Providentia

Residential School Revelations Triggering Mental Health Crisis in Survivors

Since the recent discovery of nearly a thousand bodies of Indigenous children on the grounds of former residential schools in British Columbia and Saskatchewan, trauma and health workers are reporting an upsurge in calls from people seeking help for mental health issues.  Many of those asking for help are former residential school survivors who have endured years of physical and sexual abuse at the schools while others are non-Indigenous people who have been either directly or indirectly affected by the gruesome revelations now emerging about the treatment many Indigenous adults endured as children.  

In Regina, Saskatchewan, the Regina Treaty Status Indian Services Inc. has developed a range of different services to support both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. As more information about the mass graves comes out,  they expect even more calls for help.  “To talk about how people are feeling and not only the indigenous community but also Canadians, mainstream Canadians,” said Erica Beaudin, Executive Director of Regina Treaty Status Indian Services Inc., in an interview with CTV News.   "This is perhaps the perfect time, where ears are open, where the brain is willing to listen, where the heart is open.  There's an interconnectedness and collective grief that is occurring right now, and that is portrayed in, or I should say it comes out in different ways for different people,” Beaudin added. 

Similar services are being provided through the Saskatoon Indian and Métis Friendship Centre with therapists and elders being on hand to talk to those seeking help.  “They’re not just for Indigenous people. If non-Indigenous Canadians want to come to the Saskatoon Indian and Métis Friendship Centre and they want to get something off their shoulders and they want to cry and they want to talk to somebody, we are here for them,”  said Robert Doucette, Executive Director of the Saskatoon Indian and Métis Friendship Centre in an interview.

While the plight of residential school survivors remains largely unknown to many Canadians, the recent discovery in British Columbia and Saskatchewan, as well as the likelihood of further bodies being found elsewhere, has generated international outrage.   The full scope of the tragedy will likely never been truly known as Canada's aboriginal community, and the country as a whole comes to grip with its past.

An Indian Residential School Crisis Line is now available 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week in Canada for anyone experiencing pain or distress as a result of their residential school experience or the experience of someone they know. The crisis line can be reached at 1-866-925-4419.

Blinding Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was one of the greatest musical geniuses of all time.    Though better recognized during his lifetime as an organist than as a composer, his musical skills kept him in demand well into old age.   Unfortunately, while he was extremely healthy for most of his life, the great composer's health declined rapidly in 1749.  Years of writing musical manuscripts with insufficient light had damaged his eyes to the point that he became almost blind.    He may also have developed problems with cataracts and possibly diabetes mellitus as well.   

Bach's fame, and the financial support he received from his patrons, were enough for him to receive the finest help available at the time.   Unfortunately, that help took the form of a consultation with English oculist, John Taylor, self-styled "Opthalmaiter" to the Pope and "every crowned head in Europe."   Taylor had become famous for practicing a radical eye operation for removing cataracts.   This operation, called "couching" actually has a venerable history and may have been practiced as early as 2000 BCE.    Since cataracts are due to a clouding of the lens in the eye, the couching operation involved dislodging the clouded lens and breaking it up into pieces.    Considering John Taylor used unsterilized instruments, the immediate results were usually good but his patients were at grave risk of developing infection afterward.    Many went blind completely or died of infections though this hardly derailed the Opthalmaiter's glorious career.

 Born in Norwich in 1703, John Taylor was the son of a prominent surgeon (also named John Taylor).   After studying at St. Thomas' Hospital in London under the prominent eye surgeon, William Cheselden, Taylor decided to become an eye specialist in his own right.   Following a brief stint in a Norwich hospital, he established a traveling practice that took him across the United Kingdom and, eventually, across much of Europe.   An accomplished showman, Taylor traveled in style in an ornate coach which was painted all over with eyes.    Along with managing to become appointed official oculist to King George II, Taylor tended to many of Europe's royal families as well as some of the most prominent members of the arts, including composer Georg Handel and writer Edward Gibbon.   

It was quite a life for John Taylor,  who along with being "the greatest of travelers" as he described in his autobiography, was also an ardent womanizer who boasted of his conquests.   In promoting his traveling practice, the routine was always the same.  After arriving in a new town, he always gave a public lecture on eye disease and then offered his services to anyone with vision problems.   Like many oculists of the time, Taylor needed to keep moving since the improvements produced by his couching operation were usually only temporary.   While he prescribed eyedrops for his patients after the operation, that was all the postoperative care they ever received.  By leaving town before the inevitable medical complications arose, Taylor was able to avoid the nasty backlash that would follow.   In an era before social media, word of his failures was often slow to spread and Taylor never found himself short of patients.  

Along with carefully controlling the news of his arrival in various towns (through planted news stories and flyers), Taylor often arranged for untreated patients to arrive in town ahead of him to spread the word of his services.    Even when surgeons' guilds tried to act against him, they were usually overruled by town council members who felt that Taylor's royal patronage made him untouchable.    Taylor also flaunted his various medical degrees though he faced a running battle with medical organizations across Europe over whether he was actually qualified to perform operations in their countries.    It was a battle that Taylor usually won since he was rarely in any city long enough for serious opposition to develop.

But Taylor didn't just do cataract operations.   He had treatments for nearly any eye problem posed to him, though many of his remedies seem like quack remedies today.  The greatest demand was for couching however and Taylor continued to use the same standard operation for all his cataract patients.   While he had to be aware of the complications that often set in, the good doctor showed no interest in changing his preferred way of treating patients.   Though a better surgical procedure was already becoming available which involved complete extraction of the lens,  Taylor seemed unwilling to try it with his own patients.  

And he certainly had his critics.  Samuel Johnson dubbed him as " the most ignorant man I ever knew", while more prominent physicians and professors of anatomy at various European universities denounced his methods and his "successes."    When Taylor operated on Bach in Leipzig on April 1, 1749, he was in the middle of yet another triumphant European tour with various news stories (planted by Taylor) touting the benefits of his eye operations.    After Bach's first operation,  news stories (planted by Taylor)  reported that the composer had "recovered the full sharpness of his sight."    A second operation on Bach was done a short time later and Taylor then left Leipzig on April 8 to travel to Berlin.   Even then, however, news of what was happening with his patients was already beginning to spread.   Taylor left Berlin not long afterward when the Prussian king personally ordered him to leave Prussia.

As for Johann Sebastian Bach, he began experiencing medical complications shortly after Taylor left Leipzig which left him completely blind.   While Bach was still able to dictate his last few compositions to his son-in-law,  his career as an organist was over.   Though Bach claimed to recover his sight in July in 1750, there is no evidence that this was anything more than a hallucination.  Within hours, he had a seizure and slipped into a week-long coma.   Bach died on July 28, 1750, without ever regaining consciousness.  Afterward, at least one newspaper suggested that his death was due to "the unhappy consequences of the very unsuccessful eye operation."   Though modern medical historians believe that Bach died as a result of a stroke linked to pneumonia, the medical problems linked to his eye operation are believed to have played a significant role in his death.

While Georg Handel went blind himself not long after Bach's death, there is less evidence linking his blindness to Taylor's treatment (though he had operated on both composers).    For whatever reason, Taylor's career as an oculist went downhill sharply by the time he published his autobiography in 1761.    The title of this epic tome likely says it all about the good Chevalier:

History of the Travels and Adventures of the Chevalier John Taylor, Ophthalmiater; Pontifical-Imperial and Royal--The Kings of Poland, Denmark, Sweden, The Electors of the Holy Empire-- The Princes of Saxegotha, Mecklenberg, Anspach, Brunswick, Parme, Modena, Zerbst, Loraine, Saxony, Hesse Cassel, Holstein, Salsborg, Baviere, Liege, Bareith, Georgia, &c. Pr. in Opt. C. of Rom. M.D.-C.D.--Author of 45 Works in different languages: the produce of upwards of thirty Years, of the greatest Practice in the Cure of distempered Eyes, of any in the Age we live--Who has been in every Court, Kingdom, Province, State, City, and Town of the least Consideration in all Europe, without exception. Written by Himself. Introduced by an humble Appeal, of the Author to the Sovereigns of Europe. Addressed to his only Son.

But time and the increasingly successful attacks of medical associations eventually put an end to Taylor's mobile practice.  Doctors became better able to warn other towns about him and Taylor found himself being forbidden to see any patients by town burgomeisters (who no longer had any fear of his "royal patrons").    He was eventually chased out of the Netherlands after being fined for practicing medicine without a license and the Amsterdam surgeon's guild denounced him as "an adventurer who earned his living by wandering about through the country to make money."    Eventually, the doors closed on him in most other countries as well.

Ironically enough, Taylor would spend the last few years of his life completely blind though this hardly prevented him from living well.   Beyond blinding hundreds of eye patients during his amazingly long career,  John Taylor's notorious reputation also ensured his literary immortality as well.   Along with Samuel Johnson, other prominent satirists heaped abuse on him in their writing.    The epitaph which likely described him best was one by satirist Charles Churchill who referred to Taylor as "As well prepared, beyond all doubt, To put eyes in, as put them out."

So how was John Taylor able to continue performing his dangerous eye operations for so long?   Though often denounced as a quack, he was no swindler and he certainly didn't try selling the various patent medicines that many of the medical confidence artists of his time often did.   Sadly enough, his couching operation was considered the standard remedy of the time, and his failure to clean his instruments before surgery was also typical of most 18th century surgeons.   If anything, the public lectures he always gave on arriving in a new town helped cement his reputation as a legitimate medical expert.   While other doctors objected to how he treated patients, it was the protection Taylor obtained from many grateful patients, including King George II, that kept him in business.   That, and his canny ability to leave town before patients began complaining about complications.  

Much of Taylor's success as an eye surgeon seems to have depended on the same kinds of publicity tricks practiced by medical hucksters before and after him.  Though he may not have been consciously trying to deceive his patients,  his wandering eye practice was obviously intended to avoid the problems he would have had by staying in one place.   That his more pedestrian colleagues often faced enormous barriers in preventing him from doing any more operations certainly resonates today with medical doctors trying to put modern hucksters out of business (and often failing).   While a John Taylor might have trouble operating today, his spiritual descendants are still with us.

Becoming the King of the World

Whatever else you can say about the Reverend Homer Aubrey Tomlinson, he was definitely a showman.   As for his other achievements, real and self-proclaimed, you will have to decide that for yourself...

Born in 1892 in Westfield, Indiana, he was the oldest son. He presumed heir of Ambrose Jessup Tomlinson, the Church of God of Prophecy, one of the earliest Pentecostal denominations.     Despite an early career in an advertising agency, Homer joined his father's ministry in 1922, reportedly after a life-changing experience when he was "almost struck by lightning."    Along with establishing a congregation in Jamaica, New York, and evangelizing across the Northeast, Homer Tomlinson became well-known for grandiose stunts.   This included conducting the world's first parachute wedding at the New York World's Fair.   Along with Tomlinson, the bride and groom, best man, maid of honour, and four musicians all took part in the ceremony after jumping out of a plane together.  

Possibly due to his controversial antics, Homer Tomlinson was passed over as his father's successor following Ambrose's death in 1943.   The church elders claimed to have received a message in tongues to "bring forth the younger son," and Homer was left out in the cold when his legal battle to control the church failed.   Bouncing back from this disappointment,  Homer Tomlinson found his own denomination, the Church of God, based in New York City.  

With his usual flair for self-publicity (did I mention he was a former ad-man?),  Homer announced that his mission was to usher in the Kingdom of God by getting church members elected to public office.   With little hope of securing a Democratic or Republican nomination as a presidential candidate,  he decided to found his own political party instead.    The platform for the Theocratic party he founded in 1952 was straightforward enough:   unification of church and state, abolishing taxation in favour of tithing and creating two new cabinet posts, a secretary of righteousness and a secretary of the Holy Bible.   Despite running for president in 1952, 1960, 1964, and 1968, his support was never solid.  Best estimates suggest that he only got 20 votes in 1964 alone. 

Despite the failure of his presidential ambitions, Homer Tomlinson moved on to more grandiose goals.   After a 1954 convention of his Church of God reportedly acclaimed him as "almost a new Messiah," he declared himself King of the World.    Traveling to more than 100 countries, he staged numerous coronation ceremonies to proclaim his royal status.  With his gold-plated crown, his blue silk robes, an inflatable globe that he held in his hands,  a 15-inch flag featuring the "scepter of righteousness," and a cheap folding chair which served as his surrogate "Throne of David," Tomlinson's coronation ceremonies were certainly picturesque, if nothing else.  

Though most of these ceremonies took place at local airports, one of them being held in Moscow's Red Square to the bemusement of the Soviet government (Pravda referred to it as a publicity stunt by "an American actor").    He later claimed that his 1958 Red Square coronation "melted the Iron Curtain" and fostered peace (not that anyone else noted an easing of Cold War tensions afterward).   In the years following his first coronations as King of All The Nations of Men, he stated: "I crowned myself in every state, and at 67 colleges, and I visited 101 nations and crowned myself King in everyone, including Russia in Red Square, in Moscow on July 12, 1958.  Crowds greeted me everywhere."    Homer insisted that his traveling to different countries helped usher in the Kingdom of God by preventing revolutions, encouraging world peace, and ending droughts.

As part of his grandiose plan to reshape the world, Homer planned to move the seat of the United Nations to Jerusalem, where preachers would replace its ambassadors.   Not only would Jerusalem become the world's centre of finance and culture, any nation that waged war would be struck by drought and plague.   The Ten Commandments would be formally enacted into law everywhere, and taxation would be replaced by tithing.   All laws everywhere would be replaced by his own "48 laws," which, among other things, banned liquor and tobacco, provided equality for all, offered forgiveness for repentant criminals, and promoted love. 

The actual size of Homer Tomlinson's congregation, all of whom he dubbed "saints," was always hard to calculate, but he confidently placed it at 75,000 with 600 ministers under his control.    At other times, he assumed that all the world's Pentecostalists were under his dominion (though they likely didn't share this opinion).   As for his actual congregation, many followers were apparently dissatisfied with his leadership. One of them, Grady R. Kent, formed a separate denomination, Church of All Nations in 1957.  

When he wasn't traveling, Homer ran his worldwide empire from the two-story frame house in Queen's Village in New York City, where he had lived since 1920.   Homer Tomlinson's "mission" continued right up to his death in 1968.  According to an obituary in the New York Times,  he died quietly in a Manhattan hospital after a long illness.   Described as the "portly, pink-faced, cheery leader of the Church of God," he was survived by his wife Marie, whom he had met in an Aimee Temple McPherson tent in 1919.   Along with their two sons, he was also survived by their six grandchildren.   He is buried in Long Island cemetery. 

Though the Church of God still exists, the church website rather downplays the eccentric life of Bishop Tomlinson.   After his death, he was succeeded by Voy M. Bullen, who then moved the church to Huntsville, Alabama, to be closer to the centre of the movement.    While Tomlinson's church has undergone various moves and schisms since his death, the Church of God is reported to have over 70,000 followers at present, but this figure is considered to be likely inflated.  

So, was Homer Tomlinson prone to grandiose delusions, or was his "King of the World" campaign nothing more than an elaborate publicity stunt?   While his various "coronations" had no actual validity, they certainly kept him in the public eye.   Stirring up controversy ensured that Homer A. Tomlinson had greater name recognition than the other competing denominations, even if he picked up a reputation for being a crackpot along the way. 

And, perhaps that was enough for him.

 

How Popular are Home-Care Robots?

Many countries face major challenges to ensure that their health and social care systems are ready for the growing numbers of older people (OP). As a way of realising ageing in place, assistive technologies such as home‐care robots are expected to play a greater role in the future. In Asia and Europe, robots are gradually being adopted as a public policy solution to the workforce shortage. Yet, there is still a strongly held belief that such technologies should not be part of human and personal care services such as OP's care. However, there has been little research into attitudes and perceptions of potential users regarding home‐care robots which can provide companionship and support with activities of daily living. To explore these in more detail, a questionnaire study was carried out in Finland, Ireland, and Japan. A new study in the journal Health & Social Care in the Community reports findings from the Irish cohort (114 older people [OP], 8 family carers, and 56 Health and Social Care Professionals [HSCPs]). Seventy percent of the total respondents (N = 178) reported being open to the use of home‐care robots, and only one quarter had a negative image of robots. People with care responsibilities in their private capacity expressed more interest in, and readiness to use, home‐care robots, while stressing the importance of ‘privacy protection’ and ‘guaranteed access to human care’. Both OP and HSCPs identified observation and recording of OP's mental and physical condition as desirable functions of such robots, whereas practical functions such as fall prevention and mobility support were also deemed desirable by HSCPs. There is generally positive interest in home‐care robots among Irish respondents. Findings strongly suggest that the interest is generated partly by great need among people who deliver care. Should such robots be developed, then careful consideration must be given to user‐centred design, ethical aspects, and national care policy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract

Two Transgender Women Arrested in Cameroon for "Attempted Homosexuality"

The recent sentencing of two Cameroonian transgender persons to five years in jail for  "attempted homosexuality, indecent dressing, and lack of identification papers has sparked outrage from international rights groups.  Twenty-three-year-old Njeukam Loic Midrel (Shakiro) and twenty-seven-year-old Mouthe Roland (Patricia) were arrested in February of this year while having dinner at a restaurant in Douala, Cameroon’s economic capital.

While the Cameroonian criminal code outlaws sexual relationships between same-sex people, the law typically only applies if they are caught in "flagrante delicto."   Since 2016 however, the law has been tightened to ban any sexual relations "between men and women."  Police are also authorized to inflict humiliating searches on suspected LGBTQ arrestees, including anal examinations intended to find "proof of homosexual conduct."  

In responding to the arrest and sentencing of her clients, attorney Alice Nkom has openly denounced the arrest in a Facebook post.  “Which law punishes trans [women] for wearing a skirt for five years?" she wrote.  "Nobody should be imprisoned for a simple suspicion; this opens the door to imprisonment without proof?”  Minority Rights Africa described the ruling as “an increasing clampdown on gay and transgender people” and has already sparked increased fear among Cameroon's sexual minorities.

Shakiro became a social media celebrity from a YouTube video posted last year in which she openly stated that she "feels good as a woman."   Along with 26,000 views, Shakiro also gained 5,000 fans and has become a public face for trans persons in the country.   The conviction of Shakiro and Patricia is only the latest incident in a country already known for its anti-LGBTQ intolerance. In the same month of their arrest, there have been twenty-seven arrests and three murders.   More are likely expected.

Along with their prison sentence, Shakiro and Patricia were also ordered to pay a fine of 200,000 CFA francs (370 USD).  Failure to pay could earn them another year in jail.

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The Movie Murderer

In 1995, a 14-year  boy, Sandy Charles, lured a 7-year old acquaintance into some bushes near their homes in the town of La Ronge in northern Saskatchewan under the pretext of playing a baseball game with him.    With the help of an unnamed 7-year old accomplice, Charles then stabbed and bludgeoned Jonathan Thimpsen.   After the murder,  Sandy  Charles mutilated the body by removing strips of skin which he took home to place in a tin can covered in foil.   An intense search of the area by friends and family led to Jonathan's body being found three days later.   After an investigation, Sandy Charles was arrested.

As Charles would later admit to investigators, he boiled the skin on the family stove to reduce the fat to liquid but had refrained from actually drinking it, stating that, "I just wanted to stay the way I am."   According to testimony later presented in court, Jonathan had been selected at random so that his fat could be harvested based on a scene from the 1989 movie Warlock.    The movie, featuring a 17th-century warlock who travels to the future, includes an off-camera murder of a young boy so that his fat could be extracted to make a potion enabling the warlock to fly.    According to Sandy Charles' mother, her son had become obsessed with the movie and saw it more than ten times.    While he admitted committing the crime to her, he also insisted that he could not stop himself.  "He said it was like a dream. He said he didn't want to do it, but it was like it wasn't him doing it", she reported.   He also later said that "There's a strong spirit in my room that gave me these thoughts.   I was going to commit suicide until this thing popped into my head. I started thinking about killing someone else. Something wanted me to." 

The killing of Jonathan Thimpsen and the subsequent publicity of Charles' trial generated international publicity given the age of the victim and the perpetrator and the bizarre circumstances involved.    The RCMP officers investigating the murder concealed many details for fear of possible "mass hysteria."     In a public statement before the trial began, RCMP Corporal Dave Hoefl refused to provide full details about the murder due to the possible impact on jury selection.  "When you take a look at a 14-year-old doing this to a seven-year-old, there has to be a reason.  There is a reason. We have to decide whether it's in the public interest to know that reason right now," he said.   "I'm not sure whether the community is ready for this or not - and in reality, I don't even think the province is ready for it."   Based on the circumstances of the crime,  Sandy Charles was tried for murder in an adult court.

During the trial, his defense attorney, Barry Singer, insisted that Charles was not guilty due to mental illness and that the movie had a powerful effect on his mind.  "In the movie, the idea was that if you cut the fat off a virgin, unbaptized child, then boiled it down and drank it. That would give you the power to fly," said Singer.  "Sandy was suffering from the delusion that if he did these things, it would give him the power to fly. The movie just gave him the know-how to do it."    Following the lurid testimony given during the trial, Sandy Charles was later found guilty because of insanity on August 2, 1996.  He was transferred to the Regional Psychiatric Centre in Saskatoon and held until he eventually  =applied to be transferred to a secure psychiatric unit closer to his home.  

As many expected, the trial generated considerable debate concerning the link between movie violence and real-life crimes.    In their coverage of the murder, the Toronto Globe and Mail cited experts who warned against drawing general conclusions from the murder and warned that violent movies could be a "precipitating event" for an already troubled child.    Based on concerns relating to movie violence and a petition in the early 1990s calling for an end to violence on television, the Canadian government passed legislation forcing cable companies to enable parents to block violent programs deemed unsuitable for children.  Similar legislation was passed in the United States months later.

The debate concerning the potential impact of media violence on impressionable children is a longstanding one.   During the 1950s, Fredric Wertham's crusade against violence in comic books led to the implementation of the Comics Code Authority. In contrast, similar crusades against violence in video games, music lyrics, and the Internet have had limited success. Similar concerns over the potential impact of inappropriate content in movies and television programs have generated considerable controversy about whether children could model their behaviour on graphic violence seen on screen. 

Moral panics over violent movie and television content remain a familiar phenomenon, especially as new, shocking media depictions of graphic violence help inspire calls for greater censorship.   Certainly, the number of films that have faced censorship over the years in the United States alone, often for minor scenes that would likely have gone unnoticed by the audiences supposedly being protected, is mind-boggling.   In other countries, battles over movies such as A Clockwork Orange led to either outright censorship or awkward compromises with movies being dramatically re-edited or removed from distribution altogether.   Though changing social standards and legal challenges led to a reevaluation of many production codes that controlled movie content for decades, the battle over what can be shown on the screen is far from over.  

But does media violence really lead to youth violence?  Though Albert Bandura's classic Bobo Doll experiments suggest that children tend to imitate aggressive behaviours that they see being modeled,  the impact of observational learning as it applies to movie and television violence seems more muted.   Despite decades of media violence research, no clear causal link between media violence and real-life crimes has ever been found.   The rise in movie and television violence of the past two decades has not led to a similar increase in real-life violence.  If anything, there has been a sharp decrease in violence during that same period, especially among adolescents.   Though school shootings and other examples of extreme violence appear to inspire copycat offenses, most young people appear perfectly capable of distinguishing between fictional violence and the real thing.  

A more controversial theory about media violence deals with the idea of catharsis or using violent media content to purge viewers of their violent thoughts or fantasies.   The term "catharsis" was first coined by Aristotle, who suggested in his Poetics that watching violent Greek tragedies helped audiences "through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these emotions."   In other words, watching violent movies or television shows made people less inclined to commit violent acts.    This was in direct opposition to Plato's view that plays, music, and literature had a potentially harmful effect on morals (thus making him the first moral crusader).     Along with being a common theme in literature, catharsis has also been adopted by psychoanalysts such as Joseph Breuer and Sigmund Freud.

While most moral panics surrounding media violence tend to peter out fairly quickly, new panics often arise to take their place.   Though cases such as Sandy Charles continue to be invoked as a justification for greater control over media content, actual evidence to support such control is often lacking.    More graphic cases of copycat violence can definitely be expected in future, but the knee-jerk reaction and the calls for control will likely follow the same old pattern.

How Prevalent is Social Media Addiction Worldwide?

In the cyber era, people interact with others not only face-to-face but also through social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. Social media addiction has emerged as a problem of global concern, with researchers all over the world conducting studies to evaluate how pervasive the problem is. However, the prevalence rates of social media addiction reported in the literature vary dramatically. A meta-analysis published in the journal Addictive Behaviors was carried out to systematically synthesize the extant research on social media addiction prevalence. Subgroup analysis and meta-regression were conducted to investigate whether the prevalence rates would differ by classification schemes, cultural values, and demographic factors. The meta-analysis involved 63 independent samples with 34,798 respondents from 32 nations spanning seven world regions. The random-effects meta-analytic findings revealed variations in prevalence among studies adopting distinct classification schemes. The pooled prevalence estimate was 5% (95% CI: 3%–7%) for studies adopting monothetic or strict monothetic classifications. A higher pooled prevalence estimate (13%; 95% CI: 8%–19%) was found for studies adopting a cutoff for severe level or strict polythetic classifications, and that estimate was even higher (25%; 95% CI: 21%–29%) for studies adopting a cutoff for moderate level or polythetic classifications. Moreover, cross-cultural comparisons revealed the pooled prevalence estimate obtained in collectivist nations (31%; 95% CI: 26%–36%) to be twofold higher than that obtained in individualist nations (14%; 95% CI: 9%–19%). This meta-analysis indicates that both the classification scheme used and cultural factors should be considered when interpreting the prevalence findings on social media addiction. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)

For the abstract

Exploring the Beast Within

In the autumn of 1572, after a rash of animal attacks in the woods near Dole, France, the local peasants were authorized to seek out the werewolf assumed to be responsible. There were few actual sightings of the animal, but the "loup-garou" had carried off several small children and attacked horsemen who had driven it away "only with great difficulty and danger to their persons."   The peasants were instructed "to assemble with pikes, halberts, arquebuses, and sticks, to chase and to pursue the said were-wolf in every place where they may find or seize him; to tie and to kill, without incurring any pains or penalties." Despite their search, it was only on November 8 of that year that peasants came upon a "monstrous creature" attacking a young girl. The creature was driven off, although the girl later died of her injuries. Even in the darkness, some of the peasants thought they recognized the creature as a local hermit named Gilles Garnier.

Garnier was not popular in the region and was arrested after fifty witnesses filed depositions against him. Whatever protests of innocence he had were quickly ended by a session on the rack which "persuaded" him to confess to the charges. Garnier was sentenced to be burned alive at the stake and "that his ashes be then scattered to the winds." He was also ordered to bear all court costs, and the sentence was carried out on January 18, 1573.

A similar case came to trial in 1603 involving a mentally disturbed (and possibly intellectually challenged) boy named Jean Grenier. Following reports of animal attacks on children in Gascony, France, Grenier confessed to attacking and eating some of the children involved. He also stated that he was part of a werewolf "coven" and transformed himself using a "wolf's skin" given to him by a mysterious stranger. Survivors of the attacks confirmed Grenier's testimony, and he was found guilty. In a remarkable move for the time, the court concluded that Grenier was mentally ill (but possessed) and sentenced him to a Franciscan monastery for the rest of his life. When visited in the monastery years later, he was reported to be "diminutive in stature, very shy, and unwilling to look anyone in the face. His eyes were deep-set and restless; his teeth long and protruding; his nails black, and in places worn away; his mind was completely barren; he seemed unable to comprehend the smallest things". Grenier died at the age of 20.

An estimated 30,000 cases of lycanthropy were reported in Europe between 1520 and 1630 alone,  all of which were linked to the witchcraft mania occurring during the same period. Witches were frequently accused of changing themselves into cats or rabbits and attending demonic Sabbaths to meet Satan. Werewolves, in turn, were accused of transforming themselves with the Devil's aid. Convicted werewolves and witches were often condemned to be burned alive (except in England, where they were merely hanged).

The werewolf hysteria seemed to be largely fuelled by lurid stories of wolf attacks (which were more likely due to wild dogs) and only subsided when wolves were hunted to virtual extinction across Europe. The growing recognition that testimony obtained through torture was basically unreliable probably contributed to this decline (waterboarding advocates take note). The last major werewolf panic was in Gevaudan, France, following a series of killings by a "wolf-like creature" between 1763 and 1767. The killings were never solved.

While clinical lycanthropy (the delusion of changing into an animal) remains a recognized psychiatric condition, actual cases are rare (I've never encountered a case myself, alas, although I remain hopeful). Reports in the forensic literature of clinical lycanthropy patients committing violent acts are even rarer (but they have happened). Modern cases of lycanthropy tend to occur in people suffering from broader psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia. Along with the classic werewolf delusion, there have also been reported cases of patients believing themselves changed into other types of animals, including dogs, frogs, and bees. While werefrogs do not evoke the same superstitious terror associated with werewolves, the unusual nature of this kind of psychopathology makes for fascinating reading.

Treatment seems to be straightforward as lycanthropic delusions respond well to medication (no burning necessary). Despite the popularity of werewolf movies in the past few years, there has been no evidence of any upsurge of cases, and the condition remains rare. Although werewolves live on as a cultural phenomenon, the hysteria that condemned Gilles Garnier to death has mercifully subsided (I hope).

Click here for a recent case history.

 

The Woyzeck Case

While cases of religious ecstasy are hardly unusual, there are definitely examples that tend to stand out.

In 1728, in the Parisian cemetery of St. Medard, a phenomenon began that quickly became the talk of France. Following the burial of a pious, Jansenist bishop named Francois de Paris in the cemetery, stories arose of miraculous cures being worked at the bishop's tomb. Pious female parishioners, who later became known as St. Medard's convulsionaries, were described as engaging in "contortions and convulsive movements, attended by cries, shrieks, and groans, all of which were regarded as manifestations of divine power." The adherents would work themselves into states of religious ecstasy and engage in acts of severe torture which they either inflicted on themselves or through the actions of assistants known as Secouristes. They would then reportedly work miracles and cure all forms of the disease.

The massive hysteria that arose led to a crackdown by the police under the King's orders and the eventual closure of the cemetery in 1732. Thousands of convulsionaries were arrested, and the movement went underground. It eventually split into different factions and faded into obscurity (despite briefly reappearing in Paris in 1759). The police action gave rise to a famous epigram: "De par le roi, defense a Dieu De faire miracle en ce lieu. (Louis to God: To keep the peace, here miracles must henceforth cease)." The convulsionaries of St. Medard gained literary immortality through the writings of Voltaire and Diderot.

A less famous but longer-lasting example of religious convulsionaries occurred in the northern Spanish town of Jaca. For centuries, this small town was known for the annual pilgrimage to commemorate its patron saint, Orosia (also spelled Eurosia). Different accounts of Orosia's life exist (and she may have never existed at all), and it remains unclear why she was named the patron saint of the demonically possessed. Still, she became the patron saint of Jaca after her relics were brought there in the eleventh century. From that time until the Church banned the practice in 1947, St. Orosia's convulsionaries took part in a bizarre procession each year on June 25 (the Saint's feast day).

The procession involved the "demonically afflicted" (e.g., epileptics, mentally ill, physically handicapped, and other stricken) and took place in front of the Saint's sarcophagus. The pilgrims would gather to find healing for their various afflictions through participation in the procession and exorcism rituals. In a description of the procession by a medical observer in 1881 (and bear with me here since my Spanish is rusty), the bishop and retinue of friars would start the procession accompanied by music and dancing. "Paralytics, madmen, people with epilepsy, and hysterics would gather during the night before the chest containing the saint's relics. Their infirmity is attributed to possession by a devil, and they seek the devil's elimination. Cramping, muscle contractions, spasmodic grins, and howling are the preamble of the convulsions. They would fall to the ground until they were black and blue, blood spurting from their mouths".

At this point, the exorcism would begin with multiple applications of the rosary and cross, which the convulsionaries would kiss repeatedly. Once the demon was deemed to have fled, the newly healed convulsionaries would jump for joy and scream. It is doubtful whether any actual "cures" occurred (there were certainly no follow-up studies). Still, the sight of the newly-exorcised praising the saint for their healing made for quite a spectacle by all accounts and drew pilgrims from all over the region.

The banning by the Church in 1947 brought an end to St. Orosia's convulsionaries and marked the last example of recurring mass motor hysteria in Europe. Sadly, the use of exorcism in dealing with mental illness continues even today with tragic results. When proper mental health care isn't available, and families seek a cure for their loved ones, what solutions might they turn into desperation?

The Shrinking Penis Panic

In September 2003, news sources documented numerous accounts of mysterious foreigners (origin and description varying with each retelling) in Khartoum, Sudan who were causing penises to disappear by shaking the hands of their victims in public. Details were rarely consistent, but media accounts told of victims who reported that their penises began to "melt into their body" either after shaking hands or using a "penis-melting cyborg comb" that had been given to them by a mysterious stranger.

One Sudan-based columnist went as far as reporting in a foreign-based newspaper that "Even though what I write today will harm 'tourism' in Sudan, I consider it my duty to warn anyone who wants to come to Sudan to refrain from shaking hands with a dark-skinned man. Since most Sudanese are dark-skinned, he had better avoid shaking hands with anyone he doesn't know…". The mysterious hand-shaker (often referred to as `Satan`s Friend`) was said to `drain men`s virility through a handshake and then extort money from victims to regain their lost manhood. The accusations and recriminations were directed against numerous convenient scapegoats, including `Zionist agents` attempting to exterminate the Sudanese by preventing men from procreating. Though medical examinations showed no sexual abnormalities in victims, it took an active intervention on the part of the Sudanese government (including numerous arrests of alleged victims and others accused of practicing `sorcery`) to bring an end to the hysteria.  While it was ultimately deemed a hoax that got out of hand, the furor took a while to subside. 

Despite being the most widely reported outbreak, what happened in Khartoum was only part of an epidemic of genital shrinking hysteria reported in six West African nations between January 1997 and October 2003. There appear to be superficial resemblances to the cultural psychosis known as Koro, but with a significant twist given the nature of the accusations leveled against mysterious `others` who supposedly emasculated African men.   Cases of perceived genital shrinkage have been primarily reported in Southeast Asian males. However, similar cases have been reported in non-Oriental cultures and seem to be associated with a fear of losing sexual potency.

What then are we to make of what happened in Khartoum in 2003?  It seems likely that the epidemic was fuelled by media coverage. Still, the political turmoil resulting from a long and bloody civil war (which has since escalated) probably played a part. There seems to be little available information on psychological or demographic factors that may have made the victims more vulnerable to suggestions.

While `mass hysteria` is a convenient label for outbreaks of unusual symptoms, it seems to mask the very legitimate fears that people in a given time or culture may experience and may emerge in an exaggerated form with the right provocation. For the Sudanese males affected, the fear of ethnic cleansing (including the genuine ethnic cleansing occurring in Darfur) may well have driven the epidemic with various scapegoats (domestic or foreign) being proposed as targets of potential retribution.

While the idea of penis-shrinking hysteria may make for entertaining reading, the paranoia triggered during mass hysteria outbreaks shouldn`t be dismissed so easily.  The violence that can erupt due to mass hysteria has led to some tragic episodes over the years.  Witch-hunts (sometimes literally so) have claimed countless lives through the centuries, and even "civilized" people can form lynch mobs under the right circumstances. 

In other words, don't believe everything you hear (especially if it involves penis-melting combs).