Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Grisham's The Associate
This 373-page book is a great page-turner and a good book overall--he even does a reasonable conversion story--except for the very disappointing pages 374-390.
Charissa's mission 20091111
Subject: from Siracusa with love
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:07:03 +0100
From: Charissa Black
To: ...
Buon giorno!
So this week has been another great week in Siracusa! We are proud owners of a fixed toilet, and a new vegetable peeler.
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:07:03 +0100
From: Charissa Black
To: ...
Buon giorno!
So this week has been another great week in Siracusa! We are proud owners of a fixed toilet, and a new vegetable peeler.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Charissa's mission 20091015
| Subject: | Musings from Monday's Meeting |
|---|---|
| Date: | Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:57:37 +0200 |
| From: | Charissa Black |
| CC: | ... |
Buon giorno!
It's officially fall now (there are some torrential rains outside the door here), and I am wearing my little flight attendant type scarves and everything. Yet another fabulous week in Siracusa and Catania has flown by. (I'm what's called the sorella coordinatrice, and so I make sure that the other sorelle in Catania and Ragusa are doing ok...I'm so happy for the chance to see Ragusa next week :).
Monday we had a conference at Catania with all the missionaries from Sicily and so we heard many wonderful suggestions
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Charissa's mission 20091007
Subject: the week from slla black
Date: Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:49:07 +0200
From: Charissa Black
To: ...
Buona sera!
So it's a wonderful week here in Italy. I am just loving every minute of it! (I know, I say that every week. Sorry if these are just super monotonous, repetitive emails. But I really do love it...) It's been full of more tasty Sri Lankan fried things, a week full of
Date: Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:49:07 +0200
From: Charissa Black
To: ...
Buona sera!
So it's a wonderful week here in Italy. I am just loving every minute of it! (I know, I say that every week. Sorry if these are just super monotonous, repetitive emails. But I really do love it...) It's been full of more tasty Sri Lankan fried things, a week full of
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Charissa's mission 20090930
Subject: Saluti da Siracusa...did I use that already?
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:53:12 +0200
From: Charissa Black
CC: ...
Buon giorno!
Recently the sun has been back, we've been walking all over as usual, and we're very excited because this Saturday and Sunday is what's called General Conference.
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:53:12 +0200
From: Charissa Black
CC: ...
Buon giorno!
Recently the sun has been back, we've been walking all over as usual, and we're very excited because this Saturday and Sunday is what's called General Conference.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Monday, December 29, 2008
The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic
Monday, December 29, 2008 2:10 PM
Kevin Black wrote:
The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic, by Darby Penney and Peter Stastny. Jackson, TN: Bellevue Literary Press, 2008.
An MSW colleague of mine lent me this. Here is my note to her after I started reading it.
======================================
Dear _______,
I read the book you lent me about suitcases in an asylum’s attic, or at least I read about half of it. Unfortunately that was all I could stand. In case you are considering lending the book to others, especially students, I would like to share my thoughts on the book.
The authors have a stridently anti-psychiatry worldview, and do not admit their own biases. To give one example, after going on for pages about how the hospital was warehousing this guy against his will, they admit the hospital had repeatedly offered to place him out for over a decade and he had continually refused. Another example is saying that none of the patients had tried to kill themselves or others, but even in the stories I read there were patients who struck out at others, had the cops called for threats they made, etc., and they admit one person did try to starve himself. The authors do admit in one spot that there is inherent selection bias in choosing as they did to look at people whose luggage was left there—e.g. it selects for those without families, those who stayed until they died, etc.—but do not appreciate in the rest of the book that this bias could explain a lot of the things that they point out as recurrent themes in these patients. There are a lot of similar examples that I’m not quoting here, but I can bring in my notes if you’re interested.
More importantly, there are numerous factual errors, like saying that there is no evidence that antipsychotics reduce emotional symptoms in people with schizophrenia. That’s just silly—there are many dozens of randomized controlled trials that prove that very point. The authors appear to assume that if one would just talk to the patients, they would get better. They supply no details of how this would be done, and no evidence for the effectiveness of this approach, yet it seems this is one of their main complaints about how the patients were treated. Ironically this also directs attention away from the non-medication intervention that is most proven to work in schizophrenia: family education.
Plus there are repeated insinuations that psychiatrists are motivated mostly by greed and ignorance and paternalism. I’m sure this describes some psychiatrists some of the time, and it does appear that mistakes were made in the care of some of these patients and that some of them could have been sent home (if they had a home). But it is not only factually wrong but also mean-spirited to assume that’s always what is going on. This is frequently accompanied by “scare quotes,” like saying that hospitals wouldn’t release names of patients at their death ‘due to “confidentiality” concerns.’ Additionally, the authors are upset that patients seemed to get no useful treatment, but the book covers only the first half of the 20th Century, and in fact there were no useful treatments for schizophrenia at that point in time, and only one really useful treatment for major depression, and that after about the 30's. The repeated implication is that patients still get no useful treatments today. Similar comments could be made about the authors’ description of unmodified ECT, which hasn’t been used in America for decades now.
Finally the authors endorse some really wacky, out-there stuff, like saying explicitly that hallucinations are to be welcomed not treated. The book repeatedly implies that the patients’ symptoms—which, when described, are often quite serious—would not really be a problem for the patients if the psychiatrists would just stay out of the way.
The stories are actually interesting, and the authors obviously invested a lot of work in researching the patients’ lives, so it is a shame that the book is full of dangerous misinformation and hateful innuendo.
Thanks,
Kevin
Sunday, January 04, 2009 1:08 AM
Kevin Black wrote:
About my comment that there were no effective treatments in the early 1900s . . . it's not quite accurate, though it is true that the first effective specific treatment for schizophrenia was not discovered until the late 1950's. Actually, leaving aside belladonna, opium, magnesium salts, and other naturally occurring pharmaceuticals, chloral hydrate was synthesized as early as 1869. Apomorphine was synthesized in the same year and soon thereafter was tried as a treatment for schizophrenia (marketed today in the U.S. for treating Parkinson disease; it has no pharmacologic similarity to morphine despite the name). Barbiturates were first sold for medical use in 1903-1904. The psychiatrist Wagner von Jauregg received the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine in 1927 for his fever therapy for neurosyphilis--actually giving people malaria on purpose to provoke bouts of fever, then giving quinine to kill off the malaria. (That may sound nuts now, but if you read the Nobel speeches, available online, quantitative response data were available, and at the time this was dramatically more effective than previously available therapy for this [then] major cause of psychiatric illness. Still, his public health work with iodine therapy for dementia due to dietary hypothyroidism is generally felt to be a more long-lasting contribution.) ECT (for schizophrenia), lithium salts (for mania) and amphetamine (for what we now call ADHD) were all introduced in about 1937. They are all still important mainstays of treatment, though ECT's efficacy for schizophrenia is quite limited and it is now used primarily for treating mood disorders. It is still the most effective known treatment for major depression.
Kevin Black wrote:
The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic, by Darby Penney and Peter Stastny. Jackson, TN: Bellevue Literary Press, 2008.
An MSW colleague of mine lent me this. Here is my note to her after I started reading it.
======================================
Dear _______,
I read the book you lent me about suitcases in an asylum’s attic, or at least I read about half of it. Unfortunately that was all I could stand. In case you are considering lending the book to others, especially students, I would like to share my thoughts on the book.
The authors have a stridently anti-psychiatry worldview, and do not admit their own biases. To give one example, after going on for pages about how the hospital was warehousing this guy against his will, they admit the hospital had repeatedly offered to place him out for over a decade and he had continually refused. Another example is saying that none of the patients had tried to kill themselves or others, but even in the stories I read there were patients who struck out at others, had the cops called for threats they made, etc., and they admit one person did try to starve himself. The authors do admit in one spot that there is inherent selection bias in choosing as they did to look at people whose luggage was left there—e.g. it selects for those without families, those who stayed until they died, etc.—but do not appreciate in the rest of the book that this bias could explain a lot of the things that they point out as recurrent themes in these patients. There are a lot of similar examples that I’m not quoting here, but I can bring in my notes if you’re interested.
More importantly, there are numerous factual errors, like saying that there is no evidence that antipsychotics reduce emotional symptoms in people with schizophrenia. That’s just silly—there are many dozens of randomized controlled trials that prove that very point. The authors appear to assume that if one would just talk to the patients, they would get better. They supply no details of how this would be done, and no evidence for the effectiveness of this approach, yet it seems this is one of their main complaints about how the patients were treated. Ironically this also directs attention away from the non-medication intervention that is most proven to work in schizophrenia: family education.
Plus there are repeated insinuations that psychiatrists are motivated mostly by greed and ignorance and paternalism. I’m sure this describes some psychiatrists some of the time, and it does appear that mistakes were made in the care of some of these patients and that some of them could have been sent home (if they had a home). But it is not only factually wrong but also mean-spirited to assume that’s always what is going on. This is frequently accompanied by “scare quotes,” like saying that hospitals wouldn’t release names of patients at their death ‘due to “confidentiality” concerns.’ Additionally, the authors are upset that patients seemed to get no useful treatment, but the book covers only the first half of the 20th Century, and in fact there were no useful treatments for schizophrenia at that point in time, and only one really useful treatment for major depression, and that after about the 30's. The repeated implication is that patients still get no useful treatments today. Similar comments could be made about the authors’ description of unmodified ECT, which hasn’t been used in America for decades now.
Finally the authors endorse some really wacky, out-there stuff, like saying explicitly that hallucinations are to be welcomed not treated. The book repeatedly implies that the patients’ symptoms—which, when described, are often quite serious—would not really be a problem for the patients if the psychiatrists would just stay out of the way.
The stories are actually interesting, and the authors obviously invested a lot of work in researching the patients’ lives, so it is a shame that the book is full of dangerous misinformation and hateful innuendo.
Thanks,
Kevin
Sunday, January 04, 2009 1:08 AM
Kevin Black wrote:
About my comment that there were no effective treatments in the early 1900s . . . it's not quite accurate, though it is true that the first effective specific treatment for schizophrenia was not discovered until the late 1950's. Actually, leaving aside belladonna, opium, magnesium salts, and other naturally occurring pharmaceuticals, chloral hydrate was synthesized as early as 1869. Apomorphine was synthesized in the same year and soon thereafter was tried as a treatment for schizophrenia (marketed today in the U.S. for treating Parkinson disease; it has no pharmacologic similarity to morphine despite the name). Barbiturates were first sold for medical use in 1903-1904. The psychiatrist Wagner von Jauregg received the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine in 1927 for his fever therapy for neurosyphilis--actually giving people malaria on purpose to provoke bouts of fever, then giving quinine to kill off the malaria. (That may sound nuts now, but if you read the Nobel speeches, available online, quantitative response data were available, and at the time this was dramatically more effective than previously available therapy for this [then] major cause of psychiatric illness. Still, his public health work with iodine therapy for dementia due to dietary hypothyroidism is generally felt to be a more long-lasting contribution.) ECT (for schizophrenia), lithium salts (for mania) and amphetamine (for what we now call ADHD) were all introduced in about 1937. They are all still important mainstays of treatment, though ECT's efficacy for schizophrenia is quite limited and it is now used primarily for treating mood disorders. It is still the most effective known treatment for major depression.
Breyer, Active Liberty: Interpreting Our Democratic Constitution
Monday, December 29, 2008 2:05 PM
Kevin Black wrote:
Well, lots of books under the bridge since that last post, if you'll forgive a mixed metaphor. Most have been forgettable. Maybe I'll add some of them later. Here are a couple of more recent ones.
Active Liberty: Interpreting Our Democratic Constitution (Breyer)
I'm still in the tail end of this book but have read and thought about the main exposition of his ideas in the first half. I'd say I am glad to have read this, and I think it clarifies for me how Breyer and those who agree with his relatively activist constitutional interpretation can do so without being motivated entirely by contempt for the electorate and the legislature. Still, I am not persuaded by his main point. I think his argument could be nearly summarized thus: "I'm not saying, ignore the text and legislative context and make the decision that I believe is right; I'm saying, think carefully about what decision I believe will best improve citizen participation in democracy." The problem of course is that "what I believe is right" and "what I believe will best improve ... democracy" are very nearly the same thing. I think the latter is more of a fig leaf for the former than a substantively different approach. But I am trying to be open-minded about it as I read the rest of the book.
Kevin Black wrote:
Well, lots of books under the bridge since that last post, if you'll forgive a mixed metaphor. Most have been forgettable. Maybe I'll add some of them later. Here are a couple of more recent ones.
Active Liberty: Interpreting Our Democratic Constitution (Breyer)
I'm still in the tail end of this book but have read and thought about the main exposition of his ideas in the first half. I'd say I am glad to have read this, and I think it clarifies for me how Breyer and those who agree with his relatively activist constitutional interpretation can do so without being motivated entirely by contempt for the electorate and the legislature. Still, I am not persuaded by his main point. I think his argument could be nearly summarized thus: "I'm not saying, ignore the text and legislative context and make the decision that I believe is right; I'm saying, think carefully about what decision I believe will best improve citizen participation in democracy." The problem of course is that "what I believe is right" and "what I believe will best improve ... democracy" are very nearly the same thing. I think the latter is more of a fig leaf for the former than a substantively different approach. But I am trying to be open-minded about it as I read the rest of the book.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Charissa's mission 20081119
Sorella Charissa Black wrote:
Sicilian greetings...ca tutto va beh...
11/19/2008 4:58 AM
Buon giorno tutti,
So, this week has been wonderful. I only have a few minutes to write thanks to a virus filled computer
Sicilian greetings...ca tutto va beh...
11/19/2008 4:58 AM
Buon giorno tutti,
So, this week has been wonderful. I only have a few minutes to write thanks to a virus filled computer
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Charissa's mission 20081112
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Charissa's mission 20081105
Sorella Charissa Black wrote:
Another letter from Ragusa!
11/5/2008 4:44 AM
Buon giorno!
This past week has been wonderful...last wednesday we went to the Marina di Ragusa to play a little soccer on the beach, and I am constantly amazed by the beautiful world God made for us. Thursday we went to a little paesino called
Another letter from Ragusa!
11/5/2008 4:44 AM
Buon giorno!
This past week has been wonderful...last wednesday we went to the Marina di Ragusa to play a little soccer on the beach, and I am constantly amazed by the beautiful world God made for us. Thursday we went to a little paesino called
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Charissa's mission 20081029
Sorella Charissa Black wrote:
Happy Giorno di Moltisanti this Saturday!
10/29/2008 5:34 AM
Buon giorno amici,
So there is no Halloween here, but on all saints day (Nov 1st) everyone goes and puts flowers on graves. Also it is olive gathering time, everyone is out helping people, and it is really wonderful to think about olives and their symbolism throughout
Happy Giorno di Moltisanti this Saturday!
10/29/2008 5:34 AM
Buon giorno amici,
So there is no Halloween here, but on all saints day (Nov 1st) everyone goes and puts flowers on graves. Also it is olive gathering time, everyone is out helping people, and it is really wonderful to think about olives and their symbolism throughout
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Charissa's mission 20081022
Sorella Charissa Black wrote:
How to feel happier...
10/22/2008 4:53 AM
Buona giornata!
I hope all of you have had a wonderful week. Recently, I have been thinking about this idea that if we want to become truly Christlike we need to serve the people around us instead of wanting things for ourselves. As a mission rule
How to feel happier...
10/22/2008 4:53 AM
Buona giornata!
I hope all of you have had a wonderful week. Recently, I have been thinking about this idea that if we want to become truly Christlike we need to serve the people around us instead of wanting things for ourselves. As a mission rule
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Charissa's mission 20081015
Sorella Charissa Black wrote:
Ricotta, Albania, Nigeria, Australia...
10/15/2008 4:26 AM
Buon giorno da Ragusa!
It's the start of another wonderful transfer (6 week period of time) here with Sorella Bernabé. I probably will be here until Christmas with her in this wonderful city. For a quick update on life here: It's officially ricotta and ricotta calda time now,
Ricotta, Albania, Nigeria, Australia...
10/15/2008 4:26 AM
Buon giorno da Ragusa!
It's the start of another wonderful transfer (6 week period of time) here with Sorella Bernabé. I probably will be here until Christmas with her in this wonderful city. For a quick update on life here: It's officially ricotta and ricotta calda time now,
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Charissa's mission 20081009
Sorella Charissa Black wrote:
A temple is coming to Rome!
10/9/2008 12:38 AM
Buon giorno tutti!!
So for those of you who read the title and are thinking, «a what?» here is a brief explanation. This past weekend
A temple is coming to Rome!
10/9/2008 12:38 AM
Buon giorno tutti!!
So for those of you who read the title and are thinking, «a what?» here is a brief explanation. This past weekend
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