Minding the Gap of “The Great Divide”

A review of the book by Joseph Stiglitz

In the wake of Occupy Wall Street and the anti-austerity protests in Spain, Greece, and elsewhere around the world, economic inequality has emerged as one of the more hotly debated issues in the public sphere. One of the more prominent voices in the discussion is economist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stiglitz" target="_blank" ...

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Economic Globalization and Mental Health

Individual suffering in social context

Economic globalization is much in the news these days, most recently as Congress debated President Obama’s proposal for a “free trade” agreement with the nations of the Pacific Rim. My impression is that few mental health professionals keep up with the details of economic globalization and its impact ...

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Faith in Marriage

Religion, heterosexuality, and the Obergefell decision

On June 26, 2015 the Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges added the United States to a growing list of nations that provide equal marriage rights to same-sex couples. In an impassioned majority opinion by Justice Anthony Kennedy, Obergefell overturned remaining state bans on marriage for same-sex couples and ...

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Another New Kind of Marriage

Has fiscal conservatism found a partner in gay rights?

On Friday, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a decision guaranteeing the right of same-sex couples to marry in every state in the nation. This landmark case concludes just as another marriage is crumbling: the marriage between anti-gay politics and fiscal conservatism.

Since the 1980s, ...

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Is marriage equality a conservative victory?

Obergefell and the Enduring Legacy of Family Values

Like many gay people, I found out about the Supreme Court’s ruling that same-sex marriage is a constitutional right through text messages from friends and family members. People from all across the country wrote or called to congratulate my husband and me, expressing optimism for what the court’s ...

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Syriza and the Public Sphere

Having been closely following the Greece events, I can’t remember a recent story, at least in the American and British papers, that does not describe Syriza in such terms as “adolescent,” “unserious,” “gamesmanship,” “jousting,” “inexperienced,” and “unprofessional.” One might think from reading the news that the Greek people are latency ...
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On the American Psychological Association and Torture

This morning’s New York Times summarizes the findings of a recently completed report containing the findings of a seven-month investigation by a team led by David Hoffman, a Chicago lawyer with the firm Sidley Austin, commissioned by the American Psychological Association (APA). This report (commonly referred to as the Hoffman Report) documents ...
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Democracy or Immaturity?

Interpretations of the Greek referendum in the Euro Zone

The referendum that Alexis Tsipras announced in the early hours of June 27, just days before the expiration of Greece’s rescue program, was from the very beginning a dangerous gamble with little chance of success. His main objective was to strengthen his position as far as his internal ...

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