Transnational processes of stigmatization and criminalization of poverty associated to neoliberal models of development unfold locally in various modalities and intensities of depacification of everyday life. In this framework, this paper presents the case study of a well known spirit possession devotion in Venezuela, the cult of María Lionza, where the enormous symbolic, structural and repress...

During a session of the April 1999 Annual Conference of the Texas Distance Learning Association (TxDLA), the authors employed a case study of evaluating the Texas Woman's University distance education program to stimulate discussion among conference participants. This approach was highly successful, resulting in enthusiastic sharing of knowledge, concerns, and strategies related to evaluation o...

In a series of 387 children who claimed to remember a previous life phobias occurred in 14 1 (36%). The phobias nearly always corresponded to the mode of death in the life of the deceased person the child claimed to remember. They usually manifested between the ages of 2 and 5, and sometimes the child showed the phobia in early infancy before it had begun to speak about a previous life. The pho...

The Family Stories Workshop (FSW) is a process through which family members and friends of persons with dementing disorders living in nursing homes develop stories of these residents' lives. The stories are meant to help staff members to develop a better, more deeply felt understanding of the lives of the residents, persons who can no longer tell their own stories. The workshop is product-orien...

Objective: Persons who claim memory loss for the crime of which they are suspected represent a problem for the legal system. When such claims emerge, the court often relies on expert testimonies. Mental health professionals who act as experts in these cases often assume that the memory loss is caused by a combination of strong emotions and abundant substance use (e.g., alcohol). It is also comm...