Providentia

New Stephen King Movie May Be Inspiration for Latest "Killer Clown" Sightings

Parents of school-age children in parts of  England's Kent county have been bombarding local police departments with reports of masked men dressed as clowns who are stalking children.  Masked clowns have been spotted lurking around the Thamesview school near Gravesview, Kent and jumping out at shoppers and moving cars in Canterbury.  Sightings have also been reported in Cornwall with one resident claiming to have seen a masked figure looking into people's car windows and walking around town.

Residents have urged schools to raise awareness of a possible return of the "killer clown" hysteria that gripped the area last year.   In Cornwall alone, residents reported seeing clowns wielding knives, throwing eggs at houses, and hiding in playgrounds while children were there.  The new sightings are believed to be part of a Halloween campaign by local youths who have been inspired by the recent Stephen King movie, "It" featuring an evil clown named Pennywise. 

While new clown sightings have also been reported in parts of the United States, Australia, and Israel, the actual number have decreased since last year's clown hysteria epidemic.  Most of these sightings appear to be unfounded though some cases of practical jokers  wearing clown masks have also been report.  So far at least, the clown hysteria remains relatively subdued.

Killing President Clinton

On October 29, 1994, D.C. sightseers walking past the White House along Pennsylvania Avenue were startled to see a nondescript and somewhat heavyset bystander suddenly whipping out a semiautomatic weapon from under the overcoat he was wearing.  He then began spraying gunfire through the iron fence surrounding the White House while bystanders ran for cover.  His apparent target was a group of men in dark business suits who, naturally enough, also took cover.  Secret Service agents who were part of an emergency response team immediately began converging on him with guns drawn and trying to avoid getting shot themselves.  As the gunman stopped to reload, three bystanders tackled him and managed to keep him restrained until Secret Service agents could arrive.   

The gunman was then handcuffed and taken into custody, but not before telling the officers that he wish they had shot him.  Despite the 27 rounds that had been fired, no real damage had occurred except for a shattered window in a press briefing room and some damage to the White House facade.  Though then-President Bill Clinton had been in the White House at the time, no bullets penetrated the living area where he had been watching a football game on television  (windows in the living area are bulletproof).   

All that remained was the question of what would be done with the gunman, 26-year-old Francisco Martin Duran...  

Born on September 8, 1968 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Duran had a lengthy history of prior offenses including convictions for impaired driving and aggravated assault.   After the start of Operation Desert Storm, Duran enlisted in the U.S. Army and became an army medic before being  dishonorably discharged in 1993 due to being convicted of aggravated assault with a vehicle.   Though Duran tried to return to civilian life, his criminal record made finding a job difficult.   He eventually moved to Widefield, Colorado with his wife, Ingrid, and drifted into a destructive lifestyle of odd jobs, alcoholism, and worsening problems with depression.

It's hard to say exactly why Duran decided that killing the President would solve all of his problems.   Investigators determined that he had purchased the weapon used in the shooting, a Chinese-made Norinco SKS semiautomatic rifle, on September 13.   That was the same day that President Clinton signed an anti-crime bill banning different assault weapons, including the one Duran purchased.   Buying the gun was perfectly legal since gun dealers were permitted to sell their existing stock.  After his purchase, Duran carried out illegal modifications making the gun easier to carry and able to hold more ammunition. 

Duran then  vanished from his home in late September, 1994.  His wife, concerned by his absence, contacted the local Sheriff's office to file a missing persons report.   On October 15, she received a call from her husband stating that he was planning an assault and that he expected to be killed.  Though Duran refused to say where he was or what he was planning, his wife became concerned enough to notify the F.B.I. though, since he made no mention of targeting the President, the F.B.I failed to forward any warning to the Secret Service.  An investigation would later determine that he had told several people close to him about his plan though none of them believed he was serious.

Shortly after disappearing from Colorado, Duran drove his van to Washington, D.C.  If police noticed the van parked near the White House, they made no note of it despite the van bearing numerous bumper stickers with anti-gun control slogans.    After picking out what he felt to be the best spot near the White House, Duran waited for his opportunity.    The apparent trigger to the shooting rampage was his spotting a tourist, Dennis Basso, on the White House grounds.  Since Basso had a haircut similar to the President's,  Duran concluded that he was the target and began firing.

Following his arrest, police found a handwritten note in Duran's van providing instructions to his wife on how he wanted his affairs handled since he expected to be killed.   Though he refused to cooperate with police, he was arraigned on a series of charges including  attempted murder of the President. four counts of assaulting  federal officers (the four Secret Service officers who had been in the line of fire), and interstate transportation of a firearm with the intent to commit a felony.    Given the nature of his offenses and his refusal to cooperate with a pretrial mental health evaluation, he was denied bail.

When his trial began, Duran pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.   Openly expressing his remorse for his actions, Duran and his defense attorney insisted that he had been insane at the time of the shooting.   To bolster his case, Duran made a series of bizarre statements during his trial.  Among other things, he announced that he had been trying to "save the world from an alien mist"  and that conservative talk show host Chuck Baker had convinced him to "cleanse the government" through armed insurrection.   

The prosecution exploded the insanity defense fairly quickly by presenting evidence from numerous people in Duran's life who described how he had become fixated on killing the President to become famous.  In a note to his wife found after the fact, he instructed her to charge news agencies thousands of dollars for each interview she gave.   As well, the prosecution also arranged for two psychiatric assessments of Duran, both concluding that he wasn't mentally ill.  

To nobody's surprise, Duran was found guilty of all charges and sentenced to forty years in prison.   Since prosecutors had requested a life sentence, U.S. District Judge Charles Richey denied any possibility of parole for Duran, stating that the shooting "cannot be countenanced in a free society."   He also imposed a fine of $3200 to cover the cost of repairs to the White House.   As for Duran himself, he made a public statement expressing regret for the harm he had brought to his wife and son.  He also announced that he would earn a college degree in small business management while in prison.   Since his conviction, he has been held in the Federal Correctional Institution in Florence, Colorado and his earliest possible release will be in 2029.

Despite political fallout following the shooting, not to mention the fact that it took place  just weeks after another incident in which a Cessna plane was deliberately crashed into the White House lawn, elected officials called for stricter security.   A formal report on the various attacks was later submitted but, even today, much of that report remains classified.   Ironically, the gun ban that supposedly sent Duran over the edge has since been repealed and the semiautomatic weapon he used in the shooting can, once again, be purchased legally. 

Plus ca change....

Rape Myths and the Search for True Justice

Sexual assault is everybody's problem.  

Despite the rash of new stories about how women in our society are treated, actual statistics relating to sexual assault remain bleak.   Despite epidemiological data suggesting that one women in five will experience some form of sexual assault over the course of a lifespan, most of which will never be reported to police.    According to the 2016 National Crime Victimization Survey, there were 431,840 incidents of sexual assault or rape (depending on the legal definition used) in the United States in 2015 alone.   Estimates from other sources put the actual number much higher though the true prevalence will never be known for certain.

What is known for certain is that the vast majority of assaults that get reported to police never make the transition from initial police investigation to an actual prosecution.  For most victims who see their claims being dismissed or ignored, the emotional and physical harm that results can last a lifetime.    Though rape crisis centres and other resources can provide counseling and legal services to help assault victims, it is more important than ever to understand the kind of roadblocks that sexual assault victims can face, especially when dealing with the criminal justice system.

In most jurisdictions, police are required to make an initial investigation of a sexual assault claim to determine whether enough evidence exists to be referred to a prosecutor.  In the United States alone, 73 to 93 percent of all complaints never proceed to prosecution.   Though this can  be due to a decision by the prosecutor not to proceed with a case due to insufficient evidence, the most common reason these complaints are dropped is that police decide not to refer these cases in the first place.

According to many studies looking at how sexual assault victims are treated by police, it is far from uncommon for victims to be treated with disbelief, be denied critical services, and even being actively blamed for being assaulted in the first place.  Often known as secondary victimization, the emotional trauma that frequently occurs due to how victims are treated by the criminal justice system can be as devastating as the original assault.   This "second rape" as many victims have termed their experiences with police can deepen posttraumatic symptoms and contribute to long-term emotional and physical health problems.    Not surprisingly, research has found a direct link between extent of secondary victimization and likelihood that police will fail to follow through with complaints.

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

Can Marital Tension Predict Divorce?

Marriages are often characterized by their positive and negative features in terms of whether they elicit feelings of satisfaction and happiness or conflict and negativity. Although research has examined the
development of marital happiness, less is known about the development of negativity among married couples. A new article in the journal Developmental Psychology examines how marital tension (i.e., feelings of tension, resentment, irritation) develops within couples over time and whether marital tension has unique implications for divorce. Specifically, researchers examined marital tension among husbands and wives within the same couples from the first to the sixteenth year of marriage, as well as links between marital tension and divorce. Participants included 355 couples assessed in years 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, and 16 of marriage. Multilevel models revealed that wives reported greater marital tension than husbands. Marital tension increased over time among both husbands and wives, with a greater increase among husbands. Couples were more likely to divorce when wives reported higher marital tension, a greater increase in marital tension, and greater cumulative marital tension. Findings are consistent with the emergent distress model of marriage, but indicate that despite the greater increases in marital tension among husbands,  wives’ increased marital tension over the course of marriage is more consistently associated with divorce

For the abstract

Man Who Attempted to Make Bombs from Fairy Lights Jailed For Life

A U.K. man believed to be suffering from schizophrenia has received a life sentence after being arrested for attempting to make bombs out of fairy lights and a pressure cooker.  Zahid Hussain, a 29-year-old former doorman living with his parents in the Alum Rock suburb of Birmingham, England, was arrested in 2015 after police received reports of a man acting suspiciously. After being taken into custody, police found handwritten recipes for explosives, a hand-drawn map showing a drainage chamber, and books in his bedroom containing instructions on guerilla warfare and sabotage.  A page describing how to derail a train had been carefully marked.

In Hussain's own words, he became "bedroom radicalized" after reading ISIS recruitment literature and watching videos of the war in Syria.  In the months leading up to his arrest, he had separated from his wife and three children and became increasingly bizarre in his behaviour.   "He became withdrawn and isolated from his family and spent hours both day and night on his computer, where he bought most of the items he used to construct the devices,"  according to a statement released by police at the time of his arrest.

While the pressure cooker device he had constructed would not have worked due to errors in its construction, Hussain had converted fairy lights into electronic igniters as well as remote control detonator.  All of the materials he had used were found in his bedroom which he called his "base of operations."  

Since being convicted in May of this year, Hussain has been seen by several psychiatrists who diagnosed him as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.    In handing down a life sentence, the judge rule that Hussain's diagnosis ‘was only partly attributable to that disorder' and that the "primary driver" was his "voluntary bedroom radicalization."    He also told Hussain that his "culpability is extremely high as more than one explosion was clearly intended, and the harm to be caused was ultimately loss of life or serious injury to the person. You were clearly deeply radicalised and, over a period of at least nine months, were strongly committed to what you were doing."

Zahid Hussain is expected to serve a minimum of fifteen years before being eligible for parole.

 

 

 

 

The Crucifixion of Margaretta Peter (Part Two)

Continued from Part One

We may never know for certain what it was that drove saintly Margaretta over the edge from religious mania to full-blown delusion.   

Based on the testimony of her family members and followers who were holed up with her in the Peter house in that fateful week in 1823, Margaretta's enthusiastic prayers and fasting convinced her believers that something amazing was about to happen. Even if one or two of them were less than convinced about her holy mission, they didn't seem inclined to argue with the others.

Eventually, Margaretta gathered her disciples around her and reportedly said, "Lo! I see Satan and his first-born floating in the air. They are dispersing their emissaries to all corners of the earth to summon their armies together."   Her suggestible sister Elizabeth promptly announced that she saw them as well.   She then began to prophesy that the son of Napoleon, the Duke of Reichstadt, would soon announce himself as the Antichrist and that the Final Battle would then begin.

After making this prophecy, Margaretta went into a wild frenzy and began smashing furniture and attacking walls with a hammer.   It was at this point that the maid, Margaret Jaggli, went into convulsions which Margaretta took as a divine sign.   She cried out that, "I see in spirit the old Napoleon gathering a mighty host, and marching against me. The contest will be terrible. You must wrestle unto blood. Go! fly! fetch me axes, clubs, whatever you can find. Bar the doors, curtain all the windows in the house, and close every shutter."  

Margaretta's followers followed her instructions and gathered in her bedroom with all the tools they could find in the house.  Some of them would report afterward to seeing divine visions themselves due to their leader's fanaticism.   She told everyone to start smashing everything in the room until she told them to stop.  Which they promptly did for the next three hours straight.   If any one of them slowed down due to fatigue, Margaretta told that person to "strike him! cut him down! the old adversary! the arch-fiend! whoso loseth his life shall find it. Fear nothing! smite till your blood runs down as sweat."

Even  as this was happening, a large crowd had gathered outside the Peter house, likely drawn there by the noise.   So great was the hammering going on inside that part of the wall of the house fall away.   This allowed them to see Margaretta and her followers carrying out their destruction.   As for Saint Margaretta herself, she saw the watching crowd and denounced them as "enemies of God."   

Once the room was completely destroyed, Margaretta led her exhausted followers downstairs to recover in the relatively intact sitting-room.  But only for an hour or so,  which was when she ordered her worshipers to beat themselves.  And they did.   The only exception was Margaretta's sister Elizabeth who asked her sister to beat her instead.   As before, whenever anyone began to tire, she ordered them to strike harder.   Even her father wasn't exempted and, after his enthusiasm flagged, his saintly daughter began pummeling him herself.

Eventually the local police decided to investigate what was happening and  broke into the house since no one would allow them inside.  Margaretta went into hysterics at seeing the police invading her sacred space but, after considerable wrangling, everyone was detained in separate rooms of the house. Not separated from the other women, Margaretta continued to rouse them into religious fervour while the men slowly settled down.   Though the order was eventually passed down that Margaretta and Elizabeth should be sent to an asylum, it would prove to be too late.

Though some of the followers had been dispatched home, most were still present when Margaretta assembled the remaining family members in the upper room of the house.  The tools used to destroy the room were still lying there and Margaretta began preaching the need for a final battle to defeat the Antichrist.  When her brother, Caspar, came to the house at the request of the police, Margaretta attacked him with one of the tools.   Finally intervening, her father stopped her and then carried his injured son downstairs.    As a result, he missed what happened next.

Upstairs, Margaretta asked the ones still remaining if they were willing to die for salvation.   Elizabeth promptly declared that she was and began beating herself but Margaretta, not satisfied with this effort, struck her sister in the head with a hammer.  The others, apparently inspired by this example, promptly helped beat Elizabeth to death.   Afterward, Margaretta told the others:  "More blood must flow. I have pledged myself for the saving of many souls. I must die now. You must crucify me."

Even with Elizabeth's dead body at their feet, the followers were reluctant to follow Margaretta's orders.   Insisting that "it is better that I should die than that thousands of souls should perish," she struck herself in the head with a hammer and then ordered the others to gather wood and nails.  Though the manservant Heinrich promptly fled the scene, the others proceeded to nail Margaretta's hands and feet to blocks of wood and then mounted her on the wall.   Margaretta seemed completely immune to pain even as she was being crucified and insisted that she would raise herself and Elizabeth three days after her death.  Only after ordering them to beat in her skull did she finally die.   

Caught up in the bizarre religious delusion that had led them to commit murder, the remaining followers then quietly went downstairs to dinner.   A policeman came by and had Margaret's father sign a writ guaranteeing that they all appear before the magistrate.   Nobody mentioned that Margaretta and Elizabeth were dead upstairs and the policeman promptly left.  Three days later, with nobody outside the house being aware of what had happened, Ursula and Heinrich went upstairs to remove the nails from Margaretta's body.   If they had been hoping that this would hasten her resurrection, they were disappointed.   Only after another two days of prayer did John Peter finally walk into town to tell the pastor that two of his daughters were dead.

What happened afterward was little more than an epilogue to the whole tragedy.  After a two-day trial that began December 3, 1823, most of the people who had been present when Margaretta and Elizabeth died received prison sentences.  Ursula Kundig received the longest sentence (sixteen years) while the others received sentences ranging from eight years to only a few months.   John Peter, father to both dead women, was sentenced to eight years in prison.   Perhaps as a way of keeping the Peter house from becoming a pilgrimage site, the judge also ordered it to be leveled to the ground and that no house would ever be built on the site again.   While some Pietists did manage to visit the house before its destruction, the story of Margaretta's crucifixion quickly faded into local legend.

While what happened in Wildisbuch in 1823 is hardly the most bizarre episode of religious mania ever to take place, it does demonstrate how easily even the most inconceivable crimes can occur under the right circumstances.   No matter how fanatical Margaretta may have been, it was the people who followed her who made the choice to believe what she was saying and to act on it.  With that in mind, given the new wave of irrationality and belief that seems to be spreading in many parts of the world, it's hard not to wonder how many other Margaretta Peters are out there even today and what new tragedies await us in future.

 

 

 

 

 

Reaching For The Moon

Whatever you could say about Dr. John Wilkins, he definitely thought big.   Big enough, in fact, to make him a pioneer in space travel, not that he ever got that far.

Born in England in 1614, he completed his studies at Oxford and graduated with a B.A. in 1631 and an M.A. in 1634.  Like many intellectuals of his time, Wilkins trained in both theology and natural philosophy (including intensive study in astronomy under John Bainbridge).   After being ordained as a vicar, he quickly became dissatisfied with life as a country cleric and secured a series of posts as chaplain to various prominent nobles, including a nephew of King Charles I.   Marrying a sister of Oliver Cromwell,  John Wilkins attained a prominent position in high society and became Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.  While he lost this position following the Restoration,  Wilkins managed to recover somewhat although he was still devastated by the destruction of his library and laboratory in the Great Fire of London in 1666.   From 1668 onward, he served as Bishop of Chester.   John Aubrey described him as a "a lustie strong-grown, well-set, broad-shouldered person, cheerful and hospitable;  no great-read man, but one of much and deep thinking, and of a working head; and a prudent man as well as ingeniose". 

Still, it was John Wilkins' achievements as a natural philosopher and an author that really distinguished him.   As one of the founding members of the Royal Society (including acting as one of its two secretaries), he interacted with some of the most prominent scientists and intellectuals of his time.   It is his 1668  book, An Essay Towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language, that is best remembered.  An ambitious work, Wilkins proposed no less than a universal language to aid communication among scholars of different lands (although he also intended it for use by diplomats and travellers as well).   Recognizing that units of distance and time were arbitrary, Wilkins proposed a universal system of weights and measure based on rational terms (and predating the metric system by more than a century).  Since pendulums were known to be extremely reliable time standards, Wilkins worked out a system using pendulums to measure time down to the second.    He also worked out a standard of length he called, naturally enough, a "standard" which was remarkably close to the length of the metre that would be adopted by as a unit of length by the French National Assembly in 1791.  

John Wilkins' other achievements were extraordinary as well.   Visitors to his rooms at Wadham College could see his marvelous collection of inventions, including the first airgun, an inflatable bladder (a precursor to the pneumatic tire), an artificial rainbow machine to entertain guests, a way-wiser (an early pedometer), and a statue that "spoke" through the use of a speaking-tube.    Along with his inventions (almost all of which were destroyed in the Great Fire) and assorted writings on philosophy, mathematics, and cryptography, John Wilkins distinguished himself by planning the first lunar expedition.

I did say he thought big.

Inspired by the age of exploration and the expeditions of Christopher Columbus, Francis Drake, and Ferdinand Magellan, John Wilkins was intrigued by the possibility of traveling through space.   In his first book, The Discovery of a World in the Moone, written when in 1638 when he was only 24,   Wilkins raised the possibility that the Moon and other planets were inhabited.   He justified this outrageous claim by stating that "Now if our earth were one of the Planets (as it is according to them) then why may not another of the Planets be an earth?".    Recognizing the enormous challenges in meeting the inhabitants of the nearest planet, the Moon  (he called these hypothetical moon-dwellers Selenites),  Wilkins dedicated the rest of the book to how humans could travel through space.     Given that the book came out 50 years before Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica in 1687, Wilkins' speculations on how to escape the Earth's pull were largely based on Aristotelian concepts concerning gravity and mechanics. 

Reasoning that gravity was simply a form of magnetism, Wilkins suggested that reaching an altitude of 32 kilometers above the Earth (20 miles) would be enough to overcome Earth's pull due to what he termed the "sphere of magnetic virtue" that surrounds our planet.   Since he had no idea of the vacuum between planets, he suggested that the trip could be made with a  true flying machine, designed like a sailing ship but with clockwork gears and a set of wings.    The wings would be covered with swan or goose feathers and would be powered by an internal combustion engine using gunpowder.  He even drew up an elaborate set of plans for the proposed ship and suggested that it could be constructed by a good blacksmith for approximately 400 British pounds.  Even allowing for inflation, this seems quite a bargain considering what NASA would eventually spend on the Apollo project. 

Wilkins made no allowance for food on his proposed lunar mission since he knew that explorers could go without food for extended periods of time.  He suggested that, since the ship's crew would be free of the pull of Earth's gravity, they would feel no hunger as gravity would no longer be pulling on their digestive organs.   He also made no provision for oxygen although he was aware that mountain climbers experienced breathing problems at high altitudes.   According to Wilkins,  this was due to mountaineers being unused to the "pure air breathed by angels" and that lunar travelers could learn to adapt in the same way that people living at high altitudes did. 

John Wilkins actually attempted building an experimental flying ship with fellow enthusiast, Robert Hooke, in 1654 using Oxford's Wadham College garden as a workshop.  It's hard to say how far Wilkins' experiments would have gone before new developments overtook him.   By the 1660s, both Robert Hooke and Robert Boyle  had used their research into the nature of gases to establish the existence of vacuum  between the planets.    Although Newton's reconceptualization of gravity still lay in the future, enough experimental work had already been done n for Wilkins to grudgingly realize that gravity and magnetism were not the same thing.   After realizing how difficult space travel actually was, Wilkins eventually gave up his dream and moved on to other things. 

Along with his scientific achievements, John Wilkins was also a dedicated clergyman whose moderate policies helped curb the intolerance that religious minority groups often faced during that era.  While his assocation with Cromwell still worked against him, Wilkins had managed to become a favourite of King Charles II.  This helped his negotiations with different Presbyterian factions and brought various defrocked ministers back into the Church of England, many of whom had been jailed for their dissent.    Still, considering the unpopularity that religious dissidents faced, standing up to the religious majority was certainly brave.   Wilkins also crusaded for penal reform (another unpopular cause at the time). 

John Wilkins died in 1672 when he was only fifty-eight.     Although not as well-known as other scientific figures of his time,   his legacy as a founding member of the Royal Society,  a voice for religious tolerance, and  his various contributions to later science were still immense.    One of the numerous tributes for Wilkins and his scientific work came from Robert Hooke who wrote that "There is scarce one invention, which this nation has produced in our age, but it has some way or other been set forward by his assistance. ... He is indeed a man born for the good of mankind, and for the honour of his country. in the sweetness of whose behaviour, in the calmness of his mind, in the unbounded goodness of his heart, we have an evident instance, what the true and primitive unpassionate religion was, before it was soured by particular factions." 

One interesting footnote:  Some of the telemetry for the Apollo missions was handled from the Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, England.  Not that far from the Oxford campus where John Wilkins first dreamed of lunar travel centuries before.  

 

 

 

 

How Does Self-Esteem Relate to Romance?

The relation between self-esteem and romantic relationships has been the focus of many research studies. A new article published in European Psychologist examines theoretical perspectives and available evidence on (a) the effect of people’s self-esteem on the quality of their romantic relationships, (b) the effect of self-esteem similarity between partners on relationship quality, and (c) the psychological mechanisms that might account for the link between self-esteem and relationship quality. Overall, the evidence suggests that high self-esteem is beneficial in romantic relationships.  Furthermore, research using data from both partners of couples suggests that high self-esteem has a positive effect also on the partner’s happiness with the relationship. However, research indicates that the degree of self-esteem similarity between partners does not influence the couple’s relationship satisfaction. Although evidence suggests that perceived regard and secure attachment between the partners explains why self-esteem is beneficial in romantic relationships, future research is needed to examine in more detail the mechanisms through which self-esteem contributes to a happy relationship.

 For the abstract

 

"Braid Chopping" Hysteria Spreading in India's Kashmir Proviince

On Sunday, July 30, three women living in Kangan Heri village in the Indian state of Delhi reported that an unknown agent, whether human or not, somehow rendered them unconscious and then cut their braids off.   The women, who ranged in age from 50 to 60, denying seeing who was responsible.  All they could remember was experiencing a severe headache before losing consciousness and waking up to find their braids had been cut.  Though police were baffled by the incidents, the braids were sent out to be tested while a forensic team investigated all three homes.  

Over the past three months, numerous episodes of braid chopping have been reported across different parts of India.  The reported victims range in age from small children to the elderly though their stories are remarkably similar.   In all cases, none of the women show signs of physical injury aside from their missing hair.   While some have provided physical descriptions of their purported attackers, there are few real similarities and some victims claim that their attacker wasn't human.   

Along with sparking a hysteria that has left many women afraid and sleepless, vigilante mobs have targeted people suspected of being responsible.   Cases of men and women accused of being braid choppers and being physically assaulted are being reported in different areas across India.  Many of the suspected braid choppers were either tourists, people known to be mentally ill, or strangers to the area where they were accused.   In one gruesome case, a 70-year-old man suspected of being a braid chopper was lynched in South Kashmir's Anantnag District.  Two men in Nagaur were also arrested for assaulting a mentally-challenged woman whom they accused of chopping braids and practicing witchcraft.

Though police believe the entire braid chopping epidemic is an example of mass hysteria, media coverage is helping spread the panic even further.  Paranoia is leading to increasing pressure to keep women and children safe at home to protect them from the evil influence at work.  

For more information

 

The Science of Falling Out of Love

The heart was made to be broken - Oscar Wilde

Romantic breakups are an inevitable part of living, no matter how painful they can be.

Along with eliciting a wide range of emotions, including anger, sadness, and shame, surviving a breakup can mean potential health problems as well.   These can include insomnia, reduced immune functioning, depression, and even the temporary heart condition known as "broken heart syndrome."   How severe these symptoms can be often depends on the strength of the romantic relationship and how traumatic the breakup itself was.    

According to the triangular theory of love first proposed by psychologist Robert J. Sternberg, passion, intimacy, and commitment can interact in different ways to form a typology of different kinds of love experience.  Of these different kinds of love, the most well known are infatuation (passionate love) and attachment (companionate love).   Romantic couples can progress through different types of love over the course of a relationships (for example, passionate love is most commonly seen in the early stages in a relationship before settling into the more stable companionate form).   This also means that the feelings that result from infatuation (whether mutual or one-sided) can be very different from what people in a long-term relationship may experience.   It also means that emotional pain that occurs after a breakup can be very different as well.    

Which brings us to the painful process of working through heartache.  Though dealing with a romantic breakup can take considerable time and effort, research studies looking at romantic relationships and breakups that identify specific strategies people have used to overcome heartache, some of which seem to be more effective than others.  And a new study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General tests three of  these coping strategies from a neuroscience perspective to see how well they actually work.  

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