Providentia

R. D Laing Film Being Planned

A film about cult figure and controversial psychiatrist R.D. Laing is in the planning stages. Born in 1927, Ronald David Laing grew up to become a charismatic psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who scorned traditional therapies for mental illness for a more interpersonal approach. In 1965, Laing and his associates started a psychiatric community project at the Kingsley Hall community centre in East London where therapists and patients lived together. It was a radical experiment that remains controversial due to Laing's experiments with LSD and allegations of sexual impropriety. He also later advocated "rebirthing workshops" which supposedly simulated the birth experience.

Though long associated with the anti-psychiatry movement, Laing rejected the label despite his criticism of the biological model of mental illness. Although his ideas were widely espoused during the 1960s and 1970s, his life and career went into decline. By the time of his death in 1987, he had lost his license to practice medicine and his theories had been largely discredited.

The planned movie is expected to focus on his early career and famous patients. Robert Carlyle (Trainspotting, The Full Monty) is reportedly being considered for the lead.

 

Click here for more information.

The "Molly Wood" Scandal

It was not the sort of sex scandal that you would expect to find in 19th century Toronto (then known as York).

On July 5, 1810, Judge William Dummer Powell was stopped in the street by the town's Solicitor General and was told of a very peculiar complaint. Several young men living in York had apparently been called in by a town Commissioner, Alexander Wood (who also happened to be a close friend of Powell). Wood had told the young men that he was investigating a rape complaint filed by an unnamed woman. She was unable to name her attacker but stated that she "wounded him" in his genitals. As part of his investigation, Wood personally inspected the genitals of the various suspects in the case for tell-tale scratches. The ones questioned, more than a little suspicious of Wood's motives, laid a complaint and asked Powell to investigate.

This request put Powell in an awkward position. He knew that Alexander Wood was originally from Scotland and had settled in York in 1797. As a prosperous merchant and an outstanding citizen, it seemed only natural that Wood be appointed a city magistrate in 1800. Although he had never been married, there was no hint of any kind of scandal surrounding Wood. Powell was astonished when Wood confirmed what he had done as part of his "rape investigation". Things became worse when Wood refused to name the woman who had laid the complaint. Rumours about the incident spread across York and Alexander Wood faced considerable ridicule. The Attorney General labeled Wood the "Inspector General of Private Affairs" while other citizens started calling him "Molly Wood" (molly was a common term for homosexual in those days). Customers began avoiding his shop and Wood was told that he would likely face charges for abusing his authority as magistrate (he was even accused of inventing the rape charge so that he could ogle naked men). Powell agreed to stay any charges if Wood left York for a while.

After two years in Scotland, Alexander Wood returned to York in 1812 to resume his old life. Although his friendship with Powell had ended over the scandal, other friends had stayed loyal. By fighting in the War of 1812 and serving on various committees, Wood seemed a natural choice to sit on the War Claims Commission that was formed in 1812. As an Executive Councillor, William Powell was asked to approve all appointments to the Commission but balked at Alexander Wood's name being included on the list. He cited the 1810 scandal and refused to swear him in on moral grounds.  Wood was offended and hired James Macaulay to represent him in the lawsuit that later became known as "Wood vs Powell". Although Wood was later sworn in by another judge, he argued that Powell's actions had damaged his reputation.

And it had. Not only did Powell dredge up the 1810 scandal but he even hinted that Wood suffered from mental instability.A doctor had diagnosed Wood in 1806 as suffering from “a fullness of the Vessels of the Brain” although it's unclear what condition that was meant to indicate. While Powell had sought medical help for his friend at the time, he had no problem using it against Wood during the later lawsuit. Although Wood won the defamation lawsuit, Powell still refused to pay any damages. Even worse, Powell published a pamphlet in 1831 outlining the facts of the case and his reasons for refusing to pay. Wood eventually forgave the debt after Powell died in 1834.

Alexander Wood lived in Canada for another seventeen years but the stigma of the 1810 scandal still lingered. When he purchased fifty acres of land in what is now central Toronto, local residents named it "Molly Wood's Bush" and the term stuck for the rest of the 19th century. After Wood died in Scotland in 1844, all of his property passed to a distant cousin (he never married and had no children). Aside from an obituary praising him as one of Toronto's "most respected inhabitants", he seemed largely forgotten after his death.

Thanks to the rumours surrounding his sexuality, Alexander Wood has been informally adopted by Toronto's lesbian and gay community as an icon. Part of the area where "Molly Wood's Bush" was located is now Toronto's gay village (which includes Alexander and Wood Streets). In 2005, a statue dedicated to Alexander Wood was erected in a prominent corner of the village. The costs for the statue were shared by the City of Toronto and a local gay business group. Among the many accomplishments listed on the accompanying plaque is "Gay pioneer".

Whatever Wood's sexual preferences had been in life, his posthumous fame as a gay symbol seems assured. You do have to wonder what he would have thought of the idea.

Happy Holidays

Happy holidays wishes to you and yours! For those of you who celebrate Christmas, may the day bring you good tidings and glad times. For those of you of other faiths, may the season be a good one for you and your families!

Spiritual Leader Kills Boy For Being a Witch

Police in Ghana have arrested 52-year old Yaw Payni for his role in the death of a seven-year old boy for witchcraft. Johnny Kweifio was one of four children who had been brought to the self-proclaimed prophet of the Twelve Apostles Church at New Botianor near Accra for spiritual cleansing. Since the children had suffered from frequent ailments, the parents of the children had believed that evil magic was responsible. Payni accused the children of witchcraft and subjected them to weeks of forced starvation and whippings while tied to pawpaw trees. While the other three eventually confessed, Johnny Kweifio refused and eventually died.

Following Johnny's death, Payni told the boy's father that he had been killed by an "angel of the Lord" for refusing to confess. The other children were freed by police who responded to a report by a passerby on December 1.  After arresting Payni, they found Johnny's corpse where it had been thrown behind a wall. The parents have also been charged but were later granted bail.  The corpse is awaiting an autopsy.

Persecutions of accused witches (particularly children) remain common in many Central and West African countries. Exorcisms to "drive out" evil spirits have led to the deaths of countless children with others being forced from their homes to fend for themselves. Cases have also been reported of children living in Western countries who were brought to Africa by their parents to be "cleansed". Given the popularity of the exorcism churches, government agencies seem powerless to intervene. Despite increasing attention in the media, these deaths are likely to continue.

Click here for more information.

Click here for more information.

The Psychologist and the Amazon

In November 1920, a prominent Washington, D.C. physician was shot to death in a robbery. After months of investigation, police arrested James Frye who eventually confessed to the crime. Frye later recanted this confession before his trial was set to begin claiming that he had been promised money to admit to the crime. At the request of Frye's attorney, psychologist William Moulton Marston was called in to verify that Frye was telling the truth. Having made a name for himself through the use of systolic blood pressure testing to detect lying (he actually coined the term "lie detector"), Marston tested Frye in a D.C. jail and concluded that he was telling the truth.

In a landmark legal decision, the presiding judge threw out the evidence ruling that the systolic blood pressure deception test has "not has not yet gained such standing and scientific recognition among physiological and psychological authorities as would justify the courts in admitting expert testimony deduced from the discovery, development and experiments thus far made". Frye was convicted of second-degree murder and the decision to exclude Marston's testimony was upheld on appeal. Until the introduction of the Daubert standard in the 1990s, the Frye decision would be the principal standard for admissibility of scientific evidence in courtrooms throughout the United States (and is still used in some U.S. states).

Ever the showman, William Moulton Marston took his place in legal history in stride. Born in 1893, he earned his LLB and Ph.D. at Harvard University studying under the legendary Hugo Munsterberg. While Munsterberg first proposed the use of experimental psychology methods in forensic case, it was Marston (with the help of his wife Elizabeth) who developed the systolic blood pressure test of deception as a graduate student. The rationale behind the test was simple enough: when people lied, their elevated autonomic arousal could be measured through systolic blood pressure (later expanded to include galvanic skin response). Over the course of his lengthy career, he would publish research boasting of a 97-99% accuracy rate.

After leaving Harvard, Marston had a varied career. Billing his "lie detector" as "the end of man's long, futile striving for a means of distinguishing truth-telling from deception", he publicized his discovery in different, (and at times outrageous) ways. Following the Lindbergh kidnapping in the 1930s, Marston offered his services to the Lindbergh family and, failing to get a reply, offered to test Bruno Hauptmann to verify his guilt. Although Marston was not the only researcher working on physiological measures of deception, his showmanship gave him a higher profile than anyone else.

Dubbed the "father of the polygraph", he pushed for its use in courtrooms and police work. His work at publicizing the polygraph took him in some strange directions. He was once hired by Gillette to do an advertisement using the polygraph to conduct "scientific shaving tests" to prove that Gillette razors were the best. Not surprisingly, his unconventional conduct and outrageous claims made him a target of serious polygraph researchers. One reviewer of his 1938 book, The Lie Detector Test, wrote that "It can only bring ridicule upon the subject matter and disrespect for its author."

Marston's eclectic interests included his fascination with comic books (he praised their educational potential), and feminist theory. Perhaps feminist is the wrong word to describe Marston's views on women since he focused on their superiority over men in most aspects. He regarded women as being more honest and reliable than men, not to mention less angry and violent. Marston viewed matriarchal societies as the ideal since women could curb male anarchy through their sexuality.

His views on women were reinforced by his unusual private life. While still married to Elizabeth, he became involved with Olive Byrnes, a former student who became his assistant. With his wife's blessing, Olive moved in with them in a remarkable menage-a-trois relationship that lasted until his death in 1947. Even after Marston died, Elizabeth and Olive continued to live together with their children (two by each woman) until Olive's death in the 1980s.

Marston's fascination with comics and his philosophical musings about feminine ideals came together in the early 1940s with his most memorable creation: Wonder Woman. Patterned after Elizabeth and Olive, the heroic Amazon was intended to be a "new kind of superhero" to offset the male superheroes that had dominated comics. It was with a touch of irony that Wonder Woman was equipped with a magic lasso that could compel villains to tell the truth (a fictional alternative to Marston's "lie detector".

Despite the appeal of a female superhero, Wonder Woman faced strong criticism over the years. Feminists disliked the bondage and physical submissiveness themes while Fredric Wertham denounced her as a lesbian in his anti-comics crusade. Wonder Woman has managed to survive (lasso and all) through decades of comic book storylines, a television series, and an upcoming movie.

As for Marston's other legacy, that depends on who you ask. While the use of polygraph evidence in courtrooms is still controversial, they are commonly found in police investigations, offender monitoring, and employment settings (including security agencies). In addition to standard measures of autonomic arousal, newer technologies include measures of brain functioning, computerized adminstration, voice stress analysis, and standardized interrogation techniques. Despite the lack of commonly accepted federal standards, polygraph schools (including one founded by William Marston) offer certificate programs in polygraph use around the world.

While supporters of polygraphy have typically reported accuracy rates in the 97-99% range, critics have argued that these numbers have been artificially inflated by flaws in research design. In 2003, the National Research Council released a review of polygraphy that condemned existing validity studies and concluded that "almost a century of research in scientific psychology and physiology provides little basis for the expectation that a polygraph test could have extremely high accuracy".Despite concerns about validity, the polygraph industry seems well-entrenched and the controversy is unlikely to be resolved any time soon.

Remember James Frye? While some accounts state that he was later exonerated when someone else confessed to the crime, this isn't the case. Frye was eventually paroled after serving eighteen years in prison. Leaving aside the question of his actual guilt (and there are still differing opinions on that), Marston's testimony almost certainly saved Frye from a first-degree murder conviction (and the death penalty). Just another part of William Moulton Marston's complex legacy.

Do Socioeconomic Factors Predict Functional Disability in Chronic Pain Cases?

A study published in the November 2008 issue of Disability and Rehabilitation investigates whether socioeconomic status in patients with back pain helped predict functional disability. Using data from a national primary care trial of physical treatments for back pain (UKBEAM trial), 949 chronic pain patients were measured on Townsend scores (measuring economic deprivation), educational levels and work status adjusted for baseline variables. Roland Disability Questionnaire (RDQ) scores (measuring functional disability related to back pain) increased in relation to Townsend scores. Lower levels of educational attainment were also associated with higher RDQ scores. Those 'Not in Work' reported markedly higher levels of RDQ scores which increased over time. There was no evidence that one particular treatment was more suitable for participants of different socioeconomic status. The researchers concluded that the study findings add to existing research suggesting the importance of socioeconomic factors as an influence on health, including resultant disability related to chronic musculoskeletal conditions such as back pain. Work status was particularly dominant in their findings and may suggest that helping patients with back pain back to work where appropriate, is an especially important part of the management process.

Click here for the abstract.

No Charge For Parents in Assisted Suicide Case

Daniel James had a bright future ahead of him before a training ground injury in March 2007 left him paralyzed from the chest down. After eight months, a medical consultant concluded that the 23-year old rugby player would never recover. Left with no independent hand or finger movement and frequent pain, the once vibrant James became despondent and made several suicide attempts before contacting Dignitas. The euthanasia group operates a clinic in Switzerland where patients with incurable illness can end their lives. James' parents took him to the clinic where he committed suicide in September of this year.

On their return to the United Kingdom, Mark and Julie James were questioned by police for their role in their son's assisted suicide and a possible violation of the U.K.'s Suicide Act. In a public statement, Julie James criticized the police and the "well-meaning person" who alerted them stating that "'I hope that one day I will get the chance to speak to this lady and ask if she had a son, daughter, father, mother, who could not walk, had no hand function, was incontinent, and relied upon 24 hour care for every basic need and they had asked her for support, what would she have done?!'

Daniel James underwent two psychiatric assessments earlier this year verifying that he was of sound mind in making his decision. His parents sent all documentation to Dignitas as well as paying them for their services and making travel arrangements. The Crown Prosecution Service has announced that no charges will be laid.

Click here for more information.

The Dominatrix

Long before sado-masochism received its formal name, there has been the domina (also known as dominatrix). Although the term originally applied to the female head of a nunnery, it has since gained a more modern meaning. According to some sources, practitioners of erotic flagellation have offered their services to customers whose tastes ran to pain and humiliation since at least the beginning of the 18th century. Long dubbed "the English vice", erotic flagellation seemed to be most popular in England at first (possibly due to the common use of corporal punishment in English schools) but has since spread around the world. Despite a long list of names for those with an interest in this exotic area of history there was none more famous than Mrs. Theresa Berkley of 28 Charlotte Street in London.

There is little known about Mrs. Berkley's early history but contemporary accounts describe her early 19th century brothel with great detail (and a little awe). As one writer described it: "At her shop, whosoever went with plenty of money could be birched, whipped, fustigated (cudgeled), scourged, needle-pricked, half-hung, holly-brushed, furse brushed, butcher-brushed, stinging-nettled, curry-combed, phlebotomized, and tortured until he had a belly full". The extensive array of instruments in her establishment exceeded the imagination and she even pioneered in developing new forms of erotic pain.

As one source described, ""She had a dozen tapering whip thongs, a dozen cat-o'-nine-tails studded with needle points, various kinds of thin supple switches, leather straps as thick as traces, currycombs and oxhide straps studded with nails, which had become tough and hard from constant use, also holly and gorse and a prickly evergreen called 'butcher's bush.' During the summer, glass and Chinese vases were kept filled with green nettles."

Her clients included men and women from all classes of society (providing they could afford her services) and she was absolutely discreet. For those clients who preferred to give out the abuse, Mrs. Berkley and the numerous girls employed in her establishment allowed themselves to be whipped (customers paid extra, of course). One of Theresa Berkley's most notorious inventions (now known as the Berkley Horse) was an adjustable whipping table on which the naked client could be secured and placed in various positions for maximum erotic pleasure. She also maintained a hook and pulley for hanging up the clients for their whipping pleasure.

Given the nature of her clientele, Mrs. Berkley had little fear of being imprisoned or transported like so many other brothel keepers of her time. There were certainly no police raids such as the one that doomed poor Margaret Clapp.The prices that she charged her highly placed clients made her extremely well off. In one surviving letter, a customer hearing about her "famous apparatus" offered her the following pricing: ""a pound sterling for the first blood drawn, two pounds sterling if the blood runs down to my heels, three pounds sterling if my heels are bathed in blood, four pounds sterling if the blood reaches the floor, and five pounds sterling if you succeed in making me lose consciousness."

Theresa Berkley continued to reign as the queen of her profession until her death in 1836. Which is when things got a little strange...

Mrs. Berkley's brother, a very proper missionary who had been living in Australia for the previous 30 years, returned to England to settle his sister's estate. Whatever his plans had been, he was horrified to discover how his sister had made her money (his reaction to the various instruments in her establishment can only be imagined). He renounced any claim to her estate and returned to Australia.

The only other possible heir to her estate was her physician, Dr. Vance, but he wasn't interested either. The Crown took everything in the end (what happened to her extensive array of erotic instruments doesn't seem to be recorded). As for Theresa Berkley's numerous letters and files, including names of her prominent clients (and their preferences), Dr. Vance burned them all.

Which was a pity really.  While Dr. Vance was mainly worried about the blackmail potential, there's no questioning the historical value of those letters. After Theresa Berkley's death, other women were quick to take her place.; In an era when women weren't allowed to own property, the sense of power that some women found in using a whip on men doesn't seem that hard to understand.

Even today, dominatrixes (dominatrices?) can be found in many countries with numerous paying customers.  Their legal status varies from place to place but the BDSM subculture continues to flourish despite the devastating impact that public exposure can have for its participants (as demonstrated by certain recent incidents).  Estimated incidence of BDSM-related sexual behaviours vary according to methodology and definition but Janus and Janus placed it at 11-14% in their 1994 nationwide survey.  Other estimates have ranged from 5 to 25 percent. While most clinicians don't consider BDSM as pathological (providing it isn't taken to extremes, of course), current prejudices ensure that women following in Mrs. Berkley's footsteps must continue to work in secret.

Women and Suicide Around the World

Around the world, girls and women have higher rates of suicidal ideation and behavior but lower rates of suicide than boys and men. A review in the April 2008 issue of the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry examines the significant variation in gender patterns and meanings suicidal behavior within and across cultures. For example, in the United States, suicide is most common among older "White" men, and is typically considered "masculine" behavior. Women who kill themselves are viewed as acting like men, and therefore deviant. By contrast, in other societies, including China, suicide is viewed as an act of the powerless, and is most frequent in young women. In these societies, men who kill themselves are considered weak and effeminate. The cultural diversity in gender patterns and interpretations of suicidal behavior challenges essentialist perspectives on gender and suicidal behavior. It also challenges the assumption, common in industrialized countries, that women are protected from suicide as long as they stay "feminine" and subsumed within the family. This cultural diversity also points to the pitfalls of theorizing about clinical phenomena as if they were culture-free, and calls for culturally grounded theory, research, and practice.

Click here for the abstract.

"Compulsive" Cat Killer Sentenced

A New Jersey man has been sentenced to five years in prison for the torture-killing of 19 cats. 50-year old Anthony Appolonia of Aberdeen township received the maximum sentence for animal cruelty in Freehold's Superior Court after a court-order psychological evaluation report described his "compulsive behavior". Appolonia acquired the cats by answering ads for free kittens and even searching neighbourhoods for stray cats. Appolonia reportedly tortured and drowned the cats afterward. During the psychological evaluation, he justified his actions by stating that he killed the cats after they bit or scratched him and that he was under stress due to his poor job and family situation.

In handing down his sentence, Superior Court Judge Edward Neafsey said ""The court doesn't accept these problems as an excuse or as a factor to be considered in defense of the defendant's actions. He was exercising life-or-death control and power over defenseless animals." In addition to serving his sentence, Appolonia will be required to serve 40 hours of community service and will be banned from owning animals or being in the presence of a cat without supervision. He will also be required to seek treatment.

Many of the pet owners from which Appolonia had acquired the cats were in the courtroom when the sentence was handed down. One stated afterward, ""It's the best that could be done. We can't bring the animals back."

Click here for more information.