The Sanity of Furor Poeticus: Romanticism’s Demystification of Madness and Creativity

Art and medicine have historically exchanged axioms for understanding mental illness, negotiating a lexicon with which afflicted artists can articulate their experience. This exchange, however, has been problematic. The mentally ill have had to conform to explanatory paradigms that are often inadequate, and cultural mores stemming from the scientific misunderstanding of “madness” have often stigmatized mental illness. These include misconceptions about the source of creative genius as residing in either the divine or the unconscious, the cultural fashioning of the “mad poet” identity, and the idealization of certain types of mental illness as “artistically valuable.” This study will show, however, that the European Romantic movement in the early 19th century contained psychologically afflicted poets who were able to use tropes of “madness” in inventive ways to articulate a more insightful account of the interplay between mental illness and the creative process than could be found in existing paradigms of mental illness. Furthermore, I contend that these poets were able to respond to their period’s flawed paradigms by sardonically using these tropes to subvert convention and, in doing so, help shift the paradigm. The poetry of John Keats and Samuel Taylor Coleridge is examined alongside that of Charles Baudelaire to elucidate the important role that these poets had in advancing discourse on mental illness and creativity into our contemporary period

Catholic Moral Teaching and Natural Law: Changing the Way We Think About and Teach Professional Legal Ethics

Lawyers have had a hand in virtually every financial scandal in recent news. These lawyers are hired to advise clients about how to structure hedge funds, financial products, and financial transactions. Because global economies are becoming more interconnected, when large and risky financial transactions fail, they shake the stability of markets around the world. The “hired gun” mentality is prevalent throughout the legal profession. In this mindset, lawyers believe that because they are engaged by a client, they must do their client’s bidding, and must be singularly focused on their client’s sole interests. Can we do anything to encourage lawyers to consider not only the interests of their individual clients, but also the ramifications of their actions on the common good? A lawyer’s conduct is deemed “unethical” if it fails to meet standards set forth in the professional ethics rules of the states in which they practice. If the bar association of any state wants to deter additional forms of conduct, the mechanism in place today would require the enactment of higher statutory standards. Our society and our profession should demand more than the present overly narrow focus on the individual good of the client, especially where such focus has serious negative repercussions on the good of society. We should demand that lawyers act not only as competent legal professionals, but also as good citizens and morally upright human beings. On this score, our Catholic moral tradition—-which teaches that human flourishing comes through the development of good moral character—-has much to offer to the discussion of legal ethics. If our Catholic faith aids in our moral development as human beings, should it not also affect the way we view and exercise our chosen profession? Now is the time for Catholic lawyers and law schools to take a leadership role in cultivating moral judgment and good character in lawyers. Academics are uncovering the historical efforts to change Catholic legal education. Moral theologians are reformulating thirteenth-century natural law principles and the tradition of virtue ethics that underpins them so that they may be usefully applied to modern realities. Building upon these recent developments, this Article argues that Catholic law schools should educate their pupils in the moral tradition of natural law, and Catholic lawyers should seek to integrate this tradition into their day-to-day practice, especially in the area of professional ethics. In other words, Catholic lawyers and Catholic law schools are uniquely positioned to help in the renewal of the ethical principles of our profession, and have an obligation to change the way we think about and teach professional legal ethics

Radical Roots

While all history has the potential to be political, public history is uniquely so: public historians engage in historical inquiry outside the bubble of scholarly discourse, relying on social networks, political goals, practices, and habits of mind that differ from traditional historians. Radical Roots: Public History and a Tradition of Social Justice Activism theorizes and defines public history as future-focused, committed to the advancement of social justice, and engaged in creating a more inclusive public record. Edited by Denise D. Meringolo and with contributions from the field’s leading figures, this groundbreaking collection addresses major topics such as museum practices, oral history, grassroots preservation, and community-based learning. It demonstrates the core practices that have shaped radical public history, how they have been mobilized to promote social justice, and how public historians can facilitate civic discourse in order to promote equality

The Role of Health Professionals in Community Based Programs

The research is part of a project promoted by the Municipality of Florence in order to planning a program of HIV prevention and promoting the access to free HIV test. Theoretical approaches come from studies about health attitudes, healthy behavior and perceived control on wellbeing (Albarracin, Kumkale, &Johnson,2004; Davis, Hughes, Sloan, Tang, & McMaster, 2009; Fishbein,2008), different interventions in health promotion (Boone & Lefkowitz, 2004; Fortenberry, Tu, Harezlak, Katz & Orr, 2002; Harper, Bangi, Contreras, Pedraza Tolliver & Vess, 2004), importance of professionals (Durantini, Albarracin, Mitchell, Earl, & Gillette, 2006; Fisher, Bryan, & Misovich, 2002), particularly general practitioners (Schreibman & Friedland, 2003). The purpose of the research is to identify useful indications for community based interventions addressed to adult people. Our aim is collecting information about professionals’ perception of citizens’ attitude and behavior in order to find strengths and weakness in health promotion activities carried out by public services. The qualitative study was aimed to investigate attitudes towards the primary and secondary prevention, and willingness and motivation to taking HIV test. Participants were physicians, psychologists and volunteers, involved in health services addressed both to the whole of population (e.g. professionals working in surgeries and in consulting rooms) and to HIV positive people. Instrument was a semi-structured interview for exploring professionals’ perception of patients’ attitudes towards this disease, risky behaviors, preventive behaviors and evaluation about health services practices. Findings show a positive evaluation of available health services and their cooperation in facing the problem, despite difficulties in involving all the professionals. Prevention follows well-established paths but is not able to reach all citizens. There is a need of a wider information, and prevention involving people as individuals and groups. General practitioners may have a critical and important role, because of their trust relationship with their patients, and can be able to disseminate preventive practices

The Role of Health Professionals in Community Based Programs

The research is part of a project promoted by the Municipality of Florence in order to planning a program of HIV prevention and promoting the access to free HIV test. Theoretical approaches come from studies about health attitudes, healthy behavior and perceived control on wellbeing (Albarracin, Kumkale, &Johnson,2004; Davis, Hughes, Sloan, Tang, & McMaster, 2009; Fishbein,2008), different interventions in health promotion (Boone & Lefkowitz, 2004; Fortenberry, Tu, Harezlak, Katz & Orr, 2002; Harper, Bangi, Contreras, Pedraza Tolliver & Vess, 2004), importance of professionals (Durantini, Albarracin, Mitchell, Earl, & Gillette, 2006; Fisher, Bryan, & Misovich, 2002), particularly general practitioners (Schreibman & Friedland, 2003). The purpose of the research is to identify useful indications for community based interventions addressed to adult people. Our aim is collecting information about professionals’ perception of citizens’ attitude and behavior in order to find strengths and weakness in health promotion activities carried out by public services. The qualitative study was aimed to investigate attitudes towards the primary and secondary prevention, and willingness and motivation to taking HIV test. Participants were physicians, psychologists and volunteers, involved in health services addressed both to the whole of population (e.g. professionals working in surgeries and in consulting rooms) and to HIV positive people. Instrument was a semi-structured interview for exploring professionals’ perception of patients’ attitudes towards this disease, risky behaviors, preventive behaviors and evaluation about health services practices. Findings show a positive evaluation of available health services and their cooperation in facing the problem, despite difficulties in involving all the professionals. Prevention follows well-established paths but is not able to reach all citizens. There is a need of a wider information, and prevention involving people as individuals and groups. General practitioners may have a critical and important role, because of their trust relationship with their patients, and can be able to disseminate preventive practices

Self-presentation and emotional contagion on Facebook: new experimental measures of profiles' emotional coherence

Social Networks allow users to self-present by sharing personal contents with others which may add comments. Recent studies highlighted how the emotions expressed in a post affect others' posts, eliciting a congruent emotion. So far, no studies have yet investigated the emotional coherence between wall posts and its comments. This research evaluated posts and comments mood of Facebook profiles, analyzing their linguistic features, and a measure to assess an excessive self-presentation was introduced. Two new experimental measures were built, describing the emotional loading (positive and negative) of posts and comments, and the mood correspondence between them was evaluated. The profiles "empathy", the mood coherence between post and comments, was used to investigate the relation between an excessive self-presentation and the emotional coherence of a profile. Participants publish a higher average number of posts with positive mood. To publish an emotional post corresponds to get more likes, comments and receive a coherent mood of comments, confirming the emotional contagion effect reported in literature. Finally, the more empathetic profiles are characterized by an excessive self-presentation, having more posts, and receiving more comments and likes. To publish emotional contents appears to be functional to receive more comments and likes, fulfilling needs of attention-seeking.Comment: Submitted to Complexit