EXEMPLARY UNDERGRADUATE WRITING ACROSS THE CURRICULUM VOLUME 27
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2017 – 2018
E X E MP LA RY UNDERGRADUATE WRI TI NG AC ROSS T H E CURRI CULUM VO LUME 27 | 201 7 – 201 8
M I S S I O N S TAT E M E N T The mission of The George Mason Review is to capture Mason’s spirit, where “innovation is tradition,” through the publication of diverse works from across the curriculum. The George Mason Review, a publication for undergraduates by undergraduates, seeks scholarship that demonstrates creativity and critical thought. In its print and virtual form, this cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary journal features exemplary academic work and welcomes submissions that challenge the boundaries of how scholarship has traditionally been defined.
H OW T O S U B M I T YO U R WO R K The George Mason Review accepts submissions year round. We accept research writing, literary critiques or analyses, creative nonfiction, and all other forms of scholarship. Please submit your work electronically at gmreview.gmu.edu.
PEER REVIEW PROCESS Submissions undergo a two-tiered, double-blind peer review process. Initially, each paper is evaluated by four Peer Reviewers from different majors. Once all papers have been read, our Peer Reviewers vote on which papers should proceed to the second round of review. Papers included in the second round of review are assessed by the GMR editorial board, which consists of our Editor-in-Chief, Assistant Editor, and Managing Editor and are subsequently voted on. Throughout the entire process, the identity of the author remains anonymous to the reviewer, and the identity of the reviewer remains anonymous to the author, constituting a double-blind review.
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Photo by: Allie Thompson (Fourth Estate Photo Editor)
G EOR GE M ASON REVI EW STAFF / 2017–2018
Left to right, top row: Samuel Petto, Nina Motazedi, James O’Hara Left to right, bottom row: Emily Sheffield, Candice Wong, Mary Jane DeCarlo, Kim Bartenfelder
This volume would not have been possible without the extraordinary efforts of the following people:
E X EC U T I V E B OA R D Nina Motazedi
Editor-In-Chief
Samuel Petto
Assistant Editor
James O’Hara
Managing Editor
Mary Jane DeCarlo
Cover Designer
FA C U LT Y A D V I S O R Jason Hartsel
PEER REVIEWERS Ahmad Alach, Kim Bartenfelder*, Mari Baz, David Benko, Summer Claveau, Fatma Gdoura*, Amrote Getu, Allison Gomes*, Elena Hawksworth, Madeline Illar, Meghan Levinson, Stefan Lopez, Leah Monteiro, Paula Motsenbocker, Amy Osborne, Lydia Rader, Francis Rivas, Emily Sheffield, Lauren Sullivan, Candice Wong*, Jesse Wong, Christine Zurbach *Peer Reviewers who participated in optional copy-editing sessions
TA B L E O F CONTENTS NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
7
Nina Motazedi
WRITING TO LEARN/LEARNING TO WRITE: SUPPORTING STUDENT RESEARCHERS WITH AN INNOVATIVE WRITING CURRICULUM
12
Michelle LaFrance — Guest Essay
THE DEPICTION OF JUDITH BEHEADING HOLOFERNES AS A REFLECTION OF THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN SOCIETY
18
Genevieve Keillor — Best Submission — 1st Place Winner
A TRIPLE THREAT: CONNECTIONS AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BODY DYSMORPHIC DISORDER, OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDER, AND ANOREXIA NERVOSA
32
Anna Gabrielle Patarinksi — Best Submission — 2nd Place Winner
BLOOD SOAKED FATIGUES AND CONTESTED MEMORY: FEMALE SERVICE AND REMEMBRANCE OF THE VIETNAM WAR
42
Thomas James Spino — Best Submission — 3rd Place Winner
DEVELOPING MACHINES IN THE HUMAN IMAGE: SEARLE’S CHINESE ROOM ARGUMENT AND THE COMPUTATIONAL PERSPECTIVE OF UNDERSTANDING Sarvajna Kalva
58
THREATS IN 1960s AMERICA
70
Ruthann Clay
DEATH OF THE FAIRY: HOW THE COTTINGLEY PHOTOGRAPHS ENDED THE REIGN OF THE VICTORIAN FAIRY
86
Aryelle Young
AGING POPULATIONS AND MILITARY SPENDING: TESTING THE GERIATRIC PEACE THEORY
94
Danielle Melton
A DISCUSSION OF DIAGNOSING AND HEALING 1 0 0 SMALL STRESS FRACTURES IN ACTIVE INDIVIDUALS Danielle Nicole Maynard
FREQUENCY OF INTERPERSONAL POLITICAL DELIBERATION AND POLITICAL IDEOLOGY
116
Quincey Smith
FACTORS THAT IMPACT REVERSE CULTURE SHOCK
130
Enya Calibuso
SOURCES
150
FACULTY GUIDE: GMR IN THE CLASSROOM
164
PREFACE
NOTE FROM THE EDITOR The culmination of this publication is due to the contribution of countless individuals; to all those who were involved in some way — a faculty member who encouraged their students to submit, our dedicated journal staff who worked tirelessly to evaluate and edit submissions, and everyone in-between – thank you. First and foremost, I would like to thank our Faculty Advisor, Jason Hartsel, for his endless guidance, unwavering support, and constant encouragement. I cannot express enough how appreciative I am to have worked with you and learned from you over the past two years; you have truly made my time at The George Mason Review unforgettable. I would like to thank Dr. Michelle LaFrance for taking the time to author the guest essay and for all the work the Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) program does across campus. I am immensely grateful to have had the opportunity to work alongside such a talented, dedicated, and diligent staff. Jimmy, thank you for your precision when copy-editing, as well as in every other task assigned. Sam, thank you for doing a phenomenal job managing the Peer Review process — not once was I concerned with whether or not papers were assigned correctly. It was truly a pleasure getting to know and working with you both; I have no doubt that you will each accomplish all that you have in mind. Mary Jane, thank you for transforming my vague, nondescript vision into a cover that perfectly embodies the essence of GMR; I continue to be amazed by your talent and professionalism and am excited to see all that you will create. Most importantly, thank you to our Peer Reviewers for volunteering their time to evaluate the submissions we received. Without your invaluable contribution, this publication would not have been possible. I would like to especially thank those Peer Reviewers who went above and beyond and assisted with the copy-editing process. Lastly, thank you to our student authors whose passion and hard work is clearly evident in their papers. I know that you will each continue to push boundaries in your respective research areas, and I look forward to reading more of your work. Working on this journal has been an integral part of my last three years at Mason. During the past two years, I have had the privilege of serving as Editor-in-Chief, where I have been able to grow intellectually, professionally, and personally. I will VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 9
forever be indebted to GMR for catalyzing my passion for research and incessantly inspiring me. As I graduate, I am incredibly saddened to leave GMR behind. I am confident that this journal will continue to highlight the visionary research of the our undergraduate body, while presenting it in an accessible manner in order to inform all members of the Mason community, regardless of disciplinary background.
Sincerely, Nina Motazedi Editor-in-Chief
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G U E S T E S S AY
WRITING TO LEARN/LEARNING TO WRITE: SUPPORTING ALL STUDENT RESEARCHERS WITH AN INNOVATIVE WRITING CURRICULUM DR. MICHELLE LAFRANCE Director, Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC)
“You see, people tend to think of writing in terms of pencil-and-paper assignments, but no matter who you are, writing is part of your life. It’s part of how you work, how you learn, how you remember, and how you communicate. It gives voice to who you are and enables you to give voice to the things that matter to you.” — National Council of Teachers of English, “about the National Day on Writing.” At heart, all university campuses are communities of writers. At George Mason University, the Writing Across the Curriculum program (WAC) upholds a campuswide “culture of writing” via a commitment to promoting innovative writing in the disciplines coursework and intensive research mentorship for all students. Through this work, the WAC program enacts what studies of student writing development has shown: learners who are given frequent opportunities to write across different communities and to research in authentic contexts are encouraged to think more critically and creatively, deepen their learning, and are better able to transfer what they have learned from course to course, context to context. In fall 2017, Mason’s vertical writing/research curriculum was recognized for the 16th year in a row by U.S. News and World Reports as a national model for writing in the disciplines programs. As a pedagogical tool, meaningful and challenging writing assignments and mentored research projects foster the development of critical, analytical, and innovative thinking. Anderson, Anson, Gonyea, and Paine (2015), for instance, note that studies drawing on large-scale datasets have demonstrated the importance of continuous writing instruction for undergraduates. Arum and Roksa (2014) “found that the presence of substantial writing and reading requirements, among other 14 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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factors, has significant impacts on students’ lives after graduation, for instance,” by aiding in finding and maintaining employment (as cited in Anderson et al., 2015, p. 201-202). As Anderson and colleagues (2017) argue, “[W]ell-designed assignments can, indeed, increase learning, including learning about writing.” Mason’s approach to supporting student writers in upper-level courses recognizes the importance of undergraduate writing and research, providing the opportunity to build the “soft skills” desired by employers and to learn about the rigors of effective research writing. We have seen first hand how work as writers and researchers encourages Mason’s undergraduates to think through complex social issues, to integrate broader perspectives into their understandings of the world, and to act as engaged citizens. To provide multiple opportunities for student writers to receive ongoing writing instruction in all programs of study, the WAC program draws on the concept of the “vertical curriculum.” Melzer (2014) defines this educational innovation: Vertical curriculum design emphasizes writing-intensive experiences at each stage of students’ academic careers—from first-year composition, to general education, to introductions to the major, to capstone courses. The value of embedding these writing experiences in their disciplinary contexts. . . shows that students are more likely to learn something—and then transfer that learning to new situations—when the target learning outcome is embedded in disciplinary curriculum and practiced frequently. (p. 83) The vertical curriculum at Mason is incorporated in the required composition classes (English 101 and English 302), where students are asked to undertake research papers, many for the first time, and to reflect on how writing is a form of problem solving in the different communities and disciplines on campus. It continues in the writing-intensive, synthesis and capstone requirements situated within each major, which introduce students more specifically to the research practices, forms of writing, and problem-solving strategies of their chosen fields. A number of research-supported local principles guide the development of upper-level writing courses and the program’s work with the faculty who teach them. These principles foster instruction that recognizes: • Writing is an important tool for learning and discovery as well as for conveying what has been learned and discovered. • Students gain proficiency as writers when they have frequent opportunities to address a range of audiences, engage in research, and practice composing VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 15
in the genres typical of the majors and workplaces they will enter. • Students benefit from having opportunities to revise based on meaningful feedback from faculty. • Faculty across the curriculum share responsibility for helping students learn the conventions, research strategies, and rhetorical practices of their disciplines. (Mason WAC Program) These principles are drawn from the Statement of WAC Principles and Practices, which was composed and endorsed by members of the International Network of WAC Programs in February of 2014. To accompany the top notch writing and research-focused courses offered to Mason students, the WAC program hosts a variety of events and services that highlight the importance of writing in our fields, as professionals, and in our everyday lives. Most notably, the Writers of Mason project, our take on the Humans of New York photo-essay series, attempts to bring awareness to the diversity of writers on campus. To date, we have published 84 profiles on the program’s blog, which highlight the unique reflections of writers within our campus community— undergraduates, graduate students, alumni, faculty, staff, and administrators from a range of Mason’s majors, programs, and offices. Many of those we have interviewed admit to the many challenges of becoming a well-versed writer and speak to the influential role of writing in their development as researchers. Some have told us stories of research gone awry, receiving harsh feedback, and other setbacks. Others have shared their triumphs when research projects uncover something interesting, the joy of contributing to the knowledge of their academic communities, and the pride felt when their hard work appears, finally, in the form of a final draft. All of the writers we have spoken with have confirmed that work with research-writing has deepened their sense of involvement in their majors and professional fields. Few other projects that the WAC program has taken on have highlighted the importance of writing coursework and research projects for all students. Mason’s WAC program has been at the center of efforts to support student writers and encourage strong writing instruction in upper-level courses. The program’s success relies on the work of dedicated and caring faculty and administrators, who share their knowledge and writing expertise with students, value writing as a valuable tool for learning, and acknowledge the role that writing plays in all 21st century lives. In turn, through this high impact practice, Mason’s student writers are learning to persuasively argue and report the findings of their research, to reflect deeply and authentically, dialog about issues that matter, and to engage 16 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
GUEST ESSAY
with viewpoints different from their own. Most importantly, however, through their research and writing Mason students are posing solutions that will undoubtedly change the world in which we live.
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SUBMISSIONS
FIRST PLACE SUBMISSION
THE DEPICTION OF JUDITH BEHEADING HOLOFERNES AS A REFLECTION OF THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN SOCIETY GENEVIEVE KEILLOR Majors: History and Art History Class of 2018
ABOUT THE WORK The relationship between the sexes is evident across various disciplines and mediums, including portraiture, mythology, history, and the Bible. This study examines the artistic depictions of the story of Judith Beheading Holofernes across different historical eras. Relying on historical analysis and stylistic analysis, each case study will attempt to demonstrate how women were viewed at the particular time of the painting. During the initial phase of my research, I became inspired by a work of art that I learned about in my AP Art History class: Judith Beheading Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi. The dark ambiance of the work and the fact that it was painted by a female artist surprised me at the time. I wanted to explore whether other artists from other time periods depicted the same Biblical story. I began to realize how artistic pieces reflected the way in which women were regarded in society at the time. Primary sources provided historical context as to why an artist decides to depict a female figure like Judith in a certain way. Modern feminist theory offered a framework for analyzing the connection between gender relations and the history of art. Since the Renaissance, women are now seen less as helpless muses and reliant on men. Nevertheless, traditional stereotypes of women exist and it is a mission for artists today to continue to comment
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“The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.” —Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie When walking through any famous art institution, we normally see images celebrating primarily the lives of men, based on their accomplishments, such as conquest in war, creativity, or intellect. Even though portraits of women, such as wives of the elite classes of Western nations, of the Virgin Mary, or mythological Venuses, are displayed in these art institutions, these female figures are depicted as delicate creatures whose fair, smooth skin mimic marble statues. This differs from the heroic caricature of the legendary men who are depicted with strong stances and surrounded by allusions or symbols that refer to their accomplishments. The difference between how women and men are depicted in art reflects how women have been viewed for centuries as lesser than men. Rather than viewing women as people who are equally capable of achieving the same goals and fostering the same thoughts, society has regarded women as containing handicaps because of their biological make-up. This relationship between the sexes can not only be seen from portraiture but also from depictions of popular stories from the Bible, mythology, and history. This study examines the artistic depictions of the story of Judith Beheading Holofernes from the Book of Judith across different historical eras. Each case study will attempt to demonstrate how women were viewed at a particular time of the painting. In order to accomplish this, historical research and stylistic analysis was conducted. The various depictions change in style and message. The goal of these case studies is to raise awareness to how women have been treated in the past in order to avoid succumbing to sexist stereotypes and to question the misogyny displayed through the history of art.
FEMINISM IN ART HISTORY The history of Western art has structured the way in which artists were trained and what was considered “good or acceptable art.” Periods like the Renaissance, when philosophers and artists harkened back to classical ideals and embraced humanism, as well as the dominance of the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in the 17th century, encouraged artists to create works that were reflective of the artistic skills of illusionism. They also emphasized the depictions of historical, biblical, or mythological events or stories to convey the ideals of the time, mostly nationalistic. When studying artistic eras or works of art that are significant VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 21
to human culture and are recognizable to most observers, one tends to notice the rarity of women artists despite the inclusion of female figures in portraiture or sculpture. This state of affairs was criticized and discussed during the Second Wave of Feminism, from the 1960s and 1970s, after centuries of normative tendencies of a male dominated artistic field. Before discussing the importance of this movement and what it has contributed to art history, it is vital to understand what ‘feminism’ means to society. Feminism is the struggle for the equality of the sexes, specifically women equal to men.1 At the root of any advocacy for feminist movements is the idea of seeking respect and dignity between sexes. What differs is the approach on how to achieve this equality, which is reflected in how female art historians and artists utilize feminism in their critique of art history and approach to art. For art historian Linda Nochlin pointing out the misogyny in Art History was a way in which to shed light on the importance of this equality. In 1972, she published “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” which was a question that exposed overlooked sexism in the history of art.2 Nochlin offered several answers to the question that she posed. First, women were excluded from the higher levels of artistic training as they were unable to have access to artistic methods that were needed to create historical paintings, such as nude figures. This is because women were not allowed to attend classes with live nude models, forcing them to only be able to participate in the lower level of painting, such as still-life. The artificiality of the enforced hierarchy of genre reinforced the belief that women artists were unable to be as great as the men who were able to paint grand historical paintings that require a specific artistic skill set. This underlies a greater sexist belief that, Nochlin argues, women were expected to not let art impact their ability to be a housewife or mother to their children. Although there have been successful female artists in the past, Nochlin points out that behind these female artists are connections to a male figure that gave her the resources and ability to practice art in more ways than others. In general, the overall argument that made her article so significant to the feminist movement of her time is that women artists were not able to have a great placement in art history due to the lack of equal opportunity in tailoring their artistic ability and access to resources, not due to inherent female characteristics or sex.3 Nochlin’s article reflects the tendency during the 1970s to not only question the past but also to seek a restructuring of the present in order for women and 1
Richard T. Schaefer, Sociology Matters (New York: McGraw Hill, 2013), 18.
2 Linda Nochlin, Women, Art, and Power and Other Essays, (Boulder: Westview Press, 1988), 147-158. 3...Michael Hatt and Charlotte Klonk, Art History: A Critical Introduction to its Methods, (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2006), 145-73 22 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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female artists to practice their art without restriction. In the arts, feminists strived to comment on patriarchy in two major ways. Some feminists strived to identify the essence of women, whether through biological or domestic imagery via the idea of “essentialism.”4 These individuals regarded femininity as biologically determined and that embracing the “feminine” and female biology differentiates women’s art from those of males. In doing so, women artists decided to embrace “central core” imagery that refers to female genitalia, as well as choose to work in arts that were deemed ‘women’s work’ such as textiles or quilting. For this type of feminist, highlighting the biology of women and its essence balanced the inequality of the sexes. Years later, feminists began to oppose this belief as they began to argue that gender is a social construct. In this belief, society and its institutions shape the characteristics deemed for each gender. Both approaches to dealing with feminism and the art world discern the difference between males and females but in different ways, the first through biology and the second through societal construction.5 Overall, the belief is that women are taught to conduct themselves in a certain manner that is based on the expectations of those with the most influence in society, most of whom are men. This can also be seen in the idea of the ‘male gaze,’ which refers to the way in which women perceive themselves and how they are represented in mediums such as billboards or portraiture based on sexual objectification and societal expectations for women.6 The approaches of feminism, such as critiquing the patriarchal tendency to exclude women and the notion of ‘male gaze,’ contribute to the study of women and how they were perceived in society during different historical eras, as the depiction of women relied on maledetermined societal standards. From the 1990s to present, the reaction to the revelations made during the 1960s-70s has shaped contemporary discussion of what it means to be a feminist and how history has shaped current conditions for women.7 This paper stems from these types of discussions.
THE STORY OF JUDITH One way to study a society’s perception of women is through the lens of a particular story. For this paper, the story of Judith Beheading Holofernes will provide the framework for studying the perception of women during different 4...Hatt and Klonk, Art History: A Critical Introduction to its Methods, 145-73 5...Ibid. 6 Ibid. 7 Ibid. VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 23
historical eras. In order to understand how this framework works, it is important to dissect what occurs during this particular story of Judith. The Book of Judith is a deuterocanonical text excluded from the Hebrew version of the Bible, since it was seen as allegorical rather than historical.8 The story begins in the Israelite town of Bethulia, which is under the control of general Holofernes, an Assyrian who is attempting to seize lands surrounding Jerusalem. At the Assyrian camp, Judith, a Jewish widow, tells the guards that she wants to help Holofernes and states “I am on my way to see Holofernes, the general of your army, to give him trustworthy information. I shall show him the road to take if he wants to capture all the hill-country without losing one man or one life” (Judith 12:13). Her beauty overwhelmed the guards of the camp who allowed her and her maid, Abra, inside. Once in contact with Holofernes, Judith informs him that her people “cannot be defeated unless they sin against their God…But…they are at the point of committing the fateful sin, for in their desperation, they are about to consume the food and wine that had been consecrated for the priests. Accordingly, Judith counsels Holofernes to sustain the siege.”9 Several days after entering the camp, Holofernes invites Judith to his tent for a feast. Her maid helps her to get ready in her finest clothing and they visit his tent. Holofernes drinks a large amount of wine and begins to sexually long for Judith but eventually falls asleep. As Abra stands outside Holofernes’ bedchamber, Judith takes his sword and cuts off his head. She gives the head to her maid who then places it inside of a bag filled with food. Judith and Abra exit the camp and return to their town. At Bethulia, she presents to her people Holofernes’ head who are then able to defeat the shocked Assyrians.10 The heroic story of Judith slaying Holofernes to save her people provides artists a substantial basis for composing a compelling narrative. But why this particular story? There are thousands of heroic epics, such as the Odyssey, or Biblical figures, such as David or Moses, whose themes could produce a great artwork. Countless stories describe famous instances of men sacrificing or putting their lives at risk for their nation, which makes them usual. A story of a female conducting the same feat is unusual, providing a different avenue for artists to explore. Although the selection of a female-centered story is distinctive, it does not prevent the tendency to base the depiction on sexist stereotypes of the time. The gender stereotypes are influenced by sexist beliefs, which leads to reductive characterizations of women. This can be seen in the depiction of another Biblical figure, the Virgin Mary, as she is represented as a delicate virgin or mother. The 8 Mary Garrard, Artemisia Gentileschi: The image of the female hero in Italian Baroque art (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989), 280. 9 Garrard, Artemisia Gentileschi: The image of the female hero in Italian Baroque art, 281. 10 The Bible. The New Interpreter’s Study Bible, Abingdon Press, 2003. 24 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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importance of avoiding any sign of sexuality when portraying the Virgin Mary, a figure whose story depends heavily on conception and becoming a mother, reflects the association of sex with sin and the importance of overcoming sexual desire through abstinence and virtue.11 The compulsion to categorize women, rather than fully presenting their complex personalities, demonstrates the sexist inclination to impose on women traits deemed womanly, which in turn helps to sustain male dominance in society. The artist’s interpretation determines the way in which the figures in the story are characterized. For Judith, this can mean her heroic act can be downplayed as she can be depicted in ways other than courageous, or based on what is appropriate for women at the time. To communicate the intended message, an artist must decide which moment of the story to depict. Particular to the event of Holoferenes’ beheading, an artist can choose to depict moments leading up to Judith’s kill, the actual moment, or the aftermath. With this being said, Judith’s story can easily turn into an example of a woman defying gender stereotypes in a negative way for people who believe that women should not assume male dominated roles. The belief that women are deceptive in nature, which will be explored in the next section, is seen in the renderings of Judith that undermined her heroic act. At times, an artist can pick a certain situation from the story and come up with a personal interpretation that can deviate from the nominal message of the story. In all of these artistic decisions, societal expectations for women at the time shaped the depiction, whether it results in continuing stereotypes or commenting on women’s place in society.
PRE-RENAISSANCE AND RENAISSANCE First, it is important to understand the way in which women were viewed in the years prior to the fourteenth century. The view of women towards the end of the Middle Ages will provide a source of comparison and contrast for following historical eras. As discussed previously, the tendency to place women in certain groups that were deemed female reflects the view that women were not complex beings. In this belief, people subscribed to stereotypes and criticized those who did not follow them. This was the case for women in the thirteenth century, as the search for witches by the Catholic Church became prevalent.12 The search for witchcraft is highlighted in the text Malleus maleficarum (‘Hammer of Witches’) written by Heinrich Kramer, a Dominican theologian and 11 12
Marina Warner, Alone of all her sex: the myth and the cult of the Virgin Mary (New York: Vintage Books, 1967). Heinrich Kramer, Malleus maleficarum (1486), excerpt, in Brian P. Levack ed., The Witchcraft Sourcebook (New York and London: Routledge, 2004), 57.
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inquisitor, in 1486. The ‘Hammer of Witches’ is a vital text for demonstrating the way in which women were viewed during this time. It claims that witches were feeble, sexual, and impressionable women. Describing women as unintelligent and deviously sexual shows that women were typically regarded as simple-minded and whose sexuality should be reserved for the purpose of creating children.13 Women were seen as easily susceptible to any outside influences, such as the handiwork of the Devil. These influences were believed to shape women’s perceptions effortlessly, since they were unintelligent and could fall into destructive behavior towards men.14 The patriarchal view of women continued in the fourteenth century, although theologians and philosophers also introduced new developments. In this reinterpretation of societal ideals is the role of women in relation to men. Although scholars at this time debunked previous notions of women, such as the belief that females were the result of an unfinished process in the Creation of Man,15 the patriarchal tradition of securing men’s superiority over women continued. The need for the dominance in society by men led to a paradox discussed by Renaissance theologians. This paradox lies in women’s ability to be strong in their weakness, which is seen in the story of Judith. Also, scholastic thought continued to associate women’s sexuality and beauty with sin. Despite the slight change in the realization of a woman’s value since Medieval thinking, the preconception of the inferiority of women in society did not falter.16 Renaissance artists developed a new style of art that not only served narrative purposes but also demonstrated the artist’s ability to create an illusion of the real world on a canvas. This was achieved using the Classical ideals of rationality, order, and realistic figures. One of the most prominent artists of this era is Florentine artist Sandro Botticelli, who depicted Judith in his painting “The Return of Judith to Bethulia” in 1470-72. In this painting, Judith is with her maid Abra, who is carrying the head of Holofernes, as they are walking back to Bethulia. Their figures, which are in close proximity to each other, are the primary focus of the painting. Judith’s shoulders incline towards her maid, giving the appearance that they are about to enter into conversation or listening intently to what was previously discussed. Judith’s facial expression is modest as her eyes are not fixed on anything in particular and her face lacks any sign of joy. Abra appears to be keenly focused on Judith since her facial expression communicates worry and concentration. 13 14 15
Heinrich Kramer, Malleus maleficarum (1486), excerpt, in Brian P. Levack ed., The Witchcraft Sourcebook (New York and London: Routledge, 2004), 60. Ibid., 62-63.
Ian Maclean, The Renaissance Notion of Woman: a Study in the Fortunes of Scholasticism and Medical Science in European Intellectual Life (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980), 2-27.
16
Maclean, The Renaissance Notion of Woman: a Study in the Fortunes of Scholasticism and Medical Science in European Intellectual Life, 2-27.
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Botticelli chooses not to depict the triumphant climax of Judith’s story and instead decides to reinterpret the Biblical story to fit his imagining of the event. Like women during the Renaissance, Judith’s female character was restricted. Botticelli’s Judith does not emphasize or convey any notion that a violent act occurred before the depicted scene. Although it was understood that her story is heroic, her accomplishment in this particular painting is not conveyed in a great sense of victory or courage. Her image to viewers is not that of committing a shocking act and its repercussions on the human psyche, but of a dreamy and subtle expression. Her story was unconventional for a woman and rather than celebrating this fact, Botticelli decided to conform to conventions of depicting female characters.
ITALIAN BAROQUE Beyond the cultural flourishing of the Renaissance, the status of women in the seventeenth century is slightly different but generally the same. Chastity was treated as sacred, but premarital sex was occasionally also considered as part of the courtship process.17 While women from previous centuries were shamed for not maintaining their virginity until marriage, women who did so during the seventeenth century did not lose as much of their value to prospective husbands. Even non-consensual intercourse was seen as a continuation of their courtship. At the center of this view of sexuality is sustained focus on a woman’s sexuality as her main feature.18 This is reflected in the artistic career of Italian female painter Artemisia Gentileschi. Unlike the other artists discussed in this paper, Artemisia Gentileschi was a female painter. Born and trained in Rome, Gentileschi worked in the popular style of her time, which was characterized as dramatic and heavily emotional in composition and brushstroke.19 Gentileschi’s successful career as a female artist during a time when the upper echelons of the art world were closed to women made her an important figure in feminist art history. However, there are several important things to remember when discussing the work of an artist like Gentileschi. While it is significant to set Gentileschi apart for her accomplishments as a female artist of her time, she should not be critiqued separately from her male counterparts based solely on her gender. Also, despite her frequent treatments of female heroines and 17 18 19
Elizabeth S Cohen, The Trials of Artemisia Gentileschi: A Rape as History, The Sixteenth Century Journal31, no. 1 (200): 47-75. doi: 10.2307/2671289.
.
Ibid., 47-75
.
Garrard, Artemisia Gentileschi: The image of the female hero in Italian Baroque art, 323
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sexual themes, it is vital to not focus on Gentileschi’s sexuality as the only driving force for her art. As previously mentioned, even though woman’s sexual desire was regarded more liberally in Gentileschi’s time, the tendency to view sexuality as a prominent feature of a woman remained. In general, Gentileschi should be regarded as a proficient artist who happened to be female and who utilized her own experiences of sexuality. Her art should not be interpreted only through the lens of her biography. One of Gentileschi’s most famous works is Judith Slaying Holofernes, of which she painted two versions from 1614-20. This paper will focus on the second version, which is located at the Uffizi in Florence, Italy. In this version, Judith is in the process of beheading Holofernes, while her maid Abra is holding his arms that are thrashing around due to the agonizing pain. The blood squirting from his head is exceptionally graphic and the dramatic light leads the viewers gaze to his head and Judith’s figure. Judith’s face is determined and her figure is in an active, assertive motion. The dark background brings forth all of the figures which heightens the dramatic action of the painting.20 The decision to pick this specific moment illustrates Gentileschi’s intention to dramatically show the moment Judith is slaying Holofernes. Gentileschi’s depiction is inspired by the work Judith Beheading Holofernes by Italian painter Michelangelo Caravaggio. However, Caravaggio’s Judith is tentative as she does not hold the sword straight down in a violent motion. She has a worried facial expression and is not completing the action with the same conviction as Gentileschi’s Judith, who is relishing the moment. Gentileschi’s Judith pushes Holofernes’ head down towards her to accomplish the beheading and has a determined look in her face. Judith’s maid in Caravaggio’s work is not helping Judith and stands to the side of the composition, while Abra in Gentileschi’s paintings is holding Holofernes down. Gentileschi’s depiction shows the male as the victim and the female as the triumphant hero. Judith in this painting defies sexiest stereotypes of women but also appears to be threatening, a trait usually attributed to valiant women. Although her bosom is seen in the work, it is neither completely covered nor on display which makes her figure less sexualized. Where sexuality becomes the focal point is in the artist’s decision to depict this story and the particular moment. During this time, the Catholic Church encouraged religious imagery in art as a response to the Reformation. In Judith Slaying Holofernes, Judith is not connected with the Virgin Mary like previous depictions, since Gentileschi did not want Judith to be a passive figure. This is different from the Biblical images painted by 20
.
Garrard, Artemisia Gentileschi: The image of the female hero in Italian Baroque art, 321-323
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her contemporaries who strived for viewers to feel emotion and reflect upon the portrayed stories. Although her work is inspired by Caravaggio’s Judith Beheading Holofernes in artistic style, Gentileschi does not depict Judith as a delicate figure like Caravaggio’s work, which fails to present Judith as a hero of her people who restrains the dark masculine side of Holofernes.21 While other painters followed the mission of the Church, Gentileschi moved away from it and attempted to evoke emotion in a different way. Gentileschi’s approach to this painting can become overshadowed by the events that happened in her real life. The story of Judith as a woman successfully luring Holofernes, who sexually desired her, to his death is often paralleled with Gentileschi’s experience with rape.22 However, some art historians like Elizabeth Cohen believe that people should not interpret Gentileschi’s decision to paint the moment Judith is killing Holofernes as the result of being raped in her own life. This is because it implies that her rape is a driving force for her artwork, placing her sexuality as the main characteristic of her personality and sexualizes her artistic career. This detracts from her artistic achievements and alienates her from the rest of her field.23 In the accounts of her rape trial, Gentileschi is characterized as active and energetic, not passive and anxious.24 Despite the strife of her situation, she defended herself and her reputation. She represented the bold and assertive women in her society who embraced their sexuality. However, where Gentileschi’s artistic depiction of Judith moves away from previous portrayals, sexist ideals still remained and appeared in art of the period. This is seen in the work of another Italian Baroque painter, Massimo Stanzione titled Judith with the Head of Holofernes. In Stanzione’s work Judith is pictured with a clean, bloodless head of Holofernes inside of a satchel that her maid is holding. Judith’s eyes are looking towards heaven which reflects the religious intention for the work and her facial expression is somewhat nonchalant. Stazione depicts the aftermath of the killing, in contrast with Gentileschi’s approach, and is less dramatic. Stazione’s Judith exhibits the passive figure Gentileschi was attempting to avoid in her work. These two paintings indicate the reality of the time as women like Gentileschi were pushing women’s role in society and the arts forward, while contending with traditional notions of women and gender. 21 22 23 24
Garrard, Artemisia Gentileschi: The image of the female hero in Italian Baroque art, 290-291. Cohen, The Trials of Artemisia Gentileschi: A Rape as History, 47-75. Ibid.
.
Ibid
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ART NOUVEAU AND VIENNA SECESSION MOVEMENT The birth of Modernism and the revolution of the understanding of the human psyche shaped the turn of the 20th century. This period saw reactions against the ethics of previous centuries, especially regarding the purpose of art and the concept of gender. Art began to move against the criteria set by the Royal French Academy of Painting and Sculpture, which favored rationality and order in style, developed a hierarchy of genre, and shaped what was considered “good” art through Salons and public opinion. Some artists with more radical ideas moved away from the idea of art as being an illusion of reality and grappled with the notion of art as paint on a canvas. Artists of the Viennese Secession Movement rejected the historical approach to painting that the Royal French Academy of Painting and Sculpture championed. With this new concept of art came new ideas from psychologist Sigmund Freud. Freud argues that the human psyche contains a conscious and unconscious mind. The unconscious mind was understood to contain repressed thoughts and memories.25 This influenced the art world as it brought forth a different understanding of reality and acknowledged art as a vessel for artists to communicate deep levels of their mind. These developments, as well as the transformation of society from agrarian to industrial, formed the way in which people approached their lives. In this transformative time, patriarchal attitudes remained. While the men in this changing society were at the forefront of revolutionary movements, women were left behind and regarded as threatening to the male agenda.26 These movements brought radical possibilities for some men, while women were not given the same opportunities. Women in this period were able to participate in certain male dominated jobs but they were seen as rivals. Women also fought for voting rights and criticized the patriarchy for not allowing them to be seen as equals in this developing time. Women, especially in the class-driven society of Vienna, Austria, were seen as “sweet young things,” “poor creatures,” or “worthless females.”27 This stems from the idea that a woman’s purpose in life was to marry well, not for herself but for her family’s societal status.28 A woman’s sexuality was at the center of her worth, and she was not allowed to be alone in social gatherings. If a female were to make a mistake, such as having an affair or seducing men, she was seen as a whore. In retaliation to this, women began to embrace their eroticism and 25 26 27 28
Catherine Dean. Klimt. (London: Phaidon, 1996), 5.
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Tobias Natter, Gerbert G,Frodl, and Österreichische Galerie Belvedere. Klimt’s Women. (New Haven: DuMont, 2000), 14-17 Natter, Frodl, and Österreichische Galerie Belvedere. Klimt’s Women, 29-30. Ibid.
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their freedom to express their sexuality as they pleased, whether deciding to be chaste or sexually active. This shows the emerging idea of the “modern woman,” which would develop further in the following centuries. However, men viewed these “modern women” as a threat, influencing their erotic characterization in art.29 Viennese artist Gustav Klimt embraced this view of female eroticism in his art work. His artistic catalog consists of portraits of women who were either his models or members of the Viennese upper class. He embraced the contemporary ideas of art to depict women two-dimensionally and as references of nature. Klimt refers to his psyche to communicate the idea of his art rather than solely focusing on historical source material.30 Klimt achieves this in his work Judith I, which was painted in 1901. Unlike previous pieces depicting the story of Judith, Klimt models Judith after a contemporary social elite Viennese woman, Adele Bloch-Bauer. In this painting, Judith’s facial expression is sensual as her mouth is half-open and her gaze is erotic due to her half-closed eyelids and the tilt of her head. Klimt’s Judith takes pleasure in holding the head of Holofernes, which is different from the pious Biblical Judith. She is wearing an ornate garment that reveals parts of her torso and breasts which is strikingly unlike previous depictions of Judith, who were maidenlike and less sexual. There is no religious imagery besides the Biblical source of the story and the primary focus of the work is to show Judith as a sensual figure, comfortable with her sexuality. Klimt objectifies women in his work. Even though he departs from the habit to show women as idealized Venuses, feeble creatures, or prostitutes, Klimt reflects the way in which women were treated in his society by relying on them for his artistic success. In his depiction of females like Judith, the ornamentation and sensual forms of his work camouflage the true character of his subject. As he celebrates the freedom of female eroticism, he still diminishes women down to their sexuality. His eager female models are left behind the praise of his artistry. Klimt’s traditional tendencies in this regard contradicts his achievement in leading a group of artists called the Viennese Secession, who revolted against the artistic norms of their culture. He mirrors the modern male members of his society who accepted certain changes but did not desire to address women’s rights.31 Women were seen as a threat to men’s control because of the ownership of their sexuality. Klimt showed female sexuality in his work not for the benefit of women but for the male gaze and sensual fantasy. 29 30 31
Natter, Frodl, and Österreichische Galerie Belvedere. Klimt’s Women, 36-37. Ibid., 26-27 Ibid., 14-17
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CONTEMPORARY ART From the 1960s to present day, postmodernism drives the issues surrounding contemporary art. Postmodernism reacted against the criteria set by Modernism, such as the rejection of illusionism and the focus on artistic process. The need for an avant-garde style of art to dominate ended and pluralism in medium and subject matter was embraced. Pluralistic art strives to reflect society’s globalism by depicting different cultures, for example normally unrepresented African Americans or Chicano people, in various mediums. For centuries, as this paper has explored, women have been treated as lesser in society. However, female minorities are further marginalized due to racism and are seldom represented in art. It is easy for feminists and art institutions to seek gender equality while excluding women of color.32 At the same time, the contemporary notions of gender are shaped by institutions and society. The experience of women of color, the new ideas surrounding gender, and the constant development of “what is art?” forms the way in which today’s artists, female or male, create artwork. People today are seen as contingent beings, influenced by their environment.33 The role of perception is brought forth as artists strive for viewers to question their own life experience and how they perceive others. By calling into question the role of perception, people can ponder about the conditions of society, such as the lack of representation of women, specifically minorities. African American artist Kehinde Wiley explores these themes in his work by creating monumental portraits of African American people whose poses reference previous paintings in art history. Wiley critiques the Western tradition of portraiture for its tendency to represent individuals of higher social status. He works primarily with oil on canvas and in doing so draws attention to the historical practice of portrait painting and provides a contrast between his work and previous work. By using poses from previous paintings, he forces viewers to reconsider the Western artistic convention of depicting male subjects as superior. Not only is he depicting a figure based on his own perception through investigation of culture, real-life experience, and study of art history but he is also asking the viewers to bring into discussion the role of their own perception in shaping the way in which they view the work. Wiley and Golden comment on the absence of people of color on art galleries and disprove the notion that Caucasian and African American people exist in different realms of reality.34 32 33 34
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Whitney Chadwick. Women, Art, and Society. (New York: Thames and Hudson,1990), 316-354 Ibid., 378-422. Kehinde Wiley and Thelma Golden. Kehinde Wiley. (New York: Rizzoli, 2012), 21.
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Wiley’s examination of race and culture for his art comes to fruition in his work Judith and Holofernes (2012). His depiction of Judith is vastly different than those previously discussed. In this work, Judith is represented as an African American female who is holding the head of Holofernes. Judith’s body is twisted in an active pose and her gaze, mouth, and jaw is firm. She is wearing a contemporary dress and is set against a floral background, which fights for the viewer’s attention and causes tension. Judith as an African American woman deviates from other depictions and comments on the racial inequality of the art world and society. This is because of the rarity of viewing this specific depiction of Judith. Wiley is affirming the identity of women of color while calling into question the racism in art history. Judith and Holofernes creates a perplexing experience that makes the viewer uncomfortable, bringing attention to how the figure is depicted and the viewer’s own perception.
CONCLUSION The case studies of the depictions of Judith beheading Holofernes over several centuries provide an overview of how women were regarded in society during these times. The status of women has changed since the Renaissance as women are less frequently seen as helpless muses and reliant on men. Nonetheless, traditional stereotypes of women exist and it is a mission for artists today to continue to comment on sexism and react against the misogyny of the art world. As for the audience of the art world, it is critical to constantly analyze how women, like Judith, are being depicted. In doing so, the status of women in society is revealed, which provides a means of societal and self scrutiny.
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SECOND P L AC E S UB M I SS I ON
A TRIPLE THREAT: CONNECTIONS AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BODY DYSMORPHIC DISORDER, OBSESSIVECOMPULSIVE DISORDER, AND ANOREXIA NERVOSA ANNA GABRIELLE PATARINKSI Major: Psychology Class of 2021
ABOUT THE WORK This literature review was created as the final product for Honors 110: Research Methods. The goal of this course is to introduce incoming freshman to the various reasoning, searching, and writing methods involved in the academic research process. We first began by identifying a general topic of interest, searching databases to begin narrowing that topic in scope, and focusing on a manageable, original, and engaging research question. I began my search knowing that I wanted to examine individual concerns with body image, and as I continued to delve deeper into the conversations surrounding this broad topic, I realized I wanted to address it through the lens of mental health disorders. Naturally, as a psychology major with a neuroscience minor, the underlying disordered characteristics surrounding negative body image concerns appealed to my intellectual curiosity. I noticed patterns in the existing literature suggesting a connection between the specific disorders of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and anorexia nervosa (AN),. I centered my paper around these disorders, and through the help of my peers and my professor, I decided which connections and differences to address. By addressing the neurology, pathophysiology, etiology, comorbidity, and phenomenology, a connection appears to exist between the three disorders: BDD, OCD, and AN . The findings of this paper are significant due to their implications for future diagnostic criteria listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and for establishing effective treatment methods.
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ABSTRACT This critical literature review will detail the similarities and differences between three disorders, body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and anorexia nervosa (AN), through an examination of their phenomenology, etiology, neurology, pathophysiology, comorbidity, and treatment methods. Current studies suggest that these disorders are often comorbid with each other, and that both BDD and AN may have connections to OCD, as well as with each other. It is important to analyze and develop these connections due to their potential uses in amending future clinical diagnostic criteria/processes and pharmacological and therapeutic treatment methods. There is not yet enough research available in the field to draw definitive conclusions about these relationships. In order to gain a better understanding, more studies need to be conducted that specifically put an emphasis on genetics, etiology, pathophysiology, and/or neurology, since these are the least talked-about within the scholarly conversation, while also directly comparing the three disorders, or different combinations of them.
A TRIPLE THREAT: CONNECTIONS AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BODY DYSMORPHIC DISORDER, OBSESSIVECOMPULSIVE DISORDER, AND ANOREXIA NERVOSA The focus of this review is the increasingly complex and intertwined relationships between body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and anorexia nervosa (AN). Connections have long since been suspected between these three similar yet intricate disorders; this review will detail the various commonalities and differences found throughout the current literature available in the field in an effort to shed more light on the potential connections found in the disorders. BDD is defined as a significantly distressing preoccupation with a real or perceived flaw in someone’s appearance that is also associated with a repetitive behavior (American Psychological Association [APA], 2013, p. 242). It is a relatively new disorder and recent studies have found that it is often underdiagnosed in patients due to shame or embarrassment in speaking about symptoms or the belief that the physician would not understand the concerns they possess about their image (Phillips & Feusner, 2010). According to the APA (2013), OCD is characterized by “recurrent and persistent thoughts… the individual attempts to ignore or suppress… with some other thought or action” (p. 237). With the publication of the fifth edition of the VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 35
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) in 2013, BDD was placed under a new category of disorders with OCD called “Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders,” and a new diagnostic criterion for BDD was also listed that included repetitive behaviors as part of the disorder definition (Ameringen, Patterson, & Simpson, 2014). These new diagnostic guidelines showcase the important developments in the research surrounding these two disorders, since BDD was previously categorized as a somatoform disorder in the older editions of the DSM. BDD also has a significant subtype, which has gained more attention in recent years called muscle dysmorphia. Muscle dysmorphia is a preoccupation with one’s appearance, specifically relating to a concern with one’s leanness or muscular build that is most common in males (APA, 2013). Anorexia Nervosa is the deadliest psychiatric disorder, with a mortality rate of roughly 10% (Arcleus, Mitchell, Wales & Nielsen, 2011). Those suffering from AN experience an “intense fear of gaining weight or of becoming fat” and dangerously restrict their energy intake in response to this fear; they also generally experience a high level of delusionality about their disorder, being unable to recognize a dangerously low weight level and a “disturbance in the way in which one’s body weight or shape is experienced” (APA, 2013, p. 338). This means that despite the efforts of friends, family, or physicians, an individual suffering from AN will likely be unable to see their body as anything other than the distorted and inevitably “fat” version of themselves that they perceive in a mirror. There are two subtypes of AN identified within the DSM-5, restricting type and binge-eating/purging type (APA, 2013). There has long been speculation about the connections between the various combinations of these disorders that are often prevalent in clinical patients. Numerous research articles have been published examining the nuanced relationships and symptomology between them. This research will take these evaluations a step further by proposing that an underlying connection may exist between all three disorders. The past research connecting BDD to OCD contributed to the eventual change in the DSM for the diagnosis of the disorder (Ameringen et al., 2014), and it even created a new category within the manual (APA, 2013). It appears logical that AN is related to OCD in some capacity. AN is a significantly distressing obsession with one’s weight, which is then acted upon with a repetitive and destructive compulsion of severely restrictive eating. A significant delusionality about one’s appearance is also the driving force behind the disorder, which is highly similar to BDD. A person suffering from AN experiences dysphoria about their own body, not believing anyone who tells them their weight may be dangerously low. This discussion is important because roughly 3% of the population suffers from 36 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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an eating disorder (“Eating Disorder Statistics,” n.d.), about 2% suffers from OCD (“Some OCD Facts,” n.d.), and approximately 2% from BDD (Phillips, 2014). However, as many sources show, these issues are not only within the United States. If such a significant percentage of the population is affected by these disorders, research that contributes valuable information to their connections is highly desirable. Examining this research may impact what is currently known in terms of diagnosis and treatment. If similar genetic or neurological roots or abnormalities are found at the intersection of the three disorders, it is possible that treatment that works for one disorder would work for another. The comorbid relationships within the three disorders may indicate diagnostic potential, meaning that screening processes for clinical diagnoses may need to be amended to reflect new findings.
PHENOMENOLOGY Current research surrounding this topic focuses on analyzing the relationships between different combinations of the three disorders from varying perspectives, though most are phenomenologically focused. The majority of the current scholarly conversation surrounds BDD and OCD, likely due to the recent diagnostic change within the DSM-5. According to Ameringen, Patterson, and Simpson (2014), the new addition of the Obsessive Compulsive and Related Disorders (OCRDs) section was created in an attempt “to maximize both diagnostic validity and clinical utility by grouping diagnostic constructs together using similarities in both behavioral phenotypes and underlying pathophysiology” (p.487). This means that these changes came about by examining the observable characteristics of these disorders and the disordered physiological processes associated with them; therefore, it is vital to consider the phenomenology and symptoms of each of these disorders and how they may relate. An important aspect to consider about BDD and its relation to OCD is the degree of insight that a patient may or may not have in relation to their disorder. BDD is usually associated with higher degrees of delusionality than OCD is; in other words, those diagnosed with BDD generally believe that their defect is as severe as they think it is, and those with OCD are generally aware that their compulsions are unreasonable and do not make much sense to others (Frare, Perugi, Ruffalo, & Toni, 2004; Toh, Castle, & Rossell, 2017). According to Frare and colleagues (2004), “many patients may be described as frankly delusional—they are completely convinced that their view of the supposed defect is completely accurate and undistorted, and they are inaccessible to reassurances or proof to the contrary” (p. 293). In the DSM-5, OCD VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 37
and BDD both now include specifications within their diagnostic criteria regarding the level at which the patient may be delusional, which were previously categorized under different sections in the manual—psychotic disorders and delusional disorders, respectively (APA, 2013; Ameringen et al., 2014). Those with AN, OCD, and BDD exhibit traits of perfectionism and neuroticism, and particularly with BDD, a heightened aesthetic sensitivity (Feusner, Neziroglu, Wilhelm, Mancusi, & Bohon, 2010; Phillips & Kaye, 2007; Pollack & Forbush, 2013). According to Feusner and colleagues (2010), “BDD subjects appear to be more likely than others to notice minor deviations from beauty standards” (p. 351) and according to Phillips and Kaye (2007), are more likely to have a career in an arts field. This correlates with BDD subjects’ heightened attention to detail, overvaluation of beauty, as well as their quickness to judge a perceived flaw within themselves, often underestimating their own level of attractiveness and overestimating that of others (Feusner et al., 2010). One of the key similarities between OCD, BDD, and AN is the prevalence of forms of checking behaviors or preoccupations with certain behavioral “safety” compulsions. Compulsive behaviors are most typically characteristic of OCD, however both BDD and AN exhibit them as well; the key difference is that in BDD and AN, the behaviors are focused on the concern of appearance and in OCD the concern is fear of contamination, or something similar (Breithaupt, Payne, & Rose, 2014; Frare et al., 2014). These compulsions tend to exist as a result of attempting to rectify unwanted mental intrusions, for example, persistent thoughts about food, exercise, body image concerns, or other compulsive thoughts, which all three disorders often exhibit; these mental intrusions may exist as a transdiagnostic variable (Pascual-Vera, Sanchis, & Fuster, 2017). Body checking is a behavioral action that occurs as a result of overvaluation of appearance and the negative feelings associated with personal body image (Breithaupt et al., 2014; Pollack & Forbush, 2013). These behaviors alleviate anxiety associated with uncertainty and distrust of an individual’s previous actions, or as a manifestation of body image distress (Breithaupt et al. 2014), and are often obsessional and difficult to resist performing (Frare et al., 2004). Safety behaviors include camouflaging, mirror gazing, comparison, reassurance seeking, touching, frequent weighing, compulsive checking, excessive grooming, cleaning, ritualized compulsions, or avoiding one’s own image, to name a few (Pollack & Forbush, 2013; Toh et al., 2017). These compulsions often inevitably lead to avoidant behaviors, in turn, creating social isolation and functional impairment, most particularly in patients with BDD, possibly due to their tendency to interpret neutral faces and situations as threatening (Feusner et al., 2010; Frare et al.,2014; Toh et al., 2017). One key 38 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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difference between OCD compulsions and AN compulsions are that AN patients are ego-syntonic, meaning that they “feel compelled to perform these rituals and behaviors, even though these behaviors may lead to anxiety,” they are not unwanted, while OCD compulsions are unwanted, or ego-dystonic (Kaye et al., 1991; Phillips & Kaye, 2007, p.251).
COMORBIDITY AND MANIFESTATION OF SYMPTOMS Frare, Perugi, Ruffolo, and Toni compared BDD to OCD in terms of clinical features and the presence of other psychiatric comorbidities (2004). Through their study, they found that comorbid BDD-OCD may “indicate a particularly severe form of the syndrome, with a greater load of psychopathology and functional impairment” (Frare et al., 2004, p. 292). This finding correlated with another study by Grant, Kim, and Eckert (2002) in which it was found that patients with comorbid AN and BDD “were a clinically more severely ill group than those without comorbid body dysmorphic disorder” as well as having an earlier age of onset for AN (p. 295). These findings are significant, as the symptomatology of someone diagnosed with all three disorders (AN, BDD, and OCD) would likely manifest itself as a severe combination of the three, likely with higher rates of depression and suicidal ideation as well (Frare et al., 2014). Mood disorders, such as depression or anxiety, are the most common comorbid disorders for AN, BDD, and OCD, alongside substance abuse disorders (APA, 2013; Toh et al., 2017). However, OCD is on par with major depressive disorder for being most comorbid with BDD (Frare et al., 2004). Due to the impaired social functioning mentioned previously for subjects with BDD, AN, or one of the two comorbid with OCD, these groups are more likely to be unmarried, unemployed, and less educated than OCD patients (Frare et al., 2004; Toh et al., 2017). Current research points to a more common prevalence of comorbid OCD in BDD rather than vice versa (Toh et al., 2017). In a study examining 672 participants with eating disorders, 41% of them were also able to be clinically diagnosed with OCD; correlating with this, recent studies have found that it is increasingly common to have OCD and then be diagnosed with an eating disorder as well (Phillips & Kaye, 2007).
ETIOLOGY AND GENETIC FACTORS Unfortunately, minimal information is available in the literature discussing the VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 39
various causes or genetic factors of OCD, BDD, or AN. It is important to note that AN and BDD share the same age of onset for the disorder, typically beginning in early adolescence and following a similar course of illness (Grant, Kim, & Eckert, 2002; Madsen et al., 2013). According to Murao et al. (2017), “the etiology of AN as a whole has been linked to neural systems associated with hunger regulation, cognitive control, self-regulation, and reward processing” (p. 648). The etiology of OCD may, in part, be due to abnormalities in the orbitofrontal-subcortical part of the brain (Atmaca et al., 2010). Both genetic and environmental factors play a part in the etiology of BDD, with social learning and the reinforcement of negative thoughts through operant conditioning ensuring that the disorder and its adverse social avoidance effects are maintained (Feusner et al., 2010). Typically, events in a person’s childhood, such sexual, emotional, or physical abuse, or verbal and physical teasing about appearance can cause long-term effects, imprinting distorted bodyimage cognitions and developing BDD into the future (Feusner et al., 2010). Most significant, however, is the fact that the most common disorder found in familial history through first and second degree probands for both BDD and AN is OCD, indicating potential important genetic connections (Feusner et al., 2010; Frare et al., 2014; Madsen, Bohon, & Feusner, 2013; Phillips & Kaye, 2007; Toh et al., 2017). Phillips and Kaye (2007) found that “BDD occurred significantly more frequently in first-degree relatives of OCD probands than control probands,” which indicates that there may be familial ties between the two disorders (p. 349).
NEUROLOGY AND PATHOPHYSIOLOGY Perception is an incredibly complex and personal phenomenon composed of several visual processing systems intertwined with an individual’s own subjective “cognitive and emotional processes” (Madsen et al., 2013, p.1484). The parietal lobe is what regulates body image perception (Phillips & Kaye, 2007). When examining BDD own-face viewing specifically, a pattern of hyperactivity in the frontostriatal systems similar to that of OCD emerges when analyzing compulsive BDD behaviors (Feusner et al., 2010). A study by Moody et al. found that both BDD and AN have “similar abnormal functional connectivity… for face processing… but distinct abnormal connectivity problems within occipitotemporal visual networks” (Moody et al., 2015, p. 3491). This may be a cause for the high lack of proper bodily self-concept in people diagnosed with BDD and AN. It has been shown that BDD likely involves dysfunctional ownface processing, as well as even more detail-oriented processing than AN (Feusner 40 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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et al., 2010; Li et al., 2015; Madsen et al., 2013). Overall, hyper attention to detail with an impaired ability to integrate features or perceive stimuli globally, found in patients with AN and/or BDD, leads to heightened flaw detection and delusional distortions associated with the perception of beauty (Feusner et al., 2010; Li et al., 2015; Madsen et al., 2013). In patients with AN, this may be caused in part by decreased retinal nerve fiber layer thickness, causing atypical visual processing (Li et al., 2015; Madsen et al., 2013). For patients with BDD, this may be linked to the unusual functional activation found within the temporal lobe, a region responsible for facial recognition in one’s self and in others, indicating that abnormalities in this lobe may be a part of BDD’s pathophysiology (Grace et al., 2016). The most commonly studied neurological component for each disease appeared to be the decrease in global and regional gray matter volume (which consists of neuronal cell bodies). Both AN and BDD results failed to show a decrease in any white matter volume (which consists of neuronal axons), only in gray matter volume, which is different from previous studies conducted on OCD, showing a decrease in white matter (Phillips & Kaye, 2007; Muhlau et al., 2007). Decreases in total gray matter volume have been demonstrated in both BDD and AN, alongside regional gray matter volume decreases in brain regions, such as in the extrastriate body area, involved in perception of the human body, for patients with AN, and in the left inferior parietal and left middle temporal regions, both associated with face and selfperception, for patients with BDD (Grade et al., 2016; Madsen et al., 2013). Both BDD and OCD are found to have volumetric abnormalities with the thalamus and the orbitofrontal cortex, which coordinate information traveling between different cortical regions (Atmaca et al., 2010). When analyzing brain morphemic changes in patients with AN, similarities were found in the anterior cingulate cortex to abnormalities found in OCD, which directly correlated to the severity of the patients’ AN, indicating potential involvement in AN’s pathophysiology (Bar, Cruz, Berger, Schultz, & Wagner, 2015; Muhlau et al., 2007). The anterior cingulate cortex is a “multimodal region where complex phenomena, such as emotion, internal drives, reward seeking, attention, higher cognitive function, and learning, are functionally integrated” (Muhlau et al., 2007, p. 1856). Other evidence includes a source that studied the degree connectivity relationships between OCD and BDD and found that key parts of the brain for these disorders include the amygdala (associated with fear regulation), the orbitofrontal cortex (connected to avoidance of punishment and goal-oriented behavior), the thalamus, and the left midbrain (Atmaca et al., 2010; Beuke et al., 2016). Decreased gray matter volume in the temporal gyrus is related to “body dissatisfaction that could come from impaired visuospatial perception” (Kohmura et al., 2017, p. 51). Abnormal pain VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018
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processing in patients with AN may “point toward specific cerebral morphological impairments which can be considered not as a direct consequence of malnutrition, but rather as a premorbid symptom of AN that accompanies neuropsychological impairments” (Bar et al., 2015, p. 277). This distinction is key, since it is unclear in current research whether the effects of malnutrition on the brain would allow for proper comparison of patients with eating disorders to patients with OCD (Phillips & Kaye, 2007).
TREATMENT METHODS Despite clinical differences between the disorders, one commonality between the three is the proven effectiveness of selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) as a first line treatment for reducing symptom severity, with the most commonly prescribed SSRI being escitalopram, since it is found to be the most effective (Ameringen et al., 2014; Grant et al., 2002; Toh et al., 2017). This may suggest similar pathology among the disorders. Other effective medications in the treatment of BDD include fluoxetine, clomipramine, and desipramine (Phillips et al., 2016). The dosage of escitalopram used to treat disorders like BDD and OCD is considerably higher than what is typically used to treat anxiety and depression (Phillips et al., 2016). In a study conducted by Phillips et al. (2016), the continued use of escitalopram was tested to see how it might affect symptoms and relapse rates among patients with BDD, finding that “continuous-phase escitalopram delayed time to relapse, and fewer escitalopram-treated subjects relapsed than did placebo-treated subjects” and that its use was just as effective on delusional subjects as non-delusional ones (p. 887). Differences lie in the additional use of antipsychotic medication for the treatment of OCD and in the use of cognitive-behavioral therapy for the treatment of poor insight found in both AN and BDD (Ameringen et al., 2014). This type of therapy focuses on “appearance related thoughts and behaviors” as well as the use of habit reversal techniques (Phillips & Kaye, 2007, p.350). Similar to OCD, therapy involving exposure and response prevention has proved effective in the treatment of BDD (Phillips & Kaye, 2007). Due to the high degrees of comorbidity between OCD and its related disorders, it may be beneficial for clinicians to assess patients for obsessivecompulsive related disorders if one has already been diagnosed (Ameringen et al., 2014).
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A TRIPLE THREAT: BDD, OCD, AND AN
DISCUSSION Further research needs to be done analyzing the relationships between BDD, OCD, and AN, specifically emphasizing genetics, etiology, pathophysiology, and neurology, since these are the least discussed within the scholarly conversation. There is not enough research in the field that examines the environmental or genetic bases of these disorders; however, it is vital to understand pathological roots to develop effective treatment methods. In regard to treatment methods, more experiments should be conducted to test the effectiveness of a broader range of medications and also on the effectiveness of various kinds of therapy, particularly focusing on compulsive behaviors found throughout the disorders. Another key factor to examine would be the effectiveness of just therapy in treating a disorder and relapse prevention after discontinuing an effective medication. The field of clinical psychology would benefit from studies that utilize larger and more diverse sample sizes to increase generalizability. Smaller, longitudinal studies could contribute more detail to these broader experiments. Since technology in the field of neuroimaging is constantly being updated, more neurological and pathophysiological studies should be conducted to determine exactly which structures in the brain are impacted by these disorders and to determine which brain abnormalities cause the disorders. More research needs to be done comparing the three disorders directly, or some combination of the three, in order to better understand similarities and differences surrounding them.
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THIRD PLACE SUBMISSION
BLOOD SOAKED FATIGUES AND CONTESTED MEMORY: FEMALE SERVICE AND REMEMBRANCE OF THE VIETNAM WAR THOMAS JAMES SPINO Major: History Class of 2017
ABOUT THE WORK Written for my undergraduate capstone course, History 499: Late 20th Century U.S. Women’s History, this paper asserts the importance of an individual, subjective story of a female Army combat trauma nurse within the broad context of the Vietnam War. The nurse, Lynda Van Devanter, wrote a memoir, Home Before Morning, which serves as the main source of this project. Van Devanter’s graphic account of the war also serves as the inspiration for a television show, China Beach, which is also analyzed. Through the analysis of Van Devanter’s memoir and various episodes of China Beach, this paper confronts the contested memory of the Vietnam War and explores how individual accounts can shed some degree of truth to a confusing and divisive conflict. This research revises current scholarship in two ways: first, it avoids the overdone binary method of study seen in general Vietnam War scholarship. Rather than asking large thematic questions about the war, this paper emphasizes the individual experience to the collective narrative. Conflicts like World War II are filled with the study of individual accounts, but the subjective, individual story is usually glossed over in Vietnam War scholarship. Second, this paper focuses on the process of memory versus the account of history. History is a series of subjective but authenticated truths, while memory serves as the selective process of remembering and forgetting truths. Memory is an ongoing process of remembrance and ignorance. Van Devanter’s story and the greater memory of the Vietnam War encompass the themes of civil-military relations, gender equality, female military service, American collective memory, the American film and television industries, domestic and international political policy, and the awareness and advocacy of American veterans. 44 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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One weekend I visited an old friend, another dialysis nurse, who lived next to a volunteer fire department on Long Island. I was in the bathroom getting ready to go out to dinner when the siren went off. The sound was exactly the same as it had been in Pleiku. I dropped to the floor. Suddenly, I was back in Vietnam and we were under a rocket attack, except I realized I was safe on Long Island. I kept saying to myself that it was okay, yet I couldn’t stop myself from low crawling to the living room to ask what happened. I was met by four well-dressed women who thought I was playing some sort of silly joke. When they saw the sweat on my forehead, they realized there was no joke. An embarrassing silence followed while I got up from the floor. I was disoriented. “I’m sorry,” I said to my host. “I feel silly, but that sound-” ”The siren?” “Yes. That was our red alert in Pleiku.” They all looked at me as if I were crazy. I excused myself and freshened my makeup. Later that night, over dinner, one of the women said, “I didn’t know you were in Vietnam.” “I was,” I answered self-consciously. “Was it anything like ‘M*A*S*H’?” “No, it was real.”1 The Vietnam War was America’s most unpopular war. American involvement in Vietnam lead to the death of nearly 60,000 Americans and over 1 million Vietnamese soldiers and citizens. Vietnam was the first televised war that brought violence, destruction, and death to American dinner tables and living rooms. Graphic television news reports of search and destroy missions divided America into pro-war and anti-war factions that caused a turbulent and confusing political and cultural environment. Some Americans argued that the war was not waged properly and with insufficient military might while others claimed the war had no justified cause. As the American casualties mounted into staggering numbers with no real solution in realistic sight, the majority of Americans believed that Vietnam became an embarrassing quagmire that tarnished the American military, political system, its leaders, and the American culture. Even today, the remembrance and memorialization of Vietnam disturbs public memory and impacts American political policy. Controversy, reflection, and even embarrassment still dominate discussion about the Vietnam War. Politicians have aimed to whitewash the conflict, claiming America’s honorable intentions in Vietnam. Historians and scholars have sought to distinguish the valiant service of American veterans from the deceitful actions of the very government they served. Due to the overpowering controversy and general confusion surrounding Vietnam, many historians and scholars approach Vietnam in thematic patterns such 1
Van Devanter, Lynda. Home Before Morning. First. New York, N.Y., United States: Beaufort Books Inc., 1983.
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as, did America win or lose? Asking these grand thematic questions has created a binary system while studying the Vietnam War: “In the first camp are those who are critical of America’s intervention and view Vietnam as a bad war…In the second camp are those who tend to view the U.S. intervention as a legitimate enterprise and believe that the war could have been won, especially with tactical and strategic changes.”1 Phillip E. Catton suggests that the Vietnam War was originally studied critically because of America’s tender feelings immediately after American withdrawal. Catton later suggests that since the Reagan administration there has been a resurgence in validating the honor of America’s Vietnam War. Catton’s analysis is not incorrect but could potentially pose as a harmful habit to studying the aging Vietnam War. A strict and binary approach dictated by America’s perceived accomplished or unaccomplished militaristic and political goals completely ignores all human experience and subjectivity surrounding Vietnam. Analyzing a conflict like the Vietnam War strictly through the objectives of the American government renders the thousands of Americans and their stories completely unimportant. Focusing on individual experiences allows for broad thematic elements to be discovered because every participant in the Vietnam War was there from different backgrounds and for varying motives. It is crucial to focus on the human aspect and experiences of the Vietnam War because the participants in this generational conflict are beginning to slowly pass away into the recent past. A thorough study of every single participant throughout the Vietnam War is near impossible, but focusing on certain individuals, their experiences, and legacies relays a unique piece of American thought, memorialization, and selective memory in regards to an event that simply refuses to slowly drift into the past. Throughout the duration of the Vietnam War, over 2.5 million Americans served in country. Of those 2.5 million Americans, approximately 10,000 them were women and ninety percent of these women served as nurses or in a medical capacity.2 Lynda Van Devanter was one of these 10,000 women that witnessed the onslaught of disfiguring wounds sustained by young men while she desperately and tirelessly worked to save their lives. Van Devanter documented her service experience as a combat trauma nurse in her 1983 memoir, Home Before Morning. Since the broad majority of American servicewomen served in a medical capacity, Van Devanter’s experiences serve as a microcosm of the American female Vietnam experience. Her story extends to the horrific scenes that dominated many women’s experiences in Vietnam: “Whenever I tried to sleep, I would see Gene and Steve and all the faces of the nameless kids who had died, especially one -- a bloody mess 1 2
Catton, Phillip E. “Refighting Vietnam in the History Books: The Historiography of the War.” OAH Magazine of History 18, no. 5 (2004): 7–11.
.
“Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation.” Accessed March 24, 2017. http://www.vietnamwomensmemorial.org/vwmf.php
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of macerated flesh and bone.”3 Van Devanter’s memoir is not only integral to understanding the American female experience in Vietnam but also marks a shift in American recognition, consciousness, and memory toward the Vietnam War. In the years following Van Devanter’s memoir, she championed equal services for female veterans and active duty military servicewomen but also sustained severe criticism.4 Home Before Morning contained graphic passages containing drug use, infidelity, and alcoholism. Other military nurses claimed that Van Devanter’s works was defamation to the Army and female services. Some of Van Devanter’s comrades rallied around her stating that Van Devanter’s narrative captured the true essences of chaos in Vietnam. Nevertheless, Home Before Morning and Van Devanter’s efforts created a lasting effect on American public memory regarding Vietnam. China Beach, a television program based off Home Before Morning ran for four seasons and discussed grim aspects of war unseen before on other popular war shows like M*A*S*H. By discussing the popular American female experience of Vietnam veterans through Lynda Van Devanter and the contrasting use of media through television shows to address war, it is possible to better understand the memorialization and memory of the Vietnam War. Many historians reflect on the entirety of Vietnam and its wounds on the American public, political system, and popular memory. Van Devanter’s service and legacy will contribute to the thematic study of Vietnam by connecting and empowering the influence of the subjective and individual story.
LYNDA VAN DEVANTER: A WOUNDED PATRIOT As a child and product of the Baby Boomer generation, Lynda Van Devanter enjoyed the post-war prosperity America garnered after World War II. Van Devanter’s early life was surrounded with innocence, comfort, and religion. Her father volunteered for the service in World War II but was rejected. Instead of serving in the military, her father stayed stateside and worked in civilian capacities. Despite her father’s civilian contribution, Lynda grew up noting her father’s disappointment with his inability to serve in the military: “As we were growing up, both he and my mother emphasized the obligation we all had to be of service not only to our family and country, but to all of mankind.”5 Lynda saw these teachings exemplified through her father’s actions. He took up television repairing in his free 3 4 5
Van Devanter, Lynda. Home Before Morning. First. New York, N.Y., United States: Beaufort Books Inc., 1983. Pg. 193. “Nurses Dispute and Defend Memoir on Life in Vietnam War.” New York Times. February 12, 1985. Van Devanter, Lynda. Home Before Morning. First. New York, N.Y., United States: Beaufort Books Inc., 1983. Pg. 28.
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time to make extra money for his family, faithfully attended church, and donated to charity whenever it could be afforded. Lynda’s father’s example allowed Lynda to find her way of service in the form of nursing at a young age. Beginning with the playful appliance of slings for imaginary broken bones, Lynda started working parttime in a geriatric home at the age of seventeen. Despite the foul work of conducting enemas and cleaning out commodes, Lynda continued to admire helping people. In addition to her part time work, Lynda’s mother fell gravely ill at the age of seven, only contributing to her desire to pursue nursing. With her mother’s ailing health, a hard-working father at a job for the majority of the day, and a young sister to care for, Lynda became the primary caregiver, “…nursing was the way I was going to make my contribution to society. I was part of a generations of Americans who were “chosen” to change the world. We were sure of that. It was only a matter of waiting until we all grew up.”6 It is important to note Lynda’s youthful and perhaps even naïve thought of being able to change the world. Like several children of the Baby Boomer generation, Lynda believed that her parent’s generation accomplished something amazing. The defeat of totalitarian, fascist governments and the postwar abundance made America and Americans seem untouchable as the symbol of moral rightness. The Vietnam War and its service presented itself to American citizens like Lynda much like the opportunity to answer the American call of duty after the Pearl Harbor attacks. The American memory of World War II depicted a war of righteous liberation, and to Lynda’s generation, Vietnam provided the same opportunity to create another memory of the United States military being an army of liberty and enduring freedom. Many in Lynda’s generation viewed Vietnam as their opportunity to make the world a better, safer, and more liberated place. Lynda attended nursing school at Mercy Hospital School of Nursing in Baltimore, Maryland after graduating college from Antioch University.7 Outside her classrooms Lynda noticed America’s growing commitment to southeast Asia and the struggle to preserve a non-communist, democratic South Vietnam. Similar to her father’s willingness to serve his country, Lynda was convinced that the American efforts in Vietnam were just and righteous; “…we were saving a country from communism… if our boys were being blown apart then somebody better be over there putting them back together again. That somebody should be me.”8 Lynda’s desire to serve spawned from her conviction to help people with her medical prowess but also stemmed from a deeper conviction that America’s efforts in Vietnam were for the better of both countries and the free world. Lynda volunteered and commissioned 6 7
Van Devanter, Lynda. Home Before Morning. First. New York, N.Y., United States: Beaufort Books Inc., 1983. Pg. 29.
Oliver, Myrna. “Lynda Van Devanter, 55; Vietnam Nurse Told Harrowing War Story.” Los Angeles Times, November 25, 2002. http://articles.latimes.com/2002/ nov/25/local/me-lynda25.
8
.
Van Devanter, Lynda. Home Before Morning. First. New York, N.Y., United States: Beaufort Books Inc., 1983. Pg. 49
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into the Army Nurse Corps in 1968. Lynda found her classroom exercises dull, but the reality of the field exercises exhilarating. The practice of managing mass casualty situations (Mas-Cals) became the first exposure to the continuous human destruction that dominated Lynda’s service. In a way, the practice of Mas-Cal handling was a mere joke to the reality of what awaited Lynda after the completion of Army training. In 1969, Lynda completed her training and headed to Vietnam’s 71st Evacuation Hospital in Pleiku.9 Upon arrival, Lynda experienced the first of countless brushes with death, when her air transport came under firing forcing a landing at an alternative base: “if there had ever been any cockiness in me before this trip began, there sure wasn’t any now. In its place was a cold, hard realization: I could die here.”10 During Lynda’s service at the 71st Evacuation Hospital in Pleiku, she eventually developed acute post-traumatic stress order from treating the never-ending waves of young mangled bodies. Since Lynda served at an evacuation hospital, the wounds she treated were always life threatening. Helicopters would deliver soldiers with sucking chest wounds and blown off limbs. In her memoir, Lynda provided a multitude of descriptive narratives explaining the maiming wounds and the pitiful cries of soldiers for her to end their misery. The staggering amount and frequency of casualties Lynda treated caused her to be in trance of futile resistance against a seemingly endless pattern of death: “I began seeing all of them-the double and triple amputees, boys with brain injuries, belly wounds, and missing genitals. There were others who were not old enough to shave who had their faces burned off. There were fathers who were blinded and would never see their children.”11 After a few months into her assignment, it seemed as if Lynda’s hopeful resolution was crushed. The sheer amount of disfigured bodies Lynda came into contact made her patients’ faces unrecognizable; eventually all the brave young men from the cities of Detroit to the fields of Kansas became lost in a pile of bloody and mutilated bone and flesh. Lynda showed signs of post-traumatic stress disorder after a lifesaving attempt involving a young soldier named Gene. Gene’s death became a pivotal moment in Lynda’s service after she saw a picture of Gene and his girlfriend dressed for the high school prom months before his deployment of Vietnam. “This wasn’t merely another casualty, another piece of meat to throw on the table and try to sew back together again. With the death of Gene, I had lost an important part of myself. The Lynda I had known before the war was gone 9 Van Devanter, Lynda. Home Before Morning. First. New York, N.Y., United States: Beaufort Books Inc., 1983. Pg. 75. 10 Ibid., pg. 77. 11 Ibid., pg. 173 VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 49
forever.”12 The 71st Evacuation Hospital was infamously known in the Army for its high traffic of gravely injured soldiers and its proximity to the Cambodian border. Closeness to the Cambodian border meant that it was near the Ho Chi Minh trail, which was a series of routes that ran through neutral Cambodia used by the North Vietnamese Army to transport weapons, supplies, and troops into South Vietnam to aid the insurgency movement of the Vietcong. Despite American heavy bombing campaigns and eventual ground troop operations designed to interdict the flow of the trail’s equipment, the North Vietnamese were highly successful with the use of the trail. With the 71st Evacuation Hospital’s closeness to such a stronghold of enemy troops and supplies, it was vulnerable to relentless rocket attacks, which quickly became another contributor to Lynda’s crippling post-traumatic stress. In addition to the never ending deliveries of young, mangled bodies that dominated Van Devanter’s service, the constant shelling of the 71st Evacuation Hospital by the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) rockets also contributed to her development of post-traumatic stress disorder. These relentless airstrikes affected Lynda in many ways; first, they forced a massive degree of survivor’s guilt on Lynda’s conscious and also prohibited her to tend to wounded soldiers. Lynda describes the rocket attacks as something resembling a shrapnel filled inferno: “…the first rocket exploded. The ground shook. Another rocket came. Then a whole barrage. The sirens started again. I felt crushed and had trouble breathing.”13 Enduring NVA rocket attacks became nearly as routine as treating the wounded during Lynda’s service. Since the hospital staff could not move from their fortified bunkers and treat patients, Lynda and her comrades indulged in alcohol and marijuana to numb the distress and panic during the airstrikes. Substance use and eventual abuse became the temporary solution to Lynda’s wounds. Lynda especially indulged in heavy drinking binges where she would crave mental and physical attention from young men of whom she related and connected with. Disfiguring wounds and destructive rocket attacks planted the seeds that became post-traumatic stress disorder. After returning home from Vietnam, other variations of post-traumatic stress disorder settled in, and Lynda felt isolated, alone, and unwanted. Lynda’s experience in the Vietnam War as a combat trauma nurse dominated the second half of her life while she endured a devastating battle with mental illness, post-traumatic stress disorder, and alcohol and drug abuse. When Lynda returned to the United States in 1970 she came back to an unfamiliar home. It is important to note the date of Lynda’s service for two reasons. First, 1969 was the third highest year of U.S. military involvement in Vietnam, with nearly half a 12 13
.
Van Devanter, Lynda. Home Before Morning. First. New York, N.Y., United States: Beaufort Books Inc., 1983. Pg. 171
.
Ibid., pg. 93
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million combat troops in country.14 Second, 1968 was arguably the most turbulent year of the already tumultuous 1960s with the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., the embarrassing international publicity surrounding the Tet Offensive, and the some of the largest anti-war demonstrations in American history.15 In addition to national turmoil, Lynda experienced extreme personal alienation and disconnection from her own family resulting in severe depression; “I thought a lot about suicide. I was going to do it painlessly and quietly. I always planned suicide for a Friday night at the start of a weekend, so nobody would notice until Monday.”16 Lynda’s suicidal thoughts began to dominate her life, with the only short-term solace found in excessive drinking and random sexual encounters with men at bars. After her drinking habits forced her resignation from her part-time job at a dialysis clinic, Lynda attended a psychiatric therapist to address the haunting experiences of her service that tortured her life after her return from Vietnam. Lynda initially started attending tri-weekly meetings with young psychiatrist Franklin Watts and slowly began using writing as a technique to cope with her traumatic service. Watts initially encouraged interpersonal conversation with Lynda, but saw remarkable progress when Lynda harnessed her memories into writing. Between the creation of her personal memoir and her advocacy in the VVA Women Veterans Project, Lynda finally found some personal peace with her military service “Since November of 1980, the Vietnam Veterans of America Women’s Project has been my entire life. I’ve done hundreds of interviews, spoken to thousands of people, and lobbied hard in Congress to get recognition for women who served in Vietnam…I began to realize just how many were in the same position.”17 Just like her initial desire to serve as a combat trauma nurse, Lynda helped form the VVA Women’s Veteran Project to help people. In addition to her inclination to help others, Lynda saw her VVA advocacy as a way to reconnect to her fellow comrades and fight the debilitating depression that dominated her life after her service. VVA advocacy and Home Before Morning, provided healing practices for Lynda through the recording and creating of memory. The VVA advocacy allowed Lynda to reconnect with the good people she met and served with in Vietnam, while the creation of a memoir allowed her to organize her experiences into a concentrated and thoughtful format of reminiscence. Lynda published her memoir, Home Before Morning in 1983, and received both critical acclaim and widespread controversy. Many female veterans admired 14 15 16 17
(Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History 2017) Kurlansky, Mark. 2004. 1968: The Year That Rocked the World. New York, New York: Random House Trade. Ibid., pg. 249. Ibid., pg. 298.
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Lynda’s raw and unfiltered commentary about service in Vietnam while other female veterans found the graphic descriptions of adulterous sex scenes, substance abuse, and perceived exaggeration appalling. One civilian nurse (who served in Vietnam) in particular, Patricia L. Walsh denounced Lynda’s memoir as defamation toward nurses, saying “We don’t need any lies or sensationalism. We don’t need to fabricate anything because the truth will make you weep.”18 Home Before Morning does not only provide a symbol of memory for Lynda and other combat nurses, but also shows the contestation of memory. Walsh’s memory as a civilian nurse is not compatible with Lynda’s remembrance as a military nurse and this simple disagreement shows the stratified layers of memory and how the selective processes of memory are often conflicting and controversial.
CHINA BEACH: FROM VIETNAM TO HOLLYWOOD AND BACK Despite the controversy surrounding Van Devanter and Home Before Morning, the memoir became the basis and subject of an American Broadcasting Channel (ABC) television program, China Beach. China Beach originally aired on April 27, 1988, just thirteen years after the fall of Saigon. Unlike the popular military focused sitcom M*A*S*H, China Beach was critically acclaimed for its grittier and less comedic depictions of military service and the casualties of war. The main character, Army trauma nurse First Lieutenant Colleen McMurphy, parallels the journey of Van Devanter. Initially, McMurphy is excited and willing to actively serve her country, just like Van Devanter. Similarly to Van Devanter, McMurphy is tested with repetitive attempts to save mangled young bodies while surviving terrifying rocket strikes. Over the course of the show’s four seasons actual veterans were interviewed and incorporated, main characters die from sustained combat wounds, and the invisible, uncomfortable damage of post-traumatic stress appears. A discussion of China Beach is essential to understanding the legacy of Van Devanter’s service, and is another example of studying personal, subjective stories of war to uncover larger, thematic elements. Moreover, the analysis of specific China Beach episodes provides insight into how late 1980s America discussed and remembered the Vietnam War and its raw, deep wounds to American prestige, policy, and culture. Halfway through the second season of China Beach, the producers aired an episode named Vets, which was composed of interviews from actual Vietnam veterans explaining their collective experiences during their service. The episode contained commentary from a total of sixteen service personnel in Vietnam. Of 18
“Nurses Dispute and Defend Memoir on Life in Vietnam War,” New York Times, February 12, 1985.
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these sixteen interviewed personnel the majority of them were women in civilian or military medical roles including doctors from the 71st Evacuation Hospital (Lynda’s hospital) to members from the International Red Cross at sites like Cam Ranh Bay.19 Female members of the United Service Organization and female civilian photographers were also interviewed. Of the twelve women that were interviewed seven of them served in the military as combat trauma nurses. This small statistic provides further evidence to the claim that Van Devanter’s service is a microcosm of the popular female veteran experience in Vietnam. In addition to the majority of women interviewees, four male veterans were also interviewed. The four men, Doctor John Whitley (95th Evacuation Hospital from Da Nang), George Wallace (173rd Infantry Airborne), and Bill “Ziggy” Siegesmund (Army logistics officer), and Chris Noel (Armed Forces Radio) all supplemented and complimented the testimonies of the female veterans. The combination of female and male veterans alike in this episode parallel the ensemble of male and female characters involved in traditional episodes of China Beach. Just like their real counterparts in the conflict of the Vietnam War, China Beach had stratified characters ranging from the shellshocked Marine infantryman sergeant, the female civilian photographer, and the middle-aged male surgeon. The episode Vets provided a blunt connection from the world of Hollywood and production studios in southern California to the medical facilities and killing fields of Vietnam. Similar to Van Devanter’s creation of Home Before Morning, the interviews the female veterans shared for the episode Vets resembled an emotional catharsis for the war, their duty, and their collective trauma. The episodes’ content started off surprisingly light-hearted, where many of the women discussed the overwhelming male presence on the military bases and several women laughed reminiscing about the young men who seemed obsessed with the reality of attractive, intelligent, and dutiful women so close to active combat zones. Many women, such as Jeanne Christie, discussed their call to duty, and it sounded like Van Devanter’s own words.20 Christie and her comrade’s optimism quickly diminished when they discussed the capacity of destruction and death they experienced throughout their tour. Just like Van Devanter’s unadulterated narrative from Home Before Morning, the China Beach writers did not exclude any graphic or disturbing content from veterans’ testimonies. Elizabeth A. Allen, an African American women serving as a combat trauma nurse at the 12th Evacuation Hospital in Cu Chi provided disturbing truth to the term basket case: “Do you know what a basket case is? 19 20
China Beach. 1989. “Vets,” directed by John Sacret Young. Season 2, Episode 12. Aired on March 15 on ABC. DVD, Warner Bros. Television. China Beach, Season 2, Episode 12, “Vets,”
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It’s a soldier missing all his arms, legs, and is blind.”21 This disturbing description began a collection of nurses telling haunting stories about wounded young men. Veteran nurses described sucking chest wounds, maimed limbs, and the cries of men begging for a degree of final comfort before approaching death. It was evident that the countless images of mangled young bodies still affected these women and would continue to haunt them for the rest of their lives. China Beach initially sought unwavering realism in their depiction of the Vietnam War with the basis of Home Before Morning as the influential content for the program. The production and airing of the episode Vets proved that in the reality of war, physical and mental wounds do not vanish when a director yells cut and turns off the camera. In the third season of China Beach, the program’s content continued to depict realistic casualties of war, specifically the reality that soldiers, and more importantly, friends die. During the ninth and tenth episode of season three, young combat medic Corporal Jeff Hyers is critically wounded and dies from sustained injuries. Hyers is depicted as a cheerful, easygoing combat medic and close friend to main character McMurphy.22 The wounding and death of Hyers nearly dominates two full episodes and is strikingly realistic, as he dies on camera. McMurphy is severely affected by his death and uses alcohol to numb the pain of Hyer’s passing. This abuse and reliance on substances reflects Van Devanter’s own coping mechanism and suggests the drug and alcohol dependency thousands of Vietnam veterans used to adjust to extreme pain and loss. During the duration of these two episodes, older non-commissioned Master Sergeant Bob Pepper, who is also a veteran of World War II, discusses rules to “stay alive in Vietnam.” His cynical rules discuss topics like, “Try to look unimportant, they may be low on ammunition, and teamwork is essential -- it gives them others to shoot at.”23 Pepper’s rules provide some dark comedic relief while a main character is dying. This twisted comedy is seen in several passages throughout Home Before Morning, and Van Devanter claimed it to be a coping mechanism to retain scraps of sanity and humanity in conditions of extreme death and despair. In addition to Pepper’s twisted humor, the depiction of Marine Staff Sergeant Evan “Dodger” Winslow is also dramatically realistic. “Dodger” is a hardened and experienced combat veteran who demonstrates the “thousand-yard stare.”24 The thousand-yard stare is an expression to explain the absent gaze combat troops demonstrate after extreme dissociation from traumatic experiences like active combat. Dodger’s character is merely the beginning of 21 22
China Beach, Season 2, Episode 12, “Vets,”
China Beach. 1989. “How to Stay Alive in Vietnam,” directed by Fred Gerber. Season 3, Episode 9. Aired on November 29 on ABC. DVD, Warner Bros. Television.
23 24
China Beach, Season 3, Episode 9, “How to Stay Alive in Vietnam Part 1,” China Beach, Season 3, Episode 9, “How to Stay Alive in Vietnam Part 1,”
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China Beach’s discussion of post-traumatic stress but nonetheless, the presence of this character demonstrates China Beach’s progressive style to address controversial and uncomfortable aspects of war. In its final season, China Beach began to tackle post-traumatic-stress disorder, leading to its most progressive episodes of the entire program. In the fifteenth episode of the series, McMurphy returns home from Vietnam and experiences mild difficulties to stateside adjustment. These mild difficulties range from her unfamiliar surroundings of the United States to change in her diet. McMurphy experiences a crippling flashback while watching her boyfriend play racquetball. Suddenly McMurphy is crying hysterically and cowering in a fetal position, begging for something to stop.25 Scenes of a vicious rocket attack fill her mind, with blazing infernos and sporadic shrapnel bursting all around her. Soon after this experience, McMurphy attends one-on-one therapy with reluctance but soon finds mild solace in a veteran support group. China Beach adequately addressed post-traumatic stress disorder with specific symptoms expressed by McMurphy throughout the episode. Initially the feelings of self-isolation, detachment, and depression are shown in McMurphy’s routine activities. The most blatant symptom expressed is her mental breakdown and flashback at the gym, believing she was in Vietnam under a rocket attack. Violent outbursts are also a prominent characteristic of PTSD and McMurphy demonstrates this by destroying her boyfriend’s drum set. Later in the episode, McMurphy is shown heavily indulging in alcohol to numb her thoughts and pain.26 These separate but related instances provide a direct connection to Van Devanter’s own journey coping with PTSD before she became an advocate for Vietnam Veterans of America. McMurphy even exemplifies Van Devanter’s actions by joining a therapy support group with other Vietnam veterans. As the only woman in the group, McMurphy’s character resembles the rise of female advocacy during the wake of the Vietnam War. Much like Van Devanter, McMurphy’s stress resides from the terror of constant rocket barrages and the loss of young life, “I learned to lie, I told them they were going to make it. You made me lie, and you quit on me!”27 McMurphy’s actions are paralleled with Van Devanter’s struggle, which she narrates in her later chapters. Van Devanter and thousands of other female veterans are personified in the character of McMurphy during this disturbing episode, and China Beach once again discusses a realistic aspect of war that is undesirable and uncomfortable to discuss. 25 26 27
China Beach. 1991. “Through and Through,” directed by Carol Flint. Season 4, Episode 15. Aired on July 16 on ABC. DVD, Warner Bros. Television. China Beach, Season 4, Episode 15, “Through and Through,” China Beach, Season 4, Episode 15, “Through and Through,”
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Despite the progressive actions of displaying uncomfortable topics like posttraumatic stress disorder, China Beach ended before McMurphy could completely cope and recover from her past. China Beach finished its series with a two-episode finale with the veterans of the medical facility visiting the Vietnam Memorial and going their separate ways. Regardless of these minor shortcomings, China Beach was a revolutionary television program that demonstrated the horrors of war. China Beach did not depict war as a situational comedy but as a dramatic transformation and destruction of human relationships, psychology, and life.
HISTORY V. MEMORY: VIETNAM AND PUBLIC MEMORY Along with blockbuster films such as Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, and Casualties of War, China Beach and 1980s Hollywood communities began discussing Vietnam in a popular context to eventually establish the early public memory of the Vietnam War. All of these Hollywood film productions contained an absolute division of good and evil. Oliver Stone’s Platoon is the most blatant example of demonstrating the stratified complexities of the Vietnam War into the traditional struggle of good versus evil. Oliver Stone served as a combat Marine, and similar to Van Devanter’s memoir, his film Platoon delivers a core of truth because of the budding material from an individual’s experience.28 Stone’s main character, Chris Taylor, drops out of school to join the Army and requests a combat assignment. Quickly into his tour he is forced to make an allegiance decision between two company sergeants, the moral and duty-driven Elias and the sadistic and murderous Barnes. Eventually Barnes betrays and murders Elias, but Taylor finally avenges Elias’ murder and kills Barnes toward the end of the film.29 Even though Platoon is considered an anti-war film, it analyzes the memory of 1980s America regarding Vietnam phenomenally. Platoon’s obvious struggle between good and evil suggests an American political attempt to address the atrocities of the Vietnam War without trampling on the sacrifice and loss of American life. Taylor’s vengeance kill of Barnes also suggests that evil forces good people to engage and confront evil while not always committing morally just acts. Hollywood productions contain a great deal of public memory because it provides a medium through which the horrors of war can be communicated to the American public. Public memorials and museums provide a scholarly approach to historic memory, but the medium of Hollywood television and cinema production allows for Americans of all ages to revisit the 28 29
(Military.com 2012) Platoon, Directed by Oliver Stone (1986; Orion Pictures, 1986), DVD.
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Vietnam War with the touch of a television remote and a DVD player, creating a visual and powerful public memory. The most public and perhaps striking depiction of American public memory regarding the Vietnam War is Maya Lin’s Vietnam Memorial Wall. Similar to the Hollywood films of the 1980s, the wall was finished on November 13, 1982; Vietnam veteran Jan Scruggs even conceived the idea of a monument honoring fallen American soldiers after seeing the film The Deer Hunter.30 Among the triumphant and iconic World War II monument, The Wall is a somber and interactive piece of the National Mall. The Wall is a useful piece of public memory because it highlights the truth of war. Engraved American names, which commemorate fallen soldiers, symbolize the loss of American lives in war and an awareness of national consciousness and vulnerability. While The Wall is extremely emotional, it is completely apolitical. The Wall does not glamourize or romanticize war, instead, it delivers a sobering and connective message between the living and dead. “Maya Lin’s words echo against the panels of The Wall: “I thought about what death is, what a loss it is,” she remembers, “a sharp pain that lessens with time, but can never quite heal over. A scar.”31 Lin’s deliverance and tone of The Wall mirrors Van Devanter’s process of writing Home Before Morning. Each symbolize sustained damage but also progressive healing. Van Devanter’s memoir is relatable to The Wall’s purpose because it forced realization and acceptance. Van Devanter used her personal memoir to force herself to recognize her torturing experiences in Vietnam and Lin used The Wall as a symbol to initiate a degree of national acceptance about America’s losses in Vietnam. The controversy following President Ronald Reagan’s speech for the Vietnam section of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery on May 28, 1984 suggest one of the most powerful attempts of shaping American public memory about the Vietnam War. Reagan’s eulogy to the ceremonial resting of remains belonging to then unidentified Air Force 1st Lieutenant Michael J. Blassie quickly became a cradle for national reunification and closure to a controversial conflict. Reagan eulogized the Vietnam Unknown as “symbolic of all our missing sons.” He expressed hope that by honoring an Unknown Soldier from the Vietnam War Americans could “transcend the tragedies of the past” and “trust each other again.”32 On the surface, Reagan’s speech is seen as a constructive and respectful attempt to understanding Vietnam. Reagan’s efforts through the late 1980s attempted to justify the unfavorable outcome of the United State in Vietnam with 30 31 32
Theriault, Kim Servart. “Remembering Vietnam: War, Trauma, and ‘Scarring Over’ After ‘The Wall.’” Journal of American Culture 26, no. 4 (December 2003) Ibid., pg. 430.
Allen, Michael J. ‘Sacrilege of a Strange, Contemporary Kind’: “The Unknown Soldier and the Imagined Community after the Vietnam War.” History and Memory 23, no. 2 (Winter 2011)
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the emphasis of veteran reverence. Despite the admirable honoring of Vietnam veterans, Reagan’s approach to addressing the Vietnam War minimized the impact of the war on American public memory. Simplifying the Vietnam War into a blanketed righteous cause avoids the questionable political and military decisions made by U.S. officials, such as blatant political lying and the wobbly justification of the loss of nearly 60,000 American lives. In addition to Reagan’s harmful simplification, in 1998 facts surfaced proving that the Reagan administration knowingly deemed Blassie’s remains as unidentified in an effort to use his ceremony as an opportunity for national unification with an election year approaching.33 Unlike the extremely personable monument like The Vietnam Memorial Wall, the Reagan administration attempted to use Blassie’s “unknown” remains to address a collective sense of loss. Reagan’s attempt to laying an “unidentified” soldier to rest in the hallowed grounds of Arlington National cemetery is the action of conducting desired memory. His intentions of using Blassie’s remains to unite the country tried to force the American public to remember individual loss of American life in Vietnam by widening focus to an unspecified and general sense of national loss. Both Reagan’s eulogy and Lin’s memorial are distinct decisions to make the United States public remember certain aspects of the Vietnam War, but both revolve around a similar sense of loss, similar to McMurphy and Van Devanter’s loss of innocence in China Beach and Home Before Morning. Memory is an ongoing process of remembrance and ignorance. History is a series of subjective but authenticated truths, while memory serves as the selective process of remembering truths and forgetting truths. Besides the American Civil War, the Vietnam War has evolved to become the most contested memory in American history. The analysis of these diverging perceptions are integral to the study of this conflict, but are not absolute without appropriate attention to individual subjectivity. Similar to the World War II veterans of the early 2000s, Vietnam veterans are rapidly passing away into time much like their conflicts are into the history textbooks. Unlike the soldiers of World War II, Vietnam veterans were not individually praised or particularly remembered but lumped together as unwilling members of an embarrassing quagmire. It is essential to acknowledge, record, and preserve the individual testimonies of all Vietnam War veterans and then use these stories to conduct the grand thematic dissection of this conflict. Studying the veterans allows clarity to larger portions of the overall conflict. Lynda Van Devanter’s story is a valid testament to this assertion. One of the first recorded and most controversial memoirs of a female veteran and a successful television program all spawned from one woman’s experience and service. Valuing the 33
Allen, Michael J. ‘Sacrilege of a Strange, Contemporary Kind’: “The Unknown Soldier and the Imagined Community after the Vietnam War.” History and Memory 23, no. 2 (Winter 2011)
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importance of the individual, subjective story enforces historical authenticity and also enables the process of memory to serve as a constructive method to navigate the complexities and confusing histories of events similar to the Vietnam War.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I would like to acknowledge the efforts and guidance of Professor Moore. Without her unwavering support, this project would have never been possible. Secondly, I would like to acknowledge my constructive group members, Becky Edwards, Elliot Merker, and Pam Gehle. Your support as fellow students and budding historians instilled a massive amount of self-confidence in me and I am heavily indebted to you. I would also like to acknowledge my dear friend and history major partner in crime, Ahmed Mohammed. You are my best friend, rhythm and power! I also need to thank the producers and writer of China Beach for delivering a wholesome and realistic show. Dr. Meredith Lair and her undergraduate course of History 377: The Vietnam War also deserves incredible recognition for igniting my interest and eventual passion of studying the Vietnam War. Lastly, I need to acknowledge Lynda Van Devanter. Her service to this country, and her duty toward helping others made this project possible.
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DEVELOPING MACHINES IN THE HUMAN IMAGE: SEARLE’S CHINESE ROOM ARGUMENT AND THE COMPUTATIONAL PERSPECTIVE OF UNDERSTANDING SARVAJNA KALVA Major: Computer Science Class of 2022
ABOUT THE WORK As a computer science major with a minor in philosophy, I have always been interested in exploring the rigorous structures of logic behind the two disciplines. I wrote my paper for Honors 110: Research Methods, hoping to explore and question assumptions about the human mind when attempting to embody it within a machine. Starting out with a broad question about how minds arise in machines, much of my research process involved narrowing my topic. Finally, I found what I was looking for in the debate around the Chinese Room Argument, a thought experiment posed decades ago by the philosopher John Searle. While his paper never monumentally influenced the field of AI, as I examined the controversy around it, I found a significant disparity between assumptions that were being made between the disciplines of philosophy versus computer science. With the intention of evaluating the theoretical arguments made by contending scholars through examining their assumptions more closely, I embarked on a literature review comparing scholarship in these competing disciplines. A prominent assumption became clear: the mind is, in essence, a computing machine. A stronger form of this assumption, made by those attempting to design artificial agents with human-level intelligence, is that a machine manipulating a series of symbols, such as 0s and 1s, can create the human mind. Searle, who tried to question this assumption, failed to convince most scholars in the field of AI, possibly resulting from having framed his argument within his own assumptions about the innate exclusivity of human intelligence. In my review of the different perspectives on the human mind, I attempt to question both of these assumptions. I move away from Searle’s attachment to the intelligence produced by the human brain, while positing the idea that attaching semantic context to syntax-based representations of symbols could possibly improve the functionality of intelligence in machines.
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ABSTRACT By the computational thesis (CT), the human mind is essentially an implementation of an algorithm executed on a version of the Turing machine, and by extension, human understanding can be embodied within the right algorithm, or computer program. In 1980, John Searle introduced the Chinese Room Argument (CRA), a thought experiment attempting to invalidate the computational thesis, which was a prominent assumption in the field of Strong Artificial Intelligence (AI). Strong AI refers to the notion that machines have the ability to reach a human level of intelligence. Searle claimed the mind can never be embodied by a computing machine because executing an algorithm that outputs the same function as the human mind is not sufficient for understanding. The “understanding” of algorithms is generated through syntactic symbol manipulation; therefore, it is unequal to the semantic human understanding rendered by the brain’s causal powers. According to Searle, understanding should result from brain function and not computation. Researchers in the field of AI dismiss Searle’s argument as thinly veiled prejudice against intelligent computing machines. While Searle could have been wrong about characterizing the symbol manipulation of computing machines as irrelevant, his attention to the causal factors of semantic understanding may be worth considering. Symbol systems with semantic grounding in the objects they represent are important to consider when developing artificial agents. Machine intelligence could be significantly improved if machines had the capability to develop their own symbol systems of semantic meaning, built from and grounded in sensorimotor perceptions of networks and patterns in reality. In any case, a theory of machine design based on the proper combination of causal and computational structure presents a possible alternative to the ideals of pure computationalism.
THE ROLE OF SYMBOL MANIPULATION IN THE COMPUTATIONAL THESIS Computationalism refers to the thesis that the brain can be interpreted as a computing machine. In other words, all the mental states of the brain are equivalent to the computational states of a machine, and the human mind is essentially the result of physical systems like the brain functioning as a computing machine (Blackmon, 2007). Therefore, qualities of human intelligence, such as understanding and consciousness, can be implemented in a machine through a computer program that follows the same computational procedures as the brain. VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 61
The “computing machine” referenced in computational theory is a version of the Turing machine, a term used to describe a specific kind of machine which computes an output by following a process of symbol manipulation. Alan Turing conceived of this machine in 1936 to test the idea that a machine performing symbol manipulations could prove the validity of any mathematical assertion (Hodges, 1997). The Turing machine runs on a long tape that simulates the memory in a computer; written onto it are the symbols 0, 1, and a blank. The machine can move along the tape and perform simple manipulations to the symbols like reading and writing over them. Turing claimed such a machine could perform any mathematical computation by following a series of the above symbol manipulations. In doing so, he standardized the definition of what a computing machine should be and how it should function, laying the groundwork for the modern concept of a computer. Not only has the Turing machine served as a concrete definition for a “computing machine” in the field of computer science, it has also provided a formal definition for an algorithm, ambiguously understood before as a process of some sort. But for the purpose of most researchers in the field of artificial intelligence and for this paper, the term “algorithm” is generally referred to as any process that can be executed on a Turing machine. By extension, an algorithm can also be understood as a blueprint for the symbol manipulation on a Turing machine. This interpretation of an algorithm is important to understanding the significance and controversy behind the computational thesis. According to the computational theory of mind, the brain is an implementation of Turing’s machine, which performs computations by following a blueprint for symbol manipulation outlined by the algorithm it is given. Consequently, human intelligence can be embodied in an algorithm that merely outlines a process for manipulating symbols like 0, 1, and blank.
SEARLE’S CHINESE ROOM ARGUMENT (CRA) The computational thesis (CT) has been the foundation for research in cognitive neuroscience and artificial intelligence for decades. By focusing on functional output, the computational thesis provides a concrete method for designing intelligence in machines. However, some academics have expressed dissent over the notion that the complexity of the human brain could be reduced to mere symbol manipulation, wondering if the mind is really just a machine. Some philosophers complain it does not follow that the mind and machine are intelligent in the same way, simply because the computations of a machine may mimic those of the mind (Hauser, 1997). To defend against this attack that its Turing machine mimics rather than 62 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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embodies human intelligence, the computational thesis relies on the Turing Test. Turing first presented the test, claiming a machine that could provide answers to any given question indistinguishable from the answers of a human being should be considered equally intelligent; if a machine functions exactly as an intelligent human would, at the very least it possesses enough understanding to complete the same tasks, so hypothetically, the machine must be as intelligent as the human (Hodges, 1995). The Turing Test can be used as a method for determining if the artificial intelligence developed in a machine matches the intelligence of a human. Computationalism adopts the idea to make the assumption that as long as the same function is accomplished, the Turing machine and the human can be considered equally intelligent in any particular task. Computationalists have used the assumption to claim mimicking the function of a human mind is a sufficient gauge of machine intelligence. Searle condemns popular appraisal of the computational thesis in a controversial paper, “Minds, Brains, and Programs” (1980). To challenge the notion that the mind is a version of the Turing machine, Searle presents the Chinese Room Argument, a scenario in which a man who understands English is sitting inside a room where letters written in Chinese are being passed through a slot in the door. The man does not know Chinese, and may even be unaware it is a language, so all he sees is an input of squiggles on paper. However, he sends back an output of Chinese characters by following the instructions of an English rulebook that contains instructions correlating those squiggles with the proper output of squiggles. As it turns out, the letters inputted into the room enclosed questions written by an intelligent Chinese speaker, and the man is now outputting answers to the questions. The rulebook contains no translation of the symbols, simply instructions on what squiggles the man should send back for any given input. Eventually, the man becomes so good at manipulating the squiggles, that he convinces the Chinese speaker outside he actually understands Chinese. The squiggles are symbols, and the computation conducted in the room a type of formal symbol manipulation. The man computing answers by manipulating squiggles in Searle’s room could be taken as a metaphor for a Turing machine, because he essentially follows a process of symbol manipulation. But Searle claims that the Turing machine in this scenario cannot possess understanding of Chinese simply by passing the Turing Test and convincing a pen pal that he is a Chinese speaker from the outside. To the Turing machine, Chinese will only ever be a mere collection of squiggles on paper. The answers the man gives from inside the room may be equally as good as if the man were to answer the same questions in English, but the understanding is not the same. In other words, the man’s answers to the English questions are caused by an VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 63
understanding of the semantic meaning of the language, but his understanding of Chinese is caused by arranging some syntax in the right manner. Through the use of a rulebook, the man in the room is able to recognize the squiggles representing the right syntax of the Chinese answers, so he can manipulate these symbols to produce the output; however, there is no semantic, deeper understanding of the language. No matter how detailed the rulebook becomes or how accurately information processing produces language, syntactic symbol manipulation will never be sufficient for true semantic understanding. By making a distinction between syntactic symbol manipulation and semantic human understanding, Searle attacks the validity of the Turing Test, which has been widely accepted by the AI community since its conception in 1950, thirty years before Searle’s argument. While Searle uses the Turing Test as a basis to compare the functions of a human and a Turing machine, his main argument centers around the computational theory of mind. He criticizes computationalists for justifying their theory of mind with the functional argument of the Turing Test. According to Searle, even if the functional output is the same, the intelligence that conducts the right computations to provide an answer is not the same as the intelligence that is also aware of the meaning behind the answer. Searle points out that human brains possess causal features that produce understanding, consciousness, and intentionality of thought, unlike machines, which follow whatever blueprint they are given. He defines causal features to include the qualities and components of the brain that are known to generate human semantic understanding, from emotions to neural structures. A human level of intelligence, he proposes, can only result from the causal features of the human brain. This paper will analyze this requirement of causal features more thoroughly, but for now, the main significance of Searle’s thesis is its contradiction of strong AI. The distinction Searle makes between syntactic symbol manipulation and semantic human understanding is a critical distinction between Turing machines and the human mind. Researchers in the field of strong AI, especially around the time when Searle made this argument, were strong computationalists, claiming their symbol manipulating machines were as intelligent as humans. Searle takes advantage of this distinction to make the claim that no algorithm based on the Turing machine model of computation could ever achieve human intelligence, because by definition, it would function by following a process of rules for symbol manipulation. Therefore, Searle asserts strong AI can never be achieved, a claim that has invoked the ire of many researchers in the field of artificial intelligence, especially computationalists, whose work attempting to model the human mind through versions of the Turing machine would be undermined.
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REPLIES TO THE CHINESE ROOM ARGUMENT (CRA) While most critics concede there is a distinction between syntax and semantics, they disagree with the claim that the symbol manipulation of a computing machine can never give rise to semantic understanding. A common reply among scholars, known as the Systems Reply, states that Searle’s attack can be addressed through a reinterpretation of the computational thesis. The Turing machine is a system of different parts, both conscious and unconscious. A CPU performs computations without any awareness of what the computations mean, however it is only part of a larger system inside the computer. Other parts, like the operating system, possess an understanding of the purpose and contextual meaning of those computations. Likewise, although the man inside the room himself is unconscious of Chinese, there are other parts in the system, like the rulebook, which constitute the Turing machine of the scenario and could be thought of as possessing consciousness of Chinese. An apparent understanding of Chinese is merely the result of a system of both unconscious and conscious parts working together. Searle’s scenario could also be thought of as a kind of system in which the man’s brain, an unconscious part of the system, instantiates a “virtual mind,” another part of the system that recognizes the computations as producing Chinese (Perlis et al., 1995). The brain and the mind function like split personalities within the theory of the Virtual Mind, which can be seen as an offshoot of the Systems Reply. According to the Virtual Mind Reply, the brain is composed of neurons that execute the lowlevel computational processes necessary to produce the mind that emerges at a high-level. The Turing machine system inside the room incorporates the symbol manipulations of the man in the room and the understanding in the human mind that arises due to it, at a virtual level. Searle, then, makes the category “mistake of identifying the experiences of one system with those of its implementing system.” He deems that the man in the Chinese room lacks understanding because his brain is unconscious, although it is nothing more than an implementing subsystem (Maudlin, p. 414). Searle’s virtual mind is conscious of Chinese, even if his lowlevel brain is not. Therefore, from the perspective of the virtual mind theory, the computational thesis still holds under the Chinese Room Argument (CRA). While this interpretation of the computational thesis may seem intuitively implausible to some, the assumption that the brain can be broken down into lowlevel computational processes of symbol manipulation is considered logical in the field of computer science. By necessity, high-level concepts and processes in the real world must be simplified through a process of abstraction, represented symbolically in computationally relevant terms. Thinking of the “higher conceptual level” of the VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 65
human mind as an abstraction of the fundamental functions that constitute the “low-level legwork” of the human brain is not a stretch if you consider a similar abstraction in the way computers are designed (Perlis et al., p. 218). High level source language is used by programmers to write instructions for the computer, but it is always converted into a low-level machine language that a CPU can understand, consisting of nothing but binary numbers. The source language models the instructions of machine language in a way that is meaningful to humans, by using symbols that simplify, encapsulate details, and group the numbers to their essential purpose. A parallel can be drawn between this type of abstraction and the abstraction of the mind as a virtual model of the human brain.
THE FAILURE OF THE CHINESE ROOM ARGUMENT (CRA) Searle’s entire Chinese Room scenario could be interpreted as him stating an intuition that “mere symbol manipulations do not constitute an understanding of Chinese at any level” (Perlis et al., 1992). He states: the man could be shown to “have the right combination of input, output, and program and still not understand anything in the relevant literal sense in which I understand English,” since executing an algorithm of syntactic symbol manipulation cannot produce semantic human understanding (Searle, p. 419). Through the Chinese Room, Searle shows how a semantic understanding resulting from symbol manipulation is intuitively implausible but does not offer a logical proof of why such an understanding could not occur. To more deeply analyze Searle’s interpretation of human semantic understanding, not just the outcomes of understanding, but also the casual factors, must be examined. By stating causal powers of the brain must presuppose understanding, Searle makes the judgment that the understanding of a Turing machine system is not sufficient, simply because it is produced in a different way. This may explain why he mocks the Systems Reply, remarking that if “[the] person doesn’t understand Chinese” to argue “somehow the conjunction of [the] person and bits of paper might understand Chinese” is absurd (p. 419). Even if the Turing machine system inside the room was altered so the man was outdoors and had internalized the entire rulebook within his head, Searle counters that the computational thesis is shown to be false. The man does not truly understand Chinese, since he is still producing the Chinese letters through formal symbol manipulation – the wrong causal factor. It matters that the understanding did not come from the semantic perception of a human brain but the moving around of Chinese symbols. According 66 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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to Searle, semantic understanding can only result from the causal factors of the brain. Ultimately, however, Searle’s viewpoint exemplifies the overarching issue with his argument: the insistence on utterly rejecting symbol manipulation as a probable causal factor for intelligence. The importance Searle assigns to the human brain’s causal factors of semantic understanding is generally understood as a weak attempt to justify an assumption made from the outset that human mind must function at a higher level, regardless of the fact that the brain performs many of the same computations as a machine. Searle adheres to a logical fallacy, approaching the discussion with preconceived notions of where consciousness can and cannot emerge. Just because a machine runs on algorithm of symbol manipulation does not mean the resulting intelligence must automatically be discounted. Searle does not view the matter of defining intelligence from the practical, functionalist perspective of computer scientists, cognitive scientists, and other researchers working in the field of AI, refusing to take into account the concept of abstraction and levels of understanding outlined in the Systems and Virtual Mind Reply. In light of these replies, Searle’s argument is irrelevant for those defining intelligence by functional output, because the Turing Test is useful in allowing the practical interpretation of intelligence in machines that perform the right functions. Searle’s unfounded presupposition that semantic understanding is an exclusive quality of the human brain prevents him from being able to provide credence to other interpretations of intelligence. Despite being lauded by some philosophers, Searle’s scenario has not been taken seriously by the vast majority of computer scientists. As Donald Perlis puts it, one “cannot make an argument against CT by simply denying CT” (p. 221). Other scholars have noticed the same logical fallacy in Searle’s argument. Maudlin classifies the CRA as a ploy of funny instantiation, which he defines as an argument that starts by showing how a “Turing machine can be realized in some peculiar materials (e.g., water pipes or toilet paper or windmills and old beer cans), and then [appeals] to intuitions that that sort of stuff just cannot be conscious” (p. 413). In the same way, Searle claims the man in the room cannot possess intentionality, simply because he follows an algorithm to manipulate the Chinese symbols as a machine would. In How the Mind Works, Pinker (1997) recounts a narrative in which aliens with a different anatomical structure assume humans cannot truly understand anything because their brains are made of meat. The bias within Searle’s presupposition of causal factors have been rebuked relentlessly by scholars. In fact, they go as far as to insist causal features are wholly irrelevant to the discussion of understanding. Geir Overskeid (2005) makes the case that understanding should be empirically defined as the functional ability to put VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 67
knowledge to use. A lack of understanding can then be identified experimentally: “understanding X can be said to mean not experiencing lack of knowledge about X”, which would become “an obstacle to reaching a certain type of goal” (Overskeid, p. 2). Overskeid’s definition of understanding brings the debate around the CRA back to Turing Test, by matching functionality as a concrete way to test for understanding. The Turing Test was intended to eliminate the vagueness of the term “understanding” by making it a testable quality. Overskeid criticizes Searle for bringing back unnecessary ambiguity by adding that causal powers of the brain must presuppose understanding. The CRA has largely been dismissed by the community of researchers in cognitive science and artificial intelligence for being ambiguous and circular, with no practical application to the field of AI. The Systems/Virtual Mind reply of Perlis, and Intuition Reply embodied in the rebuttals of Pinker and Overskeid, are just two examples of the many ways researchers have attacked Searle’s conclusion as inconsequential to the computational thesis. With each passing decade, the field of artificial intelligence gets closer to achieving the goal of strong AI, and computationalism remains the fundamental theory of mind driving progress in the field. Nevertheless, the question of causal features in machines, a critical component of the debate around the CRA, has sparked a potentially fruitful conversation among some who argue the concept directly impacts computationalism and how understanding should develop in machines.
RE-EXAMINING SEARLE’S CAUSAL FEATURES Few researchers refute Searle’s idea that there is a distinction between syntactic and semantic understanding. In contrast to the man-in-the-room’s wider semantic connections to the symbols of the English language, his understanding of Chinese will always only be limited to the recognition of different kinds of squiggles, a syntactic understanding. Searle’s reliance on intuition makes for a poor formal argument for why this kind of syntactic understanding is insufficient, but the intuition should not be discredited straightaway. After all, despite how computationalists wish to reinterpret the traditional definition of understanding, intuitively, few would argue the squiggles of Chinese characters actually hold inherent meaning for the man. Generally, society assumes semantics and syntax are distinct forms of understanding; the idea that understanding should be semantically grounded can lead to an interesting discussion in its own right, even as the rest of Searle’s claims are discounted. The CRA sets a useful context to discuss these questions in relation 68 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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to artificial intelligence. Perhaps Searle’s redeeming argument is in the statement that causal features matter in a machine. In contrast to Overskeid’s focus on computational output, some argue function should not be the only determining factor for intelligence. Tim Maudlin, who distances himself from Searle’s argument by calling it a “funny instantiation ploy,” notes the importance of considering causal features in machines, for reasons beyond human-centric biases of how cognition should appear. To explain, he proposes a thought experiment comparing two different systems that transfer water between buckets. A machine, named Klara, is able to detect and transfer water between buckets so that the water levels in all the buckets are equal. Another machine, Olympia, mimics the function of Klara, but the system is altered so the buckets move on their own and floats are added to each bucket as sensors for detecting water levels. Unlike Klara’s original arm mechanism, Olympia’s does nothing but output water. If any other part of the task changes or goes wrong, a copy of Klara can be triggered to fix the issue. Olympia herself is essentially a glorified water hose and should not be considered functionally conscious the way Klara is, because she has no intentionality behind her actions. However, when comparing their systems as a whole, Olympia is still considered computationally conscious, because according to the Turing Test she accomplishes the same function as Klara. Maudlin argues that the computational evaluation of Olympia’s consciousness does not make sense because it ignores the inert machinery of Olympia’s system when deeming her equivalent to Klara. Olympia’s causal features are inert, while Klara’s serve an actual purpose; Klara has sensory and motor capabilities that enable her functionality. Maudlin uses this distinction to make the case that proper causal features are important when evaluating intelligence, concluding that a theory of consciousness should combine both causal and computational features (Maudlin, 1989). In order to justify the Systems/Virtual Mind Reply against the intuitive definition of understanding, scholars attempt to reinterpret understanding itself, pointing to the abstraction and levels of intelligence incorporated in computer science’s version of intelligence. But it can be argued that interpretations of the manipulation of squiggles in the CRA as “understanding” is nothing more than a projection made by those outside the room and not an inherent quality of the man in the room. In the paper “Virtual Symposium on Virtual Mind,” Stevan Harnad accuses computationalists like Perlis of getting caught in what he calls the ‘hermeneutic circle of projection,’ justifying pure computationalism in a way that is “parasitic” on projected interpretations of understanding (Perlis et al., p. 220). However, because any “symbol system,” such as Turing’s model of computation, “must by definition VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 69
be able to bear the full weight of a systematic interpretation,” computationalists are never forced to evaluate their interpretations; instead, they “find grounds for discounting any negative testimony so that they can safely return to their mentalistic interpretation” (Perlis et al., p. 230). They are lost in what Harnad dubs the ‘hermeneutic hall of mirrors,’ projecting “mentalistic interpretations onto systematically interpretable symbol systems and then forgetting that they are just our projections” (Perlis et al., p. 220). In other words, it is possible some scholars’ interpretations of understanding may be the result of overthinking the computational thesis in a desperate attempt to reject the possibility of needing to implement semantic casual features of understanding in developing machines with human intelligence.
GROUNDED SYMBOL SYSTEMS Searle’s requirement that causal features must presuppose understanding is easy to write off as a vague and prejudiced judgment with preconceived notions of where understanding can and cannot emerge. These complaints about the CRA from researchers in the field of AI are valid because the idea of causal features is not well developed by Searle. The Turing Test focuses on functionality as a concrete and empirically verifiable quality, eliminating the vagueness of the term ‘understanding.’ The CRA’s failure is also largely the result of using cognitive neuroscience and brain function to exclusively define causal features of understanding. Searle makes the mistake of portraying symbol manipulation as irrelevant to the discussion of semantic understanding, assuming that strong AI is only possible through reverse-engineering the brain. While the brain may induce a semantic level of understanding, there is no reason for assuming it is only through the brain that one achieves semantic understanding. Despite the CRA’s flaws, its mention of causal features begins a vital discussion on the importance of the autonomous development of causal semantic structures for understanding. An example of one such semantic structure is grounded symbol systems. Elaborated by Harnad (1999) in “The Symbol Grounding Problem,” the issue of how words and symbols get their meaning is a prevalent question widely discussed in academic circles regarding the philosophy of information. Harnad requires that artificial agents with semantically grounded symbol systems must be “causally connected to and grounded bottom-up in their robotic capacity to categorize and manipulate, on the basis of their sensory projections, the objects, events and states of affairs that their symbols refer to” (Perlis et al., p. 220). A 70 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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grounded symbol, in theory, would be developed by collecting sensorimotor data and running it through some kind of perceptual or pattern recognition process to test whether the object represented by the symbol actually matches the concept it was designed to represent. The pattern recognition process, if perfected, can generate an entire system of grounded symbols with a causal connection to the environment they embody. Many interesting theories for systems of neural networks, evolutionary and behavior-based learning have been offered by scholars that could perhaps be an alternative to narrow, task-specific intelligence, if they could be practically implemented in Turing machines. Cognition includes computation, but cannot be generated exclusively through it either. Asserting the man in the CRA understands Chinese as well as he understands English is merely a projection. There are causal differences between an understanding derived from pure syntactic association of squiggles and an understanding grounded in semantic experiences and connections with the Chinese words. This is not to say that one cannot interpret syntax association using systems of symbol manipulation and the computational levels of abstraction between the brain and mind understanding as “understanding,� especially from a functional perspective. Although, there is a case to be made that the symbols being manipulated should be connected, at least semantically, to the actual objects they represent. The causal factors that enable their functionality also matter. A more comprehensive theory of mind would incorporate both the causal and computational features of understanding.
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THREATS IN 1960S AMERICA RUTHANN CLAY Major: Conflict Analysis and Resolution Class of 2017
ABOUT THE WORK During my sophomore year, I began conducting historical cultural research with Dr. Peter Stearns, who has been a fabulous mentor. Over the past year and a half, I fell in love with American culture and learned how to better research cultural questions in a historical manner. I chose to explore threats facing America in the 1960s. For this paper, I analyzed TIME magazine during this turbulent decade and then reported my findings. I used a fixed research design and the grounded theory. My final paper primarily relies on conflict theories, although, I included sections that discuss connections to some other disciplinary theories, such as psychology and history. As a result of the interdisciplinary nature of this field, I believe this paper re-visions scholarship and will be interesting and accessible to readers from a variety of academic backgrounds. Additionally, since threat remains a largely unexplored emotion within the field of American cultural history, I believe my paper adds to the current body of research.
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Recently, historians have begun to study the American character in an effort to better understand American culture and how it has evolved over time. One dimension of this emerging historical field is the study of roles of various emotions within the American character and the influence they yield on the evolution of the American character. Dr. Peter Stearns, a historian, studies the roles of fear, grief, guilt, and gratitude’s evolving role within American society and their effects. However, despite the growing body of scholarly literature on this topic and the increasing amount of historical attention being given to emotions, little attention has been given to threat. Threat is worthy of greater scholarly attention for numerous reasons. First, Google Ngrams -- a site that numerically illustrates the frequency a given term has appeared in books between the years of 1800 to 2008 -- shows “threat” increasing within American written works since the mid- Figure 1: Google Ngram of the frequency “threat” appeared in books from 1800-2008 1920s. Though not conclusive proof, Google Ngrams provides evidence that this emotion has been increasing within the American character over the past century (see Figure 1). As a result, this more important emotion deserves greater historical analysis. Additionally, numerous recent polls demonstrate the increasing role threat is playing in American culture. According to a recent Monmouth University Poll of over 800 registered voters, 47% said the “American way of life” is under “a great deal” of threat and 31% claimed they thought it faced “some” threat (Collins, 2016). Second, according to the fields of psychology, biology, and conflict analysis and resolution, threat is a necessary and influential emotion in individuals’ lives. Feeling threatened can alter one’s perception of the world and lead to real and lasting results. Consequently, such an influential emotion demands greater scholarly inquiry. In order to fill this important gap in research, this article seeks to answer the research question: What were the dominant threat narratives that Americans perceived to have existed during the 1960s? This paper works to answer this research question through an analysis of TIME magazine, a popular American weekly news magazine, that reported American politics and culture, as well as world affairs, from an American perspective. When compared to the decades prior, scholars across disciplines agree that in the 1960s a new level of internal division began to develop within American society. In order to better understand what the dominate external and newly VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 73
developing internal threat narratives were, this study analyzed TIME magazine’s issues from 1960 to 1969. This study specifically looked at the magazine’s covers, the frequency of various threats published, the visuals used, and the tone and language of the articles in order to identify the most prevalent and concerning external and internal threats facing America during this turbulent decade. This study found that the dominant external threat narratives present within TIME during the ‘60s included, the growing power of the Soviet Union (USSR) and the potential worldwide spread of communism. Comparably, this study found that as the decade progressed perceived internal threats became more prominent within the magazine. The dominant internal threat narratives included: a splintering American society along racial lines; increasing crime; and developing and growing amoral subcultures. This paper will first discuss threat, its definition, significance, and connection to identity. Second, a brief literature review focused on understanding the state of American society in the 1960s and how this decade differed from prior decades will be presented. Third, this study’s research process will be explained. Fourth, this paper will present and analyze the dominant external threat narratives present within TIME’s 1960s issues, before analyzing the dominant internal threats. Finally, this paper will conclude with a brief discussion of the implications of this research and potential for further academic investigation.
THREAT & IDENTITY Threat is a self-conscious emotion necessary and present within the majority of all animal species and serves an important defensive role (Harrison, Ahn, & Adolhs, 2015, p. 2; Sullivan, 2016, p. 44). The Merriam-Webster dictionary, which arguably presents the most accurate definition of how the majority of Americans conceive threat, offers two definitions of the emotion: “an expression of intention to inflict evil, injury, or damage” or “an indication of something impending” (Merriam-Webster). When perceiving threat, individuals will often also experience other emotions such as confusion, fear, and anxiety (Sullivan, 2016, p. 44). Furthermore, in the article “Culture-Existential Psychology: The Role Of Culture In Suffering And Threat” (2016), Daniel Sullivan claims that the experience of an outside threat (whether real or perceived) “is part of the normal range of experience of the average person within a culture” (p. 47). Since threat requires self-consciousness, the threats one perceives are intricately connected to one’s identity and the group memberships one holds. 74 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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Consequently, it is necessary to understand how threat is connected to identity. Identities are understood to describe who we are as individuals in respect to the differences or similarities we exhibit to those around us (Gardner, 2003, p. 1). One’s identity is comprised of the “individual or self identity” and the shared or social identity (Kosostelina, 2007, p. 35). Korostelina (2007), provides one of the most straight-forward definitions of social identity as “a feeling of belonging to a social group, as a strong connection with social category…” (p. 15). According to Erik Erikson (as cited in Korostelina, 2007), a prominent psychologist, the development of an identity is natural and necessary to individuals for it offers one “a sense of self-permeance and continuity” (p. 17). Additionally, an identity is important for it offers self-confidence, social positioning, safety, group support and security, and recognition to individuals (Korostelina, 2007, p. 3). One’s identity substantially influences the way in which individuals perceive and interact with the world around them, affecting among other things, what one perceives of as a threat (Gardner, 2003, p. 1). Robert Gardner, through the identity frames analogy, illustrates how a person’s identity impacts one’s perceptions. According to Gardner (2003) identity frames are an “interpretive device that all people use when making sense of the world around them” (p. 1). The group memberships an individual has predominately contributes to his or her frames (Gardner, 2003, p. 1). Therefore, identity frames ultimately influence one’s opinions of and perceptions of the world and, consequently, his or her response to it (Gardner, 2003, p. 1). Additionally, other factors Gardner (2003) identified as influencing one’s frames include: his or her role within society, race, culture, or ethnic group (p. 1-2). Identity frames are important to this study, for although this paper will identify dominate threat narratives present in TIME, it is important to understand that these threats were influenced by its writers, editors, and the publisher’s own identity frames. Therefore it is important to consider who created the magazine during this period and who these issues were created for because these interests and backgrounds impacted the narratives present within TIME. In the ‘60s, TIME was controlled predominantly by white men. These influential mens’ identities and group memberships undoubtedly influenced their conception of and ultimately presentation of American society within their magazine. The narratives and threats identified in TIME were also influenced by the magazine’s intended audience. In 1966 TIME conducted a survey in order to better understand the identity of their audience. They found that the majority of subscribers held a “managerial or professional position” and had “the medium age of 39.3 years and income of 14,904” (Auer, 1966, p. 35). Seventy-nine percent VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 75
of subscribers had a college degree, at a time when only 12.5% of American men and 7.4% of women had attained this level of education (Auer, 1966, p.35; “Americans…”, 2017). Additionally, most were married, had 1.5 children, and were the heads of households (Auer, 1966, p. 35) These statistics present a very vivid picture of TIME’s audience as being generally wealthier and better educated than the average American in 1966. Consequently, the narratives and threats in TIME catered to this particular demographic of American society.
AMERICA IN THE 1960S: “A SICK SOCIETY” Although threat has received little historical analysis within the context of the American character, there is a significant body of historical research on the 1960s, which provides important background and context for this study. Previous academic works related to this decade offers some insight into what type of threats one would expect to find within TIME’s 1960s issues. As with any other early 20th century decade, one would expect a majority of dominant American threat narratives to be centered on external threats. Threats, which this study defined as being anything, anyone, or any group outside of American society that pose a danger to America or its people. Based on the extensive historical literature that exists on the ‘60s, one would expect the dominant external threats within this decade to be connected to the Cold War, Vietnam War, and America’s worldwide fight to prevent the Domino Effect, which claimed that if communism were to expand to one nation in a region, soon the entire reason would become communist (“Foreign Relations,” 1964, p. 23). In addition to external threats, one analyzing the dominant American threat narratives related to any decade in history would also expect to find some internal threats present too. An internal threat would be anything, anyone, or any group from within American society that is understood as posing a threat to the established American society as a whole. A substantial amount of historical research on the 1960s argues that American society was in a period of cultural change that destroyed the perception of a unified America. Consequently, one would expect to observe a increasing amount of national attention and concern paid to internal threats. This section will provide a brief literature review on the evolving American culture in the 1960s. According to scholars, American culture during the 1960s was in the process of redefining itself and its culture (Schlesinger, 1969). Social movements like the civil rights movement and the antiwar movement were in full swing, challenging 76 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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the norms, presenting grievances, and demanding change (Schlesinger, 1969). This arduous process of social change gave rise to an era of societal division and national self-reflection (Schlesinger, 1969). Reflective individuals from the era, as well as historians, in retrospect agree that this decade brought about a new and previously unseen level of division and threat within modern American society (Schlesinger, 1969). Various scholars and prominent political figures during the 1960s spoke of the chaotic state that American society was experiencing. Historian Arthur Schlesinger published the book, The Crisis of Confidence (1969), which comprises of various essays reflecting on the state of America at the end of the 1960s. In the opening line of his book, Schlesinger claims that “America is undergoing a crisis of self-confidence” (Schlesinger, 1969, p. ix). A crisis, he defined a few pages later as being, in part, a “crisis of our internal character as a nation,” causing many Americans to question whether the ills of the nation could be healed (Schlesinger, 1969, p. xi). According to William Styron, this social “crisis” inspired fear and the development of a perception from Americans that they were “theoretical victims” (Schlesinger, 1969, p. 5). Similarly, popular political rhetoric during this period provides insight into the turbulent state of American society (Rowan, 2012, p. 385). According to Rowan (2012), Martin Luther King Jr. attacked America’s Figure 2: Google Ngram of the “sick society” hypocrisy for perpetuating and believing the long established narrative of American innocence in many of his speeches (Rowan, 2012, p. 384). Additionally, the phrase “a sick society” was used to describe American society by politicians, such as President Kennedy, President Johnson, and William Fulbright (Rowan, 2012, p. 385). Google Ngram shows the term “sick society” skyrocketing during the decade, providing insight into how many Americans were perceiving their society during this tumultuous decade (Google). Interestingly, not only were Americans aware and reflective of the “crisis” occurring within their society, but others across the globe also took notice of this social upheaval. This is clear from the scope and significance of the decade’s social movements. The Times of India wrote: “The overriding question is whether America will have the moral strength to cure itself of the sickness of which there has been one virulent symptom after another since President Kennedy’s assassination” (Schlesinger, 1969, p. 6). Likewise, the German-Rheinische Post of VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 77
Düsseldorf wrote that, America “has become an expression of alarm” (Schlesinger, 1969, p. 6). Since the conclusion of the 1960s, many contemporary scholars have researched the decade and are in a general consensus regarding the internal strife and division that existed. Fred Davis, a sociologist, claims that the 1960s was a period of “massive identity dislocation” (Lasch, 1991, p. 117). Julius Lester, an American writer, continues along similar lines to contend that “suddenly,” in the 1960s, the conception of America came under attack from many within the nation and soon many began to conceive of America as being “the enemy” (Lasch, 1991, p. 494). Similarly, Mike Rowan (2012), claims that the 1960s was “arguably…(American) society’s most critical moment” (p 377). Furthermore, Rory McVeigh, David Cunningham, and Justin Farrell in their article, Political Polarization as a Social Movement Outcome: 1960s Klan Activism and Its Enduring Impact on Political Realignment in Southern Counties, 1960 to 2000 (2014), argue that the 1960s was the beginning of great political polarization that has seemingly become the norm within present American society, dividing the nation and consequently, posing “a serious threat to national unity” (McVeigh, Cunningham, & Farrell, 2014, p. 2). Based on primary sources and scholars’ analysis of the 1960s, it is clear that this decade was largely defined by social divisions, level of fear and threat present within society, and the assault on America’s character and pureness. These defining components made this 1960s distinct from the decades that preceded it. Although perceived internal threats and societal challenges were not absent from earlier decades of the twentieth century, many scholars do suggest that the positive conception of American identity was relatively unchallenged and societal cohesion was perceived to have been far greater, whether that was the actual case or not (Schlesinger, 1969). Schlesinger makes this argument by drawing attention to the differences between the ‘50s and ‘60s. He claimed the 1950s emphasized “the homogeneity of American life and thought,” an illusion that, by the following decade, had been shattered (1969, xi). Based on these scholars’ interpretation of American society during this chaotic decade, it is logical to expect to observe an increasing amount of attention to internal threats with TIME’s 1960’s issues.
METHODS In an effort to answer the research question, “What were the dominant threat narratives that Americans perceived to have existed during the 1960s?,” this study 78 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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analyzed a primary source, TIME magazine’s 1960-1969 issues in order to better understand the dominant external and internal threats perceived. TIME was chosen for this study because of its journalistic focus on American politics and culture as well as international affairs from the American perspective. Additionally, TIME was selected over other newspapers or news magazines because of its popularity and reputation during this period. Qualitative data was collected from TIME’s covers, visuals, and the tone and presentation of the articles in an effort to identify what “dangers” were discussed. The research analyzed each of TIME’s 521 covers published during the 1960s in order to gain a broad view of the important topics during this turbulent decade. Due to time constraints, this research did not analyze every article in each 1960s issue. However, in order to ensure that the articles that pertained to an external and internal threat were analyzed, the articles under the magazine’s sections “The World,” “The Hemisphere,” “The Nation” were reviewed because of their focus. In addition to the 521 cover stories reviewed, this research skimmed the other articles in the issues to ensure that nothing was overlooked. A cover or article was coded as a threat if it was presented as having the potential to damage or negatively affect American sovereignty, international interests, social cohesion or American culture. The majority of the data was collected in November 2018 via the TIME Vault, TIME’s online database which provides digital scans of all prior issues.
RESULTS The research found that from the beginning of the decade, the dominant threat narratives were externally focused. They included the growing power of the USSR and the fear of the potential worldwide spread of communism. However as the decade progressed, this research found that internal threats became more prominent. The dominant internal threat narratives included an American society splintering along racial and generational lines, developing amoral subcultures, and increasing crime. This section will explain the nature and presentation of these threats, beginning with the early external threats before discussing the later internal ones.
External Threat 1: The Soviet Union The first and most obvious threat identified within TIME’s 1960 publications VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 79
was the USSR and their growing influence. Although attention to the USSR and the threat it posed to American interests, safety, and democracy worldwide was greater in the first half of the decade, it remained prominent throughout the decade, evident from the frequency that the topic appeared on the cover of TIME (TIME, 1960-1969). Between 1960 and 1969, a Soviet individual or symbol appeared on the cover twenty-one times. More specifically, eleven covers appeared between 1960 and 1963, which amounts to 8.3% of all the covers during this time span. Many of these covers featured Khrushchev; the USSR leader appeared on the cover three times in 1960s alone. The majority of other covers pictured prominent soviet leaders, such as the defense minister, Rodin Malinovsky, the Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, and the Soviet statesman, Alexei Kosygin, or depicted the USSR’s growing world power. Two headlines during this period that directly speak of this threat included “The Cold War” and “The Russian offensive against the US and UN” (TIME, 1960-1969). Beyond the frequency that the USSR appeared on a cover, the visual presentation of these covers conveyed a sense of threat and doom. For example, the October 3, 1960 cover showed a caricature of Khrushchev leading a group of marching red-faced men (TIME, 1960-1969). Similarly, September 8 1961 issue’s cover displayed a cutout of an open mouthed Khrushchev pointing his finger with a bomb exploding in the background. Not only the images themselves but according to color psychology (“Color Psychology…”, 2012), the colors scheme used on the covers of these issues, which relied heavily on blacks, grays, and reds, further conveyed a sense of threat, fear, evil, and doom to the subscriber. Furthermore, the articles that accompanied these USSR related covers further convey a sense of heightened threat. The frequency of articles dedicated to the USSR threat, their prominent location within the magazine, their length, and the language and tone they employed all convey a sense of urgency and importance of the growing USSR power. In addition to the USSR covers, there were a variety of covers that did not visually depict the USSR but the topics depicted were intricately connected to the Cold War, such as the arms race. Advancements in weaponry and the arms race between the United States and the USSR appeared on the cover eight times during this decade. A majority of these covers pictured weapons or explosions and were accompanied by headlines such as: “The argument over (arms) testing;” “US Nuclear testing;” “Weapons & Diplomacy;” “Beyond the nuclear agreement;” “... The State and Condition of the US Atomic Arsenal;” “East Side Rockets;” “The Great Missile Debate;” and “The Nuclear Issue;” (TIME, 1960-1969). The language these weapon-focused articles used further conveyed a sense of 80 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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threat and doom. The article “Russia” in TIME’s September 8, 1961 issue under “The World” section is one of the many TIME articles that discussed the growing power of the USSR, their arsenal, and consequently, the threat the Soviets posed to the United States. This particular article makes clear the Soviet’s interest in and drive to continue to create larger and more advanced weapons as well as the inability of the international diplomatic process to regulate this arms race. The article claims “The Russian may have made a major technological breakthrough on new nuclear devices…” (“Russia,” 1961, p.28). Additionally, the article reports that Khrushchev recently warned the United States of his country’s interest in and dedication to developing its own nitrogen bomb (“Russia,” 1961, p.28) As the article concludes, it discusses the “scare value” of Soviet’s new weapons, seeming to acknowledge the power and impact of the news and its effect on the American psyche (“Russia,” 1961, p.28) Polls from the 1960s provide some insight into the level of threat the USSR and the development of nuclear weapons was to Americans. When a group of Americans were polled by Gallup in 1960 if they “would favor or oppose a law which would require every community to build public bomb shelters,” 72% said they would favor such a law (Lyons, 2003). Approximately a year later, when a group of Americans were asked, “Have your fears about nuclear war or [nuclear] fallout had any effect on your outlook on life or your plans for the future?” roughly 30% said they feel “a general dread or fear,” 17% “mentioned something about fallout shelters,” 11% said that it was “hard for them to make plans for the future,” and 10% said “they had a pessimistic outlook and weren’t sure whether or not they would wake up alive each day” (2003). A significant portion of this fear and perceived threat Americans were experiencing was a result of the regular news articles and visuals they were confronted with that discussed the USSR and its growing power. The other topic that was featured regularly throughout the 1960s related to the USSR threat was the space race. The space race appeared on the cover twenty times throughout this decade bnuhiop (TIME, 1960-1969). A majority of these covers pictured Soviet cosmonauts (e.g. Yuri Gagarin, Andriyan Nikolayev, and Pavel Popovich), American astronauts (e.g. Alan Shepard, John Glenn, and Gordon Cooper), the behind the scene scientists (e.g Dyer Holmes and William Pickering) or space equipment (TIME, 1960-1969). Additionally, some of the headlines that accompanied these covers were “Rush hour in space,” “The aerospace industry,” “The space race is on,” “Exploring the edge of the universe,” “The saga of Gemni 5,” and “Race for the moon” (TIME, 1960-1969). Although these space covers did not present the same sense of doom and inspire the same VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 81
level of fear within Americans as the covers dedicated on the arms race did, these covers conveyed a sense of the immense and serious competition and animosity that existed between the two most powerful nations in the world during this decade. External Threat 2: Expanding Communism The other prominent external threat present in TIME’s 1960 issues was the potential growth of communism around the globe. As a result, interest in other nations’ government and their connection to the United States or the USSR dominated many of the covers and articles throughout the decade. The amount of covers dedicated to this threat, the long and detailed “Foreign News,” “The World,” and “Hemisphere” sections of TIME’s magazine, and the language and tone of the articles all convey a sense threat (TIME, 1960-1969). During this decade, Asian nations such as Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, China, Japan, India, and Vietnam appeared on twenty-six covers (TIME, 1960-1969). These headlines that accompanied these covers included “The Communist Explosion,” “The US Stand In Asia,” “The Enemy In Asia,” “New War In Asia,” and “The Search For Peace in Asia” (TIME, 1960-1969). Of these twenty-six covers, twelve of them featured North or South Viet Nam (TIME, 1960-1969). This level of attention is not surprising due to the Vietnam War that America was engaged in during this decade. Many of these covers discuss the development in the war, like “Military Coup in Viet Nam,” “South Viet Nam,” and “Escalation in Viet Nam” (TIME, 1960-1969). Later issues reference the growing societal resentment towards the war with headlines like “Rising Doubt About The War,” “Protest! Protest! Protest!: A week of Antiwar Demonstrations” and “Viet Nam: When Can The US Begin To Leave?” (TIME, 1960-1969). During the decade, there was also an interest in Latin American and African nations. Latin American countries like Cuba, Argentina, Brazil, and the Dominican Republic, appeared on twelve covers (TIME, 1960-1969). Similarly, African nations such as Kenya, Congo, and Nigeria appeared on thirteen covers (TIME, 1960-1969). Some of these covers headlines that accompanied these covers included “The US And Latin America,” “Communism Western Beachhold,” “Democracy’s failure in Argentina,” “Cuba: Chaos…”, and “The Cuban Disaster” (TIME, 1960-1969). Within TIME’s cover, a substantial amount of writing and articles are dedicated to foreign affairs. In each issue, the “Foreign News Section” would report of the events within three or four world nations (TIME, 1960-1969). Similarly, 82 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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the “Hemisphere” section would discuss the news of a few western hemisphere nations (TIME, 1960-1969). Many of these articles discussed these countries’ connection to the US and democracy or the USSR and communism. America’s heightened attention to communism’s influence in the rest of the world and interest in various seemingly insignificant Asian, Latin American, and African nations stems from the guiding American foreign policy theory during this period. The Domino Theory and its importance within American foreign affairs was discussed in the article “Foreign Relations” in TIME’s February 21, 1964 issue. The article explained the theory by stating, “If Greece fell, so would Turkey, then most of the middle East. If Laos went, so like a row of dominos, would South Vietnam, Thailand, and the rest of Southeast Asia.” (“Foreign Relations,” 1964, p. 23). As a result of this conception of foreign policy and prediction, American foreign policy became “predictable” in that any communist action in a certain country was “met instantly and decisively” by a Western response, as seen in Cuba and Vietnam (“Foreign Relations,” 1964, p. 23). Due to the high level of perceived threat and the often military response that resulted, it is not surprising that communism would be one of the most dominant external threats within TIME’s 1960s issues.
Internal Threat 1: Race and a Fracturing American Society Although the fear of communism still persisted throughout the decade, a series of new internal threats began to emerge during the second half of the 1960s. The most dominant threats included a lack of internal cohesion within American society, particularly along racial lines, crime, and the development of amoral subcultures. Although these threats were not presented as being particularly deadly, they were understood to be negatively impacting American societal cohesion and adversely contribute to a devolving American culture. American race relations became a dominate threat narrative within TIME beginning in 1963 and continuing throughout the decade (TIME, 1960-1969). This movement was conceived of as a threat because of the movement’s potentially dangerous intentions, its disruption of internal peace, and the internal division it was causing within American society. TIME’s coverage of this movement was largely from the perspective of white Americans and, consequently, was portrayed predominantly as negative. The civil rights movement and America’s poor race relations appeared on TIME’s cover twelve times from 1963 to 1969 (TIME, 1960-1969). Three of VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 83
these covers appeared in 1963 alone (TIME, 1960-1969). Many of theses covers featured white policy-makers and lacked an analysis or voice from the movement’s perspective. Although Martin Luther King Jr. was awarded Man of the year in 1964 and appeared on a cover in 1965, the majority of covers pertaining to civil rights showed white politicians and their moral and logistical struggle of dealing with the Civil Rights Movement (TIME, 1960-1969). For example, TIME’s Due 21, 1963 issue showed Robert and President John Kennedy sitting with heads bowed appearing to be praying with the headline “Civil Rights: The Moral Crisis” (TIME, 1960-1969). Similarly, “The Civil Rights Bill” cover on June 19, 1963 pictured the white Senator Dirksen (TIME, 1960-1969). Additionally, Alabama’s Governor Wallace was shown on September 27, 1963 issues with the headline “Alabama Civil Rights Battlefield ” displayed at the top (TIME, 1960-1969). Furthermore, many of the headlines pertaining to the civil rights movement were negatively radicalized. Some included “The Negro Revolution To Date,” ‘The Los Angeles Riot,” “The First Negro In The Cabinet,” and “Negro Election Victories” (TIME, 1960-1969). Many of the articles that reported on racial issues and the civil rights movement marginalized the civil rights perspective. TIME’s articles largely present this movement as being a threat to American society and national peace. One such article was “Civil Rights,” which appeared in TIME’s August 30, 1963 issue. The article refers to the civil rights movement as “that awful roar” and members of the movement as “highly militant negroes” (“Civil Rights,” 1963, p.9). Furthermore, the article’s choice of language and presentation of the civil rights movement offers a threatening conception of the movement and its potentially dangerous effect on American society. The article begins contextualizing the civil rights movement by quoting a leader of the NAACP as stating, “my basic strength is those 300,000 lower-class guys who are ready to mob, steal and kill” (“Civil Rights,” 1963, p.9). Additionally, a few paragraphs later the article quotes a Brooklyn paster’s prediction that “the streets are going to run red with blood” (“Civil Rights,” 1963, p.9). This movement was understood to be a threat not only because of the division that it was causing within American society and the threat it posed to internal peace but also because of the threat it posed to America’s identity. Mike Rowan in (2012), claims that prior to this movement America had enjoyed an uncontested identity as being innocent (p. 383). However in the 1960’s “the innocence of America and its representative class, the elusive and often fictionalize ‘middle class’ became an object of contestation and doubt” (Rowan, 2012, p. 383). This “assault on American innocence” was a consequence of the “dialog of blame” 84 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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that emerged from the Civil Rights Movement and presented America as the enemy (Rowan, 2012, p. 383).
Internal Threat 2: Crime Crime became a popular threat narrative within TIME during the last few years of the 1960s. One cover in 1966 and 1967 was dedicated to American crime, three more covers appeared in 1968 (TIME, 1960-1969). Crime was understood to be increasing and beginning to pose a serious threat to American society. TIME presented crime as being largely connected to American cities and related to race. This narrative is clear from the headlines such as “Law & Dissent,” “The Embattled Cities,” “Law and Order,” “The Gun In America,” and “The Police and the Ghetto,” a cover which showed a white policymaker in the foreground and a black man in the background (TIME, 1960-1969). Additionally, this racialized and urban based narrative was evident in the articles that reported on the American crime epidemic. The TIME July 19, 1968 article “Police: The Thin Blue Line” discussed the rising danger and crime levels in America’s cities and importance of the work of America’s policemen. The article opens with the statement, “The soldier of the cities is the cop, his front line the American ghetto” (“Police…”, 1968, p. 16). The article goes on to name Harlem, Watts, Roxbury, Hough, Hunters Point, the South Side, Dixie Hills, and Bedford-Stuyvesant as ground zero for rising crime and fear. Additionally, the article “The Fear Campaign,” published in TIME’s October 4, 1968 issue, claims that by 1968 the threat of crime has penetrated the hearts and minds of most Americans. The article claims, “there is hardly a single big city in which the individual feels completely safe on the streets at night, the fear of violence permeates the entire nation,…” (“The Fear Campaign,” 1968, p. 21). Scholars and political commentaries have long linked 1960’s Americans increasing attention and concern to crime as being largely inspired by Barry Goldwater’s 1964 unsuccessful bid for the presidency and even more so by Nixon’s 1968 presidential campaign. For both campaigns, crime was a primary issue, and in the 1968 elections it was became “perhaps the crucial issue” (Rowan, 2012, p. 381). Reflecting on the 1968 elections, TIME reported in the article “The Fear Campaign” published in October 4, 1968, “The presidential campaign…is dominated by a pervasive and obsessive issue. Its label is Law and Order. Its symptoms are fear and frustration and anger” (“The Fear Campaign,” 1968, p. 21). Nixon’s attention to crime was intended to provide urgency to the VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 85
presidential election and garner votes, in addition to reestablishing America’s innocence (Rowland 2012, p. 387-188). Nixon attempted to link America’s societal problems and lack of cohesion to crime rather than to American morality as the civil rights movement proposed (Rowland, 2012, p. 380-388). He claimed that American “society is guilty of crime only when we fail to bring the criminal to justice” (Rowland, 2012, p. 387). As a result of the increasing political and, at the time, new national narratives surrounding the American identity, the notion of “law and order…resonated deeply with a significant portion of the American voting public” (Rowlan, 2012, p. 381). TIME reported on the July 19, 1968 article “Police: The Thin Blue Line” that according to a recent poll, Americans’ number one domestic concern in 1968 was crime (“Police…”, 1968, p. 16). Due to the established historical timeline and polls, it is not surprising that this study found crime becoming an increasingly more dominant threat narrative with TIME during the second half of the decade.
Internal Threat 3: The Developing American Culture The 1960s was a decade of new and developing subcultures within American society. Subcultures that were understood by many within American society to be negatively contributing to the development of a morally lax and adverse American society. In the second half of the decade, TIME discusses a variety of different components of this changing culture including sex, contraception, sexual orientation, drugs, religion, art, music, and hippies (TIME, 1960-1969). Some cover headlines included “Is God Dead?,” “The Hippies,” “The New Cinema: Violence..Sex…Art…,” “The Sex Explosion,” “Dugs And The Young,” and “The Homosexual In America” (TIME, 1960-1969). Unlike the threat that the civil rights movement and crime posed to America’s internal peace and security, the culturally significant changes TIME highlighted in the ‘60s were understood as threatening because of their negative influence on American culture and identity. This is clear through the language and tone used in TIME’s articles. The article “The Hippies” in TIME’s July 7, 1967 issue could be summarized by its use of the quote from historian Arnold Toynbee who claims the hippy subculture is “A red warning light to the American way of life” (“The Hippies,” 1967, p. 18). This changing American culture was seen as being driven largely by the younger generation, a sect of the population that also received a good deal of 86 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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attention from TIME in the 1960s. American youth appeared on the cover seven times between 1967 and 1969 and many articles that attempted to describe this new generation of Americans and their influence on society (TIME, 19601969). These headlines included, “Today’s Teenagers,” “Man of the year in 1967: Twenty-five and under,” “The Worldwide Student Rebellion,” and “Can you trust anyone under 30?” (TIME, 1960-1969). Although this youth movement was not presented as being so much a threat to Americans’ safety and internal peace, it was understood to be causing division and dissatisfaction within American society and contributing to the development of a more lax national culture.
DISCUSSION Understanding the dominant 1960s threat narratives present and perpetuated in TIME, such as the growing power of the USSR, expanding communism, a splintering American society along racial lines, increasing crime, and a devolving American culture, is an important academic endeavor. Furthermore, this is a significant research topic because these narratives not only impacted the psyche of Americans in the 1960s but have had significant and lasting impacts on American culture. As seen in the 2016 presidential election, Americans’ feelings related to Russia are still tense and a lack of trust between the two nations are lasting legacies of the Cold War. Racial issues within the United States are still fraught with tension, leading to continued demonstrations and protests in hopes of securing equal rights. Additionally since the 1960s, following America’s increasing attention to and concern on crime, America’s prison population has exploded (“Trends in US Corrections…”). It is important to note that the threat narratives of the 1960s did not stop the progress of the movements it negatively portrayed. As a recent Gallup report demonstrated, Americans are now more accepting of a variety of previously morally contentious taboos, including birth control, premarital sex, and gay and lesbian relationships; acceptance that arguably began to take shape in the‘60s (Riffkin, 2014). Further research is needed in order to more fully explore the dominate threat narratives posited by the mainstream media in 1960s America. It is important to not only understand those threats present in TIME but also those in other prominent media outlets during this turbulent decade. The significance of this research has far-reaching effects within the fields of history, as well as the field of conflict analysis and resolution. VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 87
DEATH OF THE FAIRY: HOW THE COTTINGLEY PHOTOGRAPHS ENDED THE REIGN OF THE VICTORIAN FAIRY ARYELLE YOUNG Major: Creative Writing Class of 2018
ABOUT THE WORK This paper was written as the final project in English 400: City of Dreadful Delights. Throughout the course, we examined 19th century London and Victorian society through various literary, social history, and cultural history texts. Our final project required that we do a close reading or analysis of a work with special attention paid to how it interacted with or was influenced by the social and cultural habits and reality of Victorian life. For my topic, I chose to examine the idea of the supernatural in Victorian life; more specifically, I decided to research the figure of the Victorian fairy. To ground my research, I chose to do my analysis on the Cottingley photographs, a series of five pictures taken by two cousins in an English suburb between 1917 and 1920, which depict the girls with fairies of various kinds. After catching the attention of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (who would eventually write a short book defending the pictures and insisting on their authenticity), they became brief national sensations. I propose that the materiality and perfect representation of the Cottingley fairies doomed the figurative fairy to a place of non-meaning with the symbolic potential of the fairy being sapped away through the production of the photos. I examine the various forms and purposes the Victorian fairy served and demonstrate how the Cottingley fairies fit into those expectations. I draw upon various scholarly sources to show how the fascination with fairies dropped rapidly after the Cottingley photos, with fairies being thereafter largely relegated to children’s literature. I conclude by returning to the girls, grown into women, who maintained until the 1980s that the pictures were real. Despite their conviction and innocent intentions, the fairy never recovered from all the attention and speculation caused by the photos, and even today, fairies are allowed only a marginal existence in fables and children’s stories.
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In July 1917, ten-year-old Frances Griffiths and sixteen-year-old Elsie Wright took two photographs. Their intent was simple: to prove to their parents that they really did play with fairies in the beck near the Wright’s house. As a result of this photograph, a cultural sensation with far reaching ramifications emerged, not only for the girls themselves but also for the figure of the fairy. Fairies enjoyed a place of multivalent importance during the Victorian era. From paintings to children’s stories and theatrical extravaganzas to folktales, fairies underwent “a population explosion” in Victorian England (Purkiss 220). Symbolically, the Victorian fairy was mutable. Although the strongest connection existed between childhood innocence and fairies, the Victorian fairy was also connected to pastoralism through the resurgence and renewed cultural appreciation of British folklore, to femininity and beauty through the many illustrations and paintings of various artists, and to materialism through theatrical extravaganzas and spiritualism. Frances and Elsie’s pictures, now collectively known as the Cottingley photographs, reflect each of these disparate meanings in their fairies. Thus, the photographs are a culmination of Victorian society’s fairy fascination, but they are also intrinsically flawed — by making fairies material, they ended the symbolic reign of the fairy.
THE COTTINGLEY INCIDENT It is worth briefly summarizing the events of the Cottingley incident. Although taken in 1917, the two aforementioned photographs (see fig. 1 and 2) would not
Figure 1: “Frances and the Fairies.”
Figure 2: “Elsie and the Gnome.”
begin to gain notoriety until 1920. After being displayed by Elsie’s mother at a Theosophical Society meeting, the pictures were noticed by Edward Gardner, an influential member of the Society, who began using them in his lectures. Shortly
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thereafter, they came to the attention of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “whom Strand magazine had recently commissioned to write a story about fairies” (Heydt 23). At Gardner’s and Doyle’s request, Elsie and Frances succeeded in producing three more pictures in the summer of 1920 (see fig. 3, 4, and 5), which was interpreted by Gardner and Doyle as proof of the girls’ honesty and the existence of the fairies themselves. The set of photos was used in Doyle’s Strand article later that year, and the Cottingley fairies became nationally known.
INNOCENCE AND FEMININITY
Figure 3: “Frances and the Leaping Fairy.”
Figure 4: “Fairy Offering Posy of Harebells to Elsie.”
Figure 5: “Fairies and the Sun-Bath.”
As Laurence Talairach-Vielmas explains, “fairy tales were not generally approved and accepted in England before the beginning of the nineteenth century, especially for children” (273). This indicates that the connection between fairies and children formed during the nineteenth century, rather than before. The Victorian acceptance of fairy tales in the nursery came as a result of their embracing the figure of the innocent childhood, a time when morality was proved by the nature of their imagination (Purkiss). Indeed, the innocent and childish nature of Elsie and Frances were essential to the potential credibility of their pictures, as well as to public reception. The girls’ inexperience with technology seemed a natural point in their favor. After a published critique pointed out that the photographs were the first ever taken by the girls, Doyle used this fact to highlight how unlikely it was that they would have the know-how to fake any pictures at all (Doyle 71). However, the fact of their age also played into the disbelief of many; as Heydt records, one critic in particular observed that to properly explain the pictures “what is wanted is
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not a knowledge of the occult but a knowledge of children” (24). For spiritualists like Doyle and Gardner, girls’ age gender also played into their credibility. As Alex Owens points out, “youth and femininity were traditionally highly prized in Anglo-American spiritualist circles,” hence Elsie and Frances unwittingly represented a recently formed archetype of female mediumship (72). Before the second set of photos had been obtained, Doyle worried that perhaps it was already too late, for he knew “that the processes of puberty are often fatal to psychic power” (93). Although the girls insisted that they had to be together to photograph the fairies, both Doyle and Gardner attributed “the greater psychic powers” to Frances, the younger of the two (Owen 73). Gardner goes so far as to refer to Elsie Wright as a child during his 1920 visit (despite the fact that she was nineteen by that time), and he inaccurately states her age as three years younger in a book he later published (Owen 74). The image of the little girl who played with fairies was so essential that, for Gardner at least, the perception of childhood took precedent over the truth.
VISUAL BEAUTY OF FAIRIES Although fairies often inhabited the pages of storybooks, they also had numerous visual representations in Victorian culture. Diane Purkiss spends many pages examining the theatrical extravaganzas, transformation scenes, and fairy pantomimes of the Victorians and illustrating how culturally influential these representations were. It is worth noting that it took “hundreds of girls” mostly “aged between seven and twelve years” to achieve the full wonder and spectacle of these theatrical productions (Purkiss 227). Even in the theatre, the female youth was the ideal representation of the fairy. On the stage, fairies were familiarly clothed in gauzy, airy materials with flowing silhouettes and where they danced with a mechanically achieved grace done through trapdoors and wires. The fairies of Figures 1, 3, 4, and 5 could all easily have danced off the stage and into the Bradford countryside, when one looks at their clothing and ethereal movement. But why do they have adult figures, if the child as fairy was a common theatrical element? Perhaps unknowingly, Frances and Elsie created a synthesis of visual fairy representations with their pictures, since the adult fairy was a common part of many Victorian fairy paintings. Purkiss argues that some painters used fairies as “an excuse to paint a nude or enticingly draped body,” much as pagan figures had been used in the past (231). However, Jan Susina builds upon this analysis by stating that fairy paintings “allowed the artists to explore opposing elements of VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 91
the Victorian psyche” (232). So while fairies in literature were often childlike and innocent, the fairies of Victorian painters could be adult, complex, and erotic. In the Cottingley photos, one notices the aesthetic union of the dancing theatre fairy and the fully-grown painter’s fairy.
THE COUNTRY AND THE FAIRY Fairies were also strongly associated with the countryside due to the resurgence of folklore in the Victorian era. The Victorian hunt for a “British folk tradition” was largely influenced by the popularization of folklore in other European countries (Owen 51). However, Susina tells us that Victorians used folklore as a way to exert power over country-dwellers, as well as Irish and Scottish immigrants. The idea of cultural evolution became popular, and it explained “folk beliefs [as] survivals from an earlier, more savage period” (Susina 235). When the fairies of folklore are depicted as “an angry mob, wild and uncivilized,” Susina argues that this served to reassure middle class Victorians of their racial and cultural superiority (236). Now, the fairies that supposedly played with Elsie and Frances by the brook are clearly not uncivilized or violent, instead, these fairies are a step removed from their counterparts in folktales. The Cottingley fairies are properly situated in natural environments, as predicated by the association of fairies with folklore and country folk, but they are representative of pastoralism and the “non-existent rural idyll” (Purkiss 224). Thus, while the connection between country and fairy has been maintained, this relationship has also been sanitized and idealized. Doyle took note of the pipe held by the gnome in Figure 2, observing it to be “the very sort … associated with fauns and naiads” (54). This small detail made the fairies familiar and confirmed the nostalgia for a lost, unreachable countryside that vexed Victorians.
CYNICISM AND MATERIALISM The connection between fairies and materialism is one based upon opposites, until the Cottingley pictures were produced. J. Patrick Padziora’s essay “Cynical Mysticism” is a thoughtful and skilled analysis of why Victorian spiritualists were so fascinated with fairies. He claims that a “profound cynicism about the perceived degradation of British society” drove men like Doyle and Gardner to the refuge of fairyland (287). Padziora argues that this cynicism was a reaction to industrialization 92 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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and materialism. In a time of unprecedented wealth and manmade accomplishment, spiritualists sought “to look beyond the immediate surface of things, the realm of the material and materialism” (Padziora 299). Indeed, Doyle hoped that the Cottingley fairies and the proof they represented would “jolt the material twentiethcentury mind” into acknowledging that there was still “a glamour and a mystery to life” (58). Unfortunately for Doyle, the very material nature of the photographs themselves would doom the fairy to a place of fantasy and meaningless simplicity.
THE FAILURE OF THE MATERIAL FAIRY Before the Cottingley pictures, Victorian society enjoyed the make-believe nature of the fairy. Fairies could be representative of childhood innocence as well as a reflection of the lower, violent tendencies of the common folk, as it was common knowledge that the fairies, in both cases, were never real. Artists and producers could manipulate the fairy into contradicting manifestations however they liked, because the fairy was minimized to a cultural symbol. However, when the Cottingley photographs were published in the Strand, the fairy threatened to become fully material, an entity that shared the world with the Victorians. In fact, if one believed the pictures to be real, then fairies had to be material, if only by nature of the negatives. The transition of fairy from pretend to reality was threatening for readers of the time. As Heydt claims, “the public reaction was mixed” (24). Reporters and writers of the time published critiques and denials of the photographs, some of which are quoted and addressed by Doyle in his book titled The Coming of the Fairies. Ironically, the spiritualists who sought fairies as the ideal answer to their culture’s materialism and mundanity were failed by the material “proof ” of fairies that the Cottingley photographs provided. The Cottingley fairies’ appearance was a direct result of the Victorian fascination with fairies, who were beautiful and adult, graceful and theatrical, joyously innocent and quaintly rustic. The Victorian affinity for Elsie and Frances satisfied the societal desire for the imaginatively pure child, as well as the spiritualist’s expectations of a young girl’s psychic ability. They were the perfect fairies, and this is what ruined them. A hoax done too well can only be accepted by those who most desire it to be true, while the rest of society is forced to deny it simply because its overwhelming with its perfection, as perfection could not be natural, thus the Cottingley fairies could not be natural. Douglas A. Anderson states that “the public scrutiny of [the] photographs … dealt fairies a death blow” (8). After the Cottingley incident, and contrary to the hopes of Gardner and Doyle, VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 93
the fairy was relegated solely to the role of “imaginary creatures” that “only children might believe in” (Anderson 8). No longer could fairies be appropriate symbols for adult desires or anxieties, and with the downgrade to child’s plaything, any credibility to the actual existence of fairies was entirely lost. The fairy’s reduced status meant that their symbolic potential had been utterly depleted, and they quickly faded from adult literature and artistic expression.
CONCLUSION Inadvertently a visual culmination of a culture’s fascination with fairies, the Cottingley photographs were the beginning of the end for the Victorian fairy. The Cottingley fairies changed the public opinion on Doyle perhaps as much as they changed the societal appreciation for fairies. Elsie and Frances did regret the publicity of the photos, and Owen gives an excerpt of an interview with adult Elsie who expressed sadness for Doyle and the way the public mocked him for his belief in their fairies (76-77). Later in life, Elsie and Frances revealed that the fairies had been traced from illustrations in a book, cut out, painted, and placed with hatpins – ironically, the possibility of the fairies as “cut-out images” is mentioned by Doyle in one of his rebuttals to a critic where he insisted that the girls were too young and too inexperienced to produce two-dimensional fairies of such quality (71). Despite intense public attention and numerous interviews, Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths maintained that they had not faked the Cottingley photographs until the 1980s. Even then, the women would admit that they only faked four out of the five pictures (Frances insisted that the final picture was real until she died) and that while the photographs were contrived, the girls had truly played with fairies in the beck (Heydt 25). Regardless of their innocent intent, the Cottingley photographs heralded the death knell of the fairies’ symbolic reign in literature and art.
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IMAGE CITATIONS Figure 1. Nordestgaard, Kristian. “Frances and the Fairies.” Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/kristiannordestgaard/5436924953/in/ album-72157626027688060. Accessed 8 Dec. 2017. Figure 2. Nordestgaard, Kristian. “Elsie and the Gnome.” Flickr, https://www. flickr.com/photos/kristiannordestgaard/5436924927. Accessed 8 Dec. 2017. Figure 3. Nordestgaard, Kristian. “Frances and the Leaping Fairy.” Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/kristiannordestgaard/5436924973/in/ album-72157626027688060. Accessed 8 Dec. 2017. Figure 4. Nordestgaard, Kristian. “Fairy Offering Posy of Harebells to Elsie.” Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/kristiannordestgaard/5437589068. Accessed 8 Dec. 2017. Figure 5. Nordestgaard, Kristian. “Fairies and the Sun-Bath.” Flickr, https://www. flickr.com/photos/kristiannordestgaard/5437589098. Accessed 8 Dec. 2017.
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AGING POPULATIONS AND MILITARY SPENDING: TESTING THE GERIATRIC PEACE THEORY DANIELLE MELTON Major: Government and International Politics Class of 2018
ABOUT THE WORK Few scholars in the field of international relations examine the relationship between population change and the effects it has on foreign policy. However, this paper attempts to analyze one of the few theories that attempt to explain such a relationship, the “geriatric peace theory.” This theory hypothesizes that aging populations have a stabilizing force on the international level and increase a state’s aversion to war.
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The populations of major world powers, such as the United States, Russia, Japan, South Korea, and most of Europe, are aging. The rise in average age among these populations is a reflection of both modern medicine that lead to longer lives and a decrease in childhood mortality and birth rates. There has been much speculation in regard to the effect the graying world population has on the economy, migration trends, and domestic policy. However very little attention has been given to the analysis of this demographic trend, international policies, and especially international security policy. This paper will analyze the relationship between international security and worldwide demographic trends regarding aging. The main demographic theories underlying these demographic trends will be discussed, including their implications on international security. Demographers measure aging in a population by the average or median age of a population. Assuming stable fertility and death rates, with no migration, the median age of a population would stay the same over time. Across all continents, the average age of populations are increasing, and, in fact, in developing countries the average age of the population is increasing at a higher rate than developed countries (Preston, 2012). The aging of a population represents a rise in the average age of a population measured in years, while the growth of a population represents the increasing size of a population measured in number of people. While this may seem like an obvious difference, they are often mistaken for one another. The increase in age of the populations, in industrialized economies especially, will put significant strain on social welfare measures, which poses a significant dilemma to these governments as the ratio of retirees to workers increases (Goldstone, 2010). Elderly people (above the age of 65) generally contribute less to the economy, and have higher health care costs as well as reliance on government services such as social security (Sheen, 2013). One main theory that has emerged to predict the relationship of aging populations with international security is the geriatric peace theory. This theory, originated by Mark L. Haas, predicts that as countries age, they will be less willing to spend money on defense in order to use the money to fund social welfare programs; as a result, international conflict will decrease due to the lack of willingness for these aging countries to fund international conflicts. This paper will attempt to test the validity of the geriatric peace theory, examining whether there is a positive relationship between the increasing age of global populations and military spending.
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LITERATURE REVIEW Few scholars in the field of international relations look at the relationship between population change and its effects on foreign policy. Demographic change is slow, often taking decades to form analyzable patterns, which makes its effect on foreign policy harder to measure. Furthermore demographic change is unlikely to be the primary factor in the beginning or prevention of any international conflict, only a secondary cause creating conditions favoring or disfavoring the outbreak of war. Despite this, the relationship between population change and conflict is of significant importance, and is a large area for research within the realm of international relations academia. Scholars researching demographic patterns and security implications have several predictions regarding age and militarization that has culminated into a larger theory, the “geriatric peace theory,” as it was dubbed by Haas. His theory hypothesizes that aging populations have a stabilizing force on the international level and increase a state’s aversion to war. Increasing costs of pensions, as well as health related costs for the state, will decrease the amount of money available to spend on a military. Furthermore, as a result of global declines in fertility, families will be opposed to sending off a single child to war (Longman, 2010). The Asia pacific region is the most rapidly aging population in the world; for example, China already has 16% of the world population over the age of 80 (Haas, 2007). “Geriatric peace theory” states that as populations’ age and spend more on health care and economic stimulus they focus on domestic policy and are less likely to engage in war for economic reasons (Haas, 2007). Pension plans and health insurance are expensive and put a heavy strain on the resources of the government reducing the amount of potential military spending and therefore likelihood of war (Haas, 2007). Furthermore, high levels of military spending have been shown to lead to higher levels of inequality in a society, something that adversely affects women, people of color, and the elderly (Abell, 1994). All of this culminates in an economic deterrence for high military spending and war in countries with aging populations. The application of geriatric peace theory is strong in places such as Western Europe where government spending on pension and health care is high and the economy is relatively small and stagnant. As the dependency ratio increases the government will likely increase spending for pensions and health of the elderly in order to support them and prevent these more vulnerable populations from falling into poverty. These trends can already be seen in most of East Asia, as there is more pressure for lawmakers to increase pensions and support health care (Sheen, 98 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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2013). Another key point to support the geriatric peace theory is the lack of available young adults to become infantry while also filling all the roles in an industrial economy. Typically, when population age increases and population growth declines, this shrinks the pool of potential soldiers and limits the country’s military capacity (Inoguchi, 2009). However, as one demographer, Longman, points out, the overall aging of a population does not mean that there cannot be significant youth bulges within a population; this can be seen in Iran, which despite having an increasing average age, will also have an increasing number of 15-24 year olds in 2020 (Longman, 2010).
METHODS In order to test the geriatric peace theory, median age of a country will be compared to the country’s military spending as a percentage of GDP. It is hypothesized that countries with an older median age of population will have lower military spending when compared to countries with a younger median age of population. All data will be obtained from the Pollack 2012 World data set. This data set analyzes 191 countries total, with 138 countries containing all the specific variables this paper will analyze. Median age of population data is received from the CIA (2012) and military spending as a percentage of GDP is received from the UN (2008). The average median age for an individual country is 28.09 years, with a median age of 26.3 years and a modal age 18.4 years. The range between the highest and lowest median age for an individual country is 29.7 years, which is fairly significant. The minimum median age of a population in 2010 was 15 years and the maximum 44.7 years. The data was divided into three relatively even groups in order to simplify the data. The first group consists of countries with the youngest median age, which range from 15 years to 21.8 years old. The second group consists of countries with median population ages, which span 21.81 years to 32.1 years. The last and oldest group consists of countries with median population ages above 32.11 years old. To test this hypothesis, the Pollack World 2012 variable “spendmil” or Public expenditure on the military as a percentage of GDP will be used as a proxy for military aggression, since the reasoning behind the geriatric peace theory is that aging populations will spend less on the military. The average spending on military as a percentage of GDP is 2.0659%, with a median of 1.5%. However, there is large disparity in the range of the data, which has a minimum of 0%, as some countries such as Costa Rica have no military, and a maximum of 8.5% of total VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 99
GDP on military. To simplify the data, I also recoded the variable spendmil into 3 categories of low, medium, and high military spending. I divided the distribution into the three relatively even groups with values from 0% to 1.3% in the group of low military spending, values between 1.31% and 2.3% in the medium military spending group, and values of 2.31% or higher in the high military spending group.
RESULTS After conducting a cross tabulation of the variables (see Table 1), military spending as percentage of GDP and median population age, there is no statistically significant relationship. The Kendall’ Tau-b of -0.041 demonstrates that there is not even a weak relationship between median population age and military spending. Despite 19 older countries falling into the category of low military spending compared to 14 young countries, more countries with older populations fall into the medium military spending population compared to Table 1 young countries. The number of young and old countries with high military spending is equal, also disproving the theory there is a negative correlation between age and military spending. Noticeably, the middle median age category follows no pattern, with most countries in the middle age range falling into either the high or low military spending categories. While the sample size is large enough to be considered statistically significant with a greater than 95% confidence level, there was no relationship between the two variables. At the core of this theory is the notion that political leaders will be responsive to the wishes of their people, who, as they age, appear to want increased social services. However, many countries that are not primarily democratic do not respond to the needs of their citizens. Perhaps in the case of non-democratic countries this theory would not apply and, therefore, influence the results of the first cross tabulation. Therefore, a follow-up cross tabulation was conducted to examine differences between democratic and non-democratic regimes. After conducting another cross tabulation (see Table 2) of median population with military spending while controlling for democratic regime, there is still no statistically significant relationship between the two variables in either condition. Of countries 100 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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that are non-democratic, the Kendall’s tau-b of .124, while statistically insignificant, indicates that the form of relationship is positive, meaning that as countries’ age, military spending would also increase. Of democratic regimes, the relationship between median population age and military spending is also not statistically significant. The Kendall’s tau-b of 0.012 indicates no relationship between median population age and military spending. A Chi squared of 3.724 and 4 degrees indicates this sample is not statistically significant, making any statistical observations impossible. Thus, my results do not support the geriatric peace theory. Table 2
CONCLUSIONS The results from this study showed that there is not a statistically significant relationship between median age of a population and their military spending. Further studies are needed to continue to develop theories and predictions as to the relationship between aging populations and their effect on international security. Although this paper examined median age of a population, there are potentially other demographic measures, such as percentage of a population over 65, that would better predict amount of spending on pensions or lack of political will to fund the military. Furthermore, the relationship between military spending and a decreased willingness to engage in military conflict has also not been supported; perhaps military spending results from previous engagement in conflict rather than a precursor to conflict. The study of population dynamics in relation to war is inherently speculative. As change of populations over time is slow, it is almost impossible to isolate the influence population has on stability. Furthermore, the study of population and its foreign policy implications is relatively new and has accumulated only a relatively small amount of literature. More research needs to be done to understand the relationship between demographic change and foreign policy in order to fully understand the impact aging populations as well as other demographic patterns will have on global militaries. VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 101
A DISCUSSION OF DIAGNOSING AND HEALING SMALL STRESS FRACTURES IN ACTIVE INDIVIDUALS DANIELLE NICOLE MAYNARD Major: Mechanical Engineering Class of 2020
ABOUT THE WORK In my experience as a member of Mason’s heptathlon team, and listening to friends who run recreationally, “shin splints” are a common complaint. While a common, no one seemed to know why they occur. I researched nutrition, biomechanics, gender, training volume, and age to understand factors that increase an individual’s risk for fracture, as well as the underlying cause. In Spring 2017, I sustained five micro-stress fractures in my left foot; I understood why my bone fractured -- I wasn’t getting the proper nutrients, sleep, and recovery. I did not understand why my trainers did not catch the fractures sooner, why they were unable to tell me how long it would take to heal, or what I could do to check my progress. I began exploring methods of looking at small stress fractures in the foot, which helped me develop a standard plan to diagnose fractures early and provide the most accurate information for athletes. I focused on the healing process of the bone based on Wolff ’s Law, stating “every change in the form or function of a bone is followed by adaptive changes in its internal architecture and its external shape.” Wolff asserts that a bone will change how it supports stress to best accommodate the bone’s function. The implications of my research reflects some of the methods that my athletic trainers used to heal my injury, which took approximately seven months. However, I explored more recent research and other testing methods not used in my healing process to understand how my experience could have been improved. My research helped me to explore a new field and challenged me to take a closer look at a topic that scares and frustrates me. Further, my research bridged the gap between athletics and academics. In understanding how fractures occur, I can apply preventative measures in my daily life to avoid future injuries. In many ways, I feel that I am writing a manual for a machine I did not build. I had to think creatively about how trainers can look at a stress fracture without a picture, using the “image” created by pain, without further damaging the injury. The process challenged me to become more empathetic to all athletes, allowing me to address the same pressing questions I asked seven months ago.
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Following a stretch of inactivity, if one goes to the gym to lift weights or run a mile, one will notice soreness either within the same day or some days later. When attempting to run the same distance or lift the same weights again, at a later period after full recovery, it will feel easier. This is how muscle responds to stress of activity. When stress is applied, muscle incurs “micro tears”—small tears in the tissue – causing one to feel sore. The body heals these tears overnight with appropriate sleep, nutrients, and water, to be more resilient. Following the repair of these micro tears, the body can handle the same level of activity without incurring any more microdamage. This is the human adaptation to stress. A similar process occurs in bones undergoing stress of activity. Specifically, this paper will discuss the stress of activity on bones due to running. Instead of incurring “micro tears,” bones incur “micro fractures,” from repeated force placed on the bone with each step. Micro fractures are small cracks in the bone that heal over a period of days, with the appropriate rest and nutrients. They often occur in bones of the feet and the tibia – or “shin bone” – during running activities. If one attempts to run on hard surfaces, like roads, one’s shins (and feet) will experience pain faster and with increased severity. This is because bones experience more force when the body impacts a hard surface, causing more micro fractures. When micro fractures are not given enough rest and nutrients to recover, they develop into macro fractures, termed “stress fractures” in the athletic community. Stress fractures are often small and hard to diagnose without x-ray or MRI technologies, especially in the complex structure of the foot. It is reasonable to believe that poking around the area of pain is not an entirely reliable method of diagnosis or assessment of recovery. The process by which the body heals fractures is called “bone remodeling,” which can be difficult to observe. The healing process for fractures is highly variable, depending on the location of fracture and the patient. Returning to activity too quickly can result in increased severity or development of more stress fractures. So, how are small stress fractures observed, and how is recovery accurately assessed? This research discusses the healing process of the bone, in addition to bloodwork, imaging, and alternative methods doctors and athletic trainers use to approach stress fractures for diagnosis and assessment of recovery. Studies discussed will focus primarily on stress fractures in the feet of elite runners, as they are a more extreme case, which both challenge the accuracy of methods and require an efficient healing process to return to activity. However, stress fractures of this kind also occur in active individuals who do not participate in competitive athletics but must cope with the pain of a fracture in their everyday life. With increased knowledge regarding how a stress fracture is diagnosed and healed, runners of all levels and VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 103
communities can run healthier, stronger, and smarter.
BONE REMODELING Bones are dynamic tissue, undergoing continuous adaptation to achieve and preserve optimal skeletal size, structural integrity, and shape as well as to regulate mineral content (the nutrients that keep bones strong) (Raggatt, 2010). Bone remodeling is a bodily process that replaces bone following injury or during growth. Bone remodeling begins with bone reabsorption, followed by bone formation. The body adds and removes bone where it is required, in response to functional demands and pulling by the muscles. Bone reabsorption and formation are separate processes that must be “coupled” (timed sequentially) to complete the active process of bone remodeling. The remodeling process is highly variable based on efficiency of the body, location of fracture, and continued damage to the area, among other factors. For example, if the body does not have enough nutrients and lacks energy, the location site difficult to access, and continued damage to the area, the healing process will take longer. Bone remodeling is thought to be a continuous process. When it is measured over an extended period of time, the resulting statistic is termed “bone turnover,” measured in percentage rate. On average, the body replaces 100% of its skeleton in the first year of life (Wheeless, 2013). Adult bodies replace approximately 10% of their bone per year (2013). The average rate of bone turnover is 3.6% in healthy adults and perhaps twice that rate in children (Bronner, 2008). Bone turnover markers (BTMs) are a reflection of the cell activity in bones (chemical reactions required to absorb and rebuild). BTMs can be broken into markers of absorption and markers of formation. Each process releases hormones and chemicals that can be measured through blood and urinary testing (Marcus, 2007). Figure 1 depicts the relationship between bone turnover, bone remodeling, formation and absorption. As described by German surgeon, Julius Wolff in 1868, “every Figure 1 change in the form or function 104 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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of a bone is followed by adaptive changes in its internal architecture and its external shape” (Wheeless, 2013). Wolff was essentially stating that a bone changes how it supports stress to best accommodate what its function.
CIRCULATORY SYSTEM The healing process of a bone requires the removal of waste and the transportation of nutrients to the fractured area. The vehicle of transportation in the human body comes in the form of blood cells traveling in the circulatory system. If there is increased movement of materials, there must be increased movement of blood, indicating trauma has occurred. Thus, doctors analyze the circulatory system to observe fractures. The circulatory system can be observed in two ways: analyzing what is being transported in blood, and analyzing the location(s) where increased blood is flowing.
Analyzing Hormones in the Blood Analyzing what materials blood is carrying (hormones and nutrients) can be indicative of fractures. Doctors perform a method called “serum osteocalcin,” where they draw blood to measure hormone levels, which increase as the body responds to trauma. Osteocalcin is a protein hormone found in bone. It is produced by osteoblasts, cells that synthesize bone, in greater quantity during the bone remodeling process. The hormone is released during the bone reabsorption phase of remodeling and is thus considered a biomarker of bone turnover rather than a marker of bone formation (Mayo Clinic). It is important to establish a baseline hormone level for athletes, as compared to sedentary individuals in research, so that false conclusions are not drawn regarding elevated hormone levels (Bennell et al., 1997). Researchers have established a baseline hormone level for competitive track and field athletes in a study conducted by Bennell and colleagues (1997) titled, “Bone Mass and Bone Turnover in Power Athletes, Endurance Athletes, and Controls.” The study lasted 12 months, comparing bone mass density and bone turnover in elite track athletes to sedentary individuals. In total, 50 power athletes (defined as hurdlers, sprinters, jumpers, multi-events. 23 women, 27 men), 61 endurance athletes (30 women, 31 men), and 55 non-athlete controls (28 women, 27 men) were included in the study, all between the ages of 17-26. Serum osteocalcin was used as a biomarker for bone VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 105
turnover through blood testing. Questionnaires were used to quantify menstrual, dietary, and physical activity characteristics (Bennell et al., 1997). The study was used to develop data establishing a baseline for normal bone turnover in the athletic population and to compare bone density. Results showed that osteocalcin levels were not elevated in athletes, and hormone levels were not predictive of subsequent changes in bone mass. Ideally, when osteocalcin is found to be elevated in the blood, cause for pain can be narrowed and fractures can be considered more closely. Researchers have attempted to find elevated levels of osteocalcin in competitive track and field athletes who have sustained fractures in a study conducted in 1998 by Bennell et al. titled “A 12-month prospective study of the relationship between stress fractures and bone turnover in athletes,” published in Calcified Tissue International (Bennell et al., 1998). The study consisted of 46 female and 49 male track and field athletes age ranged 17-26. Research methods included a baseline test of bone turnover biomarker levels using serum osteocalcin among other imaging methods that will be discussed later. Baseline data from Bennell and colleague’s study was applied to determine if there were significant changes in bone turnover biomarker levels with the onset of stress fractures. Methods, age ranges, and data collection were all identical between the studies, ensuring consistency and thus no falsely significant findings. Both studies separated athletes by event group, based on “power” or “endurance” events. Baseline levels of osteocalcin were evaluated in all athletes, while the subset of 20 athletes who sustained stress fracture had osteocalcin measured monthly. Individuals that did not sustain stress fracture but had similar height, weight, training, diet, and gender were matched to stress fracture athletes for comparison; their osteocalcin levels were also measured monthly. Researchers found that osteocalcin levels were not significantly increased with the onset of stress fractures. This may be because blood testing and urine testing methods used reflect the entire body, not at specific fracture sites. Results are thus difficult to find unless the bone injury was drastic enough to significantly increase hormone levels all over the body (for example, breaking your femur would significantly increase hormones, but a small crack in the bone of your foot would not). Conclusions from the 1997 study -- the concept that fractures sustained by athletes are dependent on the type of training they do -- is supported by the distribution of stress fracture type per event group in the 1998 study. Distance runners had more tibial fractures, while power athletes (hurdlers especially) suffered more metatarsal fractures. Considering these findings, it is important to ask: if researchers cannot observe bone turnover, remodeling and formation using hormones in blood testing for small bones, how do researchers and medical 106 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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professionals know bone remodeling is occurring in the first place?
Analyzing Blood Flow Doctors can observe where blood flow is increased in the body following trauma to find acute stress fractures, using a method called “triple phase isotope bone scans.” A radioactive isotope, known as a tracer, is injected into the bloodstream. Blood travels to parts of the bone that are alive, with increased volume to areas of damage. Doctors then analyze where the isotope travels and is reabsorbed at bone sites. Areas that show greater amounts of light on the bone scan – where radioactive tracer travels to – are referred to as “hot spots,” indicating blood flow. Dark areas on the bone scan, receiving little to no blood, are referred to as “dark spots” and may indicate dead or diseased bone. The alternative method combines the circulatory system and imaging technology to find acute stress fractures in the bone. Bennell et al. used this method, in addition to serum osteocalcin, in their 1998 study mentioned above in the event that serum osteocalcin was unsuccessful (which it was). Stress fractures were confirmed through clinical examination, triple phase isotope bone scan, and computed topography (CT scan). Participants reported details regarding their diet, total bone mineral content (BMC), regional bone mass density (BMD), training, body measurements, soft tissue composition, and biomechanical (running gait) features, as well as menstrual characteristics. Participants also reported details regarding characteristics and stress fracture distribution. Questionnaires, age range, sample size, and separation of athletes by event remained the same. Of the twenty athletes sustaining at least one stress fracture in the study, 10 were women (21.7%) and 10 were men (20.4%). The overall 21.1% occurrence of stress fractures is comparable to other studies conducted on stress fractures in track and field athletes. In total, 26 stress fractures were sustained by the athletes, of which 45% occurred in the tibia, 15% in the navicular, 12% in the fibula, and 8% in the metatarsal bones. Age, height, weight, and training volume did not differ significantly between athletes who sustained stress fracture and athletes who did not with both genders (Bennell et al., 1998). Overall, the studies concluded that baseline hormone levels did not predict stress fracture occurrence, either before or after adjusting for total body bone mineral content and sex. Mean hormone values compared across seasons did not reveal evidence of seasonal variation. Large day-to-day variability in biological markers yielded no significant results. If hormone levels are different in athletes who VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 107
develop stress fractures, larger sample size and multiple baseline measurements may be needed to detect this difference. Monthly samples were analyzed, revealing a moderate correlation between hormone levels within athletes. These findings suggest that an individually determined level of bone turnover may exist for each person, with variations around this level attributed to hormonal status, physical activity, and dietary intake (Bennell et al., 1998). While triple isotope bone scans provide a more direct look at an area of fracture and how blood flows to that area, it does not provide enough data to make many significant conclusions. Bennell et al. (1998) stated that direct assessment of bone remodeling in humans is invasive and impractical, thus the experiment attempted to use measurement of biochemical markers of bone turnover to provide information regarding bone remodeling and stress fracture development. It seems overall bodily systems like the circulatory system and excretion system are not dependable when observing bone turnover at specific sites in the body, but combined with imaging technology they become slightly more useful in understanding how nutrients are delivered to a site in the body for healing. Using a combination of imaging and observing the circulatory system seems to be the most promising in examining bone formation.
IMAGING TECHNOLOGY Since imaging technology has proven useful in analyzing stress fractures, it is important to consider other methods that doctors use to look at bone injuries more accurately. Bone injuries occur due to a weakness in the bone and are difficult to diagnose without imaging technologies. Poking around the bone of a patient is an inaccurate method of diagnosing pain, especially because bones are concealed by skin, tendons, and muscle tissue. So, how do doctors look at the bones of a patient in a non-invasive way?
Dual Energy X-ray Absorption (DEXA) This paper has already discussed the use of triple isotope bone scans in diagnosing acute fractures. Another method doctors use is a category of x-rays named “dual energy x-ray absorption” (DEXA). DEXA is a method of measuring bone density using imaging technology. The test is widely used to clinically assess a patient’s risk for osteoporosis and to monitor therapy progression. Two x-ray beams of different energy levels are aimed at a patient’s bone(s). The testing system makes use of the 108 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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difference in absorption by different body tissues (termed differential attenuation) of the x-ray beam (Mosby). X-rays varying in energy levels are used for accuracy. The resulting varying absorptions measured are used to calculate bone density and soft tissue composition in the area being scanned (Laskey, 1996). Soft tissue absorption is then subtracted out to measure bone density. The bone density is determined by the amount that the bone absorbs each x-ray beam. Bright areas indicate lower bone density as less x-ray beams were absorbed. Darker areas indicate higher absorption. The scan is then compared to “normal” bone density numbers for the area(s) being scanned, per the patient’s age and gender. Precision is excellent but varies with the region being scanned, being the most precise in healthy young individuals and the least precise in obese and frail individuals. DEXA is the most widely used and thoroughly studied bone density measurement technology, used to diagnose osteoporosis (in contrast to nuclear bone scans which are used for bone disease, fractures, and tumors). As mentioned in Bennell’s 1998 study “Bone Mass and Bone Turnover in Power Athletes, Endurance Athletes, and Controls: A 12-Month Longitudinal Study,” researchers used another imaging method to observe and analyze stress fracture relationship to bone turnover and bone density. The 95 participating athletes were periodically tested using all the methods in the study: dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, serum osteocalcin, and urinary pyridinium crosslinks (urine testing that looks for elevated hormones). Dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry was the only method that focused specifically on accurate measurements of bone mass density (Bennell et al., 1997). Results showed that power athletes had higher regional bone density in their lower limbs, upper limbs, and lumbar spine when compared to sedentary controls. Endurance athletes only had higher bone density in their lower limbs. These findings can be explained by the types of activity to which each type of athlete adapts. Power athletes undergo full body, high impact training – jumping, hurdling, and sprinting -- while endurance athletes experience repetitive impact to their lower limbs in their long runs. The overall increase in BMD in power athletes compared to sedentary controls is plausible in that power athletes (particularly multi-eventers) have training that targets every muscle group intensely. This means the entire body must be stronger to withstand numerous forces, especially in the weight room where forces are significantly larger, and athletes perform Olympic lifting exercises (like power cleans and deadlifts). Male and female power athletes had greater BMD at the lumbar spine than endurance athletes, because Olympic lifts put more strain on the lower back and require stronger core and back muscles that the body must adapt to handle. Endurance athletes had increase in BMD only VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 109
in their lower limbs, because their training does not require full body weight lifting exercises. It was concluded that overall bone density is independent of exercise, because all data was not significant enough to draw conclusions. However, the increase in density of the lumbar spine in power athletes was statistically significant. Combining the use of DEXA and triple isotope bone scans, doctors are able to analyze where bones are weakest and where they receive the least blood flow, indicating they are dying or they will take a long time to heal if broken (for example the fifth metatarsal, which receives low blood supply). How can researchers explain an overall increase in bone mass density in power athletes and endurance athletes? Do bones magically become denser in response to stress? Bone mass density is a clear indicator that bone turnover and formation are occurring. Both processes are a response to stress on the body – why would a human need new, stronger bones if not to perform an action more strenuous than they could handle in the past? With a combination of measuring bone density and observing blood flow to bone, researchers can describe the process of bone turnover in relation to stress fractures and therapy progression. As bone density increases and bone scans indicate lowered blood flow, bone remodeling is being observed in action. More precise than urine or blood tests (which reflect overall hormone levels in the body), imaging technology is part of the reason scientists know bone remodeling occurs in the first place, so the concept is not entirely speculation. The next step in this field of research is finding a way of measuring turnover and remodeling at a specific location on the bone. Since circulatory system and urine system tests have proven ineffective, imaging technology and a combination of imagining technology and blood flow seem to be the most promising methods in analyzing bone remodeling at a location. The measurement of bone turnover and formation at a specific area was proven to be unfeasible. Is there a way to use physical images to measure this process? How often would images need to be taken, and how many x-rays become detrimental to patient health? Is there way to generate an image of the fracture without harmful radiation? Observing the bone remodeling process over time is the next step in understanding stress fractures, and how they heal; the primary limit to understanding stress fractures in general.
ALTERNATIVE METHODS Observing bone remodeling overtime at a specific location in the body requires a method that can test the status of a fracture non-invasively. It is unrealistic to assume that individuals have the funds to have an X-ray performed biweekly, and 110 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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exposure to radiation so often is detrimental to patient health. How can fractures be examined at a specific location without damage to the patient?
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) MRIs are a non-invasive technology used to detect, diagnose and monitor treatment of diseases. The technology produces three-dimensional, detailed anatomical images. MRI’s employ strong magnets that generate a magnetic field, forcing protons in the body (found in water, which makes up most tissues in the body) to align with that field. A radiofrequency current is sent through the patient, the protons spin out of equilibrium and strain against the field. When the current is turned off, they realign with the magnetic field. The time it takes to realign and the energy released changes the environment and chemical nature of the molecules. These properties are used to differentiate tissue and generate an image (National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, 2017). There is no damaging radiation, and images are very clear. While not used specifically to observe fractures like triple isotope bone scans, MRIs can be extremely useful in observing acute stress fractures. MRIs are often used in conjunction with another method, like the ones previously discussed, to observe stress fractures. How can this relatively non-invasive method be used to observe a fracture over time? An MRI would have to be taken periodically to observe healing, but even then, healing may be slow and difficult to spot on an image. Additionally, it is unrealistic to expect patients to have the funds and access to an MRI every couple of weeks. How might the healing process of a fracture be observed over time, perhaps in conjunction with MRIs every few months?
Therapeutic Ultrasound To test the healing of an injury, athletic trainers firstly look for pain around the area of injury. Pertaining to stress fractures in runners, a common test performed is called the “hop test.” Patients are asked to stand on one leg (the one afflicted with the injury) and hop in place. Pain is measured on a subjective 1-10 scale. Unfortunately, this test can worsen the injury by causing more damage. How else can athletic trainers observe pain in bones to gain a better idea of how a fracture is healing? An alternative method of tracking stress fracture severity and healing using VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 111
a pain scale has been adopted with therapeutic ultrasound technology (TUS). TUS is a method commonly used for the management of soft tissue injuries, but may also be used in early assessment of bone stress injuries. An ultrasound conducting gel is placed on the symptomatic area to reduce friction and increase efficient transmission of ultrasonic waves. Alternating compression (squishing) and rarefaction (stretching) of sound waves through the tissue, stony deposits in the tissue may be broken apart. In the case of assessing bone injuries, measuring pain at the symptomatic site with direct application of TUS can be indicative of how the bone is responding to treatment. Sending a sound wave through a fractured bone would generate enough movement to cause pain but not enough to cause damage. Pain associated with the application of TUS has been shown to demonstrate bone stress injury and was shown to demonstrate these injuries earlier than plain radiography in the 1980s (Malliaropoulos et al., 2017). Athletic trainers can apply TUS directly to the site of fracture and ask the patient for a 1-10 rating of pain. This technology is non-invasive on the fracture, and raises few health concerns for the patient (as compared to x-rays). A question is raised: is it effective in observing the healing process to return to activity? A study entitled “Therapeutic Ultrasound in Navicular Stress Injuries in Elite Track and Field Athletes�, conducted by Malliaropoulos and colleagues (2017), used TUS to diagnose and assess navicular stress fractures in ten elite track and field athletes, creating a successful return to play plan. Twelve track and field athletes competing at international and up to Olympic level were assessed after suspicion of navicular bone stress injury. All athletes in the study presented one month of experiencing exercise-induced midfoot pain over the navicular region with no history of acute foot trauma. Athletes were included in the study if an MRI of the foot demonstrated navicular erosion or the presence of partial or complete fracture line. These findings needed to be caused by a history of repeated stress. Researchers performed TUS assessment and an MRI within one month of the onset of symptoms, the time interval between the TUS and MRI being 1-3 days. Two patients had abnormal results (TUS and MRI did not agree with each other on presence of fracture) and were not included in the study. The remaining 10 patients underwent conservative treatment; gradual return to play was allowed when TUS was painless. TUS is not an imaging a technology, but in combination with imaging technologies (not exclusive to MRIs), TUS can be used as a quick, onsite diagnosis method, as well as a safer method for checking the progress of a healed stress fracture. MRIs and other imaging can confirm the results found with TUS, and provide more details. Both TUS and MRIs allow us to look at stress fracture remodeling over 112 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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time non-invasively, giving researchers an idea of how long a specific fracture will take to heal and the factors surrounding it. For example, with TUS, MRIs and triple isotope bone scans, it can be hypothesized that a fracture in the fifth metatarsal will take longer to heal than a fracture in the first metatarsal because the first metatarsal gets more blood flow. From this conclusion, we can gather information on what the body carries to the site of fracture to help heal it, and in turn, how doctors can maximize the healing process. In a way, MRIs and TUS allow us to look at bone remodeling over time -- TUS allowing us to observe progress relatively continuously. This is a good compromise between methods, as bone remodeling and turnover are slower processes that are not changing drastically by day. With methods that allow us to “check in” on fracture remodeling, more meaningful data points can be collected.
CONCLUSION Stress fractures are a commonly ignored, undiagnosed problem in runners of all levels. Not only are they small in size (compared to broken bones), they also develop overtime and can be commonly mistaken for body aches resulting from training early on. Runners are encouraged, even idolized, for running despite pain, which only fuels this problem. Additionally, it seems there is no one targeted plan to diagnose, rest, and return an athlete to activity following fracture. To understand fractures in runners, and in broader settings, doctors need to have a comprehensive idea of how to body responds to bone injuries. Responses include changes in hormones, the circulatory system, pain levels and locations, gait, and bone density among other smaller responses we have not discussed. It is impossible to efficiently heal a fractured bone (macro or micro, meaning large, visible fractures or smaller fractures from daily activity) without knowing how the healing process functions. Upon injury, the body releases chemicals and hormones that begin the bone remodeling process at the site of trauma. These hormones provide instructions to carry nutrients to the area with an increased flow of blood (which explains inflammation at the site of injury). Bone remodeling consists of bone absorption and bone formation. The processes must be “coupled” – performed in a sequence one after the other – at a site of trauma. Timing and location of the processes is dictated by hormones to allow bone remodeling to occur at different sites of the body at differing rates. Researchers can measure these hormones (also called biomarkers or bone turnover markers) to measure bone remodeling over time. VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 113
Table 1: Summary of Method Comparison
While logical to assume that consistently high bone turnover indicates frequent fracture or unhealthy bones, studies have found this to be inconsistent in correlation. Bone mass density is far more useful in predicting fracture risk. Additionally, limitations exist with the incorporation of bone turnover markers into fracture risk prediction mainly due to their biological variability. Bone turnover markers increase with growth spurts in children, as well as different stages in adolescence and adulthood. Bone turnover markers are also only a reflection of the overall body’s hormone levels. Thus, results will not demonstrate any significant data if 114 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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fractures are small, for example, a fracture in the foot. For this reason, the serum osteocalcin method is not useful for diagnosis of injury or prediction of risk in athletes. How can small stress fractures be quickly diagnosed? The longer they go unnoticed, the more severe they become. Micro fractures always result from training, hence the term “shin splints,” and are often ignored. However, there is a fine line between normal discomfort from training intensity and the development of an injury. It is optimal to catch fractures early to reduce healing time. Many studies of competitive runners (the more extreme end of the spectrum) report 20% fracture rates in athletes (Bennell et al., 1998). Clinical diagnosis is the method most often used in an athletic training room. It consists of manipulating, pushing, poking, pulling, stretching, and applying force to the site of injury. Clinical diagnosis is not preferable when diagnosing stress fractures, as many factors can contribute to pain (especially in the foot, one of the more complex structures of the body). Additionally, more damage could be caused accidentally during diagnosis. Fractures are often tested (to diagnose and through the healing process) with the “hop test.” The test requires the patient to stand on one bare foot and hop on leg experiencing pain. This can cause more damage to the injury (especially if the fracture is in the foot), lengthening the healing process. Recent research has indicated that TUS is a non-invasive method of diagnosing stress fractures fairly accurately in the training room context. Athletic trainers should perform TUS upon the first incidence of discomfort, among other clinical tests like pressing on the bones and manipulating the area of injury and asking the athlete to describe pain on a 1-10 scale. A common indicator that an injury is developing, especially with shin splints, is indicated by highly concentrated pain in a small area along the bone. From there, an X-ray or MRI may be used to attempt to identify changes in the bone. It is recommended that the athlete receives an imaging test before a fracture line is visible, as this would mean the fracture is still micro in size and thus diagnosed early. TUS can be used weekly in an athletic training room to observe progression of the healing process, because it is noninvasive and cost effective. It is also a good idea to analyze other factors that may have contributed to fracture. Why was a particular athlete injured, but an athlete of the same age and training remains healthy? Bone density is often the culprit when discussing fractures. For example, if a female distance runner has fractures in her tibia, she may not be getting the necessary vitamins and nutrients from her diet, which would decrease her bone density (the bone’s overall resilience to force) and make her prone to stress fracture. Dual energy x-ray absorption provides a visual image and VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 115
calculation of bone density in the area being scanned, and would be very useful in identifying this problem. By measuring bone density at the site of injury and the surrounding bone, doctors and athletic trainers can determine factors causing fracture and reduce risk of future injuries. Next, doctors and trainers will need to observe the progression of healing overtime. The healing process can be slow, and especially with small fractures, will not show significant changes through imaging tests until several months have passed. Athletes will want to know when they can start activity again, but doctors and athletic trainers must make smart decisions about healing the injury in the most efficient way possible. The activity that resulted in fracture should be avoided entirely, but can be substituted for exercise that generates no pain at the site of injury. In the case of runners, options often include relatively non-weight bearing exercise like biking and swimming. If positive results are not shown in the course of several months (depending on the location of fracture, and the doctor’s prognosis), the blood flow to the site of injury should be analyzed. Blood carries key nutrients, chemicals, and hormones to the site of injury that start and carry out the remodeling process. To determine the length of a patient’s recovery, it is important to know how much blood (if any) is reaching the site of injury. Doctors can observe this through triple isotope bone scans. The triple isotope bone scan provides a visual display of the amount of blood going to the site of injury through use of a radioactive tracer. While it does expose the patient to radiation, it provides crucial information to estimate healing time. This method can be used at the start of the healing process to ensure the bone is receiving blood flow, but it can commonly be assumed that the bone is getting a normal blood supply until positive results are not demonstrated. We know that x-rays and bone scans can be harmful due to radiation if performed too often. Both X-rays and MRIs are costly and inconvenient to use often, as they require professional equipment found in medical settings. Thus, these tests may be used early in the diagnosis process and late in the healing process to ensure correct diagnosis and complete remodeling of the bone but will likely noy be practically beneficial, as athletic trainers attempt heal the injury over months. These are methods to observe the starting and ending points of the bone remodeling process A combination of several methods is necessary to properly diagnose stress fractures and observe the remodeling process, allowing doctors and athletic trainers to give more information to athletes and heal injuries in the most efficient way. Observation of the remodeling process is key in properly healing a stress fracture for competitive athletics. While difficult to observe in small bones, it is possible using a combination of tests. This unified testing plan allows doctors and trainers to 116 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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understand fractures better, diagnose them quickly, and only concern themselves with their own rehabilitation plan, which can be specified to each athlete on a caseby-case basis.
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FREQUENCY OF INTERPERSONAL POLITICAL DELIBERATION AND POLITICAL IDEOLOGY QUINCEY SMITH Major: Government and International Politics Class of 2018
ABOUT THE WORK A phrase that many people hear at least once in their lifetime is “no religion or politics at the dinner table.� Society has consistently shamed the idea of holding politically driven discussions that are shown to often simmer the tension between two conflicting ideologies and help reduce the divide in our ever-so polarizing political climate. Many scholars in the field have examined the likelihood of individuals finding common ground during political dialogue or one individual being persuaded to shift their point of view. However, little research has examined what side of the political spectrum is more likely to soften their ideology and accept and embrace the idea of an alternative political alignment. My research compares conservatives and liberals who frequently discuss politics to those who do not; this was done in order to discover whether conservatives who discuss politics most frequently are more sympathetic to traditionally liberal policy issues than their conservative counterparts who discuss politics less frequently.
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Traditionally, explaining political polarization was as simple as North versus South or identifying party affiliation. It is now acknowledged that a multitude of factors contribute to how polarized society has become, such as race, religion, gender, immigrant status, place identity, and so on. The purpose of this paper is to add to the political discussion that determines the factors that may increase polarization. Cramer (2016) would argue that people who live in less densely populated areas are more likely to hold conservative views. He (Cramer, 2016) attributes this to a sense of resentment toward lawmakers who are seemingly out of touch with rural values, lifestyles, and the belief that rural communities do not receive their fair share of benefits in proportion to how much they pay in taxes. However, another factor that may influence the level of conservatism observed in rural communities compared to urban areas is frequency of political interactions/deliberations with others. It is not unreasonable to predict that one living in an urban area may be targeted for persuasion more frequently during election seasons; interact more frequently with coworkers, family, and strangers; converse about current events and politics; and experience more cultural diversity. Increased levels of political interactions may help explain the polarization seen between rural and urban areas. This paper finds that those who frequently engage in political dialogue are more sympathetic to liberal ideologies when compared to those who talk about politics less frequently and are also more likely to take liberal stances on civil rights issues. This research employs a two-pronged approach that weaves classic and modern deliberation theory into survey study analytics, assessing the causal relationship between partisanship and political deliberation from multiple lenses. Elster (1998) provides suggestions as to why groups engage in discussions, including benefits such as encouraging “a particular mode of justifying demands or claims,” improving “the moral or intellectual qualities of the participants” and helping “render the ultimate choice legitimate in the eyes of the group, so as to contribute to group solidarity or to improve the likely implementation of the decision” (p. 45). Elster notes that deliberation forces people to justify their opinions (p. 55), can help build a consensus (p. 58), and that the act of deliberation can make people better citizens by breaking down senses of autonomy and building community (p. 60). Huckfeldt (1995) finds that communication networks are, indeed, an important factor for citizen decision making. Sinclair (2012) agrees and adds that social networks act as social pressures that influence our political decisions, such as donating money to a campaign, voting for a particular candidate, and declaring oneself a Democrat or Republican. For the purpose of this paper, frequency of political deliberation and polarization is measured using the 2016 American National Election Survey (ANES), by VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 119
Stanford University and the University of Michigan, in order to understand the relationship between these two variables. Using variables from the ANES 2016, the independent variable of political dialogue, which is measured by how often the respondent spoke about politics in the week prior to the survey, is cross tabulated with dependent variables of polarization, which measure general partisanship as feeling thermometers of both liberals and conservatives. Future research might compare the frequency of political dialogue to place identity as well, in order to understand if assumptions regarding the frequency rural people discuss politics is accurate; however, the ANES 2016 survey does not offer variables regarding population size, region, or rural vs. urban communities. Nevertheless, this research found that frequency of political dialogue is significantly related to the fluidity of political ideology in American politics.
FOUNDATIONS OF INSTITUTIONAL POLITICAL DELIBERATION The existing literature on the topic of political deliberation is extensive, yet, simultaneously limited. Social scientists have long placed political communication at the center of democratic politics. One of the most critical forms of political communication comes in the form of interpersonal discussion and deliberation (Downs, 1957), particularly as it involves exposure to different points of view (Lazarsfeld, Berelson, and Gaudet, 1968). Communication between individuals of opposing views is a method people employ to find a consensus (Risse, 2000). Foundational social scientists of the democratic theory have seen the role of democracy as a transformational rather than aggregational system (Habermas, 1987). The role of deliberative democracy has been central to the institution of democracy since its inception (Elster, 1998). Pericles, in his eulogy of Athens in fifth century B.C. said: Our public men have, besides politics, their private affairs to attend to, and our ordinary citizen, though occupied with the pursuit of industry, are still fair judges of public matters; for, unlike any other nation, we regard the citizen who takes no part in these duties not as unambitious but as useless, and we are able to judge proposals even if we cannot originate them; instead of looking on discussion as a stumbling-block in the way of action, we think it an indispensable preliminary to any wise action at all. (Thucydides II.40) Athenian democracy was based on direct democracy. Anyone could speak, deliberate, 120 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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or propose policies. Procedures were in place where citizens could debate each other and point out weaknesses in each other’s policy preferences (Elster, 1998). Though Athenian democracy came to an end in 322 B.C., deliberation as a cohesive element of democracy did not. In 1774 in Burke England, member of the British Parliament, Edmund Burke said in a speech to his co-electors that Parliament is not a place for rigid opinions, but rather “a deliberative assembly” whose interests are of the general good (as cited from Elster, 1998). Though Pericles and Burke stress the importance of the application of deliberative democracy, philosophical writers agree that deliberative democracy is an ideal form of government but “is unachievable in its full state” (Mansbridge et al., 2010). This falls in line with Immanuel Kant’s definition of a “regulative principle” as a standard “with which we can compare ourselves, judging ourselves and thereby improving ourselves, even though we can never achieve it” (1781). Put simply, deliberative democracy, in its literal terms, is not a realistic structure of government to aspire to; however, lessons can be drawn from modern applications of deliberative democracy.
DELIBERATIVE DEMOCRACY AND PARTISAN DEMOCRACY Deliberative democracy considers citizens as individuals, whereas partisan democracy views citizens as belonging to rival groups (Gutmann and Thomas, 2002; Muirhead, 2010). In a deliberative democracy, decisions are collectively decided upon (Cohen, 1998), but partisanship creates an inflammatory environment that drives a wedge between individuals and makes them less likely to come to an agreement on a policy issue. Muirhead (2010) would argue that partisan democracy is centered around the fight for power and domination and inherently undermines the process of deliberation. According to Mansbridge and colleagues (2010), partisanship erodes the foundation of deliberation on a micro level bot not on a systems level. For example, members of the British House of Commons heckle one another, a low-quality method of deliberation, but this form of heckling gives members an opportunity to disprove and puncture the reasoning of elected officials, which could translate to a better informed deliberation in the public sphere (Mansbridge et al., 2010; Marti, 2006). Papadopoulos (2012) argues that a broader engagement within deliberation increases the quality of deliberation and therefore the legitimacy of policy. Furthermore, Papadopoulos (2012) also claims that in modern society deliberative participation is low and mostly composed of elites. A better coupling of deliberative engagement (more people involved in the VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 121
deliberation) and decision making will lead to a more ‘democratic’ democratic governance (Papadopoulos, 2012; Parkinson & Mansbridge, 2012). Effective deliberation relies on those engaged in the deliberation to part from self-interest and think deeply about the good of the public (Elster, 1998). Deliberation, ideally, weeds out self-interest naturally because it forces participants to offer justifications for their stances and it is desirable not to be perceived as selfish by the group (Elster, 1998). Marti (2006), a skeptic of political deliberation, agrees that deliberation helps to filter irrational preferences and forces participants to make genuine impartial arguments.
POLARIZATION AND DELIBERATION The main limitation of existing literature on political deliberation is its shortcomings in discussing partisan polarization. Many important works have explored whether group deliberation is effective in creating consensuses among individuals or if it is more effective in provoking individuals to hold stronger in their views. Despite these important foundational understandings, which many social scientists continue to disagree about, there has been little exploration into the polarizing effects of political deliberation. Liberals and conservatives have different beliefs about key social and fiscal issues; however, without exposure to difference in opinion, it becomes impossible for citizens to engage in an informed manner – an essential element of effective deliberation (Schkade et al., 2007). Diversity of opinion is unlikely when people sort themselves into like-minded, homogeneous groups, even the way in which people reside demographically may mean that social groups consist of like-minded individuals (Mutz, 2006). People gain confidence in their views when their ideas are reassured by others, and as people gain more confidence, they become more entrenched in their views (Baron, 1996). In other words, when like-minded people meet regularly without exposure to competing views, they are more likely to move their views in a more extreme direction (Sunstein, 2002). Another possible explanation is that after people are exposed to a variety of views, they are more likely to be respectful of alternative views and consider new ideas as plausible or legitimate (Mutz, 2006). Mutz (2006) writes that deliberation will result in a “greater willingness to extend civil liberties to even those groups whose political views one dislikes a great deal,” meaning individuals will become more tolerant of competing views. Intergroup contact is shown to increase levels of sympathy and favorability among groups of differing identities. Several studies 122 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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have found that the attitudes toward the LGBTQ community are more favorable among individuals who have more relationships, closer relationships, or have direct exposure with someone in the LGBTQ community (Alport, 1955; Brewer & Miller, 1984; Herek & Capilanio, 1996). A social experiment done by Schkade and colleagues brought conservatives and liberals together to discuss divisive issues, such as marriage equality and affirmative action (2006). They were placed in groups and told to discuss these topics, propose their view, and reach a consensus. Schkade and colleagues (2006) found that as a result of group deliberation, both liberal and conservative members became more extreme in their originally held views. Their findings parallel Sunstein’s skepticism of the benefits of political deliberation. She writes, “group polarization means that members of a deliberating group predictably move toward a more extreme point in the direction indicated by the members’ predeliberation tendencies” (Sunstein, 2002). In any deliberative group, members enter with prior dispositions and opinions that will be unbalanced. Views traditionally held by members in a group will inevitably be the view in which the direction of the group ultimately polarizes to (Brown, 1996; Schkade et al., 2006; Sunstein, 2002). This is because, statistically, the total number of arguments for each belief will be tilted toward the argument with the most subscribers. Therefore, there will be a shift in the direction that the group ultimately polarizes to (Brown, 1996; Schkade et al., 2006; Sunstein, 2002). Another possible explanation is social comparisons (Brown, 1996; Schkade et al., 2006; Sunstein, 2002). Social comparisons are linked with social pressure; people want to be perceived favorably by other group members and tend to compose their views in a way that makes them seem less extreme or firm in their beliefs. Furthermore, they relax their views, listen to what other opinions are being expressed, and adjust their positions in the angle of the primary position of the group (Brown, 1996; Schkade et al., 2006; Sunstein, 2002). Social comparisons are interrelated with self-conceptions. For example, if an individual ordinarily perceives themselves as open-minded, moderate, or center left, in a liberal group they may shift more in order to retain their self-conception (Schkade et al., 2006). Dianne Mutz, one of the leading contemporary theorists of political deliberation, noted in her study regarding cross-cutting social networks that exposure to differing ideas promotes tolerance and legitimacy of opposing views (2002). This awareness of rationales is also important because one individual cannot possibly conceptualize the variety of perspectives in which individuals perceive a political issue. A 2001 study on Russian social networks found that individuals tolerance of democratic institutions is directly linked to the number of “weak ties” (unrelated) VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 123
in an individual’s social network (Gibson, 2001). Mutz (2002) argues that exposure to people with dissimilar views will lead to political tolerance through either an increased awareness of rationales for opposing views or through the intimacies of cross-cutting ties. Her empirical study finds that close relationships with those of oppositional views increases one’s political tolerance. Mutz argues that politics are such a small part of American’s day-to-day lives that it is easy for individuals to overlook differences or discover such differences later into an established friendship (2002). However, it would be interesting to determine if Mutz’ beliefs are still in line with this theory given the extraordinary divisiveness of the recent political climate. Mutz’ (2002) research also finds that there are statistically significant differences in awareness for oppositional views between conservatives and liberals, with liberals being more aware. The finding that liberals are more aware of opposing rationale and that conservatives are not as aware of oppositional views suggest that there is more a more salient possibility for conservatives to shift in their views once exposed to new ideas. Another important finding from Mutz’ survey study is that exposure to dissonant views is not directly related to increased tolerance. However, awareness of the rationales and intimacies between individuals with opposing views is related to tolerance. Closer relationships amid lines of dissonance and increased knowledge of differences of rationales predict tolerance (2002). Mutz hints at the idea that frequency of political discussion will alter tolerance for those of differing politics, but little work has been done into this frame of deliberation. Returning to Schkade and colleagues (2006) experiment into the polarizing effects of political deliberation, they found a statistically significant tendency for conservatives to shift in their views more than liberals; but they warn that it would be a mistake to pay much attention to the difference in polarization, despite its statistical significance. Though in their experiment it is apparent that elements of persuasive arguments were employed and that the frequency of conservative arguments in conservative leaning groups reaffirmed these beliefs, these findings could also mean that conservatives are more fluid in their beliefs, or willing to shift them along a scale in either direction. The fluidity of political ideology coupled with an element of frequency of political dialogue is what drives the empirical research of this paper. This paper expects to find positive relationships between the frequency of political dialogue and ‘liberalness’ of political ideology.
METHODS
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It is hypothesized that higher frequencies of political dialogue lead to an increased likelihood of the development of liberal political ideologies. The independent variable will be measured from question V161495 of the ANES time series study that was conducted in the fall of 2016, prior to the presidential election (ANES 2016). The question asked each of the 2,971 respondents how many days in the past week they spoke about politics. The original independent variable will be recoded from a thirteen-category categorical measure into the following three-category ordinal measure: infrequent political dialogue, moderately frequent political dialogue, and frequent political dialogue. The purpose of recoding the original independent variable is to reduce the degrees of freedom from 11 degrees to 2 degrees, which would offer a better calculation of statistical significance with a sample size of 2,971. Another reason to recode these variables is that two categories had less than 5 responses and represent less than .05% of the total sample size. An additional three categories that pertain to housekeeping details of the surveyor, such as count of interviews rejected for various reasons, were also removed. The relevance of the removed five categories would have caused difficulty in determining the standard deviation, significance, degree, and direction of the relationship. The dependent variable is measured by four different questions in the ANES 2016 times series survey that ask respondents their feelings toward both liberals and conservatives, as well as direct policy positions on contentious civil rights issues (ANES 2016). Question 1 asked the respondent to rate ideological liberal on a scale of 0-100, 0 being least unfavorable and 100 being most favorable. Question 2 asked the respondent to rate ideological conservatives on the same scale. Question A asked for the respondent’s position on gay marriage and Question B asked for the respondent’s position on transgender bathroom policies. Questions 1 and 2 ask the respondent’s opinion on the two major political ideologies in the United States, while questions A and B focus on the application of policy rather than selfreported feelings regarding political ideology. Political ideology, which is the basis of the research question, is not only one’s identity to an ideology, it is also feelings of negative partisanship that have been exacerbated in modern politics. This factor is considered with questions 1 and 2, which ask respondents to rate both political ideologies on a scale. Similar to the independent variable, the dependent variables was recoded. Questions 1 and 2 are coded into a 101-category ordinal variable known as a “feeling thermometer.” These variables are both recoded into the following 3-category ordinal measures: negative feelings, moderate feelings, and positive feelings. The recoding for these two variables will combine 0-33 on the feeling thermometer into one simple label of ‘negative feelings,’ 34-66 will be combined VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 125
into the label of ‘moderate feelings,’ and the final 67-100 will be combined into the label of ‘positive feelings.’ One motivation to recode these variables as such is in the interest of producing tables with fewer cells and thus fewer degrees of freedom. Additionally, recoding from a 101-category variable to a 3-category continuous variable will eliminate the variability in the original coded answers. To verify or reject the hypothesis that frequency of political dialogue is correlated with political ideology, a variety of measures will be employed. To decide significance, a chisquare test to determine if the relationship is statistically significant was conducted. The research question is based on the commonly accepted phenomenon that knowing a gay person will make one more accepting of gay people in general, and thus more sympathetic to LGBTQ policy issues. LGBTQ issues are commonly known as civil Table 1: Data Source: 2016 American National Election Survey rights and liberal issues. The research paper seeks to apply this phenomena to other liberal issues, including transgender bathroom policies, and liberals themselves. In order to examine this relationship, the control variable of political ideology will be used to appropriately distinguish how frequency of political dialogue effects conservatives versus liberals. The control variable will be recoded from a 7-point scale to a 3-point scale, all three categories of those leaning or strongly conservative will be combined into one category labeled ‘conservatives,’ and all three categories of those leaning or strongly liberal will be recoded into a category labeled ‘liberal.’ A third category of ‘moderates’ will remain unchanged. It is hypothesized that the tau-b will signify a positive relationship among conservatives (and liberals) between their frequency of political dialogue and feelings toward liberals/stances on liberal issues. This hypothesis is based off the theory that the more frequently people discuss politics, particularly conservatives, the more likely they are to come into contact with a liberal influence, and thus more likely to be 126 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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persuaded toward liberal stances on liberal ideological issues.
DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS Three analyses will be performed. The first will be conducted with the recoded independent variable, frequency of political dialogue, and the recoded dependent variables of feelings toward liberals and conservatives. The second analysis will consist of the independent variable of frequency of political dialogue and position on marriage equality with the control variable of political ideology. Finally, the last analysis will compare the independent variable against transgender bathroom policies using the control variable. As displayed in Table 1, there is a statistically significant relationship between frequency of political dialogue and feelings toward liberals. Among conservatives’ feelings toward liberals, a chisquare of 9.532 and a p value of 0.049 was found. As for the degree of the relationship, tau-b is calculated at -0.066 which is below the threshold value. This means that the more frequently conservatives discuss politics, the less positive feelings are fostered toward liberals. Among conservatives, only 9.6% of respondents have a favorable view of liberals. Among that small group, only 9.1% of those spoke about politics frequently compared to 12.6% who spoke about politics infrequently. Since the relationship is weak, it signifies that there are other Table 2: Data Source: 2016 American National Election Survey possible explanations for the dependent variable. The second analysis (see Table 2), position on marriage equality, will be examined against frequency of political dialogue, while also controlling for political ideology. Among conservatives, this relationship is also significant, with a chi-square of VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 127
10.981 and a p-score of .027. Among conservatives who have adopted a liberal stance on marriage equality, the majority reported high frequency of political dialogue. That is, 31.9% of conservatives who have taken a liberal position on marriage equality report frequent levels of political dialogue, while only 24.6% of such respondents report infrequent levels of political dialogue. It is also important to recognize that the majority of conservatives who took the conservative stance on marriage equality reported infrequent levels of political Table 3: Data Source: 2016 American National Election Survey dialogue. For the third analysis, transgender bathroom policy will be compared against frequency of political dialogue, again controlling for political ideology. For conservatives, a chi-square of 2.74 and a p-score of .250 tells us that there is not a significant relationship present. Though the relationship is not statistically significant, the tau-b value (-0.045) signifies that the majority of conservative respondents who selected a liberal response reported frequent levels of political dialogue, 26%, versus 21.3% who reported infrequent levels of political dialogue.
DISCUSSION The research question is based on the theory that exposure to liberal ideologies will render recipients more sympathetic to liberals and more likely to adopt liberal stances on traditionally liberal civil rights issues. Instances of political deliberation or intergroup contact have shown a positive relationship between exposure and increased understanding and sometimes coincide with shifting political ideological positions, especially in cases of knowing a gay person and stances on LGBTQ 128 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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policies. This paper attempts to extend this theory further, asserting that conservative exposure to liberal ideologies will lead to sympathy toward liberal frames of thought and policy. The ANES data shows this to be inconclusive. In some instances, such as marriage equality policy, a statistically significant weak relationship exists, and other instances such as transgender bathroom policies lack statistical significance. One area of difficulty was in recoding the independent variable into digestible categories. Choosing to recode an 8-category measure into a 3-category measure split the categories into uneven parts, which limited my ability to produce graphics that illustrate the relationships analyzed in this paper and may have also impacted the levels of significance of these relationships. The independent variable is also not a perfect datum in that it asks respondents “How many days in the past week have you discussed politics” (ANES 2016 Codebook). This measure is myopic and does not account for how often an individual regularly discusses politics. This study would benefit from a question that asked how often an individual engages in political discussions on a regular basis. Another troublesome area was the inability to decipher how often conservatives engaged in political dialogue with an individual with opposing views. Instead, this paper assumes that an individual who discusses politics frequently will be more likely to come into contact or engage with a liberal ideology. However, it is possible that this is an unfair assumption and frequency of political dialogue may have zero connection with likelihood of encountering dissonant views and could perhaps better correlate to reassurances of one’s views. An improved measure that ANES could employ in future surveys would provoke respondents to answer how often they engage in political discussion with an individual of opposing views. Another limitation, particularly in the first analysis, is the issue of recoding a 0-100 scale feeling thermometer. Doing such is difficult because of the extreme levels of variance in responses. Dividing such a scale into too few categories will lead to an inaccurate representation of the respondent’s true intentions, meanwhile, recoding such a scale into too many categories creates complications for measuring statistical significance due to the large number of degrees of freedom. Furthermore, the question informed respondents that 0-49 on the scale signified negative feelings and 50-100 signified positive feelings. The divisive phrasing of this question could have created a bias for respondents, uninformed that a point or points on the scale may be interpreted as moderate or neutral.
CONCLUSION
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Political ideology and polarization are multifaceted subjects influenced by an array of variables, such as environment, dissemination of information, education, economics, dialogue, and so forth. The old saying goes “No politics or religion at the dinner table.� In practice this old saying potentially imposes systemic limitations on societal progress. Over time, discussion of politics has been viewed as impolite and a recipe for hostile argument; however the Condorcet Jury Theorem finds that a well-informed deliberation is more likely to lead to the ultimate right answer, justice. Justice is at the heart of civil rights battles and historically are one in the same with the liberal position on said civil rights battles. The benefits of engaging in political dialogue with those of opposing views are numerous and offer a potential and viable remedy for politics’ most contentious issues. There is a societal tendency to avoid discussing politics, which has led to a lack of understanding of those with opposing political views, cutting deeper into the ideological polarization that currently divides the United States. Teaching individuals to engage in civil conversation about politics should be given more value and could potentially alleviate the umbrella of ignorance that cause legislative gridlock and deep ideological divides.
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FACTORS THAT IMPACT REVERSE CULTURE SHOCK ENYA CALIBUSO Major: Psychology and French Class of 2019
ABOUT THE WORK If someone were to ask me where I am from, I would open my mouth to respond, but a moment of hesitation would ensue. Within that millisecond, names of countries come to mind with a flurry of color and culture and flavor, a moment of nostalgia that is both painful and euphoric. Do I say I was born in Washington State? But, I grew up in Italy? No, no, what about our last post in South Africa, that’s where I graduated after all? Maybe I will just go with our current address. So, while they’re staring at me quizzically, I will end up saying I am from Alexandria, Virginia. It is only now that I realize that this moment of hesitation, this sliver of uncertainty, had not only characterized me as third culture kid but has also catalyzed my research endeavors in psychology. In Honors 110: Research Methods, I was finally able to define the feelings I had experienced in scholarly terms – third culture kids (TCK’s), expatriates, cultural homelessness, the U-Curve Hypothesis, and many more. I chose to delve into the factors that effect reverse culture shock in internationally mobile adolescents. These TCKs are children of nomadic parents, who live neither in the first culture (that of the parent’s home country) nor the second culture (host country), in turn making up the third culture (Huff, 2001). Oftentimes, they will experience reverse culture shock, or psychological stress including disorientation, loss, and isolation, upon returning to the home country (Heery & Noon, 2016). Ultimately, I questioned how the factors of identity formation and the number of repatriations correlated with depression through the lenses of several theories of reverse culture shock: the W-Curve Theory, the Terror Management Theory, and the TransitionIdentity Theory. While the W-Curve Theory focused on the stages of cultural transition, the Terror Management Theory showed the extent to which the perception of normativity distorts a TCK’s coping abilities. Further, the Transition-Identity Theory emphasized how identity is fluid and can morph each time a TCK is transplanted into a new foreign country. As TCKs are in an adolescent stage of development, their identities are vulnerable to confusion, reinforcing the impact that societal constructs have on facilitating and rationalizing the transition. Accordingly, the focus needs to be shifted away from acquired losses and inadequate adaptations that risk depression in later stages of life and rather center on the resiliency and diversity in these unique experiences of third culture kids. 132 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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TCKs are children of internationally mobile parents, who live neither in the first culture (that of the parent’s home country) nor the second culture (host country), in turn, making up the third culture (Huff 246). For instance, a TCK’s first culture might be the United States if their parents were born there, and subsequently the second culture could be South Africa if that is the current location of the parent’s mobile job. TCK’s are typically the children of diplomats, businessmen, military personnel, or missionaries who follow their parent’s nomadic careers. These children have been raised knowing that every location is temporary. They have been enrolled in International schools, Department of Defense Dependent Schools (DoDDS), public schools, sometimes foreign host nation schools, and even home-schooled. They have lived in countries ranked by the U.S. News and World Reports as a “Top 25 Destinations,” like Rome, Athens, or London (“Worlds”). However, they have also lived in some of the most dangerous crime-ridden cities, from Johannesburg to Cairo, being forced to live amongst the political corruption, electric fences, and guarded compounds. While from a non-TCK standpoint this can seem like a glamorous whirlwind of vacations, TCKs often view this as another freefall from the comfort of certainty. This study explores the correlation between reverse culture shock and depression in third culture kids (TCKs); in doing so, this paper seeks to determine factors that increase the inability to adapt to one’s home culture after spending time overseas, because recognizing the symptoms early and using preventative measures can allow the individual to minimize the degree of repatriation stress and facilitate adjustment to the home culture. Reverse culture shock presents feelings of disorientation, isolation, lack of belonging, grief, and loss that is triggered by the TCK returning to their national country after spending time in the foreign country (Heery and Noon). This paper will explore three research questions: First, to what extent is an adolescent’s identity, both self-concept and cultural identity, shaped through third culture experiences? Due to the misalignment between perceived expectations upon returning to the home country and the actual experiences that occur, the TCK is forced to reevaluate the ways in which their unique perspectives fit into the society they live in, ultimately bringing self-concept and cultural identity into conflict (Heery and Noon). Second, how does the number of repatriations to the home country influence the motivation of cultural transition? Increased repatriations tend to negatively correlate to decreased feelings of reverse culture shock, as detachment from the home culture is increased and the advantages of individuality emphasized (Huff 261). Lastly, how do these factors – identity formation and number of repatriations – correlate to depression? As the environment and the individual has changed, trying to replicate the routines formed in the host country is impossible VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 133
and frustrating. The cycles of grief and separation that result due to the constant instability can manifest in adulthood into severe forms of clinical depression which make cultural awareness and psychological therapy paramount upon a TCK’s reentry.
THEORIES OF REVERSE CULTURE SHOCK One of the earliest theories drawing attention to the transition that TCK’s undergo upon moving abroad is the Culture Shock U-Curve, introduced by Lysgaard. The U-Curve Theory is made up of 4 main stages: honeymoon, crisis, recovery, and adjustment (Ward et al. 278). This adjustment process is seen as easiest at the start, when the novelty of the exotic country arouses excitement synonymous to a ‘honeymoon,’ but is followed by a ‘crisis’ in which the individual feels isolated from both the host and home cultures. As the cultural adjustment progresses, the individual learns to interact and live within the host culture, ‘recovering’ a sense of their identity separate from the native people. As the integration becomes more fluid and the individual adopts certain values of the host culture, the ‘adjustment’
Figure 1: Reverse Culture Shock W-Curve (“Reverse Culture Shock”)
stage is said to be complete (Ward et al. 278; Gullahorn and Gullahorn 35). Thus, this theory is termed, U-shape, reflecting the early feelings of excitement before plummeting into despair and loneliness and then transitioning back up to a sense of stability and contentedness. In Figure 1, the first ‘U’ would be considered the Culture Shock U-Curve Theory (“Reverse Culture Shock.”; Gullahorn and Gullahorn 35).
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However, reverse culture shock is distinctly different from culture shock as it focuses on the physical and psychological difficulties when returning back to the home country after assimilating to the host country. Thus prompting further inquiry, Gullahorn and Gullahorn then extended these concepts into the Reverse Culture Shock W-Curve (Gaw 85). Literally, the W-Curve Theory adds another ‘U’ to form a ‘W’ in order to display culture shock and subsequently reverse culture shock, respectively. Gullahorn and Gullahorn extended the U-Curve hypothesis by collecting data through a questionnaire and interview cross-sectional study, using various individuals at different times after their return to the home country (39). The questionnaire consisted of 13 items, creating the Satisfaction Index, that evaluated the effects that award experiences in the host country had on the TCK individuals (J. T. Gullahorn and J. E. Gullahorn 42). The results demonstrated that a positive relationship with the host country nationals led to greater satisfaction in award experiences abroad, indicating an interaction-sentiment relationship (J. T. Gullahorn and J. E. Gullahorn 42). This relationship focuses on the humanizing effects of connecting to the host culture and how it subsequently facilitates recovery and adjustment in the transition abroad. Although this evidence supports the W-Curve Theory, the cross-sectional study has some limitations. Since this data collected information at a specific time, the researcher is unable to examine behavior as time progresses; therefore, this data is purely correlational. Despite this, Gullahorn and Gullahorn’s W-Curve Theory is reinforced by Purnell and Hoban’s study, where they found through in-depth interviews that upon initial repatriation, adjustment occurred succinctly as individuals were adapting to realistic everyday life. Through analysis of the participants’ descriptive lived-experiences in the home culture, the researchers concluded that individuals learned to acculturate as a result of their family and friend support system in both the home and host culture, which helped reduce transitional stress. This insulates the interaction-sentiment relationship from which the W-Curve Theory is based (Purnell and Hoban 88). Furthermore, Gaw bridges the W-Curve Theory between Gullahorn and Gullahorn’s study creating eight main stages, and Purnell and Hoban’s study heightens the interaction-sentiment relationship, by showing the W-Curve’s relevance in relation to perception of self to believed cultural norms. The W-Curve displays internal, negatively connoted perceptions experienced by the TCK that inhibit the broadening of perceived non-TCK’s empathy (Gaw). In turn, this would have adverse complications on the interaction-sentiment relationship, causing increased reverse culture shock and inability to adapt, resulting in a prolonged ‘crisis’ stage at home (Gaw). Overall, the W-Curve Theory provides a VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 135
reliable visualization for this transition model. The W-Curve Theory consists of eight main stages: honeymoon, crisis, recovery, and adjustment followed again by honeymoon at home, crisis at home, recovery at home, and adjustment at home (see Figure 1). Therefore, stages five through eight focus specifically on the reverse culture shock experience. Stage five, honeymoon at home, involves a flurry of excitement in which the TCK’s expectations are rather unrealistic idealizations of a place and a lifestyle from which they have been separated (Purnell and Hoban 82). Suddenly, they are thrown back into a ‘familiar’ environment surrounded by native English speakers, family and friends, even something as simple as the old diner down the street. This abrupt immersion back into the home culture is exhilarating at first, a time in which the TCK can seemingly fulfill their cultural identity. Then stage six, crisis at home, emerges. Just as quickly as this re-acculturation was thrilling, now it’s become overwhelming. Straightaway, the TCK is struck by the differences, which are typically negative, between their home culture and the host culture (Purnell and Hoban 82). TCKs begin to experience symptoms of denial, reentry stress, and grief. As the duration of the time spent in the home country increases, stage seven, recovery at home, commences; the TCK learns to cope with the changing culture and re-adapts to the new environment (Purnell and Hoban 82). This propagates into stage eight, adjustment at home in which the TCK has successfully acculturated and is psychologically stable (Purnell and Hoban 82). This transition process is very dependent on the individual, lasting anywhere between 6 months and several years. Further, the Terror Management Theory examines the relations between culture and self in terms of identity. Accordingly, “…culture functions in part to assuage the terror associated with our uncontrollable demise by creating order and stability and by describing the parameters of the ‘good and valuable’ self ” (Sussman 5). This theory asserts that attacks to our perception of our cultural understanding and identity, even as a result of being a sojourner, increase our psychological distress, anxiety, and grief (Sussman 5; Peterson and Plamondon 756). Whereas the W-Curve Theory focuses on the effects of reverse culture shock and transition over time, the terror management theory describes a reaction to the chaos created by international mobility in which both physical aspects of one’s life, as well as the abstract concepts one believed to be true, remains in flux. Terror management theory portrays reverse culture shock more in terms of the TCK’s response to their predicament and the effects that their perceptions of the third culture have on their psychological well-being and false expectations. The terror management theory suggests an egocentric model simply by using the term ‘terror.’ This forces the assumption that the TCK would view other’s criticism or questioning 136 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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of their lifestyle as outside the norm, producing a negative association, which would in turn be taken personally and impact the TCK’s overall psychological well-being. On the other hand, the W-Curve Theory refines its scope primarily to society’s perception of how a TCK should react to the experiences they have undergone providing a more generalized model predicting a TCK’s behavior in a set eight stages. Contrarily, Gaw’s perspective on the W-Curve, which he views as bridging self-concept and cultural norms, aligns with the terror management theory. Cultural norms cause a sense of terror would accumulate when one’s basic life events are not synonymous with others. For example, while most adolescents spend their childhoods in one location, TCKs are in a constant cycle of moving and repatriating. Because the norm in Western society is stable households in a single location, this results in the TCK feeling an ‘uncontrollable demise,’ which transforms from the physical aspects of moving to the internal questioning of whether they are still ‘good and valuable’ individuals if their lives do not conform to the usual parameters. Hence, this consistent feeling of being socially and emotionally threatened, rather than being accepted as unique, would result in a longer ‘crisis’ stage in the W-Curve due to a negative interaction-sentiment relationship between the individual and society. Further, it is important to note that these feelings of ‘being attacked’ may be real or perceived dependent on how the TCK views others support, or lack thereof, around them. Ultimately, the terror management theory suggests a positive correlation between cultural rootlessness and anxiety, as this would be portrayed as a threat to one’s cultural identity (Peterson and Plamondon 756). To expand on this, Clarence, a participant from Cyprus stated that: There’re some things that as I grow with age I think that one’s roots are very, very strong. They are very, very dominant in a person. And the attraction back to those roots becomes stronger with age. Now the conflict that you end up with is that while you are being drawn back to your roots, at the same time, when you’ve lived away for a while, your mindset changes. You’ve lived in different surroundings; you get used to different things. And then you’re in this tug-of-war, this internal tug-of-war to try and marry the two because you miss all these things that are related to your roots. And then when you try to go back to them, you find out that there’s a compatibility problem because you’ve been away long enough to have gotten used to a different way of life. (Christofi and Thompson 58) Both the W-Curve and the terror management theory put the TCK at risk for VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 137
entrenching these models as a part of their identity. In total, this would result in greater consequences, as their sense of self would be compromised. Altogether, it is fundamental to return to Greenholtz and Kim’s ultimate claim that humans are all fundamentally the same. In the end, it is our imperfections that make us human. Although the terror management theory is supported largely by qualitative accounts and in-depth interviews, it is not explored quantitatively in studies. Therefore, more research is needed to better understand the consequence of the terror management theory and how it can be applied in clinical psychology. Lastly, Sussman proposed a new model called the Transition-Identity Theory, where she combined adaptations to the self-concept and cultural identity as a series of four shifts (subtractive, additive, affirmative, and intercultural) independent of each other that subsequently form one’s overall identity (21). A subtractive identity shift occurs when cultural identity in the home culture is low and flexibility to adapt is low to moderate (18). On the other hand, the reverse is known as additive identity shift (18). These shifts are associated with greater uncertainty towards the perception of self and consequently adverse reactions to new situations. While a subtractive shift makes an individual associate less with their home culture, an additive shift makes them feel more similar to their home culture. For instance, the subtractive shift can be exemplified through Natasha’s discussion of becoming comfortable in America when coming from Russia, as she believes enjoying ice tea makes her ‘Americanized’ (Christofi and Thompson 61). Additionally, the additive shift can be seen in Heidi’s realization of her cultural identity being a part of her self-concept, as she found that in America she was German first and ‘Heidi’ second (60); and, that she is in fact ‘Heidi’ because she is German (60). In both shifts, the individual’s interaction with the home culture collective decreases, ultimately increasing the isolation one feels for their home culture, as well as not fitting in with co-nationals (Sussman 19). Affirmative shifters have the least reverse culture shock as they ignore any cultural discrepancies and are stable in their cultural identity (Sussman 19). Typically, this shift is prevalent among older adults who move frequently, as their identity is stable (Gullahorn and Gullahorn). Having grown up in the home country during adolescence their values and cultural identity aligns with the cultural norm. Therefore, they are more likely to experience reduced levels of reverse culture shock, as they are not as likely to adopt foreign values, traditions, or beliefs. For instance, a biology teacher from the United States that moves to Kenya in order to teach at an International School is unlikely to adopt Swahili as a second language or measure wealth according to the number of cows one owns. The biology teacher would likely view English as their native language and wealth according to monetary 138 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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success and financial gains with little to no confusion. An intercultural shift occurs when an individual can draw from multiple cultural experiences as part of their identity (Sussman 19; Greenholtz and Kim). This shift is largely depictive of Lena, in this context a multicultural hybrid, whom Greenholtz and Kim interviewed. Lena realized that despite being surrounded by many different cultures, ethnicities, and backgrounds, people share similar goals in life, if they could just look beneath physical differences. These models attempt to predict the psychological trajectory that TCKs will experience upon re-entry to their home country. These models are simply guidelines and generalizations of what a TCK may experience but can differ significantly from one individual to another. Each theory gives the researcher different insight into the perspective of a TCK. While the W-Curve is focused on cultural transition over time in a set of eight distinct stages, the Terror Management Theory views the effect of normativity in distorting the perspective of a TCK in regards to what is considered ‘order,’ and the Transition-Identity Theory specifically examines the shifts the identity undergoes as a result of frequent international moves and in part as a coping mechanism to reverse culture shock. These three theories reinforce the cultural construct of normativity and the effects it has on identity formation. From the three different theories, one notices how multidimensional this phenomenon is and how difficult it can be to reach a consensus on the overall experience of a TCK. Overall, this affects both the individuals’ well-being, as well as societal health, as returnees with higher levels of reverse culture shock used fewer services than did returnees with low levels of reverse culture shock (Gaw). These findings suggest that TCKs’ reverse culture shock experience may be a serious inhibitor in their reaching out for professional help. This possibility has been shown in other studies in which students experiencing psychological and academic distress often prefer to seek help from a close friend or family member rather than a professional counselor, further exemplifying the importance of the interaction-sentiment relationship as the common thread between all three theories (Gaw; Sussman; Gullahorn and Gullahorn; Purnell and Hoban). Some returnees perceived college professionals as inter-culturally inexperienced and did not believe that they would understand or validate their reverse culture shock experience (Gaw). This creates further elements of isolation that increase the symptoms of sadness emphasizing the significant interconnection of perceptions, inhibitions, and theories.
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FACTORS IMPACTING THE DEGREE OF REVERSE CULTURE SHOCK AND SUBSEQUENTLY DEPRESSION IN THIRD CULTURE CHILDREN The way scholars differentiate between the factors – identity formation and number of repatriations – on reverse culture shock impacts society’s overall perception of what encompasses TCK identity and reverse culture shock response. Much distress results from a deviation from normativity, in which TCKs may feel they must conform to the ‘ideal’ TCK standard or submit to feelings of marginalization, regardless of whether or not this reception is real or perceived. Feelings of ‘otherness’ commence with perception and grow to entail both the individual and societal level. For instance, the different terminology of ‘culture shock’ and ‘reverse culture shock’ imply variations in general validation. Transition models like the W-Curve Theory, Terror Management Theory, and the TransitionIdentity Theory assume that TCK’s behavior will follow this specific trend (see Figure 1). By understanding that mental health is often a projection of what society deems to be ‘good,’ progress can occur by accepting differences and recognizing biased norms. Identity Formation as Determined through the Relationships between Self-Concept, Cultural Identity, and Cultural Transitions in Third Culture Adolescents First, in Non-TCKs, adolescents are still going through the process of determining their strengths and weaknesses and in turn deciding what role their identity will manifest into in the coming years (Feldman 385). According to Erik Erikson, a development psychologist, adolescents are in the identity-versus-identity confusion stage, in which positive outcomes include viewing themselves as unique while, negative outcomes include the inability to determine one’s purpose, major, or career in life (385). Thus, these negative outcomes can be further exacerbated with culturally mobile adolescents, as their identities become scattered along tangents of who they could be rather than a realistic view of self (385). Self-concept and cultural identity are interdependent. While the self-concept focuses on individual needs, the cultural identity takes into account the thoughts, feelings, and actions of others (Sussman 4). Our identities are both a reflection of our own values, as well as the attributes we accept from society and the culture surrounding us. How individuals view themselves in terms of cultural adequacy may differ substantially from others’ perceptions of them, displaying the effect that 140 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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our interpretations have on our behaviors and adopted traditions (7). Individuals often use the ambiguity of their perception to their advantage for instance, highlighting certain aspects of themselves to fit into a larger group. However, if this fails, then they will employ confirmation bias to convince themselves that they were never associated with said group in the first place, or the individual might undergo changes in order to better fit the values of that group (8). On the other hand, attempting to marry these two cultural aspects of oneself into a whole can lead to internal distress (Christofi and Thompson 58). As previously seen in support of the Terror Management Theory, Clarence, a subject in a phenomenological study illustrated theme 1, conflict/peace, in his description of being unable to ever return home, because the place has not only changed but he has also changed (58). This methodology involved von Eckartsberg’s existential-phenomenological model in order to understand the human experience qualitatively (55). This theory focuses around the individual’s internal reactions and perceptions to thematic structures of some life event. An existential-phenomenological method involves three parts: bracketing, selecting participants, and conducting the phenomenological interviews. The objective of bracketing is essentially asking the researcher conducting this experiment the same interview questions that the participant will be asked to derive pre-existing assumptions and biases, thus improving the study’s reliability. Then, for 90 minutes the participants were prompted to discuss experiences that stood out to them since they have returned to the host country after living in their home country again (55). Demographics were also noted. Linguistic analysis commenced and in order to analyze the data of each transcript, members would read the interviewer’s part and subsequently the participants part, worked on an agreement of themes expressed, used quotes as evidence to back up these themes, compiled individual summaries, and asked for validation of these summaries by the participants (56). Ultimately, using this bipolar format literally shows how much a TCK’s experience and emotional reactions can vary from extremes to a continuum. Culture is the foundation off of which humans base their behavior (Sussman 3). In turn, culture has a large impact on the way we view ourselves and the way we view others as it forms a framework through which we choose how to act, what motivates us, and on the critiques we have on others actions (4). For instance, the country that TCKs associate as home can take on a multitude of definitions ranging from their birth country, the country in which they are a citizen, the country they have spent the most number of years in, or even their favorite country (Gerner et al. 202). For Non-TCKs this answer is straightforward, but for TCKs it becomes a tangled stream of thoughts. For this reason, Gerner and colleagues left home open to interpretation by the subjects, in order to obtain the most accurate results on the VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 141
associations subjects make on their cultural identity. In regards to cultural hybridization, self-concept and cultural identity are not rigidly defined but rather have many overlapping, permeable edges that are dependent on the situation (Sussman 8). Cross-cultural transitions are particularly distressing because the physical familiar surroundings from which these adolescents attained certain values are suddenly stripped away leaving them uncertain as to how to respond in this new context (9). In addition, this newfound perspective with international travel leaves the TCK consistently comparing and contrasting the aspects of each country they have lived in, which, to some extent, reduces the value of their home country (Christofi and Thompson 56). This questioning of which culture to identify with extend into the core values the TCK has formulated from living abroad, forcing them to critique their own identity. The TCKs are shocked and disappointed to realize they may have been disillusioned about their home country and that they no longer agree with certain practices or viewpoints that they once partook in. The delineation between expectation and experience is emphasized, as they tend to remember only the positive aspects of home while ignoring the negative memories (57). The TCK is swiftly thrust into a harsh reality, where every country is characterized by its advantages and disadvantages in which ‘perfect’ doesn’t exist and change is ever-present. Clarence remarked that moving back to the host country may not have been a good idea (58). As, he didn’t realize just how much everything had changed within and without him, leading to some cynicism of being unhappy everywhere as he was no longer blinded by patriotism but rather staring wide-eyed at the ever changing face of the world (58). Hence, identity is multifaceted, dependent on factors of perception between self and society that has the capacity to lead to large internal conflicts. These internal conflicts are perpetuated both within the individual and between the individual and society. For example, many TCKs must separate their third culture memories and habits from their daily activities, as it is difficult for others to relate to them (Gerner et al. 211). In turn, this can increase grief as the individual suddenly has to conform to a norm that they neither relate to nor fit with, erasing a key aspect of their identity. This is analogous to stage 6, crisis, in the W-Curve Theory, suggesting dissociation between the self-concept and cultural identity in which differences to peers lead to increased social distance (211). This is representative of a subtractive identity shift where the TCK can no longer relate to their home culture. Moreover, TCKs whom identified “…themselves as ‘National’ were found to experience significantly greater satisfaction with their social support than [TCKs] who perceived themselves as ‘American’ t(1,43)=-1.99, p<0.05;” again showing just how much society influences our perceptions of ourselves (Huff 255). This 142 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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t-score displays how far away the sample mean is from the population mean numerically, showing the significant difference in findings. A p-value of less than 0.05 means the hypothesis that TCKs are more likely to perceive themselves having less social support than non-TCKs is supported (Huff 249). The stability of identity is a key factor in reverse culture shock leading to dissociation. TCKs will look for guidance from close friends or family members instead of counselors who could be inter-culturally inexperienced and invalidate their grief (Gaw 100). This occurs due to the disparity between individual’s willingness to see a counselor for depression, as 42.42 % were unwilling with only 10% willing (97). Gaw builds that the recognition and act of denial further exacerbates the disparity within the perception of self and society, subsequently increasing the effects of reverse culture shock. On the other hand, the TCK may not be affected by the changes and may even begin to accept their differences through an intercultural identity shift; hence, highlighting that divergence from the norm and societies reaction of ‘otherness’ triggers feelings of reverse culture shock. This accentuates the factor of identity by reinforcing perception of self as a baseline for reverse culture shock while employing the expectation-experience discrepancy. The emphasis has shifted from the problem of returning to the problem of learning to adapt. In turn, the Terror Management Theory is enacted as the TCK’s coping mechanisms may be viewed by the society as diverging from the norm. Thus, the responses from society will become ingrained in the way in which TCKs view those around them further hindering their physical and psychological transition. TCKs are involved in personality-environment transactions that greatly effect the subsequent shifts in identity. Zimmermann and Neyer suggest that a stable identity is essential to successful transitions in international moves (525). If our expectations of ourselves are aligned, meaning our values and traditions are accepted by ourselves regardless of society’s perception of it, then our experiences will not enact severe cycles of loss, supporting the affirmative and intercultural identity shifts in the Transition-Identity Theory. Society’s perception of ourselves and our relationships impact us greatly, by forming our personality rather than the repatriation itself, which could lead the TCK to adopt subtractive and affirmative identity shifts in order to cope with the changing environment. This variance between self and society produces adaptation hassles that can lead to mood disturbances and stigmatization of depression. It is this outward-inward revelation where TCKs’ adopt society’s point of view before their own and expect there to be a normal reaction to reverse culture shock. It is this idea that has profound consequences on TCKs’ identity formation (527). Hence, no one theory can be used to completely support the transition a TCK is encountering, they can only be VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 143
used as a reference to understand the transition more clearly.
The Effect of Number of Repatriations on Motivation for Cultural Transition
The number of repatriations to the home country is often an indicator of the degree to which reverse culture shock will manifest itself. TCKs’ transition tends to be easier for adolescents younger than 15 who have made more than 10 transitions, as they never spend enough time in one place to feel ‘rooted’ or attached to that culture (Huff 261). They form a subtractive shift in identity compared to those who have accepted the host culture as their own, ultimately, minimizing reverse culture shock and experiencing less grief (261). The longer an individual stays in the host country the more likely they are to adapt to that culture and adopt those norms as their baseline. Therefore, upon re-entry to the home country, the TCK experiences heightened reverse culture shock, as this deviates from their new norm. Essentially, with the plethora of values, behaviors, and attitudes from the host country this calls on the TCK to merge them with their prexisting beliefs, forming an intercultural identity shift (Christofi and Thompson 54; Sussman). The number or repatriations and the formation of adolescent identity are correlated as each repatriation produces discontinuities as the TCK compares their multicultural identity to their peers, who have only ever lived in one location (Peterson and Plamondon 756). In particular, multiple repatriations consist of multiple ‘threats’ on the adolescent identity during formation forming, supporting the Terror Management Theory (756). In turn, this would lead to the experienceexpectation discrepancy on identity formation. While multiple repatriations have a negative correlation to positive affect in men, there was a positive correlation to authoritarianism in women (755). Positive affect, or a positive emotional state, consists of the likelihood an individual finds success, happiness, and purpose within their lives. Thus, having a negative correlation heightens the concept that increased repatriations would also increase grief. Further, authoritarianism includes traits like prejudice, discrimination, and moral superiority which would negatively impact the psychological well-being of the woman, leaving her susceptible to increased feelings of isolation and grief. Traditionally, many sponsoring organizations viewed repatriations as a positive event in order to increase cultural knowledge of the home country and work ethic upon returning. However, the research suggests some wavering evidence contingent upon the length and frequency of the repatriation. For instance, returning to the home country for several weeks is a very different experience than settling in for 144 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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a year, in which one would most definitely experience reverse culture shock in the form of the W-Curve. Living and vacationing are two completely distinct concepts. While vacationing is connoted with temporary status, living in the home country requires one to continue daily activities like going to school, making friends, and reintegrating into other aspects of everyday life. Overall, it may be more psychologically advantageous for TCKs to remain overseas for a longer amount of time than submitting to multiple repatriations, in order to reduce the number of W-Curve transitions the TCK would experience (760). Further, research has shown no correlation between length of time spent abroad and reverse culture shock (760). Moreover, multiple repatriations can have a larger effect on the TCK as they do not have the support group of the third culture community. Typically, when TCKs are abroad they are surrounded by an ‘American bubble’ with other sojourner families and International American School standards. This third culture community would act as the reference point and level of normativity for American culture when abroad, despite there being adequate differences from that of the American culture in America (Peterson and Plamondon 756; Greenholz and Kim 391). TCKs have been found to feel most as home with other cultural hybrids; in that situation, when the third culture community is no longer available back in the home culture, feelings of ‘otherness’ and depression can intensify (Greenholtz and Kim 391). These emotions are reinforced with the Hoerstring and Jenkins study in which participants who felt they had no home showed more signs of cultural integration such as speaking more languages or moving more frequently than those whom felt grounded in a place to call home (26). The Correlations between Identity Formation and Number of Repatriations to Depression in which TCKs tend to be unable to adapt to their Home Culture After Returning from Abroad Grief entails any loss that manifests itself into a psychological-emotional experience (Meek). TCKs are faced with a quantity of losses both concrete and ambiguous spanning people, place, pets, possessions, concepts of home, safety, and stability (Gilbert 93; Kostohyrz et al. 321). Sometimes these losses may seem ambiguous as existential losses referring particularly to concepts that were tied to some aspect of the TCKs’ self-concept (Gilbert 93). Losses are especially difficult as it suggests grief over abstract concepts such as safety and trust, which have large effects on the changes in TCKs’ believed personal identities (Gilbert 93). VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 145
Disenfranchised grief is prominent among TCKs. Each TCK responds differently to the grief experienced and in their level of developmental maturity to handle this grief (95). This suggests that the ways in which adolescents express and cope with grief differ significantly from those of adults, putting them at risk of being misunderstood and feeling as though their grief is unacknowledged (Gilbert 95; Bushong). While adult grief may be marked by explicit mourning, children often internalize this grief by ‘shutting down’ emotionally due to the overwhelming feelings. There may also be negative societal stigmas that present themselves when the grieving TCK and the loss are not given social recognition (Gilbert 95). Typically, a generalization emerges that TCKs are living a luxurious life abroad as diplomats among exotic people and places, in which vacationing is their life. This dismisses the reality that we are all more alike than we believe (Greenholtz and Kim 397). Regardless of the country a TCK is in, they are still trying to make friends and ‘survive’ high school. Thus, the TCK frequently feels as though they need permission in order to grieve (Gilbert 95). When adults minimize this grief, it shatters the seriousness of this loss, causing the TCK to lose trust in expressing their emotions to adults (Gilbert 96; Gaw 83). This worsens as the TCK matures, as they are less willing to seek psychological help (Gaw). There remains a gap between the concept of willingness and actual use of psychological services to facilitate the transition (100). Therefore, the ways in which TCKs and adolescents cope with their grief and the ways in which society acknowledges this grief based on professional expertise through theories can become compounded in adulthood. In turn, it can reoccur into prolonged adolescence, an inability to be vulnerable with others general isolation from society, and the need to maintain this nomadic lifestyle (Gilbert 95). This mobility in itself is problematic as it forces the TCK’s psychological state to be in a constant state of motion (94). The process of assimilation is normal to a TCK, but despite this TCKs seem to be plagued by constant homesickness. This is paradoxical as they are yearning for a concept of home that they have never truly experienced. For example, they are likely missing a home in a country that they knew they could only spend three years in or the physical house from their childhood (106). TCKs must learn to define home in way that comforts them, otherwise they will relentlessly search for something outside of their reach (106). While the evidence supports the claim that TCKs experience substantial losses and grief, this does not automatically correlate with depression. Many of these symptoms can reignite in adulthood, inhibiting normal activities if left untreated manifesting into depression. A major depressive disorder is defined according to 146 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
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seven main criteria: persistent depressed mood extending for a long duration; loss of interest and pleasure in activities that used to bring the individual joy; weight loss; insomnia; restlessness; indecisiveness; and recurring thoughts of death (“Diagnostic”). In addition, it is difficult to distinguish between depression and depression caused by being a TCK.
CONCLUSION Identity formation and number of repatriations, in the context of depression, have large implications throughout a TCK’s life. Because a TCK is in the adolescent stage of development, they are particularly vulnerable to identity confusion. Additionally, the societal constructs of normativity, even those used to facilitate and rationalize the transition (e.g. W-Curve Theory, Terror Management Theory, and Transition-Identity Theory) exacerbate the need to find a position that is compatible with what is considered normal, valuable and ordered. This constant reinvention of self, suppression of emotional memories, and experience of loss and gain distinguish TCKs from others. This complex, interconnected web of variables often causes confusion for TCKs regarding their identity. Lena, from the case study performed by Greenholtz and Kim, focused on humanity’s collective similarities, rather than physical and situational differences. Despite coming from different backgrounds, countries, and traditional beliefs, it is in these differences themselves that we are unified, that we are all alone together. Because reverse culture shock is not limited to a significant event, these feelings of grief that are supposed to be temporary can continue throughout the TCK’s life, transforming into real psychological problems like a major depressive disorder in adulthood (Bushong). Bushong’s popular press article on her Mango Tree Blog explains that this often occurs as grief in TCKs that remains unresolved, typically because the same markers are not present as they would be in individuals whom have a family history of depression, or whom experience a traumatic life event (Bushong). This often causes the internationally mobile lifestyle of the TCK to seem irrelevant to the diagnosis which would intensify the feelings of despair as their losses persist in not being acknowledged (Bushong). Rather than rationalizing the losses, therapists must first allow the TCK to experience the grief in order to reduce the frequency of viewing all grief as negative instead of as process that allows for psychological resilience (Bushong). Therefore, it is critical that school psychologists and therapists recognize the need for programs of cultural awareness, holistic development, and reentry to facilitate the process of adjustment. The VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 147
focus should be shifted away from acquired losses and inadequate adaptations, and rather to enjoy the bittersweet experiences. By stressing the importance of individuality and uniqueness as advantageous, feelings of reverse culture shock can be reduced. This tends to happen because TCKs can dissociate themselves and their third culture away from both their home and host cultures. Ultimately, it is important to remember that this nomadic lifestyle is filled with as much grief and loss as happiness and growth. There are advantages to international mobility, such as more emotional investment in independence, knowledge, and time spent with family (Gerner et al. 200). In the end, “…people are people and we all want the same things in life” (Greenholtz and Kim 397).
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WRITING TO LEARN/LEARNING TO WRITE: SUPPORTING STUDENT RESEARCHERS WITH AN INNOVATIVE WRITING CURRICULUM by
MICHELLE LAFRANCE
Anderson, P., Anson, C. M., Fish, T., Gonyea, R. M., Marshal, M., Menefee-Libey, W., Paine, C., Blake, L.P. & Weaver, S. (2017). “How writing contributes to learning: new findings from a national study and their local application.” Peer Review: New Frontier in Writing 19(1). Retrieved May 7, 2018, from https://www.aacu.org/peerreview/2017/Winter/Anderson Anderson, P., Anson, C.M., Gonyea, R. M., & Paine, C. (2015). “The contributions of writing to learning and development: Results from a large-scale multi-institutional study.” Research in the Teaching of English 50, pp. 199–235. International Writing Across the Curriculum Association. (2014). “Statement of WAC principles and practices.” Retrieved May 7, 2018, from https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/principles/statement. pdf National Council of Teachers of English. “About the National Day on Writing.” Retrieved May 7, 2018, from http://www.ncte.org/dayonwriting/about Melzer, D. (2014). “The connected curriculum: designing a vertical transfer writing curriculum.” The WAC Journal, 25, pp. 78-91.
THE DEPICTION OF JUDITH BEHEADING HOLOFERNES AS A REFLECTION OF THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN SOCIETY by
GENEVIEVE KEILLOR
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A TRIPLE THREAT: CONNECTIONS AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BODY DYSMORPHIC DISORDER, OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDER, AND ANOREXIA NERVOSA by
ANNA GABRIELLE PATARINSKI
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BLOOD SOAKED FATIGUES AND CONTESTED MEMORY: FEMALE SERVICE AND REMEMBRANCE OF THE VIETNAM WAR by
THOMAS JAMES SPINO
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DEVELOPING MACHINES IN THE HUMAN IMAGE: SEARLE’S CHINESE ROOM ARGUMENT AND THE COMPUTATIONAL PERSPECTIVE OF UNDERSTANDING by
SARVAJNA KALVA
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THREATS IN 1960’S AMERICA by
RUTHANN CLAY
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Lyons, L. (2003, March 04). The Gallup Brain: Facing Fear in America. Retrieved December 08, 2017, from http://news.gallup.com/poll/7903/gallup-brain-facing-fear-america.aspx McVeigh, R., Cunningham, D., & Farrell, J. (2014). Political Polarization as a Social Movement Outcome: 1960s Klan Activism and Its Enduring Impact on Political Realignment in Southern Counties, 1960 to 2000. American Sociological Review, 79(6), 1144–1171. https:// doi.org/10.1177/0003122414555885 Merriam-Webster Dictionary: threat. (n.d). Retrieved November 26, 2017, from: https://www. merriam-webster.com/dictionary/threat (1968). Police. The Thin Blue Line, 92(3), 16–22. Riesman, D. (1969). The Lonely Crowd. Place of publication not identified: Yale UP. Riffkin, R. (2014, May 30). New Record Highs in Moral Acceptability. Retrieved July 06, 2017, from http://www.gallup.com/poll/170789/new-record-highs-moral-acceptability.aspx Rowan, M. (2012). Punishing from a Sense of Innocence: An Essay on Guilt, Innocence, and Punishment in America. Critical Criminology, 20(4), 377–394. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s10612-012-9155-2 Russia. (1961). TIME, 10, 26-30. Schlesinger, A. M. (1969). The Crisis of confidence: ideas, power and violence in America. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. London: A. Deutsch. Sullivan, D. (2016). Cultural-Existential Psychology The Role of Culture in Suffering and Threat. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316156605 The Hippies. (1967). TIME, 90(1), 18–22. TIME. (1960-1969). Trends in US Corrections. (2017, June). Retrieved December 2, 2017, from http:// sentencingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Trends-in-US-Corrections.pdf Tunner, J., Jr., Day, E., & Crask, M. (1989). Protection motivation theory. Journal of Business Research, 19(4), 267–276. https://doi.org/10.1016/0148-2963(89)90008-8
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DEATH OF THE FAIRY: HOW THE COTTINGLEY PHOTOGRAPHS ENDED THE REIGN OF THE VICTORIAN FAIRY by
ARYELLE YOUNG
Anderson, Douglas A. “Fairy Elements in British Literary Writings in the Decade Following the Cottingley Fairy Photographs Episode.” Mythlore, vol 32, no. 1, 2013, pp. 7-20. Accessed: 1 Nov. 2017. Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Coming of the Fairies. Vol. 1921, University of Nebraska Press, 2006. Heydt, Bruce. “The Adventure of the Cottingley Fairies.” British Heritage, May 2004, Accessed, 1 Nov. 2017, pp. 22–25. Owen, Alex. “‘Borderland Forms’: Arthur Conan Doyle, Albion’s Daughters, and the Politics of the Cottingley Fairies.” History Workshop, no. 38, 1994, pp. 48-85. Accessed: 1 Nov. 2017. Pazdziora, J. Patrick. “Cynical Mysticism: The Role of Fairies in Late-Victorian Esotericism.” Literature & Theology, vol. 31, no. 3, Sept. 2017, pp. 285-304. Accessed: 1 Nov. 2017. Purkiss, Diane. At the Bottom of the Garden, New York University Press, 2000. Susina, Jan. “Dealing with Victorian Fairies.” Review of Victorian Fairy Painting edited by Jane Martineau and Strange and Secret People: Fairies and Victorian Consciousness by Carol G. Silver. Children’s Literature, vol. 28, 2000, pp. 230-237. Accessed: 1 Nov. 2017. Talairach-vielmas, Laurence. “Beautiful Maidens, Hideous Suitors: Victorian Fairy Tales and the Process of Civilization.” Marvels & Tales, vol. 24, no. 2, 2010, pp. 272-296. Accessed: 6 Nov. 2017.
AGING POPULATIONS AND MILITARY SPENDING: TESTING THE GERIATRIC PEACE THEORY by
DANIELLE MELTON
Abell, J. 1994. “Military spending and income inequality.” Journal of Peace Research 31 (1): 35–43. http://www.jstor.org/stable/425581https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343394031001004 Goldstone, J. 2010. “The new population bomb: The four megatrends that will change the world.” Foreign Affairs 89 (1): 31–43. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20699781 Haas, M. L. 2007. “A geriatric peace? The future of US power in a world of aging populations.” International Security 32 (1): 112–47. Inoguchi, T. 2009. “Demographic change and Asian dynamics: Social and political implications.” Asian Economic Policy Review 4 (1): 142–57.
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A DISCUSSION OF DIAGNOSING AND HEALING SMALL STRESS FRACTURES IN ACTIVE INDIVIDUALS by
DANIELLE NICOLE MAYNARD
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Nutrition, 12, 45–51. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/. Malliaropoulos, N., Alaseirlis, D., Konstantinidis, G., Papalada, A., Tsifountoudis, I., Petras, K., & Maffulli, N. (2017). Therapeutic Ultrasound in Navicular Stress Injuries in Elite Track and Field Athletes. Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, 27(3), 278-282. doi:10.1097/ jsm.0000000000000356 Marcus, R., et al. (Oct. 2007). Osteoporosis. Burlington, MA: Elsevier Academic Press. Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. Osteocalcin, Serum. Retrieved from: www.mayomedicallaboratories.com/test-catalog/Clinical+and+Interpreti ve/80579. National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services . (Feb. 2017). Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Retrieved from: www. nibib.nih.gov/science-education/science-topics/magnetic-resonance-imaging-mri. Nye, N. S., Covey, C.J., Sheldon, L., Webber, B., Pawlak, M., Boden, B., & Beutler,A. (2016). Improving diagnostic accuracy and efficiency of suspected bone stress injuries: Algorithm and clinical prediction rule. Sports Health: A Multidisciplinary Approach. 278-83. Retrieved from: http://search.proquest.com.mutex.gmu.edu. Raggatt, L. J., Partridge, N. C. (25 May 2010). “Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms of Bone Remodeling” Journal of Biological Chemistry, American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Retrieved from: www.jbc.org/content/285/33/25103.full. Ramos, R.M. Lorente, et al. (Oct. 2012). Dual energy x-ray absorptimetry: Fundamentals, methodology, and clinical applications. Radiología (English Edition), 54. Retrieved from: www. elsevier.es/. Wheeless, Clifford R. (13 Sept. 2013). “Bone Remodeling.” Wheeless’ Textbook of Orthopaedics, Retrieved from: www.wheelessonline.com/ortho/bone_remodeling.
FREQUENCY OF INTERPERSONAL POLITICAL DELIBERATION AND POLITICAL IDEOLOGY by
QUINCEY SMITH
Alport, G. (1954). The nature of prejudice. New York: Addison Wesley. Brewer, M. B., & Miller, N. (1984). Beyond the contract hypothesis: Theoretical perspectives on desegregation. Groups in contact: The psychology of desegregation 281-301. Orlando, FL: Academic Press. Brown, R. (1996). Social Psychology. Cambridge, MA: Academic Press. Downs, A. (1957). An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York: Harper & Row.
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FACTORS THAT IMPACT REVERSE CULTURE SHOCK by
ENYA CALIBUSO
Bushong, Lois. “Depression and Third Culture Kids.” Intercultural Services Mango Tree Blog Lois Bushong. Brighter Vision, 17 Aug. 2014. Web. 25 Sept. 2016. Christofi, Victoria, and Charles L. Thompson. “You Cannot Go Home Again: A Phenomenological Investigation of Returning to the Sojourn Country After Studying Abroad.” Journal of Counseling and Development 85:1 (2007): 53-63. ProQuest. Web. 25 Sept. 2016. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-5. Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Association, 2013. Print. Feldman, Robert S. Development across the Life Span. 7th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/ Prentice Hall, 2006. Print. Gaw, Kevin F. “Reverse Culture Shock in Students Returning from Overseas.” International Journal of Intercultural Relations 24:1 (2000): 83-104. ScienceDirect. Web. 25 Sept. 2016. Gerner, Michael, Fred Perry, Mark A. Moselle, and Mike Archbold. “Characteristics of Internationally Mobile Adults.” Journal of School Psychology 30:2 (1992): 197-214. ScienceDirect. Web. 25 Sept. 2016. Gilbert, Kathleen R. “Loss and Grief Between and Among Cultures: The Experience of Third Culture Kids.” Sage Journals 16:2 (2008): 93-109. Sage Journals. Web. 28 Oct. 2016. <http:// icl.sagepub.com.mutex.gmu.edu/content/16/2/93.abstract>. Greenholtz, Joe, and Jean Kim. “The Cultural Hybridity of Lena: A Multi-Method Case Study of a Third Culture Kid.” International Journal of Intercultural Relations 33:5 (2009): 391-98. Science Direct Freedom Collection 2015. Web. 21 Sept. 2016. Gullahorn, John T., and Jeanne E. Gullahorn. “An Extension of the U-curve Hypothesis.” Journal
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FACULTY GUIDE GMR IN THE CLASSROOM The George Mason Review (GMR) provides prime examples of undergraduate scholarship that can be used to teach students about the characteristics of good research writing, inspire them to explore new ideas, and provide a sense of personal confidence that results from publishing their work for a campus-wide audience of peers and professors. Exposing students to the work of their counterparts can act as a mirror, reflecting undiscovered personal potential. Incorporating GMR into your classroom can take many forms: develop a lesson plan around analyzing one of our published works; utilize the concepts and ideas contained in these pages as a brainstorming tool for students unsure of what topic to explore; offer extra credit to students who submit their work for publication; or come up with your own innovative application.
MAKE GMR THE ASSIGNMENT Some professors have found success in raising student achievement by making submission to GMR a course requirement. Students who write with a wide and diverse potential audience in mind tend to put more thought into their work, leading to improved academic outcomes and higher levels of critical thinking. This is a valuable exercise in producing a paper that is accessible to those from varying backgrounds without comprising academic integrity. Knowledge that your work will be publicly available can be a powerful motivator, and publication in an academic journal is a great addition to any résumé or portfolio.
G E T T I N G S TA R T E D Mason’s INTO program, the English Department, and UNIV 100 classes already use GMR in a variety of ways. We would be happy to make a brief presentation to your class or meet with you one-on-one to create a tailored approach that complements your curriculum. GMR is available electronically via www.gmreview.gmu.edu To request hard copies, email us at gmreveiw@gmu.edu 166 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW
FACULTY GUIDE
N OT E F R O M T H E A DV I S O R The George Mason Review (GMR) began life as “an annual collection of English 101 and undergraduate writing” in 1992, publishing under the name GMU Freshman Review. That first edition’s introduction reveals the motivations of its creators as they sought to “create a sense of community by publishing work that reflects the cultural and academic quality of GMU’s undergraduate population.” Their clear intent was to present “models of writing” that could serve as a “learning tool that crosses the curriculum” for both faculty and students: “We want this anthology to help undergraduate writers with what seems to be one of their biggest difficulties — generating ideas and just getting started… When students know their work is being taken seriously beyond the classroom, they may very well aspire to a whole new set of standards and, with purpose and focus, aim at the highest quality possible in their writing… Instructors can find in the collection a sense of what to prepare themselves for and what kind of standards they should set for themselves and their classes… We hope that the essays are useful — whether you are ‘stuck’ [on an assignment] or an instructor looking to show your students how a research paper ‘works.’” Some 25 years later, our mission remains the same: seek out and publish exemplary undergraduate writing across the curriculum with the conviction that students grow as scholars by publishing their work for a campus-wide audience and faculty members gain a valuable classroom tool that can help improve academic outcomes. Since those early days as a freshman English anthology, GMR has evolved into a modern, peer-reviewed, undergraduate research journal that accepts scholarly submissions from all years and all majors. By exploring and challenging the boundaries separating disciplines from one other — the humanities from the sciences, the academic from the creative — The George Mason Review exists as a unique platform where scholarship, creativity, and critical thought can co-exist. Mason has experienced rapid evolution as an institution over the past several decades, but the lodestar that has guided us through each step (or leap) along the way is our shared commitment to academic excellence, meaningful innovation, and cutting-edge research. The George Mason Review embodies each of these noble pursuits while providing all Mason undergrads with opportunities and VOLUME 27 / 2017-2018 | 167
experiences that pave the way for greatness in the classroom and prepare them for successful careers in the future. I am extremely proud to serve the Mason community as the faculty advisor for GMR and continue the rich traditions established by that first cohort of educators who recognized the need for this type of forum and made it a reality. Participation is vital to our continued growth as an academic journal, so I strongly encourage all students to submit original work for publication and all faculty members to consider integrating GMR into their curriculum. Please feel free to reach out directly to me (jhartsel@gmu.edu) with any questions you may have, requests for extra copies of GMR, or with examples of how you have utilized our publication in the classroom. Reflecting on the history and evolution of this journal has only strengthened my belief in its value and purpose; I look forward to collaborating with the outstanding students, faculty, and staff of George Mason University to share the amazing things we accomplish together with the world.
Sincerely, Jason Hartsel Faculty Advisor
LARGEST CLASSROOM on CAMPUS the
Student Media offers Mason students the opportunity to directly apply academic skills in a hands-on environment, and we believe that faculty collaboration is integral to our mission of student success. Here are just a few of the ways faculty members can partner with Student Media: üS TUDIO RENTALS — Reserve one of our state-of-the-art radio studios for interviews or student projects (ISDN-equipped).
them to submit original work for credit. üS AMPLE CONTENT — Use content from one of our scholarly or literary journals as source material for readings or critiques. üC O-CURRICULAR COURSES — Refer s tudents to one of our six 1-credit courses offered through Mason’s Communication Department: C OMM C OMM C OMM C OMM
347 (Cable TV) 346 (Yearbook) 148/348 (Radio I & II) 145/345 (Newspaper I & II)
ü R ECOMMEND A STUDENT ü S ERVE AS A CONTEST JUDGE
üo nMASON.com — Utilize our free online blogging platform in the classroom for student portfolio projects or to post writing assignments for group discussion. üC LASS VISITS — Schedule a class visit so your students can learn about exciting media opportunities available to them. ü FOR-CREDIT OPTIONS — Help students earn internship credit through one of our 12 unique media groups or encourage
CONTACT US TO LEARN HOW YOU CAN BECOME A STUDENT MEDIA PARTNER:
703.993.9745 stumedia@gmu.edu The Hub Suite 1201 MS 2C5 4400 University Dr., Fairfax, VA 22030
st ude nt m e di a .gm u .e du