Providentia

The Bedridden Activist

The signing of the Treaty of Paris on March 30, 1856 meant an end to the bloody Crimean War.  

It also meant that Florence Nightingale, the legendary "The Lady of the Lamp", could finally return to England.   Considering her fame, she actually had to travel incognito to avoid any unwanted publicity.  Turning turned down the offer of a naval ship to bring her home directly, Florence Nightingale (traveling under the name of "Miss Smith")  and her aunt took a long overland route which finally brought them, on foot, to their family estate at Lea Hurst on August 7, 1856.  Despite her attempt at privacy, there was no getting away from the fact that Nightingale had become a national heroine.   The "Nightingale Fund" that had been established to fund her overseas hospital was formed into a trust to finance non-sectarian training programs for nurses and midwives throughout the United Kingdom.  Contributions continued rolling in from  veterans, their families, and the general public and Florence Nightingale was overwhelmed by letters begging for financial help.  

She turned down numerous offers from the rich and famous and focused all of her efforts on establishing a new royal commission.  Her experiences in Turkey had demonstrated the need for a thorough investigation of the sanitary conditions in military hospitals.  She had been slow to accept that her own failure in preventing patient infections in her hospital had likely caused numerous deaths (leading to her confrontation with James Barry and other outraged surgeons).   To prevent further deaths, Florence Nightingale spearheaded the forming of the First Royal Commission of the Army.   After meeting with Queen Victoria at Balmoral Castle, she and her supporters lobbied for months before the commission was finally announced.   Once the commission actually began, she worked tirelessly preparing medical statistics (including some pioneering work with pie charts which she developed with the help of statistician William Farr), interviewing witnesses, and writing many parts of the commission's final report.

Despite Florence Nightingale's tireless work during the months that the commission was in session, her own health began to worsen.    Since many of the symptoms that she described have no precise definition (including "dilation of the heart" and "neurasthenia")  the actual diagnosis remained a mystery during her lifetime   All that was known for certain was that she grew progressively weaker during the months that she worked on the commission although the cause was a matter of speculation.  By 1859, she was almost completely bedridden and remained an invalid for the rest of her life. 

Not that her poor health prevented her from being a tireless crusader.  In addition to publicizing the conclusions of the royal commission report which came out in 1859, she also published Notes on Nursing in that same year.    Quickly becoming an introductory textbook for her newly established school, the slim 136-page volume is now considered a classic in the history of nursing.  Florence Nightingale also threw herself into the establishment of a new royal commission on India (stemming from the Sepoy rebellion of 1857).   Although she offered to go to India herself to aid with relief efforts, she was refused (and her declining health would likely have prevented her from going anyway).   Largely working from her bed, Florence Nightingale and her assistants sent out questionnaires that she had developed to investigate sanitary conditions in various parts of India.  After analyzing the results, she released a ninety-two page paper summarizing her findings which was eventually published as an appendix to the final royal commission report.   Her public advocacy of statistical analysis led to her election to the Royal Statistical Society in 1859 (the first female to be so honoured) and she later became an honorary member of the American Statistical Association as well.

Being a total invalid called for some radical changes in Florence Nightingale's life and working style.  She mainly stayed in her rooms in London and only saw visitors by appointment (and usually one at a time).  That didn't stop her from carrying on a massive correspondence with medical experts, politicians, and policy makers of all kinds (she would have loved email).   She rarely traveled except to visit family or friends at various country homes near London.  While occasional remissions allowed her to leave her sickroom at times and make public appearances, they were relatively rare and she never left England again.  Although she once loved attending art museums and the opera,  all of these activities were eventually cut back so she could focus on her work and her small social circle.  When her mother became ill in 1866, Nightingale went to Embley to care for her but quickly threw herself into a new project examining mortality statistics for several nearby towns.  She also agitated on social reform involving Poor Laws as well as greater rights for women seeking careers outside the home. 

Although Florence Nightingale opposed the Contagious Diseases Act, it was not because she opposed the germ theory of disease (as some critics later argued).  Even though germ theory was not taken seriously before Joseph Lister and Louis Pasteur made the theory acceptable, Nightingale actually pioneered the need for sanitation and antiseptic conditions.  Her opposition to the legislation that was eventually passed stemmed from the intrusive nature of the Act (including mandatory screening of prostitutes for syphilis and detaining infected women).   When the act was passed in 1864, she campaigned for its repeal.  

Aside from the health reforms and support for public nursing that were her main causes in life, Florence Nightingale also involved herself in a number of side causes, including economic reform to relieve poverty.  She often cajoled legislators into passing legislation that she supported (both in terms of lending her support and threatening unfriendly politicians with adverse publicity if they failed to see things her way).    Despite being a public figure, she remained an intensely private person and often preferred to act anonymously whenever possible.    Her chronic illness (made her feel old before her time and, in her letters, she often described herself as elderly even at a relatively young age.   Being an invalid didn't prevent her from caring for herself though and she often did many of her own household chores. 

Florence Nightingale also never accepted payment for her activism and remained dependant on inherited money to support herself.  This may have been one of the reasons for her adamant opposition to the registration of  nurses (she considered nursing to be a calling rather than a profession).  Arguing that nursing required a special aptitude that could not be effectively taught was not a popular position to take.  Even after nursing registration became mandatory, she emphasized that nursing was continually evolving and encouraged lifelong learning so that nurses could keep their skills up to date.   Her "Nightingale system of education" proved to be popular and she encouraged the founding of nursing schools throughout the British Empire and in the United States. 

That wasn't to say that her life was entirely given to public service.  She had a longstanding feud with the owner of a pub across the street from her modest home in London.  The "disgraceful" behaviour of the pub's patrons and the noise of their antics which continued late into the night was a constant source of vexation for her.  Florence Nightingale's status as a public heroine didn't seem to deter the pub-owner and his customers in the least.  Her strong Victorian attitudes regarding the evils of alcohol probably didn't help either.  She was also an absolute perfectionist and insisted on cleanliness and order in her household and in the various homes and public building that she visited.   Despite her strong views on many issues, she remained fiercely loyal to her small circle of family members and friends and often provided financial support when she could.  She was also devoted to animal welfare (she owned cats all her life) and many of her surviving letters show her concern about the poor  veterinary care available at the time.

By 1900, Florence Nightingale was completely blind and more dependent on her personal staff than ever.   When financial problems forced her to "retrench" and let her nurse go, it was a personal blow for her but she managed to live her remaining years in comfort.   For the last ten years of her life, she was an almost total invalid with little real writing completed.   Her memory had become so poor that she needed to be briefed on any new visitor that she received.   The India Office was instructed to stop sending her material in 1906 since she could no longer understand them.  When Florence Nightingale died on August 13, 1910,  she left behind an amazing legacy of public service and writing (although many of her papers were destroyed at her death as she had requested).    While she also left behind instructions that her body be used for medical research, her wishes were ignored and she was buried in her family church in East Wellow.   The grave marker simply states, "F.N. Born 12 May 1820, Died 13 August 1910.”

Aside from her achievements,  Florence Nightingale also left behind a medical mystery.   What was the disease that left her an invalid for much of her life?   Given the lack of proper diagnostic tests at the time and the variable nature of her symptoms,  many of her later biographers suggested that her illness was largely psychosomatic.   Given the number of soldiers in her care who had died as a direct result of her reluctance to recognize the need for proper sanitation (which she freely admitted in her commission work), the theory that her symptoms stemmed from depression became popular for a time.   Even up to 1899, the Encyclopedia Britannica article on her stated that "it has never been shown that Florence Nightingale had any organic illness; her invalidism may have been partly neurotic and partly intentional."    Her tendency to worsen whenever she experienced emotional turmoil also resulted in accusations of deliberate malingering  (she was often referred to as  a "strategic invalid").   

The current medical consensus seems to be that her  symptoms stemmed from a serious attack of brucellosis (also known as "Crimean fever") during her time in Turkey.   Believed to be the result of her exposure to infected meat or unsterilized milk,  the acute phase of the disease can be marked by severe headaches, anemia, depression, and weakness.   Although she recovered enough to carry on her nursing work,  the damage left behind by the disease would stay with her for the rest of her life.   Considering that brucellosis is still rare in industrialized countries, it's hardly surprising that her condition was never properly diagnosed in her lifetime.  There has also been speculation that she suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome or myalgic encephalomyelitis and the Nightingale Research Foundation continues to fund research into those two diseases in her name.

Whatever the actual diagnosis, there is no doubt that Florence Nightingale's ability to carry on her reform work while dealing with such a debilitating disease remains inspirational.  The annual International Nurses Day is still celebrated each year on her birthday.  

Are Insecure Attachment Styles Linked to Risky Sexual Behaviour?

Attachment theory provides a powerful framework for understanding individual differences affecting interpersonal relationships and a range of health behavior outcomes. However, no meta-analyses have yet to examine the relationship between adult attachment styles and risky sexual behaviors. A new meta-analysis published in the journal Health Psychology synthesizes the results of the association between adult attachment and risky sexual behaviors. Method: Keywords were searched via PsycINFO, Web of Science, and Google Scholar.  Researchers used comprehensive meta-analysis (CMA) 3.0 to systematically synthesize and analyze the 42 effect sizes from 16 studies (total N = 7,233). Results showed that attachment anxiety has a small effect on having multiple partners (Fisher’s Z = .09, 95% CI [0.021, 0.154]; I² = 80.4%) and engaging in condomless sex (Fisher’s Z = .09, 95% CI [.006, 0.175]; I² = 82.5%), whereas attachment avoidance has a small effect on having multiple partners (Fisher’s Z = .06, 95% CI [0.019, 0.109]; I² = 57.6%) but no effect on engaging in condomless sex (Fisher’s Z = .05, 95% CI [−0.024, 0.117]; I2 = 73.9%). Furthermore, average age of participants in a study (z = 3.31, β = .01, p = .001) and type of risk population (z = 3.03, β = .12, p = .002) were found to be significant moderators. In conclusions, insecure attachment styles are related to risky sexual behaviors and the correlation between attachment anxiety and having multiple partners is stronger as the average age of participant increases and when the study population is specifically an at-risk population. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract

Inquest Told Minor Crash Triggered Nova Scotia Murder-Suicide

An RCMP investigator testifying at an inquest into a 2017 murder-suicide that claimed four lives stated that the tragedy was apparently triggered by a minor truck accident days earlier.

Though nobody was injured in the single-vehicle accident that occurred on January 1, 2017,  33-year Lionel Desmond, a Canadian Forces veteran dealing with posttraumatic stress disorder stemming from a tour of duty in Afghanistan ten years earlier, became agitated and verbally abusive to the rest of his family.  It was then that his wife, 31-year-old Shanna Desmond, asked him to leave their family home in Upper Big Tracadie, N.S.  and he checked himself  in to St. Martha's Regional Hospital in Antigonish, N.S.

While in hospital, he texted ""I'm sorry I put my hands up to you, I would never hit you," he wrote. "I'm sorry for yelling [our] business out there. I apologize to Aaliyah [to hear] my outburst. I'm safe now. Good night xoxo. Love you, Shanna."   Though his wife refused to allow him back into the family home, he was discharged from hospital the following morning and he went to stay at a friend's house.  

According to a timeline prepared by investigators, Lionel Desmond then conducted numerous web searches on his phone for weapons and gun stores.   On January 3, after apparently checking to make certain his mother and daughter weren't home,  he went out to  buy a knife and ammunition and, after changing into camouflage, he then bought an SKS 762 semi-automatic rifle at another store.    Parking his vehicle a kilometer from the house, he then walked to the house and slashed the tires on his wife's car.   While he had apparently intended to kill his wife alone, he discovered that his ten-year-old daughter Aaliyah and his 52-year-old mother Brenda were also home.  He killed all three family members before taking his own life.  

In his own testimony at the inquest, Dr.  Matthew Bowes, chief medical examiner for the province, maintained that the murder-suicide was due to "systemic failures" which prevented Lionel Desmond from accessing needed mental health care as well as identifying his risk for domestic violence.    According to Dr. Bowes, his own investigation found significant problems in the sharing of essential information between doctors in different provinces who had dealt with Desmond.   Dr. Bowes also indicated that  records held by Department of Defence and other federal agencies might not have filtered down to his clinicians in Nova Scotia.   Given that even he had difficulty getting needed records,  he argued that someone with acute mental illness may not be equipped to challenge the bureaucracy needed to get help.  

According to family members, Desmond had been dealing with nightmares and flashbacks for ten years after his return from Afghanistan.    Though he had been treated at facilities in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, doctors reported ongoing problems with posttraumatic stress and depression which undermined his relationship with his wife, daughter, and other family members.  

In calling for the inquest, Dr. Bowes said that he is hoping for  "some tremendous good that comes out of this inquiry" in changing how the province manages mental health and domestic violence services.   "Mr. Desmond showed warning signs [of domestic violence] that were not picked up," by his clinicians, he said. "If we're able to draw lessons from the deaths of Mr. Desmond and of his family, it may help hundreds or thousands of people who work in jobs that are stressful."

He also warned about the apparent ease with which Desmond was able to get a firearms license and to purchase weapons.  "The fact that a gun was placed in this man's hands is a failing," he said. "I think that most people would agree that someone with mental health issues should not have access to a gun."    This ease in acquiring deadly weapons also highlighted the dangers often associated with domestic violence cases.  "There can be no discussion about domestic violence deaths unless we know how many there are and where they occur," he said. "And all discussions of prevention involve reducing that number — so if we don't have a number" we don't have a benchmark."

The inquest is continuing.

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The Case of the Counterfeit Princess

While identity theft is often regarded as a modern-day crime, history is filled with famous and not-so famous cases of confidence artists posing as members of royalty or other famous figures, usually as a way of bilking the public.  

And so it was with Sarah Wilson, a.k.a. "Princess Matilda".   While little is known about her early life aside from probably being born in London, she began working as a maid during her early teens and, according to different reports, had made a career out of "travelling through almost all parts of the Kingdom, assuming various titles and characters, at different times and places: she has presented herself to be of high birth and distinction, as well foreign and English, and accordingly stiling herself a Princess of Mecklenburgh, Countess of Normandy, Lady Countess Wilbrahammon, &c. &c."   Though she briefly married a man named Thomas Boxall, this marriage later proved to be invalid (and possibly part of another swindling scheme).    Despite the draconian punishments often faced by convicts during the late 18th century, Sarah was usually able to talk her way out of trouble. 

That is, until August, 1770, and the crime that would eventually lead to her being transported to the American Colonies.   It was then that she managed to find her way into Buckingham Palace and the very private apartments of Queen Charlotte.   While she was likely hoping that the apartments would be unoccupied, she accidentally wandered into a social visit between the Queen and her guest, the Duchess of Ancester.   Both women were startled to see an unknown woman enter the apartments uninvited though  Sarah  seemed perfectly at ease at being caught out by the Queen herself.    When the Duchess rang for a page  remove the strange woman from the palace, it didn't seem to be a particularly important infraction.   Until, that is, when someone later broke into the same apartments and stole many of the Queen's jewels as well as a costly miniature portrait of the Queen.    

As the most obvious suspect, Sarah was quickly caught and arrested.   During her trial in  she was sentenced to death (theft was a capital offense at the time).  Fortunately, due to the influence of one of Sarah's former employers, she was instead sentenced to be transported to America to spend seven years as an indentured servant.    While indentured servitude was common in British North America with many Europeans signing indentures to pay for their passage, many convicted criminals were often sent into servitude as an alternative to hanging.   

In Sarah's case, she was sent out in 1771 on a ship that arrived in Maryland.  On her arrival, she was put on display with the other indentures and promptly purchased by a Maryland farmer, William Duvall.   Under the terms of her indenture, Sarah was expected to work as a maid for seven years before finally receiving her freedom.   Though life as an indentured servant was hardly pleasant, there is nothing to indicate that Sarah was abused or mistreated.  But she had other plans...

Not long after being sold to Duvall, Sarah soon found an opportunity to escape.   After leaving Maryland, she travelled across Virginia and North Carolina before arriving in South Carolina.  After deciding that she was safe from arrest, Sarah assumed the name and title of Princess Susanna Matilda Caroline, sister to Queen Charlotte.   She bolstered her claim by displaying the jewels, clothing, and miniature portrait of the Queen that she had stolen and somehow brought with her from England. 

But the grand impersonation scheme actually worked.   According to one news story, she "travelled from one gentleman’s house to another … and made astonishing impressions in many places, affecting the mode of royalty so inimitably, that many had the honour to kiss her hand; to some she promised governments, to others regiments, with promotions of all kinds, in the Treasury, Army and in the Royal Navy … [and]… levied heavy contributions upon some persons of the highest rank in the Southern colonies."   For many of the colonists she managed to charm, the prospect of entertaining royalty and earning royal favours likely seemed irresistible.

And there was a lot of royal favours being handed out by the intrepid escapee.   To various women, she promised a place in her retinue or in the Queen's court.   As for the men, she handed out royal appointments to assorted government ministries (including the Royal Treasury) as well as military ranks.  Many of her new friends entertained her lavishly, as well as advancing her large sums of money to cover her operating expenses.

Unfortunately, all good things come to an end and, in Sarah Wilson's case, the end came when news of "Princess Susanna" spread northward and reached her one-time master, William Duvall.  Realizing that the descriptions of the Princess matched his runaway bondwoman, Duvall set out to reclaim his property.   Following accepted procedure, he posted the following advertisement in a local newspaper:

"Ran away from the subscriber, a Convict servant named SARAH WILSON, but has changed her name to Lady Susanna Caroline Matilda, which made the public believe she was Her Majesty's sister.  She ha a blemish in her right eye, black roll'd hair, stoops in the shoulder, and makes a common practice of marking her clothes with a crown and B.  Whoever secures the said servant and takes her home. shall receive five pistoles, besides all costs of charges.   Wm. Duvall.   

I entitle Michael Dalton to search the city of Philadelphia, and from there to Charleston, for the said woman." 

Even in a pre-Internet era, Sarah Wilson knew that her time as a bogus princess was almost up.   With Dalton on her trail, she soon fled from her base of operations in Charleston.    Despite Dalton's pursuit,  she still managed to find people credulous enough to lend her money and put her up for a day or two as she continued to avoid arrest.  There also seems to be some mystery over what happened to Sarah at this point.  Though there is no way to determine whether Dalton managed to find her.  there's no record of her being listed as an escaped fugitive afterwards.  The most likely explanation was that she managed to pay off her former master, either directly or through Dalton and earned her freedom at this point, possibly using money she received during her time in the southern colonies.   Unlike African slaves, this was often an option for indentured servants providing they could raise the needed funds.  

Whatever the circumstances, William Duvall and Michael Dalton soon dropped out of the picture and Sarah was free to travel to New York where she would stay until November, 1773.  It probably said a lot about public interest in her case that newspapers followed her movements as she moved from town to town.   In one newspaper account published in November, 1773, she was described as "the lady who has passed through several of the southern colonies under the name and character of CAROLINA MATILDA, Marchioness de WALDEGRAVE, &c." following her arrival in Newport on her way towards Boston.

Despite having defrauded countless people, there doesn't seem to be any record of Sarah facing any charges for her impersonation of royalty.  It probably helped that the rising tensions between Great Britain around this time ensured that British officials  had more important concerns than one wayward servant.    While news of Sarah's activities eventually leaked back to England, there doesn't appear to been any real reaction (aside from the Queen who was reportedly amused by it all).    As far as they were concerned, Sarah Wilson wasn't their problem as long as she remained overseas.  

While in Boston, Sarah continued her masquerade though more than a few people must have suspected the truth.   A Boston newspaper,  the Massachusetts Spy, wrote of her that "Tuesday last the Princess Carolina Matilda, alias, the Princess of Cronenburgh, alias, the Marchioness de Waldegrave, who has travelled incog. through all the Southern Provinces, and has resided in this metropolis for about a month past, sat [sic] out for Portsmouth, New-Hampshire. She is certainly the most surprising genius of the female sex that was ever obliged to visit America." 

With the outbreak of formal hostilities, newspapers were suddenly running more important stories and Sarah pretty much faded into obscurity.  Considering that the American colonies were breaking away from British rule, people were no longer interested in her promises of royal patronage.   After eventually settling in Berwick, Maine, she died in 1780 (cause of death unknown).    An obituary published in February of that year read: 

"Departed this life on Wednesday morning last, at the house of Mr John Costelloe (of this town) a strange lady, who called herself the Dutchess of Cronenburg: But is supposed to be one Sarah Wilson, a convict, who about nine years past travelled through the State of South-Carolina, imposing upon the public, under the name of Lady Carolina Matilda, and called herself own sister to the Queen of Great-Britain. The generosity of Mr Costelloe in taking in this distressed person, after she was forsaken by every one, is really worthy of being noticed: As also the tender treatment she received from Mr Costelloe’s Lady; who notwithstanding her being convinced, in her own mind, of her being an imposter, with an easy grace peculiar to herself addressed her by the title she assumed; and during her sickness gave her that attendance a lady of that character might have expected. And although Mr Costelloe was not at home at the time, the most decent preparations were made for her funeral; which was this day attended with the greatest solemnity, where Mrs Costelloe appeared as chief mourner."

No record remains of where Sarah Wilson was buried or how old she was at the time of her death.   Still, the notoriety surrounding her career as a royal impostor helped guarantee a certain fascination over how convincing she could be.  Not only did her years as a maid in high society give her access to all sorts of gossip and inside information about the aristocrats, but she was also a superb actress who could mimic accents and mannerisms perfectly.   Even after being unmasked as an impostor, she continued to be welcomed because notoriety had made her a celebrity of sorts.   Despite her habit of turning up uninvited, she never failed to win people over with her stories.   

Whether it was all an act for Sarah or whether she made herself believe that she was a princess on the run, Sarah Wilson never failed to make an impression.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Going Berserk

They were probably the most fearsome shock troops Europe had ever known.

From the late eighth to the early eleventh century, most Europeans lived in fear of the Vikings who could strike at any point along Europe's coastlines in their warships. Although the Viking reputation for fierceness was legendary, the most terrifying of them all were the berserkers.

The actual origin of the word is open to dispute and may have referred to the hair shirts that the berserkers wore into battle (the term literally means "bear fur shirt"). They were a very special breed of warriors who became gripped with "berserker rage" and often plunged into battle without fear or armour. Known as bärsärkar-gångbb ("berserker-path"), the fit of madness that descended on berserkers caused them to be capable of almost superhuman strength and endurance. In addition to using swords, berserkers were also famed for ripping into their opponents with their teeth and fingernails. Their custom of wearing wolf or bearskins fed into many of the superstitions of the time and gave them the reputation of being werewolves or warriors possessed by an animal's spirit. Some authorities suggested that berserkers were part of a cult dedicated to the god Odin (they were commonly known as the "chosen ones of Odin") and added to their fierce image by dying their bodies, drinking wolf or bear blood, and wearing animal masks.

Descriptions of bärsärkar-gång tend to be unreliable since there were so few eyewitness accounts. According to one fascinating article on bärsärkar-gång, "This fury, which was called berserkergang, occurred not only in the heat of battle, but also during laborious work. Men who were thus seized performed things which otherwise seemed impossible for human power. This condition is said to have begun with shivering, chattering of the teeth, and chill in the body, and then the face swelled and changed its color. With this was connected a great hot-headedness, which at last gave over into a great rage, under which they howled as wild animals, bit the edge of their shields, and cut down everything they met without discriminating between friend or foe. When this condition ceased, a great dulling of the mind and feebleness followed, which could last for one or several days".   Suffice it to say, berserkers were not fun to be around.

Berserker war bands seemed unstoppable and became the basis of numerous sagas and legends (which is why"going berserk" is still part of our language). Just about every Viking king had his own group of berserker bodyguards and used berserker gangs to expand territory. Berserker rage was hardly limited to the battlefield however. Vikings who were susceptible to barärsärkar-gång often became uncontrollable in any situations that caused them to lose their tempers. Viking warriors who committed murder or rape while affected by berserker rage were executed or exiled. By the eleventh century, even Viking societies had enough of their special warriors and the berserkers were banned from Iceland and Norway. Organized berserker bands were eventually outlawed and barärsärkar-gång became virtually unknown by 1200.;

Later sagas and legends often tended to portray berserkers as being superhuman and, at times, even supernatural. Descriptions of their ferocious nature were likely exaggerations (there were no real berserkers at the time for comparison). One 13th century saga described a berserker named Otrygg who "feared neither fire nor sword" but who was killed after a Christian warrior struck him with a crucifix before cutting off his arm with a sword. The Ynglinga Saga told of berserkers who "went into battle without armor, like mad dogs or wolves, biting their shields, strong like bears or bulls, mowing down everything in their path, immune to fire and iron". Propaganda or not, it certainly made a good story.

There have been different theories relating to bärsärkar-gång and what triggered the incredible berserker rage. The most commonly accepted theory relates to the use of the fly agaric mushroom (amanita muscaria). According to one source, the mushrooms would be fed to sacred reindeer. After the reindeer metabolized the mushrooms, the urine became a powerful natural amphetamine which the berserkers would drink just before going into battle (don't try this at home kids). Modern researchers examining amanita muscaria poisoning have reported episodes of irrational violence, profuse sweating, disorientation, vertigo, and a subsequent "crash" very similar to accounts of berserker range. Other psychoactive substances that have been suggested include bog myrtle, bufotenin, or just plain alcohol. Although explanations such as epilepsy, hysteria, or genetic predisposition to violence have also been suggested, the lack of any modern berserkers for comparison makes the question academic.

It's tempting to suggest that bärsärkar-gång may have been a culture-specific psychosis similar to amok syndrome but, again, we'll never know for sure. While there is a recognized psychiatric condition known as episodic dyscontrol syndrome characterized by episodes of impulsive violence and irrational behaviour, there's no way to link it to bärsärkar-gång. It's ironic that countries populated by descendants of the same berserkers who once raged across Europe now have some of the lowest rates of violence in the world.

Whether their ancestors would approve or not is another story.

Living the Good Life

The ‘good life’ is described by philosophers and psychologists as consisting of authentic expression of self, a sense of well-being, and active engagement in life and work. Well-being and employee engagement are outcomes of value in themselves to work organisations, but also improve performance and reduce turnover. A recent meta-analysis published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences tests the relationships between authenticity and well-being, and authenticity and engagement, investigating the impact of several moderators: age, gender, sample type, conceptual measure and individualism-collectivism. Systematic searches identified 75 studies (well-being = 65, engagement = 10) with a total N = 36,533. Analysis revealed a positive relationship between authenticity and well-being (r = 0.40) and between authenticity and engagement (r = 0.37). Individualism and type of measure were significant moderators, but age, gender and sample type were not. Specific recommendations are made for researchers choosing measures of authenticity, well-being and engagement. The study also highlights the need for further research on the interaction of culture and authenticity, as the majority of studies rely on Western / individualist conceptualisations and measures. Overall, the meta-analysis demonstrates that authenticity has positive implications for individual well-being and work engagement and could provide an important path to building healthy work organisations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract

Predicting Dementia With a Smartwatch

As part of a broad-based project by Alzheimer's Research UK, a million British people over the age of 40 will begin wearing special smartwatches designed to help detect early signs of dementia.  Over the three years of the planned study, the prototype smartwatches will monitor over thirty potential indicators of dementia, including changes in speech, fine motor skills, memory, and sleep patterns.   Researchers are hoping to use the data collected in the study to identify early "fingerprints" that will allow them to predict people at risk for developing dementia later in life.   All participants have been recruited by the U.K. government's Accelerating Detection of Disease programme.

In a recent article in the Daily Telegraph, former British Prime Minister David Cameron, who is current president of Alzheimer's Research UK, described the new project as an example of how technology can be use to help dementia sufferers who are "slipping into a world of darkness".   "It has an achievable aim: to develop a gadget - a combination of a wearable device and smartphone app - to detect the earliest digital fingerprints of a disease," he wrote.  "‘This isn’t some Big Brother intervention. Just as we measure our cholesterol levels to tell us when we need a statin, we need to identify these fingerprints of diseases such as Alzheimer’s to see when we need a statin for the brain.... As prime minister, I was determined to prove this wasn’t an inevitable part of ageing but was being caused by diseases of the brain that can be tackled with research.  That’s why I put the issue on the global agenda, through summits such as the G8, and we doubled the research funding at home. And it’s why I made it my focus post-politics."

Carol Routledge, director of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, stressed the importance of Early Detection of Neurodegenerative diseases (EDoN) technology in detecting diseases in the very early stages.  "Our research shows that 85% of UK adults would be willing to take a test that could tell them if they were in the early stages of a disease like Alzheimer’s, even before symptoms show," she said in a recent media interview.  "EDoN aims to harness the growing popularity of digital health technology and big data to revolutionise how we develop early tests for these diseases. Developing digital fingerprints that can be detected using phone apps or wearable technologies like smart watches would provide a low-cost approach to identifying those most at risk of disease,” says 

Dementia is already the leading cause of death in the U.K. and, in many cases, failure to make a proper diagnosis in the early stages can mean a significant delay in receiving treatment.  While there is, at present, no cure for more types of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, early diagnosis and treatment can help slow down decline and allow people with dementia to remain functioning as long as possible. 

The initiative is a collaboration between Alzheimer’s Research UK and organisations including the Alan Turing Institute, University College London, and Newcastle, Exeter and Cambridge universities.   Partially sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the project hopes to secure at least £67 million in funding in the first six years and up to £100 million by 2030.

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The Tesla Conspiracy

Nobody can dispute the fact that Nikola Tesla was a scientific genius.

Not only did his patents and technological achievements help form the basis for most modern electrical and magnetic applications (including alternating current, an early x-ray machine, the AC motor, and the three-phase rotating magnetic field), he also pioneered in robotics, ballistics, cybernetics, and theoretical physics.   Although Guglielmo Marconi was awarded the 1909 Nobel Prize for his work on radio, several court decisions would determine that Tesla deserved the real credit.   Tesla never won the Nobel Prize in his own right (according to one rumour, plans to give a joint award to him and Thomas Edison had been scrapped due to their long feud), but was widely acclaimed for his work in launching the modern technological revolution (and the standard unit for the measurement of magnetic flux density was named the tesla in his honour). 

Unfortunately, for all his scientific prowess, he was never much of a businessman.  While he attempted to launch several companies in his lifetime, most ended in failure and he was often forced to work as a common labourer to support himself while dreaming up his next invention.  Even worse, though being world famous in his old age, Nikola Tesla seemed incapable of managing his money properly and spent his final years in poverty.

Despite his achievements, Nikola Tesla may well be remembered for his reputation as a showman of science and grandiose claims that never panned out. Throughout his lifetime, he pursued seemingly impossible dreams including wireless transmission of power (the phenomenon of transferring energy without wires through the use of electromagnetic induction is still known as the Tesla effect). By the 1930s, when Tesla was in his eighties, he claimed to have developed a "dynamic theory of gravity" although his work was never published. He also scorned Albert Einstein's theory of relativity as being riddled with errors but never really developed a true alternative.

Tesla also  attempted to interest the United States military in a directed energy weapon that would "put an end to all war".    When the American military showed no interest in this so-called teleforce weapon, he also tried to interest several European countries with no success. Other plans for ion-propelled aircraft and electromagnetic ships powered from ground-based stations never materialized either.

While he may not have been viewed as a "mad scientist" as such, he was certainly well known for his eccentric behaviour. Although there is some speculation that he may have suffered from Asperger's Syndrome, the symptoms that he displayed during his lifetime may match other diagnoses as well. Tesla showed many signs of obsessive-compulsive behaviour including a pathological fear of germs and dirt of all kinds, a strange fixation on the number three (he always insisted on staying in hotel rooms with numbers divisible by three), and recurring episodes of depression throughout his life.

During these "nervous breakdowns", he would become hypersensitive to light and noise with strange twitches and shivers that defied medical diagnosis. A lifelong bachelor, Nikola Tesla was ambivalent towards women (despite numerous opportunities) and may well have died a virgin. In his old age, Nikola Tesla's oddities became even more apparent.   For the last ten years of his life, he lived in a two-bedroom hotel suite in New York City (room 3327 of course) and often raised pigeons in his suite. In addition to becoming increasingly sensitive to bright lights and loud noises, he also claimed to have communicated with beings from the planet Venus and being visited by a specific white pigeon each day. Although he had a small circle of devoted friends, Tesla often isolated himself and was verbally abrasive towards anyone who annoyed him.

Nikola Tesla died alone in a hotel room on January 7, 1943. He had been living as recluse for years although his reputation as a brilliant scientist and his grandiose claims had kept him in the public eye. With more than 700 patents to his name, enough people took him seriously for a rather lengthy FBI file to be compiled on Tesla and his claims. Within hours of Tesla's death, the various papers and files in his suite were confiscated by the Alien Property Custodian (despite the fact that Tesla was a U.S. citizen) and stored in a warehouse.

The (largely)declassified FBI file makes for fascinating reading. The first part of the file deals with Tesla's attempts to interest the U.S. government in his teleforce weapon as well as various news clippings in which he described his "death ray for planes" as well as outlining his conditions for working for the military (he demanded total autonomy and "no interference from experts"). The main bulk of the file deals with the aftermath of Tesla's death when the representatives of the Alien Property Custodian and the Yugoslavian Consulate entered Tesla's hotel room and removed the contents of his safe. After verifying that all articles removed were placed in a local warehouse (along with more than thirty barrels of material belonging to Tesla that had already been stored there), Tesla's papers became the focus of a major squabble over who would have access.   Much of the later controversy over Tesla's legacy seems to stem from that legal battle.

There were fears that a distant relative whom Tesla had "intensively disliked" might gain access to the Tesla papers and make them available to "the enemy" (the U.S. had already entered WWII by that time) and members of the Military Intelligence Division expressed "vital interest" as well. The Bureau denied taking any direct action and left disposal of the papers to the Alien Property Custodian. That didn't stop allegations of a conspiracy springing up over the Tesla papers and the presumed scientific advances that would result from them. 

The rest of Tesla's FBI file consists of various denials that the FBI had anything to do with the Tesla papers and official responses to the polite (and not-so polite) requests for information from concerned sources.  John Jacob O'Neill probably didn't help matters when he published the first full-length biography of Tesla in 1944.   Titled The Prodigal Genius, the book accused FBI agents of confiscating many of Tesla's papers after his death and likely launched the conspiracy theory. The book was specifically referenced in many of the letters that the FBI received

After a lengthy struggle by Tesla's family and the Yugoslavian government, most of the papers were eventually released and are now part of the Nikola Tesla museum in Belgrade.  Aside from his legitimate scientific achievements, Nikola Tesla has been the focus of numerous pseudoscientific claims regarding death rays, UFOs, and other spectacular applications that were supposedly developed in secret by government agencies after the Tesla papers were taken. The fact that nothing of the sort seems to have materialized in the decades since Tesla's death has done little to lessen the conspiracy theories.

Mad scientists are always popular.

Caring for Nietzsche

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche's health was never good.  Plagued by headaches most of his life (and being a bit of a hypochondriac as well), his reclusive bachelor lifestyle isolated him from all but his most devoted friends and family members.  Nietzsche's numerous letters to his mother, sister, and close friends were filled with frequent complaints about nausea, headaches and sleeplessness which left him unable to work for long periods of time.  One biographer suggested that his letters from that period of his life showed him as a "young, touchy, prematurely old, young man" whose medical complaints seemed to worsen whenever he failed to get his own way in something.  These health problems can't have been helped by his bizarre regimen of special diets (vegetarian or otherwise), patent medicines (he insisted on doctoring himself for his various complaints), and frequent worries with only occasional trips abroad to relax.

Despite becoming a professor of philology at the University of Basel at the age of twenty-four and proceeding on to a brilliant academic career, Nietzsche was forced to resign by 1879 due to health problems.    After establishing himself as an independent author and philosopher, he lived in various cities in Switzerland, France, and Italy in search of a more suitable climate.  It was also during this period when he produced some of his most remarkable works, including  Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Beyond Good and Evil, and The Antichrist.    He relished the notoriety that his writing brought him and became friends with some of the leading artists and intellectuals of his day.  Still, Nietzsche was often despondent because of his uncertain health and his own perceived sense of failure that his writing failed to win him the accolades he felt he deserved.   While his philosophical writing (with over one hundred books) would eventually make him one of the dominant intellectual figures of his era, this fame would come far too late for him.

It's hard to say for certain when Nietzsche's final illness began.  According to some sources, the breakdown occurred on January 3, 1889 when he was approached by two Turin policemen  after causing a public disturbance  and assisted in returning to his apartments (one anecdote relates that he had become agitated at seeing a horse being whipped).    In reality, however, disturbing clues as to Nietzsche's declining mental state come from a series of increasingly bizarre letters to his friends and acquaintances dating back to the final months of 1888 (and likely earlier).  The letters, now known as the Wahnbriefe ("Madness Letters") alarmed his friends greatly since they demonstrated just how disturbed the philosopher had become.   The bizarre tone of the letters (in which he frequently referred to himself as "Dionysius" or "the Crucified" and rambled at length about his grandiose delusions) spurred his long-time friend Franz Oberbeck to travel to Turin. 

Overbeck found Nietzsche in a bizarre state, being carefully watched over by his hosts.  As Overbeck would later describe, Nietzsche was "ploughing the piano with his elbow, singing and crying his Dionysian glory".    Returning with him to Switzerland, Overbeck was able to place his friend in a psychiatric hospital in Basel on January 10.  The examining physician commented on Nietzsche's grandiose symptoms ("claims to be a famous man and asks for women all the time") and gave an official diagnosis of "mental degeneration".  I say official since the prevailing consensus was that the great writer was suffering from the effects of syphilis (although reliable diagnostic tests would not be available until decades later) which was largely a taboo topic in those days.  His supposedly grandiose delusions likely played a role in that diagnosis (he was still relatively unknown by that point) and there was no real evidence that he had ever been treated for syphilis in the past.

By January 13th, Nietzsche's mother arrived to take charge of her ailing son.  As the very proper widow of a Lutheran minister, Franziska Nietzsche had often been scandalized by her son's writing (including his "God is Dead" philosophy) but his surviving letters to her demonstrate the strong bond that they shared.   Franziska made arrangements for her son to return with her  to her home in Germany (over the clinic's objections).  As a compromise, Friedrich was transferred to to the asylum in Jena where Franziska could visit him regularly.  Since she was unable to afford first-class treatment for her son, only second-class treatment was available (no socialized medicine back then) although Friedrich hardly noticed the difference given his bizarre mental state.  Being in the second-class ward meant that he was left largely to himself and the original syphilis diagnosis went unchallenged.  He would remain in the Jena asylum until March 24, 1890 when Franziska discharged him to her home in Naumberg.   For the remaining seven years of her life, Franziska dedicated herself to her son's care including taking him for long walks, talking with him, reading to him, and generally tending to his every waking need.  

Despite the occasional lucid episode, Friedrich Nietzsche never regained his sanity and his visitors seldom stayed long.  His growing fame inspired renewed curiosity about the ailing genius but Franziska limited all access.  Caring for her invalid son must have been a tremendous burden for Franziska and she was only seventy-one when she died on April 20, 1897.  Afterward,  her daughter, Elizabeth. became Friedrich Nietzsche's new caregiver.   Having already gained control over her brother's estate and all of his writings,  Elizabeth moved her brother to Villa Silberblick near the city of Weimar.   The large villa also housed the Nietzsche Archives, carefully maintained by Elizabeth (she was also his literary executor) and is still a major pilgrimage site by Nietzsche's admirers.  He and Elizabeth lived there until his death on August 25, 1900 at the age of fifty-five.  In a move which would have appalled the self-styled "Antichrist", Elizabeth had him buried with a traditional Lutheran funeral with a church choir and a coffin bearing a silver cross.   

Along with his numerous books and philosophical writings, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche also left behind a medical mystery.  What was the illness which struck him down when he was at the height of his intellectual powers?  Although neurosyphilis is the most commonly accepted diagnosis, there was no real evidence to support it.  Reliable tests for syphilis didn't exist in Nietzsche's lifetime but it was still common practice for autopsies to examine the brains of suspected syphilis cases for the tell-tale lesions that might confirm the diagnosis.  Not only was this not done in Nietzsche's case, Elizabeth would later state that she had been unaware of the "disgusting accusation" of her brother's syphilis.   

As rumours grew about the cause of Nietzsche's mental breakdown, she recruited neurologist Paul Julius Mobius to review all available medical records.    A prolific science writer and researcher who is best known today for giving his name to Mobius syndrome, Mobius examined all the medical notes by Nietzsche's doctors at Basel and Jena and concluded that the syphilis diagnosis was correct.  He also dismissed questions about the atypical nature of  Nietzsche's illness by stressing how variable the disease could be. This despite the fact that Nietzsche surviving nineteen years following the initial diagnosis was virtually unprecedented in true syphilis patients (and he might well have survived longer given that he died of pneumonia).   The book that Mobius later wrote about Nietzsche was hardly flattering and ended with the outrageous statement "Beware!  This man has a diseased brain".

Suffice it to say, Elizabeth was not pleased and eventually wrote her own biography about her brother to refute Mobius' "vile insinuations".   Desperate to preserve her brother's memory, Elizabeth's book portrayed him as being saintly and chaste (she included numerous testimonials from prominent Germans).  Not being a medical doctor herself, she attributed his illness to drinking "Javanese tea" similar to cannabis.  Medical experts were not impressed with her explanations and the syphilis explanation persisted for decades.   Despite her distress over the lingering rumours, Elizabeth Nietzsche carefully controlled her brother's legacy long after his death.   She is also largely credited with promoting the "Nietzsche myth" concerning his life and writing and may not have been the best choice to act in that capacity given her own very, clear ideas on how her brother deserved to be remembered.  

By the time of her own death in 1935,  Elizabeth's support for Adolf Hitler ensured that her brother's philosophy would be permanently associated with the growing Nazi and Fascist movements (Adolf Hitler personally visited her in 1934 and had a photograph taken of him gazing reverently at a bust of Nietzsche).  Even before the outbreak of World War 2,  Nietzsche became known internationally as the "Nazi" philosopher with his "Ubermensch" ideas playing into Nazi propaganda.  As a result, the notion of Nietzsche dying of syphilis became increasingly popular with anti-Nazi writers as a means of discrediting him.  Neurologist Wilhelm Lange-Eichbaum was especially scathing in promoting the view that Nietzsche was to blame for Nazism and the resulting war.  His books on Nietzsche probably did more to promote the syphilis story than any other source despite serious questions relating to the "evidence" of Nietzsche's syphilis that he presented (and which could never be confirmed by later reviewers).

But how plausible an explanation was it?   Aside from his extremely long survival period, there were additional details that made the syphilis diagnosis less likely.  Even when Nietzsche was first examined in Jena, the attending physician noted some atypical medical signs including the lack of characteristic tremors normally associated with neurosyphilis cases as well as uneven pupil dilation.   Based on Nietzsche's  lifelong migraine headaches and his family history of stroke (which had killed his father at a relatively young age), more recent medical authorities have argued that Nietzsche's illness was likely due to an undiagnosed brain disease with various alternative diagnoses being suggested. 

While a final determination of what caused Nietzsche's dementia will likely never be possible, this case represents a graphic example of how controversial some diagnoses can become.  Especially when they can be used for propaganda purposes.

The Science of Feeling Loved

Everyday life presents many experiences that can make people feel connected to another and leave them feeling loved. A new study in the journal Personality and Individual Differences outlined two ecological momentary assessment studies (N = 52 and N = 160) to examine people's subjective perceptions of the impact of these experiences by capturing the extent to which they felt loved at several randomly sampled times during their daily life. Individual differences in loving feelings were characterized by baseline levels, within-person variabilities, and slow and fast time scale indicators of change. Results showed that there were considerable individual differences in these characteristics and these individual differences related systematically to both psychological well-being and personality: across two studies, higher felt love baseline levels were related to greater psychological well-being as well as to higher Extraversion personality scores, while people scoring high on Neuroticism showed lower baseline levels. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

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