Towards an anthropological psychiatry

The situation of present day psychiatry is described as being dominated by an empiricist perspective. The limitations of this perspective are analyzed and a rough sketch of the hermeneutical approach in psychiatry is offered. It is argued that a fully developed hermeneutical psychiatry implies a reference towards anthropological themes. Three of them, time, historicity and corporality, are investigated.     

Principia Ecologica: Eco-principles as a conceptual framework for a new ethics in science and technology

As a result of contemporary environmental problems, scientists are focusing their interests on developing a greater understanding of nature. Described in this paper is a view of life and the environment as a case of complex systems analysis; this analysis results in a series of general principles which are manifested in life and bioprocesses. These ‘eco-principles’ will be very useful as guidelines for the eco-restructuring of technology as well as the reorientation of human activities towards a sustainable lifestyle which includes the economy, society, management of industry, the university and even the church. The goal is a society which will be in harmony with the laws of nature (‘Principia Ecologica’). The author is a bioprocess engineer interested in achieving a transition from ‘biotech’ to ‘ecotech’.     

Correlates of Sexual Aggression Among Male University Students

Eighty-six male undergraduate university students in Canada participated in a study of the relation between sexual aggression and the variables of sex role stereotyping, fraternity affiliation, participation in athletics, hostility toward women, aggressive drive, aggressive attitude, alcohol use, and masculinity. Multiple regression analysis identified physical aggression, sex role stereotyping, and fraternity affiliation as best predictors of sexual aggression.     

Fictionalism about musical works

The debate concerning the ontological status of musical works is perhaps the most animated debate in contemporary analytic philosophy of music. In my view, progress requires a piecemeal approach. So in this article I hone in on one particular musical work concept – that of the classical Western art musical work; that is, the work concept that regulates classical art-musical practice. I defend a fictionalist analysis – a strategy recently suggested by Andrew Kania as potentially fruitful – and I develop a version of such an analysis in line with a broad commitment to philosophical naturalism.     

Healing Without Waging War: Beyond Military Metaphors in Medicine and HIV Cure Research

Military metaphors are pervasive in biomedicine, including HIV research. Rooted in the mind set that regards pathogens as enemies to be defeated, terms such as “shock and kill” have become widely accepted idioms within HIV cure research. Such language and symbolism must be critically examined as they may be especially problematic when used to express scientific ideas within emerging health-related fields. In this article, philosophical analysis and an interdisciplinary literature review utilizing key texts from sociology, anthropology, history, and Chinese and African studies were conducted to investigate the current proliferation of military metaphors. We found the use of these metaphors to be ironic, unfortunate, and unnecessary. To overcome military metaphors we propose to (1) give them less aggressive meanings, and/or (2) replace them with more peaceful metaphors. Building on previous authors' work, we argue for the increased use of “journey” (and related) metaphors as meaningful, cross-culturally appropriate alternatives to military metaphors.     

The underestimated giants: operant conditioning,visual discrimination and long-term memory in giant tortoises

Animal Cognition - Relatively little is known about cognition in turtles, and most studies have focused on aquatic animals. Almost nothing is known about the giant land tortoises. These are visual...     

Swedish norms for the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire for children 3–5 years rated by parents and preschool teachers

The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a widespread tool for assessing behavior problems in children and adolescents. Despite being investigated thoroughly concerning both validity and reliability, peer reviewed studies that provide norms, especially for preschool children, are lacking. This paper provides Swedish norms using data from a large community sample of children aged 3–5, based on mothers’, fathers’, and preschool teacher’s ratings. Preschool teachers’ ratings were generally lower than parents’ ratings, which contradicts some previous studies. Differences between girls and boys were found, suggesting that boys display higher levels of behavior problems. Lower parental education and country of origin outside of Sweden were also associated with more difficulties. Cut-offs are presented for each age group, gender and rater category. Population-specific norms and percentile cut-offs provided in this study facilitate identifying children in need of interventions in paediatric care and enable cross-country comparisons of children’s mental health problems.     

The Disjunction Effect: Does It Exist for Two-Step Gambles?

One of the basic axioms of the rational theory of decision under uncertainty is Savage's (1954) Sure Thing Principle. It states that if Prospect x is preferred to Prospect y knowing that Event A occurred, and if x is preferred to y knowing that A did not occur, then x should also be preferred to y when it is not known whether A occurred. Tversky and Shafir (1992) claim to have demonstrated a violation of this principle in two-step gambles, which is termed a disjunction effect. The present article evaluates the replicability of the disjunction effect for two-step gambles. The findings show that people do not violate the sure thing principle in repeated gambles. The validity of alleged violations in other paradigms is discussed.     

The influence of perceived suffering and vulnerability on the experience of pity

Pity is viewed as a function of two classes of perceived stimulus features and their interaction: the extent to which a person (when still healthy and nonsuffering) is perceived as vulnerable to physical harm, and the perceived intensity of his or her current suffering. Consistent with this view, Experiment 1 (N = 141) showed that participants' pity reactions to photographs of persons expressing pain were influenced by age‐related, sex‐related, and postural vulnerability cues. Experiment 2 (N = 258) manipulated both target's vulnerability by varying the muscularity of the same adult male stimulus and the intensity of suffering. As predicted, an interaction of vulnerability and suffering was found. Implications for the study of helping behavior are discussed. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.