A Therapist's Perspective on Jewish Family Values

Family therapy has been deficient in accounting for the impact of ethnic, religious and racial values on success or failure in treating families. Jews do well in family therapy, and they readily become engaged in it. The favorable response of Jewish families is due to a set of values. This set is composed of high familism, high egalitarianism, high secularism, maternal intrusive-ness, verbal rather than physical aggressiveness, an assertive stance toward problem-solving, and the maintenance of a scapegoat theme. In treating Jewish families it is important to keep the entire set in mind rather than any one particular value.     

The variability of individual charitable giving in the US

Using five-year panel data, this study examines the various dimensions of the variability of individual charitable contributions at all income levels: the variation in the generosity of individuals and the variability of the individuals' giving over a five-year period. The study finds considerable variability of both kinds. One finding is that the variability of generosity is substantially greater at the higher income levels. Another finding is that variability is substantially less pronounced by observing a five-year period of an individual's generosity than by observing annual behaviour. One consequence is that a relatively small proportion of donors account for a large proportion of total giving. The popular reputation of the wealthy for generosity is actually due to the exceptional generosity of a minority rather than widespread generosity among the wealthy. Differences in generosity and variability of giving over time are both more pronounced among high-income donors. Results of the study have implications for research on charitable giving, for predicting the effects of tax policy changes on giving, and for fund-raising.The authors wish to acknowledge the valuable comments of Charles Clotfelter, Susan Rose-Ackerman, Jerry Schiff, Eugene Steuerle and participants in a conference on the non-profit sector at the Center for the Study of Philanthropy and Voluntarism at Duke University. The research was supported in part by Yale University's Institution for Social and Policy Studies (Program on Non-Profit Organisations). The views expressed are those of the authors alone and do not represent the views or policies of the above institutions or individuals.     

The great health policy debate of 2010

Moderator: Good evening. Tonight I will be moderating a debate on the Health Care System Salvage and Coverage Overhaul Act of 2010 (Senate Bill 1, with companion legislation in the House). The bill is awaiting final congressional action, and the issue is considered so important that all 14 major television networks are carrying this debate live, along with many radio networks and at least 1,873 Internet/World Wide Web sites. As you know, S.B. 1 would provide immediate federal aid to the 1,000 hospitals and health care systems that are currently in bankruptcy; extend government-subsidized coverage to the estimated 90 million Americans who lack it; return to the federal government a wide range of health care regulatory and payment activities that had been transferred to the states; and prohibit certain types of health care enterprises and services, chiefly proprietary delivery and managed care systems. At the moment, the chances of its passage are too close to call. Arguments in support of S.B. 1 will be presented tonight by Sen. Joseph P. Kennedy II, Democrat of Massachusetts; arguments in opposition to the bill will be presented by Sen. George W. Bush, Republican of Texas; and the view of the Independent Party will be presented by former Kansas Senator Nancy Kassebaum, who also speaks as chairman of the National Nonpartisan Commission to Save American Health Care. Senator Kennedy will begin.     

The eternal triangle: cost, access, and quality

No matter who is in charge of health policy, no matter what his or her ideological bent, no matter whether the economy is in boom or bust, three concerns stubbornly dominate the discussion: the cost of care, access to care, and the quality of care. The main variation among them is that normally each in turn receives the most attention from policy makers, payers, and the public, over time.     

Boundary issues in countertransference: A developmental perspective

In treatment, characterologically disturbed patients evoke affective and behavioral responses that are frequently antitherapeutic. Such responses reflect the therapist's involvement in a reciprocal relationship in which the patient attempts to communicate very early pathogenic experiences. In this process the therapist is induced to act in ways that replicate significant aspects of the patient's first reciprocal relationship. Problematic replications may be recognized and modified when therapists carefully monitor their own boundaries between thought, affect, and action. This developmental paradigm is particularly useful in resolving therapeutic impasses that result from the patient's need to use the therapist as a real rather than a symbolic object.     

A businessman's guide to the media

This paper was also addressed to the ‘Facing Realities’ theme of the EFMD Dublin Conference. The author, a newspaperman of long experience, covers the part information plays in the life of businessman: the vast area information media now cover, the necessity for discrimination, and the directions for future development.