Fall 2020

A Psychobiographical and Psycho-Political Investigation of Biden and Trump in Troubled Times, Paul H. Elovitz

Abstract: The article compares and contrasts Democratic presidential candidate Joseph Biden Jr. to Republican President Donald Trump, examining their family backgrounds, childhoods, defense mechanisms, careers, life traumas, styles of leadership, and values.  It looks at how their relationships with their father, mother, and siblings shaped their present-day personalities.  It analyzes how their childrearing impacted their political approach, predisposing Biden to become a more caring, empathetic politician and Trump a more narcissistic, authoritarian one.  It examines the importance of women in their lives ranging from their mothers to their wives and others.  It specifically focuses on Biden’s love for his family and the painful losses he has endured.

Psychopharmacology for the Psycho-Historian: The Evils of “Big Pharma,” Lobbying, Corruption and Serious Side Effects of Medications, Jamshid A. Marvasti, MD & Claire C. Olivier, MSW

“Doctors pour drugs of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, into patients of which they know nothing.” Moliere (1622-1673, French dramatist)

Abstract:  Psychohistorians have an interest in  understanding terrorism, gun violence, suicide, homicide, war crimes and other forms of criminal activities. In some of these situations side effects of medications, often psychotropics were considered a contributing factor to the violence and aggression involved in these acts. There are cases of war criminals who claimed their medications caused them to murder innocent civilians. In several mass gun shooting, the gun industry claimed that the offender was on psychiatric medication and claimed that mental sickness and the side effect of medication caused their homicidality. In several civil cases, drug manufacturers have been sued and a number of them settled their case without a court finding and without claiming responsibility for any wrong doing. However, in other cases they were held liable resulting in million-dollar fines. We review scientific articles on the side effects of psychiatric medications and the presence of any connection to violence, suicide and criminal activities. We also explore corruption in a number of pharmaceutical companies and their financial relationship with government officials and prescribers.

The Freudian Social Unconscious & Marketing Wishes, Jon Vincent Dzitko

Propaganda, conducted by the means which advertisers have found successful, is now one of the recognized methods of government…and is especially the method by which democratic opinion is created.

Bertrand Russell, “Free Thought & Official Propaganda,” 1922

Abstract: This applied psychoanalytic essay critically examines the connections between public relations, American consumer society, Edward Bernays, women’s suffrage, and Freudian operationalism as a productive field of symbolic exchange during the 1920s. The essay closes by proposing several other intersecting theoretical points on the social unconscious and its connection to historical and contemporary critique.

The Trump Administration’s Attack on Unaccompanied Immigrant Children and Their Family Members, Sarah Caspari

 Abstract: The political climate at the time of this writing can be characterized as one of sensationalized fear and demonization of the immigrant in America. This paper aims to analyze one short-lived federal policy that affected tens of thousands of unaccompanied immigrant children and their family members between 2018 and 2019, and how the agenda of the administration that enacted it usurped the pro-immigrant, pro-child and family welfare mission of one of the two agencies responsible for drafting and executing the policy. Further, this paper attempts to place the policy within its psychohistorical context by exploring and applying the existing research on the psychological and cultural underpinnings of anti-immigrant sentiment.

 Introduction

Before the year 2014, the term “unaccompanied minor” likely conjured only one image in the minds of most Americans – some variation of a small child boarding an airplane, gripping the handle of a junior-sized suitcase in one hand and a flight attendant’s manicured fingers in the other. However, during the summer of that year, the news cycle became dominated by images of young, brown faces and by stories of a different kind of unaccompanied minors. These were not children being sent to visit their grandparents in Florida over summer vacation; they were undocumented youth who had been apprehended by U.S. immigration authorities after entering the United States without their parents. Instead of receiving warm hugs and plates of freshly baked cookies upon arrival at their destination, these children received a Notice to Appear in immigration court and a thin blanket that looked like it could have been made of aluminum foil. Instead of taking day trips to the lake, these children took one-way trips to shelters operated by nonprofit agencies contracted by the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), where they would wait to be reunified with a relative in the United States, if they had one.

The Impact of Anomie and Societal Splitting on the Self: Suicide amongst Members of the Travelling Community of Ireland, Gillian O’Shea Brown

Abstract: Members of the Travelling Community, an indigenous ethnic minority in Ireland, have traditionally lived on the margins of Irish society and have been identified as a high-risk group for suicide (Central Statistics Office, 2016; AITHS, 2010). This article investigates, through a literature review, the impact of anomie and societal level splitting on the Traveller self-identity as attributing factors to increased rates of suicide. Aspects such as their cultural heritage and their distinctive way of life are explored with special consideration of the implications of societal splitting and anomie.  Recommendations are proposed to ameliorate the issue with the hope of reversing the impacts of anomie and societal splitting to prevent further loss of human life.

Keywords: Travellers; suicide, societal splitting, anomie, trauma

INTRODUCTIONDevelopment of the self is a process most often occurring below conscious awareness. Different parts of self emerge early in the formation of the social, cultural, personal, ethnic, racial, sexual, national and peer identities, all of which cumulatively form the self. A sense of self begins in the formative years, influenced from birth through infancy by attachment figures and other role models. Eventually identity and personality become more solidified in adulthood (Bowlby, 1980; Kirshner, 1991; Kohut, 1977; Richards, 1982). Human behavior being complex and nuanced, makes understanding the self an arduous and ambiguous pursuit.

         Travellers are an indigenous ethnic minority in Ireland who have traditionally lived on the margins of Irish society. This paper will first describe the unique culture and origins of this ethnic group. Subsequently, the divergent perspectives of what constitutes the self in relation to the identity of Irish Travellers and the inferred societal splitting shall be explored. This is followed by an exploration of the concept of anomie and its relationship to suicidality and an  analysis of the impact of oppression and discrimination on Members of the Travelling Community, hereafter ‘Travellers’….