Psych, Soc, Ling & Af Am @ the Library

September 4, 2007 NPR reported on both the unequal distribution of mental health services around the world and the good results gained when treatment for depression is provided. Their “I’ll shock you awake” statistic: “in Africa, there’s one psychiatrist for every 2 million people; while in Europe, there’s one for every 10,000.”

The Lancet launched a series on Global Mental Health, describing the poor coverage of mental illness all over the world, but of more extreme concern in middle and poorer countries. The panel also impressed on the journalists the concept of “No Health without Mental Health” by describing the difference in physical health treatment of mentally healthy and mentally ill persons. The press briefing, including questions and answers from journalists to the panelists, is available online at the Lancet.

NPR interviewed a Chilean psychologist, Roberto Araya, who found that poor persons with depression failed to be treated because health professionals blamed their depression on poverty. However, Araya found that treatment could alleviate depression even if poverty still existed. This allowed previously debilitated individuals return to their work, caring for and providing for their families, becoming contributing members of their communities.

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Choose a Topic that interests you

Walking in the dog park the other day, I started thinking about the different treatments I’d been hearing about for my friends’ dogs’ fears of thunder and lightening storms. No one seemed to want to use boring, old (time-comsuming) desensitization techniques. (Letting their dogs listen to soft thunder sounds and giving them treats for the moments they were calm. Then increasing the sounds and adding flashes of light as they were able to maintain their calm.)

Gotta show you a picture of my darling new doggy, Audrey – who is quite scared during thunderstorms.

No, my friends suggested using flower essences, cloth wraps, TTouch, message, acupuncture. Things that only my nutty friends used in California during the 1970’s. Many of these techniques have now integrated into regular medicine. How has this happened? Massage therapy was never covered under insurance of old. Now acupuncture is covered by most insurance. Why and how has this happened?

2) Find Background Information from Subject Specific Encyclopedias

To find background information and to get a theoretical perspective on the issues involved, look in the index of the encyclopedia, The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology.

Now, since this is an encyclopedia of sociology, each of the 56 articles you find slant the topic from a sociological viewpoint — not psychological, not medical. Just what you want for a sociology class and for your question. Cool beans.

Use the first article, Complementary and Alternative Medicine, by Hans Baer to help you

• find references to other articles and books that were seminal to the work on your topic
  • Baer, H. (2001) Biomedicine and Alternative Healing Systems in America: Issues of Class, Race, Ethnicity, and Gender . University of Wisconsin Press , Madison.
• researchers who started the work on your topic
  • Hans Baer
  • Mike Saks
• keywords that researchers use to describe your topic
  • alternative and complementary medicine
  • holistic medicine
  • professionalization
  • biomedicine
  • medical pluralism
• other questions that interest you
  • How have economics contributed to the increase of acceptance of alternative therapies by conventional medicine?
  • Is the rise of alternative medicines related to or parallel to the development of other practicing professionals (nurse practitioners, midwives, physicians assistants) within conventional medicine?
• other encyclopedia articles that relate to your topic
  • Professional Dominance in Medicine
• social theories that explain or define your topic
  • professional dominance

3) Find Books in the library catalog

Next, you can look for the books and articles at the end of the article in our library catalog. Hans Baer’s book is there.

4) Find Articles in subject databases

A couple of different databases may help you find articles that interest you. The Sociology Subject Guide lists several different databases, including Sociological Abstracts, PubMed, and Web of Science. Sociological Abstracts includes journals particularly from a sociological point of view, so that’s a good place to start.

Use the terms from the encyclopedia article:

(complementary medicine OR alternative medicine OR medical pluralism OR holistic medicine)
AND professionalization

If you use the thesaurus, the results will mostly hit right on topic!

Now what can you do? Read through these abstracts and see which really answer your question and which are off topic.

If they look good, click on the and follow the instructions for getting e-journals.

5) You might check out PubMed. Included are journals directed at bioscientists and physicians, so there should be interesting material here. Do similar sorts of searches. You might want to look at these as primary sources, as the object of research — analyze some of the articles from a sociological perspective.

Complementary Medicine[MeSH] AND “medical pluralism”

6) Perform a Citation Search; Find Related Records using Web of Science

Choose an older, pertinent article from your previous searches. Then see who has written a more recent article on a similar topic and cited that article.

Another technique is to search for articles in Web of Science and then to look for Related Records.

• I searched for an article using the same terms as above: “complemetary medicine” AND “medical pluralism”.
• I found the article
  Kaptchuk, T.J. and Eisenberg, D. M. (2001). Varieties of healing. A taxonomy of unconventional healing practices. Annals of Internal Medicine, 135 (3). 196-204.

When you click on the link, you get this record.  On the right hand side of it, you see a link to “Related Records.” I’ve circled it in red and marked it with a red arrow.

If you click here, you’ll get other articles that share the same references and so probably are on the same topics. The articles at the top will share the most references — they should be the most closely related.

  I clicked on the red circle and got the following results:

The articles that share the most references appear at the top of the list. Lots of these articles are on the topic you’re interested in. 

Clicking on the purple circle, I got more recent articles that cited this one:

Keep reading and thinking. Soon you’ll be writing and turning in your paper.

Come visit me, email, or call any time you need help!

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What happened at Virginia Tech? What do we know about such murders? murderers? recovery?

Last Monday I was working on Ask a Librarian when a student IM’ed me asking, “Have you heard about what happened at Virginia Tech?”

Being in librarian mode, I said, “Yes. Did you want more information about it?”

“No,” the student said. “I just wanted to make sure you all did.” Then we continued to talk about the events at Virginia Tech and what we’d heard. Apparently he was on his computer when he heard and needed to talk to someone about it, so he IM’ed us at Ask a Librarian.

You might want to find out what we’ve learned about school shootings, those who shoot their fellow students, and how communities can try to recover from these traumatic events. We have several resources:

Encyclopedia of Murder & Violent Crime

School Shooting
Mass Murder

Ramsland, Katherine. (2005) Inside the Minds of Mass Murderers: Why They Kill. p cover. Westport: Greenwood eBooks.

Staub, Ervin. (2003). The psychology of good and evil : why children, adults, and groups help and harm others Cambridge, U.K. : Cambridge University Press.
short excerpt
LIBRARY WEST — – BF789.E94 S83 2003

Staub also discusses how we can work on making us more giving and altruistic towards others and how to make it through these horrible experiences.

Douglas, Johns and Olshaker, Mark. (1999) The anatomy of motive : the FBI’s legendary mindhunter explores the key to understanding and catching violent criminals. New York: Scribner.
LIBRARY WEST — HV7911.D68 A33 1999 [Regular Loan]

Kelleher, Michael D. (1997).Flash point: the American mass murderer. Westport, Conn.: Praeger.
LIBRARY WEST — – HV6529 .K45 1997 [Regular Loan]

Lavergne, Gary M. (1997). A sniper in the Tower: the Charles Whitman murders.
Denton, Tex.: University of North Texas Press.

Webber, Julie A. (2003). Failure to hold : the politics of school violence. Lanham : Rowan & Littlefield.
EDUCATION LIBRARY — – LB3013.3 .W43 2003

There are several different databases that would be helpful:

PsycINFO

for psychological information on the shooter, the families left behind, the students who are friends and those who are hurting, grieving, frightened and angry just by living on campus. And the rest of us, feeling the same things because we live in the same world and are affected by knowing that such things can happen.

mass murderers

Another article in the Journal of Primary Prevention discusses (and this is a simplification of the argument) the limited ethical development in the family, restricted social interaction with his peers which doesn’t allow further development, and then a school that is competitive, frustrating to a not completely competent person. It is quite interesting.
Thompson, Stephen and Kyle, Ken. (2005).Understanding Mass School Shootings: Links between Personhood and Power in the Competitive School EnvironmentJournal of Primary Prevention. 26,(5). 419-438.

ERIC
Education Full Text

for information on schools and education, including higher education.

Criminal Justice Abstracts

as it sounds, for information on criminology and criminal justice. This includes both forensic psychology, legal research, and sociological research.

Sociological Abstracts

for information about our society, violence, schools, alienation, community, globalization, etc.

If you’d like to know about what other material we have that can help us understand or help you try to help other people, let me know and we can look for information together. Remember to take care.

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Finding a Social Space for Folks with Asperger’s Syndrome

“Merrie, I’d like to do my paper on kids with Asperger’s Syndrome/dyslexia/stuttering and school. Is there anything on that?”

Every time I talk to Communication Science and Disorder classes, at least 3 or 4 students want to study interaction between children and adolescents with asperger’s and their classmates. Honestly, it’s been relatively easy to find remediation studies to increase kids’ social skills or to look at social interactions in a reductionist way. But larger studies that look at how kids interact in school have been hard for me to find.

Then the other night, Nightline showed a program on Asperger’s Syndrome, Bullying, and a school in New Jersey. The school teaches students what Asperger’s is, gets them involved with each other and teaches them how to be friends with each other. It’s “heaven” one of the kids with Asperger’s says.

I tried to find articles about bullying, teasing and harrassing of kids with Asperger’s. Though several make mention of it, as if it’s well known and first-person narratives include it, I couldn’t find studies of bullying per se. It’s the terms “bullying” (in British writing) or “victimization” (in American writing) that help find these articles for us. Yay! And especially in PsycInfo! So, here is one search from PsycInfo:

(autism OR asperger*) AND (bullying OR victimization)

Try other searchers in ERIC, Lingustics and Language Behavior Abstracts, PubMed, and Education Full Text. They’ll all show you something a bit different.

Books we have on Asperger’s — just search in the catalog using the second box. Change the dropdown menu to “Subject.” Type in Asperger Look at all the possible subject heads there are. (You won’t be able to link to the library catalog from here, though

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Watch the History of Deaf People on PBS March 29th at 9:00pm

Last night people all over the country watched a great film, Through Deaf Eyes, on the history of Deaf people in America. Unfortunately, in Gainesville it was pre-empted by Suze Orman’s financial advice during pledge week. WUFL will broadcast it here next week, Friday, March 30 at 9pm. But you can browse through their website now and even read the transcript if you’d like.

The larger documentary includes clips of films by Deaf filmmakers, available on the website. But I wish the transcript had some videos of the interviews in sign, instead of all of them in translation.

I wish they spoke more about life outside of school and the educational institutions. Almost all of the pictures on the PBS website is of students practicing speech, getting audiograms, and hitting drums to listen to sounds. I love just seeing Deaf people together playing canasta or enjoying their bowling. A 1/2 second on the Black schools and segregation in the South.

On the other hand, there were Deaf people living everyday lives, just being. Having friends, brothers, wives, husbands, and co-workers. Lots of the stories spoke to the heart. It was so exciting just to know that Deaf kids can’t imagine a Gallaudet University with a hearing president. What a change in less than 20 years. (And it’s been that long since the Deaf President Now protest!)

The love of American Sign Language and the community afforded Deaf people is palpable in the film. It’s clear what Veditz (the NAD President in 1910) was talking about when he told Deaf people that “Sign Language is the greatest gift that God has given to the Deaf.”

(We have ordered the DVD. PBS says it will be shipping in May.)

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Are undergrads more narcissistic now than 20 years ago?

A new book out, Generation Me: Why Today’s Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled–and More Miserable Than Ever Before, laments the author (Jean M. Twenge, Phd.)’s findings that undergraduates today are more narcissistic than the previous generation. At least based on her results on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory. Jean Twenge attributes this to the “self-esteem” movement that encouraged parents to praise their children for being themselves and for doing everything they do.

Interesting. But it’s also been suggested that adolescence (emerging adulthood) lasts longer than before, through college and until about age 21 - 23 in developed countries. The symptoms of narcissism are similar to characteristics of young folks figuring out who they are and what they want to do with their lives.

Or are there problems with personality inventories?

Or is it just what always happens. Older folks saying “These kids today…too self-involved. They don’t care about anyone but themselves!” That’s what older folks said about my generation when I was in college. That’s what some older people said about the Vietnam War protestors. “I wish they really were pacifists. But it’s not war they’re against — they just don’t want to die.”

Or is this new generation of undergrads different? What do you think?

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Good evening,

My name is David Reznik and I am one of the founding members of the Gator Homeless Coalition, a group of student volunteers seeking to change the nature of the University of Florida’s relationship with its surrounding community, particularly Gainesville’s most victimized citizens: the homeless. UF has proven to be not only the largest, but also most influential institution in the city of Gainesville, and yet it has gentrified the city to suit the needs of privileged UF administration, faculty, and students.

Though the city may benefit from UF’s affluence, Gainesville’s permanent residents, specifically its homeless, suffer as well. There is now an affordable housing crisis and a shortage of shelter beds for the city with the highest poverty rate of any with a public university. The disproportionate number of students in Gainesville has also caused the scarcity of employment opportunities for local residents. It was these factors and more that sparked our mission to create the first student-run homeless shelter in Gainesville during the fall of 2006. We hope to bridge the campus-community divide in a more socially responsible fashion by having UF positively affect the city within which it exists.

While fostering leadership among students through hands-on experience in various disciplines, we seek to not just redefine the inhumane realities of Gainesville’s homeless. Our goal is to ultimately spark political action and social consciousness in making this university town a truly interdependent community.

PLEASE VOTE YES ON OUR REFERENDUM FOR A STUDENT-RUN HOMELESS SHELTER ON FEB. 27th and 28th DURING THE UF STUDENT GOVERNMENT ELECTIONS!!!

If you would like more information about us, please check out our website at www.ufhomeless.org or email us at ufhomeless@gmail.com

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The Imprisoning of Deinstitutionalized Mentally Ill People

Last Sunday night, CBS’s 60 Minutes reported on the death of Timothy Souders, a young man with Bipolar Disorder, who was in prison for shoplifting. The major contention of the producers is that since the deinstitutionalization of people with chronic, severe mental illnesses many are being shunted into the prison system. They are not able or willing to deal with them, not sensitive to their needs. Not aware of their illnesses.

For instance, people who are diagnosed as suicidal and may cut themselves (e.g. cut out pieces of their organs), the prison staff may call “manipulative with extreme behaviors.”

Here is a search from PsycINFO about the prison system and deinstitutionalization.
(Remember you’ll have to be logged into the library either by its proxy system or the VPN to access these articles.)

Frontline has a program (you can watch online) called The New Asylums, along with a website with more indepth interviews and research material.

I understand this response and the feeling that we might want to reopen or find havens for chronically ill people, but I also worked at a state mental hospital during graduate school. Horrible events occurred there.

If we do decide to find homes for people who are severely ill, we need to think hard about how to make them good places for the patients/residents living there and the staff working there. The working conditions at the state mental hospital took control and dignity away from the staff. Of course the residents suffered. There was a reason the State Hospitals were closed in the first place. It wasn’t only because the drugs seemed to be miraculous. It was also because the hospitals appeared to be hellish.

Some books to look at:

Deinstitutionalization : promise and problems
San Francisco : Jossey-Bass, c2001.
EDUCATION LIBRARY — – RA790.A1 N43 no.90

The role of the state hospital in the twenty-first century /
San Francisco : Jossey Bass, 1999.
EDUCATION LIBRARY — – RA790.A1 N43 no.84

Baum, Alice S.
A nation in denial : the truth about homelessness /
Boulder, Colo. : Westview Press, 1993.
LIBRARY WEST — – HV 4505 .B378 1993

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International History of Deaf People during World War II

Last April I visited the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC where they had an exhibit on Eugenics before and during the Holocaust called Deadly Medicine . Here they described the contribution of doctors to Hitler’s vision of the perfect race of people, including the sterilization of disabled people and development of methods of killing mentally ill and developmentally delayed people in mass numbers.

My awareness of Deaf people during the Holocaust developed when I met a Deaf woman from Germany. Her parents and sister were also Deaf. Her mother and sister had been sterilized as part of the cleansing of the German people. She, however, was only 9 or 10 years old at the time — too young for the operation. When she grew up, she married a German Deaf man, emmigrated to America, gave birth to a Deaf daughter who also gave birth to a Deaf child. I’ve always thought that was a great story of how another person defeated Hitler.

But this is not an unusual story. Many Deaf children and adults were sterilized, some underwent forced abortions. Apparently, there was a myth that schools for the Deaf in Germany sheltered many children from these forced sterilizations, but relatively recent research has found that schools, rather than protect their children, often colluded with government officials. Biesold, Horst (1999) Crying hands : eugenics and deaf people in Nazi Germany Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press. (And of course, Alexander Graham Bell was a strong force in eugenics here in the US, while he worked with deaf children.)

A recent book by Carol Padden and Tom Humphries, Inside Deaf Culture (HV2545 .P35 2005 at both Library West and the Education Library), discusses genetic testing and research with Deaf people. What does it mean when we can decide which disorders and diseases can be eliminated? What does it mean when groups of people should be eliminated, especially when they view themselves as a cultural group? What are weaknesses? What are differences?

But the website on Deaf people during WWII at the Rochester Institute of the Deaf not only includes videotapes of Deaf people from the US, Israel, and Germany describing their experiences during the Holocaust. Nope. It also includes rememberances of Deaf Japanese-Americans in Internment Camps in the US, and Japanese Deaf people in Nagasaki during the bombings. And artwork by Deaf artist and Holocaust survivor David Bloch. It is excellent!

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