Providentia

Race and Gender Discrimination in the Marines.

Although women of color have been hypothesized to experience double jeopardy in the form of chronic exposure to both race-based (RBD) and gender-based discrimination (GBD; Beal, 1970), few empirical investigations that examine both RBD and GBD in multiple comparison groups have been conducted. In addition to being one of the only simultaneous examinations of RBD and GBD in multiple comparison groups, the current study includes both self-report and objective behavioral data to examine the independent and interactive effects of both forms of discrimination. A study published recently in Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology is the first of its kind to examine these constructs in these ways and to explore their impact in a unique sample of ethnically diverse male and female Marine recruits (N = 1,516). As anticipated, both RBD and GBD had a strong and consistent negative impact on mental health symptoms (e.g., depression, anxiety), independent of the contributions of gender and race. Partial support was found for the hypothesis that people of color are able to maintain resiliency (as measured by physical fitness testing) in the face of low levels of RBD, but are less able to overcome the negative effects of discrimination at high levels. It is interesting to note that the interaction between race, gender, and levels of discrimination was only found with objective physical fitness test scores but not with self-report measures. These findings underscore the importance of including objective measures when assessing the impact of discrimination in order to understand these complex interrelationships.

For the abstract

May is Mental Health Awareness Month

While attitudes towards mental illness are slowly changing,  people experiencing mental health problems still face enormous stigma that can delay their recovery and prevent them from becoming reintegrated into their community.    To help improve the quality of life for the estimated one in four people living with mental illness, the month of May has been designated Mental Health Awareness Month in the United States.    First launched as Mental Health Awareness Week during the 1940s, it was later expanded to a full month during the 1960s.

The 2013 theme for Mental Health Month is Pathways to Wellness.  Among the key messages by Mental Health America as part of this broader theme are:

• Wellness is essential to living a full and productive life.  It's about keeping healthy as well as getting healthy.
• Wellness involves a set of skills and strategies that prevent the onset or shorten the duration of illness and promote recovery and well-being. Wellness is more than just the absence of disease.
• Wellness is more than an absence of disease. It involves complete general, mental and social well-being. And mental health is an essential component of overall health and well-being. The fact is our overall well-being is tied to the balance that exists between our emotional, physical, spiritual and mental health.
• Whatever our situation, we are all at risk of stress given the demands of daily life and the challenges it brings-at home, at work and in life. Steps that build and maintain well-being and help us all achieve wellness involve a balanced diet, regular exercise, enough sleep, a sense of self-worth, development of coping skills that promote resiliency, emotional awareness, and connections to family, friends and community.
• These steps should be complemented by taking stock of one's well-being through regular mental health checkups and screenings. Just as we check our blood pressure and get cancer screenings, it's a good idea to take periodic reading of our emotional well-being.
• Fully embracing the concept of wellness not only improves health in the mind, body and spirit, but also maximizes one's potential to lead a full and productive life. Using strategies that promote resiliency and strengthen mental health and prevent mental health and substance use conditions lead to improved general health and a healthier society: greater academic achievement by our children, a more productive economy, and families that stay together.

During the month of May, other mental health campaigns will be run across the United States with similar campaigns being run in Canada.    To participate in National Mental Health Month or to get further information,  check out the various resources available on the Mental Health America site including factsheets and the 2013 Media Toolkit. 

 

 

Does Psychotherapy Work?

How effective is psychotherapy, really?

Though Sigmund Freud and his followers regularly published case histories describing how patients could be cured of their psychological problems through therapy, exactly how treatment effectiveness could be measured was rarely discussed.   Even as psychotherapy became more popular and new kinds of treatment were developed, few therapists seemed interested in putting actual science into psychotherapy to bring it up to the same standard as regular medicine.

Then along came Hans Eysenck and psychotherapy would never be quite the same again…

A German-born psychologist who spent most of his life in Great Britain,  Eysenck is likely best remembered for his work on intelligence, personality, and genetics.   He is less well-known as a major critic of psychoanalysis though this is where he had the greatest influence.   In 1952,  he published one of the first comprehensive reviews looking at research studies evaluating psychoanalysis and other psychotherapy schools.   Based on the limited number of studies available, Eysenck concluded that only 44% of psychoanalysis patients receiving Freudian treatment showed any kind of real improvement over a five-year period.  Though the numbers were somewhat higher for eclectic therapy (64%), the improvement rate was still well below the 72% rate for patients treated in hospitals or by general practitioners.

To read more, check out my new Psychology Today blog post here.

The Elizabeth Canning Mystery

It is still one of the great legal controversies of the 18^th century. 

On January 1, 1753, an 18-year old girl named Elizabeth Canning disappeared from a country lane in what is now the heart of London.   Canning, who worked as a maid in London, had been spending New Year’s Day with her aunt and uncle in Whitechapel and was walking back to London when she disappeared.   After she failed to arrive in London, Canning's employer, John Wintlebury, contacted her mother who then raised the alarm.  A volunteer search consisting of friends, family members and Wintlebury began investigating the disappearance.  Since there was no organized police force in London at the time, it was up to the volunteers to knock on doors, distribute advertisements and flyers, and offer a reward for any information leading to her safe return. 

While someone nearby had reported hearing a scream at the time of her disappearance, the search would peter out after several weeks.   On January 29 however, Elizabeth Canning reappeared at her mother’s house in obvious distress.   The normally neatly-dressed Canning appeared so bedraggled that her mother fainted on recognizing her daughter and seeing her condition.  Along with bruises on her face and body and a bad cut near one ear,  Canning was also half-starved and wearing only a petticoat and a bedgown.   Neighbours and family members came to the house and immediately began questioning Elizabeth Canning about what happened.

They eventually managed to piece together a coherent story from Canning who was obviously traumatized by her experience.  According to her,  she had been walking along the country lane when she was attacked by two thugs near Bedlam Hospital.   They robbed her of her money along with the nice dress she had been wearing.   After striking her on the head, the thugs dragged her to a nearby large house while she was in a semi-conscious state.  At the house, she was turned over to a group of women who then tried to force her into prostitution and locked her in a hayloft when she refused.   She was left there for weeks with nothing but a loaf of bread, a pitcher of water, and the mince pie that she had been carrying. Canning eventually managed to escape but injured her ear in the process.

Though unable to identify the house in question, people hearing her story immediately suspected one particular house in the area that already had a sinister reputation.  Not only was it filled with “gypsies”, derelicts and sneak thieves, but there were several “loose women” living there suspected of running a brothel.   While Canning was far from certain based on the description of the house she was given, she eventually concluded that it was the right house. 

After being given some time to recover, Elizabeth Canning was questioned by an Alderman who had doubts about her story but agreed to issue a warrant.  Again due to the lack of a formal police force, the search was carried out by volunteers.   To lend a semi-official status to the search, the Lord Mayor, Sir Crisp Gascoyne, supervised the search.    Despite her frail condition, Elizabeth Canning was taken to the house as well to identify her abductors. 

All of the residents of that house were arrested and arraigned a few days later.  The Justice of the Peace in question, who happened to be the famous author Henry Fielding, signed the arrest warrants.  The mistress of the house, Susannah Wells (who preferred to be known as “Mother Wells”) and a second woman, Mary Squires, were accused by Canning of stealing her corsets.   Wells was also accused of “keeping a disorderly house” (another name for brothel).   Since Squires was widely suspected of being a “gypsy” (though her exact ethnic origin was never clear), Canning’s accusation was considered proof enough and she was later went on trial for theft.   Squires’ son, John, was also suspected of being one of the men who had abducted Canning in the first place though he managed to avoid arrest.

Despite the international publicity the case generated, Sir Crisp Gascoyne decided to investigate further.  Elizabeth Canning’s description of the house had more than a few discrepancies, especially the room where she had supposedly been held.  Mary Squires, for her part, produced witnesses who testified that she was in another town at the time of Canning’s alleged abduction.  She also had a remarkable appearance, including an extremely large nose and an inflated lower lip, which Elizabeth Canning never mentioned. 

Despite these discrepancies, Elizabeth Canning refused to recant her statement.  This sparked a controversy that polarized English society.  On one side were the Canningites, Elizabeth’s supporters, and on the other side were the “Egyptians” (based on the then-popular notion that gypsies came from Egypt).    Pubs across the country became embroiled in fights over the case and large sums of money were raised on both sides, whether to defend or convict Mary Squires. It also became a celebrated cause in literary circles with Henry Fielding, Tobias Smollett and Voltaire each weighing in on the case.   Things became so heated that the Lord Mayor himself was dragged from his coach and physically assaulted by a mob of  Canning’s supporters. 

After going on trial, Susannah Wells was publicly branded with the letter T on her thumb (T standing for theft) and sentenced to six months in prison.   Mary Squires was sentenced to be hanged.    Afterward, Elizabeth Canning was praised as a public hero and she was given a tidy sum of money courtesy of her supporters.    Dissatisfied with the verdict, Sir Crisp Gascoyne reopened the investigation.  After questioning one house resident whose testimony had been the most damaging against Mary Squires, Gascoyne managed to break down her story.   He also questioned the witnesses who had provided the alibi for Squires. 

Based on this investigation and his doubts about Elizabeth Canning’s story, he ordered her arrest for perjury and recommended that Mary Squires be released.  Based on the reasonable doubt over the case, King George II granted a stay of execution for Mary Squires (and eventually a full pardon).   All of this outraged the Canningites and some of them threw stones at the King’s coach.  

It hardly ended there though.   John Myles, the leader of the Canningites, arranged to have the men who had provided Mary Squires with an alibi charged with perjury.   They were quickly found not guilty and released.    To avoid arrest, Elizabeth Canning dropped out of sight and only turned herself in after a new Lord Mayor was installed.    Her trial began in April, 1754, and went on for  seven days with newspapers running pro- and con- editorials of the case.   After a narrow vote,  she was convicted of “Perjury, wilful and corrupt” and sentenced to one month in prison to be followed by her transportation to America for seven years. 

Canning’s defenders insisted that she had been telling the truth though her accusers suggested she had made the whole story up.  The verdict also thoroughly ruined Crisp Gascoyne’s political career since much of the outrage was linked to his investigation.  Still, being sent to America was not that much of a hardship for Canning since her supporters raised enough money to make her voyage comfortable.  They also supplied her with money for a new start.

After arriving in Connecticut, she became part of the household of Reverend Elisha Williams.  Technically an indentured servant, she was treated more like a member of the family.   After Williams’ death in 1755, Canning married John Treat, a grandson of a former governor of Connecticut.  They would have four children together before her death in 1773.  She is buried somewhere in Wethersfield, Connecticut though the exact location of her grave has been lost to history.

Did Elizabeth Canning commit perjury?   The case demonstrates many of the problems investigators face today when dealing with traumatized witnesses.  Some later commentators on the case have suggested that Canning may have experienced a form of post-traumatic amnesia with many details she “recalled” afterward being implanted in her mind by overeager supporters.  Modern investigators are specifically trained to avoid leading questions to avoid contaminating victim recall which may have happened in Elizabeth Canning’s case.  

Whatever the actual facts of her disappearance, Elizabeth Canning’s case demonstrates the power that the media had, long before the invention of the Internet.  Political careers were made and broken by newspaper editorials over the case.  No real solution for what really happened in 1753 has ever been put forward and John Paget’s described the case as “in truth, perhaps, the most complete and most inexplicable Judicial Puzzle on record”. 

And it still is today.

After the L'Aquila Earthquake

Given the well-documented acute increase in psychopathology after disasters as well as the greater likelihood of suicide among persons with psychopathology, it may be expected that suicide rates also rise after such events. A research paper published recently in the joural Crisis investigated  investigated the suicide rate 1 year after the April 2009 earthquake that struck L’Aquila (Italy).  Suicide rates were collected from administrative data sets of the Italian National Institute of Statistics for the years 2004 through 2009. Results showed that the number and rate of suicides during 2009 are the lowest since 2004—and significantly lower than the two prequake years. The findings suggest that an investigation of resilience and posttraumatic personal growth might be useful in guiding public health efforts on suicidal prevention in the aftermath of disasters.

For the abstract

Video Campaign Underway to Fight "Untouchability"

Though numerous minorities face severe discrimination in countries around the word,  there are few  that face the extreme conditions experienced by "untouchable" Dalits in India and other parts of south-east Asia.   Though Dalits are actually a mixed population with different languages and religions, they are regarded as "untouchable"  under the traditional caste system.  As a result, Dalits are regarded as "polluting" all non-Dalits with whom they come in contact.     Not only are they forbidden any physical contact, they are also not allowed to eat when other caste members are eating, use separate utensils and drinking containers, entering other caste homes, and endure complete segregation in terms of schooling, seating, and where they can live.    They are also traditionlly banned from living inside villages to keep from "polluting" them and often forced to live in houses without basic plumbing or electricity.   Dalits are also considered bound to carry out basic "duties" such as handling corpses or other sanitation tasks deemed too "unclean" for higher castes.  

While the Indian government has banned the practice of untouchability and established new laws to protect Dalits from discrimination, that has made little difference in rural areas where Dalits face enormous prejudice.   Violence directed against Dalits remains common including a recent incident where more than one hundred Dalits were forced to flee a village in northern India after a Dalit married an upper-caste woman.  To combat anti-Dalit prejudice, an international media and human rights group has launched the Article 17 campaign to document the plight of Dalits in India and neighbouring countries.  Video Volunteers was founded in 2003 to use community media to enable citizen journalism by members of marginalized communities around the world.    Their Article 17 campaign launched in April of last year is named for Article 17 of the Indian constitution which states that:

Untouchability is abolished and its practice in any form is forbidden. The enforcement of any disability arising out of untouchability shall be an offence punishable in accordance with law.

In organizing the Article 17 campaign, Video Volunteers director Stalin K.  described it as the culmination of the ten years he spent documenting incidents of untouchability across India.  In his video, India Untouched, he challenged the prevailing belief that untouchability was not widely practiced in modern India.   As he describes the reaction to his video:

In the years since the making of that film, little has changed. We still receive reports of barber shops refusing to shave Dalits. Homeowners unwilling to rent their houses to Dalits. Children segregated and discriminated in schools, women not allowed to draw water from wells, families pushed out of temples. Segregated mosques, churches, even crematoriums. Pervasive violence aimed at those who challenge caste discrimination. Social and economic boycotts for those who dare to transgress caste boundaries. Newly-weds chased and killed because they chose to marry outside their own caste. Rapes. Acid attacks. The list goes on shamelessly.

The Article 17 campaign has already collected more than 30 videos describing breaches of laws against untouchability.   Along with the videos, Video Volunteers has filed a formal appeal with government agencies charged with policing violations of caste law.   Their appeal includes more than two thousand signatures pleading for action although they have received little response to date.  

For more information

Creativity and the Healing Brain

For Jon Sarkin, it began in 1988 when he suddenly began experiencing tinnitus and abnormally sensitive hearing to certain sounds.   A successful chiropractor with a practice in South Hamilton, Massachusetts, Jon’s condition was linked a blood vessel pressing on his acoustic nerve.  Because of his worsening symptoms, he agreed to a delicate operation carried out by a Pittsburgh neurosurgeon in 1989.  During the operation however, he began hemorrhaging and experienced a massive stroke that left him comatose for weeks.   Doctors removed much of the left side of his brain and he had damage to his cerebellum as well.  Despite a long rehabilitation, he was left permanently deaf in one ear with slurred speech, double vision, and an impaired sense of balance that forced him to walk with a cane.    

Though he eventually returned to his practice in 1990, Sarkin found dealing with clients emotionally and physically exhausting despite frequent rest breaks.   He also spent more time “doodling” on his letterhead paper and eventually sold several doodles to the New Yorker.  After selling his practice in 1993, he decided to devote his time to drawing and caring for his three children while his wife acted as his interface with the outside world.  While his neurological symptoms never improved and despite bouts of depression, Jon Sarkin has established a reputation as an artist with his first New York art show in 2003 and a life story that has since been optioned by Tom Cruise’s movie production company. 

Can artistic ability suddenly develop as a result of brain disease?   Cases of “sudden artistic output” following brain injury are relatively rare but unexpected artistic talent emerging in brain patients  has been well-documented.   While savant syndrome found in people suffering from severe learning disorders such as autism has become well-recognized through movies such as Rain Man,  acquired savant syndrome, when a new talent suddenly develops in adults following illness is still poorly understood.

To read more, check out my new Psychology Today post. 

The Erich Muenter Saga (Part 2 of 2)

Continued from Part One

After arriving back in New York City, Frank Holt took more dynamite and two handguns to Glen Cove, New York and the estate of J. P. Morgan Jr.   He had already scouted out the location, or as well as a casual visitor could possibly manage.  On June 3 at 9:30 AM,  Holt knocked on the front door of the Morgan estate and introduced himself to the butler as Thomas P. Lester.   After presenting his business card, he asked to see Mr. Morgan.   When the butler, Stanley Physick, refused, Holt pulled the two pistols out of his pocket and forced his way inside. 

Showing considerable courage and quick-thinking, Physick misdirected Holt to the library on the other side of the house from where Morgan and his family were actually at breakfast with the British ambassador.    Taking Physick with him, Holt began searching the house after realizing the library was empty.   Before reaching the room where the Morgans were eating, Physick managed to shout out a warning and the family attempted to take cover.  

Holt was hardly deterred and began chasing the financier and his family.   To protect his family, J.P. Morgan rushed Holt directly but not in time to keep him from firing four shots.   One of those bullets hit Morgan in the leg and another one lodged in his abdomen.  Still, Morgan was able to wrestle Holt to the ground and Physick hit Holt in the head with a lump of coal.   After taking away his guns and tying him up for the police, another servant noticed the dynamite sticking out of Holt’s pocket.   The dynamite was immediately placed in a pail of water 

Police arrived quickly and took Holt into custody.  He identified himself as a Cornell professor and gave a voluntary confession which was immediately published in the newspapers.   While insisting that he had been in New York for weeks, the dynamite in his possession and the similarity between his confession and the “R. Pearce” letters were enough to link him to the Senate bombing.     As for J.P. Morgan Jr, his injuries weren’t life threatening and churches across New York gave masses praising his escape.

All of which led to a major free-for-all with Holt being interviewed by city, state, and federal police officers and psychiatrists trying to determine his mental state.  He kept changing his story about what he had been planning with J. P. Morgan, whether to kill him or to take his family hostage to force him to stop financing the war effort.    Police quickly learned that Holt was really Erich Muenter though they had bigger worries by then.   In a letter that Holt had previously written to his wife in Dallas, he claimed that he had placed bombs on different ships heading for Europe, all set to blow up on July 7. 

Considering the large amount of dynamite Holt had purchased, most of which could not be accounted for, police had no choice but to take his threats seriously.   Though there was an explosion and fire aboard the ship Minnehaha on July 9, police were unable to link it directly to Holt since other German sympathizers were also targeting ships.   As it was, the fact that the Minnehaha had been carrying high explosives which (mercifully) failed to detonate was enough to add to the paranoia.  Police also raised the inevitable question of whether Holt was acting alone or part of a larger gang  but their chief source of information would soon become unavailable. 

On July 6, Holt/Muenter managed to slip out of his cell.  This  happened despite the fact that he had been on suicide watch after previously attempting to slash his wrists with a broken pencil along with trying to starve himself to death.  Once he evaded his guard, Holt managed to climb onto a railing on the second story of the jail and dived headfirst onto the concrete floor below.   He was killed instantly and an autopsy later determined that he had died of a compound fracture and a cerebral hemorrhage.  

With their main suspect gone, police had no option but to send out a general alert due to the possibility that Holt had planted other bombs.  While they managed to trace most of the explosives, there were no more explosions although fifty sticks of dynamite were never found .   Another bombing plot involving a German spy ring would later be broken up in 1916 but there was no link  to Frank Holt who had apparently been working alone.   Police later turned up evidence of several small explosions that occurred in Central Park near the bungalow he had rented and concluded that he had used up much of the missing dynamite in experimental blasts to test out his bombs.

Beyond establishing that Frank Holt was definitely Erich Muenter there was little enough left to do in the case.  A telegram sent by his lawyer to his Holt’s father-in-law in Texas likely said it all:  “Holt a suicide in jail here.  Obviously demented.  Do you wish body shipped to Texas?”   The “obviously demented” theory was the only explanation anyone would ever make about the bizarre academic who had tried to halt American involvement in World War I before it even started.    His actual impact on U.S. society seems minimal and the world would soon be too embroiled in World War I and its aftermath to spare much thought to a deranged professor.   Even today, about the only conclusion anyone can make about Professor Erich Muenter is that he is much an enigma in death as he was in life.

Studying New Trends in Cyberbullying

A study recently published in Psychology of Violence examines an increase in youth online harassment over the last decade in order to better explore the implications of the trend for prevention initiatives. Method: The Youth Internet Safety Surveys (YISSs) involved 3 cross-sectional, nationally representative telephone surveys of 4,561 youth Internet users, ages 10 to 17, in 2000 (n = 1,501), 2005 (n = 1,500), and 2010 (n = 1,560). Results showed the increase in youth online harassment from 6% in 2000 to 11% in 2010 was driven primarily by a rise in indirect harassment—someone posting or sending comments to others about them online. Girls made up an increasing proportion of victims: 69% of victims were girls in 2010 compared with 48% in 2000. Furthermore, in comparison with earlier in the decade, harassment incidents in 2010 were more likely to come from a school friend or acquaintance and occur on a social networking site. Victims reported disclosing harassment incidents to school staff at greater rates in 2010 than in 2005 or 2000. The authors concluded that increase in online harassment can likely be attributed to changes in how youth are using the Internet, especially a disproportional increase in online communication with friends by girls, providing more opportunity for offline peer conflicts to expand to this environment. School-based prevention programs aimed at improving peer relationships and reducing bullying are recommended to reduce online harassment.

For the abstract

After the Boston Marathon Bombings

Almost hidden among the first responders dealing with the aftermath of the appalling Boston Marathon bombings on April 15, 2013 were the mental health professionals providing psychological first aid to the survivors.    Although an estimated 50-60% of all people directly or indirectly affected by a traumatic event will recover without the need for mental health services,  professionals dealing with post-traumatic stress in survivors have long recognized that a large minority of survivors require psychological support to recover. 

Since earlier critical incident stress management approaches have often been found to do more harm than good,  the newer system of psychological first aid (PFA) is now the preferred method of dealing with trauma cases.   Developed jointly by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs and the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, PFA is intended to help people during the immediate aftermath of traumatic events such as terrorism or natural disaster.    Among PFA's goals are to reduce emotional distress and to foster short- and long-term adaptive functioning.     PFA is administered by trained first responders whether working for disaster relief organizations, Medical Reserve corps, or other aid agencies called into emergency situations.

Among the mental health professionals called in to help survivors of the Boston bombings was Dr. Kermit Crawford of the Boston School of Medicine.   A licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in disaster behavioural health response,  Dr. Crawford is well experienced in dealing with trauma survivors in previous disasters such as Hurricane Sandy and recognizes that the PFA counseling provided to date is only the first stage in the recovery process.   In describing his initial work with Boston marathon survivors and their families, he stated that the early goals of PFA were to establish safety and emotional stability, reduce stress, provide comfort, and provide access to whatever information they may need.  "They need to be in the place where they're certain that they are protected, that their fears and anxieties about what happened are somehow managed, that their emotions are somewhat stable," he added.    While providing victims with the answers they need about the causes of the bombing as well as new information as it becomes available,  victims need to be reassured that the immediate danger is past and that they are safe for the time being    Helping trauma sufferers recognize the symptoms linked to posttraumatic stress will follow as well as  training them to handle flashbacks and other delayed reactions to what they have gone through.  

"We'll be alright," Dr.  Crawford said in an interview with the Atlantic.  "We just have to get there."