Providentia

Race, Mental Illness, and School Shootings

The Virginia Tech and Columbine High shootings are 2 of the deadliest school massacres in the United States. A study in the journal Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology investigates in a nationally representative sample how White Americans’ causal attributions of these shooting moderate their attitudes toward the shooter’s race. White Americans shown a vignette based on the Virginia Tech shooting were more likely to espouse negative beliefs about Korean American men and distance themselves from this group the more they believed that the shooter’s race caused the shooting. Among those who were shown a vignette based on the Columbine High shooting, believing that mental illness caused the shooting was associated with weaker negative beliefs about White American men. White Americans in a third condition who were given the Virginia Tech vignette and prompted to subtype the shooter according to his race were less likely to possess negative beliefs about Korean American men the more they believed that mental illness caused the shooting. There was no evidence for the ultimate attribution error. Theoretical accounts based on the stereotype and in-group-out-group bias literature are presented. The current findings have important implications for media depictions of minority group behavior and intergroup relations.

For the abstract

Unfalsifiability and Belief

In a research study recently published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the authors proposed that people may gain certain “offensive” and “defensive” advantages for their cherished belief systems (e.g., religious and political views) by including aspects of unfalsifiability in those belief systems, such that some aspects of the beliefs cannot be tested empirically and conclusively refuted. This may seem peculiar, irrational, or at least undesirable to many people because it is assumed that the primary purpose of a belief is to know objective truth. However, past research suggests that accuracy is only one psychological motivation among many, and falsifiability or testability may be less important when the purpose of a belief serves other psychological motives (e.g., to maintain one’s worldviews, serve an identity). In Experiments 1 and 2 the authors demonstrated the “offensive” function of unfalsifiability: that it allows religious adherents to hold their beliefs with more conviction and political partisans to polarize and criticize their opponents more extremely. Next they demonstrated unfalsifiability’s “defensive” function: When facts threaten their worldviews, religious participants frame specific reasons for their beliefs in more unfalsifiable terms (Experiment 3) and political partisans construe political issues as more unfalsifiable (“moral opinion”) instead of falsifiable (“a matter of facts”; Experiment 4). The authors concluded by discussing how in a world where beliefs and ideas are becoming more easily testable by data, unfalsifiability might be an attractive aspect to include in one’s belief systems, and how unfalsifiability may contribute to polarization, intractability, and the marginalization of science in public discourse.

For the abstract

The Traumatised Journalist

"I had nightmares, flashbacks. I dissociated... Changes in self-perception and hallucinations-those are some of my other symptoms. You are poison, I chanted silently to myself. And your poison is contagious."

In her new book, Irritable Hearts:  A PTSD Love Story, journalist Mac McClelland describes how reporting on the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti left her emotionally damaged and suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder.   A former human rights reporter for Mother Jones magazine, McClelland has covered a wide range of domestic and international news stories including the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster,  vigilante violence on a Native American reservation in Oklahoma (where she was personally threatened with rape), along with assignments in Thailand, Haiti, Australia, Burma, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Bhutan.   But it was her experiences in Haiti, including interviewing victims of sexual violence that left her unable to cope with what was happening to her after returning home to California.  As she movingly describes in her book, her attempt to come to terms with the flashbacks, nightmares, and other symptoms  led her to explore how veterans and other survivors deal with trauma  as well as covering some of the latest research looking at PTSD diagnosis and treatment.  She also discovered that PTSD symptoms in journalists and other front-line workers encountering second-hand exposure to traumatic violence are hardly uncommon.  While journalists are often viewed as impartial observers, McClelland's book makes a bold statement about the trauma that is often associated with covering horrific events around the world.

Even thoug the secondary effects of trauma have been well-documented in health care workers dealing with trauma survivors, virtually anyone coming into contact with survivors and hearing their stories of survival are vulnerable.   Along with journalists and front-line workers,  anyone exposed to people who have been through traumatic ordeals can experience many of the emotional and cognitive problems associated with posttraumatic stress.   This includes clergy, justice system professionals, and even family members providing support for loved ones.   Though usually not as severe as what people can experience first-hand,  symptoms of secondary trauma can include social withdrawal, mood swings, irritability, aggression, sleep problems, problems managing boundaries with clients, trust issues, problems with intimacy, and intrusive flashbacks. 

Secondary trauma is often associated with compassion fatigue which can lead to support workers losing their ability to feel empathy for the people they are meant to help.   This often causes increased cynicism or even burnout as exposed workers experience increasing hopelessness and a generally negative attitude.  All of which  leaves them more vulnerable to later traumas as well as later problems such as substance abuse or even suicide without the proper support.    While aid agencies often provide emotional support and special training to help aid workers cope more effectively, many front-line workers, including journalists, are frequently left to fend for themselves or rely on informal support from fellow workers to deal with what they are going through.

Women journalists such as Mac McClelland face an additional obstacle since admitting to emotional difficulties can undermine their credibility and make it harder to be taken seriously by their male counterparts.   According to journalist Lauren Wolfe, who covers sexual violence in conflict zones for Women Under Siege and spent five years on the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the issue of how  journalists, male or female, can be affected by dealing with trauma on a regular basis is something that is rarely discussed.   Wolfe herself was diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder due to her work but she is often defensive when discussing her symptoms with journalists.  "Why should I be ashamed by being affected by terrible things?" she said in an interview with The New Republic." It’s natural, and by recognizing it, you can deal with it and move on."

She also says that the problem affects male journalists as well.  "I’ve talked to plenty of men who cover war and are having the exact same problems I am, they just won’t say it beyond a dinner conversation with me."    The macho expectations associated with the male-dominated field of high-risk journalism encourages most journalists to stay silent about what they are experiencing.  Guardian reporter Oliver Laughland told The New Republic about his own experiences covering the treatment of asylum seekers in U.N. refugee camps and how he continues to be haunted by images of what he has seen.  "You're not human if you don't have a response," he said.

Still, for journalists dealing with horrifying experiences while covering events worldwide, the lingering effects of posttraumatic stress can be a heavy burden.  As journalist Jordan Kisner asked  in that same New Republic article, "How do people deal with that healthily? Therapy? Meditation? Just being naturally resilient? I'd like to know."

 

 

Death of a Movie Star (Part One of Two)

They called him “the screen’s most perfect lover” and a matinee idol.   Though Wallace Reid is largely forgotten today, nobody ever suspected that the scandal surrounding his 1923 drug death would shape the kind of movies Hollywood made about drug abuse for decades to come.

 With his powerful physique and rugged good looks, Wallace Reid was one of the first great stars of the silent screen era.  Beginning with his first film, The Phoenix, in 1920, Reid was also one of Hollywood’s golden boys, equally comfortable before the cameras as he was working behind the cameras as a writer, cameraman, and director (I tend to think of him as a silent film combination of Clark Gable, Clint Eastwood, and Harrison Ford). 

His marriage to actress Dorothy Davenport, quickly followed by the discreet adoption of an infant girl of, ahem, obscure origins, did nothing to detract from his reputation as a major heartthrob.  With romantic movie roles cast alongside glamorous starlets such as Gloria Swanson, Lillian Gish, and Geraldine Farrar, women of all ages crowded into movie theatres to see the handsome Reid in one role after another.

Ironically enough, Reid hated being thought of as a matinee idol.   “May the Lord forbid that anyone ever think I’m a matinee idol,” he said in one interview “If I ever thought I’d have that label attached to me, I’d start to direct tomorrow. That’s one reason why I like the race-track stuff— it gives me the chance to get mussed up and honest-to-goodness dirty!”   Reid’s racing movies, including The Roaring Road in 1919 to Excuse My Dust in 1920, also established him as a major action star making him one of the rare stars who appealed to men and women alike. 

Except…

An accident involving a train wreck that happened while he was filming The Valley of the Giants in 1919 left Reid in severe pain.  To keep the film on schedule, doctors prescribed large doses of morphine and, sure enough, Reid was addicted before long.   At least, that was the official story.   Most of the information relating to Reid’s drug use came from his wife, Dorothy Davenport who, to put it kindly, was not completely reliable due to the often contradictory stories she would provide the press about her husband.

Whatever the real cause of his addiction, Reid was regularly abusing drugs and alcohol by the early 1920s and he was hardly the only one.  Much like the rest of America coming to terms with easily available drugs which had only recently become illegal, many of the early Hollywood stars, despite appearing  beautiful and glamorous on the screen, had turned to drug use to help cope with the hectic work schedules forced on them by the studios.  For Wallace Reid, that pressure was apparently relieved by morphine, alcohol, and perhaps some other drugs as well.  Through it all, he continued to make movies though meeting the demands of his fans and the studios became harder than ever.

On October 21, 1922, Reid was hospitalized for what studio sources described as a “nervous breakdown.”   According to film director Henry Hathaway, who had been working with Reid on what would be his final day as an actor:  “He sort of fumbled about, and bumped into a chair, and then just sat down on to floor and started to cry,”  Hathaway said.  “They put him in a chair, and he just keeled over. They sent for an ambulance and sent him to the hospital.”

While rumours of drug use had been circulating for months, his press secretary emphatically denied any suggestion that Reid was seriously ill.  The newspaper stories I’ve found tended to describe his condition as being a “nervous breakdown” though the details were sketchy at first.  The “official” story later released by the studio was that he was suffering from the ill-effects of the powerful lights used in filming and that his wife had taken him to the mountains to recover.  This story only worked for a while though.

After weeks of misinformation (including planted news stories of Reid at the Mayo Clinic, “recovering” at a mountain retreat, etc.”), the full extent of Reid’s drug problem because public knowledge.  Not only had years of drug and alcohol abuse ravaged his body, but he was also dealing with the effects of a weakened immune system.   Despite the newspaper coverage describing the valiant Reid “fighting for his life,” public revelations about his drug use created a major problem for Reid’s studio and threatened to provoke a backlash against the entire Hollywood film industry.  

Just a short time earlier, Will H. Hays had become President of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) and charged with “cleaning up” Hollywood.   After major sex scandals involving stars such as Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, Hays had established what later become known as the “Hays Code” establishing rigid rules of conduct for actors on and off the screen.   Though this initially applied only to inappropriate sexual behaviour, changes in the laws relating to narcotics meant that Hays was obliged to crack down on drug and alcohol use as well.

Not surprisingly, the newspaper stories leaking details of what was happening downplayed any suggestion that Wallace Reid was an addict.  No, he was in recovery.   According to the Los Angeles Time article titled, “Narcotics Given Up,” Reid was described as making a “determined attempt to win out over drugs and alcohol.”   Reid’s alcohol problems were blamed on “uninvited guests” who insisted on conducting wild parties at his house and he had been too polite to kick them out.    His wife, Dorothy Davenport described her husband as a “sick, sick, boy.”   She went on to say that “he has broken his habit and won his fight. He made this fight of his own free will and has won it by the strength of his own mind and will. I know that he will come back.” 

But the story had become much bigger than Wallace Reid.  Immediately after the public announcement of his addiction, newspaper stories came out speculating about “Hollywood dope parties.”  Some “insiders” accused studio executives of encouraging drug use in stars to make them more manageable.  

Evelyn Nesbit Thaw, who was already notorious for her role in the Harry Thaw scandal that broke a few years previously, made new headlines with talk of a “Hollywood dope hell.”   Saying that “a dope peddler and their victims are waiting there at every corner, in every home, at every party, for a chance to trap another victor,”  she described parties she attended where cocaine was served to guests in a large bowl.  Thaw also claimed that she had become addicted as well, courtesy of the Hollywood studio machine.  

Though few Hollywood insiders took Thaw’s claims seriously, her story, on top of all the other rampant speculation about what was happening behind the scenes, was a major public relations disaster for the studios.  Will Hays, the man  who was supposed to be in charging of cleaning up the movie industry, placed his own reputation on the line by publicly promising that he would end any narcotics trafficking still happening in Hollywood.   As for Wallace Reid, Hays insisted that he should be treated as an invalid rather than a criminal.   He also added that should “not be censured or shunned. Rather, let us all sanely and sympathetically try to help him, try to restore him to health.”

Except that Reid’s drug problem appeared to far worse than what his family had been telling the press.   They admitted to the morphine addiction but rumours circulated that he was also abusing heroin as well.  

Even though heroin had been legally available as a pain reliever only a few years before, things were very different by the 1920s.   The crackdown on narcotics, not to mention the junkie subculture that flourished after World War I, had made the buying and selling of heroin a criminal offense.    While morphine could still be legally obtained, heroin was a “criminal’s drug” that only true “dope fiends” would take.   Only two years earlier, a young scriptwriter, Claude Tyner Waltman, had been arrested for selling heroin right on the studio lot and Reid was rumoured to have been one of his customers.

There were also rumours that Reid had been heavily involved in the New York drug scene (New York being the centre of the heroin trade at the time) though his wife flatly denied this.   She insisted that her husband was a morphine addict only and would never attend “dope parties” (she later backtracked and admitted that he had been to “a couple”).   By insisting that his morphine addiction was caused by his injuries, Reid’s family managed to portray him as a tragic victim despite rumours that he was relapsing.  One report even had him slipping away from his nurses and sneaking into Los Angeles to buy an ounce of morphine for $300 (just to give you an idea of how much street drugs were going for in 1922).  Dorothy Davenport denied that rumour too.

But their ordeal was only just beginning.

To be continued

 

 

Does Suicide Risk Escalate With Time?

A study published in  the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology examines escalation in repeat suicide attempts from adolescence through adulthood, as predicted by sensitization models (and reflected in increasing intent and lethality with repeat attempts, decreasing amount of time between attempts, and decreasing stress to trigger attempts). In a prospective study of 180 adolescents followed through adulthood after a psychiatric hospitalization, suicide attempts, and antecedent life events were repeatedly assessed (M = 12.6 assessments, SD = 5.1) over an average of 13 years 6 months (SD = 4 years 5 months). Multivariate logistic, multiple linear, and negative binomial regression models were used to examine patterns over time.  After age 17–18, the majority of suicide attempts were repeat attempts (i.e., made by individuals with prior suicidal behavior). Intent increased both with increasing age, and with number of prior attempts. Medical lethality increased as a function of age but not recurrent attempts. The time between successive suicide attempts decreased as a function of number of attempts. The amount of precipitating life stress was not related to attempts. The authors concluded that adolescents and young adults show evidence of escalation of recurrent suicidal behavior, with increasing suicidal intent and decreasing time between successive attempts. However, evidence that sensitization processes account for this escalation was inconclusive. Effective prevention programs that reduce the likelihood of individuals attempting suicide for the first time (and entering this cycle of escalation), and relapse prevention interventions that interrupt the cycle of escalating suicidal behavior among individuals who already have made attempts are critically needed.

For the abstract.

Gay Marriage Comes to China, Sort of.

When "John", a lawyer in his thirties married "Xiaodan" a year ago, they had a traditional Chinese marriage ceremony celebrated by friends and family.  But there was one critical difference.    Both John and Xiaodan are already in long-term relationships with same-sex partners and their marriage was essentially organized to please their parents. 

While same-sex marriage is still illegal in China, more and more gays and lesbians are turning towards what is known as "cooperative marriages" to get around the social and legal barriers they often face.  “In our culture, a person who doesn’t get married will be considered to be disobedient towards their parents,” John stated.    

Despite being a marriage of convenience, both John and Xiaodan spared no expense and had many of the trappings associated with a real marriage ceremony.   John's partner acted as his best man while Xiaodan's partner was her maid of honour.   They even have the wedding pictures in an album to be shown to visitors and Xiaodan takes great pleasure in looking at them.  Their own long-time partners attended the ceremony and had one of their own a week later.

The marriage contract between John and Xiaodan covers the elaborate financial details that comes with maintaining two households, one for John and his partner and one for Xiaodan and her partner.   Since they eventually hope to have children through artificial insemination, the contract also covers issues such as child support.

These kind of cooperative marriages have become extremely popular in China with matchmaking services and apps to help prospective brides and bridegrooms find each other.  One service, Chinagayles.com, boasts more than 45,700 successful marriages.  

Both John and Xiaodan described how they responded to parental pressure to get married.   Unmarried Chinese men and women face intense scrutiny and their parents often endure constant questions about when their children will marry and have children.  “Sitting around the table, everyone asks, ‘When did your daughter start dating? When will she get married?’” Xiaodan says. “It’s a constant comparison: Who has a baby first? Whose grandchild does better in school? Whose child earns more money? I only run into these people once in a while. But for my parents, they are always in this environment.”

While LGBT activists recognize that China's one-child policy has heightened pressure on only children to carry on the family line, they are divided on whether cooperative marriage is really the answer.   While preferable to the old-style "sham" marriage in which gay or lesbian partners keep their true sexual preference a secret,  some activists suggest that cooperative marriages are nothing more than a "poison pill" solution.

“If people decide to disappear into these marriages of convenience, it’s only going to acquiesce to the status quo of stigma here in China,” says Steven Bielinski, an American gay rights advocate and the founder of Shanghai LGBT Professionals.   “By entering into these marriages, it’s reinforcing heterosexual marriage, heterosexual identity, as the only acceptable, normative, positive lifestyle for people.”

According to Xiaodan, it would likely take decades for social attitudes to the point of allowing same-sex marriages to be fully recognized.   In the meantime, cooperative marriages continue to provide the appearance of traditional marriage though the reality is very different.  While there are signs that attitudes are changing in younger generations,  gay men such as John and lesbians such as Xiaodan have little choice but to celebrate their love as discreetly as possible.

For more information

 

 

 

Being a Book Lover

"So many books, so little time"  Frank Zappa

With the popularity of television, movies, the Internet, and digital devices in general,  the simple pleasure of reading a book seems almost quaint by comparison.  Though print is quite dead yet, heavy book users are almost an endangered species in this technological society of ours. According to one recent study from Germany, only three percent of the population identified themselves as heavy book users (reading more than eighteen books a year).  And that's pretty typical for most industrialized countries these days, especially with the cost of printed books remaining stable while digital media continues to drop in price.

Almost all of the media psychology studies looking at the effects of heavy media use on consumers have focused on electronic media.  This includes studies of heavy television use, Internet gaming, video watching and so forth.  But what about the impact that heavy book use has on readers?  I'm not talking about research into reading ability or how well people understand text, but on the kind of impact that heavy book reading can have on how we interact with other people.

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

 

 

Murder by Machismo

On July 26, 1980, 32-year-old Eloisa Ballesteros was shot to death as she lay sleeping in her bed.   Her killer was her estranged husband, 35-year-old Marcio Stanciolli, with whom she was living in their expensive mansion in Belo Horizonte, Brazil along with their two young children.   Stanciolli made no attempt to conceal his crime and was immediately arrested for Eloisa's murder.  It was the second killing of its kind in only fifteen days, both involving husbands shooting their estranged wives and claiming the same defense in court:  the right for a husband to kill his wife in order to "avenge his honour." 

In the previous murder case, landscaper Eduardo Souza Rocha killed his wife, Maria dos Santos Souza Rocha as she was returning  from gym.  As a defense, Rocha said that his wife "came to require freedoms such as smoking, using indecent clothing, including bikini,  exercising, returning to school, working out and even riding a car alone." 

The word "machismo" conveys different meanings depending on the culture in which it is used.  Stemming from Spanish and Portuguese traditions of manliness,  the role of machismo in Brazilian society remains extremely strong.   Along with defining traditional masculine and feminine roles (with males being dominant in their own homes),  the concept of machismo also demands that wives who are regarded as too independent be punished for this infraction, sometimes to the point of murder. 

As a result, domestic violence remains high in Brazil with ten to fifteen women being murdered each day.  According to one government study, 41,532 women have been murdered between 1997 and 2007.  Prevailing attitudes predominantly blame the victims with convictions remaining rare.  Belo Horizonte, where the two murders took place, is the capital of the state of Minas Gerais and is considered to be a bastion of conservatism.

In the case of Eloisa Ballesteros, an independent businesswoman who operated a chain of fashionable clothing stores, she had apparently become estranged from her husband and, as Marcio Stanciolli would later testify in court, was planning to leave him so that she could marry someone else.   His attorney also argued that her business career was causing her to neglect the more important role of wife and mother and that Stanciolli's passions had been "inflamed by his jealousy".  

The trial helped polarize Brazilian society and exposed the deadly consequences of machismo to the world.   While men took Stanciolli's side and insisted that he was within his rights to defend his honour, women and women's rights advocates strongly argued that failing to get a conviction would set a precedent that could lead to future deaths.    The murders of Eloisa Ballesteros and Maria dos Santos Souza Rocha led to a series of public demonstrations across Brazil.   In Belo Horizonte where the killings took place,  the slogan "those who love, do not kill" plastered walls across the city as well as "In Minas a marriage certificate is a death warrant".  

While Stanciolli's case was waiting to come to trial, Eloisa's murder helped unite the previously fragmented women's movement in Brazil and led to the founding of shelters for domestic violence victims in many cities.  'This case was the symbol for us,'' said Paula Montero, a sociologist who was a member of the Center for the Defense of Women's Rights in Belo Horizonte.  

Despite the political pressure, the all-male jury ruled on May 14, 1983 that Marcio Stanciolli had been justified in taking action against his wife but that he had used means that were not "moderate" according to Brazil's penal code.  Based on this finding, the presiding judge Celso Alves de Melo only gave the defendant a suspended sentence of two years in jail.  As well, he retained custody of his two children.   On hearing the verdict, women in the courtroom jeered and the judge had to restore order.   The men in the audience expressed strong satisfaction however.

In an interview with the media afterward, Antonio Orfeu Brauna, homicide chief of the Belo Horizonte Police, commented that the defense was "brilliant" but that "the only reason he won his client's freedom is he played perfectly to the machismo in this society."   Women's rights groups expressed dismay at the verdict and argued that Stanciolli's acquittal would encourage more men to use the machismo defense to justify killing women.

And this fear appears to be real.  Along with Stanciolli's acquittal, the courts also dealt with Eduardo Souza Rocha's trial.   Though a jury failed to accept his "debt of honour" defense the first time around, the verdict was overturned on appeal.  Due to outrage over judgments such as these, women's groups began documenting cases of domestic violence that often went unreported previously.  What they found was a systematic pattern of violence against women, all deemed permissible under the machismo tradition, though most of the offenses fell short of murder.   Violent incidents directed against women have included broken bones, mutilation with acid or sharp objects, and sexual assault.

Even today, domestic violence and injuries stemming from sexual assault remain the sixth leading cause of death or disability in women aged fifteen to forty-four years of age, far more that deaths from cancer or traffic accidents.  An estimated one-third of all emergency hospitalizations in Brazil stem from domestic violence and government pressure to curb such incidents has led to stronger legal measures.   In 2007, then-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed the Law of Domestic and Family Violence. This law created special courts in all provinces to preside over domestic violence cases and tripled the penalties for people convicted of crimes.   

Since 1985 (largely due to outrage over cases such as Eloisa Ballesteros), each Brazilian state has offered  "women's police stations" (Delegacia da mulher) dedicated to addressing crimes against women.   Though these stations are supposed to offer a wide range of victim services, including emergency shelters, the quality and availability of services still varies widely though they serve to raise public awareness about domestic violence.   The Brazilian government also maintains a toll-free hotline for victim complaints and hospitals are required to alert police regarding cases in which women have been harmed physically or psychologically.  Despite these tighter provisions, women often have difficulty seeking protection from abusive partners, many of whom are disregarding restraining orders.

While machismo remains a concern for women's groups across Latin America, there are signs that attitudes have changed regarding domestic murders.   Outright acquittals such as with Marcio Stanciolli are rarer now though women separating from husbands or boyfriends still fear for their lives.  For now, the issue of death by machismo is still unfolding in Brazil, along with much of Latin America.   What this means for future victims remains to be seen.

 

 

The Possession of Nicole Aubrey

In November 1565, a married teenaged girl named Nicole Aubrey (also spelled Obry) began experiencing physical torments that she claimed had been brought on by a vision of her dead grandfather.   A native of Vervins, France, the fifteen-year-old Nicole had become so sick that she could not eat and reportedly went into such contortions that, as one eyewitness would later describe, twelve or fifteen men were needed to hold her down.   She also spoke in a gruff and frightening voice and claimed that the spirit of her grandfather was possessing her.   The grandfather told that that he had died without confessing and instructed Nicole and her family to carry out various penances as a result.   Despite doing what was requested, Nicole's possession continued.

Nicole's family arranged for a Dominican priest, Pierre de la Motte, to exorcise her.   Through repeated exorcisms,  de la Motte managed to get the possessing spirit to confess that it was a devil rather than an angel.   Nicole's possession became worse and she became deaf, blind and mute (to make her unable to take communion).   Also, the chief devil possessing her reportedly invited numerous other devils to come in to possess her body as well.    According to reports,  de la Motte drove out twenty-eight of the demons possessing Nicole after which they "fled to Geneva" (which was the centre of the Calvinist movement at the time).    The chief demon possessing her,  who named himself "Beelzebub, the Prince of the Huguenots"  (Huguenots were French Protestants)  insisted that no one less that the Bishop of Laon could drive him out.   When  Bishop Jean de Bours arrived in Vervins in January 1566 to do an exorcism, he was no more successful than the other priests.

The case quickly took on political dimensions with the local Huguenots insisting that the entire possession story was a hoax and attempted to have the exorcisms stopped.   They had good reason for their skepticism considering that "Beelzebub" was accusing them of consorting with Satan.   Largely for her own protection, Nicole was transferred to Laon where she was subjected to a series of public exorcisms which took on all the pomp of a religious pageant.     Each day, Nicole was taken from the convent where she was staying in a great religious procession to the majestic Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Laon where she mounted a specially constructed scaffold.   There, before a large audience, the exorcist would order "Prince Beelzebub" to speak and Nicole would dutifully deliver a sermon on the evils that the Protestants would inflict on France's Catholics.   The content was little different from the anti-Huguenot sermons that priests and bishops across the country were delivering on a daily basis.   That a demon, one of Satan's fallen, was telling the Catholics who were listening what they largely wanted to believe about their Huguenot neighbours seemed guaranteed to boost religious tensions.   Among other things, "Prince Beelzebub" told his listeners that local Huguenots had stolen a communion wafer, cut it up, and burned the pieces.   "Beelzebub" also boasted that "I with my obstinate Huguenots will do Him [Christ] more evil than the Jews did!"  

According to one Catholic chronicler describing Nicole Aubrey's public exorcisms, "The Catholics in great joy gave thanks to God, being more confirmed in their faith; while some Huguenots returned to the way of salvation, others became more and more stubborn, mocking the entire proceeding thing.”    That Huguenots continued to insist that the entire spectacle was a hoax perpetrated by the Church using a gullible young girl did nothing to ease tensions.     On February 8, 1566, the "miracle of Laon" occurred when the Bishop of Laon held up a communion wafer and drove out the last of the demons from Nicole's body.    Nothing more seems to have been recorded about Nicole and she faded into obscurity afterward.

The Laon "miracle" helped reinforce anti-Protestant attitudes with Catholic clergy spreading the word across Europe to become one of the rallying points of the Counter-Reformation,.    It also played an important role in the religious holy wars that wracked France during the 16th century.   That included the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre in August 1572 in which thousands of Huguenots were killed.   The French Wars of Religion would drag on until the end of the 16th century and would eventually lead to the expulsion of the Huguenots from France.

One of the most intriguing descriptions of Nicole's possession was how she was able to speak without the apparent use of her vocal cords.  According to Jean Boulaese, who wrote the most well-known description of Nicole and her possession:

Speaking in Nicole, with her mouth open wide enough to allow the passage of a walnut, and with a swelling beneath the throat; or, to be more exact, in the throat beneath the chin; but in any case without either making use of or moving the lips, the grandfather replied loudly in a cracked voice: I am from God, who endured death and suffering for us all, from the virgin Mary, and all the saints of Paradise. I am the soul of Joachim Willot.

Though Nicole had initially insisted that her grandfather's spirit was using her body with her conscious cooperation, she was later forced to revise this to be more in keeping with Catholic doctrine.   Since doctrine didn't allow for the existence of "good spirits" using living people to pass on messages, their interrogation shaped her responses to comform with Church views on demonic possession.  Given her desire to please her interrogators, the anti-Protestant message she delivered hardly seems that surprising.  

Along with spurring the anti-Huguenot mania gripping France,  Nicole Aubrey's possession also became influential in terms of inspiring copycat cases of possession.     In the French city of Soissons,  four people were publicly exorcised in 1582.   One of these, a 13-year-old boy named Laurent, was reported possessed by a demon calling himself Bonnoir.    Another possessees was more unusual since he was a 50-year-old man named Nicholas Facquier who managed to be possessed twice (repossessed?).    A third case was more unusual still since it was a woman named Marguerite Obry (no relation) who claimed to be possessed by the same Beelzebub who had possessed Nicole Aubrey years before.   

Though the Soissons possessions were never as well-known as the Laon possession,  there were numerous similarities.   All of the the possessees went into convulsions whenever holy relics were placed on their stomach or when they were forced to drink holy water.    And, like Nicole Aubrey, they accused the local Huguenots of various religious crimes.   The demons reportedly claimed that they had come to "give comfort to their Huguenot friends" but were forced to recognize the power of the True Church during the public exorcism which drove them out.

The last great possession case of the 16th centuy was Marthe Brossier who apparently became convinced that she was possessed after reading about Nicole Aubrey's case.   Beginning in 1598, Marthe's family carried her from town to town in the Loire valley where she received multiple public exorcisms.    This continued for over a  year before French authorities had her arrested out of fear that she would stir up anti-Huguenot prejudice.    Marthe either escaped (or was helped to escape) and returned to seeking out exorcisms, this time in southern France.   Despite travelling to Rome and appealing to the Vatican,  Marthe was diagnosed as suffering from illness rather than being truly possessed.   According to the various doctors and theologians who examined her, her condition was  nihil a daemone: multa ficta: a morbo pauca (nothing from the demon; much invention; a little from illness).  

Though the age of possession was hardly over (there would be other cases throughout the 17th and 18th centuries), the Nicole Aubrey exorcism and others like it became a central plank in the propaganda war being waged by the Catholic Church against Protestant movements.  The "miracle of Laon" would be part of Catholic tradition long after the political turmoil that inspired it died down.   That exorcism and cases of demonic possession are still with us today in many societies demonstrates its popularity as a tool for propping up belief systems being threatened by skepticism.   How effective that tool is depends on the willingness of people to believe the unbelievable.

 

 

 

Predicting Loneliness in Old Age

Longitudinal research on loneliness in old age has rarely considered loneliness separately for men and women, despite gender differences in life experiences. The objective of this study study published in the journal Aging and Mental Health was to examine the extent to which older women and men (70+) report feelings of loneliness with a focus on: (a) changes in reported loneliness as people age, and (b) which factors predict loneliness. Data from the 2004 and 2011 waves of SWEOLD, a longitudinal national survey, was used (n = 587). The prediction of loneliness in 2011 by variables measured in 2004 and 2004–2011 variable change scores was examined in three logistic regression models: total sample, women and men. Variables in the models included: gender, age, education, mobility problems, depression, widowhood and social contacts. Results showed that older people moved into and out of frequent loneliness over time, although there was a general increase in loneliness with age. Loneliness at baseline, depression increment and recent widowhood were significant predictors of loneliness in all three multivariable models. Widowhood, depression, mobility problems and mobility reduction predicted loneliness uniquely in the model for women; while low level of social contacts and social contact reduction predicted loneliness uniquely in the model for men. This study challenges the notion that feelings of loneliness in old age are stable. It also identifies important gender differences in prevalence and predictors of loneliness. Knowledge about such differences is crucial for the development of effective policy and interventions to combat loneliness in later life.

For the abstract.