Crisis Narratives and Masculinist Protection

Abstract

Stockholm syndrome, or captor-bonding, is a psychological crisis response to which women are considered especially susceptible. The term was coined in connection with a 1973 hostage situation in Stockholm, Sweden. I argue that the syndrome originally indicated a crisis of state authority. The conception of Stockholm syndrome projected a crisis of the legitimate state onto the women hostages and reinforced connections between state protection, masculinity and physical force. Crisis narratives specifically targeted the women's agency, and the state's protector status was restored by gendering dependency and victimhood. The particular circumstances of the original Stockholm incident were a prerequisite for the syndrome's appearance and continue to inform common understandings and scholarly writing on the syndrome. When crisis discourse appropriates the Stockholm syndrome, a unitary perspective and gendered foundations of state power are reinforced. Possibilities of divergent perspectives and counter-discourses, which are critical to feminist interventions into crisis narratives, are thereby diminished.     

Responses to prenatal opioid and alcohol abuse: A review of US and Australian mandatory reporting laws

Prenatal substance use, specifically opioid and excessive alcohol use, can cause significant adverse effects for the unborn foetus in both the short-and long-term. Responses by state social systems occur on a spectrum of prevention and early intervention to support mothers. Some but not all states include reporting duties, so that professionals made aware of the situation may alert agencies that can intervene to provide appropriate support. This article will review legal duties to report maternal substance use during pregnancy in the US and Australia. We identify variations in these laws regarding who is required to report, what circumstances must be reported and what indicates child abuse or neglect. Inconsistencies in laws raise questions about the nature of different approaches, and how reforms might be made to improve provision of support. Informed by the medical literature, the contemporary context and federal policy in the US, we make recommendations for reform, and for the appropriate response to such reports.     

‘How can a chord be weird if it expresses your soul?’ Some critical reflections on the diagnosis of Aspergers syndrome

This paper questions the way in which the diagnosis of Aspergers syndrome has come to be widely accepted and used as an essentially medical category. It does so by drawing upon sociological and historical analyses of society, psychiatry and psychology, as well as the writings of service users, other practitioners in the autistic spectrum disorder field and the author's own clinical experience. It is argued that the seeming popularity of this label within Western society may have as much to do with widespread social and cultural change during recent decades as with the supposed deficits of those who attract the diagnosis. The aims are to ask what this might mean for health and social care practice in this field and to encourage the growth of theories and approaches that are grounded more firmly in an awareness of the social environment, while also reflecting the varied experiences and standpoints of people who carry this label.     

Child Abuse and Sudden Infant Death

In times past, parents were usually blamed when an infant died suddenly and unexpectedly. A more caring attitude evolved with the adoption of the term ‘cot death’ or ‘sudden infant death syndrome’ (SIDS). Recent research looking at the factors responsible for SIDS has focused on aspects of child care and parental behaviour. Epidemiological studies confirm that several risk factors associated with child maltreatment are also to be found in many families who experience a sudden infant death. Social deprivation and other well-known associated features linked to maltreatment are correlated with sudden death in infancy. It is suggested that both physical abuse (suffocation is the most usual mechanism proposed) and neglect (failure to thrive, failure to recognize and treat illness) are important mechanisms. Infanticide (filicide) has existed widely over past centuries and its continuation in modern times is reflected in the highest murder rates of all age groups in infancy. However, much fatal abuse and neglect remains hidden, as demonstrated from the results of detailed fatality reviews. The evidence linking child abuse and neglect with sudden unexpected death in infancy is reviewed.     

Using a grey relational analysis in an improved Grunow–Finke assessment tool to detect unnatural epidemics

The Grunow–Finke epidemiological assessment tool (GFT) has several limitations in its ability to differentiate between natural and man-made epidemics. Our study aimed to improve the GFT and analyze historical epidemics to validate the model. Using a gray relational analysis (GRA), we improved the GFT by revising the existing standards and adding five new standards. We then removed the artificial weights and final decision threshold. Finally, by using typically unnatural epidemic events as references, we used the GRA to calculate the unnatural probability and obtain assessment results. Using the advanced tool, we conducted retrospective and case analyses to test its performance. In the validation set of 13 historical epidemics, unnatural and natural epidemics were divided into two categories near the unnatural probability of 45%, showing evident differences (p < 0.01) and an assessment accuracy close to 100%. The unnatural probabilities of the Ebola virus disease of 2013 and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome of 2012 were 30.6% and 36.1%, respectively. Our advanced epidemic assessment tool improved the accuracy of the original GFT from approximately 55% to approximately 100% and reduced the impact of human factors on these outcomes effectively.