James Carmody interview

James (Jim) Carmody attended Central Washington College of Education (later Central Washington University), 1946-1950.https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/cwura_interviews/1012/thumbnail.jp

Civil Procedure—Environmental Class Actions: Economic Ramifications of the Rule 23 Nonaggregation Doctrine—Zahn v. International Paper Co., 414 U.S 291 (1973)

This note will examine the impact of Zahn v. International Paper Co. within the context of environmental litigation. It will briefly trace the history of the nonaggregation doctrine relied upon and reaffirmed by the Zahn majority, and describe the limitations imposed upon would-be federal plaintiffs by that doctrine. The note then will examine various alternative modes of adjudication, including the ancillary jurisdiction alternative suggested by dissenting Justice Brennan, which would have been preferable to the position adopted by the majority. Finally, and most importantly, the note will take a hard look at the deleterious economic effects of Zahn upon environmental plaintiffs, concluding that the inevitability of these economic effects justifies a result other than that reached by the Court

Re-Conceptualizing Mindfulness: The Psychological Principles of Attending in Mindfulness Practice and Their Role in Well-Being

In this chapter I attempt to address these issues, drawing on 45 years of practice in the three main Buddhist traditions, along with years of experience researching the clinical effects and mechanisms of MT, and finally teaching mindfulness practice to patients and clinicians. I first briefly describe the role that mindfulness and MT plays in the Buddhist religious and philosophical system, then comment on the disagreements and confusions that result from carrying over Buddhist conceptualizations of human suffering into Western science and clinical settings. I then describe the effect of this on both the development of MT research and the training of people in need. In an effort to offer solutions to these dilemmas, I address the basis of mental suffering using a Western scientific framework rather than a Buddhist one as a basis for explaining the value of mind training programs such as MT. I do this in two ways: First, I attempt to circumvent disagreements about both the meaning of mindfulness and the role of MT within a larger system of training by presenting an operational and needs-based conceptualization, based on evolutionary psychology, and of how practices typically taught in MT can reduce distress and increase well-being, including the genetically driven imperatives that make MT challenging and the value of mindfulness practice in diminishing their role in ongoing distress. Second, I discuss the commonalities that MT has (and does not have) with other evidence- based psychological and mind–body trainings. I argue for the clinical and scientific advantages of this approach, highlighting (1) the clinical utility of using concepts already familiar to many Western patients and clinicians; (2) the provision of a stronger empirical foundation for how mindfulness can best be explained and taught, instead of relying on traditional assumptions and/or presumed expert testimony; and (3) the contribution of this approach to the development of a unified theory of the mechanisms underlying psychological and mind–body programs designed to reduce distress and increase well-being. I close this chapter with a discussion of several challenges that this approach faces

Eastern and Western Approaches to Mindfulness: Similarities, Differences, and Clinical Implications

Buddhist‐derived and Western psychological approaches to clinical mindfulness appear to vary in their understandings of the construct, even as training in each results in improvements in well‐being. I describe the similarities and differences in these approaches that lead to misunderstandings in the clinical literature, including the often unstated personal commitment some clinicians and researchers have in the Buddhist system and view of meditation practice. All the programs ask participants to attend to their experience in particular ways, however, and the more general and clinically profitable question is what, if any, are the therapeutic properties they have in common. This question can be approached by examining the instructions participants are asked to follow in the trainings and in their everyday lives. Patients of different temperaments and backgrounds will find one approach more attractive than another. By delineating the qualities of attending the programs share and considering the ways each approach can complement the other and patients will be better served. This approach can also result in a better understanding of processes common across other mind–body training programs

Fish Discovering Water: Meditation as a Process of Recognition

The momentary processes creating our experience of the world are adaptive but have an affective downside in everyday life. These processes of attending form implicitly as part of development. This means that even as they are shaping the valence of our lives, they remain invisible in the way water is invisible to fish. By bringing a curious attention to these default habits, meditation facilitates their experiential recognition. This occurs through psychological principles that are described using culturally familiar constructs rather than traditional and dharma-related language and assumptions. Explaining it in this way highlights the commonality of these principles across mind-body programs and therapeutic modalities and facilitates explanations to patients as to why something like meditation may be useful. The chapter also discusses misunderstandings in the terms “meditation” and “practice,” and suggests we examine the cultural and political values that may be embedded in meditation as it develops in the West

Political Culture, Policy Liberalism, and the Strength of Journalist\u27s Privilege in the States

This study examined the relationships between the strength of states\u27 journalist\u27s privileges and state characteristics. The state characteristics included political culture and policy liberalism. The study created an index to identify and score several important components of journalist\u27s privilege in each state. The various components included the legal source of the privilege, when journalists could use the privilege, what types of information the privilege protected, and who could invoke the privilege. The study then used statistical tests to test the relationships between state characteristics and privilege strength. The results indicated that policy liberalism was a significant predictor of a state\u27s journalist\u27s privilege strength. Political culture was not related to privilege strength. In a larger context, the study\u27s results added evidence to a larger trend that policy liberalism influences state media law. The results also found that several states limited journalist\u27s privilege to traditional journalists. Only a small number of states have extended the privilege to non-traditional journalists, such as Internet journalists and book authors

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Change in Health-Related Behaviors

How best to support change in health-related behaviors is an important public health challenge. The role of mindfulness training in this process has received limited attention. We sought to explore whether mindfulness training is associated with changes in health-related behaviors. The Health Behaviors Questionnaire was used to obtain self-reported dietary behaviors, drinking, smoking, physical activity and sleep quality before and after attendance at an eight-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program. T-test for paired data and chi-square were used to compare pre-post intervention means and proportions of relevant variables with p = .05 as level of significance. Participants (n = 174; mean age 47 years, range: 19-68; 61 % female) reported significant improvements in dietary behaviors and sleep quality. Partial changes were seen in drinking and physical activity, and no change in smoking. In conclusion, mindfulness training promotes favorable changes in selected health-related behaviors deserving further study through randomized controlled trials