Perspectives in suicidology: families, mental illness, and suicide

The ways in which the key words "family," "mental illness," and "suicide" are interpreted in the context of research into suicide will influence the formation of theories, the interpretation of results, and the development of suicide prevention strategies. It is argued that there is no general agreement about the meaning of these words.     

Nietzsche's place in nineteenth century German philosophy

I describe two ways of thinking about what constitutes a knowledgeable assertion – the ‘orthodox view’ and the ‘isomorphic view’. I argue that we should discard the orthodox view and replace it with the isomorphic view. The latter is more natural and has greater theoretical utility than the former.     

Fictional women physicians in the nineteenth century: The struggle for self-identity

By the late nineteenth century, there were large numbers of women physicians in the United States. Three Realist novels of the time, Dr. Breen's Practice, by William Dean Howells, Dr. Zay, by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps and A Country Doctor, by Sarah Orne Jewett, feature women doctors as protagonists. The issues in these novels mirrored current issues in medicine and society. By contrasting the lives of these fictional women doctors to their historical counterparts, it is seen that, while the novels are good attempts to be truthful treatments of women physicians' struggles, in certain areas they do not accurately address the concerns of women physicians.     

Depressed patients with dysfunctional families: description and course of illness.

Sixty-eight depressed patients were subdivided according to their family's level of family functioning into functional and dysfunctional groups. Patients from dysfunctional families did not differ from those from functional families on measures of severity of depression, chronicity of depression, depression subtypes, other nonaffective psychiatric diagnoses, history of depression, or neuroendocrine functioning. Patients from dysfunctional families did have significantly higher levels of neuroticism. A 12-month follow-up of these patients indicated that depressed patients with dysfunctional families had a significantly poorer course of illness, as manifested by higher levels of depression, lower levels of overall adjustment, and a lower proportion of recovered patients. Thus, impaired family functioning appears to be an important prognostic factor in major depression.     

Between hope and despair: Conceptions of time and the German-Jewish experience in the nineteenth century

Despite German Jews' social, political, and cultural integration into the German society in the nineteenth century, distinct notions of time continued to shape their social discourses. This article analyzes the various ways in which German Jews comprehended the relation between past, present, and future. Throughout this period, German Jews formulated in the face of political, cultural, and religious changes,their own visions of the present and future. To characterize German Jews' notions of time as simply linear neglects the complex and dynamic aspects of their temporal notions. An investigation of the changing interrelation of past, present, and future provides an avenue for a more nuanced understanding of German Jews' experiences and expectations, as well as of their various responses to modernity. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Between vision and reality: reassessing Jewish agricultural colony projects in nineteenth century America

This article reassesses the story of agricultural colonies established by Jews, for Jews, in the USA during the nineteenth century. Well established Jews developed schemes to settle recent Jewish immigrants on the soil. These schemes were characterized by unrealistic expectations, bad planning, and, when implemented, frequent failures. Yet, Jewish agricultural colonies must be distinguished from Christian, proto-Socialist or other utopian projects. The sponsors of Jewish colonies in the USA did not strive for separation from general society. Rather, they sought to assist Jewish integration through settlement on the land. The conceptual framework of Jewish productivization in America closely echoed the discourse of emancipation in Central Europe.     

Some late nineteenth century perspectives on sex and emotional expression

A review of nineteenth century popular literature indicates a deep and sustained public interest in sex differences in emotional expression. The conclusions advanced by popular writers included a catalog of perceived sex differences, reinforced by an essentialist philosophy that provided justification for the separation of sexual spheres and restrictions on political, educational, and vocational opportunities for women. Current scientific research on sex differences appears in popular media and is often presented in the context of an essentialist philosophy comparable with that which was dominant in the nineteenth century. Unfortunately, the subtleties and complexities of sex differences are not always communicated to the public and there is thus a potential for misinterpretation or even misuse.     

International argument: regarding the history of the development of international philosophical communication in the nineteenth century

This article examines the internationalization of scientific and scholarly communication in the period before World War I, taking philosophy as an example. In the first part of the article, several general trends in internationalization during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are examined. This includes the importance of international experience for Russia’s policies today towards science and education. The main part of this article is devoted to the concept of the “international argument” and provides an analysis of three types of appeal to the international community: the pragmatic, the reputational, and the communicative. The increasing importance of international communication during this period is shown on the basis of examples drawn from German philosophical discussions that took place between the first third and the end of the nineteenth century (the case of Friedrich Eduard Beneke and Hermann Ebbinghaus). The last part of the article examines the impact on German science and philosophy of the cessation of international communication during World War I.