The James Lind Library: explaining and illustrating the evolution of fair tests of medical treatments

The James Lind Library (www.jameslindlibrary.org) has been established to improve public and professional general knowledge about fair tests of treatments in healthcare and their history. Its foundation was laid ten years ago at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and its administrative centre is in the College's Sibbald Library, one of the most important collections of historic medical manuscripts, papers and books in the world. The James Lind Library is a website that introduces visitors to the principles of fair tests of treatments, with a series of short, illustrated essays, which are currently available in English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. A 100-page book-- Testing Treatments--is now available free through the website, both in English and in Arabic and Spanish translations. To illustrate the evolution of ideas related to fair tests of treatments from 2000 BC to the present, the James Lind Library contains key passages and images from manuscripts, books and journal articles, many of them accompanied by commentaries, biographies, portraits and other relevant documents and images, including audio and video files. New material is being added to the website continuously, as relevant new records are identified and as methods for testing treatments evolve. A multinational, multilingual editorial team oversees the development of the website, which currently receives tens of thousands of visitors every month.

Walter Friedländer (1891-1984) – Between Social Democracy and Social Darwinism

If the profession of social work is to have a future we must know where it came from, and the series of portraits of our pioneers is one of the paths into the origins of that profession. I feel grateful to the publishers for this online-journal and also honoured to be asked to continue the series on pioneers in social work. I gladly comply because, in connection with my research on Alice Salomon and other social workers who were expelled from Germany and other Nazi-occupied territories (Wieler1989 and 1995) I had the pleasure and privilege of meeting and interviewing Walter Friedländer shortly before he passed away. It is years ago that I visited him in his home among stacks of books and piles of papers. My memories are vivid. I still see his sparkling eyes and hear his soft voice with a very heavy German accent. I was most impressed by his memory of historical events and people which, it seemed, only a large hard-drive could retain these days. Now, I wish I had asked more questions but instead, we will have to rely largely on primary and secondary literature and box upon box of archival materials. I draw heavily on the comprehensive German and Jewish Intellectual Emigré Collection (http://library.albany.edu/speccoll/findaids/ger003.htm) which consists of nearly 50 cubic feet and another collection of the German Central Institute („Deutsches Zentralinstitut für Soziale Fragen-DZI“) in Berlin (www.dzi.de). Some of the more current archival materials were lost in a flood, and much of Friedländer’s early memorabilia up to 1933 was lost in Germany. There are also internet resources with widely differing information. I hope that I will not have overlooked too much in order to do justice to this remarkable pioneer and colleague. In order to appreciate and pay tribute to Walter Friedländer and his contributions we will have to reconsider the historical and international context of more than the 93 years of his life span: the German Monarchy, the Weimar Republic, Nazi-Fascism, Swiss, French and American exile and numerous visits to other countries.

Igbo Nationalism and Biafra

When I was living in Igboland in 1993 and from 1994 to 1996, there was not much talk about Biafra, the secessionist republic that had been defeated by the Nigerian army in 1970. Not one Igbo politician suggested that his or her people in the southeast of Nigeria should secede again and proclaim a second Biafra. Since 1984, Nigeria had been ruled by the military, and political hopes focused on a return to democracy. Democracy did come in 1999, but it proved a big disappointment. It did not end the marginalisation of the Igbo but led to an increase in the number of ethnic and religious clashes, with Igbo 'migrants' in northern Nigeria as the main victims. It was Nigeria's fourth transition to democracy, and the Igbo lost out again. When I returned to Igboland for brief visits between 2000 and 2007, the option of a new Biafra was widely discussed. Many of my former colleagues at the University of Nsukka seemed to be in favour of the secession project. I talked to supporters of the main separatist organisation, Movement for the Actualisation of a Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), and I discussed the project with members of Ohanaeze, a loose association of Igbo politicians, most of whom had distanced themselves from radical secessionism. In order to learn more about the resurgence of Igbo nationalism, I collected Igbo periodicals. A few of them, such as the New Republic, resembled newspapers; others, like News Round, Eastern Sunset or Weekly Hammer (with eight pages in A4 size), looked more like political pamphlets. Street vendors used back issues as wrapping paper, so they were easy to get. Most of them had been edited not in Igboland, but in Lagos, Nigeria's commercial centre and former capital which is home to a huge Igbo diaspora. Though written in English, these publications are addressed exclusively to an Igbo readership, discussing global and domestic affairs from a nationalist point of view. Articles printed here, no matter their topic, are nationalist in the sense that they assess things from the standpoint of Igbo interests. The same is true of many articles on Igbo websites and of some books and brochures written for an Igbo audience. Another source of information on Igbo nationalism are statements by Igbo governors, ministers, members of parliament and other professional politicians who are quoted in newspapers, such as Vanguard or Guardian, and in weekly magazines such as Newswatch, Tell or The News – all with a Nigeria-wide circulation and a multi-ethnic readership. Nigeria's papers and magazines are among the best in Africa. They try to be balanced in their coverage of ethnic conflicts, and they give reliable information. The same cannot be said of periodicals produced by Igbo nationalists. They provide space for Igbo all over the world to voice their opinions, and they tolerate much controversy, but they are not accurate when reporting facts.

Die historische und ekklesiologische Tiefe voll ausschöpfen. Respons zum Beitrag von Dorothea Sattler

This contribution responds to Dorothea Sattler’s thoughts about ecclesiology in an ecumenical context. First it describes in short the influence of Kurt Stalder’s theology for his generation of Old Catholic theologians, parish priests and lay people, as well as his contribution to the ecumenical theology in the 20th century. After that the author reacts on the three parts of Sattler’s contribution: on the Petrine function, on the apostolicity of ministry and on contemporary plurality and the unity of the church.

Die katholische Kirche und Moralpolitik in Österreich: Reformdynamiken in der Regulierung von Schwangerschaftsabbrüchen und der Anerkennung gleichgeschlechtlicher Partnerschaften

Eine vergleichende Analyse der Regulierung von Schwangerschaftsabbrüchen und gleichgeschlechtlichen Partnerschaften in Westeuropa im Zeitraum von 1960 bis 2010 zeigt, dass katholisch geprägte Staaten diese Bereiche grundsätzlich nicht weniger stark liberalisiert haben als andere Länder. Allerdings drosselt der Katholizismus offensichtlich die Geschwindigkeit von Reformprozessen. Auf Basis einer detaillierten explorativen Analyse der Politikentwicklungen in Österreich, das sehr früh die Gesetzgebung zum Schwangerschaftsabbruch lockerte, jedoch bei der Einführung registrierter homosexueller Partnerschaften lange zögerte, leiten wir induktiv theoretische Implikationen ab: Die katholische Kirche kann permissive Reformen so lange verhindern, wie institutionelle und kulturelle Gelegenheitsstrukturen nicht der säkular-liberalen Opposition behilflich sind, erfolgreiches Agenda-Setting zu betreiben und Mehrheiten für einen Politikwechsel zu gewinnen.

Cleverer than we thought: the change in discourse of the Georgian Orthodox Church

This paper will focus on three episodes of contemporary church-state relations in Georgia, in particular, the conflicting interaction between law and religion in the public space. The first episode will be an open confrontation between the church and the state over the law on Registration of Religious Minority organizations (2011) which allowed the religious minorities to freely register; second: the Law on Self-governance (2013) which Georgian Orthodox Church considered “a threat to territorial integrity of Georgia”; and lastly: the Law on Anti-discrimination (2014) which was deemed “legitimization of Sodomic sin”. By reflecting on the three examples where for the first time after the collapse of Soviet Union, the Georgian state openly confronted the church and made a decision notwithstanding its position, I will attempt to argue that the role of the Orthodox Church in influencing the law making process is in gradual decline. However, on the other hand, by presenting the results of an ethnographic study conducted in 23 eparchies and perishes in 7 regions of Georgia in 2014, I will also show that church has adapted to its declining role over policy making, and to regain its political influence it gradually started to employ a civic rather than ethno nationalist discourse on matters of religious freedom while engaging with government. The paper will suggest that both unilateral decision-making of the state and civic shift in the discourse of the church constitute an important change in understanding church-state dynamics in the post-communist Orthodox Christianity dominated society.

Refugee Settlement in Australia: Policy, Scholarship and the Production of Knowledge, 1952 − 2013

Since 1947, Australia has formally resettled more than 750,000 refugees. During that time, researchers have successfully completed more than 150 Masters and doctoral theses and published more than 900 articles, books and reports about issues of refugee settlement in Australia, with about half of them being published in the past 10 years. In this paper, we discuss the development of the production of knowledge about refugee resettlement. We identify trends in the literature, such as the emergence of an ethno-specific focus, and the concern with settlement's psychological and emotional impact, and relate them to policy changes. We suggest that scholars need critically to take stock of the knowledge produced so far and be more cognisant of the international scholarly debate.

The Psychological Outcome of Religious Coping with Stressful Life Events in a Swiss Sample of Church Attendees

Background: Recent research suggested thatreligious coping, based on dispositional religiousness and spirituality (R/S), is an important modulating factor in the process of dealing with adversity. In contrast to the United States, the effect of R/S on psychological adjustment to stress is a widely unexplored area in Europe. Methods: We examined a Swiss sample of 328 church attendees in the aftermath of stressful life events to explore associations of positive or negative religious coping with the psychological outcome. Applying a cross-sectional design, we used Huber’s Centrality Scale to specify religiousness and Pargament’s measure of religious coping (RCOPE) for the assessment of positive and negative religious coping. Depressive symptoms and anxiety as outcome variables were examined by the Brief Symptom Inventory. The Stress-Related Growth Scale and the Marburg questionnaire for the assessment of well-being were used to assess positive outcome aspects. We conducted Mann-Whitney tests for group comparisons and cumulative logit analysis for the assessmentof associations of religious coping with our outcome variables. Results: Both forms of religious coping were positively associated with stress-related growth (p < 0.01). However, negative religious coping additionally reduced well-being (p = 0.05, β = 0.52, 95% CI = 0.27–0.99) and increased anxiety (p = 0.02, β = 1.94, 95% CI = 1.10–3.39) and depressive symptoms (p = 0.01, β = 2.27, 95% CI = 1.27–4.06). Conclusions: The effects of religious coping on the psychological adjustment to stressful life events seem relevant. These findings should be confirmed in prospective studies.

Otium et negotium. Reading processes and their cultural backgrounds in early Italian and German humanism

Reading and reading habits have radically changed in the digital age. Readers are no longer physically bound to textual objects and libraries, they deal with texts by copying, altering, and annotating them, and they mix established textual forms with other semiotic systems such as pictograms, icons and images. These circumstances also provoke a renewed research interest in the history of reading. In this talk, I will concentrate on reading processes as to how they were enacted and practised in early Italian and German humanism. I will start with some paradigmatic scenes described in Petrarch’s letters (among others the famous visit of the Mont Ventoux, where Petrarch, after having enjoyed a spectacular panorama, withdraws into the contemplative reading of St-Augustine). The transmission of Petrarch’s writings in humanist circles of Southern Germany (e.g. with the Schedel and Gossembrot families in Nurnberg, Augsburg and Strasburg) will then lead to specific reading practices documented in manuscripts that once belonged to coherent libraries and are nowadays spread all over Europe. In the case of the former tradesman and mayor Sigismund Gossembrot, complex habits of textual annotating and cross-referencing can be observed. The dichotomy of the Latin terms otium (‘rest’ and ‘leisure’) and negotium (‘activity’, but also ‘practice’, ‘negotiation’, ‘circulation of social energy’ in the sense of New Historicism) will be used as an ideal-type outline to describe the occurring processes of reading.

The Role of the European Imperial Powers throughout the Armenian Schism in the 1870s

The Bull "Reversurus" (1867) and its dogmatic legitimization at the First Vatican Council in 1870 caused not only ecclesiastical controversy and Schism in the Armenian Catholic Church, but it had also wide political consequences for the Armenian Catholics in the Ottoman Empire. The conflict originally between the Armenian Catholics and Rome attracted very soon the attention of the European imperial Powers. France, the British Empire, the German Empire, Austria-Hungary and Russia were the main political powers who were involved in the Armenian affair. A full picture of the role of all these powers for the course of the Armenian Schism is missing. Mostly the role of France is foregrounded in the printed sources, as the main power, which supported the papacy to win during the Armenian affair. The role and the motives of the other imperial powers is almost missing. This article will try to describe as completely as possible the historical and political background, which brought to the escalation of the Armenian conflict beyond the national frontiers and led to number of conflicts at the international and transnational level. It will be shown that the imperial policy in Europe in the 19th century have played an enormous role throughout the Armenian Schism. It will be explained that several historical circumstances in Europe, especially the relation of the European imperial powers to each other as well as their expectations from the Ottoman Empire and its Armenian subjects were decisive for the duration and conclusion of the Armenian Schism.

Los límites de la confrontación : la Iglesia Católica y el gobierno peronista (Tucumán, 1952-1955)

Desde fines de 1954, la Iglesia católica desempeñó un rol central en el golpe de Estado que puso fin al gobierno de Perón. El proceso por el cual la institución eclesiástica pasó a integrar el espectro opositor al peronismo fue abordado teniendo en cuenta fundamentalmente el caso de la Capital Federal y la ciudad de Córdoba, lugares clave para estudiar la trama de la insurrección cívico-militar. El objetivo del artículo es analizar el itinerario de las relaciones entabladas entre la Iglesia católica y el gobierno en Tucumán entre 1952 y 1955. Se sostiene que en el escenario provincial no se registró el progresivo deterioro de las relaciones entre la Iglesia y el peronismo que fueron visibles en el escenario metropolitano y en otras diócesis del país, observándose, por el contrario, un campo de colaboración que se mantuvo en forma ininterrumpida hasta 1955. De ese modo, sin negar las tensiones que surcaron el camino de las relaciones entre la Iglesia católica y el gobierno provincial, el presente artículo sostiene que en Tucumán no se observó la escalada de violencia y el enfrentamiento abierto que surgió desde 1954 como una constante en otras zonas del país. Esto nos lleva a interrogarnos sobre los factores que se conjugaron para dar cauce al clima expectante que predominó en la sociedad tucumana y por las repercusiones de los acontecimientos que se sucedieron a nivel nacional durante los tramos finales del gobierno peronista, como así también emprender un análisis comparativo de las estrategias que siguió la jerarquía eclesiástica y el movimiento laico en la Capital Federal y en la ciudad de Córdoba.

Las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias : Orígenes y desarrollo de una particular conjunción entre marxismo, peronismo y lucha armada [1960-1973]

Desde mediados de la década del cincuenta hasta la última dictadura militar, la Argentina vivió un período de gran conflictividad social y política. Particularmente desde el Cordobazo de 1969, amplios sectores de la clase trabajadora, el campo cultural, la iglesia y el movimiento estudiantil protagonizaron un intenso proceso de politización, dando lugar a un conjunto de movimientos de oposición de diverso orden. Las organizaciones armadas, al desafiar el monopolio estatal de la violencia legítima y establecer diversos lazos con el movimiento de protesta social más amplio, fueron uno de los actores destacados de ese proceso. Entre ellas, las 'Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias' [FAR] condensan varias problemáticas de relevancia en el período: el proceso de identificación con el peronismo de numerosos sectores de izquierda, la reivindicación de la violencia como forma de intervención política y la opción por la lucha armada como modalidad específica de ponerla en práctica. Pese a su importancia, hasta el momento no se había realizado ningún trabajo académico específico sobre esta organización. La presente tesis analiza los orígenes y el desarrollo de las FAR considerando el período que va desde los primeros sesenta, en que comenzaron a perfilarse sus grupos fundadores, hasta las elecciones presidenciales del 11 de marzo de 1973. Desde entonces no sólo cambia notablemente la dinámica política nacional, sino que la realidad de la organización ya está signada por el proceso de fusión con Montoneros, que fue anunciada de modo público en octubre de ese año. El problema de investigación articula dos ejes analíticos. Por un lado, el proceso de identificación de las FAR con el peronismo, cuyos antecedentes se remontan a las sucesivas reinterpretaciones realizadas por sus grupos fundadores sobre el fenómeno. El segundo, con su dinámica de funcionamiento como organización político-militar de actuación nacional y urbana, gestada al calor de los cambios de estrategias que se plantearon aquellos grupos fundadores para lograr el proceso de liberación nacional y social que impulsaban. Ambas líneas de análisis implican, además, adentrarse en los modos en que la organización concibió sus vínculos con sectores más amplios de la sociedad, particularmente con aquellos que buscaba movilizar. Para realizar la tesis se apeló a una estrategia metodológica cualitativa. Se relevaron fuentes escritas [diarios y revistas de alcance nacional, documentos de las FAR y de otras organizaciones con que se vincularon] y se realizaron entrevistas semiestructuradas a ex-miembros de la organización

Córdoba : Izquierda obrera y conflicto social durante el gobierno de Amadeo Sabattini

Este artículo centra su atención en el tipo de relaciones establecidas entre el gobierno radical de Amadeo Sabattini (1936-1939) y el movimiento obrero desde una perspectiva de análisis que correlaciona tres planos: el desarrollo de nuevas prácticas estatales marcadas por la conciliación y el arbitraje en los conflictos laborales, la expansión de las corrientes sindicales de izquierda y su unificación en una sola central obrera, y las respuestas que frente a ambos fenómenos ofreció el conservadorismo cordobés. En este último aspecto, se indaga especialmente en el papel desempeñado por el Partido Demócrata y por la Iglesia Católica

El amor mas allá del narcisismo

El trabajo trata sobre un recorrido por la teorización psicoanalítica del amor tomando como referencia a Sigmund Freud y Jacques Lacan. Ello lleva desde la consideración freudiana del amor bajo los pliegues del narcisismo hasta la definición lacaniana del amor como dispositivo para sostener la diferencia heterónima del otro. Se refiere una antigua discusión que en el ámbito de la iglesia católica, llevó a la cuestión del amor puro y como, de alguna manera, el psicoanálisis la retoma. Esto realiza un camino por los distintos seminarios concluyendo en el seminario XX y la tesis central del no hay relación-proporción sexual. Y ello apunta a establecer las coordenadas necesarias para el desarrollo de una clínica de la des-pareja en los avatares de la vida contemporánea

La compañía de Jesús en las estrategias familiares coloniales : Catamarca, siglos XVII-XVIII

En este trabajo daremos cuenta de un litigio sobre tierras catamarqueñas para analizar qué estrategias de contacto establecieron los pobladores coloniales con la Compañía de Jesús, la institución más poderosa de la época. Tres familias, los Segura, los Agüero y los Díaz, cruzaron sus destinos con los de un estado borbónico avasallante y una iglesia católica cada vez más asediada. En los intersticios de esa lucha, cada familia habría negociado su identidad frente a una multiplicidad de intereses en juego, buscando el campo de posibilidades entre las que debieron elegir