Best 111 Paper Contest

April 18, 2021April 19, 2021

From Schools to Suffering: A Story of Intergenerational Trauma in the Native American Community

Sophia Wessel

ENGL 111 Best Paper Contest Winner, 2020

“Kill the Indian, save the man,” stated Captain Richard H. Pratt in 1892 at George Mason University (Bear 8). Pratt developed a concept to implant white Christian values into indigenous peoples at the expense of their own culture and values. He began with an experiment on the Native Americans at an Apache prison where he subjected them to authoritarian militaristic procedures (Lonetree 5). While some prisoners were traumatized to the point of suicide, most of the prisoners left the prison able to survive in white America. This experiment became the basis for Native American boarding schools where young children had their families, culture, language, and names stripped away from them.

Roger D. Herring, a psychologist and well known author, notes the immense diversity of Native Americans encompasses 252 languages and 280 tribes, and with them hundreds of different cultures. While each Native tribe has their own cultural values, the tribes majorly agree on; coherence with nature and others, current time orientation, narrative and hypothetical instruction, respect, anonymity, and unity (Herring 1). These values are vastly different from the capitalistic white America values which include: competitiveness, individualism, punctuality, justice, logic, and power (Kohut 14). These various values clashed with the Native Americans’ cultural values when they began schooling. Generations of children across various tribes of Native Americans were forced from their homes into the custody of the federal government and their coveted boarding schools.

One former student of the Native American boarding schools, Leo Lajimodiere, shared his story in “A Healing Journey” by Denise Lajimodiere. Leo Lajimodiere was placed into the care of a fellow tribal family after his mother passed away when he was two. In his household, where he remained until he was nine years old, he spoke only Cree, his Native language. While his foster family were able to raise Lagimodiere with the support of rations provided by the government, when the government threatened to take their rations away they were forced to surrender Lajimodiere.

Lajimodiere was placed onto a train with five other Native American children from his tribe, including his older sister, who he was separated from upon arrival at the school. When he tried to communicate with his sister on the train he recalls “the white matron traveling with us would slap me, shouting something at me I had no way of understanding” (Lajimodiere 6). Upon arrival at Chemawa Industrial School, Lajimodiere’s hair was cut deloused with kerosene, a type of gasoline. His living arrangements included a crowded dorm room where there were two children per bed. He recounts children dying in their sleep and stated that, “They died of loneliness” (Lajimodiere 6).

Lajimodiere recalled a time he was punished for gossiping that two staff members liked each other. The gauntlet was determined to be the suitable punishment for his actions. The gauntlet was a type of whipping where one fellow student would restrain the offender’s hands while another student would restrain the offender’s feet. The remaining students would then line up and whip the offender as hard as they could, if they were caught whipping gently they would have to replace the offender and receive the punishment. Lajidomiere passed out from the pain of the gauntlet punishment and woke up in the school’s infirmary, where he spent two weeks sleeping on his stomach while his back healed. Lajidomiere was fortunate to survive. He recalls another student who had died from the gauntlet punishment due to his kidneys rupturing. The commonness of Lajidomiere’s experiences at the Chemawa Industrial School is devastating among the Native American community.

Lagidomiere experienced the purpose of these schools, which was to convert the Native Americans from their “savage” ways into the capitalistic culture of white America. According to President Ulysses S. Grant’s “Peace Policy” of 1889, sending the Native American children to a boarding school was more economically beneficial than using military force to control them (Pember 25). The government would force the parents of the children to send them to school with the threat of losing their reparations. As the government had previously forced the Native Americans off of their land and sentenced them to live in destitute land where there were few animals to hunt and poor soil, they lived off of what the government could provide. By threatening to take away reparations, they necessitated the Native Americans to surrender their children in order to prevent starvation. Even through facing possible starvation, the Hopi Indians in Arizona continued to resist sending their children to the boarding school by hiding them. While multiple tribes chose to hide their children over surrendering them to the boarding schools, most conceded at the mention of starvation, however, the Hopi Indians continued to resist and 19 of their men became imprisoned at Alcatraz (Lonetree 8). While the government advocated for voluntary enrollment of Native American children, this clearly was not the case.

The Native American children were forced into an unfamiliar culture. The children were trained in a European American style. They were combated with learning English, being stipulated into European American gender roles, and learning European American history, religion, and cultural values (Schacht 5). Not only was their academic knowledge reconstructed upon arrival at the boarding schools, but their upbringing was as well. The children also were forced to heed to the European American style of child-rearing, which had a significant reliance on punishment (Schacht 5).

When an entire generation of Native children were forced into militaristic boarding schools at ages as young as five years old, the “parenting” these children endured remained as the parenting style these children understood. There are three separate forms of parenting; authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive. The authoritarian parenting style values obedience and uses punishment when children do not perform up to the parent’s expectations. A Japanese study published in 2013 found that, “…Both maternal and paternal authoritarian parenting styles worsened respondents’ later mental health, including symptomatic problems, risk to self and others, life functioning, and psychological well being” (Uji 2). While authoritarian parenting is common in most cultures, Native Americans traditionally raise their children using praise, which relates more closely to permissive parenting. When the children would do good things, such as helping with a fire or watching their elders, the children would be praised through stating that their child is a good child because of what they did, encouraging good behavior opposed to punishment for negative behaviors (BigFoot 310). This dramatic shift in parenting style conflicted with Native American cultural beliefs regarding families, believing that all children have “good seeds” in them, those seeds just need to be nurtured.

The mindset of fear and authoritarianism carried with the children past their times at the schools. Historical trauma is a term often used by scholars when describing the psychological effects on a group of people after a traumatic event attacking their culture but not directly impacting the individual. Historical trauma, “highlights the idea that the accumulation of collective stressors and trauma that began in the past may contribute to increased risk for negative health and social outcomes,” among descendents of initial trauma survivors (Bombay 2). Miriam Schacht, an English professor at the University of Wisconsin with a PhD in Native American literature, states “Upon release from the schools, survivors reported a legacy of alcohol and drug abuse problems, feelings of hopelessness, dependency, isolation, low self- esteem, suicide behaviours, prostitution, gambling, homelessness, sexual abuse, and violence” (Schacht 5).

William Wright, a Pattwin Indian and a former student of Stewart Indian school voiced his concerns at the mention of child-rearing. Wright said in an interview, “You grow up with discipline, but when you grow up and you have families, then what happens? If you’re my daughter and you leave your dress out, I’ll knock you through that wall. Why? Because I’m taught discipline” (Schacht 1). Wright’s mindset is a common mindset of former students of the Native American boarding schools, and when they continue this mindset towards their children, their children will have a similar mindset and pass it down to their children and their children’s children.

Another source of trauma for the students at the Native American boarding schools was the shame associated with Native American culture. The curriculum at the schools indoctrinated a subspecies mindset in the Native Americans in comparison to European Americans (Pember 26). This instilled a sense of shame associated with the Native American culture into the students. As the students were navigating the European American culture, they were often beaten for displaying any “Indian tendencies” (Pember 25). This included speaking their Native languages. If the students were caught speaking anything in Native American tongue, their mouths would be washed out with lyre soap (Pember 25). While some students retained fluency in their first language at the conclusion of their individual stays at the institutions, the former students continued to associate shame and humiliation with their language and culture, which prevented them from passing the knowledge to their own children resulting in a complete loss of language in many Native American tribes (Schacht 5).

After leaving the boarding schools, many Native Americans brought back with them a memento of their stay at the boarding schools, a number tattoo (Dawley 30). Upon arrival at the schools, the children were given a new European name and a number was tattooed on their left wrists to assist with identifying the students. While this helped to keep track of the Native American children who often forgot their European name upon first arrival at the schools, their skin was permanently marked with this identification tool for the rest of their lives.

The Native American schools were different from all other public schools, and the Native Americans were not permitted to go to any other schools. While the traditional public schools taught “white collar” skills such as arithmetic and grammar, the Native American schools taught “blue collar” skills, such as carpentry and housekeeping (Bear 11-12). This emphasizes the government’s goal of integrating the Native Americans into society for their own advantages, in order to build a coherent Protestant society while preventing Native Americans from surpassing their white counterparts.

Not only were the lessons in the boarding school constructed to make low level workers or the Native Americans, but the schools were devised to remove any remains of Native American culture from the children. The children were taken at young ages, some being admitted to the school as young as five years old (Pember 25). Most children came to the schools knowing little to no English and were forbidden from speaking their native languages, making communication virtually impossible. If the children were caught speaking in their native language they would be beaten or their mouths would be washed out with lyre, soap, or both (Pember 25). The schools would take everything from the children, from cultural artifacts such as beading, to cutting their hair, to giving them a new English name and a number opposed to their birth name. The number given to the children was often tattooed into their wrist to assist with identifying the children (Dawley 30). The children faced emotional, verbal, physical, and sexual abuse within the boarding schools by both the faculty of the schools and their peers. Perpetually, the children who faced the sexual abuse would not speak of it for they felt as though they were isolated and as though no other individuals faced similar incidents. However, all forms of abuse were exceptionally frequent within these institutions.

Along with the abuse the students face, it was not uncommon for them to die while at the schools. In one Native American boarding school, Hampton, one out of every eleven students died in the first 10 years the school was open (Schacht 6). Students frequently passed away from preventable diseases and starvation due to the lack of funding the schools received (Pember 1). While the schools became better funded after the tragedy of many Native American deaths, it does not rectify the lives that were lost.

Children were forced to perform hard labor in order to survive. Most of the Native American schools had dairy farms or agricultural farms that the students were expected to maintain in order to be fed. Even after the introduction of child labor laws in 1938, the children at the Native American schools retained their same duties.

Leo Lagimodiere learned carpentry from the boarding school he attended and used those skills to support himself and his future family. This however, came at no small cost. Upon return from the boarding school, Lagimodiere spoke only English and was accustomed to the rigid schedule of the boarding schools. No longer conforming with the tribe, Lagimodiere was sent back to boarding school, after which he enlisted in World War II. After the trauma that Lagimodiere went through, he drowned his sorrows in alcohol and became an abusive alcoholic. Lagiomodiere would beat his wife and children, of stating “I want to be a man, not a fucking Indian” (Lagimodiere 8). The despair Lagimodiere experienced his entire life was passed onto his children where his daughter, Denise, describes her suffering as “unresolved grieving” (Lagimodiere 1).

The Native American community has been continuously discriminated against since 1492 when Europeans came to America. Throughout history Europeans have pushed the indeginous people out of their land forcing them to locate further West until they reached the Pacific Ocean. Native Americans were then sentenced to barren land that the European Americans had no use for. Even after the Native Americans were separated from the European Americans, the European Americans wanted to exploit the Native Americans to enhance their society by forcing them into boarding schools. Now, Native Americans are discriminated against with higher rates of children placed into the care of Child Protective Services (CPS), higher rates of drug and alcohol abuse, and higher rates of poverty than European Americans as a result of the historical trauma they faced as a culture (Conan 7).

“Parental authority is hardly known or exercised among the Indians in this agency,” stated John S. Ward, a United States Indian Agent, in the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Secretary of the Interior in 1886 (Bear 13). This remains a common view point of some non-Native Americans due to the differences in Native American child rearing. Native Americans tend to believe that a community raises a child and Native Americans often rely on assistance from their tribes to raise their children.

While sometimes, Native Americans have their children taken from them under claims of neglect, most often the reason for it is due to the small amounts of toys and food Native Americans keep in their households. Often, for enjoyment and nourishment, Native Americans commune and play together in tribal buildings (Conan 7). Native Americans have the resources to raise their families, they simply do not keep them within their households. Nonetheless, people are not normally taught Native American culture nor about their child-rearing traditions, so social workers, who believe that they are helping the Native American children by removing them from supposed neglectful environments, are harming them by taking them from safe, healthy, loving homes (Graman 1). This mirrors the Native American boarding school. While previously, Native American children would be taken from their homes as a means of “education,” now they are taken from their homes as a means of “safety.” This is not to say that there are no Native American children in neglectful homes, simply that the cultural practices of Native Americans gives the illusion of neglect.

To illustrate the mass numbers of Native Americans in foster care; Native Americans account for 1% of the population of Idaho, yet account for 6.6% of the children in foster care. In Washington, Native Americans make up 2% of the population while 8.4% of the children in foster care are Native American (Graman 1). Due to the correlations between the Native American boarding schools and the American foster care system, legislatures introduced the Indian Welfare Act.

The purpose of the Indian Welfare act was to prevent the government from dismantling the tribe by stating the children who are removed from Native American homes must be placed with a relative or other member of the tribe (Conan 4). However, a 2005 government accountability report stated that 32 states were failing to abide by the rules of the Indian Welfare act (Conan 2). This is especially common in poorer states, where the Federal government reimburses costs spent on foster care at a higher rateb (Conan 4). Foster care boasts the economy in these less wealthy states as it provides jobs for its citizens, which encourages more children to be taken out of their homes.

While foster care is a troubling issue that Native Americans continue to face, other points of concern include the poverty rates among Native American communities. According to the 2007-2011 American Community Survey (ACS) 14.3% of the U.S. population’s income is below the poverty level while 27.0% of American Indians’ and Alaskan Natives’ incomes are below the poverty level (Macartney 1). There is a strong correlation between Native Americans who live on the reservations and Native Americans who live in poverty (Asante-Muhammad 2).

Not only are Native Americans more likely to live in poverty, but they are also more likely to commit suicide. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 14.0 people for every 100,000 commit suicide. The suicide rate for female Native Americans was 20.7 people for every 100,000 in 2017, while male Native Americans had a suicide rate of 58.1 for every 100,000 (Curtin 1). The pain and suffering that Native Americans faced as a community carried with their descendants leaving them with a lower quality of life.

The boarding schools, designed to remove Native American culture from Native Americans, were extremely effective. Their intention was to strip Native Americans of their culture and force them to conform to European American society. Now, Native Americans are left without their cultural identity. Burden by the generational trauma passed down from their ancestors, Native Americans struggle with higher rates of suicide, poverty, and abuse compared to Americans as a collective. Native also face discrimination due to cultural biases when in regards to employment, Child Protective Services, and the justice system.

The lack of cultural awareness of United States citizens regarding Native Americans is a shortcoming of the United States education system. It is necessary for secondary level students to be taught the cultural genocide that the United States committed against Native Americans so that future generations of United States citizens understand the devastation that Native Americans continue to face.

Works Cited

“American Indian Boarding Schools Haunt Many.” Morning Edition, narrated by Charla Bear, National Public Radio, 12 May 2008. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16516865.

Asante-Muhammad, Dedrick, et al. “Racial Wealth Snapshot: American Indians/Native Americans.” National Community Reinvestment Coalition, 18 Nov. 2019. https://ncrc.org/racial-wealth-snapshot-american-indians-native-americans/.

BigFoot, Delores and Beverly Funderburk. “Honoring Children, Making Relatives: The Cultural Translation of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy for American Indian and Alaska Native Families.” Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, vol. 43, no. 4, Informa UK Limited, Oct. 2011, pp. 309–18, doi:10.1080/02791072.2011.628924.

Bombay, Amy, et al. “The Intergenerational Effects of Indian Residential Schools: Implications for the Concept of Historical Trauma.” Transcultural Psychiatry, 24 September 2013, pp. 1-5. Sagepub, doi: 10.1177/1363461513503380.

Curtin, Sally, et al. “Suicide Rates for Females and Males by Race and Ethnicity: United States, 1999 and 2017.” June 2019, National Center for Health Statistics. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/suicide/rates_1999_2017.html .

Dawley, Martina. “Indian Boarding School Tattoos among Female American Indian Students (1960s -1970s): Phoenix Indian School, Santa Rosa Boarding School, Fort Wingate Boarding School.” 2009. University of Arizona. file:///C:/Users/swessel1/Downloads/Indian%20Tattoo%20article%20(1).pdf

Herring, Roger. “Understanding Native-American Values: Process and Content Concerns For Counselors.” Counseling & Values, vol. 34, no. 2, January 1990, DOI: 10.1002/j.2161-007X.1990.tb00918.x

“Improving Foster Care for Native American Kids.” Talk of Nation, narrated by Neal Conan, National Public Radio. 31 Oct. 2011. https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=OVIC&u=lom_lsuperiorsu&id=GALE%7CA271911409&v=2.1&it=r.

Kohut, Andrew, et al. “The American-Western European Values Gap.” Pew Research Center, https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2011/11/17/the-american-western-european-values-gap/

Lagimodiere, Denise. “A Healing Journey.” Wicazo Sa Review, vol. 27, no. 2, fall 2012, pp. 5-19, University of Minnesota Press, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/wicazosareview.27.2.0005

Lonetree, Amy. American Indian Boarding Schools: An Exploration of Global Ethnic & Cultural Cleansing. University of California, 2011.

Macartney, Suzanne, et al. “Poverty Rates for Selected Detailed Race & Hispanic Groups: 2007-2011.” 31 July 2018, US Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2013/acs/acsbr11-17.html.

Pember, Mary Annette. “A Painful Remembrance.” Diverse, fall 2007, pp. 25-27. Diverse Education, https://diverseeducation.com/?s=a+painful+remembrance.

Schacht, Miriam. “Games of Silence: Indian Boarding Schools in Louise Erdrich’s Novels.” Studies in American Indian Literatures, vol. 27, no. 2, summer 2015, pp. 1-3, https://search.proquest.com/printviewfile?accountid=27857.

Uji, Sakamoto. “The Impact of Authoritative, Authoritarian, and Permissive Parenting Styles on Children’s Later Mental Health in Japan: Focusing on Parent and Child Gender.” Journal of Child and Family Studies, vol. 23, no. 2, Springer Science and Business Media LLC, Feb. 2014, pp. 293–302, doi:10.1007/s10826-013-9740-3.

March 28, 2019March 28, 2019

Fixated on a Flower

Whitney Drenth

Globally, people consider the tradition of growing tulips just as deeply ingrained into Dutch culture as wooden shoes and windmills. While these brightly-colored, spring-blooming perennials are now commonplace in most gardens, these flowers were once only found in a narrow band in Central Asia. Tulips were first introduced to Western Europe when Conrad Gesner, a Swiss physician, delivered them from Constantinople in 1559 (Mackay 89). Due to their exotic nature, tulips became much sought after by the wealthy for their private admiration (Hirschey 12).

In the 1600s, Holland was experiencing a “golden age”. Several Dutch firms combined to create the Dutch East India Company, founded in 1621. The Dutch East India Company opened trade with the New World and western Africa. This company made the Netherlands into a major sea power; its dealings accounted for over half of Europe’s total shipping trade (Hirschey 11). The Dutch West India Company colonized New Netherland (present-day New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Delaware) and bought Manhattan Island from the Native Americans. Here they established New Amsterdam, later renamed New York City. The expansion of trade and widespread international influence made the Netherlands into a major commercial hub. The Dutch people had the highest standard of living in the world (Hirschey 12).

By 1634, the desire to own tulips spread to the middle and lower classes. Rather than owning the flowers for their beauty, these people were much more interested in accumulating the bulbs for resale and trading. With extra cash in their pockets, it is no wonder that Dutch citizens were so open to gamble on profit speculation when tulip prices began to rise. This triggered a speculative frenzy now known as “tulipmania”, where tulip bulb prices increased so drastically that they were treated as a form of currency. The historian Charles Mackay cites that tulip bulbs cost anywhere between 1,260 and 5,500 florins (94). Mark Hirschey, whose article appeared in the Financial Analysts Journal, expands on the price index put forward in Mackay’s work by converting it to the U.S. dollar equivalent in 1998. This shows that a single tulip bulb would cost between $17,430 and $76,085 (Hirschey 12).

The events of this tale have become legendary. Similar accounts are told time and time again within the media. In his book Famous First Bubbles: The Fundamentals of Early Manias, Peter Garber quotes the Sept. 26, 1976 Wall Street Journal article, which argues that “the ongoing frenzy in the gold market may be only an illusion of crowds, a modern repetition of the tulip-bulb craze” (qtd. in Garber). Garber also quotes the Financial Times, which claims that during the global financial crisis of October 1998 people acted just “like the seventeenth century tulip speculators” (qtd. in Garber). In a more recent article from Business Insider, the CEO of JPMorgan, Jamie Dimon, declares that the modern cryptocurrency, bitcoin, is “worse than tulip bulbs” (Oyedele par. 1). It is almost guaranteed that the story of “tulipmania” will be invoked whenever financial speculation is in question. Nonetheless, modern economic writers’ reliance on “tulipmania” as a rhetorical device to validate their argument about abnormal crowd behavior is misplaced. “Tulipmania” has become so synonymous with financial instability within literature that authors rarely conduct adequate academic research on the event itself.

The passage of time has made some of the common sources of “tulipmania” unreliable. The modern tale of “tulipmania” as it is told within the media has been largely taken from Charles Mackay’s book Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, which was originally published in 1841. Mackay’s account of “tulipmania” is brief; it is only nine pages long. Mackay asserts that tulip trading obsessed the Dutch so much that every other industry in the country was neglected. He describes how those unaware of the tulip bubble sometimes found themselves in awkward dilemmas caused by their lack of knowledge (Mackay 90-92). Despite how widely accepted Mackay’s account is within popular literature, modern researchers have now concluded that his description of the tulip bubble’s far-reaching and devastating effects may have been greatly exaggerated (Goldgar 5).

It is unfair to judge an old text with modern standards of recording academic information, as those standards did not exist when the text was written. Regardless, readers should take into account the text’s age when using Mackay’s book as a source. Mackay did not use citations of any kind within his book. In her book Tulipmania: Money, Honor, and Knowledge in the Dutch Golden Age, Anne Goldgar evaluated the possible sources Mackay may have used for researching and writing. She concluded that Mackay’s main source was Johann Beckmann. Beckmann was a financial speculation author with suspicious sources of his own. He relied on the works of Abraham Munting, a botanical writer whose father supposedly lost money in the tulip trade. However, Munting himself was no eyewitness. By the time Munting wrote his work in the 1670s, the Dutch were cognizant of how the expansion of trade, both with the trading of the Dutch East India Company and tulip trading, changed their culture, priorities, and society. In those days, “tulipmania” was viewed as a social and cultural crisis that demonstrated the Dutch citizens’ new propensity for greed rather than a financial crisis. In response, propagandists published pamphlet literature in order to paint “tulipmania” as a ridiculous oversight. These works reveal the Dutch citizen’s deep anxieties about the changes their society underwent due to the “golden age” and their desire to stop a similar event from happening in the future. Unfortunately, it is from these works that we get the modern picture of “tulipmania.” Munting cited Adriaen Roman’s Dialogue Between True-Mouth and Greedy-Goods, as if it were fact (Goldgar 5-6), which perhaps set off the downward spiral of inaccurate tulip bubble research.

These sources lead to the comedic anecdotal evidence Mackay provides in his book. Mackay uses stories of people unaware of the tulip trading, who in result found themselves in awkward dilemmas as a result of their ignorance, to show the “madness of crowds.” One such tale was a sailor who mistakenly ate a tulip bulb because he thought it was an onion. The entire town responded by hunting him down to punish him with imprisonment. These stories show the Dutch’s effort to make “tulipmaina” seem as ridiculous as possible (Mackay 92). They play into an exaggerated narrative that makes it seem like collective crowd madness is the only explanation as to why anyone would willingly pay a large sum of money for a single tulip bulb. During the years after the tulip bubble crash, there was a conscious effort made to erase the signs of market fundamentals that would have pointed to a reasonable explanation of “tulipmania” in an attempt to preserve the Dutch citizen’s perceived cultural values (Goldgar 5-6). Arguments built on anecdotes should be rejected as they cannot be used to establish cause and effect relationships for the events they describe. Anecdotes are usually stories of only a few people; they do not give proper representation of the entire population. Understanding the potential for fallacy when reading about this time, and understanding how these falsehoods were created intentionally, will help modern investors recognize that “tulipmania” is not as far removed from modern economics as they may think.

Even within more modern research done on “tulipmania,” there have been several instances of research articles based on incorrect theories. Much of the research done on “tulipmania” during the 1900s was backed by the Efficient Market Theory. This theory was a popularly accepted explanation of financial markets and reached its peak in the 1970s. Unfortunately, this theory does nothing to negate the idea of crowd madness. The Efficient Market Theory states that “the price of a holding accurately reflects all public knowledge”. In this hypothesis, economic bubbles are conveniently lumped under the term “anomalies” despite the prevalence of market volatility throughout history (Mohacsy and Lefer 456-457).

An example of the Efficient Market Theory in popular media can be seen in the Financial Times, which claimed that, like the tulip speculators, people rely on “continuous orderly markets” (qtd. in Garber 11). However, a look at markets throughout history proves that markets are hardly orderly. In addition to “tulipmania”, the Mississippi Bubble (a large-scale money printing operation in 1719-1720) and the South Sea Bubble (a debt-for equity swap in 1720) are some of the earliest examples of financial manipulations and economic instability found in history (Garber 13). More recently, the dot-com bubble in the 1990s, the American housing bubble in the early 2000s, and the current cryptocurrency bubble continue to prove how prevalent these kinds of crises are in economics. These examples point more towards continuously unorderly markets, rather than what the Efficient Market Theory suggests. In their article, Mohacsy and Lefer claim “market efficiency cannot quantify instinct and emotion, nor the sentiments that inspire behavior among crowds, that is, large groups of investors” (455-457). In other words, the volatility seen within markets proves that the Efficient Market Theory is false.

When describing “tulipmania”, as well as similar events where asset prices were at odds with economic expectations, it is common to hear the word “bubble”. A bubble in economics describes the phenomena of asset price movements that do not follow fundamentals. Garber claims that the term bubble displays researchers’ inability to explain why the asset’s price deviates from its intrinsic value. The term bubble lacks a strong operational definition. Palgrave’s Dictionary of Political Economy says that a bubble is any unsound market speculation (Garber 7). By these definitions, society has no knowledge that a bubble is occurring until it has “burst”. The word is an empty explanation that does not truly expend an effort into understanding the event it describes. Garber argues that more measurable economic explanations based on fundamentals should be exhausted before settling for such vague terms (8).

In response, modern academic finance has evolved to include behavioral finance when evaluating causes for financial instability. Behavioral finance differs from the Efficient Market Theory because it uses social sciences like psychology and sociology to examine the reasons for people’s choices with money. “Money and Sentiment: A Psychodynamic Approach to Behavioral Finance” makes the point that while “most investors regard themselves as investing rationally, few do” (Mohacsy and Lefer 455). People fall victim to the “Greater Fool Theory”, where they think there will be a “greater fool” that will pay more for their stock or possession than they did. This leads markets to reflect both people’s optimism and pessimism. Investors are described as reacting collectively, making the market a conglomeration of human sentiment (Mahascy and Lefer 456-458). Collective crowd optimism raises the prices people are willing to pay and collective crowd pessimism lowers them. Behavioral finance relies on the usage of feedback models based on the reactions of crowds within markets. One such model, the price-to-price feedback theory, is thought to be one of the oldest theories about behavioral finance. However, rather than appearing in scholarly journals, this theory is more often expressed in newspapers and magazines. The price-to-price feedback theory is also defined in Mackay’s account of “tulipmania”. Investors were described as following the crowd, herding like cattle to follow a leader without scouting the grass themselves. When they saw others leaving the market, they let their fears consume them and they left it as well (Shiller 91). Mackay credits the cause of the rise and drop in tulip prices to this phenomenon; “it was seen that somebody must lose fearfully in the end. As this conviction spread, prices fell, and never rose again” (Mackay 95).

While the shift from the Efficient Market Theory to behavior finance is effective when explaining modern events, the use of behavioral finance should be limited to such applications. Years after an event, psychological state of mind cannot be considered a measurable concept (Garber 4). With historical distance it is clear the tulip prices in 1630s Holland were severely inflated. It is easy to read into situations and make assumptions as to how and why an event happened the way it did. Mackay himself did not witness the tulip bubble, and while he may have made assumptions from what his limited sources reported, he really had no data to support his claim. This is not to say that behavioral finance should not be used in modern research as long as there is available and reliable evidence. The early bubbles, however, should be explained by the available data and supported by market fundamentals.

It is evident that writers’ reliance on Mackay’s propaganda-based work and articles based on the Efficient Market Theory results in an inaccurate picture of the tulip craze. That is not to say that gaining a clear understanding of the 17^th century tulip speculation is a lost cause. There are researchers who, straying away from the well-worn path of repeated propaganda, plagiarism, and inaccurate research, have presented new models for understanding the causes and effects of the tulip trade bubble. These models are more suited to explain “tulipmania” because they consider market volatility and are more measurable given the distance of time.

According to McClure and Thomas’ article, “Explaining the Timing of Tulipmania’s Boom and Bust: Historical Context, Sequestered Capital and Market Signals”, the answer to “tulipmania” comes from an understanding of tulips themselves. It was the flower’s extraordinary colors and variations that caused demand for them in the beginning. However, even when the wealthy first started purchasing tulips to grow their exotic collection, the trading was done in bulbs. The Dutch traded neither the flowers nor the seeds, even though they are obviously related to tulip bulbs. While during the fall and winter of 1636, a single tulip bulb could be traded for an Amsterdam townhouse, only for the prices to subsequently plunged in February 1637, the prices for tulip flowers and tulip seeds remained unchanged throughout the entire tulip bubble. McClure and Thomas believe that this point is crucial. The reason tulip bulbs were traded, rather than flowers and seeds, is that bulbs are an economically viable investment good. The continuously rising tulip bulb prices were not the only reason buyers assumed they would make a profit. Tulip speculators knew that buying tulip bulbs would generate future income because every bulb, if planted in the fall, would “produce two to three offset bulbs” that were accessible and sellable when they were “harvested the following summer” (McClure and Thomas 124). These offset bulbs would then grow their own underground offshoots when they were planted the following year. One could hardly expect a bouquet of tulips to reproduce into sellable and profitable goods, and while tulip seeds can be used to produce bulbs, they are much more delicate and take much longer to get returns on the investment. They are hardly good substitutes when considered both economically and horticulturally. (McClure and Thomas 125).

McClure and Thomas claim that it was this very act of the bulbs reproducing that led to the tulip market down fall. While people may wish for money to grow on trees, it is not rational for it to do so. This is especially true when it grows underground where no one can see it. McClure and Thomas apply the idea of sequestered capital “-capital whose quantities, usages and future yields are hidden from market participants-” to “tulipmania”. This hypothesis is well supported by weather and planting records from this time period. These records show that there is a correlation between the planting of the bulbs and tulip prices soaring the winter of 1636 and 1637. Planting the bulbs sequestered them from the traders as they were unable to see how many offsets were being produced. In result, throughout the fall and winter the tulip prices soared. Traders had no way of knowing how many tulip bulbs there would be in the spring, so pricing reflected this lack of knowledge. To aid in the tulip trading, being that all the tulips were under ground, market participants began buying and selling promissory contracts (promises of future delivery). These promissory contracts are thought to have shifted hands several times throughout the winter months. When the tulip sprouts finally emerged in February of 1637, revealing them to the traders again, it was seen that there were more sprouts than the traders had expected. McClure and Thomas assert that the tulip bulb burst because it was seen that the supply for tulips surpassed the demand, and the prices subsequently plummeted (McClure and Thomas 130-132).

Earl Thompson researched another explanation of “tulipmania”. In his article, he takes an in-depth look into the conversion of promissory contracts into option contracts at the end of “tulipmania.” An option contract gave the buyer the ability to back out of their agreement to pay the sum of money promised by paying a fee. For this reason, Thompson is adamant that “tulipmania” should not be considered a bubble at all, as the actual prices paid by tulip customers between November 30, 1636 and February 24, 1637 were around 3.5% of the amount agreed upon in their winter promissory contracts (Thompson 101). He assumes that the market participants would have been involved in the Dutch legislature’s decision and would have known while making their promissory contracts in the fall and winter that they would have the option to back out in the spring if the prices of tulips did not in fact rise enough for them to make a profit (Thompson 104). McClure and Thomas point out that Thompson bases his entire evidentiary case only on three transactions. In all three of these transactions, the promissory contracts were originally made with the knowledge that they could be discounted into options contracts (McClure and Thomas 135), therefore Thompson assumes that “all promissory contracts should be converted into options contracts” (Thompson 102). McClure and Thomas emphasize that there were too few transactions studied to give sufficient support of Thompson’s claim. They also point out the existence of several deals that directly contradict Thompson’s assumption. These deals show that the majority of contracts were made just as promissory contracts and were then converted into options contracts only after the February court decision. Buyers had no way of knowing that this would occur (McClure and Thomas 135).

Modern writers rely far too much on “tulipmania” as a rhetorical device for their financial arguments. “Tulipmania” may always be shrouded in the kind of mystery that only the distance of time can provide. So much has been written about this event, and so much of what has been written is wrong, that the actual progression of this event may have been so sullied by inaccurate interpretations that it is unlikely researchers will ever discover the truth. However, stories of “tulipmania” will continue to circulate. While the Dutch are no longer willing to pay a fortune for a single bulb, their love for tulips is still very present. The Keukenhof Gardens in Lisse, South Holland, Netherlands, is home to the largest tulip garden in the world, demonstrating how deeply ingrained the tradition of growing tulips is to Dutch culture (“Tulpomania.” par. 1). Tulips still garner much attention from Dutch descendants even outside of the Netherlands. Holland, Michigan’s Tulip Time sees more than 500,000 visitors per year and has a $43 million economic impact on the area (Bondie par. 1). The importance of tulips to the Dutch, both in the past and present, does not condone the distorted version of “tulipmania” that still circulates in modern media. Bubbles like “tulipmania” should not be portrayed as if they were spawned by abnormal crowd behavior. Rather, writers should use more economic-based, modern approaches based on available and trustworthy data to analyze and explain “tulipmania.” With historical distance it is easy to look back on tulip prices in 1630s Holland and realize they were severely inflated. However, it is less easy for people, investors or otherwise, to realize the same about their own investing and spending. This new understanding of “tulipmania” will serve as a warning to not be tempted by immediate rewards.

Works Cited

Bondie, Cassandra. “Report: Tulip Time Pulls in $48M Annually for Area.” Holland Sentinel, 19 Oct. 2018, https://www.hollandsentinel.com/news/20181019/report-tulip-time-pulls-in-48m-annually-for-area.

Garber, Peter. Famous First Bubbles: The Fundamentals of Early Manias. The MIT Press, 2000.

Goldgar, Anne. Tulipmania: Money, Honor, and Knowledge in the Dutch Golden Age. The University of Chicago Press, 2007.

Hirschey, Mark. “How Much is a Tulip Worth?” Financial Analysts Journal, vol. 54, no. 4, Jul./Aug. 1998, pp. 11-17. ProQuest, https://proxy.lssu.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/219175910?accountid=27857.

Mackay, Charles. “The Tulipomania.” Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. L.C. Page & Company, 2^nd ed., 1967, pp. 89-97.

McClure, James, and David Thomas. “Explaining the Timing of Tulipmania’s Boom and Bust: Historical Context, Sequestered Capital, and Market Signals.” Financial History Review, vol. 24, no. 2, Aug. 2017, pp. 121-141. ProQuest, doi: 10.1017/S0968565017000154.

Mohacsy, Ildiko, and Heidi Lefer. “Money and Sentiment: A Psychodynamic Approach to Behavioral Finance.” Journal of The American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry, vol. 35, no. 3, Aug. 2007, pp. 455-475. ProQuest, https://proxy.lssu.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/198179437?accountid=27857.

Oyedele, Akin. “Jamie Dimon: Bitcoin is a Fraud That’s Worse Than Tulip Bulbs.’” Business Insider, 12 Sept. 2017, https://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-price-worse-than-tulip-bulbs-2017-9?utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=referral.

Shiller, Robert. “From Efficient Markets Theory to Behavioral Finance.” The Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol. 17, no. 1, Winter 2003, pp. 83-104. ProQuest, https://proxy.lssu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lssu.edu/docview/212069631?accountid=27857.

“Tulpomania.” Keukenhof Holland, https://keukenhof.nl/en/discover-the-park/tulpomania, 5 Nov. 2018.

Thompson, Earl. “The Tulipmania: Fact or Artifact?” Public Choice, vol. 130, no. 1-2, Jan 2007, pp. 99-114. ProQuest, doi:10.1007/s11127-006-9074-4.

April 13, 2018April 5, 2019

Innocence Lost: The Sexualization of Minors

Nicole Arkens

In today’s technology-based world, with countless advertisements and media platforms, it does not take long for one to find an example of the sexualization of minors. While sexualization has many implications and a broad meaning, throughout this paper it shall be defined as “the imposition of adult sexuality on to children and young people before they are capable of dealing with it, mentally, emotionally, or physically” (Papadopoulos, 2010, p. 23). TV shows like Toddlers and Tiaras popularize the sexualization of minors and normalize behaviors considered intolerable in the past. This problem, coined the “Lolita Effect,” has been an issue for many years but has become increasingly evident with today’s media and technology (Durham, 2008). The growing popularity of such technology and social media platforms is prevalent in children and adolescents, so it can be inferred that they are increasingly being exposed to the sexualization and objectification of other minors.

Sexualization and objectification have been found to negatively impact and affect children in various ways. Objectification is quite related to sexualization; for the purpose of this paper, it shall refer to being “made into a thing for others’ sexual use, rather than seen as a person” (American Psychological Association [APA], 2007a, p. 1). Objectification has various impacts. One such result is body surveillance, or the “constant monitoring of personal appearance,” which leads to several mental health issues (Papadopoulos, 2010, p. 28). Yet another consequence of sexualizing minors is age compression. Age compression, or “marketing products meant for an older audience towards a younger crowd,” is also featured across advertisements and various media, as well as products being sold to all ages (APA, 2007b, p. 5).

No responsible person wants our society to follow a path that leads to increased extreme sexualization or an increase in sexual violence. It is imperative to stop the damage sexualization has on our children and society. The advertising world and every media outlet needs to immediately halt the emphasis of non-existent sexual features of children. Many contributions
may be unintentional; therefore education is the only way to learn how to prevent this. Any individual concerned with the well-being of children should be interested in this study’s efforts, as its findings heavily influence children and their psychological, mental, and physical development. By growing aware of, and developing an understanding of, the sexualization and objectification of minors, society as a whole can mitigate the impacts these influences have on
children and their development.

Due to today’s technology, marketing techniques, and culture, the ongoing battle to preserve our children’s innocence against the constant standards set and examples of sexualization they are exposed to should have a greater concern. Minors’ exposure to sexualization, and the negative impacts that result, are increasing. The issue of the sexualization of minors did not just begin; history and societal acceptance has led to the current climate in which young people find themselves. With modern technology and media outlets, children’s exposure to the sexualization of minors, and sexual content in general, has increased. Sexualization has had detrimental effects on children, ranging from psychological to physical. Not only significant to young girls, men and women of all ages and society as a whole are also affected by these phenomena. Society’s current culture markets sexualized products, such as clothing, to younger and younger customers. These minors want to look more mature to gain power, yet older customers seek to extend youth to maintain attractiveness. This age compression results in blurred age groups; young girls are seen and forced to accept themselves as sexual objects. Another attributing factor to this issue is the advancements in technology and technology’s continuous growth in popularity. As a result, children are exposed to sexualization for which they are not developmentally prepared. This exposure can lead to negative impacts on their development and relationships. Due to these consequences, society should change the current trend with proactive actions. Our culture, current technology, advertising and marketing techniques, and society can all be attributed with this issue. However, by engaging in any of the solutions outlined in several of my sources, the negative impacts of sexualization on children can be minimized.

Technology in media and advertising has shown an increase of sexualized content in general, and especially in children. However, the issue of sexualization of minors has a long history of societal acceptance. Research indicates how the culture evolved into what it has become today. Advertising and marketing researchers have studied sex in these fields since the 1960s. The depiction of sexualized girls was found to increase significantly over time, where girls often appear with sexualized adult women and are posed seductively or in matching clothing.

This age compression is driven by the evolving fashion industry and young girls’ desire to gain power and move up the age prestige ladder. This is not new; more than three decades ago, Unger argued that physical beauty can translate into power for girls. It could be argued that the “final frontier in the fashion world” is the sexualization of children due to younger audiences
yearning for the power promised through sexualization, objectification, and age compression (Cook & Kaiser, 2004, p. 207).

Brumberg’s 1997 study on girls’ diaries revealed a change in girls’ perceptions and goals regarding self-improvement. In earlier eras, young women focused on the improvement of their studies and etiquette. In the last 20 years, girls almost exclusively described changes to their bodies and the enhancement of their physical appearance as the focus of their self-improvement (APA, 2007a, p. 17). This echoes the increase of women viewing themselves as sexual objects, with their main goal of being desirable to men and to sexualize and objectify themselves. With today’s technology, media outlets, and other influences, children have been increasingly exposed to sexual content. Unfortunately, this content includes the sexualization of minors. Children and adolescents spend more time with entertainment media than they do with any other activity, except school and sleeping (APA, 2007a, p. 3). Technological advances also lead to sexualization that had not existed in earlier years. Sexting, social media profiles, online dating, and communication apps are all evidence to this evolution.

Sexual comments and jokes are more prevalent in modern movies and TV shows than those of the past. It is now more likely to see women sexually assaulted, exposed to violence, or used and seen as a sexual object. In addition, over the past thirty years, the sexualization of minors has also shown a significant increase (Papadopoulos, 2010, p. 7). Even in areas of our culture with seemingly no relation to sex, trends have indicated increases in sexualization and objectification. A prevalent example of this would be in the world of sports and athletic competitions. Female athletes should be given the freedom to focus on their sports and nonsexual goals, rather than worry about how their bodies are perceived and if they look desirable.

Areas that were once held innocent by society have now evolved into yet another threat for sexualization to pervade children’s lives. Corruption of characters from our past and the creation of new characters have shown that nothing is safe from sexualization. “Disney female characters today have more cleavage, fewer clothes, and are depicted as “sexier” than those of yesteryear” (APA, 2007a, p. 7). Classics like Cinderella are now depicted in lingerie online. Children’s toys and cartoons have become more sexualized. An example is the evolution from vintage dolls, to Barbie dolls, to Bratz. Dolls are no longer toys, but rather are tools for the progression of sexualization to influence our children. Halloween costumes are no longer cute or scary, but have evolved into provocative outfits that emphasize physical attributes and nonexistent sexual features. The association of sexuality in all aspects has slowly left society with the impression that it is acceptable to impose sexualization onto children by bringing “attention to sexual features they do not yet have” (Papadopoulos, 2010, p. 7).

With today’s marketing techniques of sexualized products to younger and younger customers, the problem of age compression arises. By selling young children products, such as risqué Halloween costumes, lingerie, and heels, it becomes easier to view them as sexual objects. Children, especially adolescent girls, are eager to dress like an older age group to attempt to appear more mature. For example, cosmetics have been marketed to younger audiences as the years go by. Companies advertise makeup, perfumes, and personal hygiene products, along with fashion, to their anticipated market base of preteens and teens (APA, 2007a, p. 1).

With these sexualized products now available, sex is often used as a rite of passage for minors. Teen artists exploit their sexuality to establish a more mature “edgier” version of their former selves as they become adult musicians. These transformations, like Miley Cyrus, drive home the point that being a sexual object is the way to be perceived as mature and successful in the music industry. This belief also translates across different aspects in life, such as workplace and education. Parents find it difficult to stop their children from the desire to undergo their own transformations to transition into adulthood through sexualized products (Bragg, Buckingham, Russell, & Willett, 2011, p. 284).

At the same time, adults struggle to maintain youthful appearances. This age compression results in blurred age groups, and it grows more difficult each year to determine an individual’s age. Young children are seen and led to accept themselves as sexual objects. By viewing themselves as merely things for others’ pleasure, this age compression can lower children’s self-worth. Accomplishing this phenomenon is not a difficult task, as sexualized clothing and other products are now marketed to younger patrons. Some products that were once meant for an adult-only audience are now worn proudly by minors. Once considered unthinkable, it is no longer unusual for minors to dress in sexualized clothing.

As explained by Cook and Kaiser (2004), young girls are eager to buy these sexualized clothes to obtain the more mature look featured in advertisements and go up the “age prestige ladder” (p. 206). Young girls want to look more mature since they see this portrayed as an idealized value with premature sexualization in the media. At the same time, older women want to maintain a youthful appearance. This results in an indistinguishable line between women and girls. In ‘barely legal’ advertisements, one may find it hard to believe that the girls featured are above eighteen. Children are now often viewed as sexual objects even when the minors are not subjected to sexualization or objectification. When such trends permeate society, these younger viewers are led to accept the sexualization and objectification as evidenced across the media and products marketed. As stipulated by Renold and Ringrose (2011), girls are taught they are merely sexual objects meant for others’ pleasure, and this will negatively impact their mental health (p. 403). Children need to realize they have more worth than as eye candy next to a car or other products in advertisements. This was echoed in all of the research. For example, Coy and Garner (2010) discussed the impacts of sexualization and objectification used as a tool in today’s culture for women to gain prestige, power, and money (p. 659). Women view themselves as sexual objects, ignoring their value as human beings and contributors to society, in order to achieve their goals, with the methods encouraged through sexualization, objectifications, age
compression, and similar phenomena.

Sexualization should not be a means to obtain power, and girls should not fear social rejection due to a lack of self-sexualization. Just at the time when girls begin to construct identity, they are more likely to suffer losses in self-esteem. The double-sided sword of sexualization in media and the comparison to sexualized women makes girls dissatisfied with their own bodies. So while girls who objectify their bodies more have much lower self-esteem, they are also more vulnerable to the cultural messages that promise them popularity, effectiveness, and social acceptance through the right “sexy” look. Girls want the clothes that promote sexiness and desirability, so it is difficult to convince them to make less sexualizing choices. These young females sexualize themselves through consumer culture through choices on how to behave and whom to become based on media’s influences (APA, 2007a, p. 17). Again, they have the goal to obtain power and rise on the age prestige ladder.

As defined earlier, sexualization, objectification, and age compression are all phenomena that significantly influence children. It is true that children are like sponges, and they are impacted by the sexualization of minors. Being highly susceptible to these societal messages during vital developmental stages can mean a decrease in children’s mental health. As La Nauze and Rush (2006) put it, “children are – ill-equipped to deal with sexualizing pressure” (p. 35). Negative psychological impacts that result from sexualization include body dissatisfaction, poor self-esteem, depression, shame, anxiety, body surveillance, and diminished sexual health. Each helps uncover just how deeply children are hurt (APA, 2007b, p. 3). Not knowing exactly when or how one’s body will be looked at and evaluated creates anxiety about exposure; it requires regular body monitoring and a kind of chronic vigilance about whether everything is in place. Due to objectification and sexualization, consciousness can become fragmented and thought processes can become less organized because fewer resources are made available for other activities over the body surveillance that results. For children, this results in poor academic performances and inhibited abilities. Being exposed to sexualization is too much for a child to bear, and it causes overwhelming feelings that must be defended against. These defenses explain self-sexualization and risqué sexual behavior, which can lead to re-traumatization.

Interpersonal relationships and developmental processes also battle with additional hindrances due to the sexualization of minors. How young girls conceptualize femininity and sexuality is heavily impacted by the sexualization prevalent everywhere. Sexualization also complicates adolescents’ task to develop a healthy sexual identity. The societal pressures that result from sexualization, objectification, and age compression cause girls to grow up too quickly today (English, 2005). Children’s mental health should not suffer due to these cultural phenomena. Children should be granted the right to a childhood, where they can just be kids, without these outside influences to disrupt them.

The deleterious effects of these phenomena range from mental to physical. The sexualization of minors can lead to eating disorders and an increase in extreme sexualization. More extreme forms of the sexualization of children include child sexual abuse, pornography, prostitution, and trafficking. The sexualization of minors does not just damage young girls; it also negatively impacts men and women of all ages and society as a whole. Examples of this include an increase in sexual violence and teenage pregnancies. In fact, a report documented that “depictions of violence against teenage girls on TV showed it had risen by 400%” (Papadopoulos, 2010, p. 40). There are also several other negative, physical impacts that could be contributed to the sexualization of minors. Examples include women who smoke cigarettes in hopes to be thinner and the limits sexualization imposes on the effectiveness of girls’ physical movements (APA, 2007a, p. 21).

More research on sexualization of young girls, not just women in general, is needed. The evidence so far indicates that it is time society “critically examine(s) the cumulative effect of the media messages to which our children are exposed and how we can mitigate any negatives effect resulting from them” (Papadopoulos, 2010, p. 9). As of now, research specifically on minors is
virtually non-existent. In the future, this is something this audience can hope to correct. The sexualization of minors is a pressing issue that has been permitted to exist far too long.

Looking back at history and the past of advertising and marketing techniques, one can find that societal acceptance has slowly increased towards the sexualization of minors. Objectification and age compression also both slowly integrated themselves into modern society. With technological advances, children are exposed to more and more media coverage, social media outlets, and advertisements throughout their day-to-day lives. Increased exposure to such electronics result in children’s increase of exposure to the sexualization and objectification of minors. By seeing women and children sexually-exploited and shown as sexual objects, children are harmed in many ways, ranging from psychologically to physically. The ramifications not only impact children, but society as a whole. This fact is ignored by our current culture, as younger and younger customers are targeted with sexualized products and advertisements. Minors are led to believe that age compression is acceptable and that to act and accept one’s self as a sexual object is an acceptable way to gain power in society.

The issue of sexualization of minors has been palpable for years, but society increasingly promotes and condones the sexualization of minors. While the issue grows, the adverse repercussions on children and their development are subjected to more studies. This increase can be contributed in part to the technological advances being made; technology has aided an increase of sexualization in general, especially in children. The sexualization of minors permeates all levels of social discourse. Proof of this can be found everywhere, from advertising to social media to toys. Likewise, examples of sexualization can be found in products, such as clothing, marketed to children. As a result, younger generations have begun to adopt age compression to conform to society or gain power.

Exposure to sexualization and objectification, whether on one’s self or others, has negative consequences on children. These can include eating disorders, mental health issues, and body surveillance. A trend in technology and a growing acceptance from society has led to an increase in the sexualization of minors, which leads to objectification and age compression. All three phenomena have negative impacts on children. In order to minimize the effects of this issue, society should learn alternatives, such as self-determining actions and to place more value on non-sexual attributes. Such steps will lessen the negative impacts of sexualization exposure found in media and help our children developmentally. The sexualization of minors does not have to remain a problem for our society.

References

American Psychological Association, Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls. (2007a). Report of the APA Task Force on the sexualization of girls. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/pi/women/programs/girls/report-full.pdf

American Psychological Association, Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls. (2007b). Report of the APA Task Force on the sexualization of girls: Executive summary. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/pi/wpo/sexualization.html

Bragg, S., Buckingham, D., Russell, R., & Willett, R. (2011). Too much, too soon? Children, sexualization, and consumer culture. Sex Education, 11(3), 279-292.
doi: 10.1080/14681811.2011.590085

Cook, D. T. & Kaiser, S. B. (2004). Betwixt and be tween: Age ambiguity and the sexualization of the female consuming subject. Journal of Consumer Culture, 4(2), 203-227. doi: 10.1177/1469540504043682

Coy, M. & Garner, M. (2010). Glamour modeling and the marketing of self-sexualization: Critical reflections. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 13(6), 657-675. doi: 10.1177/1367877910376576

Durham, M. G. (2008). The Lolita effect: The media sexualization of young girls and what we can do about it. New York, NY: The Overlook Press.

English, B. (2005). The disappearing tween years: Bombarded by sexualized cultural forces, girls are growing up faster than ever. Boston Globe: Living, 3rd edition.

La Nauze, A. & Rush, E. (2006). Corporate paedophilia: Sexualization of children in Australia. Australian Institute. Retrieved from
http://www.tai.org.au/documents/dp_fulltext/DP90.pdf

Papadopoulos, L. (2010). Sexualization of young people review. National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence. Retrieved from
http://www.ncdsv.org/images/Sexualisation-of-young-people-review_2-2010.pdf

Renold, E. & Ringrose, J. (2011). Schizoid subjectives? Re-theorizing teen girls’ sexual cultures in an era of ‘sexualization’. Journal of Sociology, 47(4), 389-409. doi:10.1177/1440783311420792

September 6, 2017April 5, 2019

Social Sustainability and China’s One-Child Policy

Michael Gordon

In 1979, the National Population and Family Planning Commission of the People’s Republic of China enacted the “Population and Family Planning Law,” which is known to much of the world as the “one-child policy.” This law states that, under normal circumstances, Chinese married couples may give birth to and raise only one child. The law was implemented to bring the country’s swelling population under control; China is the most densely inhabited country in the world, with a current population of more than 1.3 billion (The World Bank, 2012, para. 1). The Chinese government estimates that, had the one-child policy not been implemented, China’s current population would be closer to 1.7 billion (National Population and Family Planning Commission of the People’s Republic of China, 2011, para. 6). The government believes that it would not have been possible to accommodate such a quickly ballooning society had the trend been allowed to continue. Providing food, adequate living conditions, and employment opportunities for such vast numbers is far beyond the scope of the country’s social and economic institutions. This population reduction tactic was applied with the intention of creating a more sustainable People’s Republic of China.

Sustainability is a subject that can be approached from multiple angles and has many speculative definitions. One of the more widely recognized classifications of sustainability is denoted in the Brundtland Report of 1987. This report, by the World Commission of Environment and Development, defines a sustainable society as a society that can provide the social, economic, and environmental necessities of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet these same needs (Towards sustainable development, 1987, para. 1-3). The intent behind the Population and Family Planning Law is to create just such a society. Chapter one, article one of the law reads:

This law is enacted, in accordance with the Constitution, so as to bring population into balance with social economic development, resources, and the environment: to promote family planning; to protect citizens’ legitimate rights and interests; to enhance family happiness, and to contribute to the nation’s prosperity and social progress. (Population and Family Planning Law of the People’s Republic of China, 2012, para. 1)

However, it is questionable whether such a stringent population control campaign is truly the best way to achieve these noble, yet ambitious goals.

The practice of population control as a tool of sustainability can be traced, in large part, back to the eighteenth century clergyman and economist, Thomas Robert Malthus, who did extensive research on the dynamics of populations. In his most famous literary work, An Essay on the Principle of Population, As It Affects the Future Improvement of Society, Malthus theorized that a population could propagate exponentially and infinitely, until stopped by the “positive checks” of disease and famine when available resources, such as food, were exhausted. He later acknowledged that there are other growth stunting forces, including “preventive checks” (contraception, abortion, or infanticide) and “moral restraint” (abstinence). These two socially concealed checks can work to guard a society from the pains of imminent starvation (Malthus, 2010, para. 1-4).

Today, many biologists and population scientists believe that the human race has recently outgrown its vast habitat, the Earth. It appears that the ever growing demand for the planet’s vital resources has surpassed the limited supply. Various manifestations of Malthus’ “preventive checks” are advocated as instruments to reduce the population and reverse this self-destructive trend, that the Earth might be reverted to a more sustainable, and therefore more congenial condition. It is argued, however, that many of the more popular population control methods are non-sustainable from a perspective emphasizing social justice ideologies; a society that is not socially sustainable is a non-sustainable society.

The Western Australia Council of Social Services provides a template delineation of social sustainability. The WACSS defines a socially sustainable society as one that exhibits equity and cohesion among its people, while providing and promoting good quality of life for current and future generations (Partridge, 2005, p. 9). China’s Family Planning Commission asserts that the one-child policy embodies a significant advance toward greater social sustainability. They claim that the policy promotes gender equality and generally improves quality of life for all Chinese citizens, including children, adults, and the elderly. However, the one child policy is not socially sustainable in the slightest; it is damaging to social equality and is a danger to many Chinese people. This paper examines the arguments surrounding the one-child policy’s impact on social justice in China.

The Impact of the One-child Policy on Equity between Chinese Citizens

A socially sustainable society is equitable, meaning it provides fair and impartial treatment and opportunities to all its members, regardless of gender, ethnicity, age, or social status. The Chinese government alleges that their family planning policies promote equity, but an examination of the full effects of these laws reveals that they have the opposite effect.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China argues in favor of their family planning practices, stating that the one-child policy improves gender equality in China. In particular, the policy provides greater opportunity for women, who have traditionally played a subordinate role to men. They argue that if women only have to raise one child, they will have more time for themselves to devote to professional careers or other personal pursuits. This could give women a stronger foothold in conventionally male dominated corporate circles. The Ministry boasts of progress that is already being made in some levels of society. They call attention to the pronounced increase in the number of women holding staff jobs, growing 24.1% from 45 million to 56 million persons in just seven years (1985-1992) (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, 1995, para. 20). Women have also made advances in education. The Ministry reports that 56.3% of urban women have a senior middle school education or higher, up from 9.1% for the previous generation (para. 21).

Also, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs argues that the one-child policy has instigated the implementation of better health services for women. The Ministry contends that the strong emphasis placed on family planning has prompted the government to construct a stronger network of hospitals, and maternity and child care centers. China has also committed to improving health care for women (para. 42-45).

It is true that occupational and educational opportunities for Chinese women are growing; however, it is not clear whether this growth is a direct consequence of China’s family planning policies. These advances could more easily be attributed to other recent governmental policies, such as the “Marriage Law,” the “Criminal Law,” the “Law on Protecting the Rights and Interests of Women,” the “Law of Maternal and Infant Health Care,” or the “Labor Law,” all of which explicitly target increased opportunity for women (National Population and Family Planning Commission of the People’s Republic of China, 2006, para. 10) Even if it is true that mothering a single child plays a significant role in improving prospects for women, the one-child policy still does more harm to women than good. In fact, the policy is causing a steep decline in the country’s female population.

In China, there is a cultural preference for families to produce sons rather than daughters. Parents may prefer a son because sons have a traditional obligation to care for their aging parents. Sons are expected to be providers of life’s necessities, such as food, shelter, and medical assistance, if and when their parents can no longer provide these goods and services for themselves. Daughters, on the other hand, sever any obligational ties with their parents after marrying into a new family. The parents of the bride are also expected to provide a handsome dowry. Because they seemingly provide no benefits for their parents, women are considered to be naught but a drain on family resources (Arnold, 1986, p. 226).

Also, ancestry and family history are integral parts of Chinese culture; many Chinese practice forms of ancestor worship. Sons are desirable because they traditionally carry the family lineage. Daughters only aid in continuing other family lines. The lineage of the parents will essentially terminate if they only have daughters (Arnold, 1986, p. 226).

The disadvantage of having daughters is causing an alarming demographic shift; China is diminishing its female population. The one-child policy is radically accelerating this process; many Chinese families feel greater pressure to have male children when the number of children they are allowed to have is limited. As a result, millions of baby girls are aborted every year in China (Johnston, 2005, para. 3). This crisis is often referred to as China’s “missing girls.” With such astronomical numbers of women being denied the right to simply live, the notion that the family planning policies, which fuel this injustice, are improving gender equality is utterly absurd.

What’s more, the women who are allowed to live are steadily shrinking to a minority status, a historically unfavorable position economically and socially. The advances women have made in recent decades will likely be diminished if current trends continue. There simply won’t be enough women left in the country to be proportionately represented in business and government.

The dwindling numbers of women left alive could be in danger in other ways. According to the U.S. Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficing in Persons, human trafficking in China is driven largely by the increasing shortage of marriageable women. Many women are captured from surrounding countries, namely Russia, Romania, North Korea, Burma, Vietnam, Mongolia, and Ghana, to be sold to Chinese men, and forced into marriage (U.S. Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficing in Persons, 2009, para. 354). The one-child policy is largely responsible for the gender imbalance that is fueling female trafficking. This abuse of human life is obviously not a promotion of gender equality.

The shift in China’s gender demographic is even affecting crime rates. The country’s crime rate has nearly doubled in the past two decades. A statistical analysis comparing the crime rate to the number of unmarried Chinese men found that there is a definite correlation between the two (Edlund, 2008, p. 1). With so few women in China, the number of unmarried men is increasing; unmarried men are statistically held to be the most crime-prone demographic (Edlund, 2008, p. 2).

Aside from the unrecognized, unintentional maltreatment the family planning policy inflicts on women, the language and enforcement of the law is inherently sexist. In 1988, the National Population and Family Planning Commission added an exception to the one-child policy; families living in rural areas are now allowed a second child if their first is a girl (Heartmann, 1995, p. 162). With this change, the Chinese government is authoritatively affirming female inferiority, implying that girls are not worth as much as boys. Also, the government encourages sterilization as a “safety precaution” to couples who have already had their allotted number of children; however, these prompts are imposed much more heavily on women, despite the fact that there are fewer health risks involved in male sterilization. In China, female sterilization is three times more common than male sterilization (Heartmann, 1995, p. 164). Despite this obvious sexism, the Chinese government still contends that their family planning policies improve quality of life for their citizens.

The Impact of the One-child Policy on the Quality of Life of Chinese Citizens

A socially sustainable society provides a good quality of life; this means that there are systems in place which guarantee education and employment opportunities to any who actively seek them. The Chinese government contends that their family planning policies help provide such opportunities, particularly where children are concerned. However, when all of China’s children are taken into account, it is obvious that quality of life is declining in the country.

The National Population and Family Planning Commission of China holds that the one-child policy improves opportunities for children, arguing that families with only one child can devote more resources to that child rather than divide time and income among siblings. In this way, Chinese children will receive more personal attention and better educations. The Population Research and Development Center of the People’s University of China performed a study to test this claim. Their findings indicate that Chinese children without siblings display a greater chance of enrollment and grade completion than those with siblings (Yang, 2006, p. 18). The policy has also been associated with a decline in child labor practices (China, 2009, para. 10).

The one-child policy may improve the lives of some children, but this argument ignores the growing number of children who are not receiving these benefits, in fact, the one-child policy diminishes opportunities for many children. As mentioned above, millions of children are aborted every year to provide more prospects for living children. A society that denies some the opportunity to live so that others might receive better educations is intrinsically unjust.

Many of the unlawful children who are not aborted are orphaned or abandoned. It is difficult to estimate the number of parentless and homeless children, as the Chinese government keeps no record of this unfortunate portion of the population, but it is clear that the number is growing (Zhong, 2006, p. 1). Abandoned girls are the living remnant of China’s “missing girls,” surviving the high levels of sex-selective abortion and infanticide (which usually involves drowning or suffocation of newborns). These young girls lack government registered births; this denies them from access to the state’s schooling and health services (Heartmann, 1995, pp. 165-166). A society which leaves so many of its children without these basic needs cannot call itself socially sustainable. The elderly will also be denied many basic needs as a result of this policy

The Impact of the One-child Policy on Social Cohesions between Chinese Citizens

A socially sustainable society upholds cohesiveness; it provides a system which ensures that people of varying demographic backgrounds can live together in social and economic security. The one-child policy is upsetting social cohesions between the young and the old. The combination of China’s current low fertility rate of 1.7 children born per woman (a result of the one-child policy) with the declining mortality rates for the elderly is causing a dangerous demographic shift (Hesketh, 2005, p. 1172). China’s population is aging; that is, the ratio of elderly people to working age people is evening out. It is estimated that, by 2040, 30% of the country’s population will be sixty-five or older. This number could be as high as 50% in some cities (England, 2005, p. xi). In the future, there may not be enough young people to support the growing number of senior citizens. Studies show that altering the one-child policy, essentially making it a universal two-child policy, could reverse this troubling trend (Li, 2009, p. 47).

The National Population and Family Planning Commission of China admits that the prospect of an aged population is a disconcerting scenario. However, they refuse to alter the one child policy. Zhang Weiqing, minister of the National Population and Family Planning Commission states that there are no current plans to repeal any of their family planning policies, and the policies will not be reformed or reduced in any way during the next decade (Yardley, 2008, para. 2-4). Instead, the Chinese government chooses to deal with the problem by implementing chronic-disease prevention programs and improving the long-term care delivery systems for the elderly (Population Reference Bureau, 2012, para. 18-20).

These solutions, however, are inadequate and unrealistic. Even with China’s growing economy, it is doubtful that the government will have the funds to support care-giving services for the elderly, according to policy analyst Toshiko Kaneda. Also, as the number of elderly people grows, so will the cost of health care (which is already higher than most of China’s citizens can afford) (Population Reference Bureau, 2012, para. 4). Social cohesion is not present in a society where care for the elderly is not affordable.

Traditionally, a senior couple becomes the responsibility of their oldest son when they can no longer care for themselves. This custom is even recognized by the state; sons can receive up to five years in prison if they refuse to provide care for their parents. It is estimated that as much as 70% of China’s senior population is economically dependent on their offspring (Hesketh, 2005, 1174). However, since the implementation of the one child policy, this system has been in jeopardy. Sons may be obligated to take in their parents, but it is often the son’s wife who provides much of the physical care (statistically, males have the weakest sense of family obligation). With China’s bride shortage (a consequence of the one-child policy), it is quite likely that the elderly will receive a poorer quality of care (Zhang, 2006, p. 156).

Again, the group who stands to lose the most in this scenario is women. Women, because they live longer than men, are very likely to be widowed. This is unfortunate, as women are often dependent on men and the surplus of elderly people will only escalate this problem. Additionally, China’s social security system is poor at best, but it is virtually non-existent for women (Li, 2009, p. 46).

Another problem associated with the aging population is the financial aspect from the son’s perspective. It is theorized that any financial advantages a married couple obtains by having only one child would be cancelled out if the household had to support both the mother’s and the father’s parents. This has been nicknamed the “4:2:1 phenomenon.” Four grandparents and one child are entirely dependent on the income and resources of two individuals. (Hesketh, 2005, 1174). It is clear that the one-child policy is causing a plethora of grim social and economic problems; it may not be unreasonable to ask: Is such a severe law really necessary?

The Overall Effectiveness of the One Child Policy

After reviewing all the evidence, it is clear that China’s family planning policies are fueling social instability in the injudicious country. If social sustainability cannot be achieved on even the most basic levels, the population will grow increasingly divided and disengaged, thus it is not likely that economic and environmental sustainability will be attained either.

Despite all the social problems the country is facing as a result of their one child policy, the Chinese government has refused to budge on the issue, even with growing disapproval from other nations. The Family Planning commission argues that the policy is the only civilized and efficient way to keep the country’s population down; supporting such a quickly expanding populace is both an environmental drain and an economic impossibility. There are those, however, who dispute that there are better, more humane ways to control the spread of a population.

This is the assertion made by Dr. Betsy Hartmann, professor of development studies and director of the Population and Development Program at Hampshire College. Hartmann argues that population spikes are not a cause, but a consequence of a non-sustainable society. She affirms that countries with high poverty rates, bad education systems, and great levels of inequality and stratification tend to have much higher birth rates. Citizens living in a country that promotes equality, opportunity, and cohesion among its people seem to naturally choose to have fewer children (Hartmann, 1995, p. 8). Hartmann points out that no democratically governed country is currently experiencing population troubles.

China itself is another example of this social phenomenon. The country’s largest decline in fertility actually occurred before the implementation of the one child policy. In the years between 1971 and 1979, China’s birth rate fell from 5.9 to 2.9 children per woman. During this time the Family Planning commission had the simple slogan: “late, long, few,” suggesting that women could better their predicament by self-regulating their reproductive demeanors (Hesketh, 2005, 1174). Also, there was a plethora of social reforms during this period which promoted equality among people.

In short, the People’s Republic of China would be far better off if they make social sustainability their primary focus rather than population control; their current system and methods are only destructive. China requires a socially sustainable society; economically and environmentally sustainable systems will inevitably emerge from this.

References

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September 6, 2017April 5, 2019

Japanese for English Speakers

Lindsey McCullough

Japanese is considered to be one of the most difficult languages for native English speakers to master; according to the Defense Language Institute, it takes roughly 2.5 times longer for native English speakers to attain a basic understanding of the Japanese language than to attain an equivalent understanding of a language such as French or Spanish (“DLI’s Language Guidelines,” 2010). Immediate differences between English and Japanese are many, the most obvious of which being the written language. While English uses one set of characters to represent its entire language, Japanese, as cited in the Random House Japanese-English English-Japanese Dictionary, “…is written using three different basic scripts: kanji (Chinese characters), hiragana, and katakana, the latter two being two distinct types of… phonetic script known as kana” (Nakao, 1997, p. xv). If this is not enough to deter potential learners, there are plenty of syntax differences to explore; for example, one chapter’s title in Making Sense of Japanese, a book by Jay Rubin, professor of Japanese literature at Harvard University, reads, “Warning: This Language Works Backwards,” referring to the fact that Japanese verbs are always at the end of sentences, no matter how long and complicated those sentences may be (Rubin, 1998, p. 106).

With all these differences in mind, one may wonder how well a native English speaker could ever hope to learn Japanese. Is it possible for an English speaker to understand Japanese the way a native speaker can? What can be done to make the process easier? To what extent does one’s native language affect the ability to learn new and different languages?

***Kana* and *Kanji***

Perhaps one of the most intimidating aspects of the Japanese language from a native English perspective is the writing system. Kana and kanji are the building blocks of the written Japanese language. That the Japanese writing system is vastly different from that of English barely needs explaining; anyone who opens his or her multilingual digital camera instruction booklet can plainly see this. Aspects that make Japanese challenging for native English speakers are not hard to appreciate, but one may wonder if there is anything about the language that may prove to be less, rather than more, difficult to learn. Comparing the two languages brings some interesting findings to light.

English is composed of twenty-six letters that may be combined in a vast number of ways to create different sounds and spellings. According to Seigo Nakao, assistant professor of Japanese at Oakland University in Michigan, the Japanese kana syllabaries, which can be considered equivalent to the English alphabet in many ways, have over one hundred syllables each, with the hiragana syllabary representing native Japanese sounds and the katakana syllabary representing foreign sounds (Nakao, 1997). This fact could be discouraging to potential learners of the Japanese language, for there are far more kana than there are letters in the English alphabet. However, the pronunciation of any given kana is very consistent in that, with very few exceptions, it will not change no matter where it is placed in relation to other kana, nor does it have more than one pronunciation (as cited in Nakao, 1997). The 2004 Merriam-Webster Dictionary cites at least five possible pronunciations for the vowel “a” in the English language (Mish, 2004). In contrast, Japanese has a total of only five vowel sounds, and they are perfectly predictable according to their associated kana (Nakao, 1997). According to Gene Nishi, founder of the Nishi Institute of Language Education, one Japanese professor wrote that there are more than 3000 different syllables in the English language, a great deal more than there are in the Japanese language (as cited in Nishi, 2000). A 2008 study by Ann Bradlow, PhD., professor and Chair of the Department of Linguistics at Northwestern University, has shown that native Japanese speakers have quite a bit of difficulty with some English sounds, an example of which would be the difference between “r” and “l”; Japanese contains a sound approximate to English “r,” but nothing approximate to English “l,” and this fact in combination with the similarity between these two sounds makes mastering them a challenge for the native Japanese speaker (Bradlow, 2008). This is not so for native English speakers learning Japanese; all sounds in Japanese have some approximate equivalent in English (Nakao, 1997). It is possible to conclude that the pronunciation of Japanese is less complex than that of English; kana, perhaps, is not so intimidating, but kanji may yet be.

Nakao states that kanji originated in China, and that these symbols are used to represent native Japanese words—and some Chinese loanwords—along with hiragana; the pronunciation of these more complex symbols varies based on context, and some may have more than one possible use (Nakao, 1997). In The Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Dictionary, linguist Jack Halpern writes that there are thousands of kanji, and that some are made up of as many as thirty strokes each (Halpern, 1999). This aspect of the Japanese writing system is obviously quite complicated, and will prove challenging for the native English speaker. However, Halpern also says the following:

…The effort is well worthwhile. Kanji have the ability to generate hundreds of thousands of compound words from a basic stock of a few thousand units. They form a network of interrelated parts that function as an integrated system, not as an arbitrary set of disconnected symbols. (p. 18a)

Looking at some of the entries in The Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Dictionary, it is not difficult to appreciate this fact. The entry for the “water” kanji easily illustrates this. Combining this kanji with the one meaning “middle” creates suichuu, a phrase meaning “in the water.” Sui can also be combined with ryoku, or power, to create the term suiryoku, or “hydraulic power” (p. 2). According to language expert Florence Sakade and Japanese language professors Kenneth Henshall, Christopher Seeley, and Henk de Groot, both of these last two kanji are learned by Japanese children in the first grade, making them very basic (Sakade, Henshall, Seeley & de Groot, 2003). So long as a person knows the kanji for “water” and “power,” that person may easily gather what the two of them together mean. “Hydraulic,” having its roots in the Greek language according to The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is not so immediately accessible (Mish, 2004). Through the use of kanji, a first grade child in Japan would likely have a better comprehension of the term “hydraulic power” than would a first grade child in America. This building block approach is consistent with much of the Japanese language (Halpern, 1999). In short, the Japanese writing system may be complicated, but it is not incomprehensible.

Understanding Syntax

Together, kana and kanji form the words and phrases of the Japanese language; as with any language, however, these parts need assembling to form complete, coherent thoughts. Japanese grammar is different from English grammar in ways too numerous to detail here, but a few of these discrepancies can be used as examples. Jay Rubin has written a section each in his book for the concept of both verb placement at the end of the sentence and the apparent lack of subject in some Japanese sentences (Rubin, 1998). How does one go about learning a language so different from one’s own? Nishi (2000) rejects the idea of “direct method” learning, “using only Japanese to teach Japanese,” for its impracticality, choosing instead to use English to explain the language (p. 5). Rubin (1998) does this often, himself, in his own book, but he also mentions that “just as it is a mistake to expect students to master a language by translating it into their own, it is also a mistake to exclude translation… entirely” (p. 18). A combination of translation-based techniques and more natural understanding is necessary.

It would make sense, therefore, for a native English speaker to rely on techniques based upon translation and understanding of native language while he or she learns to become a more natural speaker. There are many tools to aid those learning Japanese. One textbook consists of nothing but sample sentence structures that learners may adapt by simply inserting the necessary parts of speech like variables into equations; Nishi’s book takes a similarly formulaic approach to the construction of sentences, but goes in depth, allowing the student more understanding of syntax. Rubin uses memorable anecdotes to explain somewhat difficult concepts; an example is his comparing the end of Patrick Henry’s famous speech to the effect a certain Japanese particle has on the sentence it is placed in (Rubin, 2000).

However, these techniques may not need to be relied upon forever. One study, conducted by Sanako Mitsugi and Brian MacWhinney of Carnegie Mellon University, has shown that English speakers can obtain language processing speeds similar to that of native Japanese speakers. The experiment measured the processing speeds of native Japanese, native Korean, and native English speakers for scrambled Japanese sentences; the native English speakers had spent three years on average studying Japanese, but the study showed no significant difference in the effects on processing speeds as compared to the native Japanese speakers (Mitsugi & MacWhinney, 2010). The case markers, used to infer meaning, were left attached to the appropriate parts of speech; English depends more on word order than things such as case markers, and the fact that the native English speakers were able to make use of the case markers to interpret the scrambled sentences meant that they had acquired considerable understanding of basic Japanese grammar (Mitsugi & MacWhinney, 2010). This finding may prove encouraging to aspiring Japanese speakers; despite the dissimilarity of English and Japanese grammar, native English speakers can make progress in understanding Japanese with practice.

Mimicking Native Learning

After exploring the idea of understanding Japanese based on knowledge of English, one may wonder how to obtain the more natural understanding of the language as mentioned earlier. As the difficulty of Japanese for English speakers seems largely determined on the difference between the two languages, it may be beneficial to observe the differences in how native speakers learn them. Waxman et al. (2013) reference a study comparing three year old and five year old children acquiring new nouns and verbs as they learned their native languages—English, Japanese, and Mandarin acquiring children were included—that bears interesting results in regards to English and Japanese speaking children:

English-acquiring 5-year-olds successfully mapped verbs to actions if the surrounding nouns were mentioned explicitly (e.g., “She is blicking something!”) but not if they were dropped (e.g., “Blicking”). In contrast, Japanese 5-year-olds more successfully mapped verbs to actions when the surrounding nouns were dropped than when they were explicitly mentioned (p. 3).

This means that while English-speaking children were more comfortable with verbs when connected to nouns, Japanese-speaking children were more comfortable with verbs alone. When remembering the fact that Japanese sentences sometimes lack deliberately mentioned subjects, something that regularly confounds native English speakers, this proves quite illuminating.

Knowing this, it would seem there is merit to approaching the Japanese language in the same way native speakers do. This idea can be applied to the acquisition of the written language, as well. One thing Japanese children undoubtedly learn about kanji, for example, is that the symbols are based on pictographs that explain their meaning (Kusuya, 2001). Examination of the origins of these characters may aid learners in remembering what they mean. Another imitation of Japanese schoolchildren’s learning style may be found in books such as A Guide to Reading & Writing Japanese, which contains the first 1,006 kanji learned by Japanese children in grades one through six in the order in which they are taught (Sakade et al., 2003). This guide, like The Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Dictionary by Halpern, as mentioned earlier, also contains examples of how kanji and kana may be put together to form new words and ideas, but the order of the characters provides a different perspective in learning.

Learning kanji in the same order as Japanese children provides benefits most people may not realize. Nishi (2000) employs a technique in his book in which he prints romaji—phonetic representations of the Japanese language written using the English alphabet—above kana and kanji to aid the learner in pronunciation. This idea was originally found in children’s books and other such things, in which kanji would be accompanied by hiragana “ruby,” small text to help children with unfamiliar or complex characters. (Nishi, 2000, p. 6). Materials intended for very young children may have “ruby” accompanying every kanji that is printed; an example for this would be the instruction booklet for a new Japanese Tamagotchi toy, in which every kanji has “ruby” printed above it. In more advanced material, such as a novel based off a video game, some of the more complex kanji still have “ruby,” while more basic ones do not. This book may be printed differently than the instruction booklet—vertically rather than horizontally—but the “ruby” simply appear to the immediate left of the characters rather than above them. If one were to acquire such things, he or she could progress from basic reading materials to more advanced ones. When a word or phrase is still unfamiliar after learning its pronunciation, one of the many helpful smartphone or tablet applications available today would allow for easy lookup through either romaji or kana. This would allow the learner to gain experience with material meant for native Japanese speakers rather than rely simply on texts written for those acquiring Japanese as a second language. If native learning is important—and it appears it is—there are approaches that may be taken to gain a perspective that mimics it.

Japanese for English Speakers

Japanese is very different from English; there is no debate about this. It is, however, quite possible for English speakers to gain proficiency in the Japanese language. The writing system is complex, but the relative simplicity of kana pronunciation does offer easy access to beginning students of the language. Kanji may prove challenging to memorize, but it has been shown that there is coherence and structure to their use, meaning progress can be made. Japanese grammar is complicated and different from that of English in many ways, but with theories like those of Nishi and Rubin, native English speakers can gain proficiency. Native language has a large impact on ability to learn other languages later on, but mimicking native learning will aid English speakers in learning Japanese.

It may be best for traditional classroom learning of Japanese to be supplemented with materials that allow the foreign speaker to approach the language in the same way native speakers do; this would allow for a more natural understanding of the language to develop alongside the technical skills that allow students to decipher the more advanced, everyday speech and writing typically used among adults. There are aids to help native Japanese children understand kanji—such as hiragana “ruby”—that foreign students could easily use. All that is necessary is that they acquire the basic skills and perspective that allow them to do so.

This perspective, in particular, is very important. Japanese and English are two very different languages, and Japanese will prove challenging for the native English speaker to learn. It is only because the language is so different, however, that this is so. Japanese is not, in itself, a confusing language; it actually makes a great deal of sense when one stops to appreciate it. In fact, some aspects of the Japanese language arguably make more sense than do their counterparts in English—pronunciation being the most obvious example, the expediency of kanji as compared to the numerous Greek and Latin word roots of English being another. When these facts are realized, the native English speaker may approach the learning of the Japanese language from a different angle—one that allows for understanding of this unique language through both tools that utilize their understanding of their native language and techniques that allow for natural understanding.

References

Bradlow, A. (2008). Training non-native language sound patterns. In Edwards, J. G. H., & Zampini, M. L. (Eds.), Phonology and second language acquisition (pp. 293-308). Amsterdam: J. Benjamin’s Pub.

DLI’s language guidelines. (2010). Association of the United States Army. Retrieved from http://www.ausa.org/publications/ausanews/specialreports/2010/8/Pages/DLI%E2%80%99slanguageguidelines.aspx

Halpern, J. (Ed.). (2001). The Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Dictionary (2nd ed.). Saitama, Japan: Kodansha International, Ltd.

Kusuya, D. (2001). Kanji Starter 1. Berkeley, California: Stone Bridge Press.

Mish, F. C. (Ed.). (2004). The Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, Incorporated.

Mitsugi, S., & MacWhinney, B. (2010). Second language processing in Japanese scrambled sentences. In VanPatten, B., & Jegerski, J. (Eds.), Research in second language processing and parsing (pp. 159-175). Amsterdam: John Benjamin’s Pub. Co.

Nakao, S. (1997). Random House Japanese-English English-Japanese Dictionary. New York, NY: Random House, Inc.

Nishi, G. (2001). Japanese Step by Step: An Innovative Approach to Speaking and Reading Japanese. Tokyo, Japan: Shufunotomo Co., Ltd.

Rubin, J. (1998). Making Sense of Japanese: What the Textbooks Don’t Tell You. Tokyo, Japan: Kodansha International Ltd.

Sakade, F., Henshall, K., Seeley, C., & de Groot, H. (2003). A Guide to Reading & Writing Japanese (3rd ed.). Tokyo, Japan: Tuttle Publishing.

Waxman, S. et al. (2013). Are Nouns Learned Before Verbs? Infants Provide Insight Into a Long-Standing Debate. Child Development Perspectives, 7(3), 155–159. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cdep.12032/full

September 5, 2017April 5, 2019

Loving the Alien: An Analysis of David Bowie’s Spiritual Evolution

Daniel Foix

On January 8, 2016, English singer and songwriter David Bowie released his 27th studio album: ★(pronounced “Blackstar”). Upon its release, the record was met by widespread critical acclaim and initiated a surge of reinterest in Bowie’s career. However, a mere two days after the release, David Bowie passed away following an eighteen-month battle with liver cancer – a battle which had been carefully kept secret from the general public. Following this surprising twist of fate, the infant surge of reinterest in Bowie’s career grew exponentially – a passage of discovery for new fans and a rite of mourning for old ones. As reported by Business Insider, this postmortem Bowie fervor led to the artist breaking Vevo’s record for the most videos viewed in a single day, with over 51 million views (Oswald).

To satisfy this public hunger, Bowie’s career received an immense quantity of publicity from
many major news outlets. Primarily, this publicity revolved around the artistic influence of David Bowie and of his ever-changing personas – invented personalities used to explore the musical theater. Predominantly, this publicity focused on either his more famous personas (such as Ziggy Stardust) or his grandest, most influential persona – that of “David Bowie” himself – whereas the man behind the glitz and glamour tends to be glossed over [1]. That is to say, the focus on Bowie’s musical work and the influence thereof tends to distract from acknowledging his personal life. Most prominently, the evolution of Bowie’s personal spirituality – a focal point of the musician’s life and art (as will be discussed) – has been largely unrecognized.

In a similar fashion to his artistic career – which is renowned for reinvention and experimentation – throughout the course of his life, Bowie’s theology has undergone a plethora of “changes.” Despite originating from a Christian background, Bowie’s early life was characterized by conflicting systems of spiritual beliefs: ranging from Satanism, to Kabbalism, and to Buddhism (Buckley 233; Trynka 280, 314). In 1967, Bowie had considered becoming a Buddhist monk before being advised to continue pursuing music; however, he maintained an attachment to Buddhist philosophy for the remainder of his life (Buckley 47; Sawer). Though his spiritual drive assumed a slower tempo as he progressed into middle-age, it was never entirely subdued. In 1993, Bowie would profess an “undying belief in God’s existence,” only to engage in a serious flirtation with atheism as he entered the 21st century (Bowie, “Bowie, What Is He Like”; Bowie, “I’m Not Quite an Atheist”). Suffice to say, Bowie’s spirituality emerges as consistent motif in his artistic work, lyrically and thematically.

Even at a surface glance upon Bowie’s life, the personal significance of his spirituality is deeply evident; hence, discussing the personal evolution of his spirituality and the effects it played upon his artistic work holds substantial erudite prospects. By diminishing the gap between act and actor, this analysis will serve to provide background information on the musician’s life for eager Bowie neophytes while simultaneously illustrating a new perspective for old Bowie acolytes. Furthermore, the interconnectivity between life experience and artistic production is prominently emphasized through Bowie’s life, and such an analysis will serve to emphasize the direct relationship between art and artist. Therefore, to facilitate this discussion, several questions must be posed and evaluated: Why has spirituality been of such prominent interest to Bowie; from where did this spiritual hunger originate? How has Bowie’s spirituality influenced his artistic output and to what extent are these aspects interconnected? For that matter, where did Bowie’s spiritual journey finally end and why was this route chosen?

The Effects of Bowie’s Dichotomous Childhood

David Bowie’s spiritual journey begins in the same place Bowie himself began: at 40 Stansfield Road, Brixton, on January 8, 1947. Though he was raised in a loving, supportive environment, Bowie’s childhood was characterized by a religious dichotomy – a dynamic resulting from a Catholic mother and a Protestant father. These differing religious philosophies provided a continual source of contention which Bowie’s parents readily utilized; the morality of their chosen philosophies was argued between them on a nigh-constant basis (Bowie, “Bowie on 9/11 and God”). During a 1997 interview with USA Today, David Bowie would later recount that this dynamic resulted in a sense of religious alienation during his childhood; specifically, he remembered doubting the validity of Christianity and questioning
where he “fit in” at an early age (Gardner and Gundersen). Significantly, during this same interview, Bowie cautiously suggested that his lifelong spiritual search may have been a result of this conflicting religious background (Gardner and Gundersen).

Though Bowie presents his spiritual hunger’s origins with a degree of skepticism, the findings
of Bartkowski, Xu, and Levin during their longitudinal study on the effects of religion on child
development suggest that Bowie may have produced a valid self-diagnosis. Taking note of previous evidence which emphasizes the influence parental relationships have upon childhood spiritual development, their study sought to evaluate the positive and negative effects which parents’ religiousity (based on attendance, faith homogeneity, and how religion is discussed) play upon psychological and social child development. Their findings demonstrate that religiously homogeneous parents generally provide positive effects on child development, whereas religiously heterogeneous parents are typically associated with negative effects on both child development and familial relationships (Bartkowski, Xu,
and Levin 21, 33). Furthermore, when considering the contentious role religion served between Bowie’s parents, the report’s discussion of familial religious conflict holds especial significance:

Frequent parent–child discussions about religion often yield positive effects on child development, while any effects associated with family arguments about religion are deleterious for children. Thus, religion can serve as a bridge that links generations and yields pro-social outcomes, but can also function as a wedge that fosters division and conflict, thereby undermining children’s development. (Bartkowski, Xu, and Levin 33)

Regardless of the implications toward Bowie’s early psychological and social development, it seems reasonable to suggest that religion impeded his early relationship with his parents. A later comment Bowie made about his mother gives credence to this suggestion; in 2002, when questioned about their relationship, he proceeded to recite Phillip Larkin’s poem “This Be the Verse,” which opens with the line “They fuck you up, your mom and dad” and continues on to describe misery deepening like a coastal shelf (Trynka 8).

The significance of the fractured relationship between David Bowie and his parents is
emphasized by social psychologist Lee Kirkpatrick’s attachment-theory perspective on the psychology of religion. According to Kirkpatrick, one’s religious beliefs are heavily influenced by the religious convictions of one’s parents’, yet the precise nature of this influence is dependent upon the quality of the relationship between parent and child (qtd. in Bridges and Moore 11). For example, children with secure parental relationships tend to espouse the religious doctrine of their parents, whereas children with insecure parental relationships are less likely to uphold their parents’ beliefs (qtd. in Bridges and Moore 11). Furthermore, such insecure relationships hold the risk of promoting atheism/agnosticism, which Bowie himself would later espouse (qtd. in Bridges and Moore 12).

An individual develops their view of God at an early age (qtd. in Bartkowski, Xu, and Levin
19). In a 2002 interview, Bowie would recount that the judgment of God always loomed over their household (a focal point of his parents’ debates); he described this sensation as “terrible” (“Bowie on 9/11 and God”). The nature of Bowie’s childhood resulted in an early distrust of Christianity and God’s nature and witheld him from adopting either of his parents’ belief systems. Without a stable system of beliefs to uphold, yet filled with spiritual unease, Bowie would proceed into adulthood on a quest to determine the exact nature of God and thereby escape the spiritual ambivalence of his childhood.

As a corollary to the spiritual unease of Bowie’s childhood, he would also suffer from
significant psychological struggles during his early life. Many years later, he would recount he had serious struggles with low self-esteem and personal/artistic inadequacy throughout his early career (Egan and Bowie 276, 323). In an 1997 interview with David Cavanagh of Q Magazine, Bowie uneasily details this aspect:

. . . A lot of the negativity when I first started was about myself. I was convinced I wasn’t worth very much. I had enormous self-image problems and very low selfesteem, which I hid behind obsessive writing and performing . . . I thought I didn’t need to exist. I really felt so utterly inadequate. I thought the work [my art] was the only thing of value. (Egan and Bowie 323)

Based on the findings of Bartkowski, Xu, and Levin, as discussed in the previous section, this feeling of personal inadequacy likely resulted from the spiritual conflict that characterized his childhood. Bowie’s initial belief in the supremacy of his art – a corollary of his early lack of self-esteem – is not to be ignored; however, since he believed his sole purpose was to produce art, then the purpose of his art must also be considered. On multiple occasions, Bowie would state the central focus behind his entire work – regardless of the surface themes present – was exploring and locating his spirituality (Bowie, “Bowie on 9/11 and God”; Bowie, “I’m Not Quite an Atheist”; qtd. in Cinque, Moore, and Redmond 66). Therefore, since musical output was of paramount importance to young Bowie, it
corresponds that determining his spirituality was of equal value; locating this spirituality would provide his existence with meaning and circumvent his battle with self-esteem. Accordingly, the exaggerated exploration of Bowie’s spirituality during the ’70s coincides with the apex of his artistic production, further emphasizing the interconnectivity of both aspects. Hence, beyond surface commercial motives, Bowie’s passion for music was used as a tool to explore and express his personal spirituality, and thereby escape the inadequacy and fractured religiosity he derived from childhood. Furthermore, this information provides an oculus to examine the interconnectivity between Bowie’s spiritual and artistic evolution.

Spirituality as Expressed Through Music

At the age of thirteen, two years prior to forming his first band, young Bowie took an interest in Tibetan Buddhism, an interest which originated from reading from T. Lobsang Rampa’s book “The Rampa Story” (Gamboa). In actuality, Rampa was a pen-name used by Cyril Hoskin, an unemployed surgical fitter, who believed that his body was inhabited by a Tibetan Lama named Tuesday Lobsang Rampa following a process of transmigration of the soul [2] (Lopez 99-103; Rampa 149-155). Rampa’s work revolved around metaphysics, aura-reading, and other paranormal/occultic themes; in addition to Buddhism, this book likely served to develop Bowie’s later interests in occultism and Tibetan blackmagic, or, as it would later be described by him, “the dark side of Buddhism” (“Tuesday Lobsang Rampa”; König).

During Bowie’s formative years, his fascination with Buddhism developed to the point at which it threatened to supersede his musical ambitions completely. By the time he was seventeen, he began studying at a Tibetan Centre about four days per week; during this time, he met a high holy Tibetan Lama named Chime Yong Dong Rinpoche who would become his guru (Gamboa; König). After several months of study, Bowie was strongly considering becoming a Buddhist monk; however, Chime Rinpoche ultimately dissuaded him from this path, saying “You don’t want to be Buddhist. You should follow music” (Buckley 47; Gamboa).

Though he heeded Chime Rinpoche’s advice, Bowie’s Buddhist studies remained a lasting influence for the rest of his life. Immediately, these teachings were reflected in “Silly Boy Blue,” one of the first songs Bowie ever wrote (“Child of the Tibet, you’re a gift from the sun / Reincarnation of one better man”), and his twenty-minute pantomime 1968 performance to his song “Yet-San and the Eagle” – a coming-of-age tale of a Tibetan boy during Communist Chinese persecution (Bowie, David Bowie; Mendelssohn). Bowie’s later career continued to pay homage to Buddhism, as is exemplified by the semi-autobiographical soundtrack he wrote for the BBC miniseries The Buddha of Suburbia and his 2001 performance for the Tibet House benefit, which was intended to honor his Buddhist teachers and facilitate the preservation of Tibetan culture (O’Leary; Gamboa).

Though Bowie would soon explore a plethora of other spiritual philosophies following the 60s, he would never entirely stray from his Buddhist influences. In 1996, Bowie would state that the principles of Buddhism which initially interested him still held great personal values, citing specifically the concepts of transience and the fleeting nature of life – themes echoed throughout his entire career (Egan and Bowie 312-313). Appropriately, and perhaps unsurprisingly, Bowie would have his ashes scattered on the Indonesian island Bali “in accordance with the Buddhist rituals,” following his death (Sawer).

Following Bowie’s early experiences with Buddhism, he would fluctuate between and investigate a variety of religions and philosophies (including Nietzsche and pottery, as quipped during an interview in 2004) (Bowie, “David Bowie”). His spiritual exploration of the ’70s largely culminated during the mid-’70s, with a fixation on Egyptology, Kabbalism, and black-magic. Occultic themes had long been present in Bowie’s work, as evidenced by references to Crowley and the Golden Dawn on his 1971 album Hunky Dory, yet as the years progressed his mild interest in occultism evolved into an all consuming obsession, leaving the musician in a state of “psychic terror” (Bowie, Hunky Dory; Buckley 226). During this period, Bowie spent his days scrawling pentagrams over the walls of his Los Angeles apartment, being visited by “disembodied beings,” burning black candles, storing urine in his refrigerator (lest his enemies use it to enchant him), and even exorcising his swimming pool (Buckley 227; König). While this spiritual crisis was fueled in part by an overwhelming cocaine addiction, a sober Bowie would later state in the early ’90s that his distress was likely a result of abandoning God (Bowie, “Bowie, What Is He Like?”).

It was during this state of spiritual, physic, and physical distress that David Bowie recorded his seminal work, Station to Station. Interestingly, and perhaps contradictorily, despite being produced in this state of malady, Station to Station would be hailed as a “masterpiece of invention” by biographer David Buckley and argued among critics to be one of Bowie’s “finest records” (Buckley 263, 269). Fittingly, Station to Station is also one of Bowie’s most spirituality explicit records, containing tactile evidence of both his occultic preoccupations and his contrasting yearning for spiritual liberation (a curious parallel to the album’s dichotomous production and reception). While the funk, krautrock, and “romantic balladry” permeated throughout Station to Station tend to distract from the lyrical content, the album itself is very dark in nature – Bowie himself would later describe it as the closest album to a “magical treatise” he had ever written (Carr and Shaar 78-80; Bowie, CHANGESFIFTYBOWIE).

The title track, “Station to Station,” is the most prominent example of Bowie’s occultic and spiritual fixations of the time. Though the track is often assumed to reference railway stations (which is implied by the noise of a train during the song’s opening), in actuality “Station to Station” is preoccupied with the “Stations of the Cross”[3] and the mystical Kabbalah[4] (Bowie, CHANGESFIFTYBOWIE). Traversing the stations of the Kabbalistic tree of life is lyrically depicted in a ritualistic manner:

Here are we

One magical movement

from Kether to Malkuth

There are you

You drive like a demon

from station to station (Bowie, Station to Station)

It is worth noting that a typical Kabbalist does not travel from Kether to Malkuth, but from Malkuth to Kether. As can be observed from the Tree of Life [4], Kether is the topmost Sephirot in Kabbalism and thus the most sublime and closest to God. Contrariwise, our corporeal plane of Malkuth (the physical world) resides at the bottom of the Tree of Life. To “drive” in this “magical movement” from the apex to the nadir of the Tree would signify descension from the ethereality of God to the physical plane; occultic researcher Peter R. König notes that this descent would thusly “[make] man one with the Divine” (König). In his state of spiritual darkness, Bowie sought to use the Kabbalah – through his art – in an effort to reconnect to the God he had abandoned.

However, this spiritual longing is most clearly emphasized by a later track on the album: “Word on a Wing.” Just as Station to Station is the closest Bowie had came to producing a magical pact, “Word on a Wing” is lyrically more akin to a Christian hymn than a rock and roll jaunt:

Lord, I kneel and offer you

My word on a wing

And I’m trying hard to fit among

Your scheme of things (Bowie, Station to Station)

By “kneeling” before the Lord Almighty, Bowie conjures up the image of a lost soul, offering his life for God’s love and mercy. In a 1993 interview with music journalist Tony Parson, Bowie would later express his belief in the interconnectivity between prayer and music, stating that many of his songs are “prayers for unity within [himself]” (Bowie, “Bowie, What Is He Like”). Similarly, shortly before performing “Word on a Wing” in 1999, he would describe the song as a definite “signal of distress” (Bowie, VH1 Storytellers). Rather than simply describing a generic lost soul, Bowie appears to have described himself, offering the song as a testament of his resolve to earn God’s favor – to “fit among [God’s] scheme of things” (Bowie, Station to Station). Indeed, shortly after the release of Station to Station, Bowie would move from Los Angeles to Berlin, in order to escape his cocaine addiction, occultic obsession, and the “scum” with which he surrounded himself – a move later described as a search for religious truth (Bowie, “Bowie, What Is He Like?”). At this point in his career, until the late ’90s, a relationship with God began to manifest. As this connection continued to develop, the prominent occultic imagery present throughout his early career would greatly diminish. The progression this relationship is prominently expressed in 1992, by Bowie’s recitation of the Lord’s Prayer during Freddie Mercury’s tribute concert (Kaye 2).

However, toward the end of the 20th century, Bowie’s faith in God began to dissipate. Though he did not speak in great detail about the origins of this spiritual doubt until the early ’00s, the direction of Bowie’s spirituality is subtly made evident through his art. In 1997, he would record Earthling, an album which he would describe as an expression of his need to “vacillate between atheism and a kind of Gnosticism” (Bowie, Earthling). Similarly, his subsequent album ‘hours…’ would explore equally dark themes: “The Gods forgot they’ve made me / so I forgot them too” (Bowie, ‘hours…’). As the years progressed, Bowie’s spiritual incertitude would largely culminate with the release of his 2002 album, Heathen – a record saturated with anguish and cynicism.

The most marked example of Bowie’s troubled spirituality is found on the track “I Would Be Your Slave” – a desperate ballad nestled at the centre of Heathen. The song’s sparse, jazzy rhythm is notably subdued, allowing the emotional vulnerability behind Bowie’s vocals to transcend to the universal:

I don’t give a damn

I don’t see the point at all

No footprints in the sand

I bet you laugh out loud at me

A chance to strike me down

Give me peace of mind at last

Show me all you are

Open up your heart to me

And I would be your slave (Bowie, Heathen)

The song, in essence, is presented as a pleading prayer to an entity Bowie doubts is listening – a prayer for peace, for perception, and for propinquity. The most significant line is in Bowie’s reference to “No footprints in the sand,” which serves as a reference to the famous Christian poem, “Footprints” (Bowie, Heathen). The poem itself describes a man walking on a beach with God, leaving two pairs footprints on the sand behind, with each footprint representing a different stage of the man’s life. During times of hopelessness and despair, however, these footprints dwindle into one pair, suggesting that God left the man during those arduous times. When questioned by the man, God responds, “During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you” (“Footprints). By pronouncing a complete lack of footprints in the sand, Bowie suggests that God was either never there to walk beside him or had chosen to ignore his life (the subsequent lines seem to emphasize the latter). Despite this acrimony, the lyrics “Show me all you are / Open up your heart to me,” compounded with his incessant offer of subjugation, reveal the track to be a plea for God to reveal the spiritual plenum Bowie had long been denied, seemingly as a final attempt to bring “peace of mind” to his lifelong spiritual quest (Bowie, Heathen).

In a later interview discussing Heathen, Bowie would attribute much of his spiritual doubt to the “anxiety in the air” present since the early ’90s – anxiety derived from the expectations and disappointments of entering the 21st century (Bowie, “David Bowie on 9/11 and God”). Throughout the subsequent years, until his apparent retirement in 2004, Bowie’s spirituality would seem to slowly settle on a definite school of thought – a school residing on the opposite end of the spectrum from his previously “unquestionable” belief in God (Bowie, “Bowie, What Is He Like”). In 2003, a year following the release of Heathen, Bowie would state that he was “almost an atheist” and go on to say rhat he needed only a few more months to make up his mind (Bowie, “ I’m Not Quite an Atheist, and It Worries Me”). Apparently, Bowie had not been granted “peace of mind,” and thusly sought it himself (Bowie, Heathen).

From 2013 to Eternity

Relatively soon after nigh-espousing atheism, David Bowie would suffer severe health issues while on tour which would dramatically reduce his musical output and personal publicity, until his unexpected commercial return in 2013. By corollary, David Bowie’s pseudo-retirement presents an interesting conundrum in regards to analyzing the final destination of his spiritual journey. Following his health issues in 2004, Bowie would progressively slip away from the public eye until he completely disappearing from view. Though he temporarily stopped making music, he would permanently swear off interviews and personal publicity; during his hiatus, Bowie had learned to enjoy the privacy his career had long denied him of (Visconti 6). Any word concerning Bowie’s health, state of mind, or music was delivered second-hand through his collaborators (primarily from his producer/friend, Tony Visconti). Until Bowie’s tragic departure, these individuals primarily discussed the latter. Without any available personal details on his spiritually from 2004 onward, the only lens into Bowie’s life is that of his music. Hence, the only way to examine the final stages of his spiritual evolution is to examine the thematic evolution between his 2013 comeback album, The Next Day, and his subsequent final album, ★.

Both The Next Day and ★explore the same general theme: death. The difference, however, is the approach taken by either album. Whereas ★carried notes of grace and liberation, The Next Day was saturated with doubt and fear – or, as it would be described by academic writer/artist Tanja Stark: “a honeycombed-catacomb of cryptic mystery, rage and resignation” (Cinque, Moore, and Redmond 61). God and religion are featured as prominent themes throughout the record. The title track opens the album with an obvious diatribe toward the Catholic Church and religious hypocrisy: e.g., “They can work with Satan while they dress like the Saints” (Bowie, The Next Day). The accompanying music video depicted gruesome stigmata wounds, self-flagellation, and other horror/profane elements; Bowie himself is portrayed prominently as a Christ figure, vanishing at the video’s end in the twinkling of an eye (The Next Day). The video echoes Bowie’s publicized distrust of organized religion (Bowie, “CHANGESFIFTYBOWIE”; Gardner and Gundersen). However, beyond traditional religious theology, The Next Day takes a cryptic turn. After “walking the dead” on “Where Are We Now?” and mocking hanging corpses on “You Feel So Lonely You Could Die,” the album is closed with “Heat” – a spiritual reflection which Stark places among “the most torturous songs” of his career (Bowie, The Next Day; Cinque, Moore, and Redmond 73). The track itself, saturated with self-doubt and resignation, likely accumulates from his lifetime of spiritual questioning: “And I tell myself / I don’t know who I am. . .But I am a seer / I am a liar” (Cinque, Moore, and Redmond 73; Bowie, The Next Day).

The most telling example of Bowie’s spiritual state at that time is not found on the The Next Day but rather on The Next Day: Extra – an accompanying EP released eight months following The Next Day. The forth track, “The Informer,” seems to epitomize his spiritual longing:

So help me Christ

I’ve got major questions

About the Lord above

About Satan below

[. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .]

And I still don’t know

What we were looking for (Bowie, The Next Day: Extra)

In its entirety, the song discusses the ending of a man’s life and his attempts to reconcile his doubt in God as he lays dying. Though he claimed in 2003 to only need “a few months” to settle on atheism, ten years later Bowie still held “major questions” about the truth and existence of God with a seemingly intensified passion (Bowie, “I’m Not Quite an Atheist”; The Next Day: Extra). These open ended statements about both God and Satan and the subsequent lines concerning his search suggest that Bowie turned back from his atheistic contemplation and remained certain only of his uncertainty. Interestingly, the concept of turning to and questioning Christ in the face of mortality (“So help me Christ”) would be further discussed on his future single, “Lazarus” (Bowie, The Next Day: Extra; ★).

Approximately one year after the release of The Next Day, David Bowie would be diagnosed with liver cancer. He would begin production on ★shortly thereafter (Greene). Though ★’s lyrics detail Bowie’s struggles over mortality, they also contrast the torturous doubt which characterized The Next Day. “Lazarus,” the second single, is a paramount example of this aspect. The title of the song is an obvious reference to Lazarus of Bethany, whom Jesus famously raised from the dead (The Holy Bible: King James Version, John. 11.1-45). “Lazarus’s” opening lyric (“Look up here, I’m in Heaven) is an interesting contrast to Bowie’s description of crawling through “broken windows” and “cracked doors” at life’s end, as described in “The Informer” (Bowie, ★, The Next Day). Biblical elements reverberate throughout the course of the song:

By the time I got to New York

I was living like a king

Then I used up all my money

I was looking for your ass (Bowie, ★)

While “looking for your ass” could be taken as a vulgar way of “looking for someone,” in context with the title, it likely serves as a reference to Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem in which He rode a donkey and was hailed as a king (The Holy Bible: King James Version, Matthew. 21.1-9). As Lazarus was also searching for Jesus prior to his death – desiring to be healed – the lyrics could also suggest that Bowie “used up” the value of his material goods in search of lasting spirit fulfillment (The Holy Bible: King James Version, John. 11.1-45). With this in mind, the opening lines of the subsequent verse (“This way or no way / You know I’ll be free”) hold an interesting parallel to one of Jesus’ most famous instructions: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (The Holy Bible: King James Version, John. 14.6). Though it would be unrealistic to conclude Bowie’s final spiritual path based on pure lyrical analysis (which is inherently speculation, after all) the liberating spiritual and emotional tones echoed on “Lazarus” and all throughout ★seem to reflect a final catharsis to his lifelong quest.

Furthermore, Bowie’s wife, Iman, shared several uplifting spiritual messages through social media in the days leading up to his passing, culminating with the tweet, “The struggle is real, but so is God” – posted mere hours before his death was publicly announced (Park). In addition, Bowie followed “God” on Twitter shortly before his death (Schnitzer). While not directly commenting on Bowie’s spiritual state, these are certainly interesting corollaries.

In time, more information about Bowie’s final days may come to light; that which is currently available is insufficient for any definite statement on his final spiritual state, and any such conclusion would be a grave hubris. However, the information available, coupled with the distinctly contrasting tones between The Next Day,★, and even Heathen, suggest that Bowie may have progressed in a positive direction toward God. At the very least, the cynical voice of spiritual doubt present throughout his post-2000s musical production became significantly at toward the end of his life.

Remembering the Starman

Were it not for his humble Brixton origins, the artist David Bowie may not have existed as we know him. Though his spiritually tumultuous childhood produced extensive feelings of insecurity and spiritual doubt, Bowie channeled this esthesis into a lifelong spiritual hunger which in turn served to fuel his musical and artistic ambitions. Through music, Bowie was able to explore, express, and examine his spiritual worldview while searching for his “tenuous connection with God” (Bowie, “Bowie, What Is He Like?”). Despite the definite presence of spiritual uncertainty echoed throughout his body of work, he would continue to push these boundaries and evolve his spiritual philosophy throughout the course of his musical career. When diagnosed with cancer and confronted with the inevitably imminent prospect of his mortality, his music once again served to express and confront his beliefs. ★, his final artistic gift, suggests that he may have found some measure of spiritual peace at his life’s end; if a silver lining from his tragic passing can be gleaned, this is it.

It has been nearly four months since David Bowie passed away. The shock and sorrow of his sudden, tragic passing are beginning to fade away, yet his influence still resonates throughout the world and will likely continue to do so. Though celebrities and artists are remembered primarily for their work – their contributions to society – it is important to remember that these individuals lead intricately detailed lives much like our own. Art is not created within a vacuum. Regardless of how great or small, life experiences translate into one’s art, and the greatest works of art tend to have deeply personal origins; David Bowie’s life stands as an epitome of this concept. The utility of art to express personal beliefs and emotion is beautifully depicted through Bowie’s own thoughts on music, as recollected by his close friend, the actor Gary Oldman:

Music has given me over 40 years of extraordinary experiences. I can’t say that life’s pains or more tragic episodes have been diminished because of it, but it has allowed me so many moments of companionship when I have been lonely and sublime means of communications when I have wanted to touch people. It has been my doorway of perception and the house that I live in. (Young)

Though David Jones has passed away, David Bowie continues to live on through his art and in the lives of those he touched. While his records continue sell, the spiritual evolution and experience conveyed through his music will continue to testify to art’s provocative healing power for all those still “running down the street of life” (Bowie, Reality).

Notes

1. In actuality, “David Bowie” is a stage name used by the musician christened David Robert Jones. This nom de plume was originally invented to avoid confusion with Davy Jones, vocalist of the American rock band The Monkees (Buckley 23). For the sake of convenience, however, David Jones will generally be referred to as “David Bowie.”

2. Transmigration of the soul is a process akin to reincarnation. In the case of Cyril Hoskin/Tuesday Lobsang Rampa, Cyril Hoskin was a fully grown man prior to his transmigration. In his autobiographical work, The Rampa Story, he details falling from a fir tree and seeing a vision of a Buddhist monk. As this monk’s body was old and feeble, he sought to be incarnated within Hoskin’s body; Hoskin, citing that he was dissatisfied with his own life, willingly agreed to let Rampa take over his body (Rampa 149-155).

3. The Stations of the Cross are a series of images, or “stations,” commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ; they are commonly used as a Catholic devotion. There are fourteen Stations in total, each chronicling a different event leading to Jesus being laid to rest in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. The Stations of the Cross are used as a form of prayer, rather than an “intellectual exercise”; the basic purpose of this devotion is to deepen one’s understanding of and relationship with God (“Stations of the Cross”).

4. The Kabbalah is an esoteric school of mysticism originating in Judaism. While the precise definition of what the Kabbalah “is” differs according to the individual practitioner’s traditions, the purpose of Kabbalism is to understand the relationship between Ein Sof (infinity/God) and the mortal, palpable realm (Dan 4-10, 39-41). As Kabbalists hold that God is beyond human comprehension, they believe that God created ten attributes/emulations, referred to as sephirot, through which his nature is continuously revealed (“Jewish Mysticism”). With the exception of Malkhut, our physical realm, these emulations are metaphysical, with each station representing the transcendent nature of God’s divinity and the path of man’s spiritual ascent; by ascending the sephirot, man can access the power of God (“Jewish Mysticism”). The Kabbalistic Tree of Life is used as symbolic representation of these ten Sephirot.

Fig. 1: The Kabbalistic Tree of Life (Kiener).

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March 11, 2017April 5, 2019

Effects of PTSD in Military Personnel After Deployment to Iraq

Stephanie L. Spray

Abstract

Returning from a deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan changes lives for all veterans who served time there. The more obvious life-change involves learning how to accommodate any physical injuries they sustained; but not all veterans wear their injuries on the outside. Others must learn to cope with mental disorders because of their service. The focus of this paper is specifically on the issue of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and the effects it has on war veterans who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Symptoms of PTSD range from interference with sleep patterns, to experiencing unwanted flashbacks, and even thoughts of suicide. The US Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) assists veterans suffering from this disorder by providing services such as counseling services and compensation. Despite these services, an issue of stigma attached to military personnel with PTSD prevents some from seeking treatment. This paper will describe what PTSD is, what assistance is available to veterans, and possible solutions to reduce the stigma associated with this disorder.

Effects of PTSD in Military Personnel After Deployment to Iraq

Being part of the US military involves more than just fighting for your country and your freedom. Many civilians neglect to acknowledge the aftereffects deployment may have on military personnel. Returning from the War Zone, a guide provided to military personnel by the US Department of Veterans Affairs upon returning from deployment, attributes numerous symptoms to common stress reactions. These symptoms are normal for veterans to experience when making the transition from a military mindset back to a civilian one. Some of the symptoms include having trouble sleeping, feeling overly tired, having nightmares, experiencing frequent flashbacks of unwanted memories, being angry, feeling nervous or helpless, having an upset stomach or trouble eating, headaches, sweating when thinking of war, a racing heart, shock, numbness, and/or an inability to feel happiness. Most service members are able to readjust quickly. However, others may experience great distress and an interference with how they are able to function. Their reactions are consistently more intense and bothersome and appear to show no sign of decreasing over the course of a few months. Three other possible red flags service members should watch out for accompany the aforementioned common reactions. The first is experiencing relationship problems brought on by constant and intense conflicts, lack of good communication, and/or an inability to meet their normal responsibilities. Second, experiencing poor performance in work/school/other community functioning due to an inability to concentrate, failure to meet deadlines, and/or having a higher number of absences. The third, and final red flag, is having any thoughts of harming oneself and/or another individual. The VA advises service members to seek assistance if they experience any of the red flag symptoms because they may indicate the veteran is suffering from a more serious problem such as Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (United States Department of Veteran Affairs, 2010). Veterans suspected of having PTSD will begin treatment after a formal diagnosis of the disorder.

To make a formal diagnosis, all clinicians must follow a standard developed by the American Psychiatric Association. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fifth Edition (DSM-5) is the most recent edition of the manual used by clinicians to diagnose persons for possible mental disorders. The essential features of PTSD are described as being the development of characteristics such as intrusive memories, avoidance stimuli, negative alterations in cognition and mood, exaggerated negative beliefs or expectations of oneself, and alterations in arousal and reactivity following the exposure to one or more traumatic events. The symptoms must last longer than one month and cannot be attributed to the physiological effects of a substance or any another medical condition. Those who have experienced trauma and lived through events such as rape, military combat and captivity constitute the highest rates of persons suffering from PTSD (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).

PTSD itself has been a common diagnosis among Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. In their article in Psychological Medicine, Sundin et al. (2010) discuss the difference between military personnel deployed to Iraq from both the United States and the United Kingdom. They were able to conclude that the United States demonstrates a higher number of soldiers returning home with PTSD but were unable to conclude whether or not the location of combat has any impact on whether or not a soldier will suffer from PTSD. Sundin et al. (2010) noted, “Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been called one of the signature injuries of the Iraq War” (p. 367). By naming PTSD the signature injury of the Iraq War, Sundin et al. were emphasizing the level of severity existing in military personnel returning from deployment to Iraq.

The VA directs veterans diagnosed with PTSD to seek treatment. According to a study published in Health & Medicine Week, approximately 20 percent of veterans returning home from their deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan report symptoms of PTSD with only a little over half seeking treatment for it. The majority of the veterans will avoid seeking treatment due to the fear that it will harm their careers. However, the veterans who do seek treatment claim to feel it is inadequate for their needs (“Study,” 2008). Their article in Psychological Services (2009), Treatment Presentation and Adherence of Iraq/Afghanistan, Erbes, Curry, and Leskela discuss the need for treatment of PTSD in Iraq War veterans. Erbes et al. reported, “The need for mental health services for returning veterans from the wars in Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom or OIF) and Afghanistan (Operations Enduring Freedom or OEF) is substantial” (p. 175). Erbes et al. are expressing their belief that PTSD is a prominent issue for Iraq war veterans and treatment is necessary for the individuals suffering from it.

The number of Iraq war veterans diagnosed with PTSD exceeds the number of Afghanistan war veterans. The New England Journal of Medicine (2004) published the article “Combat Duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mental Health Problems, and Barriers to Care” by Hoge et al. This article discusses combat duty in both Iraq and Afghanistan, any potential mental health concerns for the soldiers, and issues soldiers may face when seeking treatment for such mental health concerns. Specifically, they discuss the difference in numbers of war veterans suffering from PTSD deployed in Iraq versus Afghanistan. Hoge et al. (2004) concluded:

Exposure to combat was significantly greater among those who were deployed to Iraq than among those deployed to Afghanistan. The percentage of study subjects whose responses met the screening criteria for major depression, generalized anxiety, or PTSD was significantly higher after duty in Iraq (15.6% to 17.1%) than after duty in Afghanistan (11.2%) or before deployment to Iraq (9.3%); the largest difference was in the rate of PTSD. Of those whose responses were positive for a mental disorder, only 23 to 40% sought mental health care (p. 13).

Hoge et al. provide statistical evidence of the substantial toll PTSD has on the lives of soldiers returning home from deployment; especially from Iraq. PTSD is conclusively a major issue for veterans returning from the Iraq War.

Impact on the Life of the Veteran and their Family

The impact PTSD has on the lives of veterans is apparent. Returning from the War Zone explains four symptoms of living with the disorder in depth. First, veterans may endure unpredictable bad memories of the traumatic event with the ability to bring back the very terror felt when the traumatic event occurred. Second, they may isolate themselves in attempt to avoid triggers (sound, sight, or smell causing you to relive the event). Third, they will emotionally shut down in order to protect themselves from having to feel the pain and fear. Fourth, the veterans are operating at all times on a high-alert mode causing them to be startled easily and often have very short fuses. The soldier suffering from PTSD is not the only one affected by the change it has on their behavior. The behavioral changes immensely impact the lives of their families as well. While the soldier is on deployment, their families were dealing with their own challenges such as feeling lonely, concerned, and worried. The separation may have caused insecurity, misunderstanding, and distance within the family. Resolving these concerns quickly results when the soldier and their family talk through their issues. This allows them to gain a better understanding and appreciation for all members involved, bringing the family closer together. When a soldier returns from war and is suffering from PTSD, their families will still have similar concerns needing to be resolved, only this task is often more difficult to achieve due to the behavioral changes of the returning veteran. In addition to the aforementioned symptoms, trauma and PTSD may decrease the satisfaction the veteran has with their family relationship and increase the likeliness of them being violent towards their partner and children (United States Department of Veteran Affairs, 2010, p. 6, 11). The effects of PTSD go beyond the veteran diagnosed.

Christopher Pupek is an Iraq War Veteran suffering from PTSD who provided a firsthand account of how this disorder has affected his life. He claimed that living with PTSD was troubling to him. His sleep patterns were irregular and his nightmares haunted him on a regular basis. Oftentimes they would cause him to wake up and not want to fall back asleep. He no longer enjoys camping in a tent because being out in the wilderness triggers flashbacks of the war zone. Garbage bags and trash on the sides of the road are triggers as well because they were a common hiding place for roadside bombs. His PTSD has negatively affected the relationship with his current wife and his three children, though he did not care to discuss that in more detail. He added that the degree to which people suffer from PTSD varies greatly (C. Pupek, personal communication, April 1, 2014). His testimony of his experience of life with PTSD after the Iraq War gives a better understanding of the extent to which this disorder impacts a veteran’s daily life and indicates there is a negative influence on the lives of their families as well.

Support Offered by US Government to Iraq War Veterans with PTSD

The US Department of Veteran Affairs developed a guide for military personnel, Returning from the War Zone (2009), to ease the transition from the battlefield to their everyday home life. It begins with a thank you and an explanation of how their deployment benefited their country and themselves. It discusses common reactions the soldier should expect following the trauma of war, the experiences they are likely to encounter at home, positive ways to cope with the transition, signs to watch for to know if they need outside assistance, and locations to obtain the services. It covers the likelihood of a veteran developing PTSD and covers the red flags indicating they may be suffering from the disorder, and what they should do if they are experiencing those symptoms. There is also a short and simple PTSD Screening Test included in the guide that assists veterans with determining whether PTSD is a potential concern for them. It also shares personal stories of other military personnel who suffer from PTSD and addresses the stigma associated with having mental health issues. The guide makes it clear that having a mental health problem does not mean they have a weakness (United States Department of Veteran Affairs, 2009, p. 1, 9, 10, 11). This guide is an attempt by the VA to reach out to the veterans at risk for PTSD.

In some cases, the VA offers compensation to veterans suffering from PTSD. In their article in the PTSD Research Quarterly, (2011), Marx and Holowka discuss how the VA offers disability compensation. They go in depth to discuss the issue of compensation seekers which is a common stereotype in returning Iraq war veterans who are suffering from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In one section, they discuss the exaggeration of PTSD symptoms by returning war veterans but the compensation has no impact on whether or not they will seek treatment for it. Marx and Holowka explain:

Even among other decidedly subjective mental disorders, PTSD is a condition that is especially likely to be exaggerated. Importantly, though, service-connected PTSD was no more common among Veterans who exaggerated symptoms than it was among Veterans who did not exaggerate. This finding is inconsistent with the hypothesized negative impact of VA psychiatric disability policies (p.3)

In other words, Marx and Holowka are trying to point out that even if a veteran is exaggerating their symptoms, it does not mean that they will not receive treatment for PTSD even if they do not meet the standard for compensation for the disability.

The VA and the Department of Defense developed The Iraq War Clinician Guide as an aid for clinicians specifically treating veterans returning from the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Chapter 4 of The Iraq War Clinician Guide (2004), Treatment of the Returning Iraq War Veteran, Brewin et al. discuss the various approaches that have been developed for treating veterans returning from Iraq that are diagnosed with PTSD. The methods of care according to this chapter are education about post-traumatic stress reactions, training in coping skills, exposure therapy, cognitive restructuring, family counseling, early interventions for Acute Stress Disorder (ASD) or PTSD, toxic exposure, physical health concerns, and mental health, family involvement care, outpatient treatment, residential rehabilitation treatment, and pharmacologic treatment. Brewin et al. emphasize:

There are a variety of differences between the contexts of care for active duty military personnel and veterans normally being served in VA that may affect the way practitioners go about their business. First, many Iraq War veterans patients will not be seeking mental health treatment. Some will have been evacuated for mental health or medical reasons and brought to VA, perhaps reluctant to acknowledge their emotional distress and almost certainly reluctant to consider themselves as having a mental health disorder (e.g., PTSD) (p.33).

This shows that the US government is taking care to ensure their active duty military and veterans are receiving mental health treatment. It also demonstrates that a stigma does exist in the military regarding veterans diagnosed with PTSD and especially for receiving treatment for it.

The outline of the treatment provided by the VA specifically for PTSD, located in Chapter 7 of the Iraq War Clinician Guide (2004), PTSD in Iraq War Veterans: Implications for Primary Care, provides clinicians with a standard procedure when working with these clients. Prins, Kimerling, and Leskin discuss the importance of informed clinicians regarding what PTSD is and how it affects the clients they will be treating. It also touches on the importance of using assessments when treating their clients. The chapter suggests primary care practitioners should know two things. They should know their patients want primary care providers to acknowledge their traumatic experiences and responses. Also, they should know how to detect and effectively manage PTSD in primary care settings. A primary care provider should determine the patient’s status in relationship to the war, acknowledge the patient’s struggles, and assess for PTSD symptoms, be aware of how trauma may impact on medical care. There is also a procedure to follow in case a patient demonstrates symptoms of PTSD in the middle of a medical examination (p.58-60). Kimerling et al. noted, “Because far fewer people experiencing traumatic stress reactions seek mental health services, primary care providers are the health professionals with whom individuals with PTSD are most likely to come into contact” (p.58). Kimerling et al. are emphasizing that there is treatment available for Iraq War veterans but fewer soldiers are taking advantage of it.

Conclusion

Iraq War Veteran, Christopher Pupek, disclosed that he had an overall positive experience when dealing with the VA but he also has a few ideas about what the VA should do differently to help veterans suffering from PTSD. He noted it still suffers from bureaucratic woes of federal agencies such as having long waits for and between appointments and there is no urgent care clinic for veterans. He says living in Sault Ste. Marie, MI, driving 225 miles to Iron Mountain, MI is a pain in the neck. He also feels there should be more extensive counseling and psychiatric options for veterans and a better way to address the issues of stigma. He believes the VA should provide more awareness programs to friends and family. He used to be an Iraq War veteran who refused to accept he had PTSD due to the stigma associated with it. He stated that when he did finally accept it, he felt enlightened, like a weight lifted off his shoulders (C. Pupek, personal communication, April 1, 2014).

Other issues with the treatment provided by the US Government for veterans suffering from PTSD include compensation and a lack of assessment use. In their article in the Research Quarterly (2011), PTSD Disability Assessment, Marx and Holowka argued:

With so many evidenced-based assessment tools available, clinicians have no legitimate excuse for not using them in their practice. This is particularly the case in PTSD C&P examinations, where the use of reliable and valid instruments may mean the difference between whether or not a Veteran obtains compensation for his or her PTSD. Despite the wide availability of evidence-based assessment tools and what may be at stake in these examination, the available research suggests that many PTSD C&P examiners do not use such instruments (p. 1).

Marx and Holowka do well to point out the flaw with compensation and have discovered where the problem exists. By simply utilizing the tools already available, a better system for determining who receives compensation or not is born.

The most prevalent issues in dire need of attention are the stigma associated with both the diagnosis of PTSD and with receiving treatment. In their article in Psychological Services (2009), Treatment Presentation and Adherence of Iraq/Afghanistan Era Veterans in Outpatient Care for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Erbes et al. report, “There are high levels of perceived stigma among returning soldiers” (p.176). One study published in Health & Medicine Week noted, “The Rand report recommends the military create a system that would allow service members to receive mental health services confidentially in order to ease concerns about negative career repercussions” (“Study”, 2008). Another article published in the New England Journal of Medicine (2004), Combat Duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mental Health Problems, Barriers to Care by Hoge et al. suggests something similar:

Efforts to address the problem of stigma and other barriers to seeking mental health care in the military should take into consideration outreach, education, and changes in the models of health care delivery, such as increases in the allocation of mental health services in primary care clinics and in the provision of confidential counseling programs by means of employee-assistance programs (p.21).

An agreeable solution to reduce the pressure stigma places on veterans returning from the Iraq War who suffer from PTSD in need of receiving treatment would be to move the mental health services into a more confidential and discreet clinic while also educating the public.

In conclusion, PTSD is a major issue for veterans returning home from the Iraq War. It changes the lives of not only the veteran diagnosed with the disorder but also their families. The US Government is attempting to assist with treatment for those who are suffering from this disorder; however, there is room for improvement. The current stigma associated with veterans diagnosed with PTSD and who seek treatment for it is of great concern. A possible solution is to create a more confidential clinical setting for treatment and to raise awareness by educating the public on mental health disorders. As stated in Returning from the War Zone, “Mental health problems are not a sign of weakness. The reality is that injuries, including psychological injuries, affect the strong and the brave just like everyone else” (United States Department of Veteran Affairs, 2010, p.9). PTSD affects the way people live and treatment is a necessity. Reducing the stigma attached is essential to open the door for veterans suffering from PTSD to receive the treatment they need.

References

Curran, E., Friedman, M. J., Gusman, F. D., Southwick, S. M., Swales, P., Walser, R. D… Whealin, J.. (2004). Treatment of the returning Iraq war veteran. In J. I. Ruzek. (Author), Iraq war clinician guide (pp. 33-45). Retrieved from http://1ec3qk2gowcy3luxr31yisiwjdm.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/iraq_clinician_guide_v2.pdf

Erbes, C. R., Curry, K. T., & Leskela, J. (2009). Treatment presentation and adherence of Iraq/Afghanistan era veterans in outpatient care for posttraumatic stress disorder. Psychological services, 6(3), 175-183. doi: 10.1037/a0016662

Hoge, C. W., Castro, C. A.,Messer, S. C., McGurk, D., Cotting, D. I., & Koffman, R. L.(2004). Combat duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, mental health problems, and barriers to care. The New England journal of medicine, 351(1), 13-22.

Kimerling, R., & Leskin, G. (2004). PTSD in Iraq war veterans: implications for primary care. In A. Prins. (Author), Iraq war clinician guide (pp. 58-61). Retrieved from http://1ec3qk2gowcy3luxr31yisiwjdm.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/iraq_clinician_guide_v2.pdf

Marx, B. P., & Holowka, D. W. (2011). PTSD disability assessment. PTSD research quarterly, 22(4), 1-6.

Pupek, C. (2014, April 1). Your experience with PTSD and the VA [Personal interview].

Study finds 1 in 5 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans suffer from PTSD or major depression. (2008, April 28). Health & medicine week, 42-45.

Sundin, J., Fear, N. T., Iversen, A., Rona, R. J., & Wessely, S. (2010). PTSD after deployment to Iraq: conflicting rates, conflicting claims. Psychological medicine, 367-382. doi: 10.1017/S0033291709990791

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March 11, 2017April 5, 2019

Psychology of Goaltending in Ice Hockey

Gordon Joseph Defiel

Abstract

The position of the goaltender in hockey is extremely difficult to perfect. It entails a large amount of physical skill, but the psychological aspect of being a goalie is more often the difference-maker in the length of a goaltender’s career. Goalies at the collegiate level are having an extremely difficult time making the transition to the National Hockey League (NHL), and it is believed that they are having a hard time adapting to the psychological effects that comes along with playing in the world’s best hockey league. This paper focuses on the psychological barriers that goaltenders face, as well as how goaltenders in the NHL use mental imagery and positive self-talk practices to overcome these psychological barriers and reach peak performance on a consistent basis. This paper will explain how these practices work, as well as how goaltenders can implement these tactics to improve their game. These tactics are intended for goaltenders at elite levels looking to play in the NHL, but are also applicable for all athletes looking to improve the mental side of their sport. Through extensive research, this paper concludes that mental imagery and positive self-talk practices are proven to help goaltenders reach peak performance on a more consistent basis. College goalies looking to ease the transition to the NHL, should invest time and energy into mastering the practices of mental imagery and positive self-talk.

The Mental Side of Goaltending

The game of ice hockey may be one of the most challenging sports of all. Ice hockey entails many of the talents required for other sports, but is played on an ice surface with blades one eighth of an inch thick. These components add additional layers of difficulty and make the game entertaining for both players and fans. The most challenging position in the game may be that of the goaltender. Sports psychologist Miller (2003) reported that being a goaltender in the NHL involves more stress and pressure than any other job in professional sports. A major source of this pressure is that a goalie’s performance can impact the team’s overall mindset and confidence (p. 161). A minor mistake in the forward or defensive positions is usually unnoticed to the standard hockey fan. For the goaltending position, that is not the case. Any small error made by a net-minder- results in a goal against, along with thousands of fans yelling at them. This is why the position has such a big impact on the result of the game and the reason for goaltenders being known as the “back-bone” of the team. It is nearly impossible for a team playing at a high level to find success without having the possession of a sound net-minder.

Since the 1980’s, goaltending technique has been continually evolving and improving. It is no longer composed of pure athleticism, but incorporates fundamental positioning as well, resulting in an exponential increase in goaltending efficiency. Today’s goalies largely focus on putting themselves in strategic positions relative to the opposing shooter, adding pressure on the shooter by cutting off angles and forcing them to out maneuver the goalie. Being a goaltender myself, I have always been interested in these new fundamental techniques. After seventeen years of improving on my craft, I have developed enough in my position to earn a scholarship to play hockey for Lake Superior State University. While I am proud of my achievements, I want my career in hockey to progress past the collegiate level, and I am determined to find out what it takes to find success at the professional level.

Goaltenders at the college level, including myself, are having a very hard time playing well on a consistent basis. I’ve witnessed my opposing collegiate counterparts play amazing one night, and then significantly worse the next. The problem goaltenders at any level face, is the pressure to perform. Goaltenders carry such a heavy load of pressure, that it often restricts them from reaching their level of peak performance. Psychologist Harmison (2006), states that when an athlete performs at his absolute best, he has reached his peak performance level (p. 233-243). There are many environmental threats that hinder an athlete from reaching their level of peak performance. The biggest threat to athletes, but especially hockey goalies, may be pre-competition anxiety. Pyschologist Chaube (2013) stated, “Performance anxiety is mainly characterized by an irrational situational anxiety accompanied by unwanted physical symptoms which can lead to dysfunction and/or uncontrolled behavior. It occurs especially in those situations in which a task has to be done that could subject the performer to possible criticism from others” (para. 6). Pre-competition anxiety is a major factor in hindering goal attainment. It is the butterflies in the stomach, the sweaty and clammy palms before the game, and often the negative thoughts on what might happen if things go wrong. Goaltenders often let the fear of failing, and the fear of criticism get in the way of stopping the puck.

According to psychologist Nazam (2014), research shows that athletes competing in individual sports have siginifancly lower levels of self-confidence and higher levels of somantic anxiety compared to those who play in team sports (para. 8). Although netminders belong to a team, they are the only ones on the ice at their position so they relate to individual sports in a lot of ways. Goalies often worry about things that they can’t control, which ends up interfering with what they can control. The one thing every goalie can control, but rarely does, is themselves- especially when pre-competition anxiety enters their minds. Goalies grow up spending thousands of dollars on private coaching and off-ice training, but rarely spend time, energy, and money, on improving the mental side of their game. Many people agree that sports are 90% mental, yet athletes rarely spend time with a sports psychologist. According to sports psychologists Mack and Casstevens (2002), “Sports psychology is the science of success. Studies show that within a group of athletes of equal ability, those who receive mental training outperform those who don’t almost every time. Mental skills, like physical skills, need constant practice” (p.17).

If the mental side of sports is so important, and goalies are clearly struggling with it, then why don’t people invest time, money, and energy improving their mental game? They either don’t believe in it, or are completely unaware of the benefits of improving the mental side of the game. It is very rare for a collegiate team to hire a sport psychologist because they are expensive, but also because many coaches are still old school in their training, and do not know the benefits that a mental coach can provide. On the other hand, teams in the NHL have an abundance of money to invest in their players. Goaltenders in the NHL have regular access to sports psychologists that help them practice many mental techniques that help them overcome pre-competition anxiety to consistently reach their level of peak performance. In a direct interview with Jordan Sigalet, goaltender coach of the NHL’s Calgary Flames, Sigalet shared some valuable information regarding the treatment his goaltenders have access to. Sigalet stated, “Our goaltenders get regular access to sports psychologists if they choose to”. If college goalies want to make the step to the NHL, they will have to master the techniques used by NHL goalies to overcome the barriers of pre-competition anxiety.

Mental Imagery

There are many different strategies goalies can practice to ahieve peak performance on a more consistent basis. One of which is the practice of mental imagery, or mental visualization. The terms mental imagery, visualization, and cognitive rehearsal are all interchangeable. Sport Psychologist Cohn (2013), is an advocate of the practice. He believes that mental imagery is the cognitive rehearsal or creation of a task in the absense of physical movement. Researchers claim that the central nervous system can not distinguish the differance between physical and mental movement. Imagery essentially programs the human mind to respond as programmed when in competition (para. 3-4). Goaltenders often spend time before games visualizeing themeselves performing at a high level. If the visualization is successful, when the goaltender enters the game, their mind already believes that they have been there before, and that they performed extraordinarily well. Theoretically, this then makes the goalie more likely to perform well because their mind already believes they have done it before. Goaltenders can also use imagery to revisit an old game. If a goaltender wonders why a certain puck went past him or her, they can visualize what happened and go over what they could have done to make the situation different.

The mind is a powerful thing and can often work against us. In order to have success with imagery, a goaltender must be able to control their mind and not allow negative images to affect sport performance, such as imagining letting in a bad goal or getting scored on the first shot of the game. Those fears can become a barrier to improving performance in the net. In order for a goaltender to have success in the practice of mental visualization, they need to recognize barriers that hinder them from goal attainment. Sports psychologist Cooley (2011) stated, “For the athlete to overcome barriers, he or she has to mentally convince him or herself that it was an image, not a barrier. Until the athlete can convince him or herself, the barrier will remain and could impact the athlete’s competition. The athlete has to find a way to negate the negative visualization and replace it with positive visualization. Once the athlete overcomes a barrier, then and only then will he or she be able to take the necessary steps to improve his or her performance” (p.17).

Many young athletes have a hard time dealing with the pressure of the competition. Pressure acts as a major barrier to young goaltenders because they are not as experienced as the ones of veteran status. Young goaltenders also struggle with fear. Fear of both failure, and success. Cooley (2006) continued: “Fear can be a facinating and powerful emotional response to failure or success. When an athlete recognizes fear of failure as a reason for not attaining his or her goal the fear becomes a barrier to attaining his or her goal. Identifying fear as a (possible) barrier to his or her success is the first step an athlete might take to overcome that barrier (p. 29)”.

In order to overcome these barriers like fear and pressure that hinder goaltenders from reaching their goal, they need to spend time practicing the process of mental imagery. Goalkeepers use imagery for learning new skills, overviewing skills they have already mastered, and preparing to handle both the positive and negative events that take place through a long and rigorous game. Prior to competition, net-minders that perform mental imagery often find a quiet place to mentally prepare for the competition. Noise can often distract a goalie from visualizing succesfuly, so goaltenders might use headphones if they can’t find a quit place. Although every goalie can mentally prepare differently, one might start out by visualizing themselves extremely relaxed during pre-game warm ups and heading into the locker room before the puck drops. One might visualize themselves in the third person to see them self glide across the ice smoothly with confidence. The imagery session is always positive, but not always perfect. They may imagine themselves responding to a bad call or acting calm and collected when the opposing team gets a powerplay. Detail plays a major role in imagery. A goaltender may imagine what the crowd may be like; responding cool and calm while the opposing crowd taunts and belittles them. They might change the speed of the imagery session, picturing a puck moving incredibly slow or extremely fast and they make the save regardless of the scenereo. Or they might imagine acting completely relaxed when facing the opposing team’s best player on a penalty shot. Color is also important in perfecting the detail of an imagery session. Goaltenders visualize the color of the seats in the rink or the color of the opposing team’s jerseys. The more realistic a goaltender can visualize, the more success they are likely to have. Some veteran goaltenders even use scent in their sessions. They can smell the scent of the rink, the concession stand, or maybe just the scent of their own equipment. All of these senses add detail to the images which can lead to greater success in the visualization session as well as greater success on the ice. The length of these sessions all depend on the goaltender. The majority of elite goaltenders perform their session in three to five minutes but some sessions may last a few hours depending on the goaltender’s routine- an aspect that has a major impact on a goaltenders ability to perform imagery successfully.

The building blocks of success in the world of goaltender start with routine. During the interview with Calgary Flame’s goalie coach Sigalet, I asked him, “During your career, what did you do to prepare for games?” Sigalet Responded:

“Visualization and Routine were always my biggest tools throughout my career when I was growing up and playing, especially at the pro-level. I would always start my visualization days leading up to games, which would start with pre-scout videos of our opposition team. I would visualize the teams tendencies and players tendencies in my mind so that it was no surprise to me when it came to game time and this always ended up being a huge part of my routine especially at the pro level where access to opposition video was at your fingertips. Routine is what brings consistency and the closer you can stick to your day-to-day routine and schedule the more consistency you will find in your game.”

For goaltenders to find success using mental imagery, they need to take time everyday to practice the skill. University of Windsor psychologist Gelinas (2006) stated that goaltenders should practice “event-day” imagery where the goaltender where the goaltender spends a few minutes the night before the game imagining themselves entering the rink, going through their pre-game routine, and game situations, before they fall asleep (page. 68). Imagery is an underrated technique that goaltenders use at the professional level to overcome any barriers getting in the way of goal attainment.

Self-Talk

What goalies think usually influences their actions. Positive self-talk (or positive self-reinforcement) can help goaltenders obtain peak performance on a consistent basis. Like imagery, the mind is a powerful thing, and if you can’t control it, it may work against you. Controlling thoughts is extremely important in the goaltending position, as there are a number of elements that cause goalies to be discouraged and take them off their game. Opposing fans go through a great deal of work to try and get the goaltender off his or her game, especially at the collegiate level. Choreographed chants in the student sections, and vulgar or degrading signs are just a couple tactics fans use to get the goaltender off of his or her game. It is vital for goaltenders to stay positive and confident throughout the game. The biggest enemy a goaltender faces is themselves. Goalies are often extremely hard on themselves because of the high pressure to perform. It is easy to get down emotionally, and once you are down, it is hard to get back up. An effective way to stay positive is through self-talk. Hardy, professor at the University of Western Ontario (2004), defined self-talk as, “Either overt (out loud) or covert (in your head) related statements that are used for instruction and motivation for athletes” (Cited in Gelinas, page. 68). Self-talk can have a major effect on a goaltender’s focus and motivation.

A goalie can use self-talk in a number of different ways. Goaltenders may use certain key words that help them stay focused on the task at hand. For example, say a goaltender chooses the word “focus” as his key word. When the opposing team is entering the defensive zone on the rush, he may overtly or covertly say “FOCUS!” which triggers his mind and body to be alert and ready for the opposing team’s attack. A goalie could also use a combination of key words to help them perform. A goalie may choose the words “confident, determination, pride” to help them reach maximum performance. They could repeat these words over and over throughout the game to remind themselves to play with confidence, determination, and pride. Robotically repeating key words helps goaltenders keep their emotions in check. Psychologist Gelinas (2006) stated, “Self-talk plays a pivotal role in a goaltenders reaction to situations and directly affects future actions and emotions. The underlying goal is to reduce conscious control and work toward automatic action” (page. 68). When negative thoughts enter one’s mind, it is crucial that they replace those thoughts with positive ones. Positive self-talk is proven to help athletes perform better. At the University of Thessaly, Hatzigeorgiadis and the Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences (2011), performed a meta-analysis on self-talk and sport performance. A total of thirty-two studies yielding sixty-two effect sizes were included in the final analytical pool. The results of the study showed that interventions including self-talk training were more effective than those not including self-talk training. The results proved self-talk to be effective in enhancing sport performance, and provide new research directions (p. 348-356). Self-talk is proven to improve sport performance if practiced properly. It is easy for goaltenders to get down on themselves, letting self-talk have a negative impact. When 10,000 fans tell a goalie he is a sieve, it isn’t easy to disagree with them, especially after the goaltender had just failed to save the puck. Goaltenders that do not practice positive self-talk often subconsciously experience negative self-talk. It is hard for a goalie to think they are a “beast” if they don’t truly believe they are. Using a key word like “beast,” for example, helps engrave that belief into their brain and helps them overcome any negative energy flowing through the brain. Gelinas (2006) mentioned that it’s very beneficial for goalies to “practice positive self-talk”. Goaltenders should be encouraged to analyze the content of their self-talk and weed out any negative self-talk in their game. “When negative statements enter a goaltender’s mind, they should be replaced with positive ones. Athletes will be rewarded if they invest in improving their self-talk skills” (p. 69).

Conclusion

The goaltending position entails many pressures that have a major impact on a goaltenders performance. One of the biggest barriers young goaltenders struggle with is pre-competition anxiety. There are many tactics goaltenders can use to overcome negative barriers that hinder them from achieving their peak performance level. Two major tactics used by goaltenders in the NHL are mental imagery and self-talk. Self-talk and mental rehearsal techniques have proven to be extremely beneficial to goaltenders. Goaltenders in the NHL spend time before games working on visualization tactics. Psychologist Keating (1995) went into an NHL dressing room before a game to study their game day preparation techniques. Keating reported that many players spent time before the game getting their mind in the right place. Many players said that they spend time before the game visualizing themselves doing good things on the ice and the goaltenders spent time imaging the process of making big saves (para. 48).

Due to the substantial amount of pressure placed on the goaltender, it is very hard for them to stay mentally tough throughout a season. Goaltenders at the collegiate level struggle to stay mentally tough on a consistent basis. Their season is often resembles a roller coaster ride which makes it hard for teams in the NHL to pick a goaltender. Collegiate goaltenders tend have a harder time adapting to the NHL opposed to players of different positions. Goaltenders rarely make their NHL debut before the age of 24, when every year new forwards and defensemen join the league at the age of 18. The pressure of the position of a goaltender opposed to other positions is significantly different. College level goalies have not mastered the mental side of the game yet. In the interview with Flame’s coach, Sigalet continued on to state, “For me it always came down to channeling the nervous energy in positive ways, which I think is something you learn to do over time as you mature as a goalie.” Between goaltenders entering the NHL at an older age, and the inconsistent performance level of college goaltenders, it is evident that young goalies are having a hard time channeling nervous energy in positive ways.

If college goaltenders are struggling so much with mental battle of the position, then why don’t they practice it? Goaltenders at the NHL level spend regular time with sport psychologists that help them fix any mental inaccuracies in their game. Personally, I have put in countless hours in the gym and on the ice and have never met with a sports psychologist or even attempted to log legitimate time and energy into becoming more mentally tough. Colleges often don’t have the funds or knowledge on the importance of the imagery and self-talk to hire personal psychologists to help their goalies find success in these areas. If the game is said to be 90% mental and 10% physical, then goaltenders need to spend more time improving the mental side of the game. Many goaltenders in the NHL have found success by overcoming their psychological pressures through the use of mental imagery and positive self-talk practice. College goalies aspiring succeed in the NHL will need to employ these tactics in order to master the psychological side of the game.

References

Chaube, N. (2013). Performance anxiety in sports personnel. Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing, 4(8), 1625-1627. Retrieved from: http://search.proquest.com/docview/1611830644/5C4BC472FD234919PQ/1?accountid=27857

Cohn, P. (2013). Mental Imagery in Sports Psychology. Sports Psychology Coach: Mental Training by Peak Performance Sports. Retrieved from: http://www.sports-psychology.com/mental-imagery-in-sports-psychology/

Cooley, M.E. (2011). How Can the Use of Visualization Help Athletes Improve Their Performance by Overcoming Barriers That May Hinder Goal Attainment? Proquest Desertions and Thesis. Retrieved from: http://search.proquest.com/docview/889251808/abstract/41A6BD2836144036PQ/4?accountid=27857

Gelinas, R. & Munroe-Chandler, K. (2006). Psychological Skills for Successful Ice Hockey Goaltenders. Athletic Insight: The Online Journal of Sport Psychology, 8 (2). Retrieved from: http://athleticinsight.com/Vol8Iss2/HockeyPDF.pdf

Harmison, R. (2006) Peak performance in sport: Identifying ideal performance states and developing athletes’ psychological skills. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 37 (3), 233-243. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0735-7028.37.3.233

Hatzigeorgiadis, A. (2011). Self-Talk and Sports Performance. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6 (4), 348-356. doi: 10.1177/1745691611413136

Keating, J. & Hogg, J. (1995). Precompetitive Preparations in Professional Hockey. Journal of Sport Behavior, 18 (4), 270. Retrieved from: http://search.proquest.com/docview/215876149/abstract/9146F43281FD41F5PQ/6?accountid=27857

Mack, G., & Casstevens, D. (2002). Mind Gym: An Athlete’s Guide to Inner Excellence. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Miller, S.L. (2003). Hockey Tough: A winning mental game. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Nazam, F., & Husain A. (2014) Enhancing sports and exercise performance through cognitive interventions. Indian Journal of Positive Psychology, 5 (1), 28-32. Retrieved from: http://search.proquest.com/psychology/docview/1614312648/76FD5F3E6D4D4460PQ/3?accountid=27857

Sigalet, J (2015, April 4). Calgary Flames Goaltending [Interview by G. Defiel]

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