Social Context of HIV and AIDS in Africa
The government of Africa has been moving toward criminalization of HIV transmission in its attempts to respond to the rising numbers of HIV infections however, those who advocate for human rights are concerned that these laws result in a violation of the rights of individuals living with HIV and ultimately resulting in the marginalization of these individuals. As well, it has been argued that laws criminalizing transmission of AIDS are counterproductive to the reason for their creation, which is that of slowing the rate of transmission and infection of HIV. There are arguments both for and against criminalization of HIV transmission that are valid and worthy of consideration. The question addressed in this research study is one asking if criminalization of HIV transmission is a valid option to slowing the rate of infection among the population.
Social Context of Hysteria in Freud\'s Time
The concept of hysteria has long been believed to be a mental affliction which primarily affects women, with the prevailing belief being that a female’s inherent frailty left them to succumb to the psychological pressures of extreme stress. The first physicians to emerge from ancient Greece coined the term hysterical to describe the mental state of women who suffer a loss of self-control, bouts of paranoid delusion, and other erratic behavior. Indeed, the word hysteria itself id actually derived from the Greek word hystera, which means uterus, because the limited extent of medical knowledge during this era left men to believe that disturbances or dysfunction within a woman’s womb. Despite the pace of progression throughout the centuries which expanded mankind’s understanding of both human anatomy and cognitive processing, this outmoded belief as to the cause of hysteria managed to survive through the age of Freud, with psychological experts at the time largely attributing the episodes of unexplainable behavior characterized as hysteria to women unable to cope with stress. By subjecting Freud’s own work on the concept of hysteria to a comparative analysis with contemporary literature and scholarly research published during Freud’s lifetime, one can begin to grasp the impact between his investigations and experiments and our modern understanding of the psychological syndromes covered by the catch-all term hysteria.