Providentia

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."

Coping With The Obesity Pandemic

 Is there an obesity pandemic in most countries these days?  According to Bruce M. King in an article published recently in American Psychologist, the answer is a definite yes.  A professor of psychology at Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina, Dr. King has published over sixty papers on the neurobiology of feeding behavior and body weight regulation and is also a noted authority on human sexuality.  

According to most available health statistics, obesity constitutes one of the main health problems facing most societies today.   Using the most commonly accept definition of obesity as having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 kg/m², over 502 million people are obese while another billion are overweight (having a BMI greater than 25 kg/m²).    In the United States alone,  35.7% adults are obese while an additional 33.1% are overweight according to a 2010 survey with over 6% of Americans meeting the criteria for extreme obesity (BMI greater than 40 kg/m²).   

One of the most unnerving aspects of the modern obesity epidemic is that it is a relatively new phenomenon.     

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

The Erich Muenter Saga (Part 1 of 2)

It began with a suspicious death on April 16, 1906.  The dead woman was Leona Krembs Muenter, wife of Harvard lecturer, Erich Muenter.   Muenter, who received his doctorate from the University of Chicago in 1899 was described as a tall, thin, and somewhat excitable man who spoke with a noticeable German accent though he insisted he had been born in the United States (other records indicate he was born in Germany in 1871).  He and Leona Muenter already had one child together and her medical problems apparently began following the birth of her second child on April 6, just ten days before her death.   While Muenter insisted that Leona's frail condition was due to her not recovering from childbirth, the two women he had called in on the case were alarmed by what they saw on examining her.

 While the women were not medical doctors (they preferred to advertise themselves as “faith cure” healers), they were hardly ignorant either.   Realizing that their patient was seriously ill, they called in more conventional medical doctors who prescribed a strict treatment regimen.  When Mrs. Muenter failed to improve, the doctors withdrew from the case believing that the faith healers were sabotaging the treatment.   Though likely right about the sabotage, they were completely wrong about who was responsible. 

All of which became apparent enough after Leona Muenter’s death when her husband abruptly packed up his two children and fled to Chicago.  His reason for fleeing became obvious enough when an autopsy determined that she had died of arsenic poisoning.  Apparently her husband had been systematically poisoning her for some time though no suspicions were raised until after her death.  By that time, Erich Muenter had disappeared completely and even his family members in Chicago had no idea of his whereabouts. 

From what would be pieced together later, Muenter had fled to Mexico where he would live for a few years while working as a cook and an accountant (other accounts suggest that he had been living in Texas instead).   Although he seemed safe from arrest, this was apparently not enough for him and he managed to re-enter the United States and enrol as a student at Polytechnic Institute in Fort Worth, Texas under his new name of Frank Holt.   That he managed to do all this without a passport and without raising any suspicions seems like an amazing testimonial to the lax borders of the time.   There was definitely no question that Holt was brilliant and he completed four years of undergraduate work in record time.  Quickly rising to the rank of professor in the languages department, Muenter/Holt moved on to teach German at Oklahoma State University and then on to several other prominent colleges.  By 1912, he was back in the Ivy League lecturing at Cornell.

As for what became of his two children, I have no idea since they seemed to vanish from the historical record by this time.   The most charitable assumption was that he left them with family members in Chicago though there is no actual record of this.  What is recorded was that “Frank Holt” somehow  managed to acquire a new wife along the way.   This new wife, Leone Sensabaugh, was the daughter of a prominent Dallas minister and they had apparently met while he was still in Fort Worth.   That she came from a good family likely contributed to Frank Holt’s general air of respectability and helped advance his academic career.

Though he would claim to be a professor at Cornell, he never received tenure and likely never moved past the rank of lecturer.  Still, the professional community was small enough for at least one former colleague to suspect that Frank Holt was really Erich Muenter and inform the head of the department.  Aside from denying him tenure, the university apparently saw no need to take any further action. 

Everything changed with the outbreak of World War I in 1914.  While the United States would not enter the war until 1917, there was still considerable anti-German feeling which made “Frank Holt” even more of an outsider than before.  Though insisting he was born in the United States, Holt still spoke with a distinct German accent which aroused suspicion despite his being careful to hide his pro-German beliefs.  Many prominent Americans were already pushing for U.S. entry into the war, including financier J.P. Morgan who had lent millions to the Russians and the British to promote the war effort.   For all that he insisted he was a pacifist, Holt was outraged and wrote numerous letters to newspapers denouncing Morgan's use of his wealth to promote the war against Germany.

Whether due to pressure from Cornell or simply to move closer to his wife’s family in Texas, Holt accepted a position at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.   At the same time, the sinking of the passenger liner Lusitania by a German warship on May 7, 1915 made American involvement in the war all but inevitable.   Or so Frank Holt assumed.  While his wife was getting settled in their new home in Texas, he rented a bungalow in New York City under the name of “Patton”.     After buying as much dynamite as he possibly could (it was a much simpler time), Holt used the bungalow to put together his own quiet campaign against the U.S. government.   Building the first of what would be several bombs, he traveled to Washington, D.C. on June 2 and managed to plant the bomb in the reception room of the Senate Capitol building (he couldn’t plant the bomb in the Senate chamber itself as he had originally intended). 

The bomb went off at 11:23 PM EST that same day.  Though there were no fatalities, the Senate reception room was destroyed and the blast even caused some damage to the Vice President’s office.  Police later discovered that the bomb had been rigged to explode using the ingenious method of having acid burn through a cork (low-tech, but effective).  Holt heard the explosion while at the train station where he was boarding a train back to New York City.    In a letter he wrote to D.C. newspapers (which he signed “R. Pearce”), Holt took credit for the explosion which he intended as a statement about the supplying of arms to the war effort in Europe.  “I, too, have had to use explosives (for the last time I trust).  It is the export kind, and ought to make enough noise to be heard above the voices that clamor for war and blood money.”   The letter ended by saying that the explosion “is the exclamation point to my appeal for peace.”

But the bomb was only the beginning for Holt

Continue to Part 2

Is Loneliness Linked to Dementia?

With the worrisome rise in new dementia cases among older people, and the disturbing implications this has for health care in future, researchers are taking a closer look at potential warning signs that might show how vulnerable old adults can be.   Along with various medical factors that can influence dementia risk, psychological factors including mental stimulation, quality of life, and quality of social interactions can influence the onset of mild cognitive impairments, or even full-blown dementia (whether Alzheimer's Disease or one of the less common types).    But can simply feeling lonely be a warning sign as well?

A new research study showing that loneliness, rather than simply living alone, may be a key factor in older people developing symptoms of dementia.   Published in a recent issue of the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, the study focused on more than two thousand older adults living in Amsterdam, aged 65-86 still living in the community.   The researchers, all associated with Amsterdam's Free University Medical Centre and ARKIN Mental Health Care,  assessed all of the study subjects over a three-year period. 

As part of their research design, the study researchers examined the 2173 study subjects for various health risk factors including genetic susceptibility, depression, demographic factors and mild cognitive impairment.   They also examined social networks and psychological factors such as social isolation.    About half of the study subjects lived alone and twenty percent reported strong feelings of loneliness.  Almost two-thirds of the study subjects were women.

According to lead researcher, Tjalling Jan Holwerda of ARKIN Mental Health Centre's Department of Psychiatry, analyses of the results showed that older people with feelings of loneliness were more likely to develop dementia even when other risk factors were ruled out.    Social isolation was not a significant predictor however.    The researchers made no distinction between the most common form of dementia, Alzheimer's disease, and other types of dementia in their study.

The authors concluded that feeling lonely rather than living alone was a major risk factor that deserves major clinical attention when testing for dementia.   Not only does the quality of social interactions matter for older adults, whether they live alone or not, but persistent feelings of loneliness in older adults may be an early sign of developing dementia.   As the researchers point out in their conclusions, "loneliness may be a behavioural reaction to diminished cognition" since people who are experiencing problems with memory or attention may become more withdrawn socially due to embarassment or general confusion about handling social situations.    Also, reduced social interaction can lead to a loss of sensory and cognitive stimulation that can worsen brain health and make older adults more vulnerable to dementia.    This could lead to a vicious circle with dementia contributing to loneliness and vice versa.  

The research also demonstrates that feeling lonely can be more complex than most people think.   Even people who are in supposedly healthy relationships can experience strong feelings of loneliness given the perceived quality of that relationship.   At the same time, even people living alone can avoid feeling lonely due to having a large network of friends and family members.   While the study authors warn that their results should not be misinterpreted to conclude that loneliness can cause dementia, they point out that strong feelings of loneliness can reflect significant vulnerability to dementia and that developing better social networks can be a useful way of reducing dementia risk as well as improving the overall quality of life. 

 

 

 

 

Bulgarian Government Seeks to Stop Self-Immolations

Reacting to six deaths from self-immolation in different parts of the country, the Bulgarian Ministry of Health ordered health authorities to provide psychological support to prevent further deaths.   In the most recent case,  41-year old Todor Yovchev poured gasoline on himself and set himself on fire on March 20.   After being rushed to hospital with burns to 90% of his body, Yovchev died of his injuries two days later and is the sixth case of self-immolation in Bulgaria since February.

The first self-immolation, 26-year old Traian Marechkov, occurred on February 18 and he reportedly described himself as having too much despair to live on.  Other cases have laid the blame of economic hardship or as a form of political protest.   In one case, 52-year old Dimitar Dimitrov set himself on fire in front of the Presidential building in Sofia, Bulgaria's capital city.   Security guards extinguished the flames and took him to hospital with burns to 25% of his body.    Though Dimitrov and another man, Ventsislav Vasilev, have survived their self-immolation to date, they are both hospitalized and considered to be still in danger.   Along with the self-immolations, Bulgaria is experiencing a sharp upsurge in suicides with daily reports of deaths from hanging, jumping from bridges and high-rise buildings, and throwing themselves under trains.  

Bulgaria is still reeling from massive protests over poverty, corruption and extremely high utility bills and the centre-right GERB government was forced to resign March 12 as a result.  The current caretaker government, installed by President Rosen Plevneliev, is attempting to deal with the economic crisis as well as implementing new health measures to stem the current rash of suicides.    Among the initiatives being considered is using psychologists and health inspectors to identify risk factors which may predict future deaths.

Although self-immolations are more commonly associated with political protests in Tibet and, more recently, with ritual suicides in India, a 2004 study by Medecins Sans Frontiers examining self-immolation cases over a 20-year period has yielded a disturbing pattern in many countries around the world.     According to the study, Bulgaria has the highest rate of self-immolation deaths of all European countries with an average of 7.4 cases a year between 1983 and 2002.    Establishing the motivation for self-immolation, whether due to mental illness or political protest, is not a simple task though self-immolation in mental patients is most common in European, North American, and Middle Eastern countries.   In the case of Bulgarian self-immolators, the percentage involving known mental illness is relatively low compared to neighbouring European countries and may be more clearly linked to the current economic recession.

The current Bulgarian epidemic may represent a suicide cluster involving copycat behaviour which began in February and peaked in March.   While there have been no new cases in the past two weeks, it is likely premature to suggest that the cluster has run its course.  In the meantime, Bulgarian health officials continue to watch for new incidents and to provide better treatment to prevent more deaths.  Whether this will be enough remains to be seen.

For more infomation.

Letting Your Mind Wander

I was trying to daydream but my mind kept wandering.  Steven Wright

What is mind-wandering?  And is it always such a bad thing?   No matter how hard you try paying attention on what you’re doing,  your mind is going to drift.   Whether driving on the highway, writing an essay, or sitting in class, we seem constitutionally incapable of keeping our mind on the here and now, at least not for very long.   According to some studies, as much as 50% of our waking hours are spent in some form of mind-wandering whether we want to or not.   Certainly that much mind-wandering can have an adverse effect on our performance, and perhaps even our personal safety when not paying attention to a potentially dangerous task.   If nothing else, mind-wandering can be personally embarrassing since we all have painful experiences of being caught out mind-wandering instead of paying attention to what we were supposed to be doing.   (I had a particular problem with this in grade school, make of that what you will).

A recent overview on research into mind-wandering has just been published in the Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology.  The authors, Benjamin W. Mooneyham and Jonathan W. Schooler of the University of California at Santa Barbara discuss the costs involved with mind-wandering and how it affects performance on different cognitive tasks.   They also discuss whether mind-wandering may be far more beneficial that we assume though this may be hard to accept considering the adverse effects that have been demonstrated by researchers.

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