Notes of a serf woman by M. E. Vasilieva

Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation. Series 1, Volume II, The Wartime Genesis of Free Labor: The Upper South. Edited by IRA BERLIN. STEVEN F. MILLER, JOSEPH P. REIDY and LESLIE S. ROWLAND. New York: Cambridge University Press. 1993. xxxvii, 776pp. £60.00 and $79.95. ISBN 0–521–41742–2.

Strained Sisterhood: Gender and Class in the Boston Female Anti‐Slavery Society. DEBRA GOLD HANSEN. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. 1993. ix, 231pp. £28.50. ISBN 0–87023–848–5

John C. Calhoun and the Price of Union: A Biography. JOHN NIVEN. Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana State University Press. 1988. xvi, 367 pp. $12.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–8071–1858–3.

Thackeray and Slavery. DEBORAH A. THOMAS. Athens: Ohio University Press. 1993. xvii, 245pp. £44. ISBN 0–8214–1038–5.

Breaking the Chains: Slavery, Bondage, and Emancipation in Modern Africa and Asia. Edited by MARTIN A. KLEIN. Madison and London: University of Wisconsin Press, 1993. xiv, 220 pp. $40 and $14.95. ISBN 0–299–13750–3 and 0–299–13754–6.

Islanders in the Stream. A History of the Bahamian People. Volume One. From Aboriginal Times to the End of Slavery. MICHEAL CRATON AND GAIL SAUNDERS. Athens and London: The University of Georgia Press. 1992. xxiii, 455 pp. $60. ISBN 0–8203–1382–3.

Victor Schoelcher et l'abolition de l'esclavage, NELLY SCHMINDT. Paris: Fayard, 1994. 440 pp. 150FF. ISBN 2–213–03058–8.     

Picturing Empire and Illness

Reflecting on recent debates within cultural studies on non-Western modernities and ‘cultural studies in/of Asia’, this essay explores a cultural history of venereal disease (VD) in Korea under Japanese colonial rule (1910–1945). The colonial representation of and discourse on VD in Western colonial settings was often built around a missionary medical account of sin and disease and a colonial dialectic of white civilization and non-white backwardness. This essay draws attention to the colonial discourse on VD in the non-Western Japanese Empire and its East Asian context, which compels us to look into the colonial framing of disease and bodies in imperial contexts where ruler and ruled shared close racial, cultural and religious affinities and where colonial medical power did not stem from white hegemony and Christian religious authority. By using methods from cultural studies and feminist history, this essay uncovers and critically reads the Japanese colonial medical and popular cultural archives on VD that range from state documents to laboratory reports to patent medicine advertisements, in order to reconfigure Japan's colonial medical empire and its underlying, gendered assumptions. It clarifies not only the legal, military and institutional bases for the intense governmental control over VD, but also the cultural image, metaphor and knowledge of VD and the biomedical female body promoted by Japan's transnational patent medical industry in close collaboration with the colonial state. By doing so, this essay sheds light on the gendered epistemic violence of Japanese colonialism.     

Ethnicity as cognition

This article identifies an incipient and largely implicit cognitive turn in the study of ethnicity, and argues that it can be consolidated and extended by drawing on cognitive research in social psychology and anthropology. Cognitive perspectives provide resources for conceptualizing ethnicity, race, and nation as perspectives on the world rather than entities in the world, for treating ethnicity, race, and nationalism together rather than as separate subfields, and for re-specifying the old debate between primordialist and circumstantialist approaches.     

Mental Illness and Criminal Behavior

The tragic events in Aurora, CO and Newtown, CT have renewed public perception of mentally persons as ‘dangerous’ and ‘criminal.’ Unfortunately, this perception is based more on conjecture and fear than research. The following essay takes stock of the empirical research on mental illness and criminal behavior. Three noteworthy trends emerge from this literature. First, the prevalence of mental illness is substantially higher among individuals who have come in contact with the criminal justice system relative to the general population. Second, individuals with psychotic and externalizing behavioral disorders, particularly those who also abuse drugs and alcohol, tend to engage in higher levels of violence than individuals with other forms of mental illness. Third, mental illness does not determine whether someone will break the law; rather, it is but one of many criminogenic risk factors that interact in complex ways to influence individual behavior.     

Illness and the Interactionist Vocation

The disenchantment of our times is described as a contest between what are called the ride and the story. The ride represents an array of desires to treat the body as a project for perpetual enhancement and medicine as a venue of commodity capitalism. The story imagines illness as a moral project. The interactionist vocation is thus placed in the context of what Weber called our fate: how do we confront the moral dilemma of our present moment?     

Pediatric Chronic Illness Management: A Qualitative Dyadic Analysis of Adolescent Patient and Parent Illness Narratives

In pediatric chronic illness, little is known about the relational interactions between adolescent patients, parents, and illnesses and how they influence self-management of illness. We conducted interviews with 32 individuals (16 dyads) representing adolescents diagnosed with a chronic illness and their primary parent who had been referred to a psychosocial treatment program for challenges with illness management. Interviews were conducted individually and analyzed dyadically using grounded theory to better understand the relational processes that may be contributing to illness management difficulties. Results include a theory of patient–parent illness responses and how parental illness meanings play a role in adolescent self-management. Results can be used to better understand and treat family relational patterns that may be influencing pediatric illness management challenges.     

A Self-Psychological Perspective on Chronic Illness

It is becoming increasingly common to encounter patients seeking psychotherapy for symptoms resulting from chronic illness. Regardless of the specific diagnosis, chronic illness is a phenomenon with deep implications for disruption of self-states and narcissistic injuries. Working with chronically ill patients presents many challenges to the patient and the therapist, ranging from acute grief and loss to a reworking of unresolved developmental issues. This paper explores the use of a self-psychological perspective in the treatment of chronic and terminal illness. Approaching treatment from a self-psychological perspective, psychoanalytic psychotherapy can be successfully utilized in conjunction with supportive therapy.     

Comorbid Substance Abuse and Mental Illness

Abstract

Literature concerning assessment and treatment of comorbid substance abuse and mental illness is reviewed. Currently, comorbidity is under-diagnosed and dually diagnosed clients are under-served. Those clients, who are so diagnosed, are most often offered dichotomous parallel or serial interventions. However, research suggests that an integrated approach is preferable. Enhanced training of mental health and substance abuse professionals is urgently needed as is further research concerning the efficacy of various treatment modalities. Improved identification and treatment of comorbidity may reduce the revolving door effect among these individuals and thereby lower health care costs.     

The “other woman”

Based on interviews with 26 single women who have had long-term intimate relationships with married men, a power continuum of management styles is derived. At one end are women who are hyper-submissive; at the other end, women who are hyper-dominant. Reasons for ending the relationship and the role of the other woman in that decision are discussed. The kind of ending is classified into three types: the shock-out, the drag-out, and the peter-out. Author's Note: I wish to thank the women I interviewed. Without their words, there could be no study. To protect the identity of these women I have altered names, places, and occupations in this article.     

Searching for the invisible woman

Natural Rebels: A Social History of Enslaved Black Women in Barbados. Hilary McD. Beckles. London: Zed Books Ltd. 1989. ix, 197pp.

Slave Women in Caribbean Society 1650–1838. Barbara bush. London: James Currey Ltd. 1990. xiii, 190pp.

Slave Women in the New World: Gender Stratification in the Caribbean. Marietta Morrissey. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas. 1989. xiv, 202pp.     

Mental Illness and the Criminal Justice System

This is the second essay in a two‐part series exploring the relationships between mental illness, criminal behavior, and the criminal justice system. The number of mentally ill persons in prisons and jails has increased substantially over the last several decades, and there are currently more people with mental illness behind bars than there are in mental hospitals. In this essay, we place these trends within a broader historical context of the social control of mental illness in the United States. We identify how and why mentally ill persons have come to be overrepresented in the criminal justice system and highlight the unique challenges this population poses for police, courts, and correctional facilities. Finally, we review several recent innovations in policy and practice that may help alleviate that burden of criminal justice involvement on mentally ill offenders, as well as the burden of mentally ill offenders on the criminal justice system.     

Illness and loss: Helping couples cope

The serious illness or disability of a spouse may constitute a major threat to the marital relationship and lead to disruption in family functioning. This paper presents a developmental framework which addresses some of the unique adjustments these couples face over time. Adaptations which promote optimal marital functioning, the role of the therapist throughout the process, and relevant interventive strategies are highlighted.     

Caring for Persons with Serious Mental Illness

Abstract

This article places evidenced-based knowledge of practice within the social context of care and proposes five policy objectives and specific policy and program changes to address care needs of people with serious mental illness. In spite of demonstration programs that provide the basis for proposed policy initiatives throughout the United States, treatment provision for this population remains inadequate and their safety and well-being continues to be at risk. The authors suggest that treatment initiatives need to be tied to stable policies protecting the mentally ill from adverse social context changes. The authors conclude that policies are needed that will enhance housing assistance, independent social functioning, personal empowerment, and treatment engagement. In addition, efforts are needed to make better use of inpatient hospital care, to better understand the role of assisted treatment, and to better develop consistent long-term fiscal support for the seriously mentally ill. They offer specific policy recommendations for changes in HUD programs, Medicaid and Medicare funding, and treatment programming that address these needs.     

Comprehensive behavioral medicine in community mental health. A needs assessment that needs assessment.

It is suggested that the massive costs incurred nationally in health care are in large part a fitting concern of Community Mental Health (CMH). There is considerable data available to suggest that as much as half of the variance in common health disorders is associated with behavioral factors. There is a rapidly growing movement to provide interventions geared toward these behavioral components in health disorders, but much of this has occurred outside of the traditional mental health environment. There are arguments to suggest that CMH should be more involved in the development of comprehensive behavioral medicine services, both in terms of the expertise and resources that it can bring to bear upon these problems, and its potential to reach segments of the population which are otherwise likely to be underserved, if served at all. Implications for CMH planning and financing are discussed, drawing upon a selective literature review and clinical illustrations.