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Culture

Interview with Art and Laraine Bennett, Authors of "The Temperament God Gave your Spouse" PDF
by Elizabeth Moncher, MS, MSW   

temperament.jpgIn your recent book “The Temperament God gave your Spouse” you review the four classic temperaments as a way of understanding how people naturally react; could you explain these and tell us how you came to be interested in this age-old concept in the present day?

 
We were introduced to the classic four temperaments (originally proposed by Hippocrates) by a priest who shared with us how temperament (the way we naturally tend to react to our environment) influences our spiritual lives; subsequently, we discovered that understanding temperament is not only a great way to get to know ourselves better (and therefore improve ourselves) but also it has a great bearing on our relationships—with God, with our spouse and with our children. Art discovered in his marriage counseling that many couples who came in for counseling were often arguing or fighting about a temperament issue!

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10/06/2008
 
What Consummates the Nuptial Bond and Why Homosexuals Cannot Marry PDF
by William E. May, Ph.D   
william_e_may.jpgMany same-sex couples ardently desire to have their unions recognized as true marriages. A substantial number of people in our society believe that this desire ought to be honored. They and same-sex couples with this desire also think that opposition to the public recognition of the marital character of their relationship is an unjust prejudice. They firmly believe that same-sex couples can live in a committed relationship and have a right to seal their commitment in marriage (e.g., Steven Macedo, "Sexuality and Liberty: Making Room for Nature and Traditions?" in Sex, Preference, and Family: Essays on Law and Nature, ed. David M. Estlund and Martha Nussbaum, New York: Oxford University Press, 1997, pp. 86-101). They emphasize that the actual capacity to generate children is not necessary for a valid marriage; after all, opponents of same-sex marriage acknowledge the validity of the marriages of men and women known to be sterile and incapable of having children. It seems that the principal reason why some oppose same-sex marriage is simply unreasonable prejudice.
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10/02/2008
 
Conduct Disorder Part II: The Impact of Peers, Institutions and Media Violence PDF
by Elizabeth Moncher, MS, MSW   

television_kids.jpgPart II Interview with Psychologist  P. Alex Mabe, Ph.D.

1.    Dr. Mabe, thank you for agreeing to provide a follow-up interview regarding your publication on the treatment of childhood conduct disorder. In the first interview, you described the essential features of Conduct Disorder as repetitive and persistent patterns of behavior in which the basic rights of others and major age-appropriate societal norms or rules are violated. Further you noted that a variety of factors represent risk factors, discussing the impact of biological, socio-cultural, and early life experiences. I would be interested in hearing what the research shows about the other factors you presented: peer experiences, social experiences in various institutions; and early exposure to violence on television or videogames?

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09/04/2008
 
Humanae Vitae and Making Babies PDF
by Dr. William E. May   
william_e_may.jpgJuly 25 1968 is the date of Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae, in which he affirmed: “there is an inseparable connection, willed by God and unable to be broken by man on his own initiative, between the two meanings of the conjugal act: the unitive meaning and the procreative meaning” (no.12).  This meaning is severed by contraception and also by the new modes of generating human life in the laboratory: artificial insemination by a donor (better expressed as “artificial insemination by a vendor”),(1) in vitro fertilization, cloning, and other artificial reproductive technologies (ARTs).
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08/08/2008
 
Conduct Disorder and Parent Management Training PDF
by P.Alex Mabe, Ph.D   
alex_mabe.jpgP. Alex Mabe received his doctoral degree in clinical psychology from Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida.  Currently, he is professor and Chief of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry and Health Behavior at the Medical College of Georgia. His publications include over 40 articles in the areas of clinical child and pediatric psychology.  Additionally, he has made numerous presentations at national and international professional meetings on topics related to children’s mental health, family and parent management training. Dr. Mabe is licensed as a psychologist in Georgia and South Carolina and has been providing clinical psychology services to children and their families in the Central Savannah River Area for over 25 years.

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08/08/2008
 
"Childless Europe,"Humanae Vitae, and Familiaris Consortio PDF
by Dr. William E. May   
childless.jpgThe Sunday, June 29, 2008 edition of The New York Times Magazine featured a very interesting and provocative essay by Richard Sharto entitled “Childless Europe: What happens to a continent when it stops making babies?” I believe that its publication, coming a few days before the beginning of July, 2008, a month marking the 40th anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s encyclical Humanae Vitae was providential.
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07/11/2008
 
Interview with Dr. Priscilla Coleman on Long-Term Effects of Abortion PDF
by Elizabeth Moncher, MS, MSW   
dr_coleman.jpgDr. Coleman is an Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Bowling Green State University.  A major concentration of her research has been the psychological outcomes among women who have experienced abortion.  Additional research has focused on mother-child interaction, attachment, and the development of competency beliefs across the transition to parenting.  She has published numerous articles in psychology and medical journals and has presented her research to national and international audiences.  She is also serving on the editorial board for a new international medical journal, Current Women’s Health Reviews.
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05/01/2008
 
Adolescent Dysphoria, Sexual Behavior and Spirituality PDF
by Elizabeth Moncher, MS, MSW   

josephson.JPGInterview with A. M. Josephson, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Children and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Louisville and CEO of the Bingham Child Guidance Center on Adolescent Dysphoria, Sexual Behaviors, the Role of Spirituality and Family Factors in our current Culture.
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04/03/2008
 
Sexual Addictions, Compulsions and Pornography in the Family and Society PDF
by Elizabeth Moncher M.S., M.S.W.   

a_bennett_sm.jpgInterview with Art A. Bennett, M.A., Director of Alpha Omega Clinic and Consultation Services and founder of its Unity Restored website for those seeking freedom from sex based addictions, compulsions and pornography.

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03/20/2008
 
Interview with Dr. Paul Vitz, author of "Faith of the Fatherless: The Psychology of Atheism" PDF
by Culture of Life   
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Culture of Life speaks with Dr. Paul Vitz, Professor and Senior Scholar at the Institute for the Psychological Sciences in Arlington, VA and author of the recent book, “Faith of the Fatherless: The Psychology of Atheism” on the role of fatherhood in faith, family and culture. 

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01/18/2008
 
Benedict and Islam: Much Deeper than the Deep Thinkers at the New York Times Can Imagine PDF
by Joe Capizzi, Ph.D.   
Today, just a few short days after the Pope’s speech in Regensburg, it seems all parties have run out of things to say.
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09/20/2006
 
Imagining Our Children into Non-Existence PDF
by Joe Capizzi, Ph.D.   
One of the consolations of the religious mindset is the release from the illusion that we can control our destinies. The release from this illusion, the believer knows, is also a relief from the pressures associated with our attempts to control our lives. Even the irreligious can come to learn this, and one of the best educations in the disillusionment of control is parenthood. Technology, however, increasingly saps parenthood of the capacity to teach this lesson. Just look at this article in the New York Times.
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09/06/2006
 
Society Gone Wild PDF
by Joe Capizzi, Ph.D.   

If you have ever found yourself up late at night staring at the television, you’ll likely be familiar with Joe Francis’s work. Joe Francis is the brains (?) behind “Girls Gone Wild,” that lovely, $40 million a year series of videotapes or DVDs that provide a historical record of the varieties of undergarments worn and removed by mostly drunken old girls and young women of the early twenty-first century.

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08/23/2006
 
What Keeps Me Up at Night PDF
by Joe Capizzi, Ph.D.   
The paragraphs have the nice measured tone of a University of Chicago law professor, but they are of the same cloth as the recent allegations that American politics is listing toward theocracy. There are many such accusations, with some of them now bloated to book-length. The most popular of these books is Kevin Phillips’ American Theocracy. These types of arguments have all kinds of built-in assumptions that the authors know better than to reveal. But if you reflect, or even merely linger, over the paragraphs above, you quickly can see how ludicrous the concerns are.
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07/27/2006
 
Meet the New Boss: Feminism and the Home PDF
by Joe Capizzi, Ph.D.   
Linda Hirshman is tired of women making the wrong choice when it comes to staying at home so now she's giving the orders.
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06/27/2006
 
Marriage's Demise Signals a Queasy Culture PDF
by Joe Capizzi, Ph.D.   
Gay marriage is wrong not because it threatens traditional marriage. Gay marriage is not a cause of social ills, but a consequence of social illness.
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06/08/2006
 
The Immigration Quandary: Balancing the Common Good With Common Decency PDF
by Joe Capizzi, Ph.D.   
Taking the Catholic perspective on the question of illegal immigration means acknowledging the complexity of the problem and recognizing that it can't be reduced to a simple slogan.
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05/18/2006
 
Dennett's Attack on Religion is Dismal Failure PDF
by Joe Capizzi, Ph.D.   
If there were a Index of prohibited books for dull tomes, Daniel Dennett's new big book of small ideas would be on the top.
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02/27/2006