A Catathymic Infanticide

Abstract: A case of infanticide committed by a 37‐year‐old married man, the father of three sons, is reported. Clinically depressed since adolescence, and also diagnosed with obsessive‐compulsive disorder and a dependent personality, the subject began to worry about killing someone a decade before the homicide. Increasingly disabled by his major depression, unable to work, and confined in his home, the idea that his only recourse was to kill one of his sons became fixed and frequent. Following his fourth psychiatric hospitalization, he took his 13‐month‐old son home from day care and drowned him in the bathtub. He then called the police and reported his crime. This sudden act of intentional killing was followed by a period of emotional relief and calmness, clearly illustrating the three stages of chronic catathymic homicide.     

Public employees in political firms: Part A. The patronage era

In part A. The patronage era we explain of the changing organization of public employees from patrons to spoilsmen. (Part B. Civil service and militancy, explains the evolution from spoilsmen to civil servants to militant unionists). Commonly, each transformation has been related only to some failing of its preceding form: patronage ended because of its corruption, civil service began because of its promise to stop corruption, and militancy spread because of the inadequacies of civil service. In contrast to these different explanations of each transformation of government employment, we offer the same explanation for each change: a public choice theory assumption that the new organizational form more efficiently maximized the mixture of votes, power, and income that politicians seek. Thus, when poor immigrants promised votes for insurance from urban hazards and businessmen promised graft in return for accommodations, spoilsmen effected the exchanges.     

Politicizing connectivity: beyond the biopolitics of information technology in international relations

The traditional way of politicizing information technology (IT) in international relations is to raise questions concerning access. Rarely is the question posed of what IT does to people, how becoming connected subjectifies peoples, constituting them as a socius distinguished by properties and capacities of connectivity. Thus does this article address the biopolitics of connectivity; the implication of IT in liberal governance; the evolutionary posthumanism that has inspired faith in the governance properties of IT; and, crucially, the war and violence that are legitimated internationally on account of this faith. Following this critique it asks how to constitute an alternative politics of connectivity. How can we rework the concept of connectivity to conceive of alternative political horizons and possibilities? Exploring questions of the quality and intensity of connectivity, at expense of disciplinarily hegemonic ones of equality and quantity, the article engages with the rhizomatic theory of connectivity as advanced by Deleuze and Guattari.     

Thomas Aquinas and Viscount Stair: the Influence of Scholastic Moral Theology on Stair's Account of Restitution and Recompense

This article examines the impact of scholastic moral theology on aspects of Stair's Institutions of the Laws of Scotland. It is argued that both Stair's general concept of justice and his account of the ‘obediential’ obligations of restitution and recompense were influenced by Aristotelian philosophy and Thomist moral theology. The complex interaction in Stair's thinking of Presbyterian religion, scholastic philosophy and a commitment to the rational natural law are sketched in order to shed light on the historical and cultural context within which he wrote. The result is a more complex picture of the influences which informed the writing of the Institutions.     

The Value of Crime Scene and Site Visitation by Forensic Psychologists and Psychiatrists

Site visits and crime scene visitation by forensic psychologists and psychiatrists may enhance the accuracy and credibility of their forensic work in criminal, civil, and other important contexts. This ethically sound technique of after‐the‐fact data collection and verification offers numerous potential benefits to the forensic mental health professional: clarifying the subject's actions, assessing the reliability of witness reports, identifying contextual determinants of behavior, and more fully illuminating subject motivation and decision‐making. Limitations and suggested guidelines for conducting site visits are offered. Guidelines include preplanning, arranging for an informed guide to accompany and narrate the visit, and conducting the site visit prior to forensic examinations.     

Mythological representation in popular culture today

Abstract

Mythologies that reside and operate within popular culture representations and the mass communications media reveal valuable insights into the way in which audiences are conditioned to interact with the social world. These myths require critical attention, and an understanding of contemporary myths should be established, as myths (being residents of the popular mass media) are decoded on a near constant basis by audiences.

This article addresses selected mythological representations in popular culture mass media, in order to examine the nature and societal functions of myths. Part of the importance of deconstructing contemporary myths is constituted by the myth's fictional content. While myths function to inform individuals of acceptable societal behaviour and contribute to an ordered social environment, they can also function negatively to represent negative connotative meanings about certain social groups or issues.

The importance of myth is therefore paramount, but the wealth of mythical nuances that could potentially receive critical attention is multitudinous. This article aims simply to uncover some insights into mass media mythological functionalities as a starting point for investigation.     

The remythologisation of white collective identities in post-apartheid South African film by myth and counter myth

Abstract

Since 1994 a collection of films, referred to here as post-apartheid South African history film, has thematically represented South Africa's apartheid history, and in so doing has engaged with the representation of the white figure in ways which suggest a reformulation of collective South African white identity construction. Part of this process is the phenomenon of the remythologisation, or the counter myth construction, of whiteness as an identity on film. Such mythic representations frequently describe the white figure as connected to aspects of guilt (whether individual or collective), remorse and forgiveness. Often the mythic construction of whiteness on film is delivered in a seemingly oversimplified binary fashion, reducing the representation of white identity in the post-apartheid South African situation to one that is robbed of complexities and nuances.