In the Beginning...Phylogeny in Freud\u27s Overview of the Transference Neuroses: A Review-Essay

A PHYLOGENETIC FANTASY I. Grubrich-Simitis, editor A. Hoffer and P. T. Hoffer, translators Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass. 198

Relationship between Movement Quality, Functional Ambulation Status, and Spatiotemporal Gait Parameters in Children with Myelomeningocele.

Aims: We investigated relationships among the Pediatric Neuromuscular Recovery Scale (Peds NRS), modified Hoffer Scale, and spatiotemporal gait parameters in children with myelomeningocele (MMC). Methods: 21 children with MMC, age 5.3 years (SD = 2.6), were assessed by three clinicians using the Peds NRS and modified Hoffer Scale. In eight children, gait parameters were also measured. Results: The Peds NRS summary score demonstrated good correlation with modified Hoffer Scale score (r = -0.64, p = 0.002) that accounted for 41% of variation in summary score. Six Peds NRS seated/standing items exhibited good relationships with modified Hoffer Scale (r = -0.51 to -0.70, p≤ 0.023), and the sit-to-stand item demonstrated an excellent relationship (r = -0.85, ps = 0.81 to 0.88, p≤ 0.014), and swing and stance time (both Rs = -0.83 to -0.90, p≤ 0.01). Two Peds NRS standing items and modified Hoffer Scale score demonstrated good correlations with velocity (Rs = 0.71, p= 0.047; Rs = -0.73, p= 0.04, respectively). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that children with MMC who exhibit greater movement quality and trunk control are likely to be functional ambulators with more optimal spatiotemporal gait parameters

Eric Hoffer and the Significance of Reading

Eric Hoffer is a most unusual person. He was born in 1902 in New York City and taught himself to read English and German at the age of five. When he was seven years old, he suddenly and inexplicably went blind (Tomkins, 1968). At the age of 15, he mysteriously recovered his sight and became a voracious reader. Hoffer had no mentor or formal education during his youth or in his adult years, but he had books to read from the public libraries of California. After the death of his father in 1920 (his mother died when he was seven), Hoffer bought a bus ticket to Los Angeles and lived on Skid Row for the next ten years. During this time, he spent his days reading in the Los Angeles Central Library. He has been reading all his life-serious works of philosophy, science, biography, sociology, history, political science and the classics. Authors like Montaigne, the 16th century French essayist, became Hoffer\u27s mentoF. I can\u27t read French, and yet it\u27s the French who always influenced me. Montaigne, Pascal, Renan, Bergson -and de Tocqueville. What a pleasure to read de Tocquevillel They were my teachers. (Tomkins, 1968, p. 41). Hoffer was obviously influenced by the lucid, literary style of the French

The Hoffer and Osmond Theory and Treatment of Schizophrenia

Dr. Abram Hoffer and Dr. Humphrey Osmond have formulated a biochemical theory of schizophrenia based on a defective adrenal metabolism which results in the production of neurotoxins in the schizophrenic\u27s body. They have also developed a therapy for schizophrenia consisting of massive daily does of Vitamin B-3 (nicotinic acid) and other supplements. They detect schizophrenia by means of a chemical test (paper chromatography) and a psychological test (the Hoffer-Osmond Diagnostic test)

Book Review: The Free Press Crisis of 1800: Thomas Cooper\u27s Trial for Seditious Libel

This article was an invited book review of a book of the same title by Peter Charles Hoffer. Hoffer, Distinguished Research Professor of History at the University of Georgia, has published this accessible case history as part of the University Press of Kansas’s Landmark Law Cases & American Society series, which he co-edits. The book discusses one of the cases arising as a result of the Alien & Sedition Act under the presidency of John Adams, mostly targeting Republicans who editorialized against the Adams administration

The Relation between God and the World in the Pre-Critical Kant: Was Kant a Spinozist?

Andrew Chignell and Omri Boehm have recently argued that Kant’s pre-Critical proof for the existence of God entails a Spinozistic conception of God and hence substance monism. The basis for this reading is the assumption common in the literature that God grounds possibilities by exemplifying them. In this article I take issue with this assumption and argue for an alternative Leibnizian reading, according to which possibilities are grounded in essences united in God’s mind (later also described as Platonic ideas intuited by God). I show that this view about the distinction between God’s cognition of essences as the ground of possibility and the actual world is not only explicitly stated by Kant, but is also consistent with his metaphysical picture of teleology in nature and causality during the pre-Critical period. Finally, I suggest that the distinction between the conceptual order of essences embodied in the idea of God and the order of the objects of experience plays a role in the transition into the Critical system, where it is transformed into the distinction between the intelligible and the sensible worlds

Amelioration of Acute Sequelae of Blast Induced Mild Traumatic Brain Injury by N-Acetyl Cysteine: A Double-Blind, Placebo Controlled Study

Background: Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) secondary to blast exposure is the most common battlefield injury in Southwest Asia. There has been little prospective work in the combat setting to test the efficacy of new countermeasures. The goal of this study was to compare the efficacy of N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) versus placebo on the symptoms associated with blast exposure mTBI in a combat setting. Methods: This study was a randomized double blind, placebo-controlled study that was conducted on active duty service members at a forward deployed field hospital in Iraq. All symptomatic U.S. service members who were exposed to significant ordnance blast and who met the criteria for mTBI were offered participation in the study and 81 individuals agreed to participate. Individuals underwent a baseline evaluation and then were randomly assigned to receive either N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) or placebo for seven days. Each subject was re-evaluated at 3 and 7 days. Outcome measures were the presence of the following sequelae of mTBI: dizziness, hearing loss, headache, memory loss, sleep disturbances, and neurocognitive dysfunction. The resolution of these symptoms seven days after the blast exposure was the main outcome measure in this study. Logistic regression on the outcome of 'no day 7 symptoms' indicated that NAC treatment was significantly better than placebo (OR = 3.6, p = 0.006). Secondary analysis revealed subjects receiving NAC within 24 hours of blast had an 86% chance of symptom resolution with no reported side effects versus 42% for those seen early who received placebo. Conclusion: This study, conducted in an active theatre of war, demonstrates that NAC, a safe pharmaceutical countermeasure, has beneficial effects on the severity and resolution of sequelae of blast induced mTBI. This is the first demonstration of an effective short term countermeasure for mTBI. Further work on long term outcomes and the potential use of NAC in civilian mTBI is warranted. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00822263

Impeachment in America, 1635-1805

A Review of Impeachment in America, 1635-1805 by Peter Charles Hoffer and N.E.H. Hul