Vaginismus: a Franco-American story

In November 1861, Dr. J. Marion Sims, an American gynecologist, named and described the syndrome of vaginismus, which linked symptoms of vaginal hypersensitivity to muscular spasm. The only rational treatment for this disorder, said Sims, was surgery. His work was taken up immediately in France, but the story of its interpretation and application is a rather complicated one. Félix Roubaud, a leading specialist on matters of impotence and sterility, revised earlier writings in order to make a clear place for Sims's theories. But in the succeeding decades, Sims was subject to more and more criticism in French medical circles. Some argued that French specialists had already identified all the key elements of vaginismus, and that Sims was no more than a successful publicist. Others-and these were finally the most influential-argued against surgical treatment. More and more French writers on sexual medicine argued that vaginismus was a "moral" disorder that could not properly be treated by physical methods. And within French medical circles the Sims operation for vaginismus came to represent an "American" approach that was too rational, and too straightforwardly physical.     

The late Upper Paleolithic in Italy: An overview

Previous studies of the Italian late Upper Paleolithic, or Epigravettian, have been primarily chronostratigraphic and typological. Only recently has attention been paid to environmental and behavioral data. The Epigravettian covers some 10,000 years, from about 20,000 B.P. (beginning of the last Wurm stadial) to about 10,000 B.P. (end of Dryas III and beginning of the Holocene). Traditionally, it has been divided into three phases: Early (20,000–16,000 B.P.), Evolved (16,000–14,000 B.P.), and Final (14,000–10,000 B.P.). The Evolved and Final Epigravettian have five regional facies: northern Tyrrhenian, central and southern Tyrrhenian, northern and central Adriatic, southern Adriatic and Sicilian. After an extensive summary of the available environmental data and traditional artifact analyses, we illustrate the present status of more behaviorally oriented research and discusss the consistency of the subdivisions in space and time. Suggestions are made of possible directions for future research.     

Chasing Aleck: the story of a dorm

A student raised a hand in class and asked, "Why is this dorm named after Alexander Graham Bell?" On a deaf campus, this was a loaded question. Bell was an oralist, opposed to sign language. He was a eugenicist, opposed to deaf marriages. Indeed, the more I thought about it, the better this question got. Why did the school name a dormin after him? Unfortunately, I hadn't the foggiest idea. With apologies to that student, I offer this article as a belated answer.     

关于中华帝国晚期心态史的探索

Some elements of Puritanism in Chinese tradition are obviously different from the well-known intellectual phenomenon in the West; in the Neo-Confucian ambit the key question concerns “order-disorder,” “harmony-disharmony” in society and inside one’s personality, rather than “sin” and “purity” in personal morality. Yet we also find that chastity is involved in the contrast between the two concepts of purity and pollution and the idea of “obscene” (meaning “inauspicious,” “ill-omened,” “profane”) allows us to uncover a darker side to sexual representation. Death seems another source of active or passive pollution: this effect occurs after contaminational contact with human or animal remains. Thus death is the source of “desecration,” or of “contamination,” especially when it is the consequence of violence. This means that in Chinese culture, a sense of impurity seems to be driven by the horror of death and the fear of being overwhelmed by the passion of love; respectively, thanatos and eros. Other topics may also be associated, such as mental insanity referring to what is different, abnormal, strange, and socially subversive. The clean-unclean distinction originally responded to a basic visceral feeling—horror and repulsion/disgust—that is typically associated with hygienic worries and matter that is perceived as repugnant and inedible. But these basic ideas seem to have been symbolically extended to cope with the subconscious and metaphysical spheres: the horror of death and the fear of being overwhelmed by passion, the mysteries which lie behind these emotions, and the attempt to sublimate such fears into an impulse to transcend the red dust of our limited existence.     

An astrologer's map: A relic of late antiquity

Abstract

A Greek map of the world, which includes a windrose, zones, places in and around Egypt, and hell, is studied in reference to its context: an anonymous astrological miscellany. Other examples of this map have been found in a second context, among anonymous scholia to Theon of Alexandria's commentary on Ptolemy's Handy Tables (Procheiroi kanones), which were also of use to astrologers. The selection of Egyptian place‐names found on the map provides some clue to its possible origin, while the omission of the Mediterranean as well as the port of Alexandria is significant. Evidence suggests that the original map (known today only through later copies) is of an earlier date than the texts surrounding it, and that it may be one of the earliest world maps preserved from Late Antiquity.     

The story of a Chinese map

Sommaire

De même que le nom de “CASSINI” est intimement lié à l'établissement et à la publication, entre 1750 et 1815 de la “Carte géométrique de la France au 1/86 400”, un autre patronyme, moins connu peut‐être, celui de “NAUDIN”, brille d'un éclat particulier pour tout ce qui touche à la cartographie française de 1688 à 1746.

Le but de cet article est précisément de faire connaître à ceux qui s'intéressent à la cartographie ancienne, ce que fut, en la situant dans son cadre historique, l'oeuvre de cette remarquable famille de géographes: “les NAUDINS”.     

Bangalore Lake story: reflections on the spirit of a place

This article is based on an ethnographic case study conducted during a small project on the public-private development of lakes in Bangalore. Using conceptualizations of place and implacement as developed by scholars such as Casey and Anderson, this article unpacks the relationship between sociopolitical processes and modification of landscape during the implementation of a public–private partnership lake development project of Hebbal Lake. The disappearance of designated places along the lakeshore that are accessible to different users tends to favor a monoculture of consumer experiences, which can be seen as a hidden form of displacement of other users. I suggest that by physically modifying the “places” on the lakeshore that once supported multiple human-geographical interactions, certain people can experience displacement even if they are allowed to access the lake.     

The emergence of early childhood education outdoor programs in British Columbia: a meandering story

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the emergence of early childhood education outdoor programs in British Columbia, Canada. The story told follows paths not dissimilar from how one might observe children on a walk to the park. While the park is the destination, it is the journey to the park, of picking up pebbles, looking at flowers, and finding sticks, that enlivens and binds the journey. Through our consideration of stories from a number of outdoor programs, we weave patterns that join their emergence and consider how their stories might sustain and encourage educational action.     

The psychiatric works of Emil Kraepelin: a many-faceted story of modern medicine

A new English language edition of some of the major works of Emil Kraepelin (1856-1926), the famous German psychiatrist, appeared in 2002. This essay has been written to mark the occasion. Kraepelin is famous for his psychiatric nosology, specifically the demarcation of dementia praecox (schizophrenia) and manic-depressive insanity (bi-polar disorder). This essay deals not only with these topics but with many other aspects of Kraepelin's psychiatry: his talents as a writer and teacher; his unusual and intense concern with volition; his lack of psychological empathy with his patients, on the one hand, and on the other, his humane care for their physical well-being; his tangled involvement with psychoanalysis; his war on alcohol; his tradition-bound treatment of hysteria; his reflective attempt to understand paranoia; some criticisms of his work; the debate over the role played by his famous diagnostic cards (Z?hlkarten); his misuse of his psychiatric beliefs in the public arena. A conclusion addresses both his shortcomings and his assets.