Linda G. Russek

Perceptions of parental caring predict health status in midlife: A 35- year follow-up of the Harvard Mastery of Stress Study

Objective This study examined how the perception of parental caring, obtained from undergraduates, relates to subsequent health over the ensuing 35 years. Methods In the early 1950s, initial ratings of parental caring were obtained from a sample of healthy, Harvard undergraduate men who participated in the Harvard Mastery of Stress Study. In a 35 year prospective, follow-up investigation, detailed medical and psychological histories and medical records were obtained. Results Subjects identified in midlife as suffering from illnesses such as coronary artery disease, hypertension, duodenal ulcer, and alcoholism, gave their parents significantly lower ratings (p <.00003) on perceived parental caring items (loving, just, fair, hardworking, clever, strong) while in college. This effect was independent of subjects age, family history of illness, smoking behavior, the death and/or divorce of parents, and marital history of subjects. Furthermore, 87% of subjects who rated both their mothers and fathers low in parental caring had diagnosed diseases in midlife, whereas only 25% of subjects who rated both their mothers and fathers high in parental caring had diagnosed diseases in midlife. Conclusions Since parents are usually the most meaningful source of social support for much of early life, the perception of parental caring, and parental loving itself, may have important regulatory and predictive effects on biological and psychological health and illness.

Positive perceptions of parental caring are associated with reduced psychiatric and somatic symptoms.

Objective In a previous 35-year follow-up investigation to the Harvard Mastery of Stress Study, positive ratings of parental caring obtained in healthy male college students were found to be predictive of substantially reduced disease incidence (including cardiovascular disease, ulcers, and alcoholism) in mid-life. The present cross-sectional study examined the relationship between perceptions of parental caring, current psychiatric and somatic symptoms, and defensiveness, in a University of Arizona sample of females and males. Method The Harvard Parental Caring Scale (HPCS), the SCL90R, and the Marlowe-Crowne (MC) scale (a measure of defensiveness) were administered to 398 students at the University of Arizona. Results Cronbach alphas were .83 for HPCS ratings of mothers and .88 for fathers. High HPCS ratings were associated with reduced symptoms reports in both females and males (p < .00002). Ratings of HPCS showed a small correlation with defensiveness (r = .141). The relationship between HPCS and symptoms was strongest in the least defensive subjects. Conclusions Positive perceptions of love and caring from parents, typically the most important source of social support for children, are associated with reduced psychiatric and somatic symptoms. Defensiveness may play a protective role psychologically (but not necessarily physiologically) in reducing the conscious awareness of symptoms accompanying low perceptions of parental love and caring.

Changes in heart transplant recipients that parallel the personalities of their donors

Context: It is generally assumed that learning is restricted to neural and immune systems. However, the systemic memory hypothesis predicts that all dynamical systems that contain recurrent feedback loops store information and energy to various degrees. Sensitive transplant patients may evidence personal changes that parallel the history of their donors. Objective: To evaluate whether changes following heart transplant surgery parallel the history of the donors. Design: Open-ended interviews with volunteer (1) transplant recipients, (2) recipient families or friends, and (3) donor families or friends. Setting: Hospitals in various parts of the country. Patients: Ten recipients (7 males, 3 females; 7 months to 56 years old), received heart (or heart-lung) transplants (5 males, 5 females; 16 months to 34 years old). Main Outcome Measures: Transcripts of audio taped interviews quoted verbatim. Results: Two to 5 parallels per case were observed between changes following surgery and the histories of the donors. Parallels included changes in food, music, art, sexual, recreational, and career preferences, as well as specific instances of perceptions of names and sensory experiences related to the donors (e.g., one donor was killed by a gun shot to the face; the recipient had dreams of seeing hot flashes of light in his face). Conclusion: The incidence of recipient awareness of personal changes in cardiac transplant patients is unknown. The effects of the immunosuppressant drugs, stress of the surgery, and statistical coincidence are likely insufficient to explain the findings. The plausibility of cellular memory, possibly systemic memory, is suggested.

Anterior asymmetry, defensiveness, and perceptions of parental caring

Perceived parental caring and relative left frontal activation (LFA) of the electroencephalogram (EEG) have been associated with salutary mental and physical health benefits. Defensiveness on the other hand, is associated with decreased self-reported and other-reported psychopathology, and physical health liabilities. Though previous work has delineated relations among some of these factors (e.g. LFA and defensiveness, LFA and immune function, parental caring and defensiveness), the interrelationship of defensiveness, LFA, and parental caring is unknown. The present study examined relationships among defensiveness, perceived parental caring, and resting anterior asymmetry of the electroencephalogram. Defensiveness and perceived maternal caring contributed significant unique variance to the prediction of relative left lateral frontal activation. Paternal caring did not correlate with left frontal activation. The results are discussed as they relate to the relevance of these factors for physical and mental health.

Integrating belief systems and therapies in medicine: Application of the eight world hypotheses to classical homeopathy

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to apply the eight world hypotheses model of science to classical homeopathy. The model identifies an interactive hierarchy of levels of thinking about nature: (1) formistic/categorical; (2) mechanistic/cause-effect; (3) contextual/relativistic; (4) organismic; (5) implicit process; (6) circular causality; (7) creative unfolding; and (8) integrative diversity. These levels represent different scientific paradigms, i.e., classical science (levels 1–2), modern science (levels 3–4), postmodern science (levels 5–6), and integrative science (levels 7–8), which help explain the variability with which mainstream medicine has begun to integrate different forms of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Homeopathy is one of the most comprehensive systems of CAM therapies, but to date it has received little consideration for integration. After summarizing the theory and practice of homeopathy, we use these concepts within the eight world hypotheses to provide a framework for understanding homeopathy’s past rejection by conventional medicine and for facilitating research toward the integration of homeopathy into the mainstream medicine of the future.

The plausibility of homeopathy: The systemic memory mechanism

Abstract Despite 200 years of practice of high dilution therapy known as homeopathy, and despite a number of recent studies documenting homeopathic treatment effects under double-blind conditions, the medical and scientific community has generally dismissed these findings because of a lack of a plausible mechanism for the observed effects. This article outlines how modern systems science reenvisions memory in water and dynamic systems in general. We present the logic that inexorably leads to the prediction that recurrent feedback interactions result in the storage of information and the creation of systemic memories in dynamic systems at all levels in nature. The complex nonlinear interactions that naturally accumulate through the circulation of information and energy in systems are shown to be dynamic memories that reflect the evolving identity of systems as emerging wholes. The theory provides a highly plausible mechanism for understanding numerous seemingly implausible and controversial observations in contemporary science and medicine, including memory in water and homeopathy.

A Matter of Life or Death: Organizational Change in the Real World

There are times when even academics have a chance to get their feet wet in the real world-to use their expertise in a collaborative effort to help make a difference on a matter of deep public concern. This article describes the efforts of a handful of academic researchers from varying disciplinary backgrounds who pooled their respective expertise in an attempt to influence a real life-or-death situation (the impending execution of a potentially innocent person). The challenges to personal and organizational change are described and discussed.