Triangulation of rights, balancing of interests : exploring the tensions between freedom of conscience and freedom of religion in comparative constitutional law

La liberté de religion, souvent reconnue comme étant la « première liberté » dans de nombreuses traditions juridiques, reflète également les différentes conceptions de la place de l’individu et de la communauté dans la société. Notre étude analysera les modèles constitutionnels canadien, américain et européen de liberté de religion et conscience. Dans un premier chapitre, nous examinerons les conceptions théoriques de la religion dans les sciences sociales ainsi les approches juridiques afin de mieux cerner comment la religion est conçue et de plus, comprendre les diverses influences sur sa conceptualisation. Dans un second et troisième chapitre, nous tenterons d’une part, de qualifier la relation entre la liberté de conscience et la liberté de religion au Canada en nous livrant à une analyse approfondie des deux libertés et d’autre part, d’identifier les questions qui demeurent irrésolues. Dans le chapitre final, nous observerons comment la liberté de conscience a été interprétée dans les contextes américain et dans l’Union Européenne, par le biais de la Cour Européenne des droits de l’Homme. Notre hypothèse est que l’on peut arriver à une meilleure compréhension de la relation entre les libertés de conscience et religion en clarifiant les conceptions théoriques de la religion et de la conscience en droit constitutionnel comparé.

The psychological origin and the nature of religion /

"Magic and religion": p. 48-79.

Lowell lectures, on the application of metaphysical and ethical science to the evidence of religion;

Mode of access: Internet.

Religion & art; a study in the evolution of sculpture, painting and architecture,

Translation of: Religione e arte figurata.

Youth, Religion and Participation : Theoretical and Methodological Approaches

This roundtable session focus on religious and social change as well as democracy and political culture, startingfrom the role of youth in these processes. The role of religion in young people’s participation is a key theme inthe cross-disciplinary network “youth and religion” connected to the Impact program. Participation here includesboth citizens’ “vertical” capacities to make their voices heard and influence decision-makers in the political system(e.g. via elections or civic organizations and social movements) and their “horizontal” capacities to communicateand cooperate with other people (within society at large or certain associations/communities). The participants ofthe session will present influential theories and methodologies used to study participation among youth within theresearch disciplines they represent (i.e. sociology of religion; theology; ethnology; political science). This will befollowed by a joint discussion of how these theories and methodologies have approached religious involvement witha particular focus on youth’s participation in politics, civil society as well as social media and the internet. The aim ofthe session is to look for common themes and new issues that can guide contemporary studies of participation in thefield of youth and religion. The session is open to conference participants interested in the issues discussed.

A social role for churches and cultural demarcation:how German MEPs represent religion in the European Parliament

This study deals with the question of how German members of the European Parliament (MEPs) represent the German model of religion–state relations at the European level. Based on a survey and interviews with German MEPs as well as a content-analysis of German MEPs’ speeches, motions and parliamentary questions during the seventh term of the European Parliament (EP), our study demonstrates that this model is represented in three dimensions. First, German MEPs reflect the close cooperation between the churches and the state in Germany, primarily on social issues, through largely church- and religion-friendly attitudes and relatively frequent contacts with religious interest-groups. Second, by referring to religious freedoms and minorities primarily outside the EU and by placing Islam in considerably more critical contexts than Christianity, German MEPs create a cultural demarcation line between Islam and Christianity through their parliamentary activities, which is similar to, though less politicised than, cultural boundaries often produced in public debates in Germany. Third, our study illustrates similar patterns of religious affiliation and subjective religiosity among German parliamentarians in both the EP and the national Parliament, which to some degree also reflect societal trends in Germany. Yet our data also suggest that European political elites are more religious than the average German population. If the presence of religion in terms of religious interest-groups and arguments is included, the EP appears to be more secularist than the German Parliament.

The unhappy marriage of religion and politics:problems and pitfalls for gender equality

This article explores how religion as a political force shapes and deflects the struggle for gender equality in contexts marked by different histories of nation building and challenges of ethnic diversity, different state–society relations (from the more authoritarian to the more democratic), and different relations between state power and religion (especially in the domain of marriage, family and personal laws). It shows how ‘private’ issues, related to the family, sexuality and reproduction, have become sites of intense public contestation between conservative religious actors wishing to regulate them based on some transcendent moral principle, and feminist and other human rights advocates basing their claims on pluralist and time- and context-specific solutions. Not only are claims of ‘divine truth’ justifying discriminatory practices against women hard to challenge, but the struggle for gender equality is further complicated by the manner in which it is closely tied up with, and inseparable from, struggles for social and economic justice, ethnic/racial recognition, and national self-determination vis-à-vis imperial/global domination.

The genius of Christianity; or, The spirit and beauty of the Christian religion.

Preface dated 1856.

Cognitive And Behavioral Heterogeneity In Genetic Syndromes.

this study aimed to investigate the cognitive and behavioral profiles, as well as the psychiatric symptoms and disorders in children with three different genetic syndromes with similar sociocultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. thirty-four children aged 6 to 16 years, with Williams-Beuren syndrome (n=10), Prader-Willi syndrome (n=11), and Fragile X syndrome (n=13) from the outpatient clinics of Child Psychiatry and Medical Genetics Department were cognitively assessed through the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III). Afterwards, a full-scale intelligence quotient (IQ), verbal IQ, performance IQ, standard subtest scores, as well as frequency of psychiatric symptoms and disorders were compared among the three syndromes. significant differences were found among the syndromes concerning verbal IQ and verbal and performance subtests. Post-hoc analysis demonstrated that vocabulary and comprehension subtest scores were significantly higher in Williams-Beuren syndrome in comparison with Prader-Willi and Fragile X syndromes, and block design and object assembly scores were significantly higher in Prader-Willi syndrome compared with Williams-Beuren and Fragile X syndromes. Additionally, there were significant differences between the syndromes concerning behavioral features and psychiatric symptoms. The Prader-Willi syndrome group presented a higher frequency of hyperphagia and self-injurious behaviors. The Fragile X syndrome group showed a higher frequency of social interaction deficits; such difference nearly reached statistical significance. the three genetic syndromes exhibited distinctive cognitive, behavioral, and psychiatric patterns.

Atypical antipsychotics in the treatment of pathological aggression in children and adolescents: literature review and clinical recommendations

Objective: To review the literature about the use of atypical antipsychotics in the treatment of pathological aggression in children and adolescents. Method: The databases MEDLINE, SciELO, and LILACS were searched for publications in Portuguese or English from 1992 to August 2011 using the following keywords: mental disease, child, adolescent, treatment, atypical antipsychotic, aggressive behavior, aggression, and violent behavior. Results: Sixty-seven studies of good methodological quality and clinical interest and relevance were identified. Studies including children and adolescents were relatively limited, because few atypical antipsychotics have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). All the medications included in this review (risperidone, olanzapine, quetiapine, ziprasidone, aripiprazole and clozapine) have some effectiveness in treating aggression in children and adolescents, and choices should be based on clinical indications and side effects. Conclusions: There are few studies about the effectiveness and safety of atypical antipsychotics for the pediatric population, and further randomized controlled studies with larger groups of patients and more diagnostic categories, such as severe conduct disorder and oppositional defiant disorder, should be conducted to confirm the results reported up to date and to evaluate the impact of long-term use.

Do economists ‘compose’ economics? A comparison of the creative processes of artists and economists

This is a draft for a chapter of the book version of my Ph.D thesis. The chapter addresses the following question: Are the creative processes of musical composers and academic economists essentially the same, or are there significant differences? The paper finds that there are deep similarities between the creative processes of theoretical economists and the creative processes of artists. The chapter builds a process oriented lifecycle account of creative activity, drawing on testimonial material from the arts and the sciences, and relates the model to the creative work of economists developing economic theory.

The impact of trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder on the treatment response of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder

Few case series studies have addressed the issue of treatment response in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and comorbid post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and there are no prospective studies addressing response to conventional treatment in OCD patients with a history of trauma (HT). The present study aimed to investigate, prospectively, the impact of HT or PTSD on two systematic, first-line treatments for OCD. Two hundred and nineteen non-treatment-resistant OCD outpatients were treated with either group cognitive-behavioral therapy (GCBT n = 147) or monotherapy with a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI n = 72). Presence of HT and PTSD were assessed at intake, as part of a broader clinical and demographical baseline characterization of the sample. Severity and types of OCD symptoms were assessed with the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (YBOCS) and the Dimensional YBOCS (DYBOCS), respectively. Depression and anxiety symptoms were measured with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). Both treatments had 12-week duration. Treatment response was considered as a categorical [35% or greater reduction in baseline YBOCS scores plus a Clinical Global Impression-Improvement rating of better (2) or much better (1)] and continuous variable (absolute number reduction in baseline YBOCS scores). Treatment response was compared between the OCD + HT group versus the OCD without HT group and between the OCD + PTSD group versus the OCD without PTSD group. Parametric and non-parametric tests were used when indicated. Data on HT and PTSD were available for 215 subjects. Thirty-eight subjects (17.67% of the whole sample) had a positive HT (OCD + HT group) and 22 subjects (57.89% of the OCD + HT group and 10.23% of the whole sample) met full DSM-IV criteria for PTSD. The OCD + HT and OCD without HT groups presented similar response to GCBT (60% of responders in the first group and 63% of responders in the second group, p = 1.00). Regarding SSRI treatment, the difference between the response of the OCD + HT (47.4%) and OCD without HT (22.2%) groups was marginally significant (p = 0.07). In addition, the OCD + PTSD group presented a greater treatment response than the OCD without PTSD group when treatment response was considered as a continuous variable (p = 0.01). The age when the first trauma occurred had no impact on treatment response. In terms of specific OCD symptom dimensions, as measured by the DYBOCS, OCD treatment fostered greater reductions for the OCD + PTSD group than for the OCD without PTSD group in the scores of contamination obsessions and cleaning compulsions, collecting and hoarding and miscellaneous obsessions and related compulsions (including illness concerns and mental rituals, among others). The OCD + PTSD group also presented a greater reduction in anxiety scores than the OCD without PTSD group (p = 0.003). The presence of HT or PTSD was not related to a poorer treatment response in this sample of non-treatment-resistant OCD patients. Unexpectedly, OCD patients with PTSD presented a greater magnitude of response when compared with OCD without PTSD patients in specific OCD symptom dimensions. Future studies are needed to clarify if trauma and PTSD have a more significant impact on the onset and clinical expression of OCD than on the conventional treatment for this condition, and whether OCD stemming from trauma would constitute a subtype of OCD with a distinct response to conventional treatment.

Fear of heights: cognitive performance and postural control

Fear of heights, or acrophobia, is one of the most frequent subtypes of specific phobia frequently associated to depression and other anxiety disorders. Previous evidence suggests a correlation between acrophobia and abnormalities in balance control, particularly involving the use of visual information to keep postural stability. This study investigates the hypotheses that (1) abnormalities in balance control are more frequent in individuals with acrophobia even when not exposed to heights, that (2) acrophobic symptoms are associated to abnormalities in visual perception of movement; and that (3) individuals with acrophobia are more sensitive to balance-cognition interactions. Thirty-one individuals with specific phobia of heights and thirty one non-phobic controls were compared using dynamic posturography and a manual tracking task. Acrophobics had poorer performance in both tasks, especially when carried out simultaneously. Previously described interference between posture control and cognitive activity seems to play a major role in these individuals. The presence of physiologic abnormalities is compatible with the hypothesis of a non-associative acquisition of fear of heights, i.e., not associated to previous traumatic events or other learning experiences. Clinically, this preliminary study corroborates the hypothesis that vestibular physical therapy can be particularly useful in treating individuals with fear of heights.