A Jeanne Site
Continuation of Bell Curve Genetic Arguments
Educational Links, NIMH
California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Latest update: February 28, 2000
Curran or Takata.
Peace and Education E-Mail Alert
In the early nineties, Hernstein and Murray published the Bell Curve, which followed the tradition of Jensen's "Compensatory education has been tried and failed." published in the 70s, by the Harvard Educational Review. Each decade or so there is some piece of definitive scholarship designed to inform us that there is no better alternative to educations as we presently experience it. Of course, Jensen, whose conclusion was that Blacks were genetically unsuited to abstract thinking, had just published a book with White and Katz called Social Class, Race, and Psychological Development, in which the authors concluded that social construction plays a major role in competent intellectual performance. White and Katz scrambled to disassociate themselves from Jensen. And the tradition went on . . .
Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2000
Subject: Violence Initiative Project & Genes
Beware The Violence Initiative Project:
Coming Soon to an Inner City Near You
by Mitchel Cohen
"Unemployment runs in the genes just like bad teeth."
Richard Herrnstein, Princeton University, co author of "The Bell Curve"
As late as the 1980s, a small but influential coterie of prize-winning scientists were trying to prove that black children were, on average, less intelligent than white children. Intelligence, they said, ran "in the genes" of racial groups.
Their evidence? They reviewed the infamous studies of "twins" who had been separated at birth and raised far from each other, to prove the validity of genetic determination of behavior. They also compiled results from IQ tests across the country and subjected them to statistical analyses, which, they claimed, showed a general differential between racial groups. This alleged differential, they went on, was due to genetic factors. These scientists -- all of whom were white -- concluded that black people were genetically inferior to whites, when it came to intelligence.
And yet these smart scientists made a number of critical errors trying to squeeze their round "facts" into square holes. For one, the variation of IQ scores _within_ each racial group far outstripped the differential _between_ racial groups. So, many individual black children turned out to score higher on IQ tests than many individual white kids. In fact, there was and is no valid way of predicting how an individual child of any ethnic or racial background would, all other factors aside, perform on standardized IQ tests.
A second critical blow to their theory of Aryan intellectual supremacy had to do with the nature of standardized IQ tests themselves. What exactly did these tests measure? Were they culturally or racially biased? A large body of work was presented in the 1970s and early 1980s that left in shreds the notion that standardized IQ tests measured anything "objective" at all. Many of the test's questions showed them to be racially and sexually biased; they did not speak to a black child's experience, which differs vastly from the white "norm".
Lastly, Sir Cyril Burt's "twins' studies" on which many racially charged IQ assertions had been based turned out to have been fabricated, and the benighted scientist's reputation now lies in tatters and his name disgraced.
Although such racially based intelligence theories never fully went away (and, let us not forget, "race" is defined in this literature as "genetically based"), they were roundly discreditedscientifically. (See, for instance, Stephen Jay Gould, "The Mismeasure of Man," W.W. Norton, 1981.) In fact, as professor Gerald Horne writes, it became increasingly clear that "research is never `neutral.' Who asks the questions, what questions are asked and what ones ignored, who pays for the research, who interprets the results are all subjective decisions outside the realm of `pure science.' The bias is built in." (1)
It was not until the publication of "The Bell Curve" in the early 1990s, by Herrnstein and Murray, that some of the same quack theorists re-emerged from their crypts and, with new jargon, proceeded to offer the same white supremacy in the guise of new "scientific research."
Today, some scientists are again proposing biologically deterministic explanations for behavior, but instead of focussing on the genetic basis of "intelligence" they now substitute the more au courant "violence" -- a hereditary characteristic of Black and Latino people, they say. The recent biology-and-crime movement was kicked off by the publication in 1985 of "Crime and Human Nature" by James Q. Wilson and Richa rd Herrnstein. A major media campaign followed, leading in 1992 to a report by the National Academy of Sciences and the National Research Council, "Understanding and PreventingViolence," which called for more attention to "biological and genetic factors" in violent crime, "new pharmaceuticals that reduce violent behavior," and studies of "whether male or black persons have a higher potential for violence." Unlike the case with IQ, scientists claim they can control the alleged "genetic predisposition" of black children to committing criminal acts of violence by medicating them, before aggressive behavior and violence ensues.
And so, under the aegis of the federally funded Violence Initiative Project, Gail Wasserman, a professor in Child Psychiatry at Columbia University, [she's an Associate Clinical Professor of Medical Psychology] and Daniel Pine, a medical doctor associated with the same institution [he's an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry] have picked up where the utterly discredited racially based intelligence theories of Jensen, Herrnstein, Eysenck, Shockley and Murray left off. They lead a team of researchers in performing numerous experiments, partly funded by federal tax dollars, on Black and Latino children as young as six years of age.
Says Gail Wasserman, Ph.D., in her funding proposal to establish a "behavioral disorders" center at Columbia University's Department of Child Psychiatry: "It is proper to focus on blacks and other minorities as they are over represented in the courts and not well studied."
In one such "study" at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, Wasserman and her cohorts took 34 healthy boys, ages six to ten, and administered to them the dangerous drug, fenfluramine. Fenfluramine is the primary ingredient in the diet drug fen-phen, which has been banned by the U.S. government. (2) The boys were all from impoverished families; 44 percent were African American and 56 percent were Hispanic.
The boys were made to fast for twelve hours prior to the test, and during the test were allowed only water. An intravenous catheter was inserted and designed to remain in place for five and one half hours. During that period, a dose of the drug fenfluramine hydroxide was administered (10 mg/kg). Blood was drawn hourly.
Ninety percent of adult subjects experience side effects from a single dose of fenfluramine -- and here Wasserman and Pine are administering it to children! Effects of a single dose of fenfluramine on adults "frequently include anxiety, fatigue, headache, lightheadedness, difficulty concentrating, visual impairment, diarrhea, nausea, a feeling of being 'high' and irritability. (3) Federal Drug Administration studies show that the drug causes severe heart valve damage in as many as thirty percent of the adults who take it. (4) Fenfluramine has also been shown to cause a fatal heart condition known as pulmonary hypertension. (5) And studies done on rodents and monkeys showed that a single dose of fenfluramine caused microscopic damage to brain cells lasting up to 18 months. Yet the NY State Psychiatric Institute proceeded with administering fenfluramine to children -- in doses 8 times higher than that causing damage in monkeys' brains -- even after and the drug had been banned in September, 1997.
In using that drug, the clinicians hypothesized they could counter the alleged racially inherited genetic predisposition to aggressive behavior and violence by increasing serotonin levels in the brain. Some scientists have correlated low serotonin levels with aggressive behavior. (Whether decreased serotonin levels _cause_ aggression or are manifested "effects" of it is a distinction all-too-often fudged in the scientists' public statements.) By increasing serotonin levels, the researchers hypothesized, they could claim that the (genetically determined) levels of serotonin are further reduced by socially adverse child rearing practices in Black and Latino familes. Through medication, they say, they could increase serotonin levels and thereby counter the negative effects of "adverse child rearing," which would prevent the kids from committing acts of violence. This despite the fact that most of the children had not committed any acts of violence at all!
The children were selected because they 1) were Black or Latino, and 2) each had older siblings who had been delinquents known to the Family Court. The children's names and addresses were -- and continue to be -- sorted and channelled by government officials on the public payroll at the Department of Probation and the New York City Board of Education, and passed along to the researchers. So much for claims of legal confidentiality! This insidious involvement of public officials became known thanks primarily to expos=E9s in local newspapers, based on stories fed to reporters by anti-racist activists.(6)
Forced to reply, the NYC Board of Education spokesperson denied that students had been referred for the purpose of participating in research. But the documents prove the Board was lying. In fact, writes NY Newsday, the Board's Committee on Special Education "worked closely with the researchers from the beginning." (7) And, as the Department of Probation itself has written, "We are participating in a Research Project being conducted by Professor Gail Wasserman, of Columbia University, regarding younger brothers of male offenders, in a [sic] effort to identify early predictors of anti social behavior."(8) The memo was leaked by Probation Officer Renee Jackson, who has been subjected to harassment, changed job assignments, and constant pressure ever since -- her payback for having the courage to protest the the Probation Department's complicity with the Violence Initiative Project.
Nor are the experiments limited to Pine, Wasserman and other researchers from the New York State Psychiatric Institute, who have been experimenting on young minority children since 1992. Similar experiments have been going on at Queens College and Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York, and at facilities throughout the United States, under the rubric of the National Violence Initiative Project, supervised and funded through the National Institute of Mental Health.
And the money is pouring in. By claiming genetic predisposition, >>psychiatrists are able to tap into the hundreds of millions of >>dollars available for genetics research -- the latest fad. That's >>the new claim for why people do anything: commit violent crimes, >>engage in homosexual or heterosexual behavior (with the latter >>still, illogically, seen as the norm), come down with certain cancers, >>even commit murder -- it's in the genes. The money, in turn, has >>fueled all sorts of similar "projects," including new methods >>for genetically frisking prisoners for "bad DNA" -- that is, >>obtaining samples of prisoners' DNA, computerizing its >>sequence and storing it for future use. >>
Far less in public resources is spent on researching the effects >>of toxic by-products of industrial production and chemicalized >>agriculture in causing cancer, lead poisoning and other immune- >>compromising "diseases." Instead, funding -- and thus, blame -- >>is shifted to an individual's (or ethnic/racial grouping's) >>biological makeup, their "genetic predisposition" to, for instance, >>breast cancer (even though the "gene that causes breast >>cancer" panic of the last few years is utterly fraudulent). In >>such a framework, the widespread social and environmental >>causes are ignored and the victim becomes targeted as the >>culprit. "It's their own fault." Or, if not their "fault," the more >>liberal version goes, it's still "in their genes, poor soul." >>
Thus, we see, today, psycho-surgery, lobotomies, and electro- >>shock making a comeback, as well as medicalization of what are >>fundamentally socially or environmentally caused ailments and >>behaviors. New and dangerous genetically engineered drugs are >>being tested on prisoners, soldiers and mental patients institution- >>alized in asylums or warehoused in impoverished inner city slums, >>Indian reservations, and Third World countries. To the giant >>pharmaceutical corporations, as well as to the government, these >>areas provide human guinea pigs. The Violence Initiative Project >>is the new face of what can best be described as Nazi "science" >>with an American accent. And it has been flourishing under the >>Clinton/Gore administration as much as it had under the Republicans >>-- perhaps more so. >>
Holistic thinking is, to say the least, not one of Western science's >>strong points. Here in the U.S. we tend to think in terms of cause >>and effect, every effect being determined by its singular cause, >>every trait being determined by and an expression of its singular >>gene, and remedied in a similar manner. But scientists can no more >>predict the full effects of altering a single gene on an individual >>organism -- let alone on larger eco-systems in which plants, animals >>and micro-organisms evolve in precarious balance and symbiotic >>relation to each other -- than they could track a particular electron >>through a single atom, let alone through the course of a nuclear >>bomb blast or the evolution of the universe. Recent experiments >>in gene therapy have even caused the deaths of relatively >>healthy patients, and the Food and Drug Administration has >>ordered shut down human gene therapy experiments at the >>University of Pennsylvania and a review of such experiments >>throughout the US, after an inspection uncovered "numerous >>serious deficiencies" in ensuring patient safety during a >>clinical trial that cost an 18-year-old Arizona man his life.(9) >>
The static and reductionistic thinking emblematic of genetic >>explanations for behavior leaves out, among other things, _process,_ >>the way in which interactions between things synergistically >>create complex environments which feed back into and reshape >>the very items said to have "caused" them, transforming the entire >>relationship. From the earliest models of how our cells work, >>reductionism provided the basic (and wrong) framework: DNA, >>most scientists said, determines genes, genes determine chromo- >>somes, which determine cells, which determine tissues, which >>determine organs, which determine organisms, which (for some) >>determine behavior, and on out into the multi-layered cosmos. >>According to the genetic model of the 1960s -- which still >>dominates most collegiate texts and certainly the public >>mindset -- the genetic information of a segment of DNA -- >>a gene -- is transcribed into messenger RNA that in turn is >>translated into a protein, one to one to one. >>
But, back in the 1970s, a donkey upset the neatly piled >>applecart. "Researchers made the surprising discovery that, in >>the cells of higher organisms, messenger RNA is altered by >>enzymes _before_ its information is translated into protein >>(Chambon, 1981). In the language of genetics, pieces of RNA >>are excised from the molecule and the remaining pieces are >>fused to make the functional RNA that then serves as the >>template for protein synthesis. There is no one to one corres- >>pondence between DNA sequence and proteins."(10) >>
Cellular Biologist Stuart Newman took the implicit critique of >>strict genetic determinism a step further and explicitly laid out >>multi-tiered and interactive mechanisms of development, cell >>morphogenesis and pattern formation that relied on such non- >>reductionist factors as the position of a cell with respect to >>other cells; how position affects its internal chemistry, which >>in turn impacts on salt levels and other nutrients, which >>in turn affects the development of the body's organs.(11) The >>whole, in other words, shapes the parts as much as the parts >>generate the whole. According to Newman, the interaction >>between living cells and their environment makes possible a >>vast number of pathways development of the organism could >>take. Genes should be seen more as repositories of development >>that has already happened, winnowing down the possibilities >>rather than actively determining what is _going to_ happen. >>
Newman's approach removes biology from the reductionist >>framework holding it back, and brings to it a powerful dialectical >>approach. Summing up one of his many investigations, Newman >>writes: >>
"Both cells and ecosystems can thus be analyzed as highly complex >>networks of large numbers of components undergoing mutually >>dependent changes in their relative abundances. But while this way >>of thinking is common among ecologists, it is not well suited to >>making precise predictions, and has failed to take hold to any >>significant extent in cell biology. Instead, the most common >>intellectual framework of cell and molecular biologists is a >>reductionist approach. The preferred objects of study are detailed >>interrelations among small numbers of relatively isolated components. >>In this paradigm, an understanding of the qualitative properties of >>the system as a whole, such as the conditions for stable, periodic, >>and chaotic behaviors, is sacrificed in favor of exact knowledge >>of a more limited set of phenomena. >>
"Undoubtedly many scientists, working in this reductionist tradition, >>were surprised to learn from recent studies of so called "oncogenes" >>or cancer associated DNA, that the introduction into cells of the >>capability of making a normal cellular protein in slightly greater >>amounts, or in a slightly altered form than usual, could render that >>cell cancerous, with all the multifarious behavioral changes implied by >>that term. In spite of this, many molecular biologists, when asked to >>consider the impact of introducing new components into complex >>_ecological_ systems, have remained within their reductionist >>framework and have dismissed the potential for ecological harm >>from the release of what they consider to be well-characterized >>entities."(12) >>
The scientists working on the Violence Initiative Project are >>among those trapped in the reductionist framework. They start >>where the book "The Bell Curve" leaves off -- the search for >>the gene or biological configuration that "causes" criminal behavior >>and the assumption that intelligence, poverty, and criminal behavior >>is the result of "deficient" genes. (The researchers involved do >>concede, when pressed, that environmental factors do play some >>part, but that environment mostly serves to bring out inherited >>traits that are already present.) The Violence Initiative is a >>well funded attempt to assert a genetic predisposition to commit- >>ting a violent crime, and to paint it with a racial brush. Young white >>males are seen as "less violent", and thus not genetically predisposed >>to aggressive behavior. Why? Because criminal records show that a >>much larger percentage of Black people and Latinos are involved in >>the criminal justice system, from which the siblings are drawn. The >>Violence Initiative Project seeks to provide scientific cover for >>such circular reasoning, and for the police and government repres- >>sion that has led to the criminalization of more than 1/3rd of all >>Black males in the United States. >>
The race based "biological theory of aggression" is neither new >>nor scientific. One champion of the Violence Initiative, Dr. >>Frederick Goodwin, defended the "theory" before the National >>Health Advisory Council in February 1992: >>
"If you look, for example, at male monkeys, especially in the >>wild, roughly half of them survive to adulthood. The other half >>die by violence. That is the natural way of it for males, to knock >>each other off and, in fact, there are some interesting evolutionary >>implications of that because the same hyperaggressive monkeys who >>kill each other are also hypersexual, so they copulate more and >>therefore they reproduce more to offset the fact that half of >>them are dying. Now, one could say that if some of the loss of >>social structure in this society, and particularly within the high >>impact inner city areas, has removed some of the civilizing >>evolutionary things that we have built up and that maybe it isn't >>just the careless use of the word when people call certain areas >>of certain cities jungles, that we may have gone back to what >>might be more natural, without all of the social controls that we >>have imposed upon ourselves as a civilization over thousands of >>years in our own evolution." (13) >>
Goodwin follows in a long line of proponents of racial supremacy >>who have traded in the Klan's white sheets for white lab coats. >>They argue that social problems are caused by biologically >>defective members of oppressed classes; society can be improved >>by identifying and eliminating the propagation of these "defectives." >>In the 1850s, Louisiana physician Samuel Cartwright described a >>mental disease of slaves called "drapetomania," which caused its >>victims to run away from their masters. A century later, American >>physicians Vernon Mark, Frank Ervin and William Sweet proposed >>that urban rebellions were caused by brain damaged individuals >>who could be cured by psychosurgery (lobotomy). They received >>almost $1 million in federal funding.(14) >>
In the 1970s, O.J. Andy, director of Neurosurgery at the Univer- >>sity of Mississippi, published reports on invasive surgeries he >>had performed on children who were said to be developmentally >>disabled. (All were Black.) Dr. Peter Breggin describes Andy's >>surgical achievements: JM was a nine year old boy said to be >>"hyperactive, aggressive, combative, explosive, destructive and >>sadistic" -- a prime candidate, in 1966, for O.J. Andy's psycho- >>surgery. Over a three year period, Andy operated on the child on >>four different occasions. He implanted electrodes in his brain. >>Andy concluded, in a 1970 article, that JM was no longer >>combative or aggressive. In actuality, Andy had mashed the child's >>brain, suppressing intellect and emotion, and disabled the child by >>turning him into a vegetable.(15) Dr. Andy revealed that "the kind >>of brain damage that could necessitate such radical surgery >>might be manifested by participation in the Watts Uprising. >>Such people, he diagnosed, `could have abnormal pathological >>brains.' " (16) >>
The Coalition Against the Violence Initiative is leading the attack >>against such misuses of science. CAVI claims that aggressive, >>violent or criminal behavior is no more determined by genes than >>is the desire to study "the inheritance of violence" or "the >>predisposition" to become a corporate lawyer (which often runs >>in the family). One could argue that cops, generals, football >>players and many others have inherited a violence gene that >>predisposes them to committing acts of violence -- not to mention >>corporate executives and politicans who murder with their pens. >>Capitalism itself is inherently violent; the removal of the products >>of labor from those who produce it -- the underlying basis of >>the system -- requires an enormous level of violence and the system >>selects for those kinds of personalities capable of ministering to >>capital's needs. The society we live in validates that violence; but >>because it becomes part of the social substrate most don't see it >>as abnormal -- or, for that matter, as violent. Nonetheless, people >>shape, and are primarily shaped by, social -- not genetic -- >>conditions which strongly influence their activities. >>
The reductionist and biodeterminist approach exemplified by >>the Violence Initiave Project is rampant in the scientific >>establishment's approach to social ills. In November, 1998, >>researchers distributed a memo to staff at George Washington >>High School in Upper Manhattan announcing a survey to be >>done on freshmen "at risk for" "negative behaviors." By now, >>we should all have an idea of what "at risk for" means. >>Youngsters so designated are to be sent to the clinic run by >>Columbia Presbyterian and the Columbia School of Public Health, >>for "assessment." >>
The Coalition Against the Violence Initiative (CAVI) sent a >>strongly worded letter to the principal outlining its concerns and >>calling for cancellation of the survey. Members passed out leaflets >>to students and parents alerting them to the dangers and advising >>them not to sign consent forms. Members of Lawyers for the >>Public Interest also called the school, as did a number of >>individual teachers whom the Coalition had contacted. As we go >>to press, we have just learned of a victory for the Coalition -- >>the principal canceledthe survey. >>
But despite occasional victories for those resisting genetic >>manipulation, the Violence Initiative Project, along with the >>biotech industry, is charging ahead full speed, knocking aside >>all who dare to question both the Project's and the industry's >>apparent willingness to sacrifice our lives and environment in >>their rush for profits and social control of oppositional forces. >>
In a brilliant article scathing the project, Gerald Horne wrote: >>
"Under the Initiative, researchers will use alleged genetic and >>biochemical markers to identify potentially violent minority >>children as young as five for biological and behavioral interventions >>-- including drug therapy and possibly psychosurgery [electro shock >>and lobotomies] -- purportedly aimed at preventing later adult >>violence. >>
"The Initiative specifically rejects any examination of social, >>economic, or political questions, such as racism, poverty, or >>unemployment. Instead, this biomedical approach focuses heavily >>on the alleged role of the brain neurotransmitter, serotonin, in >>violence. Not coincidentally, this approach is favored by many >>in the medical industry."(17) >>
Dr. Peter Breggin, a leading analyst in the field, has observed, >>"This [approach] corresponds with the current financial interests >>of the pharmaceutical industry, since several drugs affecting >>serotonin neurotransmission have been submitted for approval >>to the Food and Drug Administration. ... The controversial anti- >>depressant, Prozac, is the first of these serotonergic drugs, >>and it has become the largest moneymaker in the pharmaceutical >>industry."(18) >>
Against this backdrop, NIH provided a hefty $100,000 grant >>for a conference entitled "Genetic Factors in Crime: Findings, >>Uses and Implications." It was to be sponsored by the Institute >>for Philosophy and Public Policy at the University of Maryland >>and slated for October 1992. The promotional brochure promised >>that "genetic research holds out the prospect of identifying >>individuals who may be predisposed to certain kinds of criminal >>conduct, of isolating environmental features which trigger those >>predispositions, and of treating some predispositions with drugs >>and unintrusive therapies."(19) Genetic research also gains impetus >>from the shortcomings of liberal "environmental" approaches to >>crime -- deterrence, diversion and rehabilitation.(20) Thus, the >>failure of the liberal paradigm (as opposed to the many radical >>models developed by social movements in conjunction with truly >>engaged scientists which, of course, has never been tried in the >>U.S.), has now allowed focus to shift to exclusively genetic >>and medical "solutions." >>
Radicals, however, _have_ succeeded in leaving our mark. In >>the 1970s we managed to beat back attempts by William Shockley >>and others to lay a pseudo scientific basis for the racial inheritance >>of intelligence, and the disastrous policy implications being pursued >>at the time, by refuting each and every "scientific" assertion they >>made, as well as by exposing their funding sources. So too with the >>Violence Initiative Project, at least initially. "The ensuing protest >>caused NIH to freeze conference funding -- temporarily. The >>objections were led by enraged African Americans concerned >>that, in these dangerous times, such a project could easily be >>transformed into directed genocide. Their concern was not assuaged >>when it was revealed that Reagan appointee Marianne Mele Hall >>proclaimed that black and brown people are culturally or even >>genetically inferior. They have been conditioned, she said, 'by >>10,000 years of selective breeding for personal combat and the >>anti-work ethic of jungle freedoms' and were therefore unfit >>for civic life. Great Society programs just `spoiled' them, she >>argued, encouraging a sense of entitlements that led to laziness, >>drug use, and crime, particularly crime against whites.' " (21) >>
Which brings us back to Goodwin. When we last left him, he >>was being chastised for making similar reference to jungles, >>comparing Black people with monkeys. Dr. Horne writes: "By >>associating African Americans with monkeys and `hypersexuality,' >>Goodwin tapped into a wellspring of racist sentiment." Health and >>Human Services Secretary Dr. Louis Sullivan joined many others >>and criticized Goodwin's remarks. But Goodwin's disfavor >>lasted, oh, around a week. Shortly thereafter, Sullivan in effect >>rewarded Goodwin by appointing him head of the influential >>National Institute of Mental Health -- a post not requiring Senate >>approval. >>
Since leaving the federal government, Sullivan has gone on to >>his latest crusade: testifying alongside former President Jimmy >>Carter on behalf of Monsanto and the wonders of genetically- >>engineered agriculture. >>
As for Goodwin, his first project as head of the National >>Institute of Mental Health: Approval of funding for the National >>Violence Initiative.(22) >>
THE RESULTS ARE IN >>
The long awaited results of the "studies" on young children are >>now in. They are exactly the reverse of what had been expected! >>The children, genetically and hormonally "predisposed" to >>aggression and violence due to low serotonin levels and bad >>parenting, turn out to have normal or elevated serotonin levels! >>(Remember: the researchers hypothesized that _low_ serotonin >>levels led to aggression and violence). >>
Case closed? Guess again. Since Wasserman, Pine, et al. had >>determined in advance what their conclusions were to be, and >>since their golden egg laying goose needed to be coaxed yet >>again for further funding, they "explained" these results by >>inventing, out of thin air, the conclusion that _serotonin has >>the opposite effect in children as in adults._ Perhaps, they >>continued, high serotonin in childhood _leads_ to low serotonin >>in adults. Thus, they took a group of Black and Latino kids with >>no history of trouble, in whom no expected abnormalities were >>found, whose serotonin levels were basically normal or slightly >>higher than expected and waved their magic wand, to draw more >>funds for their Nazi research. >>
But similar projects are underway throughout the city and, indeed, >>throughout the country, as is resistance to them. CAVI has >>targeted the NY Psychiatric Institute on a number of occasions. >>Last year, a small group from the Coalition decided to take their >>protests directly to the source. They picketed the "Mood & Anxiety >>Disorders in Children" conference at the Hotel Pennsylvania >>(New York City), where Daniel Pine was a featured speaker (topic: >>"Psychobiology and Pharmacotherapy of Anxiety Disorders in >>Youth"). In incestuous arrangements that are growing increasingly >>common, the "scientific" program was supported in part by a grant >>from Solvay Pharmaceuticals. Two CAVI activists were arrested >>and dragged out of the proceedings after attempting to hang >>a banner from the balcony. They were strip-searched by guards >>while awaiting arraignment, and now face criminal charges. >> >>The Coalition fears that those most affected by Wasserman, Pine, >>et al. -- the parents and children -- remain largely uninformed >>about the nature and outlook of the studies being conducted on >>them. CAVI remains as skeptical as ever about the labeling of a >>large number of children, disproportionately minority and poor >>children, as having mental illness, and about the role of genetic >>explanations in legitimizing racial supremacist ideas and behavior >>-- in the name of "science". Those honestly concerned with children's >>mental health should take action to heal their environment, in the >>familial as well as broader sense, rather than looking for genetic, >>hormonal and other causes of children's distress within the >>kids' biological makeup. >> >>It is sad day in the gulag, indeed, when the death of a patient, >>as in the University of Pennsylvania genetic treatment experiment, >>goes unreported because it is considered "proprietary business >>information." The interface between funding and research has >>always been an awkward match in the U.S. The Violence Initiative >>Project is another way of deploying new levels of repression, >>using the rhetoric of "science" as a smokescreen for white >>supremacist ideology -- and control. >> >>For more information, please contact: The Coalition Against >>the Violence Initiative, c/o Social Justice Ministries, The >>Riverside Church, 490 Riverside Drive, NYC 10027. Also: >>Carol Cage, (212) 330 8677 or (212) 927 9053. >> >>NOTES >>
1. Gerald Horne, "Race Backwards: Genes, Violence, Race and Genocide," CovertAction Quarterly, Winter 1992-93, p.34.
2. Daniel S. Pine et al., "Neuroendocrine Response to Fenfluramine Challenge in Boys," 54 Arch. Gen. Psych. 839, 840 (September 1997). Also, see Daniel S. Pine et al., "Platelet Serotonin 2A (5 HT 2A) Receptor Characteristics and Parenting Factors for Boys at Risk for Delinquency: A Preliminary Report," American Journal of Psychiatry, 1996, 538, 539, which describes a second experiment conducted on the same 34 boys. (Note that the earlier study was published last.)
3. Matthew F. Muldoon et al., "D. L Fenfluramine Challenge Test: Experience in Nonpatient Sample," 39 Biological Psych. 761, 765 (1996). 4. "Questions and Answers Concerning the Department of Health >>and Fenfluramine," Food & Drug Administration, Nov. 13, 1997. >>http://www.fda.gov/cder/news/fenqal11397.htm.; also, Gina >>Kolata, "Two Popular Diet Pills Are Withdrawn from Market," >>The NY Times, Sept. 16, 1997. >> >>5. Cliff Zucker, Disability Advocates, Inc., and Ruth Lowenkron, >>Disability Law Center, NY Lawyers for the Public Interest, >>Inc., December 23, 1997 letter to Clifford C. Sharke, Chief, >>Assurance Branch, Division of Human Subject Protections, >>Office of Protection from Research Risks, Rockville MD. >> >>6. "Half Truths and Consequences: Did Doctors Mislead the >>Parents of Kids they Experimented On?," Village Voice, May 5, >>1998; "Kid drug test foes picket new hosp site," NY Post, May 9, >>1998; "Thugs in Bassinets: Teen age violence, studies suggest, >>begins in the first three years of life," NY Times, May 17, 1998; >>"Drug tst kids bay have been forced: Kin hoped other sibs might >>benefit," NY Post, June 12, 1998; "Ed. Board referred kids for >>drug study, NY Post, July 28, 1998; "Students Ended Up In >>Study: Psych referrals became part of drug research," >>Newsday, July 28, 1998.) >> >>7. Indeed, the original proposal submitted to the National >>Institute of Mental Health, refers to the special education >>committee as "one particularly productive referral source," >>and noted that researchers had made "successful liaisons with >>a number of schools and agencies throughout the New York >>metropolitan area." >> >>8. Robert Stone, Branch Chief, Department of Probation, to: >>Manhattan Family Intake and Investigation Probation Officer, >>August 30, 1991. >> >>9. Sheryl Gay Stolberg, NY Times, Jan. 22, 2000, "Gene Therapy >>Ordered Halted at University". "The decision to place the entire >>program -- eight experiments, including five active clinical trials >>in diseases ranging from cystic fibrosis to breast cancer -- on >>"clinical hold" is highly unusual. The hold is indefinite, agency >>officials said, and will not be lifted until the agency is convinced >>that the university's Institute for Human Gene Therapy can follow >>federal rules designed to protect study volunteers from harm. The >>agency's action comes two days after its investigators completed >>a detailed inspection of patient records and laboratory data from >>the experiment that killed the Tucson man, Jesse Gelsinger, on >>Sept. 17. Mr. Gelsinger died of multiple organ failure caused by >>a severe immune reaction to an infusion of corrective genes and >>is the first person to have died as a direct result of gene therapy." >> >>10. Craig Holderedge, "Genetics and the Manipulation of Life: >>The Forgotten Factor of Consequences," Lindisdale Press. >> >>11. Stuart Newman, "Generic physical mechanisms of morpho- >>genesis and pattern formation as determinants in the evolution >>of multicellular organization," J. Biosci., 17, 3, Sept. 1992, >>pp.193-215. >> >>12. Stuart Newman, "Dynamic Balance in Living Systems," Gene- >>WATCH, Nov. Dec. 1985, reprinted in Mitchel Cohen, "Biotech- >>nology & the New World Order, Red Balloon Publications, 1998. >> >>13. Warren Leary, "Struggle Continues Over Remarks by Mental >>Health Official," New York Times, March 8, 1992, p. 34. >> >>14. Mark, Ervin & Sweet, "Violence and the Brain," discuss the >>case of a young white male, Thomas K., who had undergone >>brain surgery to cure his epilepsy and propensity for violent >>behavior. They claimed that he was saved by psychosurgery >>(lobotomy). His mother claimed, on the other hand, that the >>doctors had turned him into a vegetable. (See Mehler, Barry, >>"In Genes We Trust: Where Science Bows to Racism," Reform >>Judaism, Winter, 1994.) >> >>15. Peter Breggin, "Campaign Against Racist Federal Programs >>by the Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology," >>Journal of African American Men, Winter 1995/6. >> >>16. B.J. Mason, "Brains Surgery to Control Behavior: >>Controversial Options Are Coming Back as Violence Curbs," >>Ebony, February 1973, p.68. >> >>17. Gerald Horne, "Race Backwards: Genes, Violence, Race, >>and Genocide," CovertAction #29, Winter 1992-93. >> >>18. Peter Breggin, "The Violence Initiative -- a Racist Bio- >>medical Program for Social Control," The Rights Tenet, >>(Center for the Study of Psychiatry) Summer 1992. >> >>19. Christopher Anderson, "NIH Under Fire ...," Nature, July >>30, 1992, p.357. >> >>20. Vince Bielski, "Hunting the Crime Gene," San Francisco >>Weekly, June 15, 1992. >> >>21. Horne, op cit., citing Micaela di Leonardo, "White Lies: Rape, >>Race and the Myth of the Black Underclass," Village Voice, >>September 22, 1992. >> >>22. cf., Mitchel Cohen, "The U.S. Government's Secret >>Experimentation with Biological & Chemical Warfare," Red >>Balloon, 1995. >> >>Mitchel Cohen organizes with the Brooklyn Greens / Green >>Party of NY State, the Red Balloon Collective, and the Direct >>Action Network to Free Mumia Abu Jamal and Leonard Peltier.
Here's a sample list of studies you'll find: