Britishness and Jewishness: integration and separation

This chapter explains how the concept of identity is a complex one and not a unitary condition. Where Jews were forcibly contained within designated areas of the Pale, they conceived themselves as a unitary entity. Though they were also concentrated in the Leylands, they now lived among their new host society and so the single identity fragmented as people had to decide how Jewish to be if they wished to pursue integration. The example of the Jewish Lads Brigade is cited as a means of preserving Jewish identity while inculcating British values. The Scouts had a similar role for those who wanted a more rapid integration.

Principal components analysis of a large cohort with Tourette syndrome

BackgroundTourette syndrome is a heterogeneous familial disorder for which the genetic mechanisms are unknown. A better characterisation of the phenotype may help identify susceptibility genesAimsTo extend previous factor-analytic studies of the syndromeMethodSymptom data from 410 people with Tourette syndrome were included in agglomerative hierarchical cluster and principal components analysesResultsFive factors were observed, characterised by: (1) socially inappropriate behaviours and other complex vocal tics; (2) complex motor tics; (3) simple tics; (4) compulsive behaviours; and (5) touching self. Individuals with co-occurring attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder had significantly higher factor scores on Factors 1 and 3, whereas individuals with co-occurring obsessive-compulsive disorder and behaviours had significantly higher factor scores for Factors 1–4ConclusionsThese findings add to the growing body of evidence that Tourette syndrome is not a unitary condition and can be disaggregated into more homogeneous symptom components

BEYOND UNITARY PARASUPERSYMMETRY FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF h3 AND h4 HEISENBERG ALGEBRAS

Using the partition of the number p-1 into p-1 real parts which are not equal with each other necessarily, we develop the unitary parasupersymmetry algebra of arbitrary order p so that the well-known Rubakov–Spiridonov–Khare parasupersymmetry becomes a special case of the developed one. It is shown that the developed algebra is realized by simple harmonic oscillator and Landau problem on a flat surface with the symmetries of h3 and h4 Heisenberg–Lie algebras. For this new parasupersymmetry, the well-known unitary condition is violated, however, unitarity of the corresponding algebra is structurally conserved. Moreover, the components of the bosonic Hamiltonian operator are derived as functions from the mean value of the partition numbers with their label weight function.

Developmental Prosopagnosia: A Review

This article reviews the published literature on developmental prosopagnosia, a condition in which the ability to recognize other persons by facial information alone has never been acquired. Due to the very low incidence of this syndrome, case reports are sparse. We review the available data and suggest assessment strategies for patients suffering from developmental prosopagnosia. It is suggested that developmental prosopagnosia is not a unitary condition but rather consists of different subforms that can be dissociated on the grounds of functional impairments. On the basis of the available evidence, hypotheses about the aetiology of developmental prosopagnosia as well as about the selectivity of deficits related to face recognition are discussed.

The Interpretation of Emotion from Facial Expression for Children with Visual Processing Problems

A significant proportion of people with learning difficulties have social problems, which are often considered to be the product of school failure. However, a number of studies have suggested that these social skill problems may relate to the inability to decode subtle visual cues of body language and facial expression. The majority of studies of facial expression, however, have viewed learning disability as a unitary condition, without taking account of specific sub‐types which may have more difficulty in processing visual cues, especially for facial emotion. This study investigated children aged 8 to 12 years who were divided into three learning disability sub‐groups: 1) a visual‐perceptual sub‐type called Irlen Syndrome (n=41); 2) a group with learning disabilities, but no indications of Irlen Syndrome (n=30); and 3) a normally achieving control group (n=31). The Irlen Syndrome sub‐group had significantly lower scores for interpreting emotion from facial expression than the two other groups. The learning disabled non‐lrlen sub‐group also had significantly lower scores than the control group, but with much smaller levels of significance than those between the Irlen and control groups.

Reciprocal influences between clinical and biological research in shaping the modern concept of schizophrenia

SummaryThe contribution of biological psychiatry to research on schizophrenia should not be seen only in terms of discovery of biological markers or identification of definite etiological factors. Although biological research has failed up to now to identify such markers or factors, its influence on the clinical conceptualization of the illness has been considerable. On the other hand, biological research on schizophrenia has not been insensitive to the continuous re-shaping of the clinical concept of the illness which occurred during the last decades. There are at least three issues for which this reciprocal influence can be identified: 1), the question of the symptoms to be included in the definition of schizophrenia; 2), the problem of the relationship between “core” schizophrenia and mild non-psychotic conditions such as schizoid and schizotypal disorders; 3), the issue whether schizophrenia represents a mixture of different entities or a basically unitary condition.

A Case of Homosexuality Treated by in Vivo Desensitization and Assertive Training

Sexual deviation is not a unitary condition, amenable to a single treatment approach. Deviant sexual arousal has been overemphasized while inadequate attention has been given to associated behavioural problems such as deficient heterosexual arousal, deficient heterosexual skills and gender role deviation. A client with homosexual arousal and requesting aversion therapy was treated successfully and rapidly using in vivo desensitization and assertive training. The treatment is described and the importance of the behavioural analysis in directing the course of therapy is stressed.