ET Books

Reviewed by Debra Gaynor for Reader Views (3/07)

Do you know where you state stands on abortion, bioethics, and end of life? "Defending Life 2007" is an invaluable guide. This book is divided into sections:

"In-depth discussions of key legislative and policy issues related to abortion, protection of the unborn, bioethics assisted reproductive technologies, the end of life, and healthcare rights."

"Reviews of the 2006 state legislative sessions, overviews of the important gains and key defeats in the ongoing fight to preserve and defend the sanctity of all human life, and strategic recommendations for the upcoming 2007 state legislative sessions."

"Model legislation (developed by AUL experts) to assist state legislators in drafting, debating, and passing life-affirming legislation."

"Specific information on each of the 50 states, including an overall ranking of the states and careful analysis of each state's successes and opportunities for improvement."

At the end of each chapter there is a subheading, "What to Do in 2007." There are suggestions on where our focus needs to be.

First let me state that I am opposed to abortion and assisted suicide. While I think it's very sad that we need a book like this, I'm glad we have it. I'm from Kentucky and found of particular interest the information on where each state stood on the issues, and state funding limitations. I also found the section on "End-of-Life Issues" very enlightening. Regardless of where you stand on these important issues, this book offers information that you will find helpful. It discusses legislations and biotechnology. I must admit that I found myself extremely ignorant on the topic of Bioethics. "Defending Life 2007" is very well-organized and a very "user-friendly" manual. I highly recommend it to all adults.

I used this book several times for research on climatic design. the principles set forth here, have been built upon, expanded, and developed, but never sidelined. the book contains principles that can be utilized in nearly any climate, and any site. after using the book one gains a more thorough understanding of the climatic effects on the built environment.

As clinicians, we don't keep up with DSM's. About six months ago, I left my DSM-IVTR at home. I was working on a presentation on PTSD (first listed in DSM-III). So I wanted the most current information. I checked with about 12 docs, Psych Nurses Rx & clinicians on my floor. (I rent office space at our local psych hospital. I work mainly with severe & multiple diagnoses, and psychiatrists & the hospital are my primary referral sources.) No one had DSM-IVTR.

Certainly DSM-IV & IVTR have important diagnoses lacking in DSM-III, such as Reactive Attachment Disorder and Asperger's Syndrome. We don't want to be without that.

So why read DSM-III?

Comparing DSM-III with DSM-IVTR makes for interesting and a bit uneasy-making bedtime reading. We see many features of our modern mental health diagnosis, which DSM-III started off and which is now chugging merrily full-steam ahead. For example, DSM-III (1980) is about 450 pp, while DSM-IVTR, only 20 years later, is 900 pp. More diagnoses, and more behaviorally specific symptoms abound.

Shouldn't that make us happy -- we're getting better through these precisions, aren't we? Well, yes. No one who has coped with the terrible ease of misdiagnosis that DSM-II allowed wants to return to that. In the 1980's, for example, I saw far too many withdrawn, intellectually slow black women diagnosed with schizophrenia. (No white women -- strange, eh?) And the last DSM-II, 1976, only 150 pp. long, was the first DSM to remove homosexuality as a mental health diagnosis. For these mercies & accuracies, we're all of us pitifully grateful.

And yet....

Let's take Reactive Attachment Disorder or RAD. About eight years ago, a group of the greatest RAD experts tried to find a behavioral symptom list. They could only agree on one or two symptoms. About that same time, I had a RAD child with three co-equal care-givers. I gave them the best RAD test available (RADQ), and they all scored her at RAD-levels, but with markedly different behavioral symptoms! A little asking showed that if a behavioral symptom didn't bother the child's care-giver, she didn't do that with them. And it's well known that some kids only show RAD behaviors to one parent, or maybe not at school or in residential treatment. Does someone only show bipolar to one parent, or the flu only at school but not at home?

To broaden this RAD example, if you look at Bowlby's & Ainsworth's attachment distinctions, you can readily see, in them, most of our personality disorders, which are notoriously difficult to diagnose behaviorally across contexts. That's because they often don't go across contexts, and they show a lot more behavioral variety. One is left with the uneasy conclusion that maybe more & more of the type of precisions that DSM-III & beyond give us don't work here. We need a re-thinking of the type of concept needed for diagnosing some of our most urgent & hardest-to-treat disorders.

As another type of example of DSM dis-ease, with PTSD, depression/dysthmia is co-morbid with over 60%, and substance abuse with male vets runs about 75%. That common, are these really separate diagnoses? And while OCD is OCD, whether a hand-washing obsession or a hoarding/acquiring obsession, anyone who has treated these "same" diagnoses knows they really aren't the same at all in some very important ways -- the latter more like a personality disorder.

It's said that those who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it. We mental health professionals, so ignorant of our history, seem more likely to miss that a diagnostic scheme barely 25 years old, and now exclusive (except for family therapists) may not be the best one for understanding & treating some of what we face. In fact, we may need a pluralistic scheme that goes well beyond five axes, even with a threatened sixth axis added.

Reading DSM-III and comparing it with earlier & current DSM's is an excellent way to sensitize us to these issues and, perhaps, to some of our clients.

This illuminating and intelligent book, a fine study in how to manipulate public opinion.
Unfortunately, it was plagiarized by Tzarist Russia to become the infamous Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Many peope do not realize this.

This book is essential reading for all my favourite Americans who seem incapable of spelling anything correctly - that includes you Mr Rider.

Despite calling their language English it is anything but, more a random collection of words with vowels missing ('color' instead of 'colour') or bizarre word substitutions - why call a 'marrow' a 'squash', for goodness sake?

Here at last is a work that all Americans can study in order to correct their errant lexicographical ways before they are allowed back into the British Commonwealth of Nations. The first thing to fix is your word for 'petrol' (the liquid fuel used to power internal combustion engines) because it is not 'gas' - you don't need a degree in chemistry to know the difference.

Personally, I blame that traitor, Webster, and his deliberately provocative and misleadingly titled dictionary.

This is the best one among many dictionaries of classical mythology. And its English translation "The Dictionary of Classical Mythology" is maybe on the second status, although the latter includes some mistakes. I hope this English version should be revised as soon as possible.

I am a translator (17 years) I do a lot of medical - this dictionnary contains everything you can't find anywhere else! All the advanced complicated terms for brain surgery etc...

Un superbe ouvrage sur le moyen age. Écrit sous forme d'articles encyclopédiques, on peut lire sur une multitude de sujets.

Un superbe ouvrage sur le moyen age. Écrit sous forme d'articles encyclopédiques, on peut lire sur une multitude de sujets.

This text not only defines basic financial terms but, in addition, also defines and explains uncommon financial terms that are not widely known or heard of. The terminology dealt with in the text applies to those who have only a basic understanding of finance and seek translation as well as explanation and to those who have a dense financial vocabulary and seek to refresh their definitions of terms.