Scandal and Moral Demandingness in the Late Scholastics

This paper examines the views of a number of late scholastic moral theologians, with emphasis on Francisco Suárez, about the limits of the duty to refrain from those otherwise permissible actions which make it difficult for people to choose uprightly. In so doing, the paper singles out and analyses a number circumstantial factors capable of excusing ordinary agents for giving others an occasion of sin.     

Thomas Aquinas and Antonio de Córdoba on self-defence: saving yourself as a private end

ABSTRACT

Revisionists about Aquinas’ teaching on private self-defence take the standard reading to hold that Aquinas applies a version of the Doctrine of Double Effect (DDE) according to which the intentional killing of a wrongful attacker by a private person is morally prohibited while the non-intentional but foreseeable killing of the attacker is permitted. Revisionists dispute this reading and argue that Aquinas permits the intentional killing of wrongful attackers. I argue that revisionists mischaracterize the standard reading of Aquinas. I consider one of its main proponents, Antonio de Córdoba (1485–1579). When Córdoba condemned the intentional killing of wrongful attackers by private persons, he was not applying DDE. Rather, he was arguing that when you decide to kill an attacker you treat the attacker as a resource for the private end of saving your life. Killing a member of your community is a form of irrevocable social exclusion. This decision ought to be left to the public authorities. The disagreement between the authors defending the standard view and their critics was not about DDE but rather about the moral limits that membership in a community sets on the pursuit of private ends, including the private end of staying alive.     

The effects of categorical relatedness on judgements of learning (JOLs)

On-line monitoring during study can be influenced by the relatedness shared between the cue and target of a paired associate. We examined the effects on people's judgements of learning (JOLs) of a different kind of relatedness, which occurs in a list organised into sets of categorically related words and unrelated words. In two experiments, participants studied a list of words organised into a series of sets of four categorically related words or four unrelated words. In Experiment 1, JOLs were made immediately after each word had been studied, and JOL magnitude was greater for related than unrelated words. In Experiment 2, JOLs were delayed after study and, as expected, they were substantially greater for related sets of words. Serial position effects (an increase in JOL magnitude across the words of a related set) were evident with immediate JOLs but not with delayed JOLs. The relatedness effect was not present early in the list for immediate JOLs but was present throughout the list for delayed JOLs. We conclude by discussing some preliminary explanations for these new phenomena.     

Factors Associated with Psychological Distress among Women of African Descent at High Risk for BRCA Mutations

Little is known about psychological distress among women of African descent who are at high risk for a BRCA mutation. This is a group for whom breast cancer risk reduction is critical due to the group’s high rates of breast cancer mortality. Distress is important to consider as it may reduce the potential benefit of genetic counseling and negatively affect decision making related to risk reduction. The goals of the current study were to examine breast cancer-specific distress and depressive symptoms in women of African descent at who are at high risk for a BRCA mutation and to identify background factors associated with these outcomes. Participants were 148 high-risk African American and Caribbean women who were part of a larger study that offered participants BRCA counseling at no cost. Participants completed the Impact of Events Scale, which assessed breast cancer-specific distress, and the Center of Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale, which assessed depressive symptoms. Results of analyses revealed that almost half of the sample achieved scores indicating high and clinically significant breast cancer-specific distress, while almost one-third had clinically significant depression scores. Results further showed that low income was significantly associated with cancer-specific distress, while having a cancer diagnosis was significantly associated with depressive symptoms. These results underscore the need for targeted psychological support throughout the genetic risk assessment process for this particular high-risk group.     

A Way to the Soul of the Mentally ill by Gertrude Schwing

Abstract

Despite the skepticism and indifference to group psychotherapy that existed in the 1950s and 1960s within the psychoanalytic community in general and among the staff and administration of the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas in particular, a few clinicians there forged ahead in pursuit of incorporating this modality as an accepted treatment. After gaining some acceptance first in the hospital, we experienced a slow rate of growth, except with our trainees who were generally enthusiastic about group work. Many of them were intrigued first by their exposure to the group dynamics seminars and later by the didactic courses and supervised group work that eventually came to be required by the accrediting body for residency programs of the American Psychiatric Association. Visiting senior consultants and teachers, mainly associated with the American Group Psychotherapy Association, as well as an esteemed clinician from the Tavistock Clinic, also lent credibility and legitimacy to our effort. When group treatment began to be adopted by units of the Menninger Hospital in the early 1970s, there was a significant sea change in the attitude of the organization and group psychotherapy became a well established modality.     

Psychoanalysis and the Education of the Child by Gerald H. J. Pearson

A conceptualization is presented which encourages a renewed exploration of the way in which psychiatric patients discuss their medications in the group therapy setting. It is suggested that process-oriented group therapiststend to harbor subtle prejudices which may inhibit examination of this material. If we listen to medication-related discourse more carefully, we find that patients disclose important information about hopes and fears about treatment, self-efficacy, attitudes about control and authority, and other sensitive or disowned parts of experience. The process of interactions about medicines often reveals interpersonal difficulties, particularly around intimacy. Suggestions for intervening more effectively with this type of material are presented. The importance of medication attributions in revealing curative fantasies is discussed.