The Phenomenology of Posttraumatic Distress in Older Adult Holocaust Survivors

This paper focuses on the effects of the Holocaust on its survivors more than 55 years after the end of World War II. The emphasis is on survivors who were either adults during the Holocaust and who are now over the age of 70, or survivors who were children during the Holocaust and whose age is now between 56 and 70. The central question was: What kinds of posttraumatic phenomena are seen in older adult survivors? After an overview of the field, the situation of survivors in Israel is presented in 2 ways. Results of a survey of survivors who were referred to Amcha, the National Israeli Center for Psychosocial Support of Survivors of the Holocaust, is provided to give some insight in a clinical population. In addition, 2 case histories of survivors are presented to give a more in-depth perspective. The gap between the data from the questionnaires and the clinical material has relevance for the way in which we conceptualize the late consequences of massive trauma.     

Comparative analysis of the risk-handling procedures for gene technology applications in medical and plant science

In this paper we analyse how the risks associated with research on transgenic plants are regulated in Sweden. The paper outlines the way in which pilot projects in the plant sciences are overseen in Sweden, and discusses the international and national background to the current regulatory system. The historical, and hitherto unexplored, reasons for the evolution of current administrative and legislative procedures in plant science are of particular interest. Specifically, we discuss similarities and differences in the regulation of medicine and plant science, and we examine the tendency towards dichotomizing risk — focusing on social/ethical risks in medicine and biological risks in plant science. The context of this article is the Synpraxia research project, an inter-disciplinary program combining expertise in sciences and the humanities.