Blind Spot

pages 16-2

History, power, and electricity: American popular magazine accounts of electroconvulsive therapy, 1940–2005

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a psychiatric treatment that has been in use in the United States since the 1940s. During the whole of its existence, it has been extensively discussed and debated within American popular magazines. While initial reports of the treatment highlighted its benefits to patients, accounts by the 1970s and 1980s were increasingly polarized. This article analyzes the popular accounts over time, particularly the ways in which the debates over ECT have revolved around different interpretations of ECT's history and its power dynamics. © 2008Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/57903/1/20283_ftp.pd

From hero of the counterculture to risk assessment : a consideration of two portrayals of the “psychiatric patient”

This article is based on a comparative thematic analysis of two novels that explore the experiences of institutional psychiatric care. Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a classic of modern U.S. literature. It is argued here that Kesey’s representation of the “psychiatric patient” as rebel was not only a reflection of some the changing societal attitudes in postwar America, but it also helped to shape them. The challenge to the asylum system was thus cast in terms of questions of the civil rights of a marginalized group. The main themes of the novel reflect those of protesters against the abuses of the asylum system—the poor physical conditions, the social isolation of the patients, poor physical care and abuse, and the use of ECT and psychosurgery. The rebellious spirit of Kesey’s work is contrasted with a recent novel—Nathan Filer’s 2012 award-winning The Shock of the Fall. In Filer’s work, the optimism and challenge to authority has dissipated to be replaced by a resigned fatalism reflecting the current crisis in mental health services

Cultural political economy and urban heritage tourism

The paper explains a cultural political economy “framing” for interpreting heritage tourism in urban contexts. Key ideas behind this research perspective are explained and illustrated through discussion of past research studies of urban heritage tourism. It is underpinned by a relational view of the inter-connectedness of societal relations, and an emphasis on taking seriously both the cultural/semiotic and the economic/political in the co-constitution of urban heritage tourism’s social practices and features. A case study of heritage tourism in Nanjing, China considers cultural political economy’s relevance and value, including the distinctive research questions it raises. It reveals, for example, how economic relations in the built environment were related to tourist meaning-making and identities in the cultural/semiotic sphere

Ken Kesey, 5th Annual ODU Literary Festival

Ken Kesey is best known for his novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo\u27s Nest, published in 1962 and eventually made into a motion picture of the same title. His second novel, Sometimes a Great Notion, was published in 1964 by Viking Press. Kesey\u27s stories have appeared in the Northwest Review, Ramparts, The Last Whole Earth Catalog, Oui, and Tri-Quarterly. In 1982, he traveled to China where he covered the first Chinese Marathon for Runner\u27s World magazine. Kesey\u27s appearance on campus is made possible by ODU\u27s Activities Programming Board

Reading: Ken Kesey

In this audiovisual recording from March 18, 1975 as part of the 6th annual UND Writers Conference: “Spirit of Place,” Ken Kesey reads from One Flew Over the Cuckoo\u27s Nest and a selection of pieces from an issue of Spit in the Ocean, including the poems “The Time the Drunk Came to Town and Got Drunker Than the Skunk, or so he Thought” by Walt Curtis and Margaret Bergan\u27s “How to Grow Old Gracefully,” a piece of correspondence with Henry Crow Dog, and a short story by Ken Kesey titled “Good Friday.

The Impact Of The Uruguay Round’s Tariff Reductions on United States Imports

This paper examines the impact of trade liberalization achieved through multilateral trade negotiations of the Uruguay Round on United States imports. It analyzes results in a systematically differentiated response from the participant countries depending upon their level of economic development. With use of disaggregated product level data and Harmonize System code (HS – 8 digit classification) this paper analyzes the impact of tariff reductions in detail in terms of product classification. The multinomial logit model is used in the study to estimate export status of a given country for a given product before and after the Uruguay Round’s concessions have been put into place. Results indicate that by controlling economic size, and trade agreements the Uruguay Round’s tariff concessions have a strong impact in improving international trade for countries at all levels of development