Making Exceptions

abstract   Because we are more comfortable with judgements of conceptual conceivability than with judgements of practical possibility, we content ourselves with imaginary cases, which are useless for making many decisions that practical people most need to make, notably all-things-considered decisions about when to follow an admitted general principle and when to make an exception. The diverse cases of climate change, preventive attack, and torture all illustrate how the avoidance of the difficult task of integrating empirical judgements with conceptual judgements through the flight into the sanitized abstraction of imaginary cases undermines attempts at practical ethics. All three cases involve allegedly exceptional, or emergency, situations, although climate change seems to require more than the usual compliance with general principle while preventive attack and torture supposedly require less than the usual compliance. By my lights the proposed exceptions are, respectively, fully, sometimes, and never justified. But the fundamental point is that one unfortunately cannot decide any of the cases without assessing what is in fact likely as well as what is conceptually possible .     

Subjective Religiosity and Depression in the Transition to Adulthood

Does being more religious make one less susceptible to depression? We consider the association between subjective religiosity (religious self‐perception and coping) and depression in the context of social support (from family and friends) and stress exposure (recent negative life events, chronic stress, lifetime trauma, and discrimination). Data come from a sample of 1,803 Miami‐Dade County young adults interviewed between 1997 and 2000. We find higher levels of depression among the moderately religious than among either very religious or nonreligious respondents. Interestingly, when observations are made within gender, this relationship applies only to females. Controlling for socioeconomic status and social support largely accounts for the link between religiosity and depression. However, controlling for stress exposure reveals a suppressor effect wherein religiosity once again emerges as significant. Our interpretation is that, while established patterns of religious coping can routinely mitigate distress, heightened stress exposure may elicit increased prayer among the less religious.     

My life is a longing: Child abuse and its adult sequelae Results of the Brody longitudinal study from birth to age 30

The psychoanalytically oriented Brody longitudinal study has followed the psychological development of 76 individuals from birth to age 30. Ten suffered severe maltreatment in childhood in the form of rejection and/or physical abuse at the hands of one or both parents. This report describes the effects of child abuse on the emerging personalities of the children, as well as on their adult personalities and mental health. Specifi cally, as adults the maltreated children had signifi cantly more psychiatric illness (typically depressions and anxiety disorders), less mature psychological defense mechanisms, more insecure mental representations of attachment to their parents as indicated by the adult attachment interview, and a lower Global Assessment of Functioning than their well-treated counterparts. Additionally, their prevailing moods were joyless. Case examples show the emergence of symptoms, personality disorders, and defenses over time, as well as the workings of ameliorating infl uences. Several of the maltreated children made relatively successful adaptations as adults, indicating children's potential for resilience. Resilience, however, may be a superfi cial concept, for, in this series of cases, seemingly adequate coping in formerly mistreated children always came at the price of emotional vulnerability and compromised potential.