diff --git a/_index.db b/_index.db index eec605ba0..cffbde96c 100644 Binary files a/_index.db and b/_index.db differ diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Postcognitive_Negation-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Postcognitive_Negation-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..971b3a4fa --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Postcognitive_Negation-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,18 @@ +--- +title: "A Postcognitive Negation" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Postcognitive_Negation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:04.056275+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +A Postcognitive Negation: The Sadomasochistic Dialectic of American Psychology is a book written by Matthew Giobbi. It was published in 2010 by Atropos Press in New York City. The text was edited by Wolfgang Schirmacher. + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Atropos Press, NYC/Dresden \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow_on_Management-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow_on_Management-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..be011cc78 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow_on_Management-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "Maslow on Management" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow_on_Management" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:54:34.342696+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Maslow on Management (originally Eupsychian Management: A Journal) is a work on industrial psychology by Abraham Maslow, first published in 1965. Maslow's work is frequently invoked in attempts to explain and predict work behavior. In his work Maslow advocated the eupsychian (meaning moving towards psychological health or self-actualization) management as the ideal model for industrial organizations. Maslow took a keen interest in the application of humanistic psychology beyond one-on-one therapy to larger endeavors in organizations and education settings, where greater numbers of people could be positively affected. +The idea for Eupsychian Management originated with a journal of Maslow's impressions of his 1962 observations of a California electronics plant. The study resulted in Maslow conceiving a theoretical framework on which research in the area of self-actualization may be applied to industrial organizations. Not wanting to use the word "utopian", Maslow coined the term "eupsychian" to describe human-oriented institutions generated by self-actualized people. He said it could also be used to mean "moving toward psychological health". +Maslow noted the commitment to work in self-actualizing people's lives: "These highly evolved individuals assimilate their work into the identity, into the self, ie, work actually becomes part of the self, part of the individual's definition of himself." These most highly evolved persons would actually assimilate work as part of their personal identity. +Maslow's industrial motivation theory has been criticized for tending to emphasize only identification of second-level outcomes. + + +== Maslow's writings on management == +Maslow wrote extensively concerning the application of humanistic psychology to management. Relevant publications include: + +Maslow, Abraham H. Eupsychian management. Homewood, IL: Irwin, 1965 (reprinted as Maslow on management, Wiley, 1998). +Maslow, Abraham H. The Maslow business reader. Wiley, 2000. +Maslow, Abraham H. Theory Z. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 1969, 1(2), 31–47. Reprinted in Maslow business reader (pp. 171−184) and A. H. Maslow, The farther reaches of human nature, New York, 1971 (pp. 270–286). + + +== See also == +Motivation +Theory Z + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mittheilungen_aus_dem_Leben_Geistesgestörter-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mittheilungen_aus_dem_Leben_Geistesgestörter-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f38fb8c0a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mittheilungen_aus_dem_Leben_Geistesgestörter-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +title: "Mittheilungen aus dem Leben Geistesgestörter" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mittheilungen_aus_dem_Leben_Geistesgestörter" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:54:41.838711+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Mittheilungen aus dem Leben Geistesgestörter (English: Stories of the mad people's lives) published in Pest, Hungary in 1859, is a novel written by Bruno Schön. The author, a popular priest and doctor of theology, dedicated himself to working in an insane asylum in Vienna and describes some of the cases he faced in his professional career. Schön wants to reduce the fear of the 'insane' and aims to create more understanding among the public for mental illnesses by giving short explanations of their various causes. Thus, his book is an attempt to bridge the gap between the common stigmas surrounding mental illness and professional psychiatric knowledge of the time. The focus of the book lies on giving funny and interesting examples, rather than on professional theories to keep the general public interested. It is thus a pioneer in giving information about mental illness, especially the symptoms of what is today known as schizophrenia. + +== Content == + +=== Hallucinations and illusions of the senses === +The author devotes a large part of his book to people suffering from hallucinations and illusions. As we know today, these can largely be attributed to being schizophrenic. Schön however oftentimes states that epilepsy is accompanied by such symptoms. He furthermore mentions that hallucinations are more likely to occur among people that indulge in alcohol and in flirtatious behavior with women. + +Visual hallucinations: Among various cases with visual hallucinations, Carl Stein is described in particularly lengthy fashion. He is suffering from Alcoholism and reports seeing the devil in a particular corner of the madhouse corridor. The psychiatric diagnosis given is a goaded brain which apparently leads to a faulty excitation of the optic nerve, leading to the disturbed function of sight. +Auditory hallucinations: Schön's fellow psychiatrist Dr. Hagen explains different types of auditory hallucinations, grouping and characterizing the hallucinations into “Ohrenklingen und Ohrensausen” (tinnitus) and “Ohrenbrausen und Ohrenprasseln” (sounds likening the sound of a wheel or machine). Furthermore, the reader is informed about the distinction between illusion and hallucination. According to the book, illusions occur due to a misinterpretation and altered perception of an actually existing sound, while hallucinations have no existing external origin and are caused by a faulty excitation of the auditory nerve. +Hallucinations of smell, taste and touch: Multiple cases are given regarding hallucinations of these senses. The causes are largely explained by functional physiological abnormalities. +Hallucinations of all senses: The case of Carl Stein is discussed again elaborately. It is stated, that his hallucinations extended to all senses over time. The patient believes he is obsessed with the devil telling him to kill himself. The man thus tries to commit suicide several times and is brought to Schön's mental home on several occasions. The author tried to cure the patient by using religious and moral lessons, which never helped. Finally, a metaphor brought the patient to his senses and made him realize the immorality and profanity of taking one's own life. This metaphor ultimately illustrates that one should not let the body and its urges (passions and addiction) take control over one's soul. + +=== Various forms of madness === +Multiple examples of simulating are given and discussed. Simulations of madness are performed to forego punishment after committing a crime. Another motive for simulating behavior includes wanting to prolong the stay in a mental asylum out of comfort. With the presented cases, the public's misconceptions and faulty stereotypical knowledge about 'madness' are uncovered. Schön educates about how to identify 'fakes' and emphasizes that it is impossible to fake madness, even with professional knowledge. +Moreover, sleep disturbances like sleepwalking and somnolence are described and different degrees of drunkenness are characterized. Consequently, the similarity of such states to madness is depicted in order to challenge the reader to put one's own sanity into perspective. + +=== Kleptomania and pyromania === +Even in the 19th century, the addiction to steal (kleptomania) was recognized by psychiatrists and Schön describes several cases of affluent members of society with this urge. Furthermore, there seemed to be an urge for arson (pyromania) among many mentally ill. Today, both mental illnesses are listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and are considered types of impulse control disorder. + +== Psychiatric approach in the 19th century == +In the 19th century, a patient's constitution is described with the help of the different temperaments (sanguine, melancholic, phlegmatic and choleric). This incorporation of the four temperaments in personality description reflects the maintenance of Hippocrates medical concept of humorism, which is no longer maintained in modern-day medicine. +Physiology is emphasized as a primary cause of the disturbances of the mind. Schön states that the illnesses of the mind can never occur without illness of the body. +Visual hallucinations, for example are said to occur due to a heating of the brain, happening when one hears tales and stories of superstitious content. Moreover, autopsies of the time apparently revealed anatomical differences in organs of the suicidal. This shows that psychiatry saw mental problems largely in the bodily organs and not in the content of the mind (thoughts). The prevalent stereotype of the time of insanity being infectious is thus rendered faulty. +The book also states several motives for suicide; moral squalidness being identified as a main cause of such behavior. Relatedly, the theologically educated author observed that most of his suicidal cases aren't familiar with the Christian ten commandments, irrespectively of their educational status. Another statement made by Schön refers to the influence of emotions on the bodily organs. Anger is said to take hold of the liver and changes the blood circulation; anxiety and fear are stated to give blood a centrifugal direction and to attack the central organs. Sadness supposedly acts on the heart and the bladder. Meanwhile, bawdiness destroys the brain. This latter belief shows the emphasis of the time on moral chastity. Accordingly, the following recommendation is given to the reader at the end of the book: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mittheilungen_aus_dem_Leben_Geistesgestörter-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mittheilungen_aus_dem_Leben_Geistesgestörter-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f18f8566d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mittheilungen_aus_dem_Leben_Geistesgestörter-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,19 @@ +--- +title: "Mittheilungen aus dem Leben Geistesgestörter" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mittheilungen_aus_dem_Leben_Geistesgestörter" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:54:41.838711+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Sorge für die Erhaltung deiner körperlichen Gesundheit und enthalte dich von den Leidenschaften, so wirst du auch geistesgesund bleiben. +This is an advice to care for the conservation of the body and to abstain from all passions and urges. +The book also reveals that 19th century psychiatrists with medical education cooperated with a priest in the healing process of the mentally ill. According to Schön, most of his cases suffer from lower moral and religious education and are undevout. Given his theological background, Schön thus stresses that a priest is responsible for the moral education of the patient and saintliness is seen as a way to protect oneself from mental illness. +The inclusion of religious staff in the viennese asylum can be contrasted with additions of pathologists in other mental homes. John P. Gray (1825-1886), an American forensic psychiatrist and advocate of physical causes for 'madness', included pathologist staff in his American asylum in Utica. This made his asylum the first of its kind. +Schön's descriptions and analyses mention both moral-religious and physical causes for mental illness. The book thus mirrors the century's dynamic and diverse view on mental illness. While Schön advocates the long-held moral causes for mental illness, he also acknowledges the necessity of physical causes. Additionally, the author's motive of creating more understanding for the 'insane' mirrors the trend of the 18th and 19th century of treating the mentally ill in a more humane manner. +Despite this progressive aspect, the book can also be considered to reflect some old-fashioned, sexist tendencies. Women are said to be of a more nervous, neurotic temper which makes them more likely to suffer from hallucinations- especially from delusions of being a witch. Furthermore, the author comments that a female patient of his was more predisposed to lose her mind, as she was starting her menses at the time. Periodic menstruation and the beginning of menstruation in puberty are also mentioned to play a role in female suicide and arson-addiction. The latter was allegedly caused by ‘darker blood’, which was believed to be more prominent in menstrual women. +To conclude, 'Mittheilungen aus dem Leben Geistesgestörter' can be considered a photograph of the century's knowledge and misconceptions about mental illness. The modern reader can expect to be entertained by the outdated and inaccurate views, as well as impressed by the authors wish to change the stigma surrounding 'insanity'. The novel manages to educate the reader about the development of psychiatry with the use of easy-to-read language and can thus be recommended to the general public and professionals alike. + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivation_and_Personality-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivation_and_Personality-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ad50993a4 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivation_and_Personality-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +--- +title: "Motivation and Personality" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivation_and_Personality" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:54:42.978819+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Motivation and Personality is a book on psychology by Abraham Maslow, first published in 1954. Maslow's work deals with the subject of the nature of human fulfillment and the significance of personal relationships, implementing a conceptualization of self-actualization. Underachievers have a need for social love and affection, but a self-actualized person has these "lower" needs to be gratified and is able to pursue his or her own path towards self-actualization. +Maslow's book is perhaps the best known contemporary work on human needs. Maslow postulated a hierarchy of human needs stretching from basic physical needs at the bottom to spiritual or transcendental needs at the top. +In Motivation and Personality, Maslow argues that, in order for individuals to thrive and excel, a health-fostering culture must be created. Maslow is among the psychological theorists who believe that when parents fail to provide a safe, nurturing environment, their children will develop deep feelings of insecurity. Maslow believes that well-being causes people to freely express their inherent potentials. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music,_Thought,_and_Feeling-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music,_Thought,_and_Feeling-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4739ef89c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music,_Thought,_and_Feeling-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +title: "Music, Thought, and Feeling" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music,_Thought,_and_Feeling" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:54:44.120216+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Music, Thought, and Feeling: Understanding the Psychology of Music is a book written by psychologist William Forde Thompson and published in 2009 by Oxford University Press. The 2nd edition was published in 2014. + + +== Reviews == +In July, 2009, Victoria Williamson reviewed the book for Psychology of Music (Volume 37, Number 3). Williamson wrote "Music, Thought, and Feeling definitely fills a gap in the current literature. It is an excellent and, I am sure, extremely welcome resource for anyone who is planning a course on music cognition, either at undergraduate or graduate level. This is thanks to the combination of accessible and engaging language, clear structure, and relevant and illustrative resources. The demeanour of the book is one that assumes no specific artistic or scientific background: Just a desire to engage with the modern issues of music cognition." +In his 2009 review of the book for Musicae Scientiae (Volume 13, Number 2), Tuomas Eerola wrote "Music, Thought, and Feeling is an important pedagogical contribution to the field as it not only manages to pull together the strings of the last thirty years of research from a broad range of topics within music cognition, but it performs this in a highly accessible format, and written in an enthusiastic and analytic style." +In his 2009 review for the journal Music Perception, Edward Large (Florida Atlantic University) wrote: "Music Thought and Feeling is a really great textbook. What it does best is capture the great variety of our field, deftly weaving together theory and empirical results into a compelling narrative that provides a unique snapshot of our discipline and a time of unprecedented expansion. ... [It is] a well conceived and attractively produced work that surveys our field as it is practiced today, and in a way that is compelling ..." + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Music, Thought, and Feeling Homepage +Companion Website \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_in_Primitive_Psychology-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_in_Primitive_Psychology-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..fbb8970cc --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_in_Primitive_Psychology-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,18 @@ +--- +title: "Myth in Primitive Psychology" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_in_Primitive_Psychology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:54:45.330773+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Myth in Primitive Psychology is a 1926 book by anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski. + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Full text of Myth in Primitive Psychology at HathiTrust Digital Library \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurosis_and_Human_Growth b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurosis_and_Human_Growth new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e69de29bb diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noise b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noise new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e69de29bb diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observations_on_Man-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observations_on_Man-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..da7c36242 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observations_on_Man-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,47 @@ +--- +title: "Observations on Man" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observations_on_Man" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:54:49.984413+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Observations on Man, His Frame, His Duty, and His Expectations is 18th-century British philosopher David Hartley's major work. Published in two parts in 1749 by Samuel Richardson, it puts forth Hartley's principal theories: the doctrine of vibrations and the doctrine of associations. The first part of the text deals with the frame of the human body and mind and their mutual connections and influences, the second with the duty and expectations of mankind. + + +== Intellectual background == +Hartley's physical theory was drawn from certain speculations as to nervous action which Isaac Newton had published in his Principia (1687). Elements of Hartley's psychological theory were suggested by other writers, such as John Gay. For example, "in Hartley's theory, emotion is a fluid like electricity or water"—it flows from one experience to the next, a concept he called transference and lifted from the writings of Gay. Although Hartley acknowledges that Gay "put me upon considering the power of association" in relation to transference, he developed a different theory of association from Gay's. + + +== Hartley's theories == +Like John Locke, Hartley asserted that, before sensation, the human mind is a tabula rasa. Beginning with simple sensations, the mind eventually forms advanced states of consciousness. Hartley sought to explain not only the phenomena of memory, which others had similarly explained before him, but also the phenomena of emotion, of reasoning, and of voluntary and involuntary action. + + +=== Doctrine of vibrations === +Hartley believed that sensation is the result of vibrations of the minute particles of the medullary substance of the nerves, made possible by a subtle, elastic ether that was rare in the interstices of solid bodies and in their close neighbourhood. Pleasure was the result of moderate vibrations and pain of violent vibrations, sometimes so violent that they broke the continuity of the nerves. These vibrations left behind a tendency to fainter vibrations or "vibratiuncles" of a similar kind in the brain, which corresponded to "ideas of sensation." This accounted for memory. + + +=== Doctrine of association === + +According to Hartley's theory, the brain produces associations in two ways: 1) external stimuli produce vibrations; and 2) the heat and movement of its own arteries produce vibrations. The nature of these vibrations is determined by each person's past experiences and by the circumstances of the moment, which cause one or another tendency to prevail. Sensations which are frequently associated together become associated with the ideas corresponding to those sensations, sometimes so intimately that they form what appears to be a new simple idea. + + +=== Free will === +Starting from a detailed account of the senses, Hartley tried to show how, by the above laws, all the emotions may be explained. He argues that pure, disinterested sentiment exists, while at the same time declaring it to have grown out of self-regarding feelings. Voluntary action is explained as the result of a firm connection between a motion and a sensation or "idea," and, on the physical side, between an "ideal" and a motory vibration. Therefore, in the free will controversy Hartley took his place as a determinist. It was only with reluctance, and when his speculations were nearly complete, that he came to a conclusion on this subject in accordance with his theory. + + +== Influence == +Hartley's theory helped give birth to the modern study of the connection between the physiology of the human brain and "the mind". + + +== Notes == + + +== References == +Allen, Richard C. (1999). David Hartley on Human Nature. Albany, N.Y.: SUNY Press. ISBN 0-7914-4233-0 +James, William, The Principles of Psychology (New York, 1890). +Rousseau, George S. (2004). Nervous Acts: Essays on Literature, Culture and Sensibility. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 1-4039-3454-1 (Paperback) ISBN 1-4039-3453-3 (Hardcover) +Walls, Joan, The Philosophy of David Hartley and the Root Metaphor of Mechanism: A Study in the History of Psychology, Journal of Mind and Behavior, vol. 3 (1982), pp. 259–74. +This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Hartley, David". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 35. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occult_Science_in_Medicine-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occult_Science_in_Medicine-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..debcd6a85 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occult_Science_in_Medicine-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,67 @@ +--- +title: "Occult Science in Medicine" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occult_Science_in_Medicine" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:54:51.137549+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Occult Science in Medicine is a book by the German doctor and theosophist Franz Hartmann, published in 1893. The aim of the book was to raise awareness amongst doctors and medical students about valuable medical knowledge from the past that has been ignored and catalogued as occult. +On a broad level, the book is a comparison between the medical knowledge, practices and system contemporary to the author and those predicated by Theophrastus Paracelsus and supported by Theosophy in general. From a psychological perspective, there is a dualistic representation of the mind and of the body in relation to the constitution of man, diseases and their place in contemporary medicine. + + +== Content == +The book consists of five parts, with the most general topic discussed in Part 1 and the most specific points being made in Part 5. Each part is structured as a comparison between contemporary knowledge, science, medicine and their occult counterpart. + + +=== Part 1: The constitution of man === +It is highlighted how Ancient medicine was a religious science, recognizing the source of universal life and how popular modern medicine recognizes no real truth because it is concerned only with the lowest plane of existence (i.e. the physical body) by recognizing only the outcome of a blind force. Medicine cannot be separated from religion because the essence of the human being is its divine source (i.e. highest plane of existence) and not the physical body (i.e. lowest plane of existence). This is the recurrent dualistic presentation of the nature of man that is the basis of Hartmann's argument. +Theophrastus Paracelsus is portrayed as the father of medicine and given as example of a physician that recognized the sevenfold constitution of man and used this knowledge to treat his patients. + + +=== Part 2: The four pillars of medicine === +The pillars upon which the practice of modern medicine, which is concerned only with the external plane of existence (i.e. the physical world), rests: + +A knowledge of the physical body (i.e. Anatomy, Philology, Pathology) +Certain amount of acquaintance with physical science; +Acquaintance with the views and opinions of modern accepted medical authorities (however erroneous they may be); +A certain amount of judgement and aptitude to put the acquired theories into practice;. +Psychology is portrayed as a misnomer with Hartmann arguing that there can be no science of the soul as long as its existence is not acknowledged. + + +=== Part 3: The five causes of disease === +Theophrastus Paracelsus' classification is depicted as a better description of the causes of disease. He classifies diseases as those originating in the kingdom of matter (i.e. physical body), within the realm of the soul (i.e. energy) or in the sphere of the spirit (i.e. intelligence). As long as these three substances are in harmony with each other the individual is healthy; an imbalance will result in disease. + + +=== Part 4: The five classes of physicians === +Based on Theophrastus Paracelsus' doctrine, the author makes a distinction between: + +Science of the lower methods (i.e. prescribing drugs, using hot/cold water, applying any other physical forces) can be taught to anybody in possession of an ordinary amount of intelligence. +Science of the higher methods (i.e. the real art of medicine) requires higher gifts that cannot be acquired in any other way than according to the law of spiritual evolution and higher development of the inner man. +Accordingly, there are lower and higher order physicians. Theophrastus Paracelsus' five classes of physicians are: + +Three lower classes (they seek for resources in the material plane): +Naturales – They employ physical remedies acting as opposites—e.g. using cold water for fever (Allopaths – regular practitioners); +Specifici – They use physical remedies which experience has shown to work for specific problems ( Empirics, Homeopaths—regular practitioners that have knowledge about how some remedies work in specific situations—the result of observation, and not of knowledge of the fundamental laws of nature); +Characterales – They employ the power of the mind—act upon the will and imagination of the patients (Mind healer, Mesmerism) +Two higher classes (they employ remedies belonging to the super sensual plane): +Spirituales – They are in possession of spiritual powers, using the magic power of their own will and thought (Magic, Psychometry, Hypnotism, Spiritism); +Fideles – through whom "miraculous" works are performed in the power of the true faith (Adepts). + + +=== Part 5: The medicine of the future === +In the final part, the author reflects on the progress of science since the time of Theophrastus Paracelsus and concludes that even though knowledge has been advanced, it does not mean that human kind is wiser. He believes that more spiritual knowledge is needed in order to attain wisdom. Furthermore, in order to attain this spiritual knowledge, the author encourages his readers to get to know their constitution and the nature of the higher power that resides in them. + + +== Publication == +It was first published in 1893 by the Theosophical Publishing Society in the United Kingdom. The book was republished in 1993 and in 2010. + + +== Reception == +In 1894, Occult Science in Medicine was positively reviewed by the journal Light as an important manuscript that provided access to the system of medicine of Paracelsus in times when materialistic empiricism in medicine seemed to approach its end while the importance of the mind (i.e. thought) was beginning to be recognized again in the cure of disease. Nevertheless, The Physician of the Future chapter was seen as the weakest part of the book because the priest becomes discredited as a physician. Light saw the book as superior to contemporary materialistic medical science. +A commentator in 1946 described it as "a Theosophist's attempt to revive Paracelsian doctrines", in the context of pseudoscientific revivals of astrological thought. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Of_Two_Minds_(book)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Of_Two_Minds_(book)-0.md index db8ddfee8..0b61ea441 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Of_Two_Minds_(book)-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Of_Two_Minds_(book)-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/2 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Of_Two_Minds_(book)" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:50:41.713368+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:54:52.326603+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Of_Two_Minds_(book)-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Of_Two_Minds_(book)-1.md index fba458242..04de8cd6f 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Of_Two_Minds_(book)-1.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Of_Two_Minds_(book)-1.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 2/2 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Of_Two_Minds_(book)" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:50:41.713368+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:54:52.326603+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Disobedience_and_Other_Essays-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Disobedience_and_Other_Essays-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..184c290d0 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Disobedience_and_Other_Essays-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,18 @@ +--- +title: "On Disobedience and Other Essays" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Disobedience_and_Other_Essays" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:54:53.473752+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +On Disobedience and Other Essays is a 1981 book by the psychoanalyst Erich Fromm. Published by Harper & Row, it is a collection of four previously published essays. + +"Let Man Prevail" and "Humanist Socialism" originally appeared in Erich Fromm, Let Man Prevail: A Socialist Manifesto and Program, 1960 +"Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem" originally appeared in Clara Urquhart, A matter of Life, 1963 +"Prophets and Priest" originally appeared in Ralph Schoenman, Bertrand Russell, Philosopher of the Century: Essays in His Honour, 1967 + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beginning_of_Human_History-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beginning_of_Human_History-0.md index c7dcca955..afebc8969 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beginning_of_Human_History-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beginning_of_Human_History-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/3 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beginning_of_Human_History" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:31:21.440279+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:54:54.685582+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beginning_of_Human_History-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beginning_of_Human_History-1.md index a1c1e4933..0b15fdff7 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beginning_of_Human_History-1.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beginning_of_Human_History-1.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 2/3 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beginning_of_Human_History" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:31:21.440279+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:54:54.685582+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beginning_of_Human_History-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beginning_of_Human_History-2.md index 3e22fdfd5..cd8172672 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beginning_of_Human_History-2.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beginning_of_Human_History-2.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 3/3 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beginning_of_Human_History" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:31:21.440279+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:54:54.685582+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Psychology_of_Military_Incompetence-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Psychology_of_Military_Incompetence-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2fdcd511b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Psychology_of_Military_Incompetence-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "On the Psychology of Military Incompetence" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Psychology_of_Military_Incompetence" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:54:55.829462+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +On The Psychology of Military Incompetence is a work by Norman F. Dixon, first published in 1976, which applies insights from psychology to military history. After case studies of military and naval disasters from the preceding 120 years, mostly British, it offers in readable, not technical, style and analysis of the personality of the unsuccessful leader. Its conclusions are equally applicable to other less deadly forms of human organisation. + + +== Synopsis == +Starting from the premise that success or failure in military and naval operations may in large part be due to the personality of the general or admiral in command, the author first examines various historical disasters and the role of the commander in the resulting loss of life or liberty for the victims (which often included civilians as well). +Among major British case studies, he cites the blunders in the Crimean War by Raglan, followed by the blunders of Buller in the Second Boer War. In the First World War, he looks at the casualty list of Haig on the Western Front and the ineptitude of Townshend in Mesopotamia. Between the wars he castigates Britain for its failure to modernise its forces, which led to years of disaster on land, sea and (less so) in the air. During the Second World War, he covers Percival's failure to defend Singapore and Montgomery's over-bold effort to seize Arnhem (though he sees this as a tragic blot on an otherwise laudable career). +After this catalogue of incompetence, he addresses how such large and costly enterprises as armed forces can be put in the hands of men of such dubious calibre. Here he discerns a vicious circle: it is people of a certain type who are recruited and promoted, so others either do not apply or languish in insignificant positions. Among characteristics of the British officer class in the period under examination are: a narrow social segment admitted, scorn of intellectual and artistic endeavour, subservience to tradition, and emphasis on virility. +This leads, in his view, to the prevalence of an authoritarian type, fawning to superiors and often harsh or uncaring to inferiors. Such a man, by this analysis, is afraid of women (so only half human) and afraid of failure. He therefore ignores people and facts which do not conform to his world view, learns little from experience and clings to external rules, applying them even when the situation demands other approaches (for example Haig sacrificing hundreds of thousands of men he ordered to walk through mud into German machine gun fire). He may not be stupid, though some of the generals studied undoubtedly were, and he may be physically courageous, but his fatal lack is moral courage. Men like Townshend and Percival, caught in a trap by a more enterprising enemy, sat zombie-like until disaster overwhelmed them. +As a corrective, the author also mentions unequivocally great military and naval commanders like Napoleon, Wellington and Nelson who were far from this personality type. + + +== Reception == +Even though some of the psychology theory may have dated, the work has attracted favourable reviews for over 40 years and is still considered a valuable text in studies of leadership. In January 2015, an annual list published by BookFinder revealed that it had been the most sought out-of-print book in the United States during the previous year. + + +== See also == +Military incompetence + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oneirocritica-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oneirocritica-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c22c46f6a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oneirocritica-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,44 @@ +--- +title: "Oneirocritica" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oneirocritica" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:54:57.018176+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Oneirocritica (Greek: Ονειροκριτικά) (The Interpretation of Dreams) is an ancient Greek treatise on dream interpretation written by Artemidorus Daldianus in the 2nd century AD. It is the earliest extant Greek work on the subject, in five books, though in it Artemidorus mentions numerous other – now lost – works from which his own is at least partially derived, including the 1st-century Oneirocritica by Artemon of Miletus. +The first three volumes were intended for the general public, providing an encyclopedic treatment of the subject matter of dreams, and the remaining two volumes were written for the private use of the author's son, a novice dream interpreter. Artemidorus inscribed the book "Artemidorus of Daldis", despite having been born in Ephesus, to commemorate the little-known birthplace of his mother in Lydia (3.66). +Artemidorus suggests that dreams are unique to the individual, and that a person's waking life will affect the symbols in his dreams. He shows awareness of the dreaming mind's capacity to use metaphors in its messages. +Michel Foucault, who discusses the Oneirocritica in The Care of the Self, the third volume of his The History of Sexuality (1976–1984), describes the text as a practical, experiential guide. According to Foucault, the work reveals culturally salient patterns relating to "the ethical experience of the aphrodisia". + + +== Books == +The first three books divide dreams into major groups. Book one is dedicated to the anatomy and activity of the human body: 82 sections interpret the appearance in dreams of subjects like head size, eating, and sexual activity. For example, section 52 says, concerning one activity of the body, "All tools that cut and divide things in half signify disagreements, factions, and injuries ... Tools that smooth out surfaces predict an end to enmities." +The second book treats objects and events in the natural world, such as weather, animals, the gods and flying. The section on animals includes mammals (domestic and wild), sea creatures, reptiles, and those that fly. So in chapter 12 we find: "There is an affinity between all wild animals and our enemies. A wolf signifies a violent enemy ... A fox indicates that the enemy will not attack openly but will plot underhandedly." +The third book is miscellaneous. It provides further interpretations of dreams, focusing on various situations and objects that may appear. Artemidorus continues his methodical analysis, examining the significance of dreams related to different aspects of everyday life and the natural world. +Artemidorus moves from dream content to the technique of dream interpretation in book four, which is addressed to his son. He states that the interpreter needs to know the background of the dreamer, such as his occupation, health, status, habits, and age. The plausibility of dream content should be considered, which cannot be done without reference to the dreamer. The interpreter should find out how the subject feels about each component of the dream. In book five, Artemidorus presents a further 95 dreams he collected, for his son to use as practice material. +Artemidorus stresses the empirical nature of his research. "I did not rely upon any simple theory of probabilities but rather on experience and the testimony of actual dream-fulfillments." His research took him to cities in Greece, Italy and its larger islands, and Asia Minor. He indicates that he reviewed all available literature on dreams, and that he spent years consulting with oral interpreters. + + +== Editions and translations == +The definitive edition of the Greek text is by Roger Pack, Artemidori Daldiani Onirocriticon Libri V (Teubner 1963) +A medieval Arabic version was made of the first three books (i.e., the "public" books) in 877 AD by Hunayn ibn Ishaq, and published by Toufic Fahd with a French translation in 1964 under the title Le livre des songes [par] Artémidore d'Éphèse +The most recent English translation is by Martin Hammond (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020) +The most recent Italian translation is by Dario Del Corno, Libro dei sogni (1974) +The most recent French translation is by A.J. Festugière, Clef des Songes (1975) +The "fragments" of other Greco-Roman oneirocritic authors were compiled by Dario Del Corno in his Graecorum de re Onirocritica Scriptorum Reliquiae (1969), with commentary in Italian. As many of the fragments are preserved by Artemidorus, Del Corno's work is also a partial commentary to the Oneirocritica. +There is also a Dutch translation, by Simone Mooij-Valk, called Droomboek (2003) +There is an English translation and commentary by Robert J. White, Oneirocritica (Noyes Classical Studies, 1975) + + +== References and sources == +References + +Sources +van de Castle, Robert L. (1994). Our Dreaming Mind. New York: Ballantine Books. pp. 66–69. ISBN 0-345-39666-9. + + +== External links == +Excerpts from the Oneirocritica \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opening_Skinner's_Box-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opening_Skinner's_Box-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d9c16e726 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opening_Skinner's_Box-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +title: "Opening Skinner's Box" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opening_Skinner's_Box" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:54:58.214236+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Opening Skinner's Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century (W. W. Norton & Company, 2004, ISBN 0393050955), is a book by Lauren Slater. +In this book, Slater sets out to describe some of the psychological experiments of the twentieth century. Controversially, the author also describes the urban legend that B.F. Skinner raised his child in his Skinner box, a kind of Operant conditioning chamber, in a way which many perceived as being poorly researched and lending credit to a false claim. + + +== Experiments covered == +The work and experiments of B. F. Skinner +The Milgram experiment of the 1950s, a controversial experiment designed to explain obedience to authority to a post-Holocaust world +The Rosenhan experiment, which questioned the validity of psychiatric diagnosis in the 1970s +Darley and Latané's helping behavior studies +Leon Festinger's theory of Cognitive dissonance among cult members whose predicted apocalypse fails to arrive +Rat Park, a study into drug addiction conducted by Canadian psychologist Bruce K. Alexander in the late 1970s, which attempted to show that drugs do not cause addiction by demonstrating that the apparent addiction to opiate drugs commonly observed in laboratory rats exposed to it is attributable to their living conditions, and not to any addictive property of the drug itself +The misinformation effect, discovered by Elizabeth Loftus, which gave rise to the lost in the mall technique +Harry Harlow, an American psychologist best known for his maternal-separation and social isolation experiments on rhesus monkeys, which demonstrated the importance of care-giving and companionship in social and cognitive development +António Egas Moniz and his development of lobotomy +Eric Kandel, who identified CREB as a protein involved in long-term memory + + +== Controversy == +B. F. Skinner's daughter Deborah criticised the book for its claims that she had been raised in a box and committed suicide. The book, indeed, mentioned such claims, but also rebutted them with an interview with Deborah's sister, Julie Vargas. In an article for The Guardian, Deborah described the claims as "doing her family a disservice" and stated that she was a very healthy child growing up. Skinner's daughter also described the truth behind the photographs which spawned the legend, namely that her father had developed a heated crib for her, later marketed under the name "Air-Crib", which had been mistaken by the public for a Skinner box. + + +== References == + +Slater, Lauren. "Chapter 1." Opening Skinner's Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century. New York: W.W. Norton, 2004. 6–30. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathological_Altruism-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathological_Altruism-0.md index 8bebdf5b0..c94e83cf7 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathological_Altruism-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathological_Altruism-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/1 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathological_Altruism" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:19:06.441484+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:01.761107+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powers_of_Horror-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powers_of_Horror-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..05499672c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powers_of_Horror-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +title: "Powers of Horror" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powers_of_Horror" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:05.212057+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection (French: Pouvoirs de l'horreur. Essai sur l'abjection) is a 1980 book by Julia Kristeva. The work is an extensive treatise on the subject of abjection, in which Kristeva draws on the theories of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan to examine horror, marginalization, castration, the phallic signifier, the "I/Not I" dichotomy, the Oedipal complex, exile, and other concepts appropriate to feminist criticism and queer theory. +According to Kristeva, the abject marks a "primal order" that escapes signification in the symbolic order; the term is used to refer to the human reaction (horror, vomit) to a threatened breakdown in meaning caused by the loss of the distinction between subject and object, or between the self and the other. + +== Compared to Lacan == +Kristeva's understanding of the "abject" provides a helpful term to contrast to Lacan's objet petit a (or the "object - cause of desire"). Whereas the objet petit a allows a subject to coordinate his or her desires, thus allowing the symbolic order of meaning and intersubjective community to persist, the abject "is radically excluded and," as Kristeva explains, "draws me toward the place where meaning collapses". It is neither object nor subject; the abject is situated, rather, at a place before we entered into the symbolic order. (On the symbolic order, see, in particular, the Lacan module on psychosexual development.) As Kristeva puts it, "Abjection preserves what existed in the archaism of pre-objectal relationship, in the immemorial violence with which a body becomes separated from another body in order to be". The abject marks what Kristeva terms a "primal repression," one that precedes the establishment of the subject's relation to its objects of desire and of representation, before even the establishment of the opposition between consciousness and the unconscious. +Kristeva refers, instead, to the moment in our psychosexual development when we established a border or separation between human and animal, between culture and that which preceded it. On the level of archaic memory, Kristeva refers to the primitive effort to separate ourselves from the animal: "by way of abjection, primitive societies have marked out a precise area of their culture in order to remove it from the threatening world of animals or animalism, which were imagined as representatives of sex and murder". On the level of our individual psychosexual development, the abject marks the moment when we separated ourselves from the mother, when we began to recognize a boundary between "me" and other, between "me" and "(m)other." (See the Kristeva Module on Psychosexual Development.) The abject is "a precondition of narcissism". which is to say, a precondition for the narcissism of the mirror stage, which occurs after we establish these primal distinctions. The abject thus at once represents the threat that meaning is breaking down and constitutes our reaction to such a breakdown: a reestablishment of our "primal repression." The abject has to do with "what disturbs identity, system, order. What does not respect borders, positions, rules".and, so, can also include crimes like Auschwitz. Such crimes are abject precisely because they draw attention to the "fragility of the law". + +== Eruption of the Real == +More specifically, Kristeva associates the abject with the eruption of the Real into our lives. In particular, she associates such a response with our rejection of death's insistent materiality. Our reaction to such abject material recharges what is essentially a pre-lingual response. Kristeva, therefore, is quite careful to differentiate knowledge of death or the meaning of death (both of which can exist within the symbolic order) from the traumatic experience of being actually confronted with the sort of materiality that traumatically shows one's own death: +"A wound with blood and pus, or the sickly, acrid smell of sweat, of decay, does not signify death. In the presence of signified death—a flat encephalograph, for instance—I would understand, react, or accept. No, as in true theater, without makeup or masks, refuse and corpses show me what I permanently thrust aside in order to live. These body fluids, this defilement, this shit are what life withstands, hardly and with difficulty, on the part of death. There, I am at the border of my condition as a living being." +The corpse especially exemplifies Kristeva's concept since it literalizes the breakdown of the distinction between subject and object that is crucial for the establishment of identity and for our entrance into the symbolic order. What we are confronted with when we experience the trauma of seeing a human corpse (particularly the corpse of a friend or family member) is our own eventual death made palpably real. As Kristeva puts it, "The corpse, seen without God and outside of science, is the utmost of abjection. It is death infecting life. Abject". \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powers_of_Horror-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powers_of_Horror-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ce59342a4 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powers_of_Horror-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +title: "Powers of Horror" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powers_of_Horror" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:05.212057+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Comparison with desire == +The abject must also be distinguished from desire (which is tied up with the meaning-structures of the symbolic order). It is associated, rather, with both fear and jouissance. In phobia, Kristeva reads the trace of a pre-linguistic confrontation with the abject, a moment that precedes the recognition of any actual object of fear: "The phobic object shows up at the place of non-objectal states of drive and assumes all the mishaps of drive as disappointed desires or as desires diverted from their objects". The object of fear is, in other words, a substitute formation for the subject's abject relation to drive. The fear of, say, heights really stands in the place of a much more primal fear: the fear caused by the breakdown of any distinction between subject and object, of any distinction between ourselves and the world of dead material objects (reference page?). +Kristeva also associates the abject with jouissance: "One does not know it, one does not desire it, one joys in it [on en jouit]. Violently and painfully. A passion". This statement appears paradoxical, but what Kristeva means by such statements is that we are, despite everything, continually and repetitively drawn to the abject (much as we are repeatedly drawn to trauma in Freud's understanding of repetition compulsion). To experience the abject in literature carries with it a certain pleasure but one that is quite different from the dynamics of desire. Kristeva associates this aesthetic experience of the abject, rather, with poetic catharsis: "an impure process that protects from the abject only by dint of being immersed in it". + +== Purifying the abject == +The abject for Kristeva is, therefore, closely tied both to religion and to art, which she sees as two ways of purifying the abject: "The various means of purifying the abject—the various catharses—make up the history of religions, and end up with that catharsis par excellence called art, both on the far and near side of religion". According to Kristeva, the best modern literature (Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Marcel Proust, Jorge Luis Borges, Antonin Artaud, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Franz Kafka, etc.) explores the place of the abject, a place where boundaries begin to break down, where people are confronted with an archaic space before such linguistic binaries as self/other or subject/object. +The transcendent or sublime, for Kristeva, is really our effort to cover over the breakdowns (and subsequent reassertion of boundaries) associated with the abject; and literature is the privileged space for both the sublime and abject: "On close inspection, all literature is probably a version of the apocalypse that seems to me rooted, no matter what its sociohistorical conditions might be, on the fragile border (borderline cases) where identities (subject/object, etc.) do not exist or only barely so—double, fuzzy, heterogeneous, animal, metamorphosed, altered, abject". According to Kristeva, literature explores the way that language is structured over a lack, a want. She privileges poetry, in particular, because of poetry's willingness to play with grammar, metaphor and meaning, thus laying bare the fact that language is at once arbitrary and limned with the abject fear of loss: "Not a language of the desiring exchange of messages or objects that are transmitted in a social contract of communication and desire beyond want, but a language of want, of the fear that edges up to it and runs along its edges". + +== Citations == + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictably_Irrational-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictably_Irrational-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..fb765fdfe --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictably_Irrational-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Predictably Irrational" +chunk: 1/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictably_Irrational" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:07.556130+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions is a 2008 book by Dan Ariely, in which he challenges readers' assumptions about making decisions based on rational thought. Ariely explains, "My goal, by the end of this book, is to help you fundamentally rethink what makes you and the people around you tick. I hope to lead you there by presenting a wide range of scientific experiments, findings, and anecdotes that are in many cases quite amusing. Once you see how systematic certain mistakes are—how we repeat them again and again—I think you will begin to learn how to avoid some of them". +The book has been republished in a "revised & expanded edition", and has been adapted as the 2023 television series The Irrational. + +== Chapter summary == +Ariely discusses many modes of thinking and situations that may skew the traditional rational choice theory. There are 15 chapters in total, and the following outline the main points. + +=== The Truth About Relativity === +In chapter 1, Ariely describes the ways in which people frequently regard their environment in terms of their relation to others; it is the way that the human brain is wired. People not only compare things, but also compare things that are easily comparable. For example, if given the following options for a honeymoon—Paris (with free breakfast), Rome (with free breakfast), and Rome (no breakfast included), most people would probably choose Rome with the free breakfast. The rationale is that it is easier to compare the two options for Rome than it is to compare Paris and Rome. Ariely also explains the role of the decoy effect (or asymmetric dominance effect) in the decision process. The decoy effect is the phenomenon whereby consumers will tend to have a specific change in preference between two options when also presented with a third option that is asymmetrically dominated. This effect is the "secret agent" in many decisions. In the example with the honeymoon options, Rome without free breakfast is the decoy. (It makes Rome with breakfast look superior to Rome without breakfast. Comparing Rome and Paris is difficult, so the easy comparison of Rome makes it more likely to choose Rome over Paris.) It makes Paris look inferior when compared to Rome with the free breakfast. Relativity helps people make decisions but it can also make them miserable. People compare their lives to those of others, leading to jealousy and inferiority. Ariely finishes the chapter by saying "the more we have, the more we want" and his suggested cure is to break the cycle of relativity. To break the cycle, people can control what goes on around them. The focus on smaller "circles" can boost relative happiness, as can changing this focus from narrow to broad. When considering upgrading a phone, the consumer could think about what else they could buy with the money they would spend on the upgrade. +The chapter also explores the independence of irrelevant alternatives and the idea of menu dependence. + +=== The Fallacy of Supply and Demand === + +In chapter 2, consumers purchase items based on value, quality or availability—often on all three. The methods of appointing a value to an object with no previous value, like the Tahitian black pearl, is susceptible to irrational pricing. A value can be as easily (arbitrarily) assigned as by having a fancy ad with "equally" precious items and a high price tag in a window of a store on Fifth Avenue. When consumers buy a product at a certain price, they become "anchored" to that price, i.e. they associate the initial price with the same product over a period of time. An anchor price of a certain object, say a plasma television, will affect the way they perceive the value of all plasma televisions henceforth. Other prices will seem low or high in relation to the original anchor. In other words, decisions about future LCD television purchases become coherent after an initial price has been established in the consumer's mind. A person's self value for services rendered can also be affected by anchor prices; one can irrationally price his/her abilities or services based on an anchor price proposed. Using the concepts of anchor price and arbitrary coherence, Ariely challenges the theory of supply and demand. He states that demand, the determinant of market prices, can be easily manipulated. Furthermore, supply and demand are dependent on each other (manufacturer's suggested retail prices affect consumers' willingness to pay). Finally, the author claims that the relationships between supply and demand are based on memory rather than on preferences. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictably_Irrational-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictably_Irrational-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f66186b17 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictably_Irrational-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +--- +title: "Predictably Irrational" +chunk: 2/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictably_Irrational" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:07.556130+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== The Cost of Zero Cost === +In chapter 3, Ariely explains how humans react to the words "free" and "zero". Humans make decisions without rationalizing the outcomes of their choices. To illustrate this point, Ariely conducted multiple experiments. The outcome was consistent: when faced with multiple choices, the free option was commonly chosen. With the opportunity to receive something for free, the actual value of the product or service is no longer considered. Ariely claims, "Most transactions have an upside and a downside, but when something is FREE! we forget the downside. FREE! gives us such an emotional charge that we perceive what is being offered as immensely more valuable than it really is." +Ariely's concept of "FREE!" applies not only to monetary and quantitative costs, but also to time. We forgo some of our time when we wait in line for free popcorn or to enter a museum on a free-entrance day. We could have been doing something else at that time. Ultimately, he demonstrates how such a simple concept can be used to drive business and social policy. For example, to reduce health cost, companies could offer free regular checks. Employees would be more willing to get them at zero cost rather than paying some amount of money. Ariely recommends the consideration of the net benefits of the choices we make regarding both preference and money. Perhaps we would get the better deal and even save money if we did not react to free the way we do. + +=== Being Paid vs. A Friendly Favor === +In chapters 4 and 5, Ariely speaks in great detail of the differences between social norms—which include friendly requests with instant payback not being required—and market norms—which account for wages, prices, rents, cost benefits, and repayment being essential. +He also explains how combining the two can create troubling situations. The author comments that people are happy to do things occasionally when they are not paid for them. In fact there are some situations in which work output is negatively affected by payment of small amounts of money. Tests showed that work done as a "favor" sometimes produced much better results than work paid for. +For example, some lawyers were asked by AARP to provide needy retirees with services at a cost of about $30. The lawyers did not accept the offer. However, when asked to offer services at no cost, they agreed. Experiments also showed that offering a small gift would not offend anybody (the gift falls into social norms), but mentioning the monetary value of the gifts invokes market norms. +Ariely talks about how social norms are making their way into the market norms. To illustrate, State Farm's slogan, "Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there," provides an example where companies are trying to connect with people on a social level in order to gain trust and allow the customer to overlook minor infractions. The author concludes that "money, as it turns out, is the most expensive way to motivate people. Social norms are not only cheaper, but often more effective as well." + +=== Emotion in Decision Making === +In chapter 6, Ariely collaborated with close friend George Loewenstein, a professor of economics and psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, to test the influence of arousal on decision making in high-emotion situations. Ariely and Loewenstein chose to test the effects of sexual arousal on decision-making in college-aged men at University of California, Berkeley. By using computers to stimulate sexual arousal, they determined that in a stimulated state, the young men were more likely to undergo an action that they would not normally consider. Using the data, Ariely argues that other high-emotion situations such as anger, frustration, and hunger have the potential to trigger similar effects on decision-making. In such situations our behavior is fully controlled by emotions. We are not the people we thought we were. No matter how much experience we have we make irrational decisions every time we are under the influence of arousal. Furthermore, he presents ideas to improve our decision-making abilities in other emotion-provoking situations such as safe sex, safe driving, and making other life decisions. For example, Ariely proposes an OnStar system that could potentially lower the number of car accidents in teenagers by performing tasks such as changing the car's temperature or dialing the teenager's mother when the car exceeds a set speed. + +=== The Problem of Procrastination and Self-control === +In chapter 7, over the last decade Americans have shown surprisingly little self-control. Ariely blames this lack of self-control on people's two states in which they make their judgments—cool state and hot state. In our cool state we make rational long-term decisions, whereas in our hot state we give in to immediate gratification and put off our decisions made in the cool state. +Ariely describes putting off these goals for immediate gratification as procrastination. With proper motivators such as deadlines and penalties, people are more willing to meet deadlines or long-term goals. The author states that based on his experience with his students, deadlines set by authority figures such as teachers and supervisors make us start working on a specific task earlier. If we set the deadlines ourselves, we might not perform well. Moreover, we will not start making any progress towards the completion of the task until the deadline approaches. +Ariely also applies his theories to other aspects in life such as health care and savings. Having to pay a deposit at the doctor's office would make people more likely not to procrastinate and show up for their appointments. He goes on to say that if more consequences were put into effect, people would be more likely to meet their goals, appointments, deadlines, etc. made in a cool state. Ariely also elaborates on his idea of self-control credit cards. When applying for such a card, users can decide how much they can spend in each category and what would happen when they exceed their limit. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictably_Irrational-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictably_Irrational-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7dbf67f37 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictably_Irrational-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,52 @@ +--- +title: "Predictably Irrational" +chunk: 3/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictably_Irrational" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:07.556130+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== The High Price of Ownership === +In chapter 8, Ariely discusses how we overvalue what we have, and why we make irrational decisions about ownership. The idea of ownership makes us perceive the value of an object to be much higher if we own the object. This illustrates the phenomenon of the endowment effect—placing a higher value on property once possession has been assigned. The author begins the chapter by using an example of how a lottery for highly sought-after Duke University basketball tickets inflates students' sense of value for the tickets. Students who actually received the tickets valued them ten times more than the students who did not receive them. +Ariely gives three reasons why we do not always think rationally when it comes to our possessions: + +Ownership is such a big part of our society that we tend to focus on what we may lose rather than on what we may gain. +The connection we feel to the things we own makes it difficult for us to dispose of them. +We assume that people will see the transaction through our eyes. +Ariely also lists the "peculiarities" of ownership as he calls them. One of them is that the harder we work on something, the more we start feeling about them as our own. Take assembling a piece of furniture as an example. Another peculiarity is that sometimes, the sense of ownership comes before the actual ownership, e.g. online auctions. To avoid the endowment effect, Ariely suggests that we create a barrier between ourselves and the material things we are tempted by daily. + +=== The Effect of Expectations === +In chapter 9, Ariely and other colleagues conducted a series of experiments to determine whether previous knowledge can change an actual sensory experience. One of the experiments was conducted in the Muddy Charles, one of the MIT's pubs. Students visiting the pub tasted two types of beer—Budweiser and the MIT Brew (which contains balsamic vinegar). +In the "blind test" the majority preferred the altered brew, but when they were told in advance that it was vinegar-laced, they chose the original Budweiser. Another group of students was made aware of the vinegar content immediately after tasting both kinds of drinks. However, they still reported that they preferred it, proving that knowledge after the experience does not affect our sensory perceptions. +Ariely also states that expectations shape stereotypes. Stereotypes provide us with knowledge before the actual experience and thus influence our perceptions. The author describes an experiment in which an objective math exam was administered to two groups of Asian-American women. Before taking the test, the women from the first group were asked questions regarding gender-related issues, whereas the second group had to answer questions about race-related issues. The second group did better than the first one and met the expectation that Asians are good at math. +Ariely concludes, "Expectations can influence nearly every aspect in one's life." He presents an argument that expectations can override our senses, partially blinding us from the truth. + +=== The Power of Placebo === +In chapter 10, Ariely started out with a medical procedure called internal mammary artery ligation for chest pain. The interesting twist is when a cardiologist decided to test the efficacy of this procedure by performing a placebo procedure. The result showed that the placebo is equally effective, thereby disputing the effectiveness of the original surgery. This example is one of many that illustrate the power of placebo in medical science. +While the effect of placebo has been knowingly and unknowingly practiced for millennia, the interesting observation Ariely and his collaborators made was that prices of the prescribed medicine can be used as a placebo as well. This chapter ended with a complex and moral question as to whether or not the placebo effect in medicine should be studied more closely or even eliminated systematically. + +== Television adaptation == + +In November 2021, it was reported that NBC had put a pilot commitment to a television series adaptation of the book titled The Irrational with Arika Lisanne Mittman as executive producer. In February 2022, it was announced that NBC had given the production a pilot order. In December 2022, it was announced that NBC had given the production a series order with Jesse L. Martin set to star. In May 2023, it was announced that the series would premiere in the 2023–24 television season. The series premiered on September 25, 2023. + +== Reception == +In a New York Times review, David Berreby said "Predictably Irrational is a far more revolutionary book than its unthreatening manner lets on. It's a concise summary of why today's social science increasingly treats the markets-know-best model as a fairy tale." + +== See also == +Cognitive bias +Dysrationalia +Rational choice theory + +== Citations == + +== General and cited references == +Ariely, Dan (2008). Predictably Irrational, Harper Collins. ISBN 978-0-06-135323-9 + +== External links == +Dan Ariely's official site +Predictably Irrational book site +Direct link to the papers quoted in Predictably Irrational +New York Times book review +New Yorker book review \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_Lies_(book)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_Lies_(book)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..fd0a1c119 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_Lies_(book)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,41 @@ +--- +title: "Private Lies (book)" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_Lies_(book)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:10.974202+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Private Lies: Infidelity and Betrayal of Intimacy is a non-fiction book by psychiatrist and family therapist Frank Pittman, M.D. Private Lies was first published in hardcover edition in 1989 by W. Then, W. Norton & Company by the same publisher in a paperback edition in 1990. +Dr. Pittman's book has been referred to as "widely quoted", by Psychology Today. It has been cited by 24 other books on marriage and family therapy counseling. + + +== Books by Frank Pittman == +Turning Points: Treating Families in Transition and Crisis, Frank Pittman, M.D., A Norton Professional Book, (Hardcover), W. W. Norton & Company; 1st ed edition, May 1987, ISBN 0-393-70040-2, ISBN 978-0-393-70040-4 +Private Lies: Infidelity and Betrayal of Intimacy, Frank Pittman, M.D., W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint edition November 1990, ISBN 0-393-30707-7, ISBN 978-0-393-30707-8 +Mentiras Privadas (Spanish edition), Amorrortu Editores, September 1994, ISBN 950-518-543-X, ISBN 978-950-518-543-6 +Man enough: fathers, sons and the search for masculinity, Frank Pittman, M.D., Perigee Trade; Reprint edition October 1, 1994, ISBN 0-399-51883-5, ISBN 978-0-399-51883-6 +Grow Up!: How Taking Responsibility Can Make You a Happy Adult, Golden Guides from St. Martin's Press, ISBN 1-58238-040-6, ISBN 978-1-58238-040-7, July 30, 1999 + + +== See also == +Psychotherapy +Family therapy +Mental health +Infidelity + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Official sites +Private Lies, W. W. Norton & Company +Beyond Betrayal: Life After Infidelity, Psychology Today, article by Dr. Frank Pittman, commenting on his book +Search +Private Lies, Google Scholar +Private Lies, text at Google Books +Media +Infidelity Comes Out of the Closet, New York Times April 29, 1999 \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychologie_der_Berufsarbeit_und_der_Berufsberatung_(Psychotechnik)_II_Spezieller_Teil-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychologie_der_Berufsarbeit_und_der_Berufsberatung_(Psychotechnik)_II_Spezieller_Teil-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4b692ba29 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychologie_der_Berufsarbeit_und_der_Berufsberatung_(Psychotechnik)_II_Spezieller_Teil-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ +--- +title: "Psychologie der Berufsarbeit und der Berufsberatung (Psychotechnik) II Spezieller Teil" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychologie_der_Berufsarbeit_und_der_Berufsberatung_(Psychotechnik)_II_Spezieller_Teil" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:12.130835+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Psychologie der Berufsarbeit und der Berufsberatung (Psychotechnik) II Spezieller Teil (Die praktische Anwendung der psychologischen Eignungsprüfung in den verschiedenen Berufen) is an advice manual for career counseling written by Theodor Erismann and Martha Moers in 1922. Its title translates to Psychology of Work and Career Counseling (Psychotechniques) II Specialized Part (The Practical Application of Psychological Aptitude Tests in Various Careers). Published by Walter de Grunter & Co. in Berlin, it is the second instalment of a series on career counselling. The first volume contains information on the following topics: I. Grundzüge der Psychophysik der Berufsarbeit (Basics of Occupational Psychophysics) II. Berufsberatung auf psychologischer Grundlage (Psychology-based Career Counseling) III. Allgemeine Berufsberatung auf Grundlage der Intelligenzprüfung (Career Counseling Based on Intelligence Testing). While the first book highlights the importance of taking aptitude into account while choosing a career, as well as the applications of career counseling in general, the second volume goes further into aptitude testing for specific jobs. The main section of the book lists common occupations of the time, explores which characteristics and skills are vital for success in the respective fields, and finally introduces established tests for these. Often, intelligence tests based on the work of William Stern are used. In effect, it acts as a book of instructions for psychological career counselling. At the time of writing, Swiss-Austrian psychologist and philosopher Dr. Theodor Erismann (1883–1961) was a Professor of Psychology at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität Bonn (University of Bonn). Second author, German psychologist Dr. Martha Moers (1877–1966) was the director of the municipal career counseling for the city of Bonn. + + +== Contents == + + +=== I. Eignungsprüfungen in den einzelnen Berufen === +This section concerns aptitude tests for various, specific careers. + +Die Verkehrsberufe covers careers in transportation and traffic, such as Straßenbahnführer (Tram driver), Kraftfahrer (lorry driver) and Lokomotivführer (train driver). Although all three of these careers are very similar, differences in required abilities are still highlighted. For instance, the lack of tracks to guide lorry drivers provides an additional difficulty not present for tram and train drivers. All three careers require fast reaction times, decisiveness, stamina and calmness. Aptitude tests for pilots (Flugzeugführer) are also briefly discussed, though the authors note that these are of little use during times of peace, and are included only for completeness sake. +Der Facharbeiter der Metallindustrie concerns testing for workers in the metal industry. +Der Kanzleiangestellte und der kaufmännisch Angestellte covers demands for legal assistants as well as merchants. +Der Schriftsetzer und Buchdrucker goes over ideal characteristics for workers in the printing business, specifically for typesetters and printers. +Die Telephonistin (switchboard operator) is the only career for women covered in the book. +Der Telegraphist und Funker explores available aptitude tests for telegraph and radio operators. +Der Feuerwehrangestellte Firefighting is the only occupation for which medical aptitude tests, particularly concerning breathing patterns, are recommended in addition to psychological ones. Notably, psychological aptitude tests include those meant to assess skittishness, for instance by asking an applicant to perform precise movements (set down a full pail of water) while being exposed to unexpected sounds. +Der Kriminalbeamte concerns the necessary abilities for work as a police officer and detective. +Der Damenfriseur details the skills required by women's hair dressers, such as the ability to perform precise actions with both hands simultaneously. +Psychotechnisch wenig durcharbeitete Berufe: Holzgewerbe, Baugewerbe, Landwirtschaft, Schneiderberuf, höhere Berufe This section explores careers and occupations with no or poorly developed psychological aptitude tests. This includes jobs in Lumbering, construction, agriculture, tailoring and dressmaking and academia. Despite the lack of established aptitude tests, potential characteristics to test for are discussed. For example, results from questionnaires completed by vocational school teachers for these careers are presented. For instance, a stock breeder is associated with good eyesight (Sehschärfe) and colour vision (Farbentüchtigkeit), well-developed tactile abilities (Feinheit des Tastsinnes), good memory, general intelligence, stamina, cleanliness, an aesthetic sense, as well as the general ability to handle animals. + + +=== II. Praktischer Wert und Soziale Bedeutung der Psychotechnik === +The second section of the book concerns the practical and social value of psychotechniques. It introduces criteria to assess the actual accuracy of specific tests in predicting future job performance. Criteria include the direct comparison of the performance of workers selected via aptitude testing and those selected without them, a better performance in aptitude tests by those already working in the corresponding career versus those who have no experience, and a correlation between existing employees' job performance and aptitude test performance. + + +== Psychologie der Berufsberatung and Career Counseling == +At the time of publishing, career counselling was a relatively new, but quickly developing field. It is often said to have begun with the publication of Frank Parsons' book Choosing a Vocation in 1909. In Germany, offices for career counselling emerged during the early 20th century, starting with Josephine Levy-Rathenau's Auskunftsstelle für Frauenberufe (English: Information office for jobs for women) in 1902. Psychologie der Berufsberatung, published in 1922, acts as a summary of established findings and accepted tests in the field. +Perhaps at odds with career counseling today is the authors' focus on testing whether an individual is well suited for a specific occupation, rather than performing a series of tests to determine where a client's talents lie and offering advice on potential careers based on this. Today, career counselling most often concentrates on this advisory aspect of aptitude testing. Despite the title, Erismann and Moers describe tools for potential employers more than they do tools for self-discovery of one talents. This is also reflected in the notable absence of tests meant to reveal areas of interest rather than just those of talent, as are commonplace in today's career counselling. However, despite this particular book's apparent lack of focus on the individual and their personal development, other books by the authors', particularly Erismann, highlight the importance of a well-chosen profession for overall happiness. + + +== Literature == +Erismann, Theodor & Moers, Martha. Psychologie der Berufsarbeit und der Berufsberatung (Psychotechnik) II Spezieller Teil (Die praktische Anwendung der psychologischen Eignungsprüfung in den verschiedenen Berufen). Walter de Grunter & Co. 1922. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology_Gone_Wrong-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology_Gone_Wrong-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7d83d0222 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology_Gone_Wrong-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,46 @@ +--- +title: "Psychology Gone Wrong" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology_Gone_Wrong" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:13.311619+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Psychology Gone Wrong: The Dark Sides of Science and Therapy is a 2015 book written by Tomasz Witkowski and Maciej Zatonski. +It covers mistakes, frauds and abuses of academic psychology, psychotherapy, and psycho-business. In the book the authors review the history of fraudulent research and questionable research practices; the willingness of many psychologists to embrace pseudoscientific ideas and practices (psychoanalysis, recovered-memory therapy, projective testing, neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), etc.), exaggerated claims for the efficacy of psychological interventions, and so on. In each case the authors support their thesis with abundant references. + + +== Outline of the book == +Part one of the book, chapters 1 through 7, seeks to demonstrate and to analyse flaws of the academic psychology and its impact on reality. Part two, chapters 8 through 15 presents pseudoscientific concepts in psychotherapy. Part three, chapters 16 through 19 examines problems of psycho-business. + + +=== Part I: Fraudsters in the Temple of Science: Some Sins of Academic Psychology === +The authors describe how disasters of social control like forced sterilizations and uncritical application of questionable IQ tests were instigated by psychologists who relied on their own flawed thinking rather than on empirical evidence from scientific studies. They tell stories about researchers who lied, plagiarized, distorted, falsified or even fabricated data, and got away with committing outright fraud over and over again. In some cases fraudulent studies were accepted as gospel and became the basis for ill-advised treatments. The authors argue for transparency in research and show how difficult it is for others to obtain the raw data from studies even when the researchers say they are willing to provide it. They offer proposed solutions to increase transparency and promote data sharing. They discuss problems with peer review, editorial policy, poor research design, non-publication of negative studies, and failure to replicate positive studies. They show how these have created a situation where psychological theories are virtually unkillable. They also show how study results can get distorted and changed in re-telling. At the end of this part they uncover social control problems in the scientific community. + + +=== Part II: Conquering Patients’ Souls – Sins of Psychotherapists === +In the next chapters the authors analyze several pseudoscientific concepts in psychotherapy. The first is devoted to psychoanalysis. Investigation has shown that Sigmund Freud falsified or fabricated the details of most cases he used to build his theory. His approach was not scientific. He never tested his ideas with experiments that might have falsified his beliefs, and he ignored facts that contradicted them. Many of his supposed original ideas came from other authors. When tested, psychoanalysis was shown to be less effective than placebo. Its theories have been disproven. Yet it persists in popular opinion as one of the primary canons of practicing psychology. +In the next chapter Witkowski and Zatonski provide ample evidence to debunk these myths about childhood experiences: + +Personality is formed by early childhood experiences. +Mental disorders are caused by early childhood experiences. +Effective psychotherapy depends on the reconstruction of childhood experiences. +In the chapter 10 the authors show how delving into childhood memories causes serious problems, and has led to terrible abuses such as the recovered memory movement. The idea of repressed and recovered memories is presented as a creative invention of therapists. Patients are easily duped because it provides a convenient scapegoat to explain their problems and relieves them of responsibility for their inability to cope with their lives. Academic psychologists bear much of the blame for failing to subject pop trends to empirical verification and failing to speak out and denounce false theories. +Chapter 11 presents an unusual perspective on the psychotherapy. Psychotherapeutic interventions in general have been remarkably unsuccessful. Only one of the many varieties of psychotherapy is supported by acceptable evidence: cognitive behavioral therapy. There is no correlation between a therapist’s training or experience and patient outcomes. Amateurs get equal results. The benefits of psychotherapy may be no better than the benefits of talking to a friend; in a sense, psychotherapists are paid to act as friends, which could be considered a sort of prostitution. +Chapter 12 deals with the harms of therapy. Therapy can do real harm and can lead to suicide. It encourages dependence, false optimism, and externalized responsibility. Not one study of AA has ever shown it superior to any other approach for treating alcohol abuse, and in fact untreated patients have similar or better outcomes. +In chapter 13 the authors ask: What are the alternatives for psychotherapy? Can we replace psychotherapy with something else? Can a new “salutogenic” paradigm replace the pathogenic paradigm by focusing on human resilience and coping abilities? Mental health is characterized by commitment (a sense of purpose), by the belief that you have some control over your life, and by the understanding that change, not stability, is a natural element of reality. Hardiness is largely genetic but can be developed by exposure to stress. + + +=== Part III: Beyond Control: Psychobusiness === +The authors devote the 16th chapter to illustrate how psycho-business works. The next is entirely devoted to neurolinguistic programming (NLP), showing how it developed and flourished, how the scientific literature served as support for a pseudoscientific business, how it infiltrated academia, and how the scientific community failed to denounce it. In chapter 19, one of the authors describes how he perpetrated a psychological Sokal Hoax. He got a bogus article published about a new therapy he invented based on Rupert Sheldrake’s pseudoscientific concept of “morphogenetic fields.” It shows how easily he could have marketed his new therapy and become rich at the expense of patients. In the concluding chapter, the authors describe the strategies employed by scientists with regard to pseudoscience. + + +== Reception == +Writing reviews for Science-Based Medicine and the Skeptical Inquirer, Harriet Hall gave her insight regarding the book. She concluded: “This is a well-referenced, well-reasoned book that is chock-full of information about the state of psychology today. It exposes a lot of dirty linen that would be of interest to any reader. I agree with James Alcock, Professor of Psychology at York University, whose back-cover blurb says it should be required reading for every psychologist and psychology student and anyone contemplating psychotherapy.” +Editor of the Skeptical Intelligencer, Michael Heap states in his review that, “For professional psychologists, students and anyone who needs a working knowledge of academic and applied psychology (which includes all skeptics) this is an important book and I thoroughly recommend it.” +Rouven Schäfer reviewing the book in the Skeptiker writes that "Hard, but factually, the authors go to court with some developments in psychology. Their concern is cleaning up the house of psychological science. Thus, this book also serves as a declaration of love to science. It enriches the assortment of the skeptical book market, and even though it doesn’t always present solutions, it helps raise the reader’s awareness of errors and undesirable developments.” + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology_Led_Astray-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology_Led_Astray-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f227b8ae3 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology_Led_Astray-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,24 @@ +--- +title: "Psychology Led Astray" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology_Led_Astray" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:14.530681+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Psychology Led Astray: Cargo Cult in Science and Therapy is a book written by Tomasz Witkowski and published in 2016. + + +== Outline == +Part One, comprising chapters 1 through 6, seeks to answer the question about the reliability of psychology as a science. Part Two, comprising chapters 7 through 10, presents pseudo-scientific concepts in psychotherapy as a kind of uncontrollable experiment on humans. Part Three, comprising chapters 11 through 17, examines a range of dubious, unsupported, and discredited (though still thriving) treatments and therapeutic practices and diagnostic categories devoted to children's problems and needs (e.g., educational kinesiology, attachment therapy, trauma debriefing, Facilitated Communication, Dolphin Therapy). The book ends with a letter to Richard Feynman, chastising him for calling the whole field a cargo cult. Witkowski emphasizes examples of good science in psychology that have had demonstrable benefits for society. + + +== Reception == +Writing a review for Science-Based Medicine, Hall wrote: "Witkowski has written a new book that is certain to ruffle a lot of feathers. He uncovers cargo cult practices in psychology, unmasking therapies that are devoid of science, dangerous, and even cruel, especially those directed at children. Even if you don't agree with calling these travesties of science cargo cults, it will make you wonder which other generally-accepted psychological principles and therapies are based on good science." +Michael Heap, reviewer of the book, called the book "a well-written, readable and thoroughly researched book. ... The importance of its subject matter is difficult to overstate. Anyone who is concerned, however remotely, with the study of human psychology and the treatment of psychological difficulties and disorders (and this includes potential patients and their families – i.e. just about anyone) should familiarise themselves with the information in this book." +Rouven Schäfer, in the Skeptiker, wrote that "the author is clearly interested in an evidence-based psychology as the next development step of this rather young science. Many people wouldn't approve of his criticism, but Witkowski's strength lies in questioning popular assumptions on top of a high level of reflectivity. Well-researched, skeptical and enjoyable to read." + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathia_Sexualis-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathia_Sexualis-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..32f3de686 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathia_Sexualis-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,41 @@ +--- +title: "Psychopathia Sexualis" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathia_Sexualis" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:18.080432+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Psychopathia Sexualis: eine klinisch-forensische Studie (Sexual Psychopathy: A Clinical-Forensic Study, also known as Psychopathia Sexualis, with Especial Reference to the Antipathetic Sexual Instinct: A Medico-forensic Study) is an 1886 book by Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing and one of the first texts about sexual pathology. The book details a wide range of paraphilias and focuses on male homosexuality/bisexuality (the "antipathetic instinct" of the subtitle). The book coined the terms "sadism and masochism" as well as borrowing the term "bisexual" from botanical nomenclature. + + +== Background == +Psychopathia Sexualis sought to create a taxonomy of human sexual behavior based on Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing's analysis of case studies. Krafft-Ebing assumed that sex for the purpose of procreation was normal, and all other types of sexual intercourse were signs of disease, either emotional or physical. +Masochism, which Krafft-Ebing focuses on at length, is, for example, defined as a particular erotic sensibility, in which the individual is, "in his sexual feelings and thoughts, dominated by the idea of being absolutely and unconditionally subjected to a person of the other sex". +The Psychopathia Sexualis is notable for being one of the earliest works on homosexuality. Krafft-Ebing combined Karl Heinrich Ulrichs' Urning theory with Bénédict Morel's theory of social degeneration and proposed the theory that most homosexuals have a mental illness caused by degenerate heredity. +Krafft-Ebing used a spectrum of terms to describe gender variance and transgender identities. He considered homosexuality to be one form of gender variance with some transgender elements. In writing about people who were assigned one sex at birth but identified strongly as another as an adult, Krafft-Ebing defined them as having "metamorphosis sexualis paranoica", which he believed was a psychotic trait. Krafft-Ebing used the term "gynandry" for people who today might identify as trans men. + + +== Legacy == +The book had a considerable influence on continental European forensic psychiatry in the first part of the 20th century. It is regarded as an important text in the history of psychopathology. +In 2006, an independent film based on the book was made in Atlanta; the film was titled Psychopathia Sexualis. +The book's discussion of androgyny and gynandry for case 131 was highlighted in the first chapter of the 2006 The Transgender Studies Reader, a major work in transgender studies edited by Susan Stryker and Stephen Whittle. The editors found it notable that some case studies presented in the book reflect specific subjective experiences that map closely to modern terms. They also valued the book as a historical example of how people discuss homosexual and transgender topics using overlapping concepts. + + +== Editions == +The first edition was published in 1886 +Charles Gilbert Chaddock published an English translation in 1892 +At least 12 editions of the book were published in German prior to Kraft-Ebing's death in 1902 +In 1965, an English translation derived from the 12th German edition was written by Franklin S. Kaf, with an introduction by Kaf and a foreword by Joseph LoPiccolo + + +== References == + + +== External links == + + Psychopathia Sexualis at Project Gutenberg +Psychopathia Sexualis at the Internet Archive +Psychopathia Sexualis at Google Books \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religions,_Values,_and_Peak_Experiences-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religions,_Values,_and_Peak_Experiences-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..382d5aa97 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religions,_Values,_and_Peak_Experiences-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +title: "Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religions,_Values,_and_Peak_Experiences" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:19.286323+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences is a 1964 book about psychology by Abraham Maslow. Maslow addressed the motivational significance of peak experiences in a series of lectures in the early 1960s, and later published these ideas in book form. + + +== Overview == +In contrast with the preoccupation of Freudian psychopathology, Maslow insisted on a "psychology of the higher life" which was to attend to the question "of what the human being should grow toward." In his work, Maslow described the experience of one's life as meaningful as being based on a feeling of fulfillment and significance. +Maslow's theory of "peak-experiences" has been compared to William James' "healthy-minded" religion. Maslow hypothesized a negative relationship between adherence to conventional religious beliefs and the ability to experience peak moments. +In Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences, Maslow stated that the peak experience is "felt as a self- validating, self-justifying moment which carries its own intrinsic value with it." Furthermore, the person is the "creative center of his (or her) own activities." + + +== See also == +Maslow's hierarchy of needs +Peak experience + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rewriting_the_Soul-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rewriting_the_Soul-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d1c4caf39 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rewriting_the_Soul-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Rewriting the Soul" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rewriting_the_Soul" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:20.506159+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Rewriting the Soul is a 1995 book by the Canadian philosopher Ian Hacking, who offers an account of the formative influences that shape people’s understandings of their lives and their understanding of the lives of those around them. Hacking's work is both a theoretical account of the concepts and modes of agentic engagement through which people encounter the world and make sense of themselves, and a psychological account of how minds relate to memories and the fragility of this relationship, especially in the lives of people exposed to extremes of suffering and cruelty. Through a study of the history and manifestations of multiple personality disorder, Hacking describes how people come to an understanding of their lives through their own memories and autobiographies. Hacking describes the shifting shared meanings that shape our memories and become the threads with which people weave their biographies. + +== Argument == +To develop his argument, Hacking offers an account of how those engaged with MPD have inquired into its reality over historical time and describes the concepts and practices that developed through those inquiries. In the past three decades of the twentieth century, therapy tended to take an individual with an amorphous and confused array of painful experiences and parse them into autonomous personality fragments, each dissociated (to varying degrees) from the other fragments and each with its own memories and descriptions of past experiences. The outcome of therapy for multiple personality disorder is a person that does not know herself: a person with a fragmented soul. “It is contrary to what the philosophers call freedom. It is contrary to our best vision of what it is to be a human” (p. 267). +Hacking offers the reader some possible modes of questioning and critiquing the understandings of personality, memory and the Disorder that have emerged within a historical context and, on occasions, he offers his own understanding of how these concepts have emerged and their implications to contemporary understandings of psychology. Hacking does not question whether multiple personality disorder is real. Rather, he offers a strategy for questioning reality: Is the multiple personality disorder a real what? One might say, for example, that multiple personality disorder is a real mode of engaging with the world and a real way of understanding the past. In Rewriting the Soul, Hacking seeks to examine why Western society takes it for granted that “memory is the key to the soul” (p. 20) and why multiple personality disorder became so closely associated with traumatic memories. + +== History of multiple personality disorder == +The first known case of an individual with conduct that would today be considered multiple personality disorder was recorded in the late 18th century (Hacking, 1995). In 1972, there were ten known cases over the previous fifty years despite a widespread interest in psychotherapy over that period. By 1986, it was believed that six thousand cases had been diagnosed. +As cases of multiple personality began to emerge in the 1970s, they attracted the interest not only of therapists and the psychiatric profession, but also of the media. Awareness and discussion of multiple personality disorder became widespread. multiple personality disorder became a kind of mental illness. It became a kind of thing that someone could have. This is what Hacking refers to as “semantic contagion” (p. 238). Before its meaning became prevalent in society, one could not describe oneself as a person of that kind. There were confused individuals who were (either deliberately or pre-reflectively) seeking to dissociate themselves from memories of painful events. These people, however, could not have described themselves as having the Disorder, nor could people in psychology diagnose their patients with this term. Once MPD became a kind of thing, it became a way for individuals to understand themselves and understand people around them. +Other meanings associated with MPD arose contemporaneously in the 1970s and 1980s. Child abuse was not a meaning shared and understood in Western societies before the 1970s. “Cruelty to children” and “baby battering” were perhaps the precursors of this term, although the meaning implied by these terms was mostly restricted to physical violence. With “child abuse,” the sexual use of children was not only incorporated into our understanding of the ill treatment of children, but became the most probable form. +It needs to be stressed that Hacking (1995) does not suggest child abuse only began to occur when the term had been coined. Nevertheless, it may have increased the prevalence of child abuse. Some men may discover child rape for themselves, some may have learned it from their own childhood experiences and some (perhaps many) may sexually abuse children because the idea of such conduct was imbued through semantic contagion. Hacking is also careful to note that the use of children for sexual purposes is a cause of suffering to children whether or not the term “child abuse” is in common usage. One can imagine, for example, that an eleven-year-old boy in ancient Greece coerced into sex by his mentor would suffer pain and mental anguish. Genital mutilation is also painful and most possibly quite horrifying to those who have this practice inflicted on them. The key aspect of semantic contagion is not that it makes events and behaviors possible that were once impossible. Semantic contagion, by creating new ways of being a person and new descriptions for the way people act, contributes to our explanations as to why the act occurred and what the consequences will be. It seems that the description of the act can shape the consequences of the act. + +== Acting under a description == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rewriting_the_Soul-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rewriting_the_Soul-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..25f1d36b8 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rewriting_the_Soul-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +title: "Rewriting the Soul" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rewriting_the_Soul" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:20.506159+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The philosopher G. E. M. Anscombe wrote that a human action is intentional if the question 'Why,' taken in a certain sense (and evidently conceived as addressed to him), has application (Intention, par. 5-8). An agent can answer the 'why' question by giving a reason or purpose for her action. "To do Y" or "because I want to do Y" would be typical answers to this sort of "why?"; though they are not the only ones, they are crucial to the constitution of the phenomenon as a typical phenomenon of human life (sections 18-21). The agent's answer helps supply the descriptions under which the action is intentional. Anscombe was the first to clearly spell out that actions are intentional under some descriptions and not others. In her famous example, a man's action (which we might observe as consisting in moving an arm up and down while holding a handle) may be intentional under the description 'pumping water' but not under other descriptions such as 'contracting these muscles', 'tapping out this rhythm', and so on. Intentional actions are actions under a description. +The implications of this philosophy of intentional action were extended by Hacking in Rewriting the Soul. His argument is as follows: When we talk about people, we talk about ourselves as intentional beings. Our description of our acts are almost always descriptions of how an act was intended. We offer an explanation of why we act thus and so. The array of descriptions available to an individual depend on the descriptions available to the society in which the individual resides. Hence, the media, the expertise of psychologists, physicians and scientists and the folk understandings of cultural communities all provide descriptions that can be assumed by an individual in the moment that he or she acts. For example, a child pushes another child in the playground. If asked why did you do that, he might answer "to show who's boss," "because I have ADHD" or "because I was provoked." Hacking is not concerned with which description is true, but rather, how the descriptions under which people act depend on the descriptions available to them. “Action is action under a description”. +Moreover, descriptions change as our shared understanding of the meaning of the act changes. For example, if one sees a man spanking a child, or children playing “kiss chase” in the playground, the descriptions ascribed to the acts would most likely differ considerably to those of a Victorian gentleman. The contemporary acts of eating beef, reading philosophy and natural procreation may all have very different descriptions to a person in a future society: descriptions that assume different causes and different outcomes to those that we assume today. +The past is indeterminate, not because acts simply may or may not have happened, but because the ascribed causes of those acts is an ever-shifting account depending on the ebb and flow of descriptions that can be ascribed to those acts as the practices of society change. Acting under a description has important implications for our interpretation of different societies and different eras. +Acting under a description also has important implications for interpreting our selves. According to Hacking, selves are formed not only by our bio-physical constitution and the events we experience, but also by the descriptions we ascribe to the events that occur. These descriptions are often causal descriptions: explanations of how we have come to be the persons that we are. A person does not come to be the person that she is simply because the events of her past caused her to be this person. Rather, the descriptions attributed to events in the past are a formative influence on her being. These explanations are replete with meaning and causal attribution. We are substantially (though not entirely) the people we understand ourselves to be. +Hacking’s (1995) account of the emergence of multiple personality disorder is not simply an account of the events that led to the discovery of this disorder and a description of its manifestations. It is an investigation into the extent to which our descriptions of events – descriptions that often entail causal implications – have rippled through our societies and how these descriptions form new ways of being a person. The description itself, then, offers causal possibilities. + +== See also == +Michel Foucault +Nikolas Rose + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seduction_of_the_Innocent-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seduction_of_the_Innocent-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..08270e686 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seduction_of_the_Innocent-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Seduction of the Innocent" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seduction_of_the_Innocent" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:24.153886+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Seduction of the Innocent is a book by German-born American psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, published in 1954, that warned that comic books were a harmful form of popular literature and a serious cause of juvenile delinquency. The book was taken seriously at the time in the United States, and was a minor bestseller that alarmed American parents and galvanized them to campaign for censorship. At the same time, a U.S. Congressional inquiry was launched into the comic book industry. Subsequent to the publication of Seduction of the Innocent, the Comics Code Authority was established by publishers to self-censor their titles. In the decades since the book's publication, Wertham's research has been disputed by scholars. + +== Overview and arguments == +Seduction of the Innocent cited overt or covert depictions of violence, sex, drug use, and other adult fare within "crime comics" – a term Wertham used to describe not only the popular gangster/murder-oriented titles of the time, but superhero and horror comics as well. The book asserted that reading this material encouraged similar behavior in children. +Comics, especially the crime/horror titles pioneered by EC Comics, were not lacking in gruesome images; Wertham reproduced these extensively, pointing out what he saw as recurring morbid themes such as "injury to the eye". Many of his other conjectures, particularly about hidden sexual themes (e.g. images of female nudity concealed in drawings or Batman and Robin as gay partners), were met with derision within the comics industry. Wertham's claim that Wonder Woman had a bondage subtext was somewhat better documented, as the creator William Moulton Marston had admitted as much; however, Wertham also claimed Wonder Woman's strength and independence made the character a lesbian. At this time homosexuality was still viewed as a mental disorder by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Wertham also claimed that Superman was both un-American and fascistic. +Wertham critiqued the commercial environment of comic book publishing and retailing, objecting to air rifles and knives advertised alongside violent stories. Wertham sympathized with retailers who did not want to sell horror comics, yet were compelled to by their distributors' table d'hôte product line policies. +Seduction of the Innocent was illustrated with comic-book panels offered as evidence, each accompanied by a line of Wertham's commentary. The first printing contained a bibliography listing the comic book publishers cited, but fears of lawsuits compelled the publisher to tear the bibliography page from any copies available, so copies with an intact bibliography are rare. Early complete editions of Seduction of the Innocent are collected avidly by book and comic book collectors. +Beginning in 1948, Wertham wrote and spoke widely, arguing about the detrimental effects that comics reading had on young people. Consequently, Seduction of the Innocent serves as a culminating expression of his sentiments about comics and presents augmented examples and arguments, rather than wholly new material. Wertham's concerns were not limited to comics' impact on boys: He also expressed a concern for the effect of impossibly proportioned female characters on girl readers. Writer A. David Lewis claims that Wertham's anxiety over the perceived homosexual subtext of Batman and Robin was aimed at the depiction of family within this context, rather than focused on the moral character of homosexuality itself. Will Brooker also writes in Batman Unmasked: Analyzing a Cultural Icon that Wertham's notorious reading of Batman and Robin as a homosexual couple was not of his own invention, but was suggested to him by homosexual males whom he interviewed. + +== Influence == + +Seduction of the Innocent caught the attention of US Senator Estes Kefauver. Kefauver had a reputation as a mob hunter, and it was known that the mob had strong connections with the distribution of comics and magazines. He saw Wertham's agenda as a tool he could use against the organized crime within the industry. As a platform from where he could spread his message more efficiently, Wertham appeared before the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency. In testimony before the committee, he compared the comic book industry to Adolf Hitler. +The hearing was broadcast on television, which was quickly becoming a new mass medium, and made other media join in. It made headlines on The New York Times's front page. Even if the government didn't act beyond the hearing, and Kefauver lost interest in comics after he was selected as a presidential candidate, the public damage was already done. The hearing was in April, and the same summer 15 publishers went out of business. At EC Comics, Mad was the only surviving title. +The committee's questioning of their next witness, EC publisher William Gaines, focused on violent scenes of the type Wertham had described. +At the time, Wertham was also the Court's appointed psychiatric expert during the trial of the Brooklyn Thrill Killers, a gang of youths who had brutalized people and killed two men during the summer of 1954. Wertham asserted that the gang leader's behaviour had been caused by comic books, and most specifically pornographic ones. The case helped fuel the public outrage against comic books. Nights of Horror, an underground fetish series that Wertham had used as evidence during the trial, was banned by the State of New York: the case against that comic eventually went to the Supreme Court, which upheld the ban in 1957. +Although the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency's final report did not blame comics for crime, it recommended that the comics industry tone down its content voluntarily. Publishers then developed the self-censorship body the Comics Code Authority. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seduction_of_the_Innocent-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seduction_of_the_Innocent-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0aec919cc --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seduction_of_the_Innocent-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ +--- +title: "Seduction of the Innocent" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seduction_of_the_Innocent" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:24.153886+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Criticism == +According to a 2012 study by Carol L. Tilley, Wertham "manipulated, overstated, compromised, and fabricated evidence" in support of the contentions expressed in Seduction of the Innocent. He misprojected both the sample size and substance of his research, making it out to be more objective and less anecdotal than it truly was. He generally did not adhere to standards worthy of scientific research, instead using questionable evidence for his argument that comics were a cultural failure. +Wertham used New York City adolescents from troubled backgrounds with previous evidence of behavior disorders as his primary sample population. For instance, he used children at the Lafargue Clinic to argue that comics disturbed young people, but according to a staff member's calculation seventy percent of children under the age of sixteen at the clinic had diagnoses of behavior problems. He also used children with more severe psychiatric disorders which required hospitalization at Bellevue Hospital Center, Kings County Hospital Center, or Queens General Hospital. +Statements from Wertham's subjects were sometimes altered, combined, or excerpted so as to be misleading. Relevant personal experience was sometimes left unmentioned. For instance, in arguing that the Batman comics condoned homosexuality because of the relationship between Batman and his sidekick Robin, there is evidence Wertham combined two subjects' statements into one, and did not mention the two subjects had been in a homosexual relationship for years prior. He failed to inform readers that a subject had been recently sodomized. Despite subjects specifically noting a preference for or the superior relevance of other comics, he gave greater weight to their reading Batman. Wertham also presented as firsthand stories that he could have only heard through colleagues. +His descriptions of comic content were sometimes misleading, either by exaggeration or elision. He mentions a "headless man" in an issue of Captain Marvel while the comic only shows Captain Marvel's face splashed with an invisibility potion, not a decapitated figure. He exaggerated a 13-year-old girl's report of stealing in a comic from "sometimes" to "often". + +== In other countries == +While it had been the US comic industry itself that imposed self-censorship in the form of the Comics Code Authority, France had already passed the Loi du 16 juillet 1949 sur les publications destinées à la jeunesse (Law of July 16, 1949 on Publications Aimed at Youth) in response to the post-liberation influx of American comics. As late as 1969, the law was invoked to prohibit the comic magazine Fantask —which featured translated versions of Marvel Comics stories — after seven issues. The government agency charged with upholding the law, particularly in the 1950s and the first half of the 1960s, was called the Commission de surveillance et de contrôle des publications destinées à l'enfance et à l'adolescence (Committee in Charge of Surveillance and Control over Publications Aimed at Children and Adolescents). After the May 1968 social upheaval in France, key comics artists, including Jean Giraud, staged a revolt in the editorial offices of the comic magazine Pilote, demanding and ultimately receiving more creative freedom from editor-in-chief René Goscinny. +West Germany from 1954 had the Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien (Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons), a government agency intended to weed out publications, including comics, considered unhealthy for German youth. This agency came about because of the "Gesetz über die Verbreitung jugendgefährdender Schriften" law passed on June 9, 1953, itself resulting from the "provisions for the protection of young persons" clause in Article 5 of the German constitution, regulating freedom of expression. The German comics industry in 1955 instituted the Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle für Serienbilder (Voluntary Self-Control for Comics). +Dutch Minister of Education Theo Rutten of the Catholic People's Party published a letter in the October 25, 1948, issue of the newspaper Het Parool directly addressing educational institutions and local government bodies, advocating the prohibition of comics. He stated, "These booklets, which contain a series of illustrations with accompanying text, are generally sensational in character, without any other value. It is not possible to act against the printers, publishers or distributors of these novels, nor can anything be achieved by not making paper available to them, as the necessary paper is available on the free market". Exceptions were made for a small number of "healthy" comic productions from the Toonder studio, which included the literary comic strip Tom Poes. + +== In popular culture == +Comics publisher Dynamite Entertainment (The Lone Ranger, The Shadow, Conan) would adopt the title for a series of crime comics, beginning in 2015. +Max Allan Collins crime novel, Seduction of the Innocent (June 2013), the third book in his Jack & Maggie Starr series, is a murder mystery set around a fictionalized version of Fredric Wertham's crusade against comic books. + +== See also == + +Homosexuality in the Batman franchise +Moral panic +How to Read Donald Duck + +== References == + +== Further reading == +Beaty, Bart (2005). Fredric Wertham and the Critique of Mass Culture. University Press of Mississippi, ISBN 1-57806-819-3. +Nyberg, Ami Kiste (1998). Seal of Approval: The History of the Comics Code, University Press of Mississippi, ISBN 0-87805-975-X. +Warshow, Robert S. Commentary (June 1954). "The Study of Man: Paul, the Horror Comics, and Dr. Wertham" +Wright, Bradford W. (2001). Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America, Johns Hopkins University Press, ISBN 0-8018-7450-5. +Text of Seduction of the Innocent online, but with different images +The bibliography from Seduction of the Innocent \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_and_the_Love_Life-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_and_the_Love_Life-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b020b766a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_and_the_Love_Life-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +title: "Sex and the Love Life" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_and_the_Love_Life" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:26.472164+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Sex and the Love Life by the American author William J. Fielding is a non-fictional book published in 1927 in New York. It deals with the contemporary understanding of sexuality and its relation to the love life in many fields of life. +The book consists of 14 chapters and a glossary in which all biological, sexual and medical terms that are discussed in the book itself are defined and explained. The first chapter gives an introduction to different conceptions of the function of sex and mentions cultural influences on these conceptions. Chapter Two deals with the Development of the Love Life and focuses especially on the sex life of the child. Besides that, Man’s and Woman’s Sexual Nature are described in Chapter three and four respectively, whereby biological aspects of the male and female reproductive systems are elaborated on in detail. In the fifth chapter the author gives advice about the Preparation of Marriage and in the sixth Chapter Sex Hygiene in Marriage is the topic. Hygiene is not referring solely to personal hygiene but rather to how sexual intercourse can be used to improve marital happiness and satisfaction. Women’s Love Rights are presented in the following chapter (chapter 8) in which the (at that time) novel notion is described which says that women also have the right to enjoy sexuality. In chapter nine the Birth Control in Relation to the Love Life is being addressed and Chapter nine gives information about The Hygiene in Pregnancy (again not referring solely to personal hygiene). Chapter 10 deals with The Menopause and its symptoms. The following two chapters (11 and 12) present different kinds of Sexual Disorders of Women and Men, respectively and Chapter 13 depicts Venereal Diseases that are being transmitted by sexual intercourse. The last Chapter 14 gives information on the relationship between The Parent and the Child with special focus on sex education. + +== Structure == +A detailed table of contents is present on the first few pages of the book. Important keywords that come up during the chapter are also mentioned alongside the table of contents. The exact outline appears also at the beginning of each chapter respectively. Although the chapters do indeed contain sub-headings, they are not reflected exclusively in the outline at the beginning of the chapter (reference to image). +The nine-page glossary (reference to image) at the end of the book gives approximately 180 short definitions of different loan words that may not be familiar to a reader that has no expertise in medicine or biology (ordered alphabetically). Following the glossary, an index is contained at the very end. + +== Content == + +=== Chapter 2: Development of the Love Life === +In chapter 2 of his book, Fielding describes the Development of the Love Life in successive stages from childhood up until adolescence in which the child firstly expresses auto-erotic feelings towards itself. In later development these feelings shift towards a significant other person, usually in the family until the erotic attachment is transferred upon someone outside the family and according to Fielding, usually someone of the opposite sex. It is pronounced that these erotic feelings in the beginning of childhood appear unconsciously and that they are expressed in the pleasure of sucking or rubbing own body parts. Later on, memories of those sexual desires will not be present due to repression. Fielding advises to encourage sublimation in children to channel their sexual energy "to outlets that have cultural and social value". It is the context of sublimation where Fielding quotes Freud whose opinion was very influential in the 1920s and which can be clearly seen throughout the whole book. Another example would be Fielding's explanation of how adolescents start to become attracted to the opposite sex. According to him, boys will be attracted to women because "the mother is identified with the good things and comforts of life" and "a woman tends to marry a man resembling her father" because "the girl child shows a disposition [...] to discriminate in expressing her affections in favour of the father". The last part of this second chapter depicts so-called Aberrations of the Love-Life in which, besides fetichism, anti-fetiches, exhibitionism, sadism and masochism, masochism and hermaphroditism, also homosexuality is being mentioned which would appear due to "abnormal home conditions" and a pre-occupation with the same-sexed parent. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_and_the_Love_Life-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_and_the_Love_Life-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..10bd50711 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_and_the_Love_Life-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +--- +title: "Sex and the Love Life" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_and_the_Love_Life" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:26.472164+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Chapter 9: Birth Control in Relation to the Love Life === +This chapter deals mainly with the contemporary misunderstanding of contraception in general. All too often it was equalized with abortion and murder of an embryo. Fielding begins with enlightening the reader and explains the advantages of contraception, one of which concerning a moral aspect: "a practice which increases marital happiness, which assures people of greater economic security [...] and which permits more extensive educational and cultural advantages to the fewer and better children that are born [...] is a good practice". Furthermore, he argues that the fear of pregnancy (as many women experienced at that time) would lead to marital disharmony and that contraceptive methods should be used to establish an unstressed atmosphere between married couples. Fielding also criticizes the church's position towards contraception at that time by saying that "the church [...] has been and still is the most powerful influence against the principle of parenthood by choice instead of accident". The institutional church would be ignorant of the benefits that contraception offers to the people. The position that is still held by the Catholic Church, namely that "Contraception is wrong because it’s a deliberate violation of the design God built into the human race, often referred to as "natural law." The natural law purpose of sex is procreation" is countered by Fielding as well. He states that humans with their increasing knowledge and skills are already compassing the natural laws, for example by "using artificial light and heat, wearing clothes, [...] and doing a thousand odd other things that are commonplace and proper in our civilization [but are] unnatural". He concludes that the view of contraceptive methods must change in society so that the physiological, psychological and social benefits of contraception can be experienced by every individual. + +== The 1920s and Sexuality == +The 1920s, also known as the Roaring Twenties, depict a time of great economic prosperity after the First World War, especially in America. Many people were still conservative about the topic of sexuality, especially due to poor knowledge about sexuality and their own bodies but also because sexual intercourse not intended for reproduction was depicted as sinful by the church. However, the role of women changed: within or after WWI women had to go to work to earn money for their families while their husbands left to join the army which led to a "near-equality in making money". Women got more and more self-confident and independent which also led to a change in dating and sexual behaviour, away from conservatism and taboos towards more open-mindedness regarding their sexual behaviour. This shift is also promoted by Fielding in his book "Sex and the Love Life". + +=== Homosexuality === +Homosexuality in the late 1920s was slowly being more accepted. However, this did not last a long time and "Homosexuals received a level of acceptance that was not seen again until the 1960s". This acceptance was mainly due to the increasing mentioning of homosexuality in entertaining media such as films or songs (see also LGBT History). Nevertheless, in the late 1930s homosexuality was made illegal and declared as a mental illness. It was not until 1973 where "the American Psychiatric Association removed the diagnosis of "homosexuality" from the second edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)". + +=== Contraception === +In the early 20th century contraception was increasingly favoured and accepted (see History of Birth Control) although it was still subject to the discussion if sexual intercourse was meant solely for reproduction or if it was also part of the normal love life between spouses. In his book Sex and the Love Life, Fielding clearly takes a more liberal view and promotes contraceptive methods as they would increase marital happiness and harmony. + +== See also == +LGBT history + +== References == + +== External links == +Full text of Sex and the Love Life at HathiTrust Digital Library \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ca1a402b0 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,15 @@ +--- +title: "Sexual Preference (book)" +chunk: 1/14 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:27.778790+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Sexual Preference: Its Development in Men and Women (1981) is a book about the development of sexual orientation by the psychologist Alan P. Bell and the sociologists Martin S. Weinberg and Sue Kiefer Hammersmith, in which the authors reevaluate what were at the time of its publication widely held ideas about the origins of heterosexuality and homosexuality, sometimes rejecting entirely the factors proposed as causes, and in other cases concluding that their importance had been exaggerated. Produced with the help of the American National Institute of Mental Health, the study was a publication of the Institute for Sex Research. Together with its Statistical Appendix, Sexual Preference was the conclusion of a series of books including Homosexuality: An Annotated Bibliography (1972) and Homosexualities: A Study of Diversity Among Men and Women (1978), both co-authored by Bell and Weinberg. +Using data derived from interviews conducted in 1969 and 1970 with subjects in the San Francisco Bay Area, Bell et al. attempted to test explanations of sexual orientation put forward by psychoanalysts and social scientists. They found that while homosexual men were more likely than heterosexual men to have felt especially close to their mothers, this had almost no effect on the development of male homosexuality. Poor father-son relationships appeared to be weakly connected to male homosexuality. Homosexual women were more likely than heterosexual women to describe their relationships with their mothers as negative, and to have detached or hostile fathers, but only the latter factor seemed significant. In both sexes, but especially in men, homosexuality was connected to "Childhood Gender Nonconformity", which was a measure partly of behavior more typical of the opposite sex and partly of subjective feelings of masculinity and femininity. Sexual abuse and labeling by others played no significant role. Bell et al. concluded that psychoanalytic explanations of sexual orientation are inadequate. They suggested that while bisexuality may be subject to influence by social and sexual learning, the development of heterosexuality and homosexuality may have a biological basis, possibly influenced by hormonal factors. They hoped that demonstrating a biological basis to homosexuality would have beneficial effects such as increasing tolerance of gay people. +Seen as likely to provoke controversy even before its publication, Sexual Preference received considerable media attention, and mixed reviews. Critics questioned Bell et al.′s reliance upon a statistical technique, originally developed for use in the biological sciences, called path analysis, disputed the representativeness of their sample of homosexuals, pointed out the difficulty and potential unreliability of adult recall of childhood feeling and the vague and general nature of the questions respondents were asked, and disagreed with Bell et al.′s suggestion that sexual orientation is innate. Nevertheless, some reviewers complimented Sexual Preference for its authors' challenge to established views about the causes of homosexuality, and it eventually came to be considered a classic work. It is one of the most frequently cited retrospective studies relating to sexual orientation, credited by psychologists with disproving psychoanalytic theories about the development of homosexuality. It was the last study on homosexuality released by the Institute for Sex Research. + +== Summary == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..45620dd2f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,14 @@ +--- +title: "Sexual Preference (book)" +chunk: 2/14 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:27.778790+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Overview of the study === +Bell et al.′s objective was to test the explanations of how people become heterosexual or homosexual proposed by psychoanalysts and social scientists, including psychoanalytic theories attributing homosexuality to a failure to resolve Oedipal conflicts. In their view, theories about the origins of sexual orientation had usually not been rigorously tested prior to their study, partly because some of them, including those advanced by psychoanalysts, use concepts which are hard to "pin down and operationalize." They anticipated that psychologists and psychoanalysts would object to their work on methodological grounds, such as that no attempt was made to access unconscious material, or that the interviews, which lasted only a few hours, could never reveal what truly occurred in someone's childhood. They argued, however, that the fact that their data was not obtained from clinical sources was a strength, that attempting to access unconscious material risks selective interpretation of the data, and that "if the differences between homosexual and heterosexual patterns of development are really as great as psychoanalytic theory claims" then such differences would be reflected to at least some extent in the reports of their respondents. +Aware that some scholars might reject any view of the development of homosexuality resembling psychoanalytic theory, they noted that many of the variables used in their statistical analyses pertained to "experiences occurring outside our respondents′ original households", including relationships with peers, labeling by others, and sexual experiences. They added that it was not easy to answer objections to the use of retrospective data, given the unresolved issue of how accurate their respondents′ recollections of childhood were, and that even a longitudinal study would have been open to question. They observed that some gay rights activists might object to their study on principle, and suspect that they wanted to find a way to prevent homosexuality. However, they argued that ideas about the development of homosexuality contribute to prejudice against homosexuals, and that so long as heterosexuals accepted largely untested theories that see homosexuality as the result of a bad upbringing, their negative attitudes toward homosexuals would never change. +They considered their sample of homosexual adults more representative than those used in previous studies, and argued that examining blacks separately from whites, and men separately from women, helped them to determine the extent to which patterns of homosexual and heterosexual development depend on race and sex. They wrote that while Bell, a psychologist and therapist, was "relatively supportive of psychodynamic theory", Weinberg and Hammersmith were sociologists with a different outlook. They argued that their varying outlooks helped counteract bias. They did not believe that completing their study earlier would have altered their findings. Believing that familiarity with scientific theories about homosexuality might bias their respondents′ answers, they did not report results that could be explained through exposure to them. They used path analysis, a statistical technique originally developed for use in the biological sciences, to try to establish which factors were most important. It required dividing "the independent variables into sequential stages, according to the time when their influences are most likely to occur." The dependent variable they wanted to explain, adult sexual preference, went at the final stage. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-10.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-10.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..bcdaab74d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-10.md @@ -0,0 +1,14 @@ +--- +title: "Sexual Preference (book)" +chunk: 11/14 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:27.778790+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Other evaluations, 1981–1987 === +The gay rights activist Dennis Altman noted that Bell et al.′s conclusion that there is a powerful link between gender nonconformity and the development of homosexuality depended on the memories of their respondents, who were likely to have been influenced by social expectations about how homosexuals should conform to gender roles. He observed that Bell et al.′s data was collected in 1969 and 1970, prior to the "growth of the modern gay movement and the development of the macho style among gay men", and criticized them for confusing "social roles with what is inborn", thereby underestimating the extent to which masculinity and femininity are social constructs. The psychologist William Paul and the sex researcher Weinrich maintained that Sexual Preference documented social diversity well and was the largest study conducted specifically on homosexuality, but that it was limited by the problems Bell et al. encountered in trying to obtain a representative sample. They suggested that because Bell et al. collected their data in 1969, they may have missed "cultural developments in the gay younger generation of the late 1960s and early 1970s." The gynecologist William Masters, the sexologist Virginia E. Johnson and the physician Robert C. Kolodny suggested that Sexual Preference was probably the most extensive study of homosexuality and maintained that it provided no support for Bieber's theory of homosexuality. Daniel Rancour-Laferriere credited Bell et al. with helping to support the idea that adult sexual preference has a biological basis, and with showing that a biological basis for homosexuality probably accounts for gender nonconformity as well as sexual orientation. He endorsed their view that the unfavorable relationships homosexual men tend to have with their fathers could be as likely to result from "the homosexual predisposition" of the child as the father's behavior. +Weeks described Sexual Preference as "the Kinsey Institute's final publication on homosexuality". He suggested that like sociobiologists and others who have attempted to find a biological explanation for social behavior Bell et al. had an "urge to fill a conceptual gap" stronger than their "adherence to theoretical consistency and political judgment". He wrote that while Bell et al. carefully explored the evidence for the aetiology of homosexuality, unlike Kinsey they failed to consider that homosexuality might not be a single phenomenon with a single explanation. He criticized them for concluding that if a social or psychological explanation of homosexuality cannot be found then a biological explanation must exist, deeming the argument "a rhetorical device" that results in "an intellectual closure which obstructs further questioning." The sociologists Frederick L. Whitam and Robin Mathy criticized Bell et al. for reporting mainly on their white subjects. +The sexologist Richard Green described Sexual Preference as one of several studies, including Bieber et al.′s Homosexuality: A Psychoanalytic Study of Male Homosexuals, to have found strained relationships between fathers and homosexual sons. He added that an unresolved question in such studies is what percent of heterosexuals give answers more typical of homosexuals and what percent of homosexuals give answers more typical of heterosexuals, and that such "contradictory" outcomes require explanation. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-11.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-11.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..801856bb3 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-11.md @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +--- +title: "Sexual Preference (book)" +chunk: 12/14 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:27.778790+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Other evaluations, 1988–1989 === +The psychoanalyst Richard C. Friedman maintained that despite the differing perspectives of their authors, the studies by Bell et al. and Bieber et al. were "in basic agreement with regard to childhood gender identity / gender role abnormalities in pre-homosexual children." He considered Bell et al.′s claim that path analysis made it possible to give each influence on homosexuality a particular weight at a particular time of childhood development unlikely, since retrospective methods cannot be converted to prospective methods. He wrote that the meaning of data depends on the models used to interpret them, and that Bell et al.′s models differ from those accepted by "psychodynamically oriented investigators." +The sociologist Miriam M. Johnson described Bell et al.′s study as the "largest, best-designed, and one of the least heterosexist investigations" of the development of sexual preference. In her view, its only possible bias is that because of its nature and San Francisco location "activist" homosexuals were over-represented. Johnson argued that "this bias would probably work against finding support for any hypotheses concerning parental influences, because activist homosexuals have ordinarily been opposed to psychoanalytic speculations about parental involvements." Johnson concluded, however, that the study's credibility was enhanced by the fact that Bell et al. took into account whether their respondents had been exposed to books or articles about the etiology of homosexuality, and disregarded results when they could be explained by such exposure. Johnson credited Bell et al. with showing that "almost all the alleged causes of adult sexual orientation are either nonexistent or highly exaggerated", but considered their claim that they had refuted psychoanalytic theories that attribute homosexuality to an unresolved Oedipus complex only "half true", given the father findings. +Ruse observed that Bell et al.′s findings about the parental backgrounds of heterosexuals and homosexuals were "slanted in the way a Freudian would expect", adding that many other studies have pointed to very similar conclusions. Ruse argued that there is much to support Bell et al.′s conclusion that Freudian explanations of homosexuality confuse the direction of cause and effect and that the cold and distant relationships gay men report having with their fathers are a result of parental reactions to effeminate or sensitive sons. However, he noted that the accuracy of Bell et al.′s findings is open to doubt for many reasons: their subjects could have been unwittingly giving them the answers they wanted to hear, failed to remember accurately, or suppressed painful childhood memories. The ethologist Irenäus Eibl-Eibesfeldt stated that modern medicine was rejecting psychoanalytic theories about the origins of homosexuality, pointing to Bell et al.′s conclusion that "pure homosexuals can scarcely be modified by their environment whereas bisexuals are accessible with social learning" as an example of this process. +The psychologist Seymour Fisher described Sexual Preference as a high quality study. He argued that Bell et al.′s findings support some of Freud's predictions about how homosexual men view their parents, writing that despite their claim that there is no strong connection, the "negative father" factor had a detectable impact on "gender nonconformity and early homosexual experience" for men. He maintained that they provided no information that could be used to evaluate Freud's vague statements concerning how homosexual women would perceive their mothers, but that their data does support his expectation that they would perceive their fathers in negative terms, despite their deliberately minimizing the overall importance of the father factor in the development of female homosexuality. He viewed their findings about lesbianism as especially significant since their study was published in 1981 and had a large diverse sample. He argued that their finding that recalled patterns of relationships with mother and father predicted homosexual preferences during adolescence, but not the likelihood of being primarily homosexual as an adult, could be explained by the fact that only some of those willing to engage in homosexual sex during their earlier years are able to do so as they leave adolescence, which might make it more difficult to find correlations between early parent-child relationships and "later overt homosexuality." +The neuropsychologist Marshall Kirk and Hunter Madsen described Sexual Preference as a "pathbreaking study" which shows that parents are not "to blame for their 'sexually messed up' children". \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-12.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-12.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2b56ed7cf --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-12.md @@ -0,0 +1,14 @@ +--- +title: "Sexual Preference (book)" +chunk: 13/14 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:27.778790+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Other evaluations, 1990–1997 === +The philosopher Edward Stein maintained that Bell et al.′s data undermine the hypothesis that a person's sexual orientation is determined by the sex of the first person he or she has sex with. Gonsiorek and Weinrich maintained that Bell et al.′s view that sexual orientation is set by early childhood is also held by most other experts on the topic, including Green and Money. They described Bell et al. as "essentialists", who, unlike supporters of social constructionism, maintain that "homosexual desire, identity, and persons exist as real in some form, in different cultures and historical eras". Gonsiorek and Douglas C. Haldeman both credited Bell et al. with disproving psychoanalytic theories about the development of homosexuality. The economist Richard Posner credited Bell et al. with providing evidence that "childhood gender nonconformity is a good predictor of both male and female homosexuality". He also believed that they showed that boys are not more likely to become homosexual the more adult siblings they have, and provided evidence against the idea that adult homosexuality results from seduction or early homosexual experiences. +The psychologist Kenneth Zucker and the psychiatrist Susan Bradley described Sexual Preference as a "classic study". They maintained that its data, including its finding that "detached-hostile father" is relatively characteristic of a majority of the white homosexual men in their study and a minority of white heterosexual men, are consistent with those of previous clinical research, including Bieber et al.′s study. They wrote that the psychoanalytic perspective that views homosexuality as a mental disorder and explains it in terms of family dynamics influenced the way in which Bell et al. conducted their inquiry, and that Sexual Preference must be understood in the context of sexual politics. They suggested that because homosexuality had been delisted as a mental disorder for eight years by the time the book was published, Bell et al. faced a problem if their data "showed a departure from an ideal of optimal functioning in homosexual men". They argued that, because of their concern for homosexuals, and also influenced by political correctness, Bell et al. deliberately minimized the "observed significant effects" shown by their study, though they noted that this was also in part an objective interpretation of weak effects. They wrote that prior to Bell et al.′s study, researchers were aware that phenomena usually interpreted as parents influencing their children could be interpreted instead as the reverse, and that Bell et al. recognized that "the direction of effects" was a "problematic aspect of their research design". In their view, resolving the "direction-of-effects issue" raised by Bell et al. through retrospective studies comparing homosexual with heterosexual men will be difficult, and that until then the issue will remain "a matter of theoretical taste." +The philosopher Timothy F. Murphy described Sexual Preference as an important study of homosexuality, adding that despite its limitations and flaws, it, like the Kinsey Reports and Homosexualities, should be considered a useful part of a scientific process of "measuring the adequacy of hypotheses and evidence". John Heidenry suggested that Sexual Preference was the most important book on sexuality published in the early 1980s. He wrote that Bell et al. "analyzed every known hypothesis, idea, or suggestion about the origins of homosexuality and found most of them were wrong." He credited them with avoiding the biases of many previous studies, which had drawn their samples from unrepresentative sources such as psychotherapy patients or prison populations, but noted that they failed to identify the cause of homosexuality. He observed that their suggestion that homosexuality may have a biological basis placed them in opposition to Kinsey's views, and that they ignored research that correlated the origins of same-sex preference with factors such as time of puberty, the amount of early sex, and masturbatory patterns. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-13.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-13.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..133aa4102 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-13.md @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +--- +title: "Sexual Preference (book)" +chunk: 14/14 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:27.778790+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Other evaluations, 1998–present === +The anthropologist Gilbert Herdt argued that Sexual Preference, like the Kinsey scale, places "too much emphasis upon discrete acts of sex and not enough stress upon the cultural context and total developmental outcomes to which those acts are related." He called the study a "quantitative sociological" survey of homosexuality that decontextualizes "the culture and lives at issue", arguing that all developmental changes need to be viewed in the context of social structure. Stein described Sexual Preference as one of the most detailed and frequently cited retrospective studies relating to sexual orientation. In his view, while the study has been criticized on various grounds, including that all of its subjects were living in San Francisco, arguably an atypical place with respect to the sexual orientation of its inhabitants, Bell et al.′s conclusions about theories attributing sexual orientation to the effects of experience have been accepted and confirmed. He observed that many other studies have been conducted on childhood gender nonconformity partly because of Bell et al.′s findings relating it to homosexuality. +The psychologists Stanton L. Jones and Mark Yarhouse described Sexual Preference as a famous study. They maintained that because Bell et al.′s data suggest that mothers have only a weak influence on the development of homosexuality their work is "sometimes thought of as the study that discredited the psychoanalytic theory." However, they observed that in Bell et al.′s sample "considerably more homosexual males reported fathers who were detached or not affectionate than did heterosexual men", and concluded that, "While clearly not providing definitive support for the psychoanalytic hypothesis, this study is surely not the refutation of that hypothesis that it is sometimes supposed to be." The historian Laurie Guy observed that the type of evidence on which Sexual Preference relied, adult recollection of childhood, had been criticized by Gagnon and Simon as long ago as 1973. He argued that gay rights organizations in New Zealand over-relied upon the work in the debate that preceded the passage of the Homosexual Law Reform Act 1986, writing that while important, it was only one study, and as such did not support gay rights activist claims that "all evidence" shows that sexual orientation is fixed early in life. +Judith A. Allen and her co-authors wrote that Sexual Preference, like Homosexualities, abandoned Kinsey's understanding of human sexuality by focusing on homosexual people rather than homosexual behavior and rejecting the idea that categorizing people as homosexual was problematic. + +=== Position of the American Psychological Association === +The American Psychological Association, in "Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation", a document released in 2009, credited Bell et al. and other authors with discrediting theories claiming that sexual orientation is caused by family dynamics or trauma. + +== See also == + +== References == + +=== Bibliography === + +==== Books ==== + +==== Journals ==== + +Online articles \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..12d4707ae --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,14 @@ +--- +title: "Sexual Preference (book)" +chunk: 3/14 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:27.778790+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Findings on white men === +Bell et al. found that homosexual men were more likely than heterosexual men to have felt especially close to their mothers. Male respondents who were unusually close to their mothers were more likely to describe themselves as having been feminine children, but only a minority of boys with this kind of background became homosexual. Bell et al. concluded that male homosexuality is not the "result of an unusually strong maternal identification", and that mothers have only a small influence on their sons′ psychosexual development. Homosexual men were less likely to give positive descriptions of their fathers, but more likely to have negative feelings toward their fathers, to dislike, hate, or fail to feel close to them, or to consider them hostile or detached. They were also more likely to feel more similar to their mothers than to their fathers, or to prefer to be like their mothers. Bell et al. concluded that, "Unfavorable relationships with fathers" have a weak connection to "gender nonconformity and early homosexual experiences". +Few male respondents had engaged in childhood sex play, and it did not seem to be important in the development of homosexuality. Homosexual men were less likely to report having enjoyed boys' activities such as football and to see themselves as having been very masculine while growing up, but more likely to report having enjoyed stereotypical girls' activities. Three variables (dislike of typical boys' activities, enjoying typical girls' activities, and feelings of masculinity or femininity) were combined into a composite measure called "Childhood Gender Nonconformity", which proved to be the most important developmental variable. It appeared to make male respondents less likely to feel attraction to the opposite sex during childhood, but more likely to feel sexually different from other boys, experience homosexual arousal and activities, and become homosexual as adults. Homosexual men were more likely to recall having felt different from other boys their age, or to say that they felt different because they did not like sport, or because they were not interested in girls or were sexually interested in other boys. They were also more likely to report feeling different because they had stereotypical feminine traits or interests. Feeling different during childhood appeared to be irrelevant, but feeling different for gender reasons during adolescence had "modest total effects". Boys who felt sexually different were more likely to become homosexual as adults, whether they began to feel that way during childhood or adolescence. While homosexual men were more likely to have been labeled sexually different or homosexual before the age of 19, this apparently played no significant role in the development of sexual orientation. +Homosexual men tended to have had their first homosexual encounter at a younger age, and were more likely to have their first encounters with friends or acquaintances rather than strangers. The data did not support the idea that homosexual males are likely to have been seduced by older men. Homosexual activity involving genital contact in childhood was connected to adult homosexuality, though only weakly; homosexual arousal during childhood or adolescence was a stronger predictor of adult homosexuality. Heterosexual arousal during childhood was a moderate predictor of adult heterosexuality. Phenomena associated with sexual maturation, such as the age of first ejaculation, did not seem to be important, and neither did parental attitudes toward sex. Respondents' opportunities to engage in sex with persons of the opposite or the same sex did not seem to be an important influence on the sexual preference they developed, and sexual experiences with persons of both the same and the opposite sex were common among both homosexuals and heterosexuals. Sexual feelings appeared to be more important than sexual behavior as an indicator of adult sexual preference. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9ed3a1435 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,17 @@ +--- +title: "Sexual Preference (book)" +chunk: 4/14 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:27.778790+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Findings on white women === +Homosexual women were more likely to describe their relationships with their mothers as negative, and their mothers as having been hostile or rejecting. These measures were combined into a single measure, "Hostile-Rejecting Mother", which appeared to have only minimal influence on the development of sexual preference. Homosexual women were less likely to describe their mothers as having been pleasant people. This and two other connected variables were combined into a composite measure called "Unpleasant Mother", which had a weak and indirect connection with adult homosexuality. Homosexual women identified less strongly with their mothers, though this appeared to have very little influence on adult sexual preference, having only indirect effects, dependent upon its encouragement of childhood gender nonconformity. Homosexual women gave less favorable descriptions of their relationships with their fathers, and were more likely to have negative feelings toward them, and to describe them as having been hostile or detached. These variables were combined into a measure called "Detached-Hostile Father", which appeared to encourage childhood gender nonconformity and adolescent homosexual involvement. Homosexual women were less likely to identify with their fathers, but the "Identification with Father" variable appeared to be unimportant. +Few female respondents reported engaging in sex play with their siblings, and it seemed to have no role in the development of sexual preference. Homosexual women were less likely to report having enjoyed typical girls' activities, but more likely to report having enjoyed typical boys' activities, such as football, and to describe themselves as having been very masculine while they were growing up. These and other variables were combined into a "Childhood Gender Nonconformity" measure, which proved to be the second strongest predictor of homosexuality. Bell et al. noted, however, that childhood gender nonconformity did not seem to have been important in the way proposed by psychoanalytic theory, in that it was not a crucial link between family influences and their respondents' sense of womanhood, and nor was it explained by relationships within the family. Homosexual women were more likely to recall having felt different from other girls their age during grade school and high school years, and to say that they felt different because they were more masculine than other girls, more interested in sports, or not interested in boys. Homosexual women were also more likely to have felt sexually different. However, these feelings did not appear to play a role in the development of female homosexuality. Homosexual women, unlike heterosexual women, were sometimes labeled sexually different or homosexual before the age of 19, but such labeling also appeared to play no significant role in the development of female homosexuality. +Homosexual arousal in childhood appeared to predict adult homosexuality, while homosexual activities and arousal during adolescence had a very strong connection with adult homosexuality. Rape and sexual molestation did not appear to be significant in the development of homosexuality. Heterosexual arousal during childhood had a very small effect on adult sexual preference. Homosexual women were more likely to have their first homosexual encounter before their first heterosexual encounter. Phenomena associated with physical maturation, such as the age at which menstruation began, did not appear to play a significant role in the development of sexual preference, while parental attitudes toward sex and failure to enjoy early heterosexual activity also seemed unimportant. Sexual feelings seemed important in the development of adult homosexuality. + +=== Findings on blacks === +The results for black men were in general the same as those for white men, except that while the "Identification with Father" variable had some significance for white men, it had none for black men, and whereas for white men pre-adult sexual feelings were important in the development of adult homosexuality, childhood and adolescent sexual activities were important for black men. Bell et al. suggested that this finding could show that black males became homosexual due to their early homosexual activities, which was consistent with a learning theory interpretation, but that alternatively it might reflect "the freer sexual attitude of the black community", which could have allowed their black respondents to act on their sexual inclinations at an earlier age than their white respondents. The findings for black women were very similar to those for white women. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e264e4ed1 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +title: "Sexual Preference (book)" +chunk: 5/14 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:27.778790+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Conclusions === +Bell et al. rejected many accepted ideas about the development of homosexuality. They concluded that psychodynamic theories exaggerate the role of parents in the development of their sons' sexual orientation, and that the psychoanalytic model that attributes male homosexuality to dominant mothers and weak fathers is inadequate. They found the idea that "cold, detached" fathers and poor father-son relationships predispose boys toward homosexuality more plausible, but emphasized that these factors have only an indirect connection to sexual preference. They suggested that relationships with parents might play a greater role in the development of female homosexuality, although they found having a cold or distant father less significant as a cause of female than of male homosexuality. They also rejected sociological theories such as the idea that homosexuality results from labeling by others. Overall, they concluded that sexual preference is likely to be already determined by the time boys and girls reach adolescence, and that there is a powerful link between gender nonconformity and the development of homosexuality in both sexes, but especially in men. Although stressing that their model "applies only to extant theories and does not create new ones", they wrote that they had identified "a pattern of feelings and reactions within the child that cannot be traced back to a single social or psychological root". +Different kinds of homosexuals were compared. The "Identification with Father" variable appeared to be important in the development of homosexuality among effeminate white homosexual men. Bell et al. noted that failure to identify with the father might encourage effeminacy, but that it was also possible that boys who were effeminate for other reasons might find it difficult to identify with their fathers. Pre-adult homosexual behavior was more important among men who were not effeminate. Bell et al. suggested that for effeminate males early homosexual feelings were the only important predictor of adult homosexuality, while other males were influenced by a combination of homosexual feelings and other factors. They found that sexual preference was much less strongly connected with pre-adult sexual feelings for white bisexual men than it was for white homosexual men. They concluded that exclusive homosexuality tends to emerge from a "deep-seated predisposition" but that bisexuality is "more subject to influence by social and sexual learning." +Exclusively homosexual white men tended to report that they had not identified with their fathers, but there was no significant tendency for white bisexual men not to identify with their fathers. Only white homosexual men who had undergone psychotherapy had "paternal variables" that were consistent with what clinicians had considered typical of homosexual males. Among whites, gender nonconformity appeared to be important in the development of homosexuality among masculine homosexual women, but not among homosexual women who were not masculine, while adolescent homosexual involvement was important for non-masculine homosexual women but not masculine homosexual women. Bisexual women appeared to be more influenced by involvement in homosexual genital activities in childhood than exclusively homosexual women, but unlike exclusively homosexual women, their homosexual preference did not appear related to inability to experience heterosexual arousal in childhood. Childhood gender nonconformity appeared more significant for exclusively homosexual women than for bisexual women, and more significant for women who had been in psychotherapy than for women who had not. +Bell et al. briefly reviewed the ideas of Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, the physician Havelock Ellis, and the psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing. They wrote that while there was an ongoing debate over the origins of homosexuality, there is evidence supporting the view that homosexuality has a biological basis, and that hormonal factors could be involved. They could not explain how sexual preference might be related to biology, but considered their findings consistent with what one would expect to find if it had a biological basis. They suggested that biological factors have a more powerful influence on exclusive homosexuals than on bisexuals, and that if there is a biological basis to homosexuality, it accounts for gender nonconformity as well as sexual orientation. They also proposed that the "familial factors commonly thought to account for homosexuality" may actually result from the way parents react to their prehomosexual children. They argued that demonstrating that homosexuality is biologically innate would lead to greater social tolerance, and help to relieve parents of gay people of guilt. They expressed hope that researchers would eventually produce more definitive answers about the origins of homosexuality. + +== Background and publication history == +Together with its separately published Statistical Appendix, Sexual Preference was the concluding volume of a series of books including Homosexuality: An Annotated Bibliography (1972) and Homosexualities: A Study of Diversity Among Men and Women (1978), both authored jointly by Bell and Weinberg. The study was supported by the United States National Institute of Mental Health, Indiana University, the Institute for Sex Research, and the Glide Foundation. Persons assisting the study included the gay rights activists Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, the sociologists John Gagnon and William Simon, and the anthropologist Paul Gebhard. Bell wrote that in the study he had "borrowed heavily from the psychodynamic view of sexual development", while his sociologist co-authors had ensured that the study's data could be used to evaluate conditioning and labeling theory. + +The study's data were derived from interviews conducted in 1969 and 1970 with "979 homosexual and 477 heterosexual men and women living in the San Francisco Bay Area." Homosexuals were recruited from a variety of locations while heterosexuals were obtained through random sampling. The interview schedule included approximately 200 questions. Most offered respondents a limited number of possible answers, though some allowed respondents to answer as they wished. Bell et al. maintained that since most of their heterosexual respondents were exclusively heterosexual, and most of their homosexual respondents predominantly or exclusively homosexual, the classification of respondents into heterosexuals and homosexuals represented "a natural division". +Sexual Preference was first published in 1981 by Indiana University Press. The same year, Bertelsmann published the book in German translation as Der Kinsey Institut Report über sexuelle Orientierung und Partnerwahl. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..27e4afe0e --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,17 @@ +--- +title: "Sexual Preference (book)" +chunk: 6/14 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:27.778790+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Reception == + +=== Mainstream media === +Prior to its publication, Jane E. Brody wrote in The New York Times that Sexual Preference was likely to cause controversy because of its findings and its reliance on path analysis and its subjects' memories. Brody noted that path analysis could be misused and that it "can only explore existing notions, not create new ones." According to Brody, Bell said that he expected the study to be condemned by both "radical gays" and psychoanalysts, the psychologist John Paul De Cecco questioned the "theoretical basis" of Sexual Preference and the reliability and validity of relying on recollections of childhood, and the psychoanalyst Irving Bieber described Bell et al.′s findings as inconsistent with his clinical experience. Sexual Preference attracted considerable media attention in 1981, receiving positive reviews from the historian Paul Robinson in Psychology Today and Richard P. Halgin in Library Journal, a negative review from the sociologist John Gagnon in The New York Times, a notice in Newsweek, and a discussion in The Chronicle of Higher Education, which focused on the controversy surrounding the book. The following year, the book received a negative review from Michael Ignatieff in the London Review of Books. The work was faulted for the questionable representativeness of its sample of homosexuals, but those who reviewed it positively praised it for the sophistication of its path analysis. +Robinson suggested that Bell et al. might have misidentified gender nonconformity as a cause of homosexuality, rather than as one of its expressions, but nevertheless found Sexual Preference to be a "superb" book that answered the question of how people become heterosexual or homosexual better than any previous study, disqualified most previous answers, and was comparable to Alfred Kinsey's best work. He maintained that their study's empirical foundation and path analysis gave Bell et al.′s findings "unprecedented trustworthiness". Robinson credited Bell et al. with documenting the "intellectual poverty" of psychoanalytic hypotheses about homosexuality. He lamented that unlike Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953), which gained popular attention, Sexual Preference "seems destined for academic oblivion." Halgin wrote that the book would be considered a landmark publication in sexology, and was more scientifically rigorous than most research in the field, but that it was also likely to create controversy. +Gagnon considered Sexual Preference a politically motivated study that would inevitably be received as a political and moral statement. He noted that its authors' conclusion that the lack of correlation between sexual orientation and early family experience means that the development of heterosexuality and homosexuality must be based on a biological predisposition was controversial. He criticized their use of path analysis, arguing that it over-emphasized differences between heterosexual and homosexual patterns of development. He also wrote that their reliance on adult recall of early childhood feeling was inconsistent with all recent research on memory, suggesting that respondents' answers to the vague and general questions employed in the study might reflect a subsequent reconstruction of events rather than an accurate recall of childhood. He also criticized their decision to group together "the respondents' observations relating to certain behaviors and attitudes", and their failure to provide new biological evidence. Ignatieff wrote that even if Bell et al.′s conclusion that family upbringing and factors such as labeling have little measurable effect on adult sexual orientation was correct it would not justify their additional claim that homosexuality is biologically innate, and that they had not resolved the question of how responsible people are for their sexual orientation. +In 2002, The New York Times quoted the historian and gay rights activist Martin Duberman as saying that Sexual Preference resulted from "the most ambitious study of male homosexuality ever attempted", and that together with Homosexualities it helped to "refuted a large number of previous studies" identifying gay men as "social misfits". \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-6.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-6.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..97823c3a3 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-6.md @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +--- +title: "Sexual Preference (book)" +chunk: 7/14 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:27.778790+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Gay media === +Sexual Preference received a positive review from Robert Herron in Christopher Street and a mixed review from George Smith in The Body Politic, while in The Advocate it received a note from the editor and mixed reviews from the biologist Doug Futuym and the social scientist Richard Wagner. +Herron credited Bell et al. with disproving mistaken ideas about the causes of homosexuality and described it as a "massively impressive achievement". However, he criticized the authors for their use of the term "sexual preference" and for failing to define "homosexuality". He also believed that they should have stated unambiguously, instead of simply suggesting, that homosexuality is innate, and maintained that as social scientists, they could not properly assess research on biological influences on homosexuality. Smith considered the study useful for its challenge to established views about the causes of homosexuality. However, he was unconvinced by its conclusion that homosexuality has a biological basis and found its account of the subject remote from real experience. Smith argued that while Bell et al.′s path analysis suggested that various variables cause one another, this was "an illusion created by statistical manipulation", and concluded that their category of "Gender Nonconformity" was a construct created by the researchers. +The Advocate wrote that the study had received media attention for its findings that sexual orientation is not determined by parenting and may have a biological basis. It described it as "the major report on homosexuality in 1981", and noted that for budgetary reasons it was likely to be the last report on homosexuality from the Institute for Sex Research. +Futuym wrote that the book had received attention from the media because of its authors' suggestion that homosexuality may have biological causes. However, he believed that they failed to demonstrate this and that other aspects of the book were more important. He noted that it was subject to criticism on the grounds that its sample of homosexuals was unrepresentative and that its subjects may have distorted their accounts of their childhoods by making them conform to their present views of themselves, and that its path analysis was open to question, and criticized its authors for failing to explain the operations of "childhood gender nonconformity". He observed that while they argued that sexual orientation might be biological because of the lack of any apparent psychosocial causes for it, it was possible that there were psychosocial causes that they had failed to investigate and that might operate early in life. He argued that a study such as theirs would be able to identify the causes of sexual orientation only if the causes were "few and very strong." However, he believed they deserved credit for showing that there was no support for the "standard psychosocial theories" or the belief that homosexuality is caused by seduction. +Wagner credited Bell et al. with distancing themselves from medical and psychiatric hostility to homosexuality, but criticized them for failing to conclude that searching for causes of homosexuality is misconceived. He believed that the media had wrongly interpreted their study as showing that homosexuality has a biological basis. He described their path analysis approach as a "complex theoretical model", and predicted that it would be a long time before it and its associated data could be "tested by the scientific community." Nevertheless, he considered the approach open to question, arguing that it was doubtful whether causal models could explain the development of sexual preference. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-7.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-7.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..706c8fef8 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-7.md @@ -0,0 +1,18 @@ +--- +title: "Sexual Preference (book)" +chunk: 8/14 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:27.778790+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Scientific and academic journals, 1981–1982 === +Sexual Preference received a positive review from J. Kenneth Davidson, Sr. in the Journal of Marriage and Family, mixed reviews from the sociologist John DeLamater in Science and the sex researcher James D. Weinrich in The Quarterly Review of Biology, and negative reviews from the psychologist Clarence Tripp in the Journal of Sex Research and the sociologist Ira Reiss in Contemporary Sociology. The book was also discussed by DeCecco in the Journal of Sex Research and Bell in Siecus Report. Criticisms made of the work included that its authors' conclusions were based on an unrepresentative or dubiously representative sample of homosexuals, and that their reliance on path analysis and adult recall of early childhood feeling was problematic. +Davidson wrote that Bell et al. were aware that their work would be criticized on methodological grounds, and that they carefully addressed potential criticisms. He suggested that media reports had distorted their views about the possibility than homosexuality has a biological basis, writing that they acknowledged that their study did not provide the data to resolve this issue. Although he considered it regrettable that it took them more than a decade to publish their analysis of their study's data, and believed it was "directed more toward the lay reader than to the professional community", he found their work valuable for its exploration of the possible biological basis of homosexuality. +DeLamater believed that Sexual Preference benefited from Bell et al.′s "eclectic theoretical basis", which drew from the psychodynamic model, social learning theory, sociological models that emphasize the importance of peer relationships, and labeling theory. However, while he accepted their claim that their study was methodologically superior to prior work on homosexuals, he still found it problematic for many reasons and hesitated to endorse its conclusions. In his view, the path analysis involved "arbitrary classification and sequencing of variables". Weinrich wrote that while Bell et al. had a "more than adequate sample size", the sample had at times been broken down into smaller groups, and some of their conclusions about those groups had to be considered tentative. Weinrich concluded that they effectively challenged environmental theories of sexual orientation, and that attempts by critics to dismiss their conclusions about such theories were unsuccessful. He based this conclusion partly on personal communication with Hammersmith, however, noting that they did not explain their procedures for verifying their findings well in Sexual Preference and its statistical appendix. He also suspected that they had relied on dubious information from heterosexuals about the sexual orientation of their siblings, and considered their review of evidence on the possible biological basis of homosexuality inadequate. + +Tripp wrote that Sexual Preference would likely be seen as "a shock and a disappointment", since its authors abandoned or misrepresented many of Kinsey's methods and conclusions. He criticized them for ignoring Kinsey's warning to make careful observations and "avoid theory", and for attempting to test the validity of psychoanalytic theories, which he considered already discredited by professionals. While he nevertheless believed that they had rendered a valuable service by showing that psychoanalytic theories are unsupported, he rejected their argument that since psychoanalytic ideas are incorrect the origins of sexual orientation must be genetic and hormonal, noting that in order to draw that conclusion they had to ignore the work of sex researchers such as Frank Beach. He also accused them of citing low quality and unreplicated hormone studies, ignoring evidence relating homosexuality to early puberty, and replacing inductive with deductive methods. In the same issue, they replied to Tripp, accusing him of misrepresenting their data analysis and their conclusions and making "ridiculous criticisms" of the scientific method they had employed. Tripp responded in a later issue, accusing them of making personal attacks, and attempting to refute them on specific points. +Reiss concluded that Sexual Preference helped suggest "the likely worth of ideas", but that given its shortcomings there was no way in which its authors could definitively resolve the issues they explored, despite their claim to "once and for all" discredit some ideas about homosexuality. He wrote that the study employed questions that were "vague" and "open-ended", and that its authors had an "arbitrary and rigid conception" of what could be done with their data, lacked "theoretical development" in its handling, and deliberately minimized the importance of the predictor variables they used to test psychoanalytic and other theories. He found their conclusion that sexual orientation has a biological basis unconvincing. +De Cecco dismissed both Sexual Preference and Bell and Weinberg's previous study Homosexualities, writing that while their authors presented them as definitive, they suffered from the "theoretical blindness" that has dominated research on homosexuality in the United States since the early 1970s. He contrasted Bell and Weinberg's work unfavorably with that of European thinkers whom he credited with "provocative theoretical speculations": the philosophers Michel Foucault and Guy Hocquenghem, the gay rights activist Mario Mieli, the sexologist Martin Dannecker, and the sociologist Jeffrey Weeks. Bell wrote that he was astonished by his finding that "parent-child relationships" are less influential in the development of sexual orientation than has often been thought. He related his findings to the theme of androgyny. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-8.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-8.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a9766b372 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-8.md @@ -0,0 +1,15 @@ +--- +title: "Sexual Preference (book)" +chunk: 9/14 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:27.778790+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Scientific and academic journals, 1983–1986 === +Cheryl L. Gillespie gave Sexual Preference a mixed review in Family Relations. She commended Bell et al. for using a sophisticated methodology and trying to avoid "poorly designed measures and biased interpretation of data". Nevertheless, she found their methodology and interpretation of data open to question, writing that although their San Francisco Bay Area sample was arguably non-representative, they wrote as though the study was representative of the larger population, that they did not sufficiently explore the issue of bias in their subjects' self-reports, which might have been motivated by the subjects' ideology or desire to please the researchers by telling them what they thought they wanted to hear, and that they relegated the fact that respondents who had been exposed to scientific information regarding homosexuality were more likely to characterize their parents in accord with psychoanalytic models of emotionally absent fathers and domineering mothers to a footnote. She also suggested that readers might find Sexual Preference boring. Thomas Ford Hoult argued in the Journal of Homosexuality that Bell et al.′s conclusion that childhood gender nonconformity and adult sexual orientation have a biological basis is a legitimate hypothesis, but one that it is not confirmed by their failure to find a direct connection between sexual orientation and parent-child interaction. +Jeanne Marecek gave Sexual Preference a negative review in Sex Roles, writing that it was tedious and succeeded well neither as a popular book nor as a scientific treatment of its topic. She maintained that it lacked "methodological detail", and that its true focus was homosexuality rather than sexual preference generally. She believed that there were many problems with "the premises and the execution" of the study, writing that its authors neither broke "new theoretical ground" nor offered "a critical reading of old theories" and ignored questions such as "how and why adults change their sexual preference, what meanings individuals ascribe to their sexuality, and how social context contributes to stability or change in sexual preference". In her view, other problems included their failure to critically examine "the accuracy of the retrospective memories" of their respondents and willingness to take their answers to questions at face value. She concluded that they must have been disappointed by the results of their path analyses since, "Very few of the respondents' reported early experiences were related to the emergence of homosexuality." She disagreed with their focus on theories relating homosexuality to childhood experience and their conclusion that "sexual preference is dictated by developmental experiences", and wrote that they seemed politically conservative despite presenting themselves as liberals. +The psychoanalyst Gerard J. M. van den Aardweg criticized Bell et al.′s interpretation of their data in the American Journal of Psychotherapy. He argued that too many studies suggest that domineering mothers play a role in the development of male homosexuality for their conclusion that mothers have at most a weak influence on the development of their sons' sexual orientation to be readily acceptable, that all questionnaire studies have inherent limitations, and that their data are inferior to those collected over time by psychotherapists. He suggested that homosexuals might give defensive answers due to not wanting to be labelled abnormal, that Bell et al.′s data were of poor quality, since too few questions about parental behavior had been asked and open-ended questions yielded superficial answers, and that it was unjustified to conclude that parents must have only a small influence on the development of their children's sexual orientation simply because that influence did not reveal itself clearly. He accused Bell et al. of admitting the limitations of path analysis only to then ignore those limitations, arguing that the technique had "numerous dubious premises" and that they used it in a way that was open to technical objections such as its failure to "distinguish between different types of psychodynamic development to homosexuality". He considered them mistaken to treat their variables as isolated items, rather than in combination with each other. He also found the studies they cited as evidence that homosexuality might have a hormonal basis unconvincing. +The psychologists Paul H. Van Wyk and Chrisann S. Geist wrote in the Archives of Sexual Behavior that Bell et al. question a scientific consensus, established by researchers such as the psychologists Heino Meyer-Bahlburg and John Money, that biological factors have at most only a predisposing influence on the development of sexual orientation. Using their subject pool, which consisted of people interviewed between 1938 and 1963, they produced similar results. However they suggested that some significant differences could have been partly a result of the different methodology employed. In their view, the most important difference was that their outcome variable was based only on "overt behavior" whereas that of Bell et al. "is an average of subjective preference and overt behavior." They noted that Bell et al. "excluded from their model variables that did not apply to everyone in their sample", which made it impossible to judge the effects of "idiosyncratic and unique sexual and nonsexual experiences". The philosopher Michael Ruse credited Bell et al. with avoiding the problems of earlier studies, such as Bieber et al.′s Homosexuality: A Psychoanalytic Study of Male Homosexuals (1962), in Behavioral and Brain Sciences. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-9.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-9.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..6f53d0325 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)-9.md @@ -0,0 +1,18 @@ +--- +title: "Sexual Preference (book)" +chunk: 10/14 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Preference_(book)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:27.778790+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Scientific and academic journals, 1987–1996 === +De Cecco wrote in the Journal of Sex Research that Sexual Preference had no independent theoretical basis because it was conceived as an attempt to disprove theories viewing homosexuality as a mental or social pathology, and that Bell et al. were mistaken to conclude that, because such theories are incorrect, sexual orientation must be innate. He accused them of being motivated by "a misguided compassion for homosexuals", arguing that such compassion is actually a form of arrogance. +The philosopher Frederick Suppe described Sexual Preference as very important study in the Journal of Homosexuality. He wrote that it failed to duplicate the findings of Bieber et al. or the predictions of symbolic interactionism, labeling theory, and societal reaction theory approaches. He considered its sample of homosexuals, while highly biased, to nevertheless be the most representative ever made, and argued that biased samples can be adequate for the purposes of refuting theories propounded in other studies "so long as the types of subjects used in those other studies constitute a subsample of the replicative study′s sample and the latter's population does not go beyond the claimed scope of the replicated studies." He maintained that Bell et al.′s study meets these requirements, that their use of path analysis was appropriate, and that their procedures for developing a composite etiology model, which contained "virtually all paths advanced in the literature", are legitimate. He argued that the only plausible basis for disputing that the study definitively refutes "social learning theories of homosexual etiology" is to challenge the adequacy of its authors' models and the questions they employed. However, he criticized the questions asked. He wrote that while Bell et al. did not use the same specific questions that Bieber et al. had employed, they did use "questions directed at the same concerns." He noted that their data regarding subjects′ negative feelings toward and relationships with their fathers were based on open-ended interview questions, adding that it would have been preferable had they employed the same "structured-answer questions" used in Bieber et al.′s earlier study. He rejected their claim that their study supports a biological explanation of sexual orientation. He wrote that since their study, research into the "social causes of homosexuality" has become "moribund." +The social psychologist Daryl Bem credited Bell et al. with providing the most important data concerning "experience-based theories" of the development of sexual orientation in Psychological Review. This included "the classical psychoanalytic account", as well as views that attribute the origins of sexual orientation to learning, conditioning, seduction, or labeling. According to Bem, their finding that "no family variables" are "strongly implicated in the development of sexual orientation for either men or women" is "consistent with accumulating evidence that family variables account for much less of the environmental variance in personality than previously thought". He proposed a hypothesis, which he referred to as "Exotic becomes erotic", according to which children feel different from either their same-sex peers or opposite-sex peers and therefore eroticize them, leading to homosexuality and heterosexuality respectively. He referred to Bell et al.′s finding that gay men and lesbians were significantly more likely to recall having felt different from same-sex children during the grade-school years, and to other studies that drew similar conclusions. He maintained that Bell's view that people become erotically attracted to those who are different from them out of a "quest for androgyny" does not accurately characterize or explain the data, and rejected Bell et al.′s conclusion that sexual orientation is innate. + +=== Scientific and academic journals, 1997–present === +Letitia Anne Peplau et al. wrote in a critique of Bem's "exotic becomes erotic" hypothesis published in Psychological Review that Bell et al. recruited heterosexuals and homosexuals through non-comparable methods, and that while it is unknown how this and the retrospective nature of their data affected their findings, "they may have exaggerated the extent of true differences between heterosexual and homosexual respondents." Peplau et al. argued that Bell et al.′s data does not support Bem's hypothesis. Bem, in a defense of his hypothesis published in the same issue of Psychological Review, wrote that in their path analysis Bell et al. engaged in "an unfortunate dichotomization of the dependent variable, sexual orientation ... grouping the bisexual and homosexual respondents into the same category." In his view, while this procedure "might have seemed reasonable on a priori grounds ... it should have been abandoned as soon as the researchers saw the results of their own subanalyses, which made it clear that the bisexual respondents were not only very different from their exclusively homosexual counterparts but actually were more like the heterosexual respondents in theoretically critical ways." He argued that by grouping together the bisexuals and homosexuals Bell et al. "reduced many of the correlations and increased the likelihood that important antecedent variables would be erroneously eliminated during the recursive process of discarding the weaker correlates from successive iterations of the path model." +Peplau et al. wrote in the Annual Review of Sex Research that while Bell et al.′s suggestion that biological factors have a stronger influence on exclusive homosexuality than they have on bisexuality may seem plausible, it has not been directly tested and appears to conflict with available evidence, such as that concerning prenatal hormone exposure. The psychologist Bruce Rind credited Bell et al. with disproving psychoanalytic theories about the development of homosexuality, along with the idea that childhood seduction causes homosexuality, in the Archives of Sexual Behavior. The psychologist Mark Yarhouse wrote in the Archives of Sexual Behavior that Sexual Preference relies on retrospective memory recall, which can be unreliable. The psychologist J. Michael Bailey and his co-authors described Sexual Preference as a "landmark study" that "seemingly disposed of the idea that homosexuality resulted from the quality of parent-child relationships" in Psychological Science in the Public Interest. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaping_Psychology-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaping_Psychology-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..24f85c8b2 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaping_Psychology-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +--- +title: "Shaping Psychology" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaping_Psychology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:28.990306+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Shaping Psychology: Perspectives on Legacy, Controversy and the Future of the Field is a 2020 book written by Polish psychologist Tomasz Witkowski. It is a collection of conversations with influential psychologists from the early 21st century, featuring interviews with notable figures who have significantly impacted the field and covering a broad spectrum of specializations from research, mental health, critical psychology, and neuroscience, as well as the open science movement. Interviewees include Elizabeth Loftus, Jerome Kagan, Michael I. Posner, Scott Lilienfeld, Robert Sternberg, Robert Plomin, Susan Blackmore, Joseph E. LeDoux, Noam Chomsky, Roy Baumeister, Erica Burman, Brian Nosek, Vikram Patel, Daniel Kahneman, and Carol Tavris. These experts discuss the controversies, crises, and future prospects of psychology, sharing their views on the challenges in the field, their careers, and their formative experiences. + + +== Reception == +In her review for Science-Based Medicine and Skeptical Inquirer, Harriet Hall offered insights into the book, noting: Tomasz Witkowski's new book [...] provides an intriguing look at the current state of psychology, its problems and possible solutions, and hopes for the future. [...] I have met several of the people Witkowski interviewed, but now I feel as if I have spent more time with them and know them better. And I have learned a lot from them. If you want to meet these psychologists and learn about the current state of psychology, this book is a great way to do it. Witkowski's unique approach has resulted in a very readable, entertaining, and very informative book. +Michael Heap, editor of Skeptical Intelligencer, commented in his review: Amongst the issues about which Witkowski is most concerned are the quality, utility and validity of much of the research being published nowadays; the 'replication crisis'; the efficacy of many psychotherapeutic practices that psychologists seem willing to embrace; and the failure of psychologists to mount a sufficiently strong challenge to their psychiatric colleagues' fetish for diagnostic labelling. [...] The picture that emerges from the book is quite representative of the discipline as a whole. +In his review of the book for Skeptiker, Rouven Schäfer wrote: An enlightening journey through the contemporary world of psychology. The book conveys refreshing perspectives and also optimism since it has been stated several times that, especially among young scientists who are still at the beginning of their careers, the awareness of the necessary change is already very pronounced. It remains to be seen whether psychology will burn in the flames of its massive criticism or whether it will rise again like a phoenix from the ashes and armed with better research methods. An unusually impressive reading pleasure that gives you goosebumps at one point or another and provides important impulses. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spent b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spent new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e69de29bb diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoilt_Rotten-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoilt_Rotten-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ef4c0fefa --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoilt_Rotten-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "Spoilt Rotten" +chunk: 1/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoilt_Rotten" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:32.443556+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Spoilt Rotten: The Toxic Cult of Sentimentality (subtitle in US editions: How Britain is Ruined by Its Children) is a non-fiction book by the British writer and retired doctor and psychiatrist Theodore Dalrymple, originally published in 2010. Polemical in nature, the book contends that sentimentality has become culturally entrenched in British society, with harmful consequences. The author uses a range of cultural, educational, political, media and literary issues—including falling standards in education, UK aid policies for African development, the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, and the work and life of Sylvia Plath—to illustrate what he sees as the danger of abandoning logic in favour of sentimentality, which he describes as "the progenitor, the godparent, the midwife of brutality". Much of Dalrymple's analysis is underpinned by his experience of working with criminals and the mentally ill. +Spoilt Rotten received a mostly favourable reception in the media. Dalrymple was praised for carrying out a thought-provoking and convincing analysis of a newly emerged cultural phenomenon which sees emotion substituted for reason. Some critics, however, accused the author of cynicism and misanthropic pessimism in his approach, and the historian Noel Malcolm claimed that Dalrymple had overreached in his analysis. + +== Background == +Before the book's publication, Dalrymple had alluded on a number of occasions in his writing to the issue of sentimentality in contemporary society. +In an essay in 1999, he identified what he saw as the harmful role played by sentimentality in a case involving Stephen Lawrence. Lawrence, a young black British man, was murdered and the subsequent case was mired in accusations of racism among the investigating police. Dalrymple wrote that "the response to the Stephen Lawrence case is another example of how the rule of law is to be supplanted by the rule of sentiment—and it is yet one more instance of what one might call the Dianafication of British public life, in which transitory popular enthusiasm trumps venerable tradition". In a 2004 essay, he analysed how sentimentality towards children was closely linked with violence and neglect, particularly in the poorest sections of British society: "The upbringing of children in much of Britain is a witches' brew of sentimentality, brutality, and neglect, in which overindulgence in the latest fashions, toys, or clothes, and a television in the bedroom are regarded as the highest—indeed only—manifestations of tender concern for a child's welfare". +Before the book's publication, Dalrymple analysed two high-profile cases in the British media involving Raoul Moat and Jon Venables. + + Dalrymple described Moat as "a brutal sentimentalist. He used the extremity of his behaviour to persuade himself that he felt something—supposedly love—very deeply, and that this was the motive and justification of his behaviour". Referring to Venables, Dalrymple wrote, "Probation officers persistently refused to see the writing on Venables's wall. They explained away the obvious signs of his continuing bad character. Just a little more kindness, understanding. What contempt he must have felt! Thus sentimentality, a refusal to face unpleasant realities, causes crime". + +== Synopsis == + +=== Chapter One: Sentimentality === + Dalrymple begins the chapter by citing several examples to illustrate how sentimentality is increasing as a cultural phenomenon in the United Kingdom. He then analyses falling education standards in the country, and links these trends to "powerful intellectual currents" that "feed into the great Sargasso Sea of modern sentimentality about children", and asserts that in this regard the ideas of the philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau and the psychologist Steven Pinker have been particularly influential. He then examines a newspaper article which advocates reform of the British prison system. Dalrymple states that the article aroused an emotion "whose effect, if not its intention, was to convince the person experiencing it that he was a person of superior sensibility and compassion", and that such emotionality "often attaches to the question of crime and punishment in contemporary Britain". Dalrymple also cites a modern tendency for criminals under the influence of drugs or alcohol not to be held morally responsible for their crimes. Dalrymple takes issue with this, and agrees with Aristotle that a man is doubly culpable: first for the offence committed, and second for having intoxicated himself. Dalrymple also maintains that it is "the sheerest sentimentality to see drug addicts as the victims of an illness" and that, "sentimentality is now a mass phenomenon almost beyond criticism or even comment". + +=== Chapter Two: What is Sentimentality? === +Dalrymple advances that the kind of sentimentality that he wishes to draw attention to is "an excess of emotion that is false, mawkish, and over-valued by comparison with reason" and which is performed "in full public view". Dalrymple contends that "Sentimentality is the expression of emotion without judgment. Perhaps it is worse than that: it is the expression of emotion without an acknowledgement that judgment should enter into how we should react to what we see and hear. It is the manifestation of a desire for the abrogation of an existential condition of human life, namely the need to always and never unendingly to exercise judgment. Sentimentality is therefore childish and reductive of our humanity". In this chapter he also takes issue with a number of assertions made by the philosopher Robert C. Solomon, including that sentimentality does not manipulate emotions, cause false emotions to be shown, or distort perception and interfere with rational thought. + +=== Chapter Three: The Family Impact Statement === +Dalrymple criticises the introduction by Harriet Harman of the Family Impact Statement. Dalrymple writes that such statements "are not permitted to influence the outcome of a case. They are made only after a jury has made its verdict". As a result, kitsch displays of emotion are encouraged in court, of no practical benefit. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoilt_Rotten-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoilt_Rotten-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..02c9893da --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoilt_Rotten-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Spoilt Rotten" +chunk: 2/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoilt_Rotten" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:32.443556+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Chapter Four: The Demand for Public Emotion === +Dalrymple analyses the media attention and reaction to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, and how certain media interpreted a perceived lack of emotion on the part of the girl's parents as evidence of guilt. Dalrymple writes that the "demand that emotion should be shown in public, or be assumed not to exist and therefore indicate a guilty mind, is now not an uncommon one", and cites two similar cases involving Joanne Lees and Lindy Chamberlain. Dalrymple then analyses the outcry from the public and the media to the lack of emotion shown by the Queen after the death of Princess Diana, and contends that "the tabloid newspapers carried out what can only be called a campaign of bullying against the sovereign" and that those gathered outside Buckingham Palace were "bullying rather than expressing any genuine grief". He concludes by asserting that the sentimentality shown by both the media and the public "was inherently dishonest in a way that parallels the dishonesty that lies behind much sentimentality itself". + +=== Chapter Five: The Cult of the Victim === +Dalrymple analyses the poet Sylvia Plath, whom he describes as the "patron saint of self-dramatization", and interprets Margaret Drabble's descriptions of Plath as a "willing casualty" and "supremely vulnerable" to mean "virtues of a high order". He then examines how Plath blamed her father for her suffering, and identifies him in her poem "Daddy" with Nazism and makes allusions to the Holocaust. Dalrymple writes that "Plath felt it right to allude to one of the worst and most deliberate inflictions of mass-suffering in the whole of human history, merely on the basis that her father, who died when she was young, was German…the metaphorical use of the holocaust measures not the scale of her suffering, but of her self-pity". He asserts that before Plath, self-pity "was regarded as a vice, even a disgusting one, that precluded sympathy", and that "the appropriation of the suffering of others to boost the scale and significance of one's own suffering is now a commonplace." He then analyses a number of figures, including Binjamin Wilkomirski and Margaret Seltzer, who he alleges "make bogus claims to victim status" and whose stories reveal perfectly "the dialectic between sentimentality and brutality". Dalrymple ends the chapter by analysing victimhood in the criminal justice system and concludes, "For the sentimentalist, of course, there is no such thing as a criminal, only an environment that has let him down". + +=== Chapter Six: Make Poverty History! === + +Dalrymple asserts that across the globe chronic poverty has decreased in the past twenty-five years, but mainly in China and India. As a result, "Africa is an exception and therefore is the current focus of sentimentality about poverty". In this context he examines Gordon Brown's desire as prime minister to ensure that every child in Africa receive a primary education. Dalrymple questions whether there is a link between improving educational standards and increasing economic growth in the continent, and cites the experience of Tanzania under Julius Nyerere, Equatorial Guinea under Macias Nguema, and Sierra Leone's fate after a "long history of historical effort and achievement" as evidence that this may not be so, and argues that Africa's priority is access to markets. Dalrymple concludes that Brown's position is pure sentimental posturing and smacks of "Singerian moral universalism", which is "preposterous—psychologically, theoretically, and practically". +In the book's Conclusion, Dalrymple contends that "in field after field, sentimentality has triumphed", and this has had a number of harmful consequences, including the lives of millions of children being blighted by overindulgence and neglect; the destruction of educational standards; and brutality wherever policies suggested by sentimentality have been advocated. + +== Release == +The book was originally published in the UK in hardback on 29 July 2010 by Gibson Square Books Ltd. The book had at least one alternative subtitle before The Toxic Cult of Sentimentality was finally chosen, and the US edition had the subtitle How Britain is Ruined by Its Children. The book's front cover featured a wrongly attributed comment, "a taboo-shattering, sacred cow-slaughtering, myth-destroying little gem of a book" by Dominic Lawson; Lawson had in fact written this in 2007 in a review of another Dalrymple US-published book, Romancing Opiates: Pharmacological Lies and the Addiction Bureaucracy. The paperback edition of Spoilt Rotten appeared in the UK on 11 August 2011. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoilt_Rotten-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoilt_Rotten-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..60f92d5c9 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoilt_Rotten-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +--- +title: "Spoilt Rotten" +chunk: 3/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoilt_Rotten" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:32.443556+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Critical reception == +After it was released the book received a mostly positive response in the media. +In The Spectator, Jonathan Sumption praised the book, writing "The public hysteria surrounding such high-profile incidents as the death of the Princess of Wales and the search for Madeleine McCann, or the eccentricities of the MacPherson report on the death of Stephen Lawrence are analysed with the author's customary mixture of shrewdness, cynicism and misanthropic pessimism. These phenomena have of course been analysed before, and many of the same points have been made. But Dalrymple is good at relating them to broader trends in our society". The book was described by Toby Young in The Daily Telegraph as being an "excellent new book attacking the cult of sentimentality" and that Dalrymple also "makes a convincing case that standards in British education have plummeted in the last few decades". Young also reviewed the book on his blog No Sacred Cows, where he wrote, "...the remarkable thing about Spoilt Rotten is that Dalrymple never lets his anger obscure his compassion. Throughout the book you get a powerful sense that his outrage is rooted in a commitment to social justice. Yes, he believes members of the underclass should be weaned off the nanny state and forced to take responsibility for themselves, but he also believes it is left-wing intellectuals who have reduced them to a state of helpless infantalism, mainly through the promotion of the cult of sentimentality. He is not a Christian, but believes that it is only when Britain's benefit dependents rediscover the doctrine of Original Sin that they will be able to help themselves". +Also in The Daily Telegraph, Ed West gave the book a favourable review, writing "Sentimentality, in which crude emotion replaces dispassionate analysis, affects all aspects of public life, such as the debates over education, prison places and overseas aid. As Dalrymple points out, no country has ever escaped poverty via international aid—but never mind, since what matters is not actually doing anything about state education or crime or Africa, but being seen to be caring about the 'vulnerable'". The book was listed as a non-fiction choice by Steven Poole in The Guardian, who wrote, "Dalrymple alternates vague ranting with surgical demolition (he is excellent on the fatuity of 'family impact statements' in court), and exhibits impressive thrift, in these uncertain times, with his research, getting tens of pages out of a single visit to WHSmith and the purchase of two newspapers. Perhaps the most suggestive sentence is tucked away in an endnote about tattoos: 'I wish I had the space to elaborate on the dermatological semiotics of violence in England'. If only someone had awarded him that space". The book was also the subject of a spoof review by John Crace in The Guardian, which satirised the book and its author. +Spoilt Rotten was chosen by Jasper Fforde on the Penguin Books website as one of the books he would most like to get for Christmas. Fforde wrote that the book, "makes uneasy reading for huggy liberals, and asks harsh questions over the bizarre sense of sentimentality that seems to have befuddled us Brits ever since millions of us queued up to sign a book of condolences for a princess we didn't know. Dalrymple looks at the downside of an overblown sense of sentiment, which resulted this year with a murderous thug who saw himself as a victim and found 32,000 people agreeing with him, and even opening a tribute Facebook page in his posthumous honor". A positive review in The Scotsman stated, "Dalrymple tackles sentimentality on every front. He is frequently witty, always punchy and sometimes rapier-like, as he analyses the 'bunk' of his opponents to within an inch of its cant". +In a negative review in The Sunday Telegraph, historian Noel Malcolm suggested that Dalrymple "is spreading his net too widely, so that 'sentimentality' comes to stand for any moralising view that does not satisfy his own scrutiny; it's not that these things should not be criticised, merely that sentimentalism may not be the key to what is wrong with them". Malcolm also questioned Dalrymple's views on modern educational theory, writing "these ideas have long and complex histories, in which sentimentalism is only part of the story. The 'progressive' attack on discipline, and on traditional institutions such as the family, was concerned as much with power-structures and class as it ever was with sentiment or human goodness", and took issue with Dalrymple's assessment of Rousseau. In a short negative review of the book in The Independent on Sunday, which appeared after the book's 2011 paperback release, Brandon Robshaw wrote, "There is some good sense here, but it's vitiated by the pompous, peevish tone, the futile nostalgia for an airbrushed past, unnecessary sideswipes (at John Rawls, for example, or climate science) and by the poor editing". In an ambivalent review on the website MercatorNet, Francis Phillips wrote "The book leaves one with the impression that it is a somewhat hotchpotch compendium of views and articles already well rehearsed by the author—though nonetheless true for all that. What is disheartening is his bleak attitude towards human nature; having diagnosed the disease he is at a loss to suggest a remedy". + +== See also == +Call-out culture +Descartes' Error + +== Bibliography == +Dalrymple, Theodore (2010). Spoilt Rotten: The Toxic Cult of Sentimentality. Gibson Square Books Ltd. ISBN 978-1-906142-61-2. + +== References == + +== External links == +Prison may not work for them, but it works for us, Dalrymple article in The Spectator examining the role of sentimentality, and the perceived harm it causes, in the criminal justice system +Theodore Dalrymple: Denunciation ceremonies for absent fathers can't be far off, 2011 Dalrymple article in The Independent, examining sentimentality in the statements of Prime Minister David Cameron \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studies_in_Machiavellianism-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studies_in_Machiavellianism-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a11ba2b25 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studies_in_Machiavellianism-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +--- +title: "Studies in Machiavellianism" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studies_in_Machiavellianism" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:33.583857+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Studies in Machiavellianism is a book published in 1970 by psychologists Richard Christie and Florence L. Geis. It is a collection of 38 studies into the interpersonal personality variable that they dubbed Machiavellianism. It is the first book on the subject, the first use of the word "Machiavellianism" as the name of a personality variable, and would launch an entire field of study. + + +== Overview == +In the aftermath of World War II, psychologist Richard Christie set out to study the thought processes and actions of those who manipulated others, such as political ideologues and religious extremists. He found that there was many studies on those who followed the organizations and movements, but the only literature on those who actually led them were psychiatric in nature. Starting from the basics, Christie hypothesized that a "manipulator" or "operator" would possess the following characteristics: + +A relative lack of affect in interpersonal relationships +A lack of concern for conventional morality +A lack of gross psychopathology (i.e. a lack of mental illness) +Low ideological commitment +From these characteristics, Christie would begin to build psychometrics to evaluate these traits within an individual. In creating his psychometric, he first began by seeking out historical figures such as Kautilya and Shang Yang before eventually landing upon Machiavelli. He would use these ideas to create test items loosely based on their prose. He would eventually base his psychometric questions on the style of Machiavelli, and label the new personality trait Machiavellianism as a nod to Machiavelli. Christie states that he was advised to not use "Machiavellianism" as a name choice due to its already existing political meaning. The research led to the creation of the MACH-IV, which would become the most widely used Machiavellianism test by researchers. + + +=== Experiments === +The book features a series of experiments performed by Christie and his colleagues, with many of them being games. Examples include the "Con Game", the "10 Dollar Game" and so forth. The experiments revolved around the use of manipulative tactics in order to win. Those who score highly on the scale of Machiavellianism deceived more and had a cold, calculated, and detached disposition when doing said acts. The researchers would eventually call this the cool syndrome. +The authors also discovered that an individual's "Mach score" was also not linked to political views, racial attitudes, intelligence, or educational level, but rather stemmed from an individual's perspectives on behavior and morality. + + +=== Results from their research === +The primary goal of their research was to evaluate whether or not agreement (or disagreement) with the test items showed differences in behavior and mentality. Not only did those higher on the scale manipulate more, but they did so more successfully than their low Mach counterparts. Highs were also more emotionally detached and callous than Lows. Christie stated that this is the primary difference between those who score low and those who score high. High Machs were more than likely to bluff more and lie about their actions in the experimental games. + + +== See also == +Machiavellianism in the workplace +Dark triad + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studies_in_the_Psychology_of_Sex_Vol._2-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studies_in_the_Psychology_of_Sex_Vol._2-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..dff962fa0 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studies_in_the_Psychology_of_Sex_Vol._2-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +title: "Studies in the Psychology of Sex Vol. 2" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studies_in_the_Psychology_of_Sex_Vol._2" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:34.773184+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Studies in the Psychology of Sex Vol. 2 is a book published in 1900 written by Havelock Ellis (1859–1939), an English physician, writer and social reformer. The book deals with the phenomenon of sexual inversion, an outdated term for homosexuality, as well as heterosexual trans people. It is part of Ellis' seven-volume series Studies in the psychology of sex. The book has seven chapters describing the prevalence, nature and theories in the 19th century about sexual inversion in men and women. Various case studies are presented and discussed. Ellis recognised a need to address the topic of sexual inversion especially in England: + +... in England, more than in any other country, the law and public opinion combine to place a heavy penal burden and a severe social stigma on the manifestations of an instinct which to these persons who possess it frequently appears natural and normal. +However, the publication of the book was suppressed in England at first and it was published in the United States instead. + +== Historical context == +"Homosexual practices in private, between two consenting parties, are absolutely unpunished [...]" in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and other European countries. +In the 18th century sex between men was a topic that was discussed publicly. Sodomy, any form of sexual activity that does not involve penile penetration of a vagina, was long criminalised. It was decriminalised in France during the French Revolution. Other countries also adopted this forcefully or by choice, including Austria, Russia and Brazil. +In England, anal penetration of men and women as well as mutual masturbation for man was still sentenced even when it occurred privately, with consent and no involvement of minors. Ellis proposes making homosexual practices legal. He rejects the fear of the state that the legalisation of homosexuality will increase its prevalence. The book was the first major work on the topic in England and also breaks with previous works on homosexuality because it contains middle-class characters as protagonists and regards most cases of sexual inversion as congenital. This challenged the conception of the inverted identity as a bad character with a lack of self-control. + +== Publication == +For the book Ellis worked together with John Addington Symonds. Symonds was a secret homosexual who lived abroad. Their correspondence happened via letters and after Symonds' death, Ellis was not able to find a publisher for his book in England because they all feared prosecution. Therefore, his book Studies in the psychology of Sex Vol. 1 was first published in (Germany) as Das konträre Geschlechtsgefühl in 1896. Later, an American company published the book in English. However, the book was suppressed by many British authorities who made sure that copies would not be sold in Britain. A bookseller who sold copies of the book in Britain was charged and pleaded guilty. Symonds' family also wished to suppress the book to protect their reputation. + +== Content == + +=== Introduction === +The prevalence of homosexuality is investigated as well as several observations of homosexual costumes from different cultures. In the Montana Indian culture, for example, men that are attracted to other men are called boté. An observation by Dr. Holder describes these men as dressing and acting like women from childhood on, followed by sexual practices after puberty. Also, some men of great intellect, as the author describes it, like the Roman Emperor Caesar or the French Humanist Muretus are known to have had some homosexual tendencies. The author concludes that all these cases suggest a form of sexual inversion which is congenital but there is no evidence for it. + +=== Chapter II, the study of sexual inversion === +Chapter II deals with various scholars who had previously studied homosexuality. Among them is Karl Friedrich Otto Westphal a German psychiatrist from Berlin who proposed that sexual inversion is something innate and not acquired and is not necessarily a sign of insanity. Attempts to classify forms of sexual inversion are also discussed for example one proposal by Richard Krafft-Ebbing a psychiatrist and author of Psychopathia Sexualis. + +=== Chapter III, sexual inversion in men === +Chapter III describes how sexual inversion may manifest in men and presents various case studies. An undifferentiated sexual feeling toward men is considered normal until puberty. The cases are classified into the following: simple sexual inversion with or without intercourse, cases that practice masochism, prisoners and men integrated in society and psychosexual hermaphrodite. The cases are reported either by the men themselves or by doctors. + +=== Chapter IV, sexual inversion in women === +Ellis notes that homosexuality is as common in women as in men. However, it is little known about sexual inversion in women, which is also reflected in the presence of only four case studies in this chapter. The true sexual invert is described and an inverted woman is distinguished from an actively inverted woman who appears to be more masculine. A genuine criterion seems to be the indifference of inverted women toward men which is returned by them. Furthermore, the author suspects that the prevalence of homosexuality among women is increasing which he explains by emancipation and equal rights movements. In the last part the high prevalence of homosexuality among prostitutes is addressed. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studies_in_the_Psychology_of_Sex_Vol._2-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studies_in_the_Psychology_of_Sex_Vol._2-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..295bafcbf --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studies_in_the_Psychology_of_Sex_Vol._2-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ +--- +title: "Studies in the Psychology of Sex Vol. 2" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studies_in_the_Psychology_of_Sex_Vol._2" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:34.773184+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Chapter V, the nature of sexual inversion === +This chapter is an analysis and summary of the earlier case studies. Sexual inversion in the cases presented seems not to be heritable. Records of inversion or other abnormalities are not conspicuously frequent among the case studies. Most of the subjects have good general health. In most of the subjects the homosexual instinct appeared in early life without a previous affection for the opposite sex. Ellis associates precocious puberty with sexual inversion. Ellis excludes suggestion as a cause of sexual inversion. Also, masturbation in male cases is reported as predisposing to inversion whereas there was no such relationship observed for the female cases. Most of the subjects are adverse towards sexual relationships with the opposite sex. However, there are close and genuine friendships between sexual inverts and members of the opposite sex. Many subjects investigated by Ellis show artistic talent. Lastly, most of the subjects regard their sexual inversion as being equal to heterosexuality so they do not think that their sexual instinct is immoral. + +=== Chapter VII, the theory of sexual inversion === +Ellis attempts to define several terms and clarify the terminology around the topic of sexual inversion. The definition of sexual inversion itself is according to Ellis highly dependent on context. Ellis clarifies that although sexual inversion might be both acquired and congenital, it is primarily congenital. The normal sexual instinct is inborn and not acquired, and sexual inversion is a natural variety of sexual instinct. It is also compared to color-blindness and color hearing, all of these phenomena being classified as abnormalities. It is also stressed that abnormality need not imply morbidity or disease; it is a mere variation of the normal. Three types of inversion are distinguished: congenital predisposition to sexual inversion which remains latent, very strong predisposition and a weaker predisposition that can be excited by a powerful cause. Suggested causes include the co-education of boys and girls, the seduction by an older person and disappointment in normal love. However, Ellis also stresses that in most of the cases sexual inversion was present from childhood on and was more of the strong predisposed type. + +=== Chapter VIII, conclusions === +In the conclusion Ellis first examines the treatment of Dr. von Schrenck-Notzing who was a German physician, psychiatrist and notable psychical researcher in the field of paranormal events. The cure included 150 sessions of hypnosis for one year as well as frequent drunken visits of the brothel. Ellis qualifies this treatment as not successful and concludes: “[...] the remedy seems to me worse than the disease [...]." It seems to Ellis that it is not possible to "cure" the sexual invert but that there should be an effort made to help them being healthy, self-restrained and self-respecting to be functional members of society. The legal situation of homosexual practices is also described. +The book contains the following appendices: + +A Homosexuality among Tramps by Josiah Flynt +B Ulrich’s View by "Z" +D Countess Sarolta V +E A note on sexual inversion by Dr. K + +== Influence and reception == +The studies in the psychology of sex vol.1 is an example of a more diverse view of sexuality from the Victorian era. Emma Mason asserts that: + +[...] we might suggest that the Victorians were more tolerant than their 1960s counterparts of sex between males. But given the strict policing of knowledge and even the language used to discuss such intimate behaviours, we must ask – what did that tolerance really mean? +The book was not published in England because it was noted that homosexual practices increase in Europe and as a consequence. Canadian-born British feminist, socialist, sex radical, and birth control campaigner Stella Browne, in her review of Volume II, says "England has already impoverished herself intellectually and covered herself with ridicule by the persecution of the original edition of this psychological classic." It is even said that the social system in Britain is a cause that artificially stimulated sexual inversion because it is a system that suppresses the normal sexual instinct. +In the scientific community Ellis' book was well received. Ellis' contribution to the study of sexual inversion is recognised as relevant and useful. Although the conclusions due to a lack of data they already lead to an understanding of the fact that it does not make sense to try to change the instinct of sexual inverted people. It was also recognised that inversion is not necessarily linked with physical or mental disease. Moreover, the cases presented by Ellis possess great intellect and are therefore an important part of society. Browne desires the legalization of homosexuality as in France and Latin Europe. To others however, Ellis suggestion of a more relaxed law concerning homosexuality is not convincing because of the reported efficacy of the present law. Browne criticises the lack of examples of female sexual inversion as well as the hypothesis that in bisexuals homosexual tendencies are stronger than heterosexual tendencies. The importance of publishing a book about sexual inversion is acknowledged. The lack of understanding of the topic had adverse consequences on the life of homosexual people. Homosexuality was heavily stigmatized and illegal in English society at the time. Ellis "has collected new data, and undoubtedly done a service to pathological psychology." Reading is regarded as necessary for teachers, people working with criminals and parents to prevent sexual inversion from occurring. + +== See also == +Studies in the Psychology of Sex Vol. 7 + +== References == + +== External links == +Ellis, Havelock (1927). Studies in the Psychology of Sex, 3rd ed. at Project Gutenberg \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studies_in_the_Psychology_of_Sex_Vol._7-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studies_in_the_Psychology_of_Sex_Vol._7-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ee1e9b4a9 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studies_in_the_Psychology_of_Sex_Vol._7-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Studies in the Psychology of Sex Vol. 7" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studies_in_the_Psychology_of_Sex_Vol._7" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:35.995363+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Studies in the Psychology of Sex: Volume 7 is a book published in 1928 by the English physician and writer Havelock Ellis (1859–1939). Ellis was an expert of human sexuality but was impotent until the age of 60 and married to an open lesbian for much of his life. He later discovered that he could be aroused by the sight of a woman urinating. Terming this sexual deviation undinism, it is one of several topics covered in the seventh and final volume of his studies in the psychology of sex. +Ellis began writing the first of the seven books in 1900, exploring topics such as sexual inversion (homosexuality), sexuality in women, and erotic symbolism throughout the volumes. Volume seven was originally published in the United States due to the stigma surrounding transgenderism, homosexuality, and other sexual deviations in England at the time. The book contains 9 chapters, each exploring a sexual deviation or potential influences. It is largely composed of case studies and directly quotes the individuals he examined, providing the raw descriptions and perspectives of the individuals, rather than his own version of their deviations. + +== Historical context == +In the 1700s, Molly houses began appearing all over the UK – houses where homosexual men could meet. A "molly" was a man who frequently cross-dressed, and hence can be considered an early representative of transgender individuals. Despite these houses being relatively common, they were not accepted by the general public as homosexuality had been illegal in the UK since the Buggery Act 1533. Many of the laws and regulations pertaining to sexual deviations in England in the early 1900s were focused on homosexuality among men, viewing it as a mental illness that should be cured. In 1885, the Criminal Law Act was passed in the UK, prohibiting homosexuality. Due to the fact that many associated transgenderism (termed eonism by Ellis) with homosexuality, it was also highly ostracised and not well understood. It was also believed that only men were affected by eonism, and all of Ellis' studies were conducted on men. Although no laws directly prohibited men dressing as women, it was not an accepted practice, and was viewed as a mental illness that had to be cured. Ellis attempted to normalise these sexual practices, along with others, highlighting that many individuals with these abnormal sexual inclinations were in fact functioning and contributing members of society. + +== Content == +Chapter 1, Eonism: the book begins with an introduction to eonism, Ellis' equivalent of what is now known as transgenderism. Despite being extremely progressive for his time, Ellis believed that this affliction only occurred among men, and therefore bases all of the case studies on males. He also emphasizes the fact that eonism and sexual inversion (homosexuality) were two completely separate sexual abnormalities that tended not to overlap. This was supported by the fact that all the introduced case studies were purely heterosexual men, who simply felt the urge to express themselves as a female primarily through cross dressing. +Chapter 2, The Doctrine of Erogenous Zones: this chapter delves into the basis of various perversions and sexual practices, naming the erogenic zones as a potential contributor. Ellis however states that these zones are also the basis of normal sexual processes, and that sexual perversions are simply more exaggerated versions of these ordinary practices. +Chapter 3, The History of Florrie and the Mechanism of Sexual Deviation: here Ellis focuses on the mechanisms of sexual deviation and the specific case study of Florrie, a young woman whom Ellis helped to entertain her sexual fantasies in order to achieve orgasm. +Chapter 4, The Menstrual Curve of Sexual Impulse: this chapter is dedicated to the study of female sexuality; more specifically the influence of the menstrual cycle on sexual impulse. Ellis believed that there were three curves of menstruation, and that when these all peaked simultaneously, women would be overcome with a wave of sexual desire. +Chapter 5, The Synthesis of Dreams: A Study of a Series of One Hundred Dreams: Ellis describes his method of "dream synthesis", a method of studying dreams inspired by his fellow academic Sigmund Freud. This method was intended to uncover sexual fantasies and their origin, but Ellis acknowledged the fact that improvements had to be made. +Chapter 6, The Conception of Narcissism: this chapter relates narcissism to sexuality, exploring how it can result in sexual deviations and its role in psychoanalysis. Here Ellis again refers to Freud's work. +Chapter 7, Undinism: this chapter is dedicated to undinism, a sexual perversion that Ellis himself experienced in which one gets aroused by the sight of a woman urinating. Ellis believed that it was a combination of heredity and infantile convulsions that produced the predisposition of developing this perversion. +Chapter 8, Kleptolagnia: this chapter is again dedicated to a fairly unfamiliar perversion called kleptolagnia: the state of being sexually aroused by theft. Ellis suggested that the development of this sexual deviation can primarily be traced back to childhood, where small stolen items acted as symbols for the individuals secret sexual desires. +Chapter 9, The History of Marriage: the final chapter of the book, recounts the history of marriage and its role In a wide variety of sexual perversions. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studies_in_the_Psychology_of_Sex_Vol._7-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studies_in_the_Psychology_of_Sex_Vol._7-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..dbe07a5eb --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studies_in_the_Psychology_of_Sex_Vol._7-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Studies in the Psychology of Sex Vol. 7" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studies_in_the_Psychology_of_Sex_Vol._7" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:35.995363+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Reception and influence == +All seven volumes of Studies in the Psychology of Sex were widely accepted in the scientific community, even with the progressive perspectives in which it portrayed human sexuality and perversions. Despite this, the book was not published in England until the middle of the 20th century, as it was strongly believed that putting Ellis' ideas into the public would increase the rates of individuals with sexual perversions. For a long time, concepts like eonism and undinism were assumed to be effects of other psychological disorders such a schizophrenia. Ellis' innovative take on these perversions and their origins attempted to normalise them and demonstrate that these individuals can be functioning members of society. +A few years prior to Ellis' publication of the first volume in his series, Krafft-Ebbing, an Austrian professor of psychiatry, also took an interest in the sexual impulses of transgender individuals. After the publications of both Krafft-Ebbing's and Ellis' studies, other sexologists and psychologists began to show interest in these studies as well. Magnus Hirschfeld, a German sexologist, began to similarly explore the sexual impulses and behaviours of transgender individuals, and eventually gender reassignment surgery. With the help of medical professionals, the first full gender reassignment surgery was completed in Hirschfeld's clinic in 1931 on Lili Elbe. +Although Ellis' book was not published everywhere until years after its initial release in the United States, it opened the door to a more accepting view on transgenderism and other sexual perversions, and for the first time disconnected these concepts from mental illness. + +== Transgenderism in the 21st century == +Although transgenderism is said to be the modern equivalent and expansion on Ellis' eonism, exact equivocation may not be possible. Although there are many similarities, today transgenderism is separated from transvestitism; a distinction that was not as evident in Ellis' works and his eonism seems to incorporate both transvestism and transgenderism. This blurred distinction is further emphasized by the fact that medical procedures available nowadays were not available during Ellis' time. The first official gender reassignment procedure was performed in 1931 – 3 years after the publication of Ellis' last volume – on Lili Elbe, a Danish transgender woman living in (Germany). Regardless of the exact equivocation of eonism, transgenderism is still a complicated topic today. While homosexuality was legalised under the Sexual Offences Act of 1967 and helped to normalise different sexual practices, it was not until 2002 that the U.K. officially declared transgenderism as not being a mental illness, and even later in 2004 that it was allowed for these individuals to legally change their gender. +The Equality Act 2010 introduced in the UK introduced new anti-discrimination laws, requiring the equal treatment of individuals, irrespective of their gender or transgender status, age, sexual orientation, race, beliefs, or disability. This and many other initiatives that followed rapidly gained traction in support of the LGBT community. + +== See also == +Studies in the Psychology of Sex Vol. 2 + +== References == + +== External links == +Complete text of Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume VII at Internet Archive \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Analysis_of_Mind-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Analysis_of_Mind-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8f08ce59d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Analysis_of_Mind-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +--- +title: "The Analysis of Mind" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Analysis_of_Mind" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:39.503673+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Analysis of Mind is a book published in 1921 by Bertrand Russell. The book uses philosophical ideas from the period of its publication, to describe how the mind works. The book attempts to define the mind, through the same way the physical world is explained, primarily through the use of sensations. + + +== Context == +Prior to the publication of "The Analysis of Mind", the mind's understanding was covered by philosophers, such as Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume and Reid. Descartes first published his mind-body dualism theory in the 17th century. He framed that the mind and body are inherently different kinds of substances. It proposes that the mind is in charge of imagination, emotions and sensations, which don't follow the laws of physics that govern the body. In 1689, Locke shifted the debate of the mind with regards to experience, arguing that all knowledge comes from sensory experience, and therefore, learning is originated from experiencing the world. He issued "An essay concerning human understanding", which in the 21st century is recognized as the start of empiricism. Building on this, in the 18th century, authors such as Berkeley and Reid, discuss about new philosophical doctrines, like idealism and realism, respectively. Berkeley proposed that human thoughts are the intrinsic reality, and that the external world are a reflection of these; while Reid suggested the physical world exists separately from humans and their ideas. Behaviorism emerged in the early 20th century, with Pavlov's classical conditioning, and Watson's "Little Albert" experiment. The publication of "The analysis of mind" happened shortly after. +Russel studied Mathematics in Cambridge University between 1890 and 1894. After finishing his studies, he worked in the British Embassy in Paris, where he realized he wanted to pursue theoretical work as a writer and philosopher. In 1915 he published "Our knowledge of the external world" which laid a foundation for some of his later work. Russel was fined by the British court in 1916 for ilegal distribution of pacifist manifesto, which criticized the British government. Russell claimed to write the manifesto but denied to pay the fine, which resulted in his library being up for sale; yet, his friends recovered the books by buying them. In 1918, Russell published an article in which he criticized the British government and how they handled wartime, which led to his six-month imprisonment. During his time in prison, Russell began to write "The analysis of mind". He believed fear, among others, fear to the unknown, was the root of all human misery; and in the book he attempts to explain all the unknowns about how the mind behaves. In 1920. during his professorship in the University of Peking; the book was finished. + + +== Contents == +The book is divided in 15 chapters which the author calls lectures. Each one covers a new theme that assists in trying to define the mind in the same way the physical world is described. The first lecture concentrates in explaining Russell's objective throughout the book, which is to model a superior conceptualization of the mind. The second lecture explains different kind of movements humans can perform, and how these are differentiated from habits. It speculates about habit formation and examines already existing theories. Lecture 3 discusses the concept of desire. In it, Russell mentions how discomfort drives people's actions, and how these can demonstrate hidden desires. Lecture 4 introduces mnemic causation, which is a concept formulated by Russell, seeking to explain how encountering a past experience can retrieve the whole memory back. Lecture 5 challenges old ideas of cause and effect, and clarifies why laws of change are more applicable to real life. In lecture 6 he criticizes introspection. Lecture 7 explains how perception is a combination of sensations and past experience. In lecture 8 he differentiates between sensations and images to explain the difference between matter and mind. Lecture 9 describes what a true memory is, and how these can be recognized. Lecture 10 describes how words connect symbols to meanings, such as behaviors and thoughts, and lecture 11 addresses abstract thinking. Lecture 12 and 13 compliment each other. First, belief is defined as how content is kept in the mind, and then truth is described as how these content reflects objective facts. Lecture 14 uses sensations and images to explain emotions; and finally, lecture 15 summarizes the previous lectures and states Russell's desire of having science one day unifying mind and matter. + + +== Reception == +After publishing "The Analysis of Mind", Russell gave lectures in London School of Economics about the topic of the book. Since its publication, the book was known for its clear style; educated people who knew little about the subject could still grasp what the book introduced. Critics, such as Roy Lotz, thought Russell attempted to merge Freud's, William James' and Hume's theories to describe the mind's complexity; but failed to generate a convincing product. He still recognized that Russell, with the knowledge available in the early 20th century, made the most out of what could be done. Right after its publication, the topics and ideas Russell raised in the book received noticeable recognition. +It was the neutral monism standpoint presented by Russell in the book, that guided Carnap when writing "Der Logische aAufbau der Welt" in 1928. It's after "The Analysis of Mind's" publication that linguistics and psychology started to appear more in articles and newspapers. For example, behaviorist psychology gained attention in the 1920's due to the school of Watson. Early behaviorists of the time were Watson, Max Meyer and Weiss, who believed behavior can solely be explained with a stimulus and a response. Other viewpoints have contradicted the The Analysis of Mind's foundation. For example, in 1997, David Chalmers published his book "The Conscious Mind", in which he states that consciousness can't be explained by physical processes alone. +During the 1920's and 30's, Russell founded and experimental school focused on cultivating thinking and rationale. In the late 1930's, he taught at UCLA, and was offered a teaching position at a university in New York. He issued many books, such as "The Analysis of Matter" in 1927. In 1945, he published "A History of Western Philosophy", which is one of Russell's most widely read books. In 1949, Bertrand Russell was granted the Nobel prize for literature, considering his many significant contributions to the field. + + +== References == + + +== External links == + The Analysis of Mind at Project Gutenberg \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fern_and_the_Tiki-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fern_and_the_Tiki-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7dd1a1aa9 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fern_and_the_Tiki-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,17 @@ +--- +title: "The Fern and the Tiki" +chunk: 1/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fern_and_the_Tiki" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:40.676360+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Fern and the Tiki is a book by American psychologist David Ausubel, written during his Fulbright Research Fellowship in New Zealand in 1957/58. Subtitled An American View of New Zealand National Character, Social Attitudes and Race Relations, the book critically examines how New Zealanders' self-image aligned with the ideal personality traits of the country's national character at the time. Building on ideas from Ausubel's earlier research in New Zealand, and followed by a psycho-ethnological study of Māori youth, The Fern and the Tiki concludes that the perception held by many Pākehā of themselves as egalitarian New Zealanders living in a country with excellent race relations was a myth. At the time of publication, this and other criticisms in the book of child-rearing and education in the country sparked considerable controversy and left a lasting impact on how students, academics, and policymakers discuss and respond to the treatment of Māori by the predominantly Pākehā culture, as well as other social issues. + +== Background and context == +In 1957 Ausubel was awarded a Fulbright Research Grant to study in New Zealand. He was welcomed to Victoria University of Wellington by Professor Ernest Beaglehole, who was said to be looking for an eminent scholar to "address the disparities between Māori and Pākehā" and provide an "outsider's perspective [that] would stimulate an open and reasoned discourse on race relations". As a result, Ausubel's research resulted in several articles and books including The Fern and the Tiki and later, Māori Youth. + +His first publication in New Zealand was an article in Landfall Journal entitled Race Relations in New Zealand: Māori and Pākehā—an American View. Early in the article, Ausubel asserted that in believing there was no colour bar, racial prejudice, or discrimination, and that Māori enjoy complete equality with Europeans, New Zealanders held "an unwarrantedly sanguine view of the race relations in [the] country." One piece in the local media quoted Ausubel's conclusion in the article: "There can be no escape from facing the unpalatable fact that by any reasonable or objective standard, an extra-legal colour bar does exist in New Zealand. For as long as New Zealanders persist in deluding themselves that all is well in the sphere of race relations, the only realistic prospect for the future is the emergence of a brown proletariat segregated in the urban slums and living in a state of chronic tension with their white neighbours." A later commentator noted that at the time there was surprisingly little response from a "small elite audience of intellectuals and academics that might be expected to react to a disquieting analysis of their society". Some letters in one media outlet were bemused by, or took offense at, Ausubel's comments about race relations in the country, but the same newspaper later followed with a piece stating that now the issue had been raised, it must be faced and dealt with. A Māori leader disagreed with Ausubel's claim that "racial antagonisms...[in the country]...were potentially dangerous". +Ausubel continued commenting on other issues in New Zealand society, including a criticism of single-sex schools in the country. He claimed these schools were "remiss in [their] responsibilities... [by not]...developing men and women to interact normally with persons of the opposite sex." His views on education received coverage in The Birmingham Post, however Clarence Beeby, the Director of Education in New Zealand, stated there was no evidence to support Ausubel's claim that co-education was a likely cause of delinquency. A senior lecturer at Victoria University challenged "the sweeping denial" of what Ausubel said of New Zealand schools, noting that he was "an authority of international standing" whose views could only be disproved by valid research methods. Ausubel widened the debate later by suggesting that New Zealanders' attitude toward conformity reflected "over-bearing and heavy-handed authority at home and in schools...[resulting in]...an over-reliance on authority and not enough on self-discipline". \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fern_and_the_Tiki-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fern_and_the_Tiki-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f90a77be1 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fern_and_the_Tiki-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,17 @@ +--- +title: "The Fern and the Tiki" +chunk: 2/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fern_and_the_Tiki" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:40.676360+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Publication and methodology == +Although Ausubel was back in the United States by this time, The Fern and the Tiki was published in 1960. The preface notes that Ausubel's expertise lay in his training as a psychiatrist and psychologist, specifically focused on education issues, personality development, and social relationships. For this work, he gathered data from observations, formal and informal interviews, and "specially designed personality tests." The aim of the book was "to present an objective and critical analysis of important problems facing the people of New Zealand, such as discipline, coeducation, conformity, standards of public controversy, juvenile delinquency, and the improvement of Māori-Pākehā relations". The primary focus was on Pākehā, with Māori characteristics considered only in the context of New Zealand race relations. This involved describing the attitudes and characteristics of Pākehā New Zealanders, particularly their self-perception, interactions with others, and responses to societal issues. +Ausubel's frame of reference for the book is based on his American experience and includes direct comparisons between the two cultures, and examples of the American 'visitor'—either in the third person or as Ausubel himself—encountering a self-image among New Zealanders that was "markedly at variance with the visitor's observations." He concedes that, as an outsider, his views could be problematic but argues that this perspective allows for a fresh point of view on issues resulting in "fewer blind spots than [the] hosts about the local species of sacred cows". Early in the book, he notes that adopting a critical approach requires an awareness of the influence previous writings may have had on the host country influencing how they receive and process criticism. It is suggested that "criticism crossing cultural boundaries may be considered proper if it is fair, reasoned, objective, and within the observer's realm of competence". +A key element in Ausubel's gathering of data for this work was the importance he attributed to analysing the degree that a "national character...[which]...identifies the ideal personality traits of a culture...actually corresponds to the national self-portrait". He asserts that this assists the researcher to manage understandably sensitive responses to opinions by an outsider of a nation's "cherished self-images". In the epilogue, the validity of the concept of national character is examined. Ausubel argues that it differs from national stereotypes, which he describes as "naïve overstatements that recognize no individual differences between the inhabitants of a country...[and]...reflect a notoriously biased selection of data." Consequently, national character was considered more scientific, based on "precise and systematic observation...[and]...free of prejudice and hearsay evidence." To maintain objectivity he approached the people without preconceptions, and his impressions "were derived empirically from actual experience untainted by a pre-existing national stereotype." +In the preface to the American Edition (1965), Ausubel claims that his belief "national character is primarily a product of the distinctive history, values, customs, traditions and institutions of a particular nation" differs from the commonly held psychoanalytic view that it resulted from child-rearing practices. +Ausubel concedes some "methodological limitations" involved in gathering data for the section on race relations in New Zealand. Specifically, the interviews were informal, and most of the participating Pākehā and Māori, from a wide range of backgrounds, were unaware they were being interviewed on this topic. The discussions were transcribed privately. There is an acknowledged lack of "representativeness of sampling [and] standardisation of content"; however, Ausubel maintains that it yielded "richer, more spontaneous, and less camouflaged data" than some surveys, where participants often sought to make a favourable impression on the interviewer. He concludes that "no claim [could] be made that these data reflect[ed] a definitive, adequately controlled, or representative cross-section of New Zealand opinion on race relations". +The discussion of New Zealanders' attitudes toward race relations was underpinned by the concept of colour prejudice that was relevant to the New Zealand experience. Ausubel argues that this prejudice originated during the era when European colonial powers were exploiting, enslaving, and mistreating indigenous peoples. To justify these actions, a theory emerged suggesting that people of colour possessed inferior intelligence and lower morality, making it seem inconsequential to deprive them of their "life, land, and liberty." This doctrine often softened once the political and economic objectives of colonization were realized. Influenced by democracy, missionary activity, and humanitarian ideals, it relied on the racial group in question being small enough not to threaten the dominant European population. Many still believed in the inherent superiority of white-skinned individuals, viewing "the white man's burden" as an obligation to improve the living and educational standards of the natives while ensuring continued profit from their labour. Based on this theory, Ausubel describes a "modern colour bar—a modified system of colonialism where people of colour gained varying degrees of political and legal equality but were still relegated to an inferior social and economic status through various forms of extra-legal discrimination". He suggests an historical paradigm for race relations in New Zealand that is very similar to this model. In the final chapter, Ausubel unpacks several rationalizations that have been used to justify colour prejudice in New Zealand. As a result of stereotypes about behaviour, Māori were placed at a serious disadvantage compared to Pākehā as they had to first prove they did not possess the traits commonly attributed to their race before being accepted. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fern_and_the_Tiki-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fern_and_the_Tiki-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4e0a0dac4 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fern_and_the_Tiki-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,17 @@ +--- +title: "The Fern and the Tiki" +chunk: 3/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fern_and_the_Tiki" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:40.676360+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Format and key ideas == +Three chapters of the book explore the national character of New Zealanders. Ausubel identified a "blend of British and pioneering traits...[including]...the perceived virtues of both traditions and the vices of neither". In valuing their British heritage, New Zealanders see themselves as "reserved, unsentimental, respectful of authority, mindful of discipline, and prone to understatement". Instead of "British snobbishness, arrogance, haughty condescension and patronizing airs", the national image is one of "genial friendliness and an amiable, easygoing egalitarianism". Ausubel acknowledges that some of this was valid, but claims New Zealanders show considerable sentimentality in their choice of movies, often write "maudlin" in-memoriam notices, watch "gushingly sentimental" movies and participate in very emotional farewell ceremonies. He further questions whether New Zealanders are as friendly and hospitable as their self-image proclaimed. A "strong undercurrent of hostility toward foreigners" is noted, reflected in the resentment toward Americans, with Ausubel concluding that "the tide of anti-American feeling among the rank and file of New Zealanders today is probably stronger than ever before in history." Ausubel was surprised by how personally accountable he was held by "elderly gentlemen" for the behavior of American servicemen, [who] "dated New Zealand girls during World War II while they were risking their lives in the North African campaign." Ausubel also found it perplexing how rarely New Zealanders asked him to share knowledge about his home country, instead "parading all of their distorted notions and misconceptions about the United States gleaned from the latest picture magazines and Hollywood productions." +Ausubel was puzzled by adult New Zealanders' apathy and lack of enthusiasm toward work, despite their physical activity in sports, gardening, and home projects. Although their self-image reflects frontier values of efficiency, ambition, and enterprise, he notes they lack urgency in pursuing vocational goals, concluding that New Zealanders have "less drive and eagerness to get ahead and advance in their jobs than is typical of Americans." It is suggested that the principles of the Welfare State, which embody the egalitarian ideal of preventing inequities due to privilege, may have inadvertently undermined "the respectability of occupational achievement and establish an undifferentiated scale of rewards for effort and ability." New Zealand parents are said to have not placed high value on the vocational achievement of their children, who often left school lacking "genuinely internalized needs for vocational achievement." +Two chapters critically examine race relations in the country and while Ausubel concedes that these are generally better than many other countries, including the United States, they are not as good as New Zealanders claim. It is suggested that the American visitor, accustomed to racism in their own country, would be most disturbed by how uncritically New Zealanders accept "the unvalidated national belief regarding racial equality" and their reluctance to face unpalatable facts. He suggests that the real issue is "the national self-delusion which blocks recognition of the existence of a problem and thereby renders impossible the adoption of appropriate preventive and remedial measures".. According to the author, this stems from New Zealanders not grasping the difference between the apparent equality that Māori had "in the eyes of the law" and the reality that, due to "bigotry and intolerance," they were still discriminated against in areas such as housing, employment, or simply being welcomed into the homes of Pākehā. +Ausubel discusses examples of discriminatory practices against Māori to support his claim that New Zealand has a colour bar. He asserts that authorities refuse to address "the shockingly sub-standard state of Māori housing." He also highlights the difficulties Māori face in obtaining hotel accommodation and, at times, being required to sit in segregated parts of cinemas. Additionally, he points out the reluctance of employers to hire Māori in "the skilled trades, offices, shops, and banks." Furthermore, he provides examples of anti-Māori sentiments from educators, some of whom believe it is a waste of time and money to send Māori children to post-primary school. +The book examines Māori attitudes towards Pākehā, portraying their wariness as a justified response rooted in historical experiences and "an indispensable self-protective device that every cultural minority must learn if it is to survive". Ausubel claims that Māori recognize skin colour as a marker of an outsider, but there is no implication that white skin inherently signifies "racial inferiority". Acknowledged stereotypes held by Māori towards Pākehā are not seen "as related to any fixed assumptions regarding inherent racial traits or innate racial inferiority" and not amounting to discrimination, given the power dynamics favouring Pākehā in society. +Ausubel expresses a "pessimism about the future", reflecting what he perceives as the tendency of New Zealanders to not recognise and address social problems such as race relations. He claims that this is in spite of "the impressive measure of legal equality enjoyed by Māori", some extra-legal equality "based on the long standing tradition of fair play and on the experience of almost a hundred years of peaceful co-existence", and the increased number of Māori "increasing their self-respect and raising their status in the eyes of their Pākehā neighbours" through becoming qualified in trades, teaching, nursing and farming. He notes that there are internationally recognised ways of "promoting more harmonious race relations that are relevant to the New Zealand experience," while concluding: "The most important step in improving Māori-Pākehā relations...is to overcome the prevailing complacency and self-deception about the situation." \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fern_and_the_Tiki-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fern_and_the_Tiki-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9527a7a48 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fern_and_the_Tiki-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,19 @@ +--- +title: "The Fern and the Tiki" +chunk: 4/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fern_and_the_Tiki" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:40.676360+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Reception == +A 1960 review in Landfall said the book had a "jaundiced undercurrent...[and]...it is obvious that [Ausebel's] disappointment in and his disillusionment about New Zealand unset him bitterly". The reviewer said Ausubel seemed unaware how to approach people in the country and what he saw as smugness, "may be in fact a mask for sincere and considerable feelings of inferiority - and in a small bourgeois country, a feeling of nakedness". A later commentator suggested that the position taken by Smithells reflected how New Zealanders felt about the book as late as 2002 in that if "he [Ausubel] had limited himself to Māori-Pākehā relationships and not risked insulting New Zealanders' culture, his work would have been better received". +Kemble Welch, a senior pathologist at Whangarei Hospital who had worked for many years amongst Maori communities, said Ausubel's conclusion that New Zealand's colour bar was "so big and baneful" that there was reason to be pessimistic about the country's future, was difficult to be tested using scientific methodology. Welch called the reliability of the data gathered by Ausubel into question due to the fact that [he] "does not refer to any other reports or statistics, so relies entirely on his conversations with others", noting in conclusion that Ausubel himself acknowledged that the data did not "reflect a definitive, adequately controlled or representative cross-section of New Zealand opinion on race relations". +Cyril Belshaw said the book was a "criticism...[rather than]...a detached and systematic analysis of national character" and while "well written and clear...is spoiled by failing to conceal the emotion which lies behind it, by over-statement and inaccuracy". The reviewer concluded however that the book contained Ausubel's honestly held opinions with a "refreshing forthrightness which reveals the writer as very human and sincere". +An article in the Christchurch Press cited directly from the book key claims regarding New Zealanders' attitudes towards various social issues, following Ausubel's assertion that they [were] "conditioned to dismiss all critical appraisals of their country as the presumptuous and misinformed utterances of just another of those loud-mouthed Americans who got off the ship three days ago, had a quick look around Auckland and Rotorua, and is now telling us how to manage our affairs." +Another reviewer said that although some of Ausubel's comments were "plausible enough", he needed to be a more relaxed observer of the country's culture and if he had shown a sense of humour in interpreting and appreciating "the peculiarly ludicrous features of the human comedy of our society, we might have had something to learn from him". +The Honolulu Star-Bulletin said Ausubel had presented "a bold and forthright criticism of the New Zealander's character, the welfare state and the country's sacred cow -race relations", while The Edmonton Journal noted that in an election year, the book had generated a "hot national debate amongst many thinking people in government, business and education on where the nation [was] heading". +A reviewer in the Weekly Examiner stated that Ausubel had "put New Zealanders under the microscope...[finding them]...hostile, resentful and bigoted toward other nations...[and lacking]...friendliness, accessibility and hospitality". The correspondent was in no doubt that New Zealanders would by infuriated by the section on race relations but suggested it "may help them take a fresh look at themselves. +H. B. Hawthorn said that while he had personally seen all that was reported in the book, he suggested "agreement on manifest facts is not sufficient for a study of national character", and if Ausubel's reporting did meet some of the requirements of "clear standards of comparison and assessment...frequency, quantity, and the precise identity of actions generally elude the reader of The Fern and the Tiki". The reviewer did acknowledge that the sections on race relations in the country however, could "help in altering either the myth or reality" in this area of New Zealand life". \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fern_and_the_Tiki-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fern_and_the_Tiki-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9331d065f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fern_and_the_Tiki-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +title: "The Fern and the Tiki" +chunk: 5/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fern_and_the_Tiki" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:40.676360+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Legacy == +Interviewed in 2000, Geoffrey Palmer clearly recalled from his student days that the book had been very controversial but significant in shaping his consciousness, while Moana Jackson said that as a young Māori at the time, the content had not surprised him, and the challenging of Pākehā myths in the book was a forerunner of later more public critiquing of these by Māori. +Writing in 2002, Harry Kersey, who later worked in New Zealand as a Fulbright Scholar examining the Maori issues in the country's politics, noted how consistently the book is cited in other publications about race relations in the country. In 1999, New Zealand, historians Paul Spoonley and Augie Fleras claimed Ausubel was accurate in predicting that race relations would only be put to the test when the two races had more contact with each other, and concluded that the book inferred antagonism was not provoked by "uppity Maori" in the 1970s, rather being "deeply rooted in New Zealand history and chronically embedded in society". +James Ritchie reflected on his research into the nature of prejudice in New Zealand during the 1950s and said that Ausubel's work had "filled out the details." Richie noted that Ausubel had controversially compared the country to the southern states of America, and his view that race relations in New Zealand had been shaped more by "fortunate circumstances rather than widespread enlightenment" were shared by later historians. +Eddie Durie is said to have admired the book and wrote in 1991, that although Ausubel's work was not a recent publication it had [drawn] "attention to the wide disparity in Māori and Pākehā perspectives" on the rights of Māori under the Treaty of Waitangi. +Kersey suggested that the most severe criticism in the book is reserved for the child-rearing and discipline methods used in New Zealand. He noted that Ausubel struggled to understand how a society professing to be so radically egalitarian, still adhered to a Victorian system of discipline, especially corporal punishment in the homes and schools. The Final Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care in New Zealand (2024), cited Ausubel in the section on societal attitudes that were relevant during the inquiry period. Specifically the report noted that in The Fern and the Tiki the author had concluded that during the late 1950s, as a result of "overly strict discipline" and a punitive approach toward adolescent misbehavior, "New Zealanders did not seem to value an open, warm relationships with children and young people and that their rights and dignity were not respected". +In 1965, Ausubel published Maori youth: a psychoethnological study of cultural deprivation. The work continued the theme of Pākehā New Zealanders practising racial discrimination and the Guardian stated that this book reiterated Ausubel's thesis that "colour prejudice is not only deeply ingrained and increasing in the Pākehā population as a whole but its existence is categorically denied by both the people and the Government of New Zealand". The Christchurch Press identified specifically the research that had been carried out at several New Zealand schools addressing the issues that impacted the "vocational and educational aspirations of Māori youth". The research showed that the typical Māori youth who generally lived in communities with poor housing and a range of social issues related to parenting, urban drift, truancy, delinquency and bad race relations, reported that he "perceived his parents as less demanding of high marks...and reported receiving less help and prodding about his homework than Pākehā pupils did". It was noted in the New Zealand media that Ausubel, in support of raising the standard of Māori education to reduce the "barrier to the integration of the two races", had donated the royalties of this book to the Maori Education Foundation, a government body set up to "lessen the disparity between Maori and European educational standards". + +Concluding his article Opening a Discourse on Race Relations in New Zealand: The Fern and the Tiki revisited (2002) Kersey wrote:Despite the furore surround David P. Ausubel's writings nearly half a century ago, his message had resonance for a generation of New Zealanders of both races that looked to a future of justice and bicultural harmony. Thus it is now generally acknowledged that The Fern and the Tiki will be remembered as the provocative little book that played a limited but significant role - alongside Dame Whina Cooper's land march, the occupation of Bastion Point and the Springbok tour protests - in forever changing the social and political landscape of Aotearoa-New Zealand." + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_His_Emissary-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_His_Emissary-0.md index e24c22cd8..a0239bf78 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_His_Emissary-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_His_Emissary-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/3 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_His_Emissary" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:50:34.732550+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:54:35.624316+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_His_Emissary-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_His_Emissary-1.md index 3527f0761..5554d13da 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_His_Emissary-1.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_His_Emissary-1.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 2/3 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_His_Emissary" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:50:34.732550+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:54:35.624316+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_His_Emissary-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_His_Emissary-2.md index 0c847a556..c19fafb30 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_His_Emissary-2.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_His_Emissary-2.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 3/3 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_His_Emissary" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:50:34.732550+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:54:35.624316+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mating_Mind-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mating_Mind-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e6b7299b9 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mating_Mind-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,14 @@ +--- +title: "The Mating Mind" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mating_Mind" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:54:36.841031+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature is a 2000 book by the American evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller, in which he argues that the vast majority of human characteristics are fitness indicators or the result of mate choice, including artistic or moral excellence. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matter_with_Things-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matter_with_Things-0.md index 8dc000b90..66a6ea830 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matter_with_Things-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matter_with_Things-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/4 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matter_with_Things" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:50:35.883986+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:54:38.169975+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matter_with_Things-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matter_with_Things-1.md index cbc8878cb..4d662eb54 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matter_with_Things-1.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matter_with_Things-1.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 2/4 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matter_with_Things" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:50:35.883986+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:54:38.169975+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matter_with_Things-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matter_with_Things-2.md index 43b2a7686..cb3507305 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matter_with_Things-2.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matter_with_Things-2.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 3/4 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matter_with_Things" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:50:35.883986+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:54:38.169975+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matter_with_Things-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matter_with_Things-3.md index 7286f9b9c..4d1ec1c73 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matter_with_Things-3.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matter_with_Things-3.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 4/4 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matter_with_Things" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:50:35.883986+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:54:38.169975+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mental_and_Social_Life_of_Babies-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mental_and_Social_Life_of_Babies-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f81210f53 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mental_and_Social_Life_of_Babies-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,15 @@ +--- +title: "The Mental and Social Life of Babies" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mental_and_Social_Life_of_Babies" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:54:39.372123+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Mental and Social Life of Babies is a 1982 book by Kenneth Kaye. Integrating a contemporary burgeoning field of research on infant cognitive and social development in the first two years of life with his own laboratory's studies at the University of Chicago, Kaye offered an "apprenticeship" theory. Seen as an empirical turning point in the investigation of processes in early human development, the book's reviews welcomed its reliance on close (second by second) process studies of a large sample of infants and mothers (50) recorded longitudinally (birth to 30 months). It was republished in England, Japan, Spain, Italy, and Argentina. +Since the argument placed social relations at the root of mental development, it amounted to an extension of Lev Vygotsky’s theory and of his objections to Jean Piaget, down to the first year of life. (Their debate dealt with the preschool years. ) However, the cited evidence from research by many authors in the 1970s also refined the argument Vygotsky had made. Previous writers seem to have assumed, like Piaget, that communication is a felicitous by-product of a symbol-using mind. (If they doubted it, no one had created empirical paradigms to study the processes involved.) Like Vygotsky, Kaye held the contrary: that communication is the origin of mind. His decade-long research program addressed the question: How does communication itself develop in an organism that still lacks a mind? His answer is the "apprenticeship" theory of infancy: Development of the human mind and language depends as much upon preadapted (through evolution) adult behavior and universal human interaction patterns as it does upon the infant's brain. "The kinds of exchanges with adults that facilitate sensorimotor and later linguistic development require little from the infant at first except regularities in behavior and expressive reactions that parents tend to interpret as if they were meaningful gestures." + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mentality_of_Apes-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mentality_of_Apes-0.md index 94fa3e8e0..90286246e 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mentality_of_Apes-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mentality_of_Apes-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/2 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mentality_of_Apes" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:31:00.215109+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:54:40.630249+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mentality_of_Apes-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mentality_of_Apes-1.md index fd6198c64..c6a00be09 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mentality_of_Apes-1.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mentality_of_Apes-1.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 2/2 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mentality_of_Apes" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:31:00.215109+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:54:40.630249+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nature_of_the_Child-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nature_of_the_Child-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3f2a1f8f4 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nature_of_the_Child-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +--- +title: "The Nature of the Child" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nature_of_the_Child" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:54:46.493070+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Nature of the Child is a 1984 book by American psychologist Jerome Kagan. In a series of essays, Kagan challenges beliefs in child rearing and developmental psychology, namely that negative or positive attachments to parents necessarily results in a child's wellbeing as they mature. Kagan argues that such beliefs are unsupported and that a child's temperament relies more on biology and cognitive development. + + +== References == +Notes + +Sources + + +== Commentary and reviews == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Organism-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Organism-0.md index 1029d18f6..a86c71e8d 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Organism-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Organism-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/1 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Organism" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:44:36.097446+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:54:59.414413+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9464fd69b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +title: "The Paradox of Choice" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:00.555104+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Paradox of Choice – Why More Is Less is a book about overchoice written by American psychologist Barry Schwartz and first published in 2004 by Harper Perennial. In the book, Schwartz argues that eliminating consumer choices can greatly reduce anxiety for shoppers. The book analyzes the behavior of different types of people (in particular, maximizers and satisficers). This book argues that the dramatic explosion in choice—from the mundane to the profound challenges of balancing career, family, and individual needs—has paradoxically become a problem instead of a solution and how our obsession with choice encourages us to seek that which makes us feel worse. + +== Summary == +"Autonomy and freedom of choice are critical to our well being, and choice is critical to freedom and autonomy. Nonetheless, though modern Americans have more choice than any group of people ever has had before, and thus, presumably, more freedom and autonomy, we don't seem to be benefiting from it psychologically". This quote from his book summarises Schwartz's point of view with regards to having too many choices. + +== Publication history == +The Paradox of Choice was published by Harper Perennial and was released in 2004, while the paperback version was released on 18 January 2005. + +== Schwartz's thesis == +Schwartz assembles his argument from a variety of fields of modern psychology that study how happiness is affected by success or failure of goal achievement. + +=== When We Choose === +Schwartz compares the various choices that Americans face in their daily lives by comparing the selection of choices at a supermarket to the variety of classes at an Ivy League college:There are now several books and magazines devoted to what is called the "voluntary simplicity" movement. Its core idea is that we have too many choices, too many decisions, too little time to do what is really important. ... Taking care of our own "wants" and focusing on what we "want" to do does not strike me as a solution to the problem of too much choice.Schwartz maintains that it is precisely so that we can focus on our own wants that all of these choices emerged in the first place. + +=== How We Choose === +Schwartz describes that a consumer's strategy for most good decisions will involve these steps: + +Figure out your goal or goals. The process of goal-setting and decision making begins with the question: "What do I want?" When faced with the choice to pick a restaurant, a CD, or a movie, one makes their choice based upon how one would expect the experience to make them feel, expected utility. Once they have experienced that particular restaurant, CD or movie, their choice will be based upon a remembered utility. To say that you know what you want, therefore, means that these utilities align. Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman and his colleagues have shown that what we remember about the pleasurable quality of our past experiences is almost entirely determined by two things: how the experiences felt when they were at their peak (best or worst), and how they felt when they ended. +Evaluate the importance of each goal. Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky have researched how people make decisions and found a variety of rules of thumb that often lead us astray. Most people give substantial weight to anecdotal evidence, perhaps so much so that it cancels out expert evidence. The researchers called it the availability heuristic describing how we assume that the more available some piece of information is to memory, the more frequently we must have encountered it in the past. Salience will influence the weight we give any particular piece of information. +Array the options. Kahneman and Tversky found that personal "psychological accounts" will produce the effect of framing the choice and determining what options are considered as subjects to factor. For example, an evening at a concert could be just one entry in a much larger account, of say a "meeting a potential mate" account. Or it could be part of a more general account such as "ways to spend a Friday night". Just how much an evening at a concert is worth will depend on which account it is a part of. +Evaluate how likely each of the options is to meet your goals. People often talk about how "creative accountants can make a corporate balance sheet look as good or bad as they want it to look." In many ways Schwartz views most people as creative accountants when it comes to keeping their own psychological balance sheet. +Pick the winning option. Schwartz argues that options are already attached to choices being considered. When the options are not already attached, they are not part of the endowment and choosing them is perceived as a gain. Economist Richard Thaler provides a helpful term sunk costs. +Modify goals. Schwartz points out that later, one uses the consequences of their choice to modify their goals, the importance assigned to them, and the way future possibilities are evaluated. +Schwartz relates the ideas of psychologist Herbert A. Simon from the 1950s to the psychological stress that most consumers face today. He notes some important distinctions between, what Simon termed, maximizers and satisficers. A maximizer is similar to a perfectionist, someone who needs to be assured that their every purchase or decision was the best that could be made. The way a maximizer knows for certain is to consider all the alternatives they can imagine. This creates a psychologically daunting task, which can become even more daunting as the number of options increases. The alternative to maximizing is to be a satisficer. A satisficer has criteria and standards, but a satisficer is not worried about the possibility that there might be something better. Ultimately, Schwartz agrees with Simon's conclusion, that satisficing is, in fact, the maximizing strategy. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..23b86bd3b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +--- +title: "The Paradox of Choice" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:00.555104+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Why We Suffer === +Schwartz integrates various psychological models for happiness showing how the problem of choice can be addressed by different strategies. What is important to note is that each of these strategies comes with its own bundle of psychological complication. “Freedom of choice” leads people to feel powerless and frustrated, because choosing ‘one’ among many other options means giving up the rest of the opportunities. At the same time, since people can easily change and replace the choice, the absolute value of making a choice no longer exists. + +Choice and happiness. Schwartz discusses the significance of common research methods that utilize a happiness scale. He sides with the opinion of psychologists David Myers and Robert Lane, who independently conclude that the current abundance of choice often leads to depression and feelings of loneliness. Schwartz draws particular attention to Lane's assertion that Americans are paying for increased affluence and freedom with a substantial decrease in the quality and quantity of community. What was once given by family, neighborhood and workplace now must be achieved and actively cultivated on an individual basis. The social fabric is no longer a birthright but has become a series of deliberated and demanding choices. Schwartz also discusses happiness with specific products. For example, he cites a study by Sheena Iyengar of Columbia University and Mark Lepper of Stanford University who found that when participants were faced with a smaller rather than larger array of jam, they were actually more satisfied with their tasting. +Freedom or commitment. Schwartz connects this issue to economist Albert Hirschman's research into how populations respond to unhappiness: they can exit the situation, or they can protest and voice their concerns. While free-market governments give citizens the right to express their displeasure by exit, as in switching brands, Schwartz maintains that social relations are different. Instead, we usually give voice to displeasure, hoping to project influence on the situation. +Second-order decisions. Law professor Cass Sunstein uses the term "second-order decisions" for decisions that follow a rule. Having the discipline to live "by the rules" eliminates countless troublesome choices in one's daily life. Schwartz shows that these second-order decisions can be divided into general categories of effectiveness for different situations: presumptions, standards, and cultural codes. Each of these methods are useful ways people use to parse the vast array of choices they confront. +Missed opportunities. Schwartz finds that when people are faced with having to choose one option out of many desirable choices, they will begin to consider hypothetical trade-offs. Their options are evaluated in terms of missed opportunities instead of the opportunity's potential. In other words, after choosing an alternative with a plurality but not a majority of utility, people remember the sum of the lost utility rather than that they made the "utility-maximizing" choice. Schwartz maintains that one of the downsides of making trade-offs is it alters how we feel about the decisions we face; afterwards, it affects the level of satisfaction we experience from our decision. While psychologists have known for years about the harmful effects of negative emotion on decision making, Schwartz points to recent evidence showing how positive emotion has the opposite effect: in general, subjects are inclined to consider more possibilities when they are feeling happy. + +== Validity research == +Attempts to duplicate the paradox of choice in other studies have had mixed success. A meta-analysis incorporating research from 50 independent studies found no meaningful connection between choice and anxiety, but speculated that the variance in the studies left open the possibility that choice overload could be tied to certain highly specific and as yet poorly understood pre-conditions. +A new meta-analysis, conducted in 2015 and incorporating 99 studies, was able to isolate when reducing choices for your customers is most likely to boost sales. The study identified four key factors—choice set complexity, decision task difficulty, preference uncertainty, and decision goal—that moderate the impact of assortment size on choice overload. It also documented that when moderating variables are taken into account the overall effect of assortment size on choice overload is significant—a finding counter to the data reported by prior meta-analytic research. +Research presented in an article by Alexander Chernev demonstrates that, contrary to the common wisdom that more choice is always better, selections made from large assortments can lead to weaker preferences. Building on the extant literature, this research identifies ideal point availability as a key factor that determines when large assortments will strengthen consumer preferences and when large assortments will weaken preferences. It also states that the ideal point availability is also a key factor in consumer choices. + +== See also == + +== References == + +== External links == +TED Talk by Barry Schwartz on The Paradox of Choice +The Paradox of Choice at books.google.com +Google TechTalk: The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz (2006) +The Return of Old-Fashioned Paternalism – Will limiting our choices save us from ourselves?, by Steve Chapman | August 7, 2008. +Schwartz, Barry (2004). "Choice overload burdens daily life". USA Today. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pit b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pit new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e69de29bb diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Practice_and_Theory_of_Individual_Psychology-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Practice_and_Theory_of_Individual_Psychology-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a145683d2 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Practice_and_Theory_of_Individual_Psychology-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,18 @@ +--- +title: "The Practice and Theory of Individual Psychology" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Practice_and_Theory_of_Individual_Psychology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:06.387243+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Practice and Theory of Individual Psychology is a work on psychology by Alfred Adler, first published in 1924. In his work, Adler develops his personality theory, suggesting that the situation into which a person is born, such as family size, sex of siblings, and birth order, plays an important part in personality development. Adler is among the many therapists who have noted the significance and impact of the relationship between attitudes towards oneself and others, and highlighting the relationship between regard for self and love of another. Adler claimed that the tendency to disparage others arises out of feelings of inferiority. Adler also describes the self as part of a reflection of the thoughts of others, seeing self-esteem as determined, in part, by feelings toward significant others. According to Adler, people are inherently motivated to engage in social activities, relate to other people, and acquire a style of life that is fundamentally social in nature. + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Full text of The Practice and Theory of Individual Psychology (second edition) at the Internet Archive \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pregnant_Man_and_Other_Cases_from_a_Hypnotherapist's_Couch-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pregnant_Man_and_Other_Cases_from_a_Hypnotherapist's_Couch-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0568e4808 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pregnant_Man_and_Other_Cases_from_a_Hypnotherapist's_Couch-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +--- +title: "The Pregnant Man and Other Cases from a Hypnotherapist's Couch" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pregnant_Man_and_Other_Cases_from_a_Hypnotherapist's_Couch" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:08.678926+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Pregnant Man and Other Cases from a Hypnotherapist's Couch is a book by Deirdre Barrett published by W. W. Norton & Company in 2010. Barrett is a psychologist on the faculty of Harvard Medical School. The book describes seven real patients, disguised for anonymity, who Barrett treated with hypnotherapy. They are presented in chronological order, beginning when the author was a trainee, so that much information about hypnosis is woven into the stories as Barrett herself is learning. The title character is a transgender man who develops false pregnancy after the death of his boyfriend. Other patients include an asthmatic with a heavy smoking habit, a wealthy aristocrat with a fear of flying, a writer who suddenly cannot read, and two very different cases of multiple personality. The book concludes with a section on how interested readers can locate a reputable hypnotherapist. + + +== Reviews == +"Written with an Oliver Sacks-like openness to psychological realism, Barrett's reminiscences are nothing if not mesmerizing." – Entertainment Weekly +"As the title indicates, some strange cases turn up in a hypnotherapist's office, and there's a choice assortment of them in this little collection that both entertains and explicates the hypotherapist's art. ... From a skilled psychotherapist, a fine introduction to hypnosis." – Kirkus Reviews +"Fans of Oliver Sacks will recognize the narrative strategy in Barrett's exploration of how the seemingly unretrievable past rises to the surface as the patient, guided by the therapist, attempts to recover lost memories – the seeming source of his or her psychic discomfort. With circumspection, detachment and humor, Barrett, a practicing hypnotherapist who teaches at Harvard Medical School, presents seven case studies from her 20-year practice that 'unfolded in my office like plays'" – Publishers' Weekly + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Primal_Scream-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Primal_Scream-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d3577dff0 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Primal_Scream-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "The Primal Scream" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Primal_Scream" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:09.833247+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Primal Scream. Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neurosis (1970; second edition 1999) is a book by the psychologist Arthur Janov, in which the author describes his experiences with patients during the months he developed primal therapy. Although Janov's claims were questioned by psychologists, the book was popular and brought Janov fame and popular success, which inspired other therapists to start offering primal therapy. + + +== Summary == +This book gives an account of the development of Primal Therapy. The book starts with an account of a group therapy session in 1967, during which a young man (Danny Wilson) underwent some kind of emotional catharsis during the therapy session. The young man was encouraged by Janov to call out for his mommy and daddy, which he did, only to fall into involuntary convulsions. After which, the young man announced "I can feel", and he then had some kind of emotional resolution. +In the remainder of the book, Janov develops a general theory of neurosis. Janov claims that neurosis is caused by repressed emotional pain from childhood trauma, and can be cured by reliving and expressing. Janov claims in the book that all neurosis is caused by repressed childhood emotional trauma, and that reliving is the only effective cure which really addresses the root cause of the problem. +The book contains numerous testimonials but little scientific evidence. The book is based upon Janov's theorizing after experimenting with his patients from 1967 to 1970. + + +== Influence and reception == +The Primal Scream was a popular success. It reportedly sold more than one million copies internationally, and was read by tens of thousands of people in the United States. Albert Goldman reported in The Lives of John Lennon (1988) that Janov sent pre-publication copies of The Primal Scream to celebrities such as John Lennon and Mick Jagger, and that Lennon subsequently underwent primal therapy with Janov, which provided the basis of his first proper solo album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. According to The New York Times, The Primal Scream "attracted wide attention in newspapers and magazines" and made Janov a celebrity. The fame and success it brought Janov inspired many therapists who had not met him to offer imitation primal therapy, and led to the proliferation of programs offering happiness through radical personal transformation. +Early reviews in the popular press were mixed. The book critic Robert Kirsch cautioned about Janov's "hyperbole" and "evangelic certainty" in the Los Angeles Times, but nevertheless called him an impressive writer and thinker and concluded that The Primal Scream was "worth reading and considering." The Primal Scream was praised by the Chattanooga Times and the Berkeley Gazette, both of which compared Janov to Freud. However, psychologists immediately questioned the assertions Janov made in the book, pointing out the "unverifiability of its central claim of the existence of primal pain and the lack of independent, controlled studies demonstrating the therapy’s effectiveness". +Erin Shoemaker criticized Janov's ideas about homosexuality in the gay magazine The Body Politic, noting that clinical studies contradicted Janov's view that girls become lesbians through being seduced by older women and that Janov did not have a clear idea of what constituted "real" behavior. The psychoanalyst Joel Kovel argued in A Complete Guide to Therapy (1976) that The Primal Scream shows that Janov is one of several figures in the history of psychotherapy who have come to be seen as savior figures. He credited Janov with tapping a "bedrock of great emotional power." The Primal Scream was reviewed in BMJ in 2012. + + +== Notes == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Psychology_of_Religion_and_Coping-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Psychology_of_Religion_and_Coping-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..16a3f63db --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Psychology_of_Religion_and_Coping-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,57 @@ +--- +title: "The Psychology of Religion and Coping" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Psychology_of_Religion_and_Coping" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:15.751440+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Psychology of Religion and Coping: Theory, Research, Practice by Kenneth Pargament was published in the United States in 1997. It is addressed to professional psychologists and researchers, and has been reviewed in many professional journals. +Originally hardbound, it was republished as a paperback in 2001. +By 2010, it had been cited more than 450 times in the psychology literature. + + +== Topics covered == +The Psychology of Religion and Coping contains 12 chapters that include an introduction and 11 other chapters divided into 4 parts. The parts are entitled: + +Part One. A perspective on religion (2 chapters) +Part Two. A perspective on coping (2 chapters) +Part Three. The religion and coping connection (4 chapters) +Part Four. Evaluative and practical implications (3 chapters) +The book also includes 5 appendices. + + +== Reviews and influence == +Reviews have appeared in The American Journal of Psychiatry, +The Gerontologist, +the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, +the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, +the Religious Studies Review +Death Studies, and elsewhere. +In the American Journal of Psychiatry, Armando R. Favazza, a widely-published author and Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, wrote that "This is a very fair and respectful book.... The book sets a new standard of excellence for works on religion and psychology. Although it lacks any biological or psychiatric focus, I highly recommend it to colleagues who desire to organize their thoughts about religion." (p. 988). +In The Gerontologist, George wrote that it was: + +The best book that I have read on religion from a psychosocial perspective. As the title indicates, the primary focus of this volume is examination of the links between religion and coping. One of the important qualities of this book is that there is no effort to view religion as one form of coping or to view coping as a manifest function of religion. Each concept is treated in careful conceptual and empirical detail, and the links that emerge testify to the importance of each, separately and jointly. The scope of the book is encyclopedic. I could not identify a question that I had that was not addressed. (p. 508) + +In the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, McFadden wrote: + +This book represents a major theoretical and empirical contribution not only to the psychology of religion and clinical/counseling psychology but to other fields as well. Along with psychologists, persons in religious professions can learn much from Pargament. Mental health professionals, who traditionally have shunned religion in their own lives and in the lived experience of their clients, might be persuaded by Pargament's broadband approach to investigate how religion operates in the tales of coping and crisis they hear on a daily basis. (p. 368) + +She added that: + +This book is also appropriate for use in courses on the psychology of religion. My students have responded positively to Pargament's careful exposition of his theory, the support he offers in examples from his research and clinical practice, and his engaging use of metaphor. (pp. 368–369) + +In the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, McIntosh wrote that: + +The weaknesses of this book are a function of its strengths. By aiming for a wide audience the book must cover a lot of ground, some of which is elementary review for some of the readership. The book probes deeply into the complexities of the topic and is encyclopedic in its coverage of the research; it is therefore somewhat daunting in size. By not avoiding the theoretical controversies and empirical weaknesses in this area, the conclusions are sometimes uncertain and the implications more muddy than in less open-eyed, more partisan work.... I highly recommend this book to scholars and practitioners of psychology and religion. It will likely be a long wait until another such impressive work in this area appears. (pp. 702–703) + + +== See also == +Multidimensional Measurement of Religiousness/Spirituality for Use in Health Research (1999 book) +Handbook of Religion and Health (2001 book) +Faith and Health: Psychological Perspectives (2001 book) + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Psychology_of_Self-Esteem-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Psychology_of_Self-Esteem-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0e59c4167 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Psychology_of_Self-Esteem-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +--- +title: "The Psychology of Self-Esteem" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Psychology_of_Self-Esteem" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:16.915039+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Psychology of Self-Esteem is a book by Nathaniel Branden, first published in 1969. It explains Branden's theories of human psychology, focusing on the role of self-esteem. Most of the book was written during Branden's association with Ayn Rand, and it reflects some of her philosophical ideas. The book's success helped to popularize the idea of self-esteem as an important element of self-improvement. + +== Synopsis == + +The book is divided into two parts. In Part One ("The Foundations"), Branden explains his views on human nature and the science of psychology. He discusses his theories about consciousness, volition, emotions (with particular attention to emotional repression) and mental health. +The material in Part One is about philosophical and psychological theory and does not focus on self-esteem, which is the predominant subject in Part Two ("The Psychology of Self-Esteem"). He describes self-esteem as "the integrated sum of self-confidence and self-respect", which he describes respectively as "a sense of personal efficacy and a sense of personal worth." Branden considers self-esteem to be one of the most important factors in human psychology. +Branden contrasts healthy self-esteem with conditions that he views as psychological problems. First is what he calls "pseudo-self-esteem," which he describes as "an irrational pretense at self-value," and "a nonrational, self-protective device to diminish anxiety and to provide a spurious sense of security". Next he discusses pathological anxiety, which he traces to a lack of self-esteem, particularly a lack of self-confidence. He further connects this to feelings of guilt and depression, which he views as aspects of anxiety. The last problem he discusses is one he calls "social metaphysics", which he describes as "the psychological syndrome that characterizes a person who holds the minds of other men, not objective reality, as his ultimate psycho-epistemological frame of reference." +The final chapter discusses psychotherapy. Branden emphasizes the importance of moral values, stating that "there is no way for a psychotherapist to keep his own moral convictions out of his professional work." He does not view this as a flaw, but rather argues that the therapist should guide patients towards values that will improve their self-esteem. "Effective psychotherapy requires a conscious, rational, scientific code of ethics", says Branden, and he identifies that code as the Objectivist ethics of Ayn Rand. He then briefly discusses five different therapeutic techniques and wraps up the book with a concluding section. +The thirty-second anniversary edition adds a preface in which Branden explains that although his views have changed in some ways, he has chosen not to alter the original text. Instead he added an epilogue on "Working with Self-Esteem in Psychotherapy". The epilogue updates his views on self-esteem, which have changed in some particulars since the book was first written. He also describes his more recent therapeutic methods, focusing on the use of sentence-completion exercises. + +== Background == +The Psychology of Self-Esteem was largely written while Branden was associated with Ayn Rand. It was Branden's first solo book, although he had previously written essays for two of Rand's books and for Who Is Ayn Rand?, which he co-wrote with his then-wife Barbara Branden. Some of the material comes from Who Is Ayn Rand? and from articles he wrote for The Objectivist, a magazine he and Rand co-edited. Rand was Branden's mentor and former lover, but in 1968 she had broken off all relations with him. In his memoirs, Branden recalled that important parts of the book were written during the "agonizing chaos" of the collapse of their relationship. +Rand had helped Branden obtain a contract with World Publishing, which was affiliated with her own publisher, and had offered to write an introduction for the book. When their relationship ended, she pressured the publisher to cancel his contract, which they did after he missed a deadline for delivering the completed manuscript. She also threatened to withhold the use of material that had been copyrighted by The Objectivist, although she took no legal action when Branden used the material anyway. + +== Publication history == +Despite Rand's effort's to prevent the book's publication, the newly founded Nash Publishing released it in the fall of 1969. The paperback rights were subsequently sold to Bantam Books. In 2001, a thirty-second anniversary edition was published by Jossey-Bass, with a new introduction and epilogue by Branden. + +=== Editions === +First edition (hardcover). 1969. Los Angeles: Nash Publishing. ISBN 0-8402-1109-0. OCLC 24729. +First paperback edition. 1971. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 0-553-27188-1. OCLC 426275125. +32nd anniversary edition. 2001. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. ISBN 0-7879-4526-9. OCLC 757675692. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Psychology_of_Self-Esteem-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Psychology_of_Self-Esteem-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..10a23e65b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Psychology_of_Self-Esteem-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +title: "The Psychology of Self-Esteem" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Psychology_of_Self-Esteem" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:16.915039+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Reception == +The book was a popular success and has sold over a million copies. It has been credited with spreading ideas about self-esteem to general audiences. Self-help expert Tom Butler-Bowdon warned that "readers find this book tough going", particularly in the earlier chapters, but described it as "one of the earliest classics of the popular psychology genre". +Critics such as sociologist Frank Furedi and neuropsychologist Paul Pearsall cited the book as an example of what they see as a cultural trend of over-emphasizing the significance of self-esteem. Psychology professor Robyn Dawes said that Branden propagated a false "belief that human distress can be traced to deficient self-esteem", which Dawes describes as based in bias rather than evidence. Author Charles Murray, although critical of the self-esteem movement in general, is somewhat more positive about Branden. Murray said it would have been better if other promoters of self-esteem "had focused on self-esteem as Branden described it—an internalized sense of self-responsibility and self-sufficiency." +In contrast, author Alfie Kohn supported the idea that self-esteem was important, but criticized Branden for founding his work "in Ayn Rand's glorification of selfishness." Branden's connection to Rand was also criticized by psychiatrist Thomas Szasz, who said the book wrongly ignores the work of those outside Rand's Objectivist movement, especially other psychologists and therapists besides Branden himself. He accuses Branden of "an exaggerated sense of self-importance and an uncritical reverence for Rand as a psychologist." +In The Myth of Self-Esteem, psychologist Albert Ellis faulted the book for focusing on "reason and competence" as the only sources of self-esteem, a position he describes Branden as moving away from later. + +== See also == + + Psychology portal + +== References == + +=== Works cited === +Branden, Nathaniel (1999). My Years with Ayn Rand. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. ISBN 0-7879-4513-7. OCLC 39391081. +Branden, Nathaniel (2001). The Psychology of Self-Esteem (32nd anniversary ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. ISBN 0-7879-4526-9. OCLC 757675692. +Butler-Bowdon, Tom (2007). 50 Psychology Classics. Boston: Nicholas Brealey. ISBN 978-1-85788-386-2. OCLC 473416667. +Dawes, Robyn (1996) [1994]. House of Cards: Psychology and Psychotherapy Built on Myth (paperback ed.). Free Press. ISBN 0-684-83091-4. OCLC 34470983. +Ellis, Albert (2005). The Myth of Self-Esteem. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books. ISBN 1-59102-354-8. OCLC 60669101. +Furedi, Frank (2003). Therapy Culture: Cultivating Vulnerability in an Uncertain Age. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-32159-X. OCLC 82632578. +Heller, Anne C. (2009). Ayn Rand and the World She Made. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-51399-9. OCLC 229027437. +Kohn, Alfie (1992). No Contest: The Case Against Competition (revised ed.). New York: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-63125-4. OCLC 26255272. +Mruk, Christopher J. (2006). Self-Esteem Research, Theory, And Practice: Toward a Positive Psychology of Self-Esteem (3rd ed.). New York: Springer. ISBN 0-8261-0231-X. OCLC 62679932. +Murray, Charles (2008). Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America's Schools Back to Reality. New York: Crown Forum. ISBN 978-0-307-40539-5. OCLC 368029714. +Pearsall, Paul (2007). The Last Self-Help Book You'll Ever Need. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-05487-9. OCLC 145383279. +Szasz, Thomas (2004). Faith in Freedom: Libertarian Principles and Psychiatric Practices. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction. ISBN 0-7658-0244-9. OCLC 53178376. +Ward, Steven C. (2002). Modernizing the Mind: Psychological Knowledge and the Remaking of Society. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0-275-97450-2. OCLC 539369544. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sadist_(book)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sadist_(book)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5af093fda --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sadist_(book)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,15 @@ +--- +title: "The Sadist (book)" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sadist_(book)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:21.607761+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Sadist (German: Der Sadist) is a book published by psychiatrist Karl Berg, following the confessions of Peter Kürten, a notorious German serial killer known as both The Vampire of Düsseldorf and the Düsseldorf Monster who committed a series of assaults and murders, primarily between 1929 and 1930. +The book was originally written in German. The first English edition was issued in 1938, by Acorn Press. A second edition was published by William Heinemann Medical Books in 1945. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Science_of_Weird_Shit-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Science_of_Weird_Shit-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..df9a41102 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Science_of_Weird_Shit-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "The Science of Weird Shit" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Science_of_Weird_Shit" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:22.801202+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Science of Weird Shit: Why Our Minds Conjure the Paranormal is a 2024 non-fiction book by British psychologist Chris French, published by MIT Press. The book explores the psychological and cognitive mechanisms behind paranormal beliefs and experiences, including ghost encounters, alien abductions, reincarnation, and near-death phenomena. French examines phenomena such as sleep paralysis, cognitive biases, and pareidolia to shed light on why people perceive supernatural events and what these perceptions reveal about human cognition. The book includes a foreword by Richard Wiseman. + + +== Reception == +In a May 2024 review for New Scientist, Wendy Grossman commended Chris French's book for its nuanced exploration of paranormal phenomena through the lens of psychology. Grossman highlighted French's balanced approach in examining experiences like sleep paralysis and cognitive biases such as pareidolia, appreciating his mix of academic knowledge and practical application. She noted that French's goal isn't to dismiss people's beliefs but to contextualize them within psychological understanding. +Brian Reffin Smith, in his review for Leonardo Reviews, praised the book for its clear-headed and sympathetic exploration of why people believe in the paranormal. Smith highlighted how French demystifies phenomena ranging from alien abductions to near-death experiences by unraveling the psychological processes behind these beliefs, emphasizing humanity's capacity for self-deception and the importance of a principled search for truth. +The book also received attention in various media outlets. The Guardian featured Chris French discussing themes from his book, particularly why people who believe in ghosts may resist scientific explanations for their experiences. Skeptical Inquirer published an interview with French, where he elaborated on his journey from believer to skeptic and the importance of studying "weird stuff" to understand human cognition and promote scientific skepticism. Excerpts and discussions from the book were also featured in Big Think, Nautilus, and iNews, where Clare Wilson drew on insights from the book to explore psychological traits that predispose people to believe in the paranormal. +In a March 2024 review for the Society for Psychical Research, Nemo C. Mörck described the book as a valuable commentary from mainstream psychology on paranormal phenomena. Mörck noted that French covers topics such as sleep paralysis, alien abductions, mediumship, and near-death experiences while writing with laypersons in mind. While recommending the book as a good starting point, Mörck mentioned that readers interested in survival after death might be disappointed by its limited coverage on that topic. +In an April 2024 review on Higgypop Paranormal, Steve Higgins praised the book as one of the most comprehensive and rational explorations of paranormal phenomena. The review noted that while French is known for his skeptical stance, the book goes beyond debunking to explore why such phenomena fascinate people, offering insights into human psychology and culture. +Some reviewers found the book informative but occasionally too academic. The reviewer from Buttercup's Book Blog appreciated the scientific approach but found the audio format challenging due to numerous lists and facts, suggesting that a print version might be more suitable. She also expected more humor given the book's title and felt the delivery was somewhat dry. Similarly, Brian Clegg of the Popular Science Books Blog felt the book lacked the anticipated entertainment value due to limited storytelling but acknowledged French's effective introduction to anomalistic psychology and appreciated his objective approach. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Senses_and_the_Intellect-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Senses_and_the_Intellect-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e94ef70bd --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Senses_and_the_Intellect-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ +--- +title: "The Senses and the Intellect" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Senses_and_the_Intellect" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:25.311099+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Senses and the Intellect is a book by Alexander Bain that was first published in 1855 and published by John William Parker in London. In this treatise, Bain described two principal divisions of the mind, the senses and the intellect. The discussion on the other two aspects of the mind, the emotions and the will, was published by Bain four years later, in 1859, under the title The Emotions and the Will. + + +== Context == +Bain had an academic background in moral philosophy and logic and is considered to be an associationist, alongside figures like John Locke, David Hume and his friend - John Stuart Mill. +In the early 1840s, Bain developed a keen interest in psychology, particularly in exploring the human senses through physiology. His work during this period culminated in a paper presented in 1844 titled On the Definition and Classification of the Human Senses, where he introduced the concepts of the muscular sense and organic sensibilities. Drawing from the associationist approach and displaying scepticism towards metaphysics, he expanded contemporary psychology in multiple ways. In the context of the will, he prioritized physiological explanations over metaphysical ones, using reflexes as proof that a type of will exists in human limbs, separate from consciousness. He aimed to identify the physiological links to mental states without adopting materialistic views. By 1851, influenced by Professor Sharpey's lectures on the brain and nervous system, Bain incorporated the idea of the Doctrine of Spontaneity into his writing. Following Sharpey's recommendation, Bain read the studies by French physiologist Longet's, which heavily influenced the first edition of The Senses and the Intellect. Bain's intensive drafting and redrafting continued until 1854. By 1855, with John Stuart Mill's recommended publisher – Parker – the book was published in June after being meticulously reviewed by Sharpey. + + +== Contents == +The first edition of the treatise is 614 pages long and is divided into an introduction and two books. + + +=== Introduction === +The introduction is further divided into two chapters. The first chapter defines the mind and ascribes three capacities to it: to feel, to act according to the feeling and to think. The second chapter discusses the nervous system, including the structures of the nerves, the spinal cord, and the encephalon. Bain justifies the need for detailed knowledge of human physiology, as "The Brain is the principal organ of the Mind". By expansion, Bain highlights his goal for a scientific explanation of psychological phenomena by means of physiology. + + +=== Book 1 - Movement, Sense and Instinct === +In the first book of The Senses and the Intellect, Bain refers to the "inferior region" of the mind, characterized by fundamental sensations, movements, appetites, and instincts. He justifies this grouping, stating that the concepts he discusses are not significantly linked with higher cognitive processes, making them apt for discussion alongside sensations. Moreover, he argues that a deeper understanding of appetites and instincts enriches the intellectual discourse. The proximity of appetite to sensation and the natural sequencing of discussing all instinctual behaviors before intellectual acquisitions further guide this structure. The first book is organized into four chapters: the first focuses on spontaneous actions and movements; the second delves into the senses and sensations; the third examines appetites; and the fourth addresses instincts, preliminary emotions, and will. Through this structure, Bain aims to cover the foundational mental processes. + + +=== Book 2 - Intellect === +In the second book, Bain delves into the study of the intellect, emphasizing its distinctiveness from other mental faculties such as emotion and volition. Bain identifies the intellect's defining feature – the ability to retain and recall sensations and mental states (even without external stimuli), distinguishing it as a capacity to "live both in ideas and actualities". Furthermore, the intellect has the inherent ability to discern and compare conscious states, with an inherent understanding of their agreements and differences. Such cognitive powers underpin acquired abilities and fuel human originality and inventiveness. Bain posits that consciousness might not be essential for all intellectual operations, drawing a clear distinction between it and other mental domains. + + +== Reception == +After the release of the book, Bain continued working on the second volume, outlining the remaining aspects of the mind. As Parker was dissatisfied with the sales of The Senses and the Intellect, this became an obstacle for Bain's release of subsequent volume. The dispute was later resolved by Mill who promised to take liability for potential losses that the publisher might incur. +In 1876, William James published a review of Bain's works by stating "The thoroughness of the descriptive part of Bain's treatises, and the truly admirable sagacity of many of the psychological analyses and reductions they contain, has made them deservedly classical." +Both The Senses and the Intellect and The Emotions and the Will established Bain as a foundational contributor to the newly emerging study of psychology. His insistence on explanations rooted in physiology provided validity to his insights of philosophical origin. +Despite mixed receptions, Bain's ideas had a lasting influence. His attempt to bring together psychology and physiology foreshadowed the later development of behaviorism and experimental psychology in the 20th century. The Senses and the Intellect marks a transition from a purely philosophical and introspective approach to psychology. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Six_Pillars_of_Self-Esteem-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Six_Pillars_of_Self-Esteem-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..6f78a70c5 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Six_Pillars_of_Self-Esteem-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +--- +title: "The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Six_Pillars_of_Self-Esteem" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:30.134501+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem is a psychology book written by Nathaniel Branden. The book describes what Branden believes are the key elements that raise or lower the self-esteem of an individual. Branden's six pillars are: + +The Practice of Living Consciously +The Practice of Self-Acceptance +The Practice of Self-Responsibility +The Practice of Self-Assertiveness +The Practice of Living Purposefully +The Practice of Personal Integrity + + +== Reviews == +The book received negative reviews from Library Journal, which called it "repetitive, verbose, and somewhat rambling", and Kirkus Reviews, which called it "Inflated and repetitious". Reason gave a positive review, calling Branden's exploration of self-esteem "an important mission for our time" and the book "a call to consciousness and participation". + + +== References == + + +== External links == +The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem at the Internet Archive \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Territorial_Imperative-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Territorial_Imperative-0.md index f38c84023..530112a10 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Territorial_Imperative-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Territorial_Imperative-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/2 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Territorial_Imperative" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:19:52.612294+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:38.326971+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Territorial_Imperative-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Territorial_Imperative-1.md index d64c824f3..8448bf4a2 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Territorial_Imperative-1.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Territorial_Imperative-1.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 2/2 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Territorial_Imperative" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:19:52.612294+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:55:38.326971+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" ---