Going to Pieces: Paul Monette and the Fragments of the Tribe

Author of the highly acclaimed Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir (1988) and winner of the 1992 National Book Award for his autobiography Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story, Paul Monette died of complications from AIDS in Los Angeles on February 12, 1995. His most recent work, Last Watch of the Night: Essays Too Personal and Otherwise (1994), is his third volume in a trilogy of autobiographical writing on growing up gay, coming-out, and living with AIDS. A graduate of Phillips Academy and Yale University, Monette received a number of awards for his writing and his work as an outspoken voice in the battle against AIDS, including the National Book Award, three Lambda Literary awards, the PEN Center West Freedom to Write Award, and three honorary doctorate degrees, from Wesleyan University, the City University of New York, and the State University of New York at Oswego. A memorial service was held for Monette on Sunday, February 19, 1995, at the Directors Guild of America on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. Paul Monette was 49.     

The implementation of the healthy cities project in developing countries: lessons from Chittagong

The Chittagong Healthy City Project was carried out in late 1994 in Chittagong, Bangladesh. This paper presents findings of an evaluation of the project based upon internationally generated process indicators related to the institutional aspects of the project. The following issues are discussed with regard to project implementation: the institutional organization of local authorities, institutions' conceptual understanding of the project, formal insertion of the project into public authorities' activities, institutional leadership of the project, central-local relations, the lack of interministerial coordination, the project's office, international projects, and community organization. Giving consideration to these issues may help program planners detect problems in forthcoming projects prior to their implementation.     

Computer-mediated focus groups

This article discusses the feasibility and effectiveness of computer-mediated (CM) focus groups. The study describes technological and practical considerations the authors learned from conducting such groups and reports on a comparison of the reactions of CM and face-to-face (FTF) participants in focus groups discussing academic dishonesty. The results suggest that the CM environment, in comparison to FTF, may lessen members' concern about what the moderator thinks of them and discourage participants from withholding embarrassing information. The article concludes with a list of suggestions for this technique and a discussion of the potential advantages and limitations associated with CM focus groups.     

The Power Equity Guide: attending to gender in family therapy

In the past two decades, feminist scholars have challenged the field of family therapy to incorporate the organizing principle of gender in its theory, practice, and training. In this paper, we introduce a training, research, and therapeutic tool that provides guidance for addressing or observing gender and power differentials in the practice of family therapy. As a training tool, the Power Equity Guide helps trainees to translate their theoretical understanding of feminist principles into specific behaviors in therapy. Researchers and supervisors can use the Power Equity Guide to evaluate the practice of gender-informed family therapy. We also provide specific suggestions for its use by trainers, supervisors, therapists, and researchers.     

'Bataille's boys': postmodernity, Fascists and football fans

In his analysis of football hooliganism, Anthony King claims to reveal the historical, conceptual scheme young, male supporters draw upon. This 'masculine vision', he states, is similar to that held by the Freikorps. Both groups are said to adhere to modernist notions of masculinity, sexuality and nationhood, reinforced by rituals which maintain boundaries between these 'proper' males and deviant 'others'. Occasionally, football hooligans breach these boundaries in acts of postmodern transgression. King also claims that fans link sex and violence in their imaginations. In this response I examine King's critique of his fellow theorists; challenge his 'Freikorps-Fans' analogy; demonstrate the problem he has in establishing the sex-violence link and question the relevance of his concept of postmodernity.     

Maximizing learning outcomes by videotaping nursing students' interactions with a standardized patient

1. Videotaping is a beneficial instructional methodology to help undergraduate students develop awareness of their strengths and opportunities for growth in therapeutic interactional skills. 2. Educational interventions with undergraduate students provide an opportunity to involve doctoral students in vital instruction, research, and knowledge dissemination through publication and presentation. 3. Allowing novice nurses to view their interactional skills with a simulated patient can reduce the anxiety they experience in first therapeutic encounters with assigned patients. 4. Continuous quality improvement in educational methodology is dependent on listening carefully to students who have invaluable feedback to offer and making appropriate correction as indicated.     

Health maintenance behaviors of individuals with severe and persistent mental illness in a state prison

The purpose of this grounded theory study is to define health and health-seeking behaviors of incarcerated individuals experiencing severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI) in a state prison. The strategies used to prevent loss of control and maintain health in the prison environment were examined. Nineteen incarcerated individuals with SPMI were interviewed in a state prison. Constant comparative analysis of the data revealed that while establishing a "fit" with the core variable "loss of control" and its identified properties, differences were found in the enactment of health maintenance behaviors related to properties in the prison environment. Several of these behaviors are inconsistent with behaviors expected of individuals in a community day treatment center and reflect a need for bridging programs to facilitate entry into the "free" world. Correctional nurses and mental health providers in this system can advocate for incarcerated individuals with SPMI by developing programs that provide cost-effective intermediate care and collaborating with community health systems for continuity of care. The findings related to alcohol and drug abuse among incarcerated individuals with SPMI challenges mental health providers in both correctional facilities and community-based programs to generate appropriate and effective substance abuse treatment programs for these individuals.     

Museums, friends, and lovers in the New South: Laura's Web, 1909-1931

Laura Bragg, a member of the first graduating class at Simmons College, journeyed to Charleston as a New Woman in 1909. As the first woman director of a major scientific museum in the United States, Bragg transformed the Charleston Museum into a public education institution and became an innovative leader in museum education. This article documents Bragg's contributions within the context of antebellum culture where the Southern Belle was placed on a Victorian pedestal and Boston marriages were an unknown phenomenon. Using extensive and hitherto unpublished correspondence, the authors detail Bragg's lesbian relationships and describe her network within the homosexual male community during the era of the Charleston Renaissance.     

Boater training, drinking and boating, and other unsafe boating practices

OBJECTIVES: Identify associations between lack of formal boater training, drinking and boating, and other unsafe boating practices. METHODS: A telephone survey queried respondents (age 16 or older in continental United States) about boating experience, type of boat used, and training. RESULTS: Of the 3,042 boaters surveyed (70% response), most had no formal training (73%). Boaters with formal training failed to use PFDs about as often as those without formal training and were equally or more likely to use alcohol while boating. CONCLUSIONS: The unexpected association between formal training and unsafe boating practices is probably due to reduced risk perception and inadequacies of boater training programs. Such programs seldom mention the risks of alcohol use while boating. Decisions to mandate formal training should be informed by these results; if mandated, training should address the risks of alcohol use while boating, and should be renewed frequently enough to offset reductions in risk perception.     

Beyond Empathic Failures: Cultural Racism as Narcissistic Trauma and Disenfranchisement of Grandiosity

Applying a self-psychological perspective, this paper explores the effects of cultural racism on a person's sense of self. Racism assaults victims with experiences of being perceived as less-than-human by the social milieu. Such experiences can utterly erode self-esteem and ambition and cause a depression of disenfranchisement whereby one feels abjectly ungrandiose. The paper utilizes a literary example and one from clinical experience to illustrate how chronic experiences of antipathy—derived from cultural racism—can erode a person's sense of self by virtue of the disenfranchisement of grandiosity.