discusses the theory and methods in prevention in New York City, Israel, Italy, Spain, and in Cali, Columbia. The authors hope that this information will result in greater recognition for the need to understand effective measures of drug prevention, and to develop new research directions which shall enrich and enhance our present state of knowledge in substance abuse prevention programming.     

Born in the USA: how immigrant generation shapes meritocracy and its relation to ethnic identity and collective action

Endorsing meritocracy can make low-status group members more accepting of inequality. This study examined whether rejecting meritocracy is related to increased ethnic identification among Latino immigrants, and whether identity in turn is related to increased support for collective action. We hypothesize that these relationships depend upon immigrant generation. A survey was conducted with 184 first- and second-generation Latino immigrants in New York City. Second-generation Latinos endorsed meritocracy less than those in the first generation, at least in part because they perceived that other Americans viewed their group in a less positive light (i.e., lower public regard). Further, meritocracy was negatively linked to ethnic identity and, through it, support for collective action among the second generation. Among the first generation, meritocracy was not related to ethnic identity and was positively related to support for collective action. We discuss the implications of growing up near the bottom of the U.S. social hierarchy for ethnic identity and collective action.     

Amniocentesis in sociocultural perspective

This article reports on an anthropological investigation of the social impact and cultural meaning of amniocentesis conducted in New York City, illustrating how class differences, as well as sociocultural diversity, deeply affect pregnant women's acceptance, rejection, and interpretation of prenatal testing. The article also suggests the importance of recognizing how counselors' cultural backgrounds and styles affect patient-counselor communications.     

Men,shame and antisocial behavior: A psychodynamic perspective

This paper discusses the psychosocial factors that contribute to male antisocial behavior. The role of shame and related affects is emphasized. Compensatory defenses associated with these affects are also described. Developmental concepts are reviewed in the light of recent research. Finally, some of the issues involved in doing psychotherapy with this population are discussed, with an emphasis on the value of group therapy.Parts of this paper were presented at the second annual conference onCulture, Race and Ethnicity in Group and Family Therapy which was sponsored by the Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society and New York University and was held in New York City, March 20–22, 1987.     

Troubled Interventions: Public Policy, Vectors of Disease, and the Rhetoric of Diabetes Management

This essay examines the debate surrounding New York City’s controversial diabetes registry program. Exploring the tensions between public health officials and privacy advocates, the article explores how diabetes is imagined in the public sphere. Although rhetorics underscoring privacy may seem the more progressive discourse, I argue New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has the more forward-looking plan, attempting to reconstitute diabetes not as a chronic condition necessitating individual management but as a disease that requires systemic intervention.     

Cognitive-behavior therapy in the treatment of cancer patients

Cognitive-behavioral strategies are employed in the treatment of cancer patients to eliminate nausea, control anxiety, pain, and depression. Specific techniques including relaxation, systematic desensitization and hypnosis are discussed. It is shown how cognitive strategies can create a more favorable environment for treatment.William L. Golden, Ph.D. — Licensed psychologist in private practice in New York City and Westchester, New York. He also is on the faculty of Cornell Medical College, New York City, the Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy, New York City, and the Institute for Behavior Therapy, New York City.Wayne Gersh, Ph.D. — Licensed psychologist and co-director of the Westchester Center for Behavior Therapy, White Plains, New York. He also is a psychologist for the American Cancer Society.     

A Cross‐National Comparison of Suicide Attempts,Drug Use,and Depressed Mood Among Dominican Youth

We compared suicide attempts, depressed mood, and drug use of 1,710 Dominican public high school students in New York City (NYC) and 9,573 in the Dominican Republic (DR) in 2009. Compared to DR Dominicans, NYC Dominicans were more likely to have reported lifetime marijuana use (27.6% vs. 1.5%), lifetime inhalant use (11.0% vs. 7.6%), lifetime other drug use (9.9% vs. 3.0%), depressed mood (31.3% vs. 27.2%), and suicide attempt (13.8% vs. 8.8%). The results of this study supported the hypothesis that substantial increases in illicit drug use, especially cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, and methamphetamines, among NYC Dominican youth account for their increased risk for suicide attempts compared to their DR Dominican counterparts. It also identified suicide attempts as a public health problem among NYC Dominicans, the largest NYC Latino immigrant population.     

The Role of Help‐Seeking in Preventing Suicide Attempts among Lesbians,Gay Men,and Bisexuals

One possible approach to prevention of suicide attempts is to encourage help‐seeking among individuals at risk. We assessed whether different forms of treatment were associated with lower odds of a suicide attempt in a diverse group of 388 lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) adults aged 18–59, sampled from New York City venues. Of individuals who attempted suicide, 23% sought mental health or medical treatment and 14% sought religious or spiritual treatment prior to the suicide attempt. Black and Latino LGBs were underrepresented in mental health or medical treatment and Black LGBs were overrepresented in religious or spiritual treatment. Seeking mental health or medical treatment was not associated with lower odds of a suicide attempt; seeking religious or spiritual treatment was associated with higher odds of a suicide attempt. We discuss these results and posit hypotheses for further research of this understudied topic.     

Group therapists and AIDS groups: An exploration of traumatic stress reactions

As the AIDS epidemic continues unabated, there is growing clinical evidence that the catastrophic nature of this disease is creating a second category of trauma casualties. They are the health care practitioners who witness the narratives of those who are living with and dying from AIDS. This article examines how multiple AIDS-related deaths of group members exert a traumatizing effect on group therapists, creating vicarious traumatization. Vignettes are presented that illustrate reactions associated with traumatic stress, including death images, survivors' guilt, psychic numbing, suspicion of counterfeit nurturance, and struggle for meaning. Possible therapeutic interventions for group therapists coping with multiple deaths are also explored.The author wishes to acknowledge the endeavors of the volunteer group therapists and the Clinical Group Services staff of the Gay Men's Health Crisis of New York City, who provide group therapy to over 900 clients a week. This article is written in admiration of their extraordinary effort and dedication.     

Healing in the Midst of Chaos: Nah We Yone's African Women's Wellness Group

This article discusses the creative use of the group treatment modality to provide psychosocial support to African women refugees and asylum seekers with a history of refugee trauma, war, and human rights abuses who have fled to the United States. In particular, this article describes the African Women's Wellness Group developed by Nah We Yone, Inc., a small grassroots organization in the New York City area. This women's group draws on the tenets of traditional Western group psychotherapy while using African cultural awareness to provide healing. The rationale for this type of treatment, group design, specific techniques used to provide healing, along with various group-related themes and challenges are described. This type of treatment provides an example of the usefulness of group therapy technique with traumatized displaced women struggling to survive in a new cultural setting.     

Men's fear of sex with women: A cross-cultural study

Anthropologists have described cultural beliefs in many societies that suggest men fear sex with women. In this paper I derive and cross-culturally test the implications of four theories that may help explain such fear. These theories suggest that men may fear sex with women because their wives come from enemy villages; population pressure on resources favors the avoidance of intercourse; males are conflicted about their sexual identity; or males have an exaggerated Oedipus complex. The cross-cultural evidence is generally consistent with all four theories. A tentative causal model is presented to account for the results.This article is a revised and enlarged version of a paper presented at the fifth annual meeting of the Society for Cross-Cultural Research, February 13–15, 1976, in New York City. The author wishes to thank Judith Berman and Melvin Ember for their help. She also thanks the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York for providing the funds to support this research.     

Eek! A Mickey mouse! The post‐Fuddist recomposition of urban space

Variations on a Theme Park: The New American City and the End of Public Space, by Michael Sorkin, ed., New York: Noonday Press, 1992, 252 pages, pb $15     

Across the divide: Religious objections to brain death

This article reviews the evolution of the medical-legal definition of brain death, as well as the normative debate surrounding this reconceptualization. It offers a clinical approach to address religious objections to brain death, which prefers negotiation over confrontation when families and practicitioners must discern the boundaries between life and death.He also serves as physician-ethicist-in-residence at the Hospital Chaplaincy in New York City. An earlier draft of this essay was presented to the Metropolitan New York Ethics Committee Network at the New York Academy of Medicine on 16 November 1994.     

Treatment of alcoholic couples in outpatient group therapy

This paper summarizes special issues that group leaders are likely to encounter when adapting their skills to outpatient group therapy with alcoholic couples. More specifically, the paper: (a) discusses the advantages of treating alcoholic couples in a group as opposed to individual couple's therapy; (b) outlines the parameters of a couples group with alcoholic members that differentiate it from working with other kinds of couples in group; and (c) provides guidelines and techniques for tackling some of the specific kinds of problems and situations that arise.This paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Group Psychotherapy Association, New York City, February, 1985.The author wishes to acknowledge the contribution of Geraldine Alpert, Ph.D., whose thoughtful comments and discussion helped to crystallize the concepts presented.     

Influencing College Attendance Plans

This study compared the effectiveness of a filmstrip with that of a filmstrip- and-counseling program in influencing the college attendance plans of high school juniors. Students in a “typical” New York City high school were matched on certain variables and randomly assigned to a filmstrip group which viewed a 15-minute filmstrip about community colleges, a counseling group which saw the filmstrip and had a 15-minute personal interview with a community college counselor, and a control group. Students then completed a post-secondary school plans questionnaire. Analysis of their responses indicated that the combination of the filmstrip and the counseling significantly increased the number of students considering community college attendance compared with the control group, but that the filmstrip alone had no effect. The results indicate the importance of personal counseling compared with the sole use of mass media in efforts to influence post-high school plans.     

Violent groups

This article reviews relevant empirical studies and theoretical formulations in an effort to gain insight into the many violenceprone groups that have come to public attention in recent years. Research findings show group members tend to score high on variables like anger at family members and overcontrolled hostility, often are in developmental transition at the time they join the groups, and gain relief from significant emotional distress through group membership. Leader characteristics, group norm forming and group control processes particular to these kinds of groups are also described in an effort to develop further understanding.Parts of this paper were presented in New York City at a September 1979 symposium on forensic psychology and psychiatry sponsored by the New York Academy of Science.     

Bombing and burning: The social organization and values of hip hop graffiti writers and implications for policy∗

Almost twenty years ago, a stylistic kind of graffiti originated in New York City and has since spread to many major cities in the United States, Canada, and other industrialized nations. This type of graffiti, known as “Hip Hop” graffiti (HHG) outside of New York City, accounts for a large share of graffiti in U.S. urban areas. It is found on buses, subways, trains, buildings, bridges, and innumerable other surfaces and ranges from signature “tags,” typically written with ink marker or spray paint, to elaborate, polychrome spray‐painted murals. This article, based on ethnographic research conducted in Seattle, first introduces the types of HHG and the social characteristics of writers, and then focuses on writers’ social organization and values—the two key elements to understanding the proliferation of this graffiti. The paper concludes with several observations on social policies designed to curtail the production of graffiti.     

A Latina Luthercostal Invitation Into an Ecclesial Estuary

Drawing from ethnographic and meta‐ethnographic research, this article analyzes the hermeneutic, and resulting ecclesiology, of Latina Luthercostal women in Latino/a Lutheran congregations in New York and Philadelphia. Preliminary findings suggest that Latina Luthercostal hermeneutics mirror Martin Luther's own hermeneutical approach. This particular hermeneutical lens invites the church into an ecclesial estuary where seemingly opposed traditions meet and are drawn by the Holy Spirit into a messy, meaningful, and necessary experience of death and resurrection for the purposes of transformation and renewal.     

Day of a Cat's Death

Omnibus book review Robin Robertson The Place of the Feminine in the World to Come

Quantum Reality. By Nick Herbert. New York: Anchor Press/Double Day, 1985.

Synchronicity: The Bridge Between Matter and Mind. By F. David Peat. New York: Bantam Books. 1987.

Psyche Speaks. By Russell Lockhart. Wilmette, Illinois: Chiron, 1987.

The Scapegoat Complex: Toward a Mythology of Shdow and Guilt. By Sylvia Brinton Perera. Toronto: Inner City Books, 1986.

The Strange Trial of Mr. Hyde: A New Look Into the Nature of Human Evil. By John A. Sanford. San Francisco: Harper &; Row, 1987.

Perestroika: New Thinking for Our Country and the World. By Mikhail Gorbachev. New York: Harper &; Row, 1987.

The Jungian Experience: Analysis and Individuation. By James A. Hall, M.D. Toronto: Inner City Books, 1986.

Practical Jung: Nuts and Bolts of Jun-gian Psychotherapy. By Harry A. Wilmer. Wilmette, Illinois: Chiron Publications, 1987.

Psychiatry and the Cinema. By Krin Gabbard and Glen O. Gabbard. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.

Female Authority: Empowering Women Through Psychotherapy. By P. Young-Eisendrath and F. Wiedemann. New York Guilford Press, 1987.

Dancing Healers: A Docfor's Journey of Healing with Native Americans. By Carl Hammerschlag. San Francisco: Harper &; Row, 1988.

Neuroimmune Interactions: Proceedings of the Second International Workshop of Neuroimmunomodulation. Edited by Bronislav D. Jankovic Branislav M. Markovic, and Novera Herbert Spector. New York: The New York Academy of Sciences, 1987.