2007-2008 Calendar
Thursday Professional Lectures
For further information, contact the Thursday Lecture Series Coordinator, Keo Miller.
October 4, 2007
Belongingness and the Origins of Religion: Thinking Beyond the Gene
Barbara King, PhD, Professor of Anthropology, College of William and Mary
Thinking systems about the deepest roots of human religious behavior is a challenging but rewarding task. Drawing on my recent book, Evolving God, I argue that a key to understanding the prehistory of religion centers around belongingness, the primate need to matter to others. Evidence from anthropology, ranging from ape empathy to Neanderthal burials to early human art, reveals what happens when primates come together in the processes of emotional “meaning-making.” This focus escapes reducing religion to the God genes or God memes of recent popular science.
December 6, 2007
Does It Matter Which Systems Theory You Use?
Kathleen B. Kerr, MSN, MA, The Bowen Center Faculty
Systems theories other than Bowen theory do not lead to an understanding of the family as an emotional unit. Nor do they highlight the reciprocity of dyadic and triangular relationship patterns in the same way. In addition, these theories often infer intentionality rather than understanding behavior as automatic and instinctually driven. For individuals working on themselves, for therapists lending a hand to families, and for people studying human behavior, these theoretical differences lead to different understandings of how human relationship systems work. When the family is seen as an emotional unit, deeply reciprocal relationship patterns are the focus of theory and therapy.
January 10, 2008
Natural Hazards and Possible Connection to Climate Change
Dr. Menas Kafatos, Astrophysicist, Professor of Interdisciplinary Science, George Mason University
Natural hazards pose substantial threats to all countries, but particularly to poor countries. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, for example, showed how vulnerable poor countries and populations can be as disaster strikes. Yet in 2005, Hurricane Katrina showed that even a modernized country like the United States can be substantially unprepared for major damage. This talk will examine several natural hazards that become disasters, including earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, dust storms, fires, and floods. The possible link between natural hazards and global climate change will also be discussed.
View an article by Dr. Kafatos on climate change.
February 7, 2008
The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: A Bowen Family Systems View
Shelly Fine, MA, LHMC, Private Practitioner
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be explored from its beginnings in the late 1800s up to present day using Bowen family systems. It is postulated that the two protagonists have been locked in an overfunctioning/underfunctioning reciprocity that has been reinforced by the triangling of primarily, Britain, Russia/Soviet Union, and the United States. Terrorism has been the result.
March 6, 2008
Building Anxiety into Society Infrastructure
Patricia A. Comella, JD, The Bowen Center Faculty
The use of the atom is a source of chronic, sustained anxiety, most likely born at the time of the atomic bomb explosions on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The peaceful uses of the atom have been highly regulated throughout the world, especially in the generation of electricity and in the use of enrichment technology. In this presentation, an analysis of legal and regulatory infrastructure will be discussed in a manner that illustrates how the intensity of societal reactivity is reflected in law and regulation.
April 10, 2008
The Importance of Schizophrenia
Clarence Boyd, MSW, LCSW
Understanding the emotional processes in schizophrenia are a rich resource for learning about all human behavior. This presentation will cover observations from forty-five years of clinical practice. The presentation touches upon influential thinkers such as Harry Stack Sullivan and Murray Bowen, whose writings on the subject of schizophrenia the presenter has recently reviewed at the National Library of Medicine.
May 8, 2008
Grandparent Rights and the Law
Marilyn Klawiter, PhD, JD
Do grandparents have a right to see their grandchildren? Whether they do is a matter of the law of the state in which the children live. In 2000, the Supreme Court, in Troxel v. Granville, held a Washington visitation statute unconstitutional. Almost immediately, parents elsewhere began challenging their states’ grandparent visitation statutes, with widely differing results. This lecture will focus on one such case, litigated in Michigan and Colorado.
June 5, 2008
New Tools New Universe: How Photography Changed Our Universe from One of Stars to One of Galaxies David Dvorkin, PhD., Curator, National Air and Space Museum
What kind of universe do we live in? This question has been posed in all ages, on all continents, and in all languages, but the first person to speculate about the form and structure of the universe based on direct observation and statistical analysis was William Herschel in the late 18th century. He could not decide, however, if the universe was composed of the stars we see in the sky or if it was a much faster collection of systems of stars. This question was debated throughout the 19th and well into the 20th century, when it was finally answered by the observations and analysis of Edwin Hubble. Here we will explore this debate and how the application of photography was an essential ingredient in the solution.
July 10, 2008
Updating the Unidisease Concept
Michael E. Kerr, MD, Director, The Bowen Center
Dr. Kerr proposed that the unidisease model become a new concept in Bowen theory at the 2006 Annual Family Symposium. The plan was to publish a journal article about the concept. This remains a work in progress, but new facts are continually being discovered supporting the idea that all clinical diagnostic categories have important family emotional and biological processes in common. These processes are better predictors of clinical outcome than the particular diagnostic label. The presentation will update the current status of this concept. |
Lectures are held at the Georgetown Family
Center at 7:30 pm on the 2007-2008 calendar dates shown below. The lectures are free
and open to the public. On-street parking is available.