Parent and Child Effects on Cognitive Performance: An Experimental Approach to the Etiological and Responsive Theories of Schizophrenia

While many theorists have assumed that the family has an etiological part in the development of schizophrenia, most findings, since they come predominantly from observations after the illness has occurred, could plausibly be interpreted as family responses to the illness. In this experimental study, we constructed artificial families in order to measure independently of each other the effects of parents of schizophrenics on children and the effects of schizophrenic children on parents. Findings from a cognitive task requiring abilities to attend and abstract show that the presence of a schizophrenic child has only minor disruptive effects upon the performance of normal parents; parents of schizophrenics also have little effect upon normal children. Instead, the most consistent effects are those of normal parents on the schizophrenic child. Adolescent schizophrenic patients whose cognitive performance deficit is apparent prior to the experiment show significant improvement after having worked on the cognitive task with normal parents; their cognitive deficit disappears, and their performance is not different from matched normal children. Further investigation will center on the quality of the normal parents' “normalizing” effects.     

Individual Resiliency Factors from a Genetic Perspective: Results from a Twin Study

This article is part of the Twin Mother's Study, a study that examines influences on maternal adjustment. A number of studies have investigated the importance of genetic factors for mental health, but few of these examine how genes and the environment influence resiliency/salutogenic factors. This article investigates the relative importance of genetic and environmental influences on resiliency/salutogenic factors. This study includes 326 twin pairs (150 monozygotic and 176 dizygotic) who are mothers, who are living with their spouse, and who are part of the Swedish twin register. Using self‐report structured questionnaires, we assessed salutogenic factors, depression, and quality of life; however, we analyzed the questionnaires completed by the mothers. Statistical analyses were conducted using structural equation modeling. We conclude that nonshared environmental components were of principal importance in individual resiliency/salutogenic factors in a genetically informative design, but we also noted that genetic influences were important. The shared environment had mainly no effect.     

Diotima and Demeter as Mystagogues in Plato's Symposium

Like the goddess Demeter, Diotima from Mantineia, the prophetess who teaches Socrates about eros and the “rites of love” in Plato's Symposium, was a mystagogue who initiated individuals into her mysteries, mediating to humans esoteric knowledge of the divine. The dialogue, including Diotima's speech, contains religious and mystical language, some of which specifically evokes the female‐centered yearly celebrations of Demeter at Eleusis. In this essay, I contextualize the worship of Demeter within the larger system of classical Athenian practices, and propose that Plato borrowed Eleusinian language because it criticized conventional notions of the divine, thereby allowing him to reimagine the possibilities for the philosophical process among humans.     

Experience,Embodiment, and Epistemologies

Gail Mason's Spectacle of Violence undertakes an important project in confronting a number of serious questions about definitions of violence and power, and about the nature of experience, subjectivity, and mind/body dualisms. Hartsock's comments on the book focus on issues of experience, embodiment, and standpoint theories.