Female impulsive aggression: A sleep research perspective

The rate of violent crimes among girls and women appears to be increasing. One in every five female prisoners has been reported to have antisocial personality disorder. However, it has been quite unclear whether the impulsive, aggressive behaviour among women is affected by the same biological mechanisms as among men. Psychiatric sleep research has attempted to identify diagnostically sensitive and specific sleep patterns associated with particular disorders. Most psychiatric disorders are typically characterized by a severe sleep disturbance associated with decreased amounts of slow wave sleep (SWS), the physiologically significant, refreshing part of sleep. Among men with antisocial behaviour with severe aggression, on the contrary, increased SWS has been reported, reflecting either specific brain pathology or a delay in the normal development of human sleep patterns. In our preliminary study among medication-free, detoxified female homicidal offenders with antisocial personality disorder, the same profound abnormality in sleep architecture was found. From the perspective of sleep research, the biological correlates of severe impulsive aggression seem to share similar features in both sexes.     

Der Einfluss von Mandatstyp und Wahlkreiseigenschaften auf die inhaltlichen Positionen in Parlamentsreden: Eine Untersuchung anhand der parlamentarischen Debatten im Deutschen Bundestag von 1998 bis 2002

Giving speeches in parliament is a key element of elected representatives for signalling their policy agenda and their ideological positions to their party and their electorate. Taking a specific programmatic position might increase the chances of an MP to get re‐nominated and to win again a seat in the legislature. In this paper, we build on approaches of responsive behaviour of political actors and on principal agent theories and ask which variables can explain the programmatic positions adopted by MPs in their speeches. To answer our research question, we collected all speeches related to economic policy issues given by members of the German Bundestag in the time period between 1998 and 2002. We estimated their individual policy positions with computerised methods of content analysis. We combine this data with information on the characteristics of MPs, their position in party, parliament and government and, in addition, with the socioeconomic structure and former election results within the MPs’ constituency. The results show that German MPs take the characteristics and the economic problem pressure of their constituencies into account when speaking in parliament, so that there is empirical evidence for responsive and vote‐seeking behaviour of German MPs. In addition, political and institutional factors like the membership in committees or in (former) cabinets and the way how an MP was elected – directly or by party list – play a role for the degree of MP's programmatic deviation from the party line.     

Taking It Out on the Body? A Phenomenological Study of Young Adults’ Gendered Experiences of Depression and Antidepressant Use

In this article, we use in-depth interviews with young adults in Sweden to explore the gendered and embodied experiences of depression and antidepressant use. Building upon previous phenomenological research, we analyse being depressed and on antidepressants as altered embodied states, in which corporealization—experiencing the body as a material object—is central. Feminist interventions by Toril Moi and Iris Marion Young inform our analysis of embodiment as gendered. The bodily facets of depression include the weight of the anxious body in crying and not sleeping, as well as the weakened or distorted relationship between body, mind and world in brooding thoughts and hopelessness. These experiences of corporealization are not expressed in gendered terms but, when acted out in depression, they do appear to be gendered. The female body becomes “the first battleground”—as the socially endorsed object upon which to act destructively. In contrast, male behaviour is not expressed as self-destructive, but projects in the world are emphasized at the cost of (bodily) well-being. Although antidepressants lift the corporeal weight of anxiety and low mood, they install a new, and in some respects more profound, corporealization of the body. This is expressed as feeling and caring less and being like a thing or machine. It can be understood in terms of an increased distance from the world—not articulated in gendered terms. As a way of existing in the world, the medicated state bears strong similarities to the depressed state from which it was originally an effort to escape. Thus, taking medication can be seen as yet another way of acting on the body as object. Furthermore, it could be suggested from our findings that when the body is not felt—when there is a breakdown of the meaningful relationship between the body and the world—the experience is less gendered.     

Re/visioning the women's movement in Israel

Current literature on the women's movement argues that in recent decades, a schism based on the politics of identity has divided women and led to the weakening of the movement. This process, intersecting with the escalation of neoliberal trends and the ‘NGOization’ of civil society, has resulted in the depoliticization of the women's movement and the waning of its influence as a political force. The present paper seeks to examine whether this argument is consistent with the situation in the Israeli women's movement of the early twenty-first century. Based on the history of the women's movement in Israel, the paper posits a twofold argument: (a) the women's movement in Israel has not disappeared but has been restructured as a result of its NGOization; (b) despite criticism of the movement in the literature and on the part of activists as the result of its NGOization, the movement's political messages have remained intact and even expanded to embrace questions of social justice, including novel thinking on matters of peace and security.     

JUDICIAL DECISIONS IN FAMILY RELATIONS IN POLAND

At a time of sweeping political, economic, and social changes in Eastern Europe, the family courts in Poland are under threat. This article traces their development and unique approach to family law and outlines the proposals for change in the Polish court system.     

Is schizoid personality a forerunner of homicidal or suicidal behavior?: a case study

The authors believe that a relationship exists between schizoid personality disorder and violent acts. The following case study is presented to contemplate such a possible relationship. There is a paucity of research on this topic. The authors suggest that further research closely examine the relationship between violent behavior and those character traits associated with schizoid personality disorder. If such a relationship is found, these character traits could be integrated with other risk factors known to predict violence.     

Critical Junctures,Religion, and Personal Status Regulations in Israel and India

The article aims at advancing our understanding of critical junctures in the evolution of religious/secular regulations, referring to those moments in history when one particular arrangement is adopted among several alternatives, establishing an institutional trajectory that is resistant to change in the following years. It traces the regulation of personal status laws in Israel and India, which, despite attempts by political leaders at time of independence to defer clear choices regarding the role of religious law, became generally entrenched in later decades. Based on the Israeli and Indian cases, and in contrast with common approaches, the article demonstrates how decisions made by influential political actors during the foundational stage of the state appear difficult to reform, regardless of the content of these decisions—whether they introduce a radical change or maintain existing practices—or the level of decision making—whether constitutional or ordinary parliamentary legislation.     

The changing role of multinational corporations

The multinational corporations’ (MNCs) environment and their international eminence have recently been threatened because of the turbulent international arena, the unlimited scope of information which they have to consider in their decision-making , and the accusations that they are a jeopardy to the political and economic independence of their host countries. Thus, they have to adopt a new strategy which is in contrast to the past where they were identified as the primary operators in their host environment and that they controlled to a great extent the political, economic and social environment in which they functioned.