Everyone knows that mentally ill patients who meet certain criteria can be committed involuntarily to psychiatric hospitals. But is outpatient commitment an idea with a future?

Make this a New Year’s resolution?

Helping Her Children Transcend the Intense, Unpredictable, and Volatile Relationship: This book, by Christine Ann Lawson, prompted my thinking when it appeared on another behavioral health practitioner‘s best-of-2007 list. In my own career, grappling with the borderline concept has been a crucial and controversial struggle. I am convinced that the borderline personality structure is a pervasive condition of our time and a hidden cause of much suffering. Ironically, there is a taboo more powerful than nearly any other against discussing it openly in mental health fields. This is because diagnosing someone with the disorder has come to be seen as pejorative and clinically useless. One esteemed American psychiatrist gave a talk to new trainees that was all the rage on the grand rounds circuits for awhile, titled something like “The Beginning of Wisdom: Stop Diagnosing Your Patients as Borderline.” I emphatically disagree, and give the name to the thing whenever I see it, often met with embarrassed silence from colleagues. I will not say they are always merely politically correct and wrong to be uncomfortable, but that is often the case.

A recurrent theme here in FmH, it is true, is the damage that incorrect diagnosis can cause, but let us not throw the baby out with the bathwater. The reason to be apprehensive when diagnosing someone with this seemingly pejorative term is that it is often done in a knee-jerk fashion, based only on our feeling averse or hateful toward a patient who paralyzes us with their neediness, offends us with their manipulativeness, and stings us with their rage. All of these are attributes of the borderline, and in the craft of mental health we must use ourselves as a diagnostic instrument and our reactions to people as evidence about them… but only if we are clear about what it is that they bring to an interaction and what it is that we bring. If we diagnose only on the basis of our gut-level reactions to a patient, we are always vulnerable to the possibility that our slips are showing — that we have revealed only our prejudices and foibles as human beings rather than using our best interpersonal skills as clinicians. We do the latter when we remember to diagnose and formulate our patients in a responsible and systematic way, employing but also transcending our gut-reactions.

Here are diagnostic criteria for the boderline personality disorder, from the ‘bible’ of psychiatric diagnostics, the DSM-IV of the American Psychiatric Association:

A pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects, and marked impulsivity beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:

(1) frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment. Note: Do not include suicidal or self-mutilating behavior covered in Criterion 5.

(2) a pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation.

(3) identity disturbance: markedly and persistently unstable self-image of sense of self

(4) impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging (e.g., spending, sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, binge eating). Note: Do not include suicidal or self-mutilating behavior covered in Criterion 5.

(5) recurrent suicidal behaviors, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behavior

(6) affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood (e.g., intense episodic dysphoria, irritability, or anxiety usually lasting a few hours and only rarely more than a few days)

(7) chronic feelings of emptiness

(8) inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger (e.g., frequent displays of temper, constant anger, recurrent physical fights)

(9) transient, stress-related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms

So why is the borderline concept important? Patients only come to our attention, and get diagnosed with the disorder, when their pathology is dramatically disturbing to themselves or those around them (usually when criterion 5, self-destructiveness, manifests itself). Modern psychiatric diagnostics are descriptive; they depend on observation of outward manifestations and behaviors, i.e. symptoms. There is a deeper, classical tradition in psychology and psychiatry of formulation, i.e. using the outward manifestations to understand a person’s inward dynamics, the forces that make them do business with the world as they do, the construction of their selves. The diagnostic criteria are only the outward manifestations of a core, damaged, way of being and interacting.

I am convinced that many are walking around with damaged selves in the manner the borderline concept gets at, and that that damage is intimately related to the conditions of modern life which facilitate exploitative, unempathic relationships between people — the erosion of personal freedom, the refinement of authoritarian control by the political and corporate forces dominating us, the atomization of family and community, the loss of contact with our personal and cultural heritages as well as our connection with the natural world and our biological selves, the lost arts of forgiveness and apology in modern life. I am convinced that the borderline way of being is at the root of the self-perpetuating cycle through which damage is done to children by narcissistic childrearing; that children raised that way, in turn, raise their own children in a similar way. This is a central means of understanding and explaining the pervasive and inexorable way in which the victim becomes the perpetrator and the crippling of the capacity for mutuality and empathy in modern relationships. The borderline construction of the self, conceptualized in this broader way, is in many ways at the root of modern violence. The brilliant but largely neglected psychological writer, Alice Miller, campaigned against the damage done by broken childrearing practices in a series of books several decades ago, epitomizing our understanding of these processes. Crucially, she recognized our failure to address these issues as a core betrayal of our children. Similarly, I recognize the political correctness that makes us reluctant to use the borderline concept a core betrayal of our patients.

There are additional reasons the borderline personality disorder diagnosis has been seen as inappropriate and politically incorrect. First, it is particularly susceptible to what we call “medical student syndrome”, in which an inexperienced or fledgling clinician reading a list of diagnostic criteria for a condition easily sees the disorder in themselves or those near and dear to them. Subjectivity needs to be tempered with sophistication to make this call responsibly and accurately. Indeed, the core narcissism of our society damages all our selves, so that there is something there to recognize. But it is complicated to understand the implications and subtleties of the borderline formulation.

Also, the borderline notion as commonly employed is gender-biased, rarely applied to men. It is important to recognize that the effects of narcissistic damage in raising boys manifests differently but no less profoundly. Formulating rather than diagnosing (understanding the inward construction of the self rather than how many descriptive criteria a patient meets) can help us to help our male patients as well.

Taking the effort to help my patients understand the borderline concept would in fact be little more than pejorative if it merely condemned them to going through life with a damaged self. Modern psychiatric medicine, focused almost exclusively on biological factors and quick fixes through pharmacology, offers temporary symptom amelioration at best to someone who is living with the implications of a borderline personality structure. I am not going to make this essay a treatise on borderline treatment, but suffice it to say that many of us who still understand the value of psychodynamic formulation and of healing patients through entering into longer-term instrumental relationships with them, talking with them, know that, with a concerted, informed and careful treatment approach, the borderline state is remediable. It is clear that there is decreasing support for this effort both from within the current paradigm of mental health care and, certainly, from the insurance carriers who manage care delivery through bestowing and withholding reimbursement in accordance with unfair and ill-informed notions of what is worth paying for. To my way of thinking, it is centrally important to my patients to help them to understand and forgive what was done to them and empower them to govern their own behavior differently. And centrally important to empower the current generation of therapists and social critics to continue to subvert the dominant paradigm.

This, my annual New Year’s post, is a tradition I started on FmH years ago:

I once ran across a January 1st Boston Globe article compiling folkloric beliefs about what to do, what to eat, etc. on New Year’s Day to bring good fortune for the year to come. I’ve regretted since — I usually think of it around once a year (grin) — not clipping out and saving the article. Especially since we’ve had children, I’m interested in enduring traditions that go beyond getting drunk [although some comment that this is a profound enactment of the interdigitation of chaos and order appropriate to the New Year’s celebration — FmH], watching the bowl games and making resolutions.

A web search brought me this, less elaborate than what I recall from the Globe but to the same point. It is weighted toward eating traditions, which is odd because, unlike most other major holidays, the celebration of New Year’s in 21st century America does not seem to be centered at all around thinking about what we eat (except in the sense of the traditional weight-loss resolutions!) and certainly not around a festive meal. But…

Traditionally, it was thought that one could affect the luck they would have throughout the coming year by what they did or ate on the first day of the year. For that reason, it has become common for folks to celebrate the first few minutes of a brand new year in the company of family and friends. Parties often last into the middle of the night after the ringing in of a new year. It was once believed that the first visitor on New Year’s Day would bring either good luck or bad luck the rest of the year. It was particularly lucky if that visitor happened to be a tall dark-haired man.

“Traditional New Year foods are also thought to bring luck. Many cultures believe that anything in the shape of a ring is good luck, because it symbolizes “coming full circle,” completing a year’s cycle. For that reason, the Dutch believe that eating donuts on New Year’s Day will bring good fortune.

“Many parts of the U.S. celebrate the new year by consuming black-eyed peas. These legumes are typically accompanied by either hog jowls or ham. Black-eyed peas and other legumes have been considered good luck in many cultures. The hog, and thus its meat, is considered lucky because it symbolizes prosperity. Cabbage is another ‘good luck’ vegetable that is consumed on New Year’s Day by many. Cabbage leaves are also considered a sign of prosperity, being representative of paper currency. In some regions, rice is a lucky food that is eaten on New Year’s Day.”

The further north one travels in the British Isles, the more the year-end festivities focus on New Year’s. The Scottish observance of Hogmanay has many elements of warming heart and hearth, welcoming strangers and making a good beginning:

“Three cornered biscuits called hogmanays are eaten. Other special foods are: wine, ginger cordial, cheese, bread, shortbread, oatcake, carol or carl cake, currant loaf, and a pastry called scones. After sunset people collect juniper and water to purify the home. Divining rituals are done according to the directions of the winds, which are assigned their own colors. First Footing:The first person who comes to the door on midnight New Year’s Eve should be a dark-haired or dark-complected man with gifts for luck. Seeing a cat, dog, woman, red-head or beggar is unlucky. The person brings a gift (handsel) of coal or whiskey to ensure prosperity in the New Year. Mummer’s Plays are also performed. The actors called the White Boys of Yule are all dressed in white, except for one dressed as the devil in black. It is bad luck to engage in marriage proposals, break glass, spin flax, sweep or carry out rubbish on New Year’s Eve.”

Here’s why we clink our glasses when we drink our New Year’s toasts, no matter where we are. Of course, sometimes the midnight cacophony is louder than just clinking glassware, to create a ‘devil-chasing din’.

In Georgia, eat black eyed peas and turnip greens on New Year’s Day for luck and prosperity in the year to come, supposedly because they symbolize coppers and currency. Hoppin’ John, a concoction of peas, onion, bacon and rice, is also a southern New Year’s tradition, as is wearing yellow to find true love (in Peru, yellow underwear, apparently!) or carrying silver for prosperity. In some instances, a dollar bill is thrown in with the other ingredients of the New Year’s meal to bring prosperity. In Greece, there is a traditional New Year’s Day sweetbread with a silver coin baked into it. All guests get a slice of the bread and whoever receives the slice with the coin is destined for good fortune for the year. At Italian tables, lentils, oranges and olives are served. The lentils, looking like coins, will bring prosperity; the oranges are for love; and the olives, symbolic of the wealth of the land, represent good fortune for the year to come.

A New Year’s meal in Norway also includes dried cod, “lutefisk.” The Pennsylvania Dutch make sure to include sauerkraut in their holiday meal, also for prosperity.

In Spain, you would cram twelve grapes in your mouth at midnight, one each time the clock chimed, for good luck for the twelve months to come. (If any of the grapes happens to be sour, the corresponding month will not be one of your most fortunate in the coming year.) The U. S. version of this custom, for some reason, involves standing on a chair as you pop the grapes. In Denmark, jumping off a chair at the stroke of midnight signifies leaping into the New Year. In Rio, you would be plunging into the sea en masse at midnight, wearing white and bearing offerings. In many northern hemisphere cities near bodies of water, they will have a tradition of people plunging into the cold water on New Year’s Day. The Coney Island Polar Bears Club in New York is the oldest cold-water swimming club in the United States. They have had groups of people enter the chilly surf since 1903.

Ecuadorian families make scarecrows stuffed with newspaper and firecrackers and place them outside their homes. The dummies represent misfortunes of the prior year, which are then burned in effigy at the stroke of midnight to forget the old year. Bolivian families make beautiful little wood or straw dolls to hang outside their homes on New Year’s Eve to bring good luck.

In China, homes are cleaned spotless to appease the Kitchen God, and papercuttings of red paper are hung in the windows to scare away evil spirits who might enter the house and bring misfortune. Large papier mache dragon heads with long fabric bodies are maneuvered through the streets during the Dragon Dance festival, and families open their front doors to let the dragon bring good luck into their homes. The Indian Diwali festival, welcoming in the autumnal season, also involves attracting good fortune with lights. Children make small clay lamps, dipas, thousands of which might adorn a given home. In Thailand, one pours fragrant water over the hands of elders on New Year’s Day to show them respect.

Elsewhere:

• a stack of pancakes for the New Year’s breakfast in France.
• banging on friends’ doors in Denmark to “smash in” the New Year, where it is also a good sign to find your doorstep heaped with broken dishes on New Year’s morning. Old dishes are saved all years to throw at your friends’ homes on New Year’s Eve.
• going in the front door and out the back door at midnight in Ireland.
• making sure the First Footer, the first person through your door in the New Year in Scotland, is a tall dark haired visitor.
• water out the window at midnight in Puerto Rico rids the home of evil spirits.
• cleanse your soul in Japan at the New Year by listening to a gong tolling 108 times, one for every sin
• it is Swiss good luck to let a drop of cream fall on the floor on New Year’s Day.
• Belgian farmers wish their animals a Happy New Year for blessings.
• In Germany and Austria, lead pouring” (das Bleigießen) is an old divining practice using molten lead like tea leaves. A small amount of lead is melted in a tablespoon (by holding a flame under the spoon) and then poured into a bowl or bucket of water. The resulting pattern is interpreted to predict the coming year. For instance, if the lead forms a ball (der Ball), that means luck will roll your way. The shape of an anchor (der Anker) means help in need. But a cross (das Kreuz) signifies death.
• “It’s a bit bizarre when you think about it. A short British cabaret sketch from the 1920s has become a German New Year’s tradition. Yet, although The 90th Birthday or Dinner for One is a famous cult classic in Germany and several other European countries, it is virtually unknown in the English-speaking world, including Britain, its birthplace.”

Some history; documentation of observance of the new year dates back at least 4000 years to the Babylonians, who also made the first new year’s resolutions (reportedly voews to return borrowed farm equipment were very popular), although their holiday was observed at the vernal equinox. The Babylonian festivities lasted eleven days, each day with its own particular mode of celebration. The traditional Persian Norouz festival of spring continues to be considered the advent of the new year among Persians, Kurds and other peoples throughout Central Asia, and dates back at least 3000 years, deeply rooted in Zooastrian traditions.Modern Bahá’í’s celebrate Norouz (“Naw Ruz”) as the end of a Nineteen Day Fast. Rosh Hashanah (“head of the year”), the Jewish New Year, the first day of the lunar month of Tishri, falls between September and early October. Muslim New Year is the first day of Muharram, and Chinese New Year falls between Jan. 10th and Feb. 19th of the Gregorian calendar.

The classical Roman New Year’s celebration was also in the spring although the calendar went out of synchrony with the sun. January 1st became the first day of the year by proclamation of the Roman Senate in 153 BC, reinforced even more strongly when Julius Caesar established what came to be known as the Julian calendar in 46 BC. The early Christian Church condemned new year’s festivities as pagan but created parallel festivities concurrently. New Year’s Day is still observed as the Feast of Christ’s Circumcision in some denominations. Church opposition to a new year’s observance reasserted itself during the Middle Ages, and Western nations have only celebrated January 1 as a holidy for about the last 400 years. The custom of New Year’s gift exchange among Druidic pagans in 7th century Flanders was deplored by Saint Eligius, who warned them, “[Do not] make vetulas, [little figures of the Old Woman], little deer or iotticos or set tables [for the house-elf] at night or exchange New Year gifts or supply superfluous drinks [another Yule custom].” (Wikipedia)

The tradition of the New Year’s Baby signifying the new year began with the Greek tradition of parading a baby in a basket during the Dionysian rites celebrating the annual rebirth of that god as a symbol of fertility. The baby was also a symbol of rebirth among early Egyptians. Again, the Church was forced to modify its denunciation of the practice as pagan because of the popularity of the rebirth symbolism, finally allowing its members to cellebrate the new year with a baby although assimilating it to a celebration of the birth of the baby Jesus. The addition of Father Time (the “Old Year”) wearing a sash across his chest withthe previous year on it, and the banner carried or worn by the New Year’s Baby, immigrated from Germany. Interestingly, January 1st is not a legal holiday in Israel, officially because of its historic origins as a Christian feast day.

Auld Lang Syne (literally ‘old long ago’ in the Scottish dialect) is sung or played at the stroke of midnight throughout the English-speaking world (although I prefer George Harrison’s “Ring Out the Old”). Versions of the song have been part of the New Year’s festivities since the 17th century but Robert Burns was inspired to compose a modern rendition, which was published after his death in 1796. (It took Guy Lombardo, however, to make it popular…)

Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?
And here’s a hand, my trusty friend
And gie’s a hand o’ thine
We’ll tak’ a cup o’ kindness yet
For auld lang syne

Here’s how to wish someone a Happy New Year around the world:

• Arabic: Kul ‘aam u antum salimoun
• Brazilian: Boas Festas e Feliz Ano Novo means “Good Parties and Happy New Year”
• Chinese: Chu Shen Tan
• Czechoslavakia: Scastny Novy Rok
• Dutch: Gullukkig Niuw Jaar
• Finnish: Onnellista Uutta Vuotta
• French: Bonne Annee
• German: Prosit Neujahr
• Greek: Eftecheezmaenos o Kaenooryos hronos
• Hebrew: L’Shannah Tovah Tikatevu
• Hindi: Niya Saa Moobaarak
• Irish (Gaelic): Bliain nua fe mhaise dhuit
• Italian: Buon Capodanno
• Khmer: Sua Sdei tfnam tmei
• Laotian: Sabai dee pee mai
• Polish: Szczesliwego Nowego Roku
• Portuguese: Feliz Ano Novo
• Russian: S Novim Godom
• Serbo-Croatian: Scecna nova godina
• Spanish: Feliz Ano Neuvo
• Prospero Ano Nuevo
• Turkish: Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun
• Vietnamese: Cung-Chuc Tan-Xuan

However you’re going to celebrate, my warmest wishes for the year to come… and eat hearty! [thanks to Bruce Umbaugh for research assistance]

This, my annual New Year’s post, is a tradition I started on FmH years ago:

I once ran across a January 1st Boston Globe article compiling folkloric beliefs about what to do, what to eat, etc. on New Year’s Day to bring good fortune for the year to come. I’ve regretted since — I usually think of it around once a year (grin) — not clipping out and saving the article. Especially since we’ve had children, I’m interested in enduring traditions that go beyond getting drunk [although some comment that this is a profound enactment of the interdigitation of chaos and order appropriate to the New Year’s celebration — FmH], watching the bowl games and making resolutions.

A web search brought me this, less elaborate than what I recall from the Globe but to the same point. It is weighted toward eating traditions, which is odd because, unlike most other major holidays, the celebration of New Year’s in 21st century America does not seem to be centered at all around thinking about what we eat (except in the sense of the traditional weight-loss resolutions!) and certainly not around a festive meal. But…

Traditionally, it was thought that one could affect the luck they would have throughout the coming year by what they did or ate on the first day of the year. For that reason, it has become common for folks to celebrate the first few minutes of a brand new year in the company of family and friends. Parties often last into the middle of the night after the ringing in of a new year. It was once believed that the first visitor on New Year’s Day would bring either good luck or bad luck the rest of the year. It was particularly lucky if that visitor happened to be a tall dark-haired man.

“Traditional New Year foods are also thought to bring luck. Many cultures believe that anything in the shape of a ring is good luck, because it symbolizes “coming full circle,” completing a year’s cycle. For that reason, the Dutch believe that eating donuts on New Year’s Day will bring good fortune.

“Many parts of the U.S. celebrate the new year by consuming black-eyed peas. These legumes are typically accompanied by either hog jowls or ham. Black-eyed peas and other legumes have been considered good luck in many cultures. The hog, and thus its meat, is considered lucky because it symbolizes prosperity. Cabbage is another ‘good luck’ vegetable that is consumed on New Year’s Day by many. Cabbage leaves are also considered a sign of prosperity, being representative of paper currency. In some regions, rice is a lucky food that is eaten on New Year’s Day.”

The further north one travels in the British Isles, the more the year-end festivities focus on New Year’s. The Scottish observance of Hogmanay has many elements of warming heart and hearth, welcoming strangers and making a good beginning:

“Three cornered biscuits called hogmanays are eaten. Other special foods are: wine, ginger cordial, cheese, bread, shortbread, oatcake, carol or carl cake, currant loaf, and a pastry called scones. After sunset people collect juniper and water to purify the home. Divining rituals are done according to the directions of the winds, which are assigned their own colors. First Footing:The first person who comes to the door on midnight New Year’s Eve should be a dark-haired or dark-complected man with gifts for luck. Seeing a cat, dog, woman, red-head or beggar is unlucky. The person brings a gift (handsel) of coal or whiskey to ensure prosperity in the New Year. Mummer’s Plays are also performed. The actors called the White Boys of Yule are all dressed in white, except for one dressed as the devil in black. It is bad luck to engage in marriage proposals, break glass, spin flax, sweep or carry out rubbish on New Year’s Eve.”

Here’s why we clink our glasses when we drink our New Year’s toasts, no matter where we are. Of course, sometimes the midnight cacophony is louder than just clinking glassware, to create a ‘devil-chasing din’.

In Georgia, eat black eyed peas and turnip greens on New Year’s Day for luck and prosperity in the year to come, supposedly because they symbolize coppers and currency. Hoppin’ John, a concoction of peas, onion, bacon and rice, is also a southern New Year’s tradition, as is wearing yellow to find true love (in Peru, yellow underwear, apparently!) or carrying silver for prosperity. In some instances, a dollar bill is thrown in with the other ingredients of the New Year’s meal to bring prosperity. In Greece, there is a traditional New Year’s Day sweetbread with a silver coin baked into it. All guests get a slice of the bread and whoever receives the slice with the coin is destined for good fortune for the year. At Italian tables, lentils, oranges and olives are served. The lentils, looking like coins, will bring prosperity; the oranges are for love; and the olives, symbolic of the wealth of the land, represent good fortune for the year to come.

A New Year’s meal in Norway also includes dried cod, “lutefisk.” The Pennsylvania Dutch make sure to include sauerkraut in their holiday meal, also for prosperity.

In Spain, you would cram twelve grapes in your mouth at midnight, one each time the clock chimed, for good luck for the twelve months to come. (If any of the grapes happens to be sour, the corresponding month will not be one of your most fortunate in the coming year.) The U. S. version of this custom, for some reason, involves standing on a chair as you pop the grapes. In Denmark, jumping off a chair at the stroke of midnight signifies leaping into the New Year. In Rio, you would be plunging into the sea en masse at midnight, wearing white and bearing offerings. In many northern hemisphere cities near bodies of water, they will have a tradition of people plunging into the cold water on New Year’s Day. The Coney Island Polar Bears Club in New York is the oldest cold-water swimming club in the United States. They have had groups of people enter the chilly surf since 1903.

Ecuadorian families make scarecrows stuffed with newspaper and firecrackers and place them outside their homes. The dummies represent misfortunes of the prior year, which are then burned in effigy at the stroke of midnight to forget the old year. Bolivian families make beautiful little wood or straw dolls to hang outside their homes on New Year’s Eve to bring good luck.

In China, homes are cleaned spotless to appease the Kitchen God, and papercuttings of red paper are hung in the windows to scare away evil spirits who might enter the house and bring misfortune. Large papier mache dragon heads with long fabric bodies are maneuvered through the streets during the Dragon Dance festival, and families open their front doors to let the dragon bring good luck into their homes. The Indian Diwali festival, welcoming in the autumnal season, also involves attracting good fortune with lights. Children make small clay lamps, dipas, thousands of which might adorn a given home. In Thailand, one pours fragrant water over the hands of elders on New Year’s Day to show them respect.

Elsewhere:

• a stack of pancakes for the New Year’s breakfast in France.
• banging on friends’ doors in Denmark to “smash in” the New Year, where it is also a good sign to find your doorstep heaped with broken dishes on New Year’s morning. Old dishes are saved all years to throw at your friends’ homes on New Year’s Eve.
• going in the front door and out the back door at midnight in Ireland.
• making sure the First Footer, the first person through your door in the New Year in Scotland, is a tall dark haired visitor.
• water out the window at midnight in Puerto Rico rids the home of evil spirits.
• cleanse your soul in Japan at the New Year by listening to a gong tolling 108 times, one for every sin
• it is Swiss good luck to let a drop of cream fall on the floor on New Year’s Day.
• Belgian farmers wish their animals a Happy New Year for blessings.
• In Germany and Austria, lead pouring” (das Bleigießen) is an old divining practice using molten lead like tea leaves. A small amount of lead is melted in a tablespoon (by holding a flame under the spoon) and then poured into a bowl or bucket of water. The resulting pattern is interpreted to predict the coming year. For instance, if the lead forms a ball (der Ball), that means luck will roll your way. The shape of an anchor (der Anker) means help in need. But a cross (das Kreuz) signifies death.
• “It’s a bit bizarre when you think about it. A short British cabaret sketch from the 1920s has become a German New Year’s tradition. Yet, although The 90th Birthday or Dinner for One is a famous cult classic in Germany and several other European countries, it is virtually unknown in the English-speaking world, including Britain, its birthplace.”

Some history; documentation of observance of the new year dates back at least 4000 years to the Babylonians, who also made the first new year’s resolutions (reportedly voews to return borrowed farm equipment were very popular), although their holiday was observed at the vernal equinox. The Babylonian festivities lasted eleven days, each day with its own particular mode of celebration. The traditional Persian Norouz festival of spring continues to be considered the advent of the new year among Persians, Kurds and other peoples throughout Central Asia, and dates back at least 3000 years, deeply rooted in Zooastrian traditions.Modern Bahá’í’s celebrate Norouz (“Naw Ruz”) as the end of a Nineteen Day Fast. Rosh Hashanah (“head of the year”), the Jewish New Year, the first day of the lunar month of Tishri, falls between September and early October. Muslim New Year is the first day of Muharram, and Chinese New Year falls between Jan. 10th and Feb. 19th of the Gregorian calendar.

The classical Roman New Year’s celebration was also in the spring although the calendar went out of synchrony with the sun. January 1st became the first day of the year by proclamation of the Roman Senate in 153 BC, reinforced even more strongly when Julius Caesar established what came to be known as the Julian calendar in 46 BC. The early Christian Church condemned new year’s festivities as pagan but created parallel festivities concurrently. New Year’s Day is still observed as the Feast of Christ’s Circumcision in some denominations. Church opposition to a new year’s observance reasserted itself during the Middle Ages, and Western nations have only celebrated January 1 as a holidy for about the last 400 years. The custom of New Year’s gift exchange among Druidic pagans in 7th century Flanders was deplored by Saint Eligius, who warned them, “[Do not] make vetulas, [little figures of the Old Woman], little deer or iotticos or set tables [for the house-elf] at night or exchange New Year gifts or supply superfluous drinks [another Yule custom].” (Wikipedia)

The tradition of the New Year’s Baby signifying the new year began with the Greek tradition of parading a baby in a basket during the Dionysian rites celebrating the annual rebirth of that god as a symbol of fertility. The baby was also a symbol of rebirth among early Egyptians. Again, the Church was forced to modify its denunciation of the practice as pagan because of the popularity of the rebirth symbolism, finally allowing its members to cellebrate the new year with a baby although assimilating it to a celebration of the birth of the baby Jesus. The addition of Father Time (the “Old Year”) wearing a sash across his chest withthe previous year on it, and the banner carried or worn by the New Year’s Baby, immigrated from Germany. Interestingly, January 1st is not a legal holiday in Israel, officially because of its historic origins as a Christian feast day.

Auld Lang Syne (literally ‘old long ago’ in the Scottish dialect) is sung or played at the stroke of midnight throughout the English-speaking world (although I prefer George Harrison’s “Ring Out the Old”). Versions of the song have been part of the New Year’s festivities since the 17th century but Robert Burns was inspired to compose a modern rendition, which was published after his death in 1796. (It took Guy Lombardo, however, to make it popular…)

Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?
And here’s a hand, my trusty friend
And gie’s a hand o’ thine
We’ll tak’ a cup o’ kindness yet
For auld lang syne

Here’s how to wish someone a Happy New Year around the world:

• Arabic: Kul ‘aam u antum salimoun
• Brazilian: Boas Festas e Feliz Ano Novo means “Good Parties and Happy New Year”
• Chinese: Chu Shen Tan
• Czechoslavakia: Scastny Novy Rok
• Dutch: Gullukkig Niuw Jaar
• Finnish: Onnellista Uutta Vuotta
• French: Bonne Annee
• German: Prosit Neujahr
• Greek: Eftecheezmaenos o Kaenooryos hronos
• Hebrew: L’Shannah Tovah Tikatevu
• Hindi: Niya Saa Moobaarak
• Irish (Gaelic): Bliain nua fe mhaise dhuit
• Italian: Buon Capodanno
• Khmer: Sua Sdei tfnam tmei
• Laotian: Sabai dee pee mai
• Polish: Szczesliwego Nowego Roku
• Portuguese: Feliz Ano Novo
• Russian: S Novim Godom
• Serbo-Croatian: Scecna nova godina
• Spanish: Feliz Ano Neuvo
• Prospero Ano Nuevo
• Turkish: Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun
• Vietnamese: Cung-Chuc Tan-Xuan

However you’re going to celebrate, my warmest wishes for the year to come… and eat hearty! [thanks to Bruce Umbaugh for research assistance]

Adapted from David Brake. These are the top 106 books most often marked as “unread” by LibraryThing’s users. Now, be honest. Bold what you have read, italicize those you started but couldn’t finish, strikethrough for books you have no desire to read, a question mark in front for books you never heard of and X in front of what you couldn’t stand. Add an asterisk to those you’ve read more than once. Underline those on your to-read list. Choose up to five favorites from among those you have read on the list and preface them with an exclamation point.

• Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
• Anna Karenina
• Crime and Punishment
• Catch-22
• One Hundred Years of Solitude
• Wuthering Heights
• The Silmarillion
• Life of Pi : a novel
• The Name of the Rose
• Don Quixote
• ! Moby Dick *
• ! Ulysses *
• The Odyssey
• Pride and Prejudice
• Jane Eyre
• A Tale of Two Cities *
• The Brothers Karamazov
• Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
• War and Peace
• Vanity Fair
• The Time Traveler’s Wife
• The Iliad
• Emma
• ? The Blind Assassin
• The Kite Runner
• Mrs. Dalloway
• Great Expectations
• American Gods
• Atlas Shrugged
• Reading Lolita in Tehran: a memoir in books
• Memoirs of a Geisha
• Middlesex
• ! Quicksilver
• Wicked: the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
• The Canterbury Tales
• ? The Historian: a novel
• A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
• Love in the Time of Cholera
• Brave New World
• The Fountainhead
• Foucault’s Pendulum
• Middlemarch
• Frankenstein
• The Count of Monte Cristo
• Dracula
• A Clockwork Orange
• Anansi Boys
• The Once and Future King
• The Grapes of Wrath
• The Poisonwood Bible: a novel
• 1984 *
• Angels & Demons
• The Inferno
• The Satanic Verses
• Sense and Sensibility
• The Picture of Dorian Gray
• ? Mansfield Park
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
• To the Lighthouse
• Tess of the D’Urbervilles
• Oliver Twist
• Gulliver’s Travels
• Les Misérables
• The Corrections
• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
• Dune
• The Prince
• The Sound and the Fury
• Angela’s Ashes : A Memoir
• The God of Small Things
• A People’s History of the United States: 1492-present
• Cryptonomicon
• Neverwhere
• A Confederacy of Dunces
• A Short History of Nearly Everything
• Dubliners
• The Unbearable Lightness of Being
• Beloved
• Slaughterhouse-Five
• The Scarlet Letter
• Eats, Shoots & Leaves
• The Mists of Avalon
• Oryx and Crake: a novel
• Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
• Cloud Atlas
• The Confusion
• Lolita
• Persuasion
• ? Northanger Abbey
• The Catcher in the Rye
• On the Road
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame
• Freakonomics: a Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
• ! Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
• The Aeneid
• Watership Down
• Gravity’s Rainbow
• The Hobbit
• White Teeth
• Treasure Island
• David Copperfield

Please place a comment below if you are spreading the meme onward by posting your list on your site.

Scroll down this 12/14/07 Lewiston Tribune front page to the photo of Michael Millhouse trimming some shop windows with Christmas cheer. Think he’s pleased to make the front page? Think again, since the Tribune also reproduced on that same front page (scroll down abit further) a surveillance photo of a man lifting a woman’s wallet from the counter of a convenience store earlier in the week. Too bad he was wearing the same coat, and that police noticed the similarity. Millhouse was nabbed for the crime… [.pdf via VSL]

“A very public feud between two philosophers involving damning book reviews, professional roastings and personal slights shows how bitter, unforgiving – and unwittingly hilarious – academic spats can be…” (Guardian.UK thanks to walker)

“…the year that media-savvy lunatics took over the asylum” (Salon)

“Investigators are trying to establish how a tiger escaped from its grotto at San Francisco Zoo and attacked three visitors, killing one.” (BBC) They don’t consider the possibility that the three young male victims had played a foolhardy part in letting the tiger out.

Please do not miss this, say the stargazers at Spaceweather.com: “Tonight, just after sunset, the full Moon and Mars will rise in the east less than 2o apart. These are the two brightest objects in the evening sky; hanging so close together, they’ll look absolutely dynamite. Bundle up and look…”

Please do not miss this, say the stargazers at Spaceweather.com: “Tonight, just after sunset, the full Moon and Mars will rise in the east less than 2o apart. These are the two brightest objects in the evening sky; hanging so close together, they’ll look absolutely dynamite. Bundle up and look…”

I wish I knew where some of these places were . I wish, at least, I was a friend of someone living in one of these places and got invited to visit…

…the following records destroyed in the 3rd floor fire: (Daily Kos)

(World Topix) thanks to walker

Sad news for the fantasist and his fans: “Folks,

I would have liked to keep this one quiet for a little while, but because of upcoming conventions and of course the need to keep my publishers informed, it seems to me unfair to withhold the news. I have been diagnosed with a very rare form of early
onset Alzheimer’s, which lay behind this year’s phantom ‘stroke’.

We are taking it fairly philosophically down here and possibly with a mild optimism. For now work is continuing on the completion of Nation and the basic notes are already being laid down for Unseen Academicals. All other things being equal, I
expect to meet most current and, as far as possible, future commitments but will discuss things with the various organisers. Frankly, I would prefer it if people kept things cheerful, because I think there’s time for at least a few more books yet :o)

— Terry Pratchett

PS I would just like to draw attention to everyone reading the above that this should be interpreted as ‘I am not dead’. I will, of course, be dead at some future point, as will everybody else. For me, this maybe further off than you think – it’s too soon to tell. I know it’s a very human thing to say ‘Is there anything I can do’, but in this case I would only entertain offers from very high-end experts in brain chemistry.”

Holiday season wishlists of web celebrities ranging from almost-prosaic to fancifully outlandish (“home-based Large Hadron Collider”). There are a couple of mentions of the Amazon Kindle (has anyone tried one?). (PopSci)

“Working in partnerships to ensure the global survival of amphibians, focusing on those that can not be safeguarded in nature. Amphibian Ark is possible due to your generous support..”

Throughout the practice of medicine, the paradigm of standardizing diagnosis — knowing how to recognize when different patients have the same disease process — has allowed standardized treatment by the protocols that have the best statistical evidence of success. But this standardized and evidence-based way of treating patients has been countered by the recognition that individuals differ in their responses to treatment for a variety of reasons. So standardization has begun to be counterbalanced by a new paradigm of personalized medicine, which attempts to further refine treatment choices by analyzing what individual factors in a patient are likely to influence treatment response (although by and large the managed care companies do not like the anecdotal and amorphous nature of the approach). There has been a growing recognition of ethnic, age-related, and gender-based distinctions in disease expression and treatment response. A large part of these individual differences is based in physiological distinctions based in genetic differences, so it is not surprising that the personalized medicine movement is fist-in-glove with the genomics mavens. But even the gene sherpas recognize that, for the foreseeable future, individual genetic testing will be a piecemeal, minor contribution to predicting disease risk and treatment response relative to the more simple and time-honored medical practice of taking a family history.

In the psychiatric field, where I practice, attention to personalizing care has, of course, always been a relatively more important counterbalance to the standardization paradigm that has infected the rest of medicine. One reason, which goes without saying, is that ethnic, cultural, gender, community and family cultural differences shape illness behavior and expectancies and beliefs about treatment responses. The art of psychiatry is in large measure parsing out and mobilizing such individual factors to maximize recovery and empowerment. And genetic/constitutional variables also shape psychiatric treatment response. If you read psychiatric evaluations, you find that the family history section of the write-up is generally more attended to than in other medical fields. Conclusions about what psychiatric disease the presenting symptoms might represent are often strongly shaped by what diagnoses blood relatives have been known to have. Some of us place great stock in factoring the responses of relatives to specific medications (antidepressants, antipsychotics etc.) in choosing which therapies to prescribe to our patients.

But the atomization of communities, attenuation of family structure and dispersal of relatives have crippled our access to and familiarity with our families’ medical histories. The emphasis physicians would like to place on such factors is often defeated by patients’ impoverished awareness of their families’ histories. Deliberate, often daunting, efforts on patients’ parts are necessary to counter this. I’ve seen suggestions that patients use holiday family gatherings as an opportunity to take a detailed health history from their relatives:

While the intention is good, however, the clinical emphasis may not exactly be in keeping with holiday cheer and the clinical interview not exactly one of the joys of the season. You may want to make a point of finding another time, soon, to query relatives about their health histories, especially elderly relatives whose wealth of information could soon be lost. This site from the Dept. of Health and Human Services outliens the Surgeon General’s Family History Initiative and provides online resources for information-gathering.

As we psychiatric practitioners also find when we encourage our patients to contact relatives for their health histories, these conversations are also beneficial in other ways. Nonspecific factors of renewal of contact with family members, facilitation of communication channels, and gaining a mutual appreciation of at least some dimensions of our relatives’ struggles with adversities, are good for the soul, and good for one’s health, in general.

Operation Clambake: “This is the cracked ban lists for the Scientology censorware software (aka ScenioSitter) – all thanks go to the guys at http://fravia.org/saruma1.htm who cracked CyberSitter – and Anti-Cult who found their page. ScenioSitter is still being analyzed by critics of the cult, new information will be added to this site.”

• List of sites and domains
• List of newsgroups
• List of words and names
• More forbidden words and names

Throughout the practice of medicine, the paradigm of standardizing diagnosis — knowing how to recognize when different patients have the same disease process — has allowed standardized treatment by the protocols that have the best statistical evidence of success. But this standardized and evidence-based way of treating patients has been countered by the recognition that individuals differ in their responses to treatment for a variety of reasons. So standardization has begun to be counterbalanced by a new paradigm of personalized medicine, which attempts to further refine treatment choices by analyzing what individual factors in a patient are likely to influence treatment response (although by and large the managed care companies do not like the anecdotal and amorphous nature of the approach). There has been a growing recognition of ethnic, age-related, and gender-based distinctions in disease expression and treatment response. A large part of these individual differences is based in physiological distinctions based in genetic differences, so it is not surprising that the personalized medicine movement is fist-in-glove with the genomics mavens. But even the gene sherpas recognize that, for the foreseeable future, individual genetic testing will be a piecemeal, minor contribution to predicting disease risk and treatment response relative to the more simple and time-honored medical practice of taking a family history.

In the psychiatric field, where I practice, attention to personalizing care has, of course, always been a relatively more important counterbalance to the standardization paradigm that has infected the rest of medicine. One reason, which goes without saying, is that ethnic, cultural, gender, community and family cultural differences shape illness behavior and expectancies and beliefs about treatment responses. The art of psychiatry is in large measure parsing out and mobilizing such individual factors to maximize recovery and empowerment. And genetic/constitutional variables also shape psychiatric treatment response. If you read psychiatric evaluations, you find that the family history section of the write-up is generally more attended to than in other medical fields. Conclusions about what psychiatric disease the presenting symptoms might represent are often strongly shaped by what diagnoses blood relatives have been known to have. Some of us place great stock in factoring the responses of relatives to specific medications (antidepressants, antipsychotics etc.) in choosing which therapies to prescribe to our patients.

But the atomization of communities, attenuation of family structure and dispersal of relatives have crippled our access to and familiarity with our families’ medical histories. The emphasis physicians would like to place on such factors is often defeated by patients’ impoverished awareness of their families’ histories. Deliberate, often daunting, efforts on patients’ parts are necessary to counter this. I’ve seen suggestions that patients use holiday family gatherings as an opportunity to take a detailed health history from their relatives:

While the intention is good, however, the clinical emphasis may not exactly be in keeping with holiday cheer and the clinical interview not exactly one of the joys of the season. You may want to make a point of finding another time, soon, to query relatives about their health histories, especially elderly relatives whose wealth of information could soon be lost. This site from the Dept. of Health and Human Services outliens the Surgeon General’s Family History Initiative and provides online resources for information-gathering.

As we psychiatric practitioners also find when we encourage our patients to contact relatives for their health histories, these conversations are also beneficial in other ways. Nonspecific factors of renewal of contact with family members, facilitation of communication channels, and gaining a mutual appreciation of at least some dimensions of our relatives’ struggles with adversities, are good for the soul, and good for one’s health, in general.

1949 bootleg donated to Guthrie family (Yahoo! News)

Bush has essentially asserted that he determines what is a constitutional exercise of his power, and that the Justice Dept. is bound by his interpretation.

“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross.” — Sinclair Lewis

“Photo-sharing for pictures taken where you are not allowed to take them.” [via boing boing]

Survival International is a worthy charity I support, which works to help indigenous peoples protect their land rights. Here is their report, Progress Can Kill. A press release highlights one horrendous pull-out fact, the dramatic spread of HIV/AIDS among tribal peoples from increased contact with ‘modernity.’

And here’s the part I find hard to believe:

I guess it depends on what your definition of ‘collect’ is.

Good things come to those who wait: “Most expensive ever Guinness advert features large-scale domino game… The advert was shot on location in a remote side village called Iruya, in the Salta region of northern Argentina, with a population of around 1,000 people.” (YouTube) Directed by Nicolai Fuglsig, who had previously created that wonderful Sony Bravia ‘Balls’ commercial.

from Bill Humphries’ More Like This Weblog. Like Humphries, I am very excited about the arrival of this film, from one of the fantasy series my family has most loved. But we are preparing to be disappointed by its Hollywoodization…

And:

More about Lisi’s work from The Economist.

Don’t read this unappetizing story until after you’ve digested your Thanksgiving meal. (CNN)

Living Walls, for gardening in small spaces. A gallery of designs by Patrick Blanc. (The Grow Spot)

Metapsychology review: “Cutting to the Core, edited by David Benatar, deals with ethical issues surrounding some of the most controversial surgeries in practice. Discussed are male circumcision and female genital cutting, sex assignment and reassignment, conjoined twin separation, limb and face transplantation, cosmetic surgery, and placebo surgery. The book is organized into six parts, each corresponding to one of these topics. As the editor mentions in his introduction, the aim of this collection was not to present an article for each side of the subjects (i.e., one ‘for’ and one ‘against’). Rather, the goal was to highlight the ethical issues involved with these surgeries by offering the reader various views of and approaches to these issues. Even when the authors’ conclusions agree, their approaches might not… ” It sounds like an interesting book, but I am surprised that it does not appear to include anything about surgical amputation for patients with apotemnophilia, about which I have written several times in FmH.

The New York Review of Books on three new books; the titles tell it all: The Loss of Sadness: How Psychiatry Transformed Normal Sorrow into Depressive Disorder by Allan V. Horwitz and Jerome C. Wakefield; Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness by Christopher Lane; and Let Them Eat Prozac: The Unhealthy Relationship Between the Pharmaceutical Industry and Depression by David Healy. Essayist Frederick Crewes concludes that we have here

The technician ‘forgot about her’, leaving the room after telling her to lie still. When she eventually extricated herself from the scanner, the office was closed and dark and she was locked in.

How you can help (via Boing Boing)

10 Brilliant Social Psychology Studies (PsyBlog)

The Concept of the Google-Ganger, that other person with your name you or others discover when your name is googled. (Newsweek).

‘Gelwan’ is a very rare surname and every Google reference to ‘Eliot Gelwan’ relates to this one. My grandfather and his sisters emigrated to the US early in the 20th century; my father and one childless brother were born in New York, so the only Gelwans closely related to me are my brother and my children (my wife keeps her own name).

I’ve discovered several other “Gelwans’ through Google. Perhaps uncannily, three others, all in the New York area, (a husband, wife, and brother) are physicians, like myself. I have been in e-contact with them and we cannot figure out any way in which we might be related. Probably we represent a case of convergent evolution — different names from Eastern Europe identically anglicized at Ellis Island.

There is also a Vladimir Gelwan, who used to be the principal dancer with the Latvian National Ballet and now has a ballet school in Berlin. I suspect he and I might be related, since my paternal ancestors are known to have come from Riga. And then there are the Brazilian and Lebanese Gelwans, as discovered by googling. I have written to Berlin, to Brazil and to Beirut, but have not gotten replies.

My father once told me that a Gelwan had once knocked on our door in New York when I was a young child, having come from Brazil and discovered us in a New York City phone book.

Since we have such an attenuated family, my perennial search for Gelwans online is I think motivated by a yearning for family connectivity — especially for my children’s sake — as much as the usual ego-driven pleasures of googling one’s name. Ah, well, for better or worse a fate you with more common names, or those where more geneological precision is possible, will never experience…

“Should you heart Huckabee?” (Salon News)

SETI Project has a protocol for first contact with extraterrestrials