Hospital treatment of persons found not guilty by reason of insanity

After being found not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI), individuals are typically admitted to a secure forensic hospital for evaluation and treatment. This patient population can pose a challenge to clinicians in the hospital setting due to significant violence risk, complex psychiatric presentations, and scrutiny from oversight boards and the public. This article reviews the scientific literature around several key aspects of hospital-based treatment of insanity acquittees, including the management of inpatient aggression, the provision of specific treatments to acquittees, the assessment of violence risk and readiness for release, and the process of community transition. The authors conclude that the existing literature is heavily weighted toward the study of risk assessment and recidivism, with relatively little attention paid to the study of therapeutic modalities and recovery-oriented care in this population.     

Exploring the relationship between students’ values and the values of postsecondary institutions

Little is known of how institutional and individual value systems are related among university undergraduates. With three different measures and samples of college students, perceptions of university mission and values (i.e., institutional values, creating pro-social climates, and developing a life-long commitment to values) loaded independently of their personal values systems, and often negatively with social desirability. Perceptions of institutional values were generally independent of personal value systems, using either a rank-order (Sample 1, n = 199) or rating scale method (Sample 2, n = 107), or by focusing on moral behavior structures (Sample 3, n = 208). Together, these results indicate that higher education assessment may reflect institutional values that are independent of student personal value systems.Portions of this paper were presented at the 2004 Institute for College Student Values, Tallahassee, FL     

Do Brute Facts Need to Be Civilised? Universals in Classical Indian Philosophy and Contemporary Analytic Ontology

Journal of Indian Council of Philosophical Research - A vital point of dispute within both classical Indian thought and contemporary analytic ontology is the following: which facts are brute so...     

Myth as Metaphysics: The Christian Saviour and the Hindu Gods

A distinction which is often rehearsed in some strands of Christian writing on the ??Eastern?? religions, especially Hinduism, is that while they are full of ??mythological?? fancies, Biblical faith is based on the solid rock of ??historical?? truth. I argue that the sharp contours of this antithesis are softened when we consider two issues regarding the relation between ??myth?? and ??history??. First, the decades?Clong attempts to separate the ??historical?? facts about Jesus Christ from the interpretive elements in the Biblical narrative highlight the presence of ??mythical?? imagination in Christian thought. Second, a comparative study of the Christian understanding of Jesus Christ as the Incarnate God and the Hindu conception of avat??ras reveals a highly significant set of differences and analogies, and shows how the supposed equivalences between ??historical as real?? and ??mythological as unreal?? need to be reformulated.     

INVESTIGATING THE “SCIENCE” IN “EASTERN RELIGIONS”: A METHODOLOGICAL INQUIRY

This article explores some of the understandings of “science” that are often employed in the literature on “science and Eastern religions.” These understandings crucially shape the raging debates between the avid proponents and the keen detractors of the thesis that Eastern forms of spirituality are uniquely able to subsume the sciences into their metaphysical–axiological horizons. More specifically, the author discusses some of the proposed relations between “science” and “Eastern religions” by highlighting three themes: (a) the relation between science and metaphysics, (b) the relation between science and experience, and (c) the European origins of science. The analysis of these relations requires a methodological inquiry into some of the culturally freighted valences of “science,” “metaphysics,” and “experience.”     

The Mystery of God and the Claim of Reason: Comparative Patterns in Hindu-Christian Theodicy

International Journal of Hindu Studies - In a comparative study of karma theodicy and atonement theodicy, as developed by some Hindu and Christian theologians, this article argues that they present...     

I see how you feel: How the dark triad recognizes emotions

Current Psychology - The present study (N = 212; 150 females) examined the relationships between the Dark Triad, empathy, and emotion recognition in a cross-cultural sample. The Dark...     

Early Wittgenstein’s Views on Ethics: Some Reflections

Journal of Indian Council of Philosophical Research - The paper undertakes an in-depth analysis of the early phase of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s writings in Notebooks (NB), Tractatus Logico...     

The Indian superstition scale: creating a measure to assess Indian superstitions

Despite humans’ capacity for rational thought, they are not immune to superstitions. Superstitions are strongly tied to cultural practices, especially in India. Although 17% of the world’s population resides in India, Indian culture is understudied, and there have not been sufficient attempts to understand Indian superstitions in a scientific manner from a psychometric standpoint. By creating a proper superstition measurement for the Indian population, we can better understand how Indians think and behave. The goal of the present research is to create a superstition measure specific to Indian culture. The results reveal 18 items reflecting Indian superstitions that can be generalised across contemporary India.     

Help for the Significant Others of Bulimics

A quasi-experimental design was used to assess the effects of a 5-week assistance program for the significant others of bulimics. A knowledge test, an attitude survey, and a behavior device were used to evaluate the effects of the program. One or more of the three instruments was administered to an experimental group of significant others before (pretest) and after (posttest) they attended the assistance program. One or more of the three instruments was also administered to a control group of significant others before (pretest) and after (posttest) a 5-week period. During this period they did not attend the assistance program. No significant difference was found between the pretest and posttest scores of the control group on the three instruments at the .05 probability level. Experimental group posttest scores were significantly higher than their pretest scores on the three instruments at the .05 probability level. An anonymous evaluation conducted following the program also indicated significant others who attended the program found it to be beneficial.