Rescuers and the Rescued

ABSTRACT: There is a fairly widespread but unverified belief that persons working on certain taboo areas may be similar to the population they serve and drawn to such work by their own personal problems in these areas. Two groups, 51 suicide prevention volunteers and 31 suicide attempters, were compared with respect to demographic characteristics and for psychological attitudes and experiences pertaining to suicide, death, and mental status by means of a death questionnaire developed by Shneidman. Comparative analysis revealed substantial differences between volunteers and clients. Demographically, the volunteers were older, better educated, more affluent, and contained a greater proportion of Protestants. Psychologically, the volunteers were distinctly different in regard to suicide. In contrast to their clients, the volunteers reported greater emotional stability, much less fantasy about suicide, almost no actual suicide attempts, and a disinclination to consider suicide as a justifiable problem-solving option.     

Parents of the Battered Child: A Multidisciplinary Group Therapy Approach to Life-Threatening Behavior

ABSTRACT: This paper reports the demographic findings and the experience of a three-year, multidisciplinary group psychotherapy program, with 31 child-abusing families. No predictive demographic characteristics were identified. The abuse of children ranged from mild bruising to severe brain damage and multiple fractures. Group therapy as an intervention procedure had its successes and failures. The dynamics of male-female co-therapists, the peer group sharing, and the capacity to ultimately verbalize inadequacies in the parenting role were crucial factors in therapy. As an experiential encounter the study gives a poignant insight into the personal and family pathology of parents who abuse their children.     

The self-help clearinghouse concept: An evaluation of one program and its implications for policy and practice

Many clearinghouses have been organized within the last decade to promote mutual aid and to provide referral information about self-help groups to potential members. Few of the assumptions that underpin the operation of these programs have been evaluated, however. This paper presents an evaluation of the Self-Help Information Service, a clearinghouse integrated with a generic information and referral service. The results were generally positive with respect to operator and consumer satisfaction, community responsiveness, and the system's capacity to undertake numerous service and research functions. They also pointed up several changes that might be made to improve the system's impact. It is concluded that a new practice specialty might be developed within a clearinghouse context, and that the clearinghouse concept might serve as one cornerstone of a funding policy that supports the self-help approach.     

“Why Do You Stand Looking Up Toward Heaven?” New Testament Eschatology at the Turn of the Millennium

Apocalyptic narrative and apocalyptic expectation are integral to the logic of the gospel. This essay surveys and critiques three unsatisfactory strategies for reinterpreting the gospel in non-apocalyptic terms: the Johannine "vertical" eschatology of union with Christ, the Jesus Seminar's construction on a non-apocalyptic Jesus, and N. T. Wright's reading of synoptic apocalyptic passages as a symbolic references to events that occurred already in the first century. Christian theology cannot dispense with a future-oriented apocalyptic eschatology. Seven reasons for this claim are set forth and explained. The concluding part of the essay suggests that the difficulty of accepting apocalyptic eschatology has often been overstated and observes that "intratextual" Christian theology will necessarily interpret the story of Jesus in apocalyptic categories.     

Caudal fin branding fish for individual recognition in behavior studies

Caudal fin branding is an inexpensive technique for marking and identifying small, fragile fish. A modified tip on a hand-held soldering pencil is used to cauterize small holes in the caudal fin membrane. The technique is simple to use, appears to cause little trauma to the fish, and lasts for at least several weeks.