Providentia

The Case of Dorothy Talbye

What could cause a mother to kill her child?

Though cases of mothers committing filicide are likely as old as history itself, the kind of punishment these women receive afterward has varied across time and in different societies around the world.  Even today, public reaction over stories such as that of Susan Smith and Andrea Yates has ranged from shock and disbelief to calls for their execution.  While postpartum psychosis and mood disorder are being increasingly recognized in these cases, treating filicidal mothers as mental patients rather than as murderers is still a relatively recent phenomenon.

Which brings us to the case of Dorothy Talbye...

Life tended to be hard for women living in 17th-century Massachusetts.  Along with the widespread belief in witchcraft and demonic possession shared by the deeply religious residents of cities such as Salem and Boston, laws provided little protection for wives dealing with overly brutal or dominating husbands.  Women who dared to criticize their husbands or resist their authority in any way risked being placed in stocks or even publicly whipped as "common scolds" or "shrews."    Part of the problem was the widespread belief that women were especially vulnerable to being led astray by Satan, something clergymen frequently declared in their regular sermons. 

Even many of the religious books published in that era spoke about how women were responsible for "original sin" (thanks, Eve).  William Perkin's 1596 book, A Discourse on the Damned Art of Witchcraft, was downright lyrical in condemning women.  "“In all ages it is found … that the devil hath more easily and oftener prevailed with women than with men," he wrote.  "T”he more women, the more witches.”

Relatively little is know about Dorothy Talbye's early life though she was later described as being "of good esteem for godliness."  Along with her husband, she was a regular church goer and lived an unremarkable life.  But everything changed in 1636 when her daughter, Difficulty, was born.  For reasons that remain lost to history, Dorothy Talbye suddenly began experiencing emotional problems which made her increasingly moody and aggressive.   According to the diary of Massachusetts Governor, John Winthrop, Dorothy's bizarre behaviour put her at odds with her husband and her church.   She was described as "falling at differences with her husband, through melancholy or spiritual delusions, she sometimes attempted to kill him, and her children, and herself by refusing meat saying it was revealed to her, etc."  

Since she failed to improve despite efforts by her church leaders, she was formally "cast out" of the church.   If anything though,  learning that she had been excommunicated made her even more uncontrollable.  After several more incidents involving her husband and children, Dorothy was then charged to appear before the magistrate in 1637 after being accused of assaulting her husband.   She was initially sentenced to be bound and chained to a post and later that same year,  was sentenced to be whipped over new offenses directed at her husband.   The flogging appeared to do the trick and Dorothy began obeying her husband again, at least for a while. 

In November 1638, Dorothy Talby killed her three-year-old daughter, Difficulty by breaking her neck.   Though she freely admitted committing the horrific crime when first arrested, she refused to say anything at her arraignment hearing.   Colonial law being they way it was at the time, the governor eventually grew tired of her refusal to speak and threatened to have her pressed to death unless she confessed.  Realizing she had no alternative, Dorothy admitted to the murder and stated that she killed her daughter to "free it from future misery."   Throughout her trial, she said nothing more in her defense and mostly refused to cooperate with the court for any reason. 

At the time of the trial, there was no such thing as an insanity defense though it would be adopted under Massachusetts law not long afterward.  Though people with severe mental illness were typically locked up in asylums to prevent them from harming themselves or anyone else, Governor Winthrop seemed disinclined to show any kind of mercy for Dorothy Talbye.  As he later wrote about her in his journal, she committed the murder, not due to insanity, but because "she was so possessed with Satan, that he persuaded her (by his delusions, which she listened to as revelations from God) to break the neck of her own child." 

In the eyes of the Governor and the court, the death sentence was the only acceptable option in Dorothy's case.    By all accounts, she showed little real emotion on being told she would be hanged for her crime and said nothing to suggest that she was sorry for what she had done.  She did ask to be beheaded instead of hanged, arguing that it would be less painful or shameful, but her request was denied.   On the day of her execution, Dorothy Talbye had to be dragged to the gallows where she refused to stand.   Her pastor and several other clergymen went with her hoping to provide some sort of comfort at the end but she refused any last minute rites.  She even refused to wear the black hood that was standard for condemned prisoners.  Instead, she took off the hood and used it to make the noose more comfortable for her.    The actual hanging was a horrible sight since this was long before the use of the "Marwood drop" in which the gallows simply broke the condemned person's neck.   Dorothy Talbye was fully conscious as she slowly strangled to death (she even tried to grab the gallows ladder as she was swinging).   She was then declared dead.

So, why was Dorothy Talbye punished so severely?  While infanticide is a horrible crime, the courts have always had a fair bit of latitude in sentencing.  When Mercy Brown of Wallingford, Massachusetts killed her son in 1691, she also went on trial for her life but was treated much more humanely than Dorothy was.   Not only was sentencing delayed because of her "distracted" state, but she eventually received a prison sentence since she was regarded as mentally unfit.  In Mercy Brown's case however, she was openly remorseful and she also cooperated fully with the court, something Dorothy Talbye refused to do. 

Instead of recognizing that her crime was due to mental illness, the courts saw her execution as an opportunity to "educate" other women about the consequences of acting "improperly", i.e., failing to be submissive and obedient as a good wife should.    Dorothy Talbye's fate was sealed by her long history of "unwomanly" behaviour and her refusal to abide by the teachings of her church.   Much as in the Salem witch trials which would take place years later, women of that era were expected to know their place.

 

 

 

 

A Shocking Discovery (Part One)

The 1930s was a turbulent decade for Italian psychiatry, largely due to widespread interest in "physical therapies" for treating asylum inmates. Use of Insulin coma, barbituate narcosis, and other medical interventions represented an exciting alternative to the psychoanalytic movement of the time in treating the untreatable. Given the widespread perception that mental patients represented an economic burden on society, Italy's Fascist government (likely inspired by the Erbkrank movement in Nazi Germany), began funding different research projects investigating somatic therapies for mental illness. At the forefront of this research was the medical team led by Ugo Cerletti.

Born in 1877, Ugo Cerletti had studied with the most eminent neurologists of his time before graduating with twin specialties in neurology and neuropsychiatry. By 1935, he had become the Chair of the Department of Mental and Neurological Diseases at Universita Di Roma 'La Sapienza". After visiting Vienna to study insulin coma therapy under Manfred Sakel, Cerletti formed his own research program into chemical convulsion treatments. After observing the use of electrical stunning on hogs being prepared for slaughter however, Cerletti was struck by an inspiration. Since epileptic-type seizures induced by insulin and metrazol were already being used to treat schizophrenics in many countries, could electrically induced convulsions be used as well?

As part of his long-term research project, Cerletti used dogs as test subjects to induce seizures electrically. Although half of the animals died as a result of shock stopping the heart, Cerletti and his research assistant Lucio Bini discovered that electric current could be safely administered if the electrodes were applied to the dog's temples. The dog experiments continued (with the dog catcher's wagon making weekly stops at the clinic) and the bodies were autopsied to examine the effect of electric shock on their brains.

Despite perfecting the technique on dogs, testing the procedure on a human subject was very different. Cerletti was extremely hesitant about taking this next step for obvious reasons. As primary researcher, he would bear full responsibility for any death or serious injury that resulted. Still, his research team (Bini, Ferdinando Accornero, and Lamberto Longhi) developed an experimental device that would develop 80 to 100 volts of electricity for a fraction of a second.

And then...

On April 15, 1938, a 39-year old engineer from Milan was arrested while wandering about the railroad station in Rome. The patient (identified only as "S.E") was found to be actively hallucinating and complaining about being "telepathically influenced". Diagnosed with schizophrenia, S.E. became the first test subject for the new treatment (which Cerletti named electroshock). Exactly who provided the informed consent for the use of this experimental procedure on a human patient isn't recorded.

There are different versions of what happened during that first session (the actual date is disputed although it occurred in April, 1938). In addition to Cerletti and his team, there was also medical observers and a male nurse to tend to the patient. S.E. was reportedly very docile as he lay on the examining table while the electrodes were attached to his temples. The first trial was at 80 volts for a tenth of a second and all that happened was that the patient contracted suddenly and then relaxed. His vital signs were carefully monitored with no apparent problems.

After a second trial with the voltage raised to 90 volts with no apparent reaction (although the patient did start singing), the team debated whether to try again. It was at this point when the patient stated in a calm voice, "Careful, the first is pestiferous, the second mortiferous". Although the researchers were puzzled by what he meant, they continued on to the next stage.

On the third trial, with the apparatus turned up to the maximum voltage, S.E. had a classic grand mal epileptic seizure. He became pale, turned blue, and then stopped breathing. The doctors found that his heart was racing and, after forty-eight seconds, S.E. began breathing again on his own (so did the doctors). The patient then sat up calmly and asked what they wanted from him. According to Cerletti's account, S.E. denied any memory of what had just happened. And so ended the first electroshock treatment session.

After ten additional electroshock sessions, S.E. was considered well enough to be discharged from the hospital on June 17, 1938. Cerletti later reported that the patient was "in good condition and well oriented" and could return to his engineering job in Milan. A follow-up assessment a year later found the patient reporting that he was "very well". His wife added her own concerns about her husband's condition, however. She reported that her husband became increasingly paranoid and jealous just a few months after his release. She also mentioned that "sometimes during the night he would speak as though in answer to voices”. While electroshock was no cure for schizophrenia, Cerletti continued to use it with countless other patients and his discovery would soon be adopted around the world.

For better or worse, a new era had begun in psychiatry.

Continue to Part Two.

Life, Hope, and Aging

Previous research has found links between older adults’ future orientation—hope, optimism, and death anxiety—and their physical and mental health; however, these relationships may be confounded by other psychosocial variables such as locus of control and social support. A new study published in Educational Gerontology isolated the effects of future orientation in order to determine which future orientation variable or variables predict physical and mental health among older adults. Older adults (n = 182) completed a survey. After controlling for the effects of sociodemographic and psychosocial variables, hope emerged as the sole predictor of both physical health and mental health. This indicates that hope is a reliable predictor of physical and mental health among older adults.

For the abstract

Bogus Psychologist Faces New Charges in Illinois

An Illinois man who already pleaded guilty to posing as a psychologist now faces new charges over falsely writing drug prescriptions.  Scott Curtis Redman, 36, has been charged with writing 71 prescriptions to 44 patients until being arrested at the end of January.  The youngest of these patients was 9 years old and had been prescribed Vyanse for attention deficit problems.  Redman had allegedly used a physician's name, medical license number, and controlled substance license number to run a mental health clinic in Chicago's South Side. 

The clinic's website featured Redman's picture, along with the real doctor's name, and offered mental health services to children, adolescents, and adults.  The fraud only came to light when a University of Connecticut police officer contacted the physician and told him that someone had submitted a false diploma to the Blue Cross Blue Shield credentialing department.   The Drug Enforcement Agency then launched a federal investigation which led to the current charge of intentionally using a fictitious registration number in the name of another person to distribute and dispense a controlled substance.

According to the investigators, Redman has previously been arrested and charged with 24 counts of pretending to be a psychologist in Cook County.  At the time of his sentencing in November, one victim, Kathy Baran, told reporters that she had felt "crushed", "mortified", and "violated" after discovering that the man she had been seeing for unspecified problems was a fraud.  She complained at the time of his pleading guilty to a single charge of practicing psychological therapy without a license that he had only received a "little slap."  He was ordered to pay restitution and to avoid any contact with his victim.

At the time of his previous sentencing, it was reported that Redman was claiming to hold a doctorate in counseling from Walden University.   The university denied ever having heard of him and his repeated applications for a license to practice psychology have all been rejected.   He was involved in a similar licensing dispute in Florida over false credentials.   After being charged in Florida, he simply sold his home and moved to Illinois.  Despite the fraud, he advertised his services extensively, including an ad in Psychology Today and also posted fabricated reviews describing him as a "wonderful psychologist who has helped many people."

If convicted for his latest offence, Redman faces up to four years in prison. 

For more information.

Undermining Hitler (Part Three of Three)

Continued from Part Two

By late 1944, the invasion of Europe was well underway with much of France being liberated from German control.   Sefton Delmer and his team carefully relayed full details of what was happening, including descriptions of the terrible American "superweapons" being deployed against German troops.   Since many German commanders cut off from their own high command relied on these broadcasts for information, they grew increasingly unnerved at the hopelessness of their own position. 

In the meantime however,  some British opposition politicians were becoming leery of the kind of propaganda campaign being run by British Intelligence.  Stafford Cripps, then-member of the War Cabinet and a fierce left-winger, came into possession of an English translation of one of Gustav Seigfried Eins' more lurid broadcasts and promptly went ballistic (or the proper English equivalent).   As he reportedly told Anthony Eden (who was Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs at the time),  "If this is the sort of thing that's needed to win war, why, I'd rather lose it!".   He not only demanded that the PWE team responsible be stopped, but that Sefton Delmer be fired immediately.  Eden arranged for diplomat Bruce Lockhart to calm him down and Delmer's team was allowed to keep broadcasting.   The black propaganda campaigning could continue. 

Using information obtained by German resistance members who managed to escape to neutral territory, Delmer's team also started a rumour campaign suggesting that Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler was trying to replace Hitler as President of Germany.  Realizing that Germany was losing, Himmler had tried to start peace negotiations with the Allies without Hitler's knowledge.   Even as the Gestapo was attempting to track down Himmler so that he could be arrested, Soldatensender was openly calling for Himmler to take over the country. 

As for "Gustav Siegfried Eins", there was an even more dramatic development.  Realizing that the broadcasts had largely served their purpose, Delmer and his team decided to end things with, well, a bang (so to speak).   In November 1944, the last broadcast ended with sounds of chaos followed by gunfire and a loud cry of "schweinhund" (pig-dog).   As far as listeners could determine, the Gestapo had finally tracked down "Der Chef" and Gustav Siegfried Eins had been finally removed from the air.   The courageous broadcaster who had apparently risked his life to bring news to millions of Germans had now become a martyr to truth.   That this distressing broadcast was actually being made in a British studio only became common knowledge after the war ended.

Also by the end of 1944, the British high command ordered major changes in the black propaganda messages being sent out by Delmer and his team.  Up to that time, the PWE broadcasts had been extremely careful not to say anything that might be construed as blatant criticism of Adolf Hitler or his Nazi philosophy.  As the Allied invasion proceeded and the German people saw perfectly well that the war was turning against them however, things became very different.   The average German now saw Hitler and the other members of his party as being responsible for countless deaths as well as dragging Germany into a war that couldn't be won.  The older Germans able to remember the terrible hardship that resulted after the end of the first World War saw history repeating itself and nobody believed the Nazi propaganda any more.  

Now the PWE broadcasts were filled with broad hints that the most well-connected Nazis were preparing to flee the country with their families (which was true enough).   As the fighting spread into Germany itself,  the broadcasts described full details as well as the actions of a (mostly fictitious) German anti-Nazi resistance movement.   To bolster these rumours, British intelligence agents arranged secret messages, airdrops of explosives meant for sabotage efforts, and even actual agents (who were usually "turned" German prisoners of war being sent back to Germany) to work with the resistance.  That these agents were largely being sent back to Germany as sacrificial lambs to be caught or killed by the Gestapo was all part of the game as far as British high command was concerned.   One chilling allegation later made by Leo Marks in his own wartime memoirs, was that a German double agent was deliberately air dropped with a defective parachute so that incriminating documents could be found on his corpse.

Unfortunately,  creating a fictional resistance movement eventually backfired (Delmer would later refer to it as the "black boomerang.")   Many Germans who had been staunch Nazi supporters or collaborators would escape prosecution by claiming to have been members of the resistance that Delmer helped invent.   This would allow them to continue to be a part of the new German republic established after the war and, not coincidentally, to help conceal what many of these born-again anti-Fascists had really been doing during the war.

Still, as the Third Reich crumbled and the Allied forces penetrated deeper into Germany,  Sefton Delmer and his team ended operations.  On April 14, 1945, the last of his radio broadcasts "faded from the ether, never to be heard again."  They didn't even bother with a cover story the way they did when Gustav Siegfried Eins ended.    After a fancy party to celebrate the last broadcast, Delmer celebrated the end of his "black" period by shaving off his beard.   As he would later describe in his memoirs, he was shocked at his changed appearance.  "‘There, staring at me, was the pallid, flabby-mouthed face of a crook," he wrote.  "Was this, I asked myself, what four years of “black” had done to Denis Sefton Delmer?"  

The beardless Delmer then called his team in and gave them a sober debriefing.  He told them their work during the war years would have to remain secret.  Following the end of World War I, British politicians had been indiscreet about the propaganda tricks they used and German nationalists took advantage of  this lapse to insist that they had been defeated due to trickery rather than a superior military (this later became one of Hitler's favourite propaganda ploys).  To avoid future problems, virtually all files relating to their war work were incinerated. 

Sefton Delmer returned to journalism and spent the next fifteen years as chief foreign affairs reporter for the Daily Express.  In the years following the war, rumours about Britain's black propaganda operations began trickling out, largely as a response to a 1953 book by a German Abwehr officer describing the impressive victories of Nazi intelligence in "turning" British agents in the Netherlands during the war.   As for Sefton Delmer, a disagreement about expenses with his publisher, Lord Beaverbrook, forced him into retirement in 1959 and, presumably, made him a little less reluctant to keep his wartime activities secret.   In 1961, he wrote the first volume of his autobiography, Trail Sinister, which was then followed up by a second volume, Black Boomerang.  Both books provided loving detail of all of the black propaganda work personally carried out by Delmer, complete with whatever documents he had managed to save from incineration. 

Reading more like an adventure epic than a historical record, Delmer's books remains the best record of the long PWE campaign directed against the Nazis.  Nine years later, he published a new book, The Counterfeit Spy, describing many of the still-classified details about "Agent Garbo," a double agent who had successfully tricked the Germans with misinformation about the D-Day invasion.   This time around, Delmer ran into serious problems since his book used material to which he was not supposed to have access.  He eventually struck a bargain with some of his old cronies that allowed him to tell the story with many of the names changed to avoid security problems.  It was an amazing story and it still the book for which he is best known.

Sefton Delmer died on September 4, 1979.  His health had been poor following a stroke several years before but he lived long enough to see a BBC production that was (loosely) based on his book, Black Boomerang.   Titled Licking Hitler, the play was a pseudo-documentary that portrayed the people  who made up Britain's black propaganda team in a somewhat disparaging way.   Though it was an excellent drama that won a BAFTA award in 1978, Delmer was distressed at how his wartime work was portrayed.

So, what can we say about Sefton Delmer, and black propaganda in general?  Though we can afford to be moralistic about how deception was used, its value as a weapon of war can't be underestimated.  Still, there are important differences between the black propaganda operation run by Delmer's team during World War II and the kind of lying that helped embroil the the United States and its allies in a multi-trillion dollar war in Iraq.  Lying to the enemy in wartime is one thing, lying to your own people is another.

Still, it seems unlikely that new revelations about widescale government deception will end black propaganda anytime soon.  It's just another tool of the trade. 

 

 

 

When Good Things Happen

A new study published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences investigated loneliness and positive life events as predictors of psychological maladjustment (viz., depression, hopelessness, & suicidal behaviors) in a sample of 327 adults. Beyond the expected role of loneliness in psychological maladjustment, positive life events were found to further augment the prediction of depression, hopelessness, and suicidal behaviors. In addition, the presence of positive life events was found to buffer the positive association between loneliness and maladjustment. Specifically, the positive association between loneliness and psychological maladjustment was found to be weaker for those who experienced a high number of positive life events, as opposed to those who experienced a low number of positive life events. Some implications for helping adults perceive or appreciate the presence of positive events in their lives are discussed.

For the abstract

Mob Violence in India Targets Tanzanian Woman

In a disturbing example of vigilante violence and racism, a 21-year-old Tanzanian woman was dragged from her car, stripped naked, and beaten in Bangalore, India while the police reportedly watched.  

On January 31, 2016, a fatal accident occurred in which a Sudanese student allegedly struck and killed a 35-year-old local woman.  Enraged by the death, a mob began targeting everyone of African descent who could be found.  Shortly afterward, a car with five students came on the scene and were promptly attacked by the crowd.  The other students in the car were beaten and the car was then torched.  While the others were able to escape, one of the occupants, a business student at the local college, was stripped naked, beaten, and paraded by the crowd.   A bystander who tried to offer the woman a t-shirt was beaten as well.   When she tried to escape by entering a nearby bus, the other passengers forced her out.   That same evening, local residents went to houses where African students were known to live and harassed them while also stopping vehicles in the street to see if Africans were driving them.

Following the incident, the woman attempted to lay charges but the police refused to register the case.   A friend, Bosco Owais, who is a legal advisor to the All-Indian International Students Association assisted her in pressuring police to act.   “My friend approached the Peenya police after the attack but they refused to register a case,"  Owais said, in an interview with the media. "Later, we had to go to the top brass to have the case registered. I understand that those people were angry, but how can they beat up an innocent woman?"

In the days that followed, African students hid in their homes for fear of being attacked.   Unable to attend classes, the students have little protection from mob violence.   Racism directed against African students is nothing new in India.  Anyone with a dark skin is treated with much the same contempt traditionally reserved for members of the "untouchable" Dalit caste who are also dark-skinned.   Black men are often regarded as criminals while black women are seen as sex workers.  

A video posted to YouTube in 2015 highlights the open harassment faced by many Africans in India.   In the video, many Africans describe their own experiences with racism, including incidents of being spit upon, laughed at, verbally abused, or treated as dangerous.   Vigilante violence directed at drivers who cause fatalities also remains extremely common and such cases often go unsolved given the tacit approval of many police forces in parts of India. 

While comments on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook demonstrate the outrage many people have over this latest incident,  it seems questionable whether the victim in this case will receive any real justice.  Police have confirmed that a complaint was laid though even identifying who took part in the mob, let alone successfully prosecuting them, may well prove to be impossible.

For more information

 

Undermining Hitler (Part Two of Three)

Continued from Part One

To establish the credibility of the Gustav Siegfried Eins broadcasts and to win as many German listeners as possible, Delmer and his team had "Der Chef" indulge in as much Allied-bashing as possible.   Winston Churchill was often referred to as "flat-footed bastard of a drunken old Jew" which helped reassure audiences about the broadcaster's political leanings.  The curmudgeonly Chef was also enthusiastic in supporting the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union and followed up by advocating a "cleaning-up campaign" aimed at the hidden Bolsheviks in the Nazi party itself.     As the Soviet invasion dragged on and the true body count became known, Gustav Siegfried Eins became required listening for millions of Germans who listened to the broadcasts blaming all setbacks on corruption in the German high command.

The point of Delmer's broadcasts was to undermine confidence in the Nazi party any way he could.  In his own words, "if we could blacken these men in the eyes of the German public as a venal and slothful privilegentsia which demanded everything from the common man, but made no sacrifices itself, why then we would have struck a mortal blow at a vital nerve of German[y]'s war morale.  Not only that, we would be giving the ordinary German a splendid excuse for any falling short in his own devotion to duty."   This included spreading numerous rumours of Nazi party members taking advantage of their privileged position to stockpile textiles and other luxuries that were otherwise denied the average German. 

While stories of the terrible suffering of German soldiers on the Eastern front began leaking back home, Delmer's broadcasts included laments about "brave soldiers freezing to death" and blamed it on traitorous war profiteers delaying the production of winter uniforms to line their own pockets.  In railing against these traitors sabotaging the war effort, the broadcasts were filled with accusations of soldiers who were malingering or otherwise goofing off.  The intriguing thing about these accusations was that they contained broad hints about how listeners could do the same thing.   This kind of "operational propaganda" - basically persuading listeners to act against their country's interests - was very much Sefton Delmer's trademark.

Another way of undermining the confidence of the German people in their leaders was known as the “phony nurse ploy.” Upon learning about the date and time of a German soldier’s death, British forgers promptly prepared a letter that appeared to have been written by a nurse who had been present when the soldier died. In this letter, which was covertly mailed to surviving family members, the nurse told them that the soldier had certain valuables in his possession which he asked to be sent to family.   The nurse would then state that she had personally handed the gifts over to Nazi officials to be sent home as requested.   When the non-existent valuables fail to turn up, family members were left with the impression that Nazi officials were robbing their own dead soldiers. This added to rumours of government corruption that further weakened civilian morale.  

Sefton Delmer’s anti-Nazi propaganda efforts went to often-bizarre lengths to portray Adolf Hitler as evil and perverted. One Jewish refugee, who happened to be a talented artist, later described her own experiences with Delmer’s team.   On her first day with the PWE, she was shown a picture postcard of Hitler in Lederhosen sitting with his hands in his lap with the words “Was wir haben, halten wir" (What we have we hold).    She was then told to draw a penis in Hitler's hands but not to make it "too large." 

Delmer also directed a covert radio station named "Christ The King" which was purportedly run by an Austrian Roman Catholic priest.   The broadcasts from this station focused on Nazi atrocities directed against Jews throughout occupied Europe and also dealt with what was happening in the Nazi concentration camps.  The one supposedly making the broadcasts was identified only as a "priest" named "Father Andreas."   According to rumours spread by Delmer and his team, the hidden station was actually run by the Catholic Church as a way of undermining the Nazi propaganda effort.   The implication that the Catholic Church was secretly opposed to Adolf Hitler and his Nazi machine was especially damning given that Hitler was himself a Catholic.

Another successful Delmer project was Deutsche Kurzwellensender Atlantik.(German Short-Wave Radio Atlantic), a station specifically aimed at the crew of German U-boats.  Since these submarines were routinely cut off from Germany for long periods of time, the crews were often forced to rely on news from foreign stations to catch them up on what was happening at home.   Thisstation, known as Atlantiksender for short, provided authentic-sounding news broadcasts including German military music and human interest stories aimed at German soldiers overseas.  The star announcer was a fictional soldier's sweetheart named Vicky who shared her fears about her boyfriend's safety along with her announcements.   The broadcasts also contained subtle propaganda in the form of rumours about the good treatment prisoners of war received in British and American concentration camps.  Some even hinted that prisoners were earning large amounts of money working in these camps.  Much like Gustave Siegfried Eins, the broadcasts also contained "helpful hints" about ways that soldiers could delay or even sabotage operations to make their lives easier. While the German high command quickly recognized that these broadcasts were British propaganda, there was no way to stop their U-boat crew from listening.

And both sides soon took notice of what Delmer's team was doing.    As the Nazis began planning Operation Sea Lion as part of their plan to occupy Great Britain and make it part of the Third Reich, Sefton Delmer's name was placed on the list of British citizens subject to arrest once the Nazis took over.   Josef Goebbels,, Adolf Hitlers own propaganda chief, found himself having to deal with the political fallout from the broadcasts and wrote in his private diary that the covert radio station run by Delmer's team "does a very clever job of propaganda and from what is put on the air one can gather that the English know exactly what they have destroyed and what not."  High praise indeed from a master of the Big Lie.  Even Britain's allies were confused at first about "Der Chef's" radio broadcasts and American agents in Berlin began reporting back to Washington on what they were hearing.  Apparently, the British high command only let the Americans in on the secret in 1942 after the U.S. formally entered the war against Germany. 

Ironically, because of the difficulty with radio reception even with short-wave radio, stations such as Atlantiksender were the only way many German soldiers could get any news about what was happening back home.   In Germany however, the penalty for being caught listening to foreign radio broadcasts grew increasingly severe as the tide turned against the Nazis.  Since people in occupied Germany quickly learned not to trust the optimistic news broadcasts they were getting from "official" sources, they came to depend more and more on the foreign broadcasts.  

To ensure their word was reaching Europe, Sefton Delmer's team took advantage of one of the most powerful radio transmitters then available.  A 500,000 watt radio built by RCA had been crated up and transported to Sussex, England to allow the British propaganda team to reach ordinary radio sets all over occupied territory.  Since they operated on a frequency close to to the German national "home service", there was no way to block ordinary citizens from hearing news that the German high command preferred they not know about.   

With the Allied invasion and the war turning against Germany, the impact Delmer's message was having on the German people became more important than ever.  More on that next week.

Continue to Part 3

 

 

The Last Castrato

There are different traditions concerning why Giovanni Velluti was castrated as a young boy. Born in Montolmo, Italy in 1780, his father had planned a military career for him but this plan changed abruptly when Giovanni developed a high fever. According to the most common legend, his parents had taken him to a local surgeon for treatment and the surgeon, mistaking the parents` intentions, castrated Giovanni instead. That marked the end of any military career for the boy and he was sent to be trained as a singer.

Castration in boys between the ages of seven and twelve prevents the larynx from undergoing the normal physiological changes associated with puberty and enables boy sopranos to keep their large vocal range throughout their lives. While some testosterone continues to be produced by the adrenal glands, the reduced sex hormone levels in their bodies results in other physical changes including lack of facial hair, physical tallness, smooth skin, rounding of the hips and a high speaking voice. The very term "castrato" or "eunuch" was often considered offensive and words such as "musico" or "virtuoso" were preferred (political correctness has a long history).

While castrati have been around since ancient times, the use of castrated boys as Church singers was first introduced in 16th century Spain. Women were not allowed to sing in choirs (due to one of St. Paul's teachings requiring women to be silent in church) and castrati seemed ideal for falsetto roles. The angelic quality of their voices caused this innovation to spread across many European countries but it was in Italy where the tradition of the castrato singer took root. By all accounts, the purity of their voices combined the awesome vocal quality of boy sopranos with the lung capacity of adult men. The spread of opera across the continent made castrati widely sought after as singers and they often became the superstars of their day.

Despite the fact that castrations for non-medical purposes had become illegal by Giovanni`s time, there were still doctors (and even barbers) across Italy who practiced the operation discreetly. The castrations would then be explained away as being due to congenital problems or "accidents". While the primitive nature of the surgery meant that many boys died of blood loss or infection, most survived to continue their musical careers. It may never be known many boys were castrated over the years but some estimates suggest that there were thousands.

The competition among castrati was fierce and only the greatest singers were allowed to become opera stars. For the rest, there were the church choirs and the modest living that these positions provided. Many poor Italian families found that having one son castrated meant an opportunity for the entire family to have a better life as a result. Church doctrine banned castrati from marrying or taking holy orders and their lives tended to be focused exclusively on their music and providing for their families.

Giovanni Velluti is widely considered to be the last great castrato opera singer. While the popularity of castrati as singers and the sponsorship of the Catholic church ensured a steady market for centuries, this era came to an end during Velluti's lifetime. He mesmerized audiences across Europe and many operatic roles were written just for him. Although he was a prima donna by nature with singers and music directors often finding it impossible to work with him, Velluti was in a position to demand (and get) special treatment. He made his London debut in 1825 despite growing English opposition to castrato singers. As the first castrato to sing opera in England in twenty-five years, he certainly had his share of fans and critics. Velluti even became music director for a season but financial problems and poor reviews caused him to leave England. By 1830, he had retired from stage and became a gentleman farmer until his death in 1861.

Aside from his musical career, Velluti became legendary for his flamboyant clothes. feminine good looks, and romantic escapades with numerous women in high society. Contrary to popular belief, castrati are not sexless. If anything, many castrati are said to be able to hold an erection longer than an uncastrated male due to lack of ejaculatory tension. Women often saw Velluti as an ideal lover since there was no pregnancy risk (plus husbands seemed incapable of believing that a castrato could be romancing their wives).

After Velluti's retirement, there were no more roles for castrati in opera and, with a Papal declaration condemning the practice in 1878, few choir roles were available either. Despite official church doctrine, it was only in 1913 when Alessandro Moreschi, the last Vatican castrato, was removed from the Sistine choir. He made two gramophone recordings in 1902 and 1904 which are the only ones of its kind in existence. Even given the poor sound quality, Moreschi's voice evokes an earlier era although he was well past his prime by the time the recordings were made. It was his very public funeral in 1922 that truly marked the end of the castrato age.

While countertenors and falsettos are often used in opera to simulate the castrato effect and androgynous singers continue to have musical careers today, we can only imagine how it must have been during the long period when castrati reigned supreme as singers. It is hard to believe that sexual mutilation of young boys could have been allowed for so long but, like many other examples of similar practices, maybe it just seemed like a good idea at the time.

How Well Can People Read Faces?

Although the distinction between positive and negative facial expressions is assumed to be clear and robust, recent research with intense real-life faces has shown that viewers are unable to reliably differentiate the valence of such expressions (Aviezer, Trope, & Todorov, 2012). Yet, the fact that viewers fail to distinguish these expressions does not in itself testify that the faces are physically identical. A recent study published in the journal Emotion examines the results of two experiments measuring how accurate observers were in reading facial expressions. In Experiment 1, the muscular activity of victorious and defeated faces was analyzed. Higher numbers of individually coded facial actions—particularly smiling and mouth opening—were more common among winners than losers, indicating an objective difference in facial activity. In Experiment 2, we asked whether supplying participants with valid or invalid information about objective facial activity and valence would alter their ratings. Notwithstanding these manipulations, valence ratings were virtually identical in all groups, and participants failed to differentiate between positive and negative faces. While objective differences between intense positive and negative faces are detectable, human viewers do not utilize these differences in determining valence. These results suggest a surprising dissociation between information present in expressions and information used by perceivers.

For the abstract