tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/anniversary-64522/articlesAnniversary – The Conversation2024-01-02T20:16:26Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2185192024-01-02T20:16:26Z2024-01-02T20:16:26ZJaws turns 50: reading Peter Benchley’s novel, you barely mind if its self-loathing characters are eaten by a ‘genius’ shark<p>How many times have you come out of the cinema and heard someone snidely remark they preferred the book, as though this somehow connects them to a richer, more highbrow tradition?</p>
<p>This might ring true when it comes to literary masterworks like F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, adapted into <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1343092/">so-so</a> <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071577/">versions</a> nearly four decades apart (equally dull, for almost opposite reasons). But the reverse is often the case with popular fiction, which benefits from the immersive, visceral quality of the cinema.</p>
<p>Peter Benchley’s 1974 novel <a href="https://www.panmacmillan.com.au/9781447220039/">Jaws</a>, which turns 50 this year, was a smash. Despite critics’ reservations, it was on the New York Times bestseller list for 44 weeks. Yet when we think of Jaws, images from Steven Spielberg’s 1975 film adaptation are what come to mind – along with John Williams’ <a href="https://youtu.be/E-sX2Y0W8l0?si=7H4TUsSRrImq_eh-">iconic theme music</a>. </p>
<p>Spielberg’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073195/">Jaws</a> keeps the simple – and stunning – narrative architecture of Benchley’s novel intact. A shark terrorises a small beach community that depends on wealthy tourists for sustenance. Brody, the chief of police, keeps the beaches open due to political pressure from Mayor Vaughan; when more attacks occur, marine biologist Matt Hooper comes to help. Together, they contract wild shark hunter Quint to help them kill the great white. </p>
<p>But the tone of grand adventure that defines Spielberg’s film marks a major departure from the novel. In Benchley’s work, more energy is directed towards exploring the minor social and political lives of its small-town denizens than in staging an epic showdown between man and beast – and, crucially, it differs radically from the film in its characterisation. In Spielberg’s world, the main characters are likeable, heroic, whereas in the novel they’re petty, broken and bitter, wading through the messes their personal lives have become. </p>
<p>These differences are not simply evidence of a young director’s desire to make the material his own. They map the changing consciousness of American popular culture in the 1970s, from a resolute focus on the violence simmering within United States society and policy (the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War) to an attempt to forget about these things through spectacular, anodyne entertainment. </p>
<p>As we know, Spielberg’s film reshaped Hollywood, virtually single-handedly inventing the “blockbuster” and marking a significant shift away from the existentially charged, sometimes nihilistic, ever self-critical films of the previous decade or so. </p>
<p>Yet the two dominant themes situating Benchley’s novel in a rich American literary tradition also underpin the film: its biting look at small-town politics and economics, and its reverent study of a wilderness awesome and sublime. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-jaws-to-star-wars-to-harry-potter-john-williams-90-today-is-our-greatest-living-composer-176245">From Jaws to Star Wars to Harry Potter: John Williams, 90 today, is our greatest living composer</a>
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<h2>‘The shark material is brilliant’</h2>
<p>At the novel’s core is a swift, economically told tale of human versus beast: a classic American adventure in the vein of Jack London’s <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/white-fang-9780241652664">White Fang</a> or Herman Melville’s <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/moby--dick-9780451532282">Moby-Dick</a>. </p>
<p>Benchley punctuates this drama with a keen interrogation of the social dynamics of small American communities in the context of the economic pressures of capitalism. </p>
<p>A career journalist, Benchley is effective in describing actions, events and scenery: shark hunting, the ocean, Quint’s boat. The shark material is brilliant – the few times it cuts to the shark’s point of view (recalling Spielberg’s redeployment of the creature’s point of view from <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046876/">Creature from the Black Lagoon</a>), the writing becomes electric, effortless. Benchley is at his best when describing the movements of the shark in the water. </p>
<p>For example, when Hooper is cage diving, towards the end of the novel: </p>
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<p>The head was only a few feet from the cage when the fish turned and began to pass before Hooper’s eyes – casually, as if in proud display of its incalculable mass and power. The snout passed first, then the jaw, slack and smiling, armed with row upon row of serrate triangles. And then the black, fathomless eye, seemingly riveted upon him. The gills rippled – bloodless wounds in the steely skin.</p>
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<p>But the material about people is less confident – the writing is uneven and trite in places, with moments between characters sometimes strained in order to generate the necessary action. </p>
<p>This includes two subplots Spielberg and team wisely cut from the film. </p>
<p>The first involves a murky connection between Mayor Vaughn and the Mob that is partly responsible for his desire to keep the beaches open, despite Brody’s warnings. It seems both underdeveloped – we don’t find out much about it – and strangely present, with the majority of the novel’s scenes involving the mayor gesturing towards it. </p>
<p>The second, which probably would have been fatal to the film, involves an affair between Brody’s wife Ellen and Matt Hooper. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-moby-dick-by-herman-melville-52000">Guide to the classics: Moby-Dick, by Herman Melville</a>
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<h2>Characters ‘loathsome in places’</h2>
<p>One of the great joys of the film is the developing friendship between Hooper and Brody, culminating in their delightful final exchange. After the shark is dead and they are kicking their way back to shore, Brody laughs: “I used to hate the water.” Hooper replies, “I can’t imagine why”. Both men are happy to have survived, and to have each other. </p>
<p>In the novel, it’s more or less hate at first sight, with Brody immediately resenting Hooper because he grew up as a “summer person” in the area. Brody is ashamed he’s not one of the wealthy summer people, and tries to hide this through a kind of pathetic machismo, which emerges most visibly in his competitiveness with Hooper. </p>
<p>This obsession with summer people defines much of the dialogue between Brody and Ellen, with Brody’s resentment of the summer people’s nonchalant and emasculating wealth matched by Ellen’s resentment of the fact she used to be a summer person before she married this oaf of a police chief.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565548/original/file-20231213-23-ko2crz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565548/original/file-20231213-23-ko2crz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565548/original/file-20231213-23-ko2crz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=880&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565548/original/file-20231213-23-ko2crz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=880&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565548/original/file-20231213-23-ko2crz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=880&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565548/original/file-20231213-23-ko2crz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1106&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565548/original/file-20231213-23-ko2crz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1106&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565548/original/file-20231213-23-ko2crz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1106&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>The characters in the novel are thus thoroughly unappealing – even loathsome in places. Spielberg famously stated the shark was his favourite character in the novel. </p>
<p>The film’s Brody, anchored by the effortless charisma of Roy Scheider, is a steadfast, stoic working man who loves his wife and children and isn’t ashamed to show it in a gentle, unassuming way. </p>
<p>In the novel, Brody is “jealous and injured, inadequate and outraged”, a chauvinistic beer-guzzling bully, an obsessive – and often self-loathing – jerk. One of our first forays into his consciousness makes this immediately apparent: </p>
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<p>Sometimes during the summer, Brody would catch himself gazing with idle lust at one of the young, long-legged girls who pranced around town – their untethered breasts bouncing beneath the thinnest of cotton jerseys. But he never enjoyed the sensation, for it always made him wonder whether Ellen felt the same stirring when she looked at the tanned, slim young men who so perfectly complemented the long-legged girls.</p>
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<p>Ellen is also much less sympathetic in the novel (though admittedly in the film she’s a cardboard cutout of virtuous motherhood and wifedom). </p>
<p>She moves around as a shell of a person, a terrible snob disappointed by her social status and too embarrassed and ashamed to do anything about it, “tortured by thoughts she didn’t want to think – thoughts of chances missed and lives that could have been”. Like Brody, she is drowning in self-loathing: </p>
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<p>She made sure that everyone she met knew she had started her Amity life on an entirely different plane. She was aware of what she was doing, and she hated herself for it, because in fact she loved her husband deeply, adored her children, and – for most of the year – was quite content with her lot.</p>
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<p>The Hooper of the novel is similarly transformed by the film from an arrogant show-off, vaingloriously pursuing fame as a scientist at the expense of everything else, into a smart, responsible and energetic ball of fun, fully embodied by dynamo actor Richard Dreyfuss. </p>
<p>Only Quint – the mythical, Ahab-esque hunter (“Brody saw fever in Quint’s face – a heat that lit up his dark eyes, an intensity that drew his lips back from his teeth in a crooked smile”) – remains fundamentally unchanged, even though his unyielding brutality seems more appealing in the novel than in the film, with Robert Shaw portraying him as an antisocial maniac. </p>
<p>This revision includes the whole dynamic of the Brody family. The delightful moments between the kids and their parents, reflecting Spielberg’s superpower as a director (his talent for bringing sentimental family moments to life), are absent from the novel. </p>
<p>There’s something depressing about Brody’s relationship with his family. He has virtually no interaction with his children, and when he does, it’s like this: </p>
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<p>The oldest boy, Billy, lay on the couch, leaning on an elbow. Martin, the middle son, age twelve, lounged in an easy chair, his shoeless feet propped up on the coffee table. Eight-year-old Sean sat on the floor, his back against the couch, stroking a cat in his lap. “How goes it?” said Brody. “Good, Dad,” said Bill, without shifting his gaze from the television.</p>
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<h2>Is ‘easy to swallow’ better?</h2>
<p>Of course, populating a novel with unlikable characters and depressing family scenes is not a problem in and of itself. Popeye from William Faulkner’s <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/sanctuary-9780099541028">Sanctuary</a> is hardly likeable, neither is pompous Nick Carraway from <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-great-gatsby-9781784877088">The Great Gatsby</a> – and you’d be hard pressed to find a Dickens novel that doesn’t feature some degree of family strife. </p>
<p>But in Jaws, a “man versus beast” tale, a melodramatic thriller, it creates a flat feeling: we don’t wholly mind the prospect of these characters being eaten by a shark. At the same time, Benchley – despite occasional flaws in the writing – does capture something of the dismal inconsistencies and banalities of being human. The complex self-loathing of the characters contrasts with the brutal and unthinking power – the genius for action and killing – of the shark. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Spielberg ‘buffed out the scratches’ in Bentley’s novel for his film.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The film redacts the frailties and faults of the characters, turning an adult (albeit imperfect) novel into family-friendly fodder. Spielberg took a low-key thriller doubling as a study of a small American community and turned it into the kind of blockbuster that would get people back into – and keep them in – cinemas. </p>
<p>It comes as no surprise that the film also excises much of the novel’s pointed class critique. Note, for example, this description of the summer people early in the book, the haves to the local have-nots: </p>
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<p>Privilege had been bred into them with genetic certainty. As their eyes were blue or brown, so their tastes and consciences were determined by other generations. They had no vitamin deficiencies, no sickle-cell anaemia. […] Their bodies were lean, their muscles toned by boxing lessons at age nine, riding lessons at twelve, and tennis lessons ever since. They had no body odour. When they sweated, the girls smelled faintly of perfume; the boys smelled simply clean.</p>
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<p>Most, I’m sure, would hold the novel up as an inferior work. At a technical level, they’d probably be right. But while it’s pretentious, it’s also much more ambitious than the film. </p>
<p>Is something easy to swallow necessarily better for the digestion? Only a shark could answer that. The novel is ugly in places. But where it works, it works at the level of great literature.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/surfers-share-their-waves-with-sharks-but-fear-not-193395">Surfers share their waves with sharks, but fear not</a>
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<h2>Benchley’s novel lingers longer</h2>
<p>One of the outcomes of Jaws was at least a couple of generations of people who, if not exactly afraid to go back in the water, had a tendency to hum the film’s theme to themselves when wading into the surf alone. </p>
<p>Benchley, horrified by the bad rap his novel gave sharks, would go on to become an ecological activist focused on shark protection. In 2015, a shark was named after him: <a href="https://hakaimagazine.com/news/meet-new-ninja-lanternshark/">Etmopterus benchleyi</a>.</p>
<p>Benchley’s Jaws may not immediately grab one as easily as Spielberg’s, and it’s certainly not as technically accomplished. Its position in American literature is minor compared to the film’s in Hollywood cinema. </p>
<p>But despite – or, perhaps, because of – its flaws, the novel is worth reading at a time when the blockbuster has virtually decimated the middle of American cinema, churning out masses of pleasurably forgettable, interchangeable films that float like a thick slick of chum on the water’s surface.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218519/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ari Mattes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Peter Benchley’s classic 1974 ‘man versus beast’ blockbuster novel doubled as a scathing critique of 1970s America. Spielberg’s film made its characters likeable – and its tone into a ‘grand adventure’.Ari Mattes, Lecturer in Communications and Media, University of Notre Dame AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2165942023-12-20T13:25:45Z2023-12-20T13:25:45Z50 years later, ‘The Exorcist’ continues to possess Hollywood’s imagination, reflecting our obsession with evil<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566712/original/file-20231219-29-5tk48y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=964%2C1264%2C2636%2C1671&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The film went on to gross nearly $450 million worldwide.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/poster-for-william-friedkins-1973-horror-the-exorcist-news-photo/504412731?adppopup=true">Movie Poster Image Art/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When the “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070047/">The Exorcist</a>” premiered 50 years ago, in December 1973, some theatergoers <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1974/01/27/archives/they-wait-hoursto-be-shocked-the-exorcist-got-mixed-reviews-why-has.html">fainted or broke down in tears</a>. A few <a href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/the-exorcist-what-it-was-like-to-see-the-movie-in-theaters">even vomited</a>.</p>
<p>The film, which cast a young <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000304/">Linda Blair</a> as a girl claiming to be possessed by the devil, was an almost instant success, with moviegoers <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/08/12/original-audience-reaction-to-the-exorcist-was-off-the-charts/">waiting in line for hours</a> to secure tickets. It went on to gross <a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0070047/">over US$440 million</a> worldwide.</p>
<p>The horror film eventually <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070047/awards/">received two Oscars</a>, for Best Sound and Best Adapted Screenplay.</p>
<p>In the 50 years since, the cultural fascination with Satan has persisted. <a href="https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2023/07/89371/">But as religiosity has waned</a>, popular portrayals of Satan have also changed. Rather than embody pure evil, Luciferian characters that are complicated – even likable – have emerged. </p>
<h2>Cinema’s dance with the devil</h2>
<p>The devil has never been a stranger to the movies. He appeared as early as 1896, in Georges Méliès’ “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qt0w2qP6REg">The House of the Devil</a>, a three-minute silent film. </p>
<p>Just five years before the release of "The Exorcist,” Roman Polanski’s “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063522/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_1_q_rosemary%27s%2520">Rosemary’s Baby</a>” told the story about a young woman, played by <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001201/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_1_nm_7_q_mia%2520farrow">Mia Farrow</a>, who was carrying Satan’s child. </p>
<p>That film also took home two Oscars. Still, critics generally credit “The Exorcist” with kicking off a run of movies about Satan and demonic possession. </p>
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<img alt="Movie poster featuring drawings of various actors, young and old." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566722/original/file-20231219-23-ts8rod.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566722/original/file-20231219-23-ts8rod.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=957&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566722/original/file-20231219-23-ts8rod.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=957&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566722/original/file-20231219-23-ts8rod.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=957&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566722/original/file-20231219-23-ts8rod.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1202&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566722/original/file-20231219-23-ts8rod.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1202&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566722/original/file-20231219-23-ts8rod.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1202&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Italian theatrical poster for the 1974 film ‘Beyond the Door.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chi-sei-italian-movie-poster-md.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
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<p>Imitations appeared all over the world. There was the 1974 Italian film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071212/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_beyond%2520the%2520door">Beyond the Door</a>,” starring <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005236/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_2_nm_6_q_juliet%2520mills">Juliet Mills</a> as a young woman pregnant with the Devil’s baby. The Turkish film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072148/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_seytan">Seytan</a>,” which told a story almost identical to “The Exorcist,” was released that same year. The 1976 film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075005/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">The Omen</a>” and its sequels imagined the rise of Satan’s son, Damien Thorn. </p>
<p>Other filmmakers showcased the versatility of the subgenre by imagining Satanic encounters everywhere from cruise ships to schoolyards. Jack Starrett’s “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073600/">Race with the Devil</a>” told the story of vacationers fleeing a Satanic cult. A slew of TV movies also appeared, such as “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073662/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_satan%27s%2520triangle">Satan’s Triangle</a>” (1975) and “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077429/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_2_nm_0_q_devil%2520dog%2520hound">Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell</a>” (1978).</p>
<h2>Interest in exorcisms surges</h2>
<p><a href="https://time.com/isgoddead/">Anxiety about social change and growing secularism</a> gave “The Exorcist” influence beyond the box office.</p>
<p>In November 1973, a month before “The Exorcist” premiered, The New York Times reported that among U.S. Catholics, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1973/11/12/archives/catholic-churchgoing-still-declining-based-on-samplings.html">attendance at weekly mass</a> had dropped to 48% from 61% between 1972 and 1973.</p>
<p>After the movie came out, curiosity about Catholicism rose significantly.</p>
<p>This was especially true with regard to exorcism, a rite <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2020/10/20/explainer-exorcism-catholic-priest-halloween">so rarely practiced within the church</a> that the film’s protagonist, Father Damian Karras, says that in order to find someone to perform it, he’d “have to get into a time machine and get back to the 16th century.”</p>
<p>Nonetheless, in January 1974, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1974/01/28/archives/-exorcist-adds-problems-for-catholic-clergymen-hit-film-the.html">The New York Times reported</a> that the Catholic Church was receiving “a wave of inquiries from persons who believe that they, or their acquaintances, are possessed by demons.” </p>
<p>Many of these requests came from people who were no longer, or never had been, churchgoers.</p>
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<img alt="Black and white photo of bundled up people lined up outside of a movie theater." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566714/original/file-20231219-21-i5c7gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566714/original/file-20231219-21-i5c7gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566714/original/file-20231219-21-i5c7gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566714/original/file-20231219-21-i5c7gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566714/original/file-20231219-21-i5c7gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566714/original/file-20231219-21-i5c7gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566714/original/file-20231219-21-i5c7gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A crowd braves frigid weather in New York City to see ‘The Exorcist’ in February 1974.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/scene-from-dantes-inferno-it-might-be-with-stem-rising-from-news-photo/1160965641?adppopup=true">Bettmann Archive/Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Fears of satanism snowball</h2>
<p>“The Exorcist” and its imitators were very much still in the zeitgeist <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/31/us/satanic-panic.html">during the satanic panic of the 1980s</a>, which involved thousands of false accusations of Satanic ritual abuse throughout the U.S. and Canada.</p>
<p>In 1980, “<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/arts/satan-wants-you-filmmakers-q-a-sean-horlor-steve-j-adams-1.6822213">Michelle Remembers</a>,” a memoir about a young woman’s sexual abuse by a satanic cult, was published. Though it was eventually discredited, the book is thought to have kicked off the panic.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Cover of book featuring sinister devil looming over a girl clutching a doll." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566724/original/file-20231219-17-iyysn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566724/original/file-20231219-17-iyysn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=990&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566724/original/file-20231219-17-iyysn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=990&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566724/original/file-20231219-17-iyysn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=990&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566724/original/file-20231219-17-iyysn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1244&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566724/original/file-20231219-17-iyysn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1244&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566724/original/file-20231219-17-iyysn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1244&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Michelle Remembers’ was eventually discredited – but not before helping to spur the satanic panic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1177037179i/676637.jpg">Goodreads</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Throughout the 1980s, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/satanic-panic-film-movie-michelle-smith-memoir-b2300716.html">reports of satanic rituals and abuse</a> reached hysterical levels, perhaps most famously in <a href="https://rumble.com/vqpqxx-martensville-satanic-scandal-history-of-satanic-movement-in-canada.html">Saskatchewan, Canada</a>, where day care workers were accused of satanism and sexual abuse. Major media networks capitalized on fears of a fallen world, with NBC running a 1988 special entitled “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/26/business/program-on-satan-worship-spurs-controversy-at-nbc.html">Devil Worship: Exposing Satan’s Underground</a>.” </p>
<p>Meanwhile, accusations of satanism were leveled at everything from “<a href="https://theconversation.com/rival-fantasies-dungeons-and-dragons-players-and-their-religious-critics-actually-have-a-lot-in-common-40343">Dungeons & Dragons</a>” to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-fate-of-the-metalheads-44876">heavy metal music</a>. Some people even believed the conspiracy theory that the Proctor & Gamble logo <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/procter-gamble-satan-conspiracy-theory">contained hidden satanic symbols</a>.</p>
<h2>Sympathy for the devil</h2>
<p>By the turn of the 21st century, the panic had run its course, as had representations of Satan as an embodiment of pure evil. </p>
<p>Growing secularism in the U.S. ran in parallel with depictions of a charming, more likable Satan. The public had grown increasingly disillusioned with institutionalized religion, especially with revelations of <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/3-big-us-churches-in-turmoil-over-sex-abuse-lgbt-policy">child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church and other denominations</a>.</p>
<p>This sympathy for the devil was nothing new: It went back at least as far as John Milton’s 1667 epic poem “<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20">Paradise Lost</a>.” The poem’s depiction of Satan as the fallen angel Lucifer was so compelling, it caused poet William Blake <a href="https://theamericanscholar.org/the-devils-party/">to famously suggest</a> that Milton was “of the Devil’s party without knowing it.”</p>
<p>“Paradise Lost” has been adapted and reworked for modern audiences. </p>
<p>The television series “<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-a-biannual-gathering-of-1967-impalas-reveals-about-the-blurry-line-between-fandom-and-religion-216890">Supernatural</a>” includes a number of story arcs featuring a dangerous but charismatic Lucifer. The figure is also depicted sympathetically in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/series/40372-the-sandman">Neil Gaiman’s “Sandman” comics</a>.</p>
<p>The 2015 film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4263482/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1_tt_7_nm_0_q_the%2520witch">The Witch</a>” takes a different approach, portraying communion with the Devil as preferable to a life of drudgery and abuse for teenage girls in Puritan New England. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, satanism has emerged as a secular movement. <a href="https://thesatanictemple.com/pages/about-us">According to the Satanic Temple</a>, its members seek to “encourage benevolence and empathy” and “reject tyrannical authority” to protect the separation of church and state.</p>
<h2>Everyday evil</h2>
<p>Still, neither sympathetic narrative portrayals nor secular movements have fully diminished the power of Satan to trouble the popular imagination. </p>
<p>In a society that has become increasingly divided, satanism has once again become a potent source of fear. The internet is rife with rumors about <a href="https://theconversation.com/hell-no-halloween-is-not-satanic-its-an-important-way-to-think-about-death-118391">the supposed satanic origins of Halloween</a> and <a href="https://www.ala.org/ala/pressreleasesbucket/pressreleases200/harrypotterseries.htm">the “Harry Potter” books</a>. Echoes of the satanic panic <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/05/18/997559036/americas-satanic-panic-returns-this-time-through-qanon">can be found in the QAnon movement</a>, which accuses some Democratic politicians of a satanic conspiracy to kidnap and sexually abuse children. </p>
<p>The hysteria expressed by <a href="https://theconversation.com/buying-into-conspiracy-theories-can-be-exciting-thats-what-makes-them-dangerous-184623">groups like QAnon</a> is an extreme example of a long-standing human impulse to label those who are feared and hated as personifications of evil. At the same time, this tendency is a way to understand the horrible cruelties of this world, and why people inflict such harm on each other.</p>
<p>During the original run of “The Exorcist,” many people questioned the impulse to embody all evil within a single supernatural figure. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1974/01/28/archives/-exorcist-adds-problems-for-catholic-clergymen-hit-film-the.html">In a 1974 interview about the film with The New York Times</a>, priest and psychologist Eugene Kennedy noted that it’s important for people to “[come] to terms with our own capacity for evil, not projecting it on an outside force that possesses us.” </p>
<p>This sentiment remains true today. Everyday acts of evil, small and large, may be easy to ignore when measured against the so-called “pure evil” embodied in the character of Satan. Nonetheless, the undiminished cultural fascination with the figure of Satan may be a way of trying <a href="https://home.csulb.edu/%7Eacargile/resources/Evil.pdf">to better comprehend evil</a> – and why people so often choose it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216594/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Regina Hansen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When the film premiered, theatergoers fainted and vomited. It went on to inspire a series of copycat films – while fomenting a cultural panic about the demons in our midst.Regina Hansen, Master Lecturer of Rhetoric, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1992112023-03-20T19:23:28Z2023-03-20T19:23:28ZGirl, Interrupted interrogates how women are ‘mad’ when they refuse to conform – 30 years on, this memoir is still important<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511307/original/file-20230221-28-pq60te.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C1%2C1024%2C573&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Winona Ryder played Susannah Kaysen in the film of Kaysen's memoir, Girl, Interrupted</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Columbia Pictures/IMDB</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Thirty years ago, American writer Susanna Kaysen published her memoir <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/susanna-kaysen/girl-interrupted">Girl, Interrupted</a>. It tells the story of her two years inside McLean Hospital in Boston as a psychiatric patient. </p>
<p>She was admitted, aged 18, in 1967. A few months earlier, she had taken 50 aspirin in a state of despair. Late in the book, she reveals she had a sexual relationship with her male English teacher at school. </p>
<p>Kaysen was interviewed briefly by a doctor before she was admitted as a “voluntary” patient: a legal category used to indicate a person’s status in the institution. Despite what the term implies, “voluntary” doesn’t mean a patient can leave without the consent of their medical team, as Kaysen explains. People admitted as voluntary patients acknowledge their own need for treatment. </p>
<p>During Kaysen’s stay, she was treated with an <a href="https://theconversation.com/story-of-antipsychotics-is-one-of-myth-and-misrepresentation-18306">antipsychotic</a> medication, chlorpromazine, and received psychotherapy. In her memoir, the stories of other young women confined with her at McLean convey sympathetic and recognisable experiences of the institutional world and its regime.</p>
<p>Girl, Interrupted is one of the most famous memoirs of hospitalisation and mental illness. More <a href="https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/ircl.2019.0310?journalCode=ircl">recent interpretations</a> describe it as a narrative of “trauma”. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511311/original/file-20230221-16-y6ygjk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511311/original/file-20230221-16-y6ygjk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511311/original/file-20230221-16-y6ygjk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511311/original/file-20230221-16-y6ygjk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511311/original/file-20230221-16-y6ygjk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511311/original/file-20230221-16-y6ygjk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=690&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511311/original/file-20230221-16-y6ygjk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=690&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511311/original/file-20230221-16-y6ygjk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=690&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Susanna Kaysen was admitted as a ‘voluntary’ psychiatric patient aged 18, in 1967. She wrote about her experience in Girl, Interrupted.</span>
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</figure>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-can-publishers-support-the-authors-of-trauma-memoirs-as-they-unpack-their-pain-for-the-public-new-research-investigates-189251">How can publishers support the authors of trauma memoirs, as they unpack their pain for the public? New research investigates</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>‘Mad’ or refusing to conform?</h2>
<p>Kaysen did not anticipate the book’s reception at the time of its publication in 1993. It seemed to open readers up to tell their own stories, and they wrote to her from many places around the world to tell her about their hospitalisation. Looking back in a new edition published this year by Virago Books, she writes “it was surprising to me how many people had been in a mental hospital or had what used to be called a nervous breakdown”. </p>
<p>When it appeared, her book was widely reviewed as “funny”, “wry”, “piercing” and “frightening”. Set out as a series of short vignettes, the book allowed readers the space to “insert themselves” into this story of human suffering. </p>
<p>Investigating whether she had ever really been “crazy” – or just caught up in an oppressive approach to girls whose lives strayed from expectations – likely meant possible personal exposure, admission of frailty, and fear of judgement for Kaysen. </p>
<p>Thirty years later, we have better understandings of trauma and of care for people with mental illness. So what can this book tell us now?</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516241/original/file-20230320-28-em9w25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516241/original/file-20230320-28-em9w25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516241/original/file-20230320-28-em9w25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516241/original/file-20230320-28-em9w25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516241/original/file-20230320-28-em9w25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516241/original/file-20230320-28-em9w25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1185&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516241/original/file-20230320-28-em9w25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1185&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516241/original/file-20230320-28-em9w25.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1185&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>Kaysen had waited almost three decades after these experiences before sharing her story in the early 1990s. This may be one reason it resonated with readers. The book was published at a time when most large institutions had closed as part of a worldwide trend towards deinstitutionalisation. Many people were starting to talk more openly about their own episodes of mental illness and recalling periods of hospitalisation that were sometimes grim and harrowing. </p>
<p>By the 1990s, there was also much greater awareness of the uneven power relationships in psychiatric treatment. Women and girls, subject to gendered social expectations, have historically received different forms of medical and psychiatric treatment. Women have been described as “mad” for centuries when they refused to conform to gender norms.</p>
<p>The book – an account of adolescent turmoil, with girlhood at the centre – can tell us about the lived experiences of teenage girls who face interior struggles over their mental health and wellbeing. Published in 1993 about the events of the late 60s, its insights are enduringly relevant.</p>
<h2>A controversial diagnosis</h2>
<p>In 1993, The New York Times ran an article titled “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/20/books/a-designated-crazy.html">A Designated Crazy</a>” that explained Kaysen had hired a lawyer to access her patient clinical records, 25 years after being at McLean. These appear in the book.</p>
<p>Placed at intervals in the narrative, these notes show the objectifying medical practices of admission, collecting information and establishing a diagnosis. The information in these clinical pages is deeply personal. Sharing them is an act of resistance and defiance.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Needed McLean for [the past] 3 years”<br>
“Profoundly depressed – suicidal”<br>
“Promiscuous … might get herself pregnant”<br>
“Ran away from home”<br>
“Living in a boarding house”<br></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Kaysen’s father, an academic at Princeton, wrote these notes in April 1967.</p>
<p>In June 1967, the formal medical notes from her admitting doctor stated she had “a chaotic and unplanned life”, was sleeping badly, was immersed in “fantasy” and was isolated.</p>
<p>Kaysen was admitted as “depressed”, “suicidal” and “schizophrenic”, with “borderline personality disorder”. </p>
<p>While the psychiatric diagnoses used in the 1960s still exist, the borderline diagnosis is <a href="https://theconversation.com/borderline-personality-disorder-is-a-hurtful-label-for-real-suffering-time-we-changed-it-41760">now controversial</a>. Progressive psychologists and feminist psychologists are more likely to use the term “complex trauma”. Some of the other young women in the memoir had traumatic life experiences of sexual abuse and violence, which manifested as <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-many-people-have-eating-disorders-we-dont-really-know-and-thats-a-worry-121938">eating disorders</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-self-harm-and-why-do-people-do-it-11367">self harm</a>.</p>
<p>Diagnostic labels have evolved over time. The first edition of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-the-dsm-and-how-are-mental-disorders-diagnosed-9568">Diagnostic and Statistical Manual</a> (DSM) was published in 1952. In 1967, the year of Kaysen’s committal, the DSM did not include “borderline personality disorder”, though the borderline concept had been <a href="https://www.press.jhu.edu/newsroom/dsm-history-psychiatrys-bible">theorised from the 1940s.</a> </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/borderline-personality-disorder-is-a-hurtful-label-for-real-suffering-time-we-changed-it-41760">Borderline personality disorder is a hurtful label for real suffering – time we changed it</a>
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<h2>McLean’s famous patients</h2>
<p>We can also read the book as an exposé of the controlling world of psychiatric institutions for people in the 1960s. The vast majority of people with psychiatric conditions were confined in public institutions, in often overcrowded conditions. Abuses happened, and violence was common.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511316/original/file-20230221-24-gyaveb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511316/original/file-20230221-24-gyaveb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511316/original/file-20230221-24-gyaveb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511316/original/file-20230221-24-gyaveb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511316/original/file-20230221-24-gyaveb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511316/original/file-20230221-24-gyaveb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511316/original/file-20230221-24-gyaveb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511316/original/file-20230221-24-gyaveb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">John Forbes Nash, whose life inspired the film A Beautiful Mind, was also a McLean patient.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Peter Badge</span></span>
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<p>One distinction for those hospitalised at McLean in Boston, a private institution, was that it housed people whose families could afford the steep fees. Kaysen’s father had to declare his salary when he signed the paperwork. Famous patients included the mathematician <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-legacy-of-john-nash-and-his-equilibrium-theory-42343">John Forbes Nash</a> (whose story was told in the film, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0268978/">A Beautiful Mind</a>), and New England poets Robert Lowell and <a href="https://theconversation.com/60-years-since-sylvia-plaths-death-why-modern-poets-cant-help-but-write-after-sylvia-199477">Sylvia Plath</a> in the late 1950s.</p>
<p>McLean’s own “biography” is the subject of another book. <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/01/the-asylum-on-the-hill/303058/">Gracefully Insane</a> shows its reputation as housing sometimes idiosyncratic and wealthy people whose families wanted them to be hidden, fearful of the stigma of mental illness in the family.</p>
<p>Plath’s <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Sylvia-Plath-Bell-Jar-9780571268863">The Bell Jar</a> fictionalises her hospitalisation at McLean in the 1950s, following a suicide attempt. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Doctor Gordon’s private hospital crowned a grassy rise at the end of a long, secluded drive that had been whitened with broken quahog shells. The yellow clapboard walls of the large house, with its encircling verandah, gleamed in the sun, but no people strolled on the green dome of the lawn.</p>
</blockquote>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511310/original/file-20230221-14-ildw55.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511310/original/file-20230221-14-ildw55.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511310/original/file-20230221-14-ildw55.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=915&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511310/original/file-20230221-14-ildw55.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=915&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511310/original/file-20230221-14-ildw55.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=915&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511310/original/file-20230221-14-ildw55.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1150&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511310/original/file-20230221-14-ildw55.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1150&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511310/original/file-20230221-14-ildw55.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1150&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>Like Kaysen, Plath’s character Esther Greenwood has been involved in sexual relationships with men that made her uneasy, affecting her confidence and sense of self. Skiing with Buddy Willard, she falls and breaks her leg: “you were doing fine”, someone says, “until that man stepped into your path”. </p>
<p>Later, floundering at college, she too is admitted by a male doctor acting on the advice of her mother: she has not slept, she is exhausted, she is not herself. He advises she needs shock therapy.</p>
<p>In her new biography of Plath, <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/red-comet-9781529113143">Red Comet</a>, Heather Clark describes McLean in the 1950s as reliant on shock therapy and activities, rather than psychoanalysis and careful therapeutic interventions. It was reputedly only a “notch above” a public institution, though it had the veneer of being for elite residents.</p>
<p>Just a few years before Kaysen’s admission to McLean, Plath died by suicide in 1963, aged 30. The Bell Jar had been published one month earlier, under a pseudonym. By the late 1960s, teenage admissions were a focus for McLean’s doctors. </p>
<p>Did adolesence present a new challenge for families and authorities, making young women vulnerable to institutionalisation?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511317/original/file-20230221-16-j9qc6b.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511317/original/file-20230221-16-j9qc6b.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511317/original/file-20230221-16-j9qc6b.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511317/original/file-20230221-16-j9qc6b.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511317/original/file-20230221-16-j9qc6b.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511317/original/file-20230221-16-j9qc6b.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511317/original/file-20230221-16-j9qc6b.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511317/original/file-20230221-16-j9qc6b.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">McLean Hospital’s famous patients included Sylvia Plath and Robert Lowell, as well as John Forbes Nash and Susanna Kaysen.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/by-naming-pennhurst-stranger-things-uses-disability-trauma-for-entertainment-dark-tourism-and-asylum-tours-do-too-185581">By naming 'Pennhurst', Stranger Things uses disability trauma for entertainment. Dark tourism and asylum tours do too</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Psychiatry and romantic love</h2>
<p>Revisiting Girl, Interrupted, I am struck by its raw and honest recognition of the way women have sometimes experienced relationships with men as inherently oppressive. The structures of psychiatry and romantic love intersect throughout this book. </p>
<p>Kaysen, like Plath, sees the family as a toxic institution. Male psychiatrists loom over both women, imposing in their authority to diagnose. “He looked triumphant”, wrote Kaysen of her doctor. “Doctor Gordon cradled his pencil like a slim, silver bullet”, wrote Plath.</p>
<p>Women writing about their own madness has a long history. American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) penned the story <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/286957.The_Yellow_Wall_Paper">The Yellow Wallpaper</a> in The New England Magazine in 1892. It <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/feb/07/charlotte-perkins-gilman-yellow-wallpaper-strangeness-classic-short-story-exhibition">tells the tale</a> of a woman’s mental and physical exhaustion following childbirth.</p>
<p>Historians such as Elizabeth Lunbeck <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691025841/the-psychiatric-persuasion">write about</a> the way a “psychiatric persuasion” came to dominate thinking about gender in the early 20th century. Psychiatrists began to see everyday life difficulties – such as the changes experienced during adolescence – as signalling illness (we might say, pathologising “normal” responses to stressful events). The rise of psychiatric expertise paralleled their professional reactions to women (and men) who struggled with life.</p>
<p>In Australia, the history of “good and mad women” up to the 1970s by <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Good_and_Mad_Women.html?id=NIZ9QgAACAAJ&redir_esc=y">Jill Julius Matthews</a> showed that women who experienced hospitalisation as a result of mental breakdown were perceived as having “failed” to meet the gendered expectations of them. Femininity and its constraints left some women unable to function or live authentic lives.</p>
<h2>Institutions on film</h2>
<p>Girl, Interrupted was released <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0172493/">as a film</a> by Columbia Pictures in 1999, with a cast of rising and established young actors, including Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie and Brittany Murphy. It dramatised the interpersonal relationships inside the hospital described by Kaysen.</p>
<p>The film script was not only the perfect vehicle for an ensemble cast of these women. It was also another opportunity to make mental illness visible on the screen. Another page-to-screen adaptation in 1975, Milos Forman’s film of Ken Kesey’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073486/">One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest</a>, brought to life the dramatic environment of institutional control and violence personified by the character of Nurse Ratched. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vL7c0Aqn_Pw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Girl, Interrupted, like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, emphasised resistance to institutional control.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Girl, Interrupted’s screenplay surfaced different women’s experiences of abuse, neglect, trauma and violence to explain their behaviours and responses to institutional constraints. </p>
<p>Like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the film also emphasised the theme of resistance to institutional control. Patients hid pill medications under the tongue, broke into the hospital administration office to look at their case files, and found ways to circumvent the routines of institutional life. The film depicted the drama of group therapy, and the power dynamic between staff and patients.</p>
<p>Not everyone who was institutionalised reacted the same way to being in hospital.</p>
<p>Kaysen wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>For many of us, the hospital was as much a refuge as it was a prison. Though we were cut off from the world and all the trouble we enjoyed stirring up out there, we were also cut off from the demands and expectations that had driven us crazy.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A recent collaborative history of institutional care by Australian poet <a href="https://theconversation.com/secrecy-psychosis-and-difficult-change-these-lived-experiences-of-mental-illness-will-inspire-a-kaleidoscope-of-emotions-191011">Sandy Jeffs</a> and social worker Margaret Leggatt, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/am/podcast/out-of-the-madhouse-with-sandy-jeffs/id992762253?i=1000501765764">Out of the Madhouse</a>, challenges the idea of the institution as a place of alienation. Jeffs found community and solace at Larundel Hospital in Melbourne in the late 1970s and 1980s. However, the book also acknowledges this is not a universal response for institutionalised people.</p>
<p>Like Kaysen, people with lived experiences of mental illness and hospitalisation have found it therapeutic to write about their personal challenges. For some, it provides an opportunity to embrace the “mad” identity, to find empathy for others. And to create a new self out of the chaos of mental breakdown.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199211/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catharine Coleborne received funding from the Australian Research Council as a CI on a relevant Discovery Grant, 'The development of Australian community psychiatry’ (2019-2022).</span></em></p>Why was Susanna Kaysen really hospitalised? Her memoir Girl, Interrupted turns 30 this year. It investigates whether she was ‘mad’, or medicalised for a ‘chaotic’ life that defied gender norms.Catharine Coleborne, Professor of History, School Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences, University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1890262022-09-14T12:22:39Z2022-09-14T12:22:39Z50 years ago, an artist convincingly exhibited a fake Iron Age civilization – with invented maps, music and artifacts<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484405/original/file-20220913-3841-j43d1i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C3%2C846%2C547&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'Trallib (Oil Container),' by Norman Daly, 1970. Daily made this object with an orange juicer.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Marilyn Rivchin</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Invented civilizations are usually thought of as the stuff of sci-fi novels and video games, not museums. </p>
<p>Yet in 1972, the <a href="https://civilizationofllhuros.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/A.D.-White-Museum-Press-Release-for-Civilization-of-Llhuria-1972.pdf">Andrew Dickson White Museum of Art</a> at Cornell University exhibited “The Civilization of Llhuros,” an imaginary Iron Age civilization. Created by Cornell Professor of Art <a href="https://civilizationofllhuros.org/about-the-artist/norman-daly/">Norman Daly</a>, who died in 2008, the show resembled a real archaeological exhibition with more than 150 objects on display.</p>
<p>Unaware of Llhuros, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Kz5_ZEOC1A">I started fabricating and documenting</a> my own imaginary ancient culture using ceramics and printmaking for my undergraduate thesis in 1980. The following year, as a graduate student, I learned about Llhuros and began a decadeslong correspondence with Daly. </p>
<p>With <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-nigerian-prince-scams-continue-to-dupe-us-98232">scams</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-scammers-like-anna-delvey-and-the-tinder-swindler-exploit-a-core-feature-of-human-nature-177289">deceptions</a> and <a href="https://direct.mit.edu/books/book/4625/Fake-NewsUnderstanding-Media-and-Misinformation-in">lies</a> flourishing in our digital age, an art exhibition that convincingly presents fiction as fact has particular currency.</p>
<h2>A culture made from scratch</h2>
<p>Daly’s project was truly groundbreaking. The exhibition included a map of the excavation sites, old tools and religious artifacts that Daly had crafted, all from the culture’s distinct periods – “<a href="https://civilizationofllhuros.org/galleries/early-archaic/">Early Archaic</a>,” “<a href="https://civilizationofllhuros.org/galleries/archaic/">Archaic</a>,” “<a href="https://civilizationofllhuros.org/galleries/late-archaic/">Late Archaic</a>,” “<a href="https://civilizationofllhuros.org/galleries/middle/">Middle Period</a>” and “<a href="https://civilizationofllhuros.org/galleries/decline/">Decline</a>.” </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483354/original/file-20220907-15616-6xdmsq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A stone shield." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483354/original/file-20220907-15616-6xdmsq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483354/original/file-20220907-15616-6xdmsq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483354/original/file-20220907-15616-6xdmsq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483354/original/file-20220907-15616-6xdmsq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483354/original/file-20220907-15616-6xdmsq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=739&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483354/original/file-20220907-15616-6xdmsq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=739&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483354/original/file-20220907-15616-6xdmsq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=739&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Lacunarium (Decorative Shield with Salamanders),’ by Norman Daly.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://civilizationofllhuros.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/92-1.jpg">Photo by Linda Fisher.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There were translations of <a href="https://civilizationofllhuros.org/media/poetry-of-llhuros/">Llhuroscian poetry</a> that Daly had written; soundtracks with reenactments of <a href="https://civilizationofllhuros.org/narrative/ceremonies-and-rituals/">Llhuroscian ceremonies</a> and songs performed by a women’s church choir; <a href="https://civilizationofllhuros.org/media/international-tv-interview/">audio interviews</a> with fake Llhurosian scholars; and <a href="https://civilizationofllhuros.org/about-the-artist/catalogs-and-posters/">a 56-page exhibition catalog</a> with an invented bibliography and <a href="https://civilizationofllhuros.org/resources/llhuroscian-glossary/">glossary of Llhuroscian terms</a>.</p>
<p>Daly – with guidance from <a href="https://www.marilynrivchinmedia.com/">Marilyn Rivchin</a>, a museum staffer; and <a href="https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/theithacajournal/name/robert-ascher-obituary?id=12637791">Robert Ascher</a>, a Cornell anthropology and archaeology professor – conceived everything.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484401/original/file-20220913-4004-252m1j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A humanoid sculture made from a dish bottle." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484401/original/file-20220913-4004-252m1j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484401/original/file-20220913-4004-252m1j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=869&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484401/original/file-20220913-4004-252m1j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=869&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484401/original/file-20220913-4004-252m1j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=869&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484401/original/file-20220913-4004-252m1j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1091&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484401/original/file-20220913-4004-252m1j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1091&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484401/original/file-20220913-4004-252m1j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1091&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Trallib (Oil Container),’ by Norman Daly, 1970. Daly fabricated this sculpture using an Ivory dish soap bottle.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Marion Wesp</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To the casual viewer, Llhuros appeared to be real. The artifacts and tools were often made from found objects – an Ivory dish-soap bottle transformed into an earthenware figure, or a “nasal flute found at the early excavations at Lamplö” made from a metal stove burner. Many of the objects were cracked and broken, with patinas and incrustations making them appear as if they’d survived centuries. The tension between real and fake was tangible.</p>
<p>At the time, the exhibition attracted enthusiastic reviews in <a href="https://civilizationofllhuros.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/The-Fabulous-Llhuroscians-Newsweek-02281972.pdf">Newsweek</a> and <a href="https://civilizationofllhuros.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/The-Civilization-of-Llhuros-The-New-Repbulic-Kenneth-Evett-On-Art-1972-01-12.pdf">The New Republic</a>. But the New York art world largely overlooked it.</p>
<h2>Testing the viewer’s grasp of reality</h2>
<p>Prior to creating “The Civilization of Llhuros,” Daly was making paintings and sculptural reliefs influenced by <a href="https://normandaly.com/galleries/southwest-series-1946-49/">Native American and prehistoric art</a>. </p>
<p>His earlier work had much in common with other 20th century artists, <a href="https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/1907">from Pablo Picasso to Max Ernst</a>, who drew inspiration from art outside of the European canon. These artists questioned Western academic traditions and valued the direct and expressive forms found in African and Native American art. This approach to making art <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/jun/14/masks-monsters-masterpieces-yinka-shonibare-picasso-africa">can be problematic</a>, since there’s an element of cultural appropriation. But it also speaks to a desire to connect with universal aspects of human culture.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484096/original/file-20220912-1755-2qj1vk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Bald man with glasses and beared working at a potter's wheel." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484096/original/file-20220912-1755-2qj1vk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484096/original/file-20220912-1755-2qj1vk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=858&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484096/original/file-20220912-1755-2qj1vk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=858&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484096/original/file-20220912-1755-2qj1vk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=858&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484096/original/file-20220912-1755-2qj1vk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1078&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484096/original/file-20220912-1755-2qj1vk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1078&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484096/original/file-20220912-1755-2qj1vk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1078&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Norman Daly in his studio, 1971.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Marilyn Rivchin</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So why would Daly shift his creative practice to the mock-documentary form, creating an entire fake culture in the form of a museum exhibition?</p>
<p>A few key moments cultivated the idea.</p>
<p>One of his tall sculptural works had been exhibited in a faculty dining room. But people kept mistaking it for a hat rack, which frustrated Daly: He assumed that the value of an artwork was self-evident and that it should be able to “speak for itself.” Clearly, that wasn’t always the case. So by creating an exhibition – replete with a catalog, visual guides and explanatory labels – he could extend the meaning of his visual art. If the art object does not speak for itself, why not fabricate a narrative as part of the show? </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484098/original/file-20220912-6429-vbrrt2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Metal sculpture made from various found objects." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484098/original/file-20220912-6429-vbrrt2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484098/original/file-20220912-6429-vbrrt2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=938&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484098/original/file-20220912-6429-vbrrt2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=938&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484098/original/file-20220912-6429-vbrrt2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=938&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484098/original/file-20220912-6429-vbrrt2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1179&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484098/original/file-20220912-6429-vbrrt2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1179&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484098/original/file-20220912-6429-vbrrt2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1179&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Home Votive,’ metal assemblage, by Norman Daly, 1965.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Emil Gingher</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another realization came to Daly while attending a performance of contemporary music. At the concert, he observed that the audience was working hard to resist the random interference of auditory distractions, from program rustlers to feet shufflers. Daly considered ways that a visual artist could employ what he called “planned interference” to provoke deeper audience engagement with the work.</p>
<p>This insight compelled him to use a variety of ironic signals to disrupt the credibility of the museum narrative and test the viewer’s understanding whether Llhuros was real or invented. He might assemble a massive bronze temple door from plastic foam packing cartons, or create an oil lamp that resembles an orange juicer. </p>
<p>For Daly, stories about the Llhuroscians are also about what it is to be human, with themes of guilt, desire and faith appearing in many of the works. With his recurring “stilt walker,” he depicts a religious pilgrim who carries a bird on his head, walking on stilts of different lengths. The self-imposed struggle of the man, who appears across several works, comes from the guilt he feels. </p>
<h2>The art of fraud</h2>
<p>Like Daly, I was interested in the use of documentary forms to present works of fiction. My mock-documentary exhibitions have shifted from archaeological themes to include <a href="https://volweb.utk.edu/%7Eblyons/medical_gallery1.htm">anatomical prints</a>, <a href="https://old.post-gazette.com/magazine/20010118artpreviewmag2.asp">a collection of contemporary folk art</a>, <a href="https://gregg.arts.ncsu.edu/exhibitions/virtual-tours/fantastic-fauna-chimeric-creatures/">a creationist organization from the 1920s</a>, and <a href="http://volweb.utk.edu/%7Eblyons/">an early 20th century circus</a>. I am drawn to this form of art because I am inspired by the idea of inventing artworks that appear to have the authority of history.</p>
<p>In her 2021 book, “<a href="https://doppelhouse.com/sting-in-the-tale/">Sting in the Tale: Art, Hoax and Provocation</a>,” artist and writer <a href="http://www.antoinettelafarge.com/bio.html">Antoinette LaFarge</a> describes Daly’s approach as a form of “fictive art,” arguing that the mock-documentary uses of historical forms, as well as “self-outing” through ironic signals, have significance for a contemporary culture saturated with misinformation. </p>
<p>There are, of course, precedents: In his 1917 <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/4/1/11346940/bathtub-history-prank-april-fools">bathtub hoax</a>, journalist and satirist <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/H-L-Mencken">H.L. Mencken</a> presented a fabricated history of bathtubs in America. P.T. Barnum became known for his creative hoaxes, which included his <a href="https://www.livescience.com/56037-feejee-mermaid.html">Feejee mermaid specimen</a>, made from an orangutan and a salmon. Where Mencken sought to teach the American public about their gullibility, Barnum wanted to make a quick buck and didn’t care whether his audience believed the ruse. Fictive art draws on this history to create relevant works of contemporary art.</p>
<p>To mark the 50th anniversary of “The Civilization of Llhuros,” I have organized <a href="https://symposium.civilizationofllhuros.org/">a free, daylong virtual symposium</a> to be held on Oct. 8, 2022. An international roster of presenters will discuss Daly’s exhibition and his legacy as a teacher. It will also feature contemporary artists who work with Llhuros as a paradigm. </p>
<p>Today, <a href="https://www.factcheck.org/">fact-checking outlets</a> <a href="https://thenewstack.io/deep-learning-ai-tool-identifies-fake-news-with-automated-fact-checking/">and algorithms</a> help people spot deception and misinformation. But art that tests your perceptions of what is real – allowing you to suspend your disbelief, while also giving you the opportunity to recognize the tools of deception – can play a role, too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189026/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Beauvais Lyons does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Norman Daly’s 1972 exhibition, ‘The Civilization of Llhuros,’ presented fiction as fact – and reminded viewers of just how easily they could be duped.Beauvais Lyons, Chancellor’s Professor of Art, University of TennesseeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1660332021-09-08T20:12:17Z2021-09-08T20:12:17Z20 years on, 9/11 responders are still sick and dying<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/419188/original/file-20210903-23797-akqghk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2396%2C1595&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://photos.aap.com.au/search/world%20trade%20center%20attack">Shawn Baldwin/AP/AAP Image</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Emergency workers and clean-up crew are among 9/11 responders still suffering significant health issues 20 years after the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/21st-century/9-11-attacks">terrorist attacks</a>.</p>
<p>More than <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18500709/">91,000 workers and volunteers</a> <a href="https://www1.nyc.gov/site/911health/enrollees/rescue-recovery-workers.page">were exposed</a> to a range of hazards during the rescue, recovery and clean-up operations.</p>
<p>By March 2021, some 80,785 of these responders had enrolled in the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/wtc/">World Trade Center Health Program</a>, which was set up after the attacks to monitor their health and treat them.</p>
<p>Now our <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/prehospital-and-disaster-medicine/article/abs/health-trends-among-911-responders-from-20112021-a-review-of-world-trade-center-health-program-statistics/09B87521287B943402782DAADB47E0B9">published research</a>, which is based on examining these health records, shows the range of physical and mental health issues responders still face.</p>
<h2>Breathing problems, cancer, mental illness</h2>
<p>We found 45% of responders in the health program have aerodigestive illness (conditions that affect the airways and upper digestive tract). A total of 16% have cancer and another 16% have mental health illness. Just under 40% of responders with health issues are aged 45-64; 83% are male.</p>
<p>Our analysis shows 3,439 of responders in the health program are now dead — far more than the <a href="https://parade.com/1248604/jessicasager/9-11-facts/">412 first responders who died on the day</a> of the attacks.</p>
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<p>Respiratory and upper digestive tract disorders are the number one cause of death (34%), ahead of cancer (30%) and mental health issues (15%). </p>
<p>Deaths attributed to these three factors, as well as musculoskeletal and acute traumatic injuries, have increased six-fold since the start of 2016. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-pain-of-9-11-still-stays-with-a-generation-64725">How the pain of 9/11 still stays with a generation</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>An ongoing battle</h2>
<p>The number of responders enrolling in the health program with emerging health issues rises each year. More than 16,000 responders have enrolled in the past five years. </p>
<p>Cancer is up 185% over the past five years, with leukaemia emerging as particularly common, overtaking colon and bladder cancer in the rankings.</p>
<p>This equates to an increase of 175% in leukaemia cases over a five-year period, which is not surprising. There is a <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32771228/">proven link</a> between benzene exposure and acute myeloid leukaemia. Benzene is found in jet fuel, one of the toxic exposures at the World Trade Center. And acute myeloid leukaemia is one of the main types of leukaemia reported not only by responders, but by <a href="https://www.wtc-illness.com/cancers/leukemia-blood-cancer">residents of lower Manhattan</a>, who also have higher-than-normal rates. </p>
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<p>Prostate cancer is also common, increasing 181% since 2016. Although this fits with the age profile of many of the health program’s participants, some responders are developing an <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31221798/">aggressive, fast-growing form</a> of prostate cancer. </p>
<p>Inhaling the toxic dust at the World Trade Center site may trigger a cascading series of cellular events, increasing the number of inflammatory T-cells (a type of immune cell) in some of the responders. This increased inflammation <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26816843/">may eventually lead to prostate cancer</a>.</p>
<p>There may also be a <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31490535/">significant link between</a> greater exposure at the World Trade Center and a higher risk of long-term cardiovascular disease (disease affecting the heart and blood vessels). Firefighters who responded to the World Trade Center on the morning of the attacks were 44% more likely to develop cardiovascular disease than those who arrived the next day.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/air-pollution-causes-cancer-so-lets-do-something-about-it-19380">Air pollution causes cancer, so let's do something about it </a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The mental health effects</h2>
<p>About <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31625489/">15-20%</a> of responders are estimated to be living with <a href="https://www.beyondblue.org.au/the-facts/anxiety/types-of-anxiety/ptsd">post-traumatic stress disorder</a> (PTSD) symptoms — roughly <a href="https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd">four times</a> the rate of the general population. </p>
<p>Despite 20 years having passed, PTSD <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28805168/">is a growing problem</a> for responders. Almost half of all responders <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31776767/">report</a> they need ongoing mental health care for a range of mental health issues including PTSD, anxiety, depression and <a href="https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/325578">survivor guilt</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/9-11-anniversary-a-watershed-for-psychological-response-to-disasters-2975">9/11 anniversary: a watershed for psychological response to disasters</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Researchers <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7364857/">have also found</a> brain scans of some responders indicate the onset of early-stage dementia. This is consistent with <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7364857/">previous work</a> noting cognitive impairment among responders occurs at about twice the rate of people 10-20 years older.</p>
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<h2>COVID-19 and other emerging threats</h2>
<p>Responders’ underlying health conditions, such as cancer and respiratory ailments, have also left them <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/nation/2021/05/05/covid-risk-911-september-2001-ground-zero-responders-causes-concern/4961779001/">vulnerable to COVID-19</a>. By the end of August 2020, <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/how-many-people-died-911-thousands-perishing-september-11-related-illnesses-1531058">some 1,172 responders</a> had confirmed COVID-19.</p>
<p>Even among responders who have not been infected, the pandemic <a href="https://www.thecity.nyc/2020/9/10/21431746/how-many-9-11-survivors-have-died-of-covid-19">has exacerbated</a> one of the key conditions caused by search and rescue, and recovery after terrorist attacks — PTSD.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/covid-19-has-killed-dozens-9-11-first-responders-n1239885">More than 100 responders have died</a> due to complications from the virus, which has also exacerbated other responders’ PTSD symptoms.</p>
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<p>The number of responders with cancers associated with asbestos exposure at the World Trade Center is expected to rise in coming years. This is because mesothelioma (a type of cancer caused by asbestos) usually takes <a href="https://www.canceraustralia.gov.au/cancer-types/mesothelioma-cancer/awareness#:%7E:text=It%20usually%20takes%20a%20very,and%20roofing%2C%20and%20in%20insulation.">20-50 years to develop</a>. </p>
<p>As of 2016, at least 352 responders had been diagnosed with the lung condition <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/asbestosis/symptoms-causes/syc-20354637">asbestosis</a>, and at least 444 had been diagnosed with another lung condition, <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/pulmonary-fibrosis/symptoms-causes/syc-20353690">pulmonary fibrosis</a>. Exposure to asbestos and other fibres in the toxic dust <a href="https://www.asbestos.com/world-trade-center/">may have contributed</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/health-harms-of-asbestos-wont-be-known-for-decades-14845">Health harms of asbestos won't be known for decades </a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Lessons learned</h2>
<p>Our research involved analysing data from existing databases. So we cannot make direct links between exposure at the World Trade Center site, length of time there, and the risk of illness. </p>
<p>Differences in age, sex, ethnicity, smoking status and other factors between responders and non-responders should also be considered. </p>
<p>Increased rates of some cancers in some responders may also be associated with <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2764101">heightened surveillance</a> rather than an increase in disease.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, we are now beginning to understand the long-term effects of responding to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Exposure is still having both a physical and mental health impact and it’s likely responders are still developing illnesses related to their exposures.</p>
<p>Ongoing monitoring of responders’ health remains a priority, especially considering the looming threat of new asbestos-related cancers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166033/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>More 9/11 responders died from physical and mental health issues after the terrorist attacks than on the day itself. And survivors are still suffering 20 years later.Erin Smith, Associate Professor in Disaster and Emergency Response, School of Medical and Health Sciences, Edith Cowan UniversityBrigid Larkin, PhD candidate, Edith Cowan UniversityLisa Holmes, Lecturer, Paramedical Science, School of Medical and Health Sciences, Edith Cowan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1364972020-05-11T20:05:05Z2020-05-11T20:05:05ZWhich Florence Nightingale will we remember today? The ‘Lady with the Lamp’ or the influential writer and activist?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333287/original/file-20200507-49550-konvmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C998%2C543&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/florence-nightingale-nurse-18201910-lady-lamp-1423318703">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Florence Nightingale’s birth on May 12, 1820, is commemorated as <a href="https://www.icn.ch/what-we-docampaigns/international-nurses-day">International Nurses Day</a>, honouring her founding role in modern nursing. Today would be her 200th birthday, so expect to hear even more about her.</p>
<p>Yet mention her name to nurses, the reaction tends to be an eye-roll. Why?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/florence-nightingale-carried-the-lamp-but-modern-nurses-carry-the-can-25114">Florence Nightingale carried the lamp but modern nurses carry the can</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>Nightingale influenced nursing and health care in two ways. </p>
<p>First there is the impact of her myth. This myth was created when she headed a group of nurses to care for the thousands of British troops dying from disease during the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/crimea_01.shtml">Crimean War</a> (1853-56).</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333288/original/file-20200507-49565-1m4wujq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333288/original/file-20200507-49565-1m4wujq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333288/original/file-20200507-49565-1m4wujq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=764&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333288/original/file-20200507-49565-1m4wujq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=764&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333288/original/file-20200507-49565-1m4wujq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=764&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333288/original/file-20200507-49565-1m4wujq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=960&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333288/original/file-20200507-49565-1m4wujq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=960&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333288/original/file-20200507-49565-1m4wujq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=960&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This painting by Henrietta Rae (1891) captures the romantic stereotype of the selfless Lady with the Lamp.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Florence_Nightingale._Coloured_lithograph._Wellcome_V0006579.jpg">Wikimedia/Wellcome Trust</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The public revered Nightingale as the <a href="https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/florence-nightingale-lady-lamp">Lady with the Lamp</a>, gliding around at night at <a href="https://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/scutari-hospital/">Scutari Hospital</a> in Turkey embodying selfless care. This image has been a burden for nurses as it ignores the skills involved in effective nursing.</p>
<p>Second, there was the impact of the real Nightingale. After the Crimean War, she spent most of her remaining 54 years as an invalid in her bedroom. </p>
<p>She wrote insightful reports and papers on reforming the army and improving public health. These were highly influential.</p>
<p>So too was her practical guide for women nursing family members at home, <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Notes_on_Nursing.html?id=YxIDAAAAQAAJ&redir_esc=y">Notes on Nursing</a> (1859). Later, her focus was on improving conditions in India.</p>
<p>In all her work, Nightingale aimed to prevent needless deaths from disease, as had occurred during the Crimean War. </p>
<p>In 1869, writing to one of the nurses she sent to Australia, Nightingale <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=Lvjt0v3bbhUC&pg=PA426&lpg=PA426&dq=like+a+horrid+spectre+one+is+afraid+of+conjuring+up+out+of+the+dark+corner+of+one%E2%80%99s+mind+%E2%80%A6+ready+to+spring,+if+not+overwhelmed+with+present+work.&source=bl&ots=1v0WaOGqm0&sig=ACfU3U30SSkBhZgfm4Vqts9jkLp2j_FQPA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjg14WZ9qDpAhXwwjgGHUQHABIQ6AEwAHoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=like%20a%20horrid%20spectre%20one%20is%20afraid%20of%20conjuring%20up%20out%20of%20the%20dark%20corner%20of%20one%E2%80%99s%20mind%20%E2%80%A6%20ready%20to%20spring%2C%20if%20not%20overwhelmed%20with%20present%20work.&f=false">described</a> her wartime experience as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>like a horrid spectre one is afraid of conjuring up out of the dark corner of one’s mind […] ready to spring, if one were not so overwhelmed with present work.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333289/original/file-20200507-49558-yg50l4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333289/original/file-20200507-49558-yg50l4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333289/original/file-20200507-49558-yg50l4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=834&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333289/original/file-20200507-49558-yg50l4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=834&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333289/original/file-20200507-49558-yg50l4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=834&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333289/original/file-20200507-49558-yg50l4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1048&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333289/original/file-20200507-49558-yg50l4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1048&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333289/original/file-20200507-49558-yg50l4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1048&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The reality, as depicted in a photograph of Florence Nightingale by Henry Hering (around 1860).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?search=florence+nightingale&title=Special:Search&go=Go&ns0=1&ns6=1&ns12=1&ns14=1&ns100=1&ns106=1#/media/File:Florence_Nightingale_(H_Hering_NPG_x82368).jpg">National Portrait Gallery London/Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Her description resonates with the despair of those caring for COVID-19 patients with inadequate facilities today.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the public insisted Nightingale reform civilian nursing. They poured money into a <a href="https://www.thenightingalefund.uk/">Nightingale Fund</a> to establish a training school for nurses under her guidance. </p>
<p>Nightingale complained; she had not asked for the money nor been consulted about its aim. Eventually, in 1860, the <a href="https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-nightingale-home-and-training-school-for-nurses-st-thomass-hospital">Nightingale School of Nursing</a> began at St Thomas’ Hospital, London. Though she tried to influence it, she had little to do with its management.</p>
<p>Nightingale also had little choice but to respond to the innumerable requests she received for advice, especially about hospital design and nursing. </p>
<h2>Australians wanted a piece of her too</h2>
<p>Australian hospitals and politicians equally clamoured to collaborate with the famed Nightingale.</p>
<p>One result was the spread of the hospital building style she favoured. These hospitals had separate buildings (pavilions) to help prevent cross-infection. </p>
<p>Inside were long, traditional wards that became known as Nightingale wards. They had high windows for light and ventilation; patients and beds were arranged for
easy supervision. An example can be seen in the original buildings at <a href="https://www.slhd.nsw.gov.au/rpa/about_us.html#History">Royal Prince Alfred Hospital</a>, Sydney.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-army-barracks-to-shopping-malls-how-hospital-design-has-been-a-matter-of-life-and-death-123377">From army barracks to shopping malls: how hospital design has been a matter of life and death</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Nightingale was not immune from imperialist prejudices. An example is her collecting statistics about indigenous health in British colonies. </p>
<p>As the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives <a href="https://croakey.org/australias-nursesmidwives-consider-call-to-apologise-for-harms-to-indigenous-people/">points out</a>, her involvement did not help Indigenous Australians. Nor was she always successful. </p>
<p>While Australian hospitals and governments boasted they consulted her, the tyranny of distance was against them. In the 1860s, she commented on plans for new wards at Sydney Infirmary (now <a href="https://www.seslhd.health.nsw.gov.au/sydney-eye-hospital/about-us/our-history">Sydney Hospital</a>), but in the three months it took for her letter to arrive, the plans had changed. </p>
<p>It was certainly not her fault that, after the building was completed, it was discovered the architects had forgotten to include toilets.</p>
<h2>Nightingale advised on a new Australian nursing school</h2>
<p>Nightingale’s major contribution to Australian nursing occurred when she was asked to establish a school of nursing at Sydney Infirmary. </p>
<p>The new nurses were expected to be a secular version of the other trained nurses in the colony, the <a href="https://www.svhs.org.au/about-us/heritage/facility-heritage">Sisters of Charity</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/florence-nightingale-a-pioneer-of-hand-washing-and-hygiene-for-health-134270">Florence Nightingale: a pioneer of hand washing and hygiene for health</a>
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<p>Nightingale agreed to send nurses to Sydney, but largely left it to the matron of the UK’s St Thomas’s Hospital to choose them. Only later would Nightingale <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=dDDcyh8S2rYC&pg=PA185&lpg=PA185&dq=%22a+sheep%E2%80%99s+head+from+a+carrot%22+florence+nightingale&source=bl&ots=6mLbEw_M5n&sig=ACfU3U1HUnspkTV4RrBVY2epqVxlGS_fyw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjJgcfm-qDpAhV6yDgGHQlhCfkQ6AEwCnoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22a%20sheep%E2%80%99s%20head%20from%20a%20carrot%22%20florence%20nightingale&f=false">view the matron</a> as someone who would not know “a sheep’s head from a carrot”.</p>
<p>The six nurses arrived in 1868. Most were inexperienced, including their leader <a href="https://sydneyuniversitypress.com.au/products/78882">Lucy Osburn</a>. Nightingale tried to advise, but again the length of time letters took to arrive meant they were of little use. Problems mounted. Three years later, Nightingale disowned the project and deemed Osburn a failure.</p>
<h2>Strict hygiene, hard work and patients first</h2>
<p>Nightingale had been too hasty. Osburn learnt from her mistakes and persisted in her work. She implemented Nightingale’s key ideals including strict hygiene and conscientious, patient-centred nursing.</p>
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<p>She demonstrated that nursing needed to be taught, rather than learnt from experience. As important, her nurses had reasonable pay and good living conditions in the <a href="https://sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/sydneyopen/2019/lucy-osburn-nightingale-museum">Nightingale wing</a>. Better conditions attracted nurses more able to implement the new standards of antiseptic practice.</p>
<p>Today’s nurses have reason to be ambivalent about Nightingale’s impact, but her ideals have helped ensure they are among the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-27/the-professions-australians-trust-the-most/11725448">most trusted</a> occupational group.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136497/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Judith Godden does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Florence Nightingale, who would have turned 200 today, might be remembered for her work during the Crimean War. But that’s ignoring the 54 years afterwards she spent writing, analysing and agitating.Judith Godden, Honorary Associate, Department of History, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1271742019-11-27T19:37:53Z2019-11-27T19:37:53Z‘The Wall’ cemented Pink Floyd’s fame – but destroyed the band<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304127/original/file-20191127-112545-1219h0q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C4%2C3118%2C2046&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Roger Waters continues to perform 'The Wall' even after leaving Pink Floyd.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Hungary-The-Wall-Concert/27b0a8c0ffa240b48003094e1c0abdbb/35/0">AP Photo/MTI, Balazs Mohai</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Forty years ago, on Nov. 30, 1979, the English progressive rock band Pink Floyd released its 11th studio album, “The Wall.” </p>
<p>Featuring 26 tracks, two records and an operatic story line, the concept album would go on to become the No. 2 bestselling double album in history. But it would also mark the last time Pink Floyd’s core members – Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright – would record an album together.</p>
<p>Years of touring and financial stress had taken their toll. The egomania of one member, Waters, during the recording of “The Wall” would be the tipping point.</p>
<h2>Tensions mount</h2>
<p>The unchecked egos of band members can often be difficult to rein in, and often lead to acrimony – to the point where the band breakup has almost become a cliché. </p>
<p>Tensions among the four members of The Beatles – John Lennon and Paul McCartney, in particular – famously led to <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/why-the-beatles-broke-up-113403/">the band’s breakup in 1970</a>. Conflict between guitarist Johnny Marr and vocalist Morrissey <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/why-its-great-the-smiths-broke-up-117660/">triggered Marr’s decision to leave The Smiths</a>. And let’s not forget The Eagles, which broke up on such bad terms that drummer and vocalist Don Henley said the band would reunite “<a href="https://wcmf.radio.com/blogs/kane-o/25-years-after-fact-hell-freezes-over-again">when hell freezes over</a>.”</p>
<p>By the time Pink Floyd started recording “The Wall” in January 1979, tensions had been simmering for years.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/pink-floyds-dark-side-of-the-moon-10-things-you-didnt-know-201743/">The Dark Side of the Moon</a>,” released in 1973, had catapulted Pink Floyd to superstardom. But the band members struggled over how to build off the success of “Dark Side” and make another hit album.</p>
<p>They had already fought among themselves when recording their follow-up albums, 1975’s “<a href="https://www.thisdayinmusic.com/classic-albums/pink-floyd-wish-you-were-here/">Wish You Were Here</a>” and 1977’s “<a href="https://consequenceofsound.net/2017/05/pink-floyds-animals-pulls-no-political-punches-40-years-later/">Animals</a>.”</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304135/original/file-20191127-112526-19labqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304135/original/file-20191127-112526-19labqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=249&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304135/original/file-20191127-112526-19labqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=249&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304135/original/file-20191127-112526-19labqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=249&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304135/original/file-20191127-112526-19labqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304135/original/file-20191127-112526-19labqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304135/original/file-20191127-112526-19labqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=313&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">From left to right: Roger Waters, Nick Mason, David Gilmour and Richard Wright.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Pink_Floyd%2C_1971.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
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<p>Roger Waters, the band’s bassist and co-lead singer, took charge for “Wish You Were Here.” He decided which tracks would appear and essentially dictated the album’s conceptual themes, which included alienation, a critique of the music industry and a tribute to former bandmate Syd Barrett, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/12/arts/music/12barrett.html">who had left the band in 1968 due to mental health struggles</a>. </p>
<p>In the process, Waters ended up cutting the songs, “Raving and Drooling” and “Gotta Be Crazy” against the wishes of guitarist and co-vocalist David Gilmour.</p>
<p>“Dave was always clear that he wanted to do the other two songs,” <a href="https://www.loudersound.com/features/how-wish-you-were-here-was-the-beginning-of-the-end-for-pink-floyd">Waters recalled</a>. “He never quite copped what I was talking about. But Rick did and Nicky did, and he was outvoted, so we went on.”</p>
<p>Perhaps feeling suffocated by Waters, Richard Wright and David Gilmour took a stab at solo albums in 1978, with Wright releasing “Wet Dream” and Gilmour debuting the self-titled “David Gilmour.” </p>
<p>Reflecting on his first solo album, <a href="http://www.pink-floyd.org/artint/circus.htm">Gilmour said</a> it “was important to me in terms of self-respect. At first I didn’t think my name was big enough to carry it. Being in a group for so long can be a bit claustrophobic, and I needed to step out from behind Floyd’s shadow.”</p>
<h2>The shadow of ‘The Wall’</h2>
<p>“The Wall” would be the band’s next project – and, again, Waters asserted control. </p>
<p>Waters was partly inspired by an infamous incident that took place during the “In the Flesh” tour, which promoted the album “Animals.” Annoyed by the sound of firecrackers – and feeling as if the crowd wasn’t listening to their music or lyrics – <a href="https://nationalpost.com/entertainment/music/planned-pink-floyd-opera-in-montreal-owes-existence-to-the-time-roger-waters-spit-on-fan-in-1977">Waters spat on the audience</a>. He later mused about building a wall between him and his fans. The seed for “The Wall” was planted. </p>
<p>In July 1978, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=vkpISAAACAAJ&dq=The+Making+of+Pink+Floyd+The+Wall&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiomujiyormAhVDRqwKHcCgCuYQ6AEwAXoECAEQAg">he presented a 90-minute demo</a> to the rest of the band, proposing two concepts for the next album: “Bricks in the Wall” and “The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking.” </p>
<p>The band members agreed to make an album focused on the first of the two. It would be about the struggles and isolation of rock stardom, and its central character would be named Pink Floyd. </p>
<p>The name of the character belied the fact that this would largely be a one-man show. As musicologist Allan F. Moore <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.46254">observed</a>, “Waters’ growing megalomania, much in evidence on ‘The Wall,’ became harder to handle.”</p>
<p>The fact that the album’s central story was semi-autobiographical, based on Waters and former band member Syd Barrett, probably didn’t help matters. The motif of walls symbolized the defense mechanisms Waters had built up against those who might hurt him: parents, teachers, wives and lovers. Some lyrics dealt with the death of his father, others with infidelity.</p>
<p>If David Gilmour had ideas for ways to contribute to Waters’ vision, they were barely incorporated. Waters did include fragments from demos associated with Gilmour’s solo projects. But in the end, Gilmour only received three co-writing credits – for “Run Like Hell,” “Young Lust” and “Comfortably Numb.” Drummer Nick Mason and keyboardist Richard Wright didn’t receive any at all.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">‘Young Lust’ is one of only three songs on which David Gilmour received a writing credit.</span></figcaption>
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<p>On the track “Mother,” Waters even brought in Toto drummer and session percussionist Jeff Porcaro to replace Mason. On Mason’s limited drumming abilities, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20090413165017/http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/news/vintage-pink-floyd-interview-part-1/">Roger Waters recalled</a>: </p>
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<p>“It’s got 5/4 bars in it. Nick, to his great credit, has no pretense about that, it was clear that he could not play it. He said ‘I can’t play that.’ Or maybe somebody said to him, ‘Nick, maybe you should get somebody else to play this because you’re struggling.’”</p>
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<h2>The aftermath</h2>
<p>Today, “The Wall” is considered by many <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-156826/pink-floyd-the-wall-152799/">to be one of the best albums in rock history</a>. But it marked the last time the four members of the band would record an album together.</p>
<p>Keyboardist Richard Wright left, only to return later as a salaried sideman during Pink Floyd’s tours in 1980 and 1981. Pink Floyd – minus Wright – went on to record its 1983 album, “The Final Cut.” Waters eventually quit Pink Floyd in 1985 and sued members Gilmour and Mason in an attempt to stop them from using the band name, arguing that Pink Floyd was “<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-24157591">a spent force creatively</a>.”</p>
<p>Waters lost, and Gilmour and Mason went on to record three more albums under the name Pink Floyd: 1987’s “A Momentary Lapse of Reason,” 1994’s “The Division Bell” and 2014’s “<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-pink-floyds-river-time-is-endless-33707">The Endless River</a>.”</p>
<p>None would match the critical or commercial success of “The Wall.”</p>
<p>The making of “The Wall” reflects a common experience faced by many other rock bands: how creative tension and competing visions can deteriorate relations between band members. </p>
<p>Luckily, Pink Floyd was able to keep it all together to record one final masterpiece.</p>
<p>[ <em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127174/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark E. Perry does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The story of the album, which was released 40 years ago, is a classic tale of how bands struggle with unchecked egos and competing visions.Mark E. Perry, Director of Music Industry Program & Assistant Professor of Musicology, Oklahoma State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1222602019-08-22T10:52:14Z2019-08-22T10:52:14ZGrattan on Friday: Courting ‘quiet Australians’ from ‘bubble central’, it’s been a remarkable first year for Scott Morrison<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289031/original/file-20190822-170956-1v5lj90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Can Scott Morrison maintain the image of separation from the Canberra elite, given he's its most powerful member?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/The Conversation</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Even Scott Morrison, with his abundant self-belief, couldn’t have imagined that on Saturday’s anniversary of his seizing the prime ministership, he’d be winging his way to France for a G7 meeting, where Australia has observer status for the first time.</p>
<p>A grim brand of luck – the spectacular collapse of two Liberal prime ministers – and a dash of cunning brought Morrison the top job. His own campaigning skills and a hapless Labor performance enabled him to keep it.</p>
<p>In the next three years, it might all go to hell in a handbasket, given an uncertain economy, a fickle electorate and a thin majority. But after 12 months in the position, Morrison looks the strong leader, clearly in charge, with few constraints.</p>
<p>It’s not just the election win. It’s that there isn’t the remotest sign of a trouble-making aspirant or a vengeful wrecker. New party rules protect a Liberal PM. Infighting has subsided. The party is generally satisfied with its leader, in a way it wasn’t with either Tony Abbott or Malcolm Turnbull.</p>
<p>Three months after the “miracle” victory, we’re seeing how the campaigning prime minister has morphed into the governing one, while remaining the campaigner.</p>
<p>To analyse Morrison’s ideology has always been to plunge into a puzzle box. He’s conservative on moral issues, driven by his Pentecostalism. On secular social issues he’s more moderate – some in the welfare sector found him unexpectedly flexible when he was social services minister. On economics, he can be soggy, lacking the true dry’s distaste for government intervention.</p>
<p>In the election, it was said Morrison looked like he was running for “mayor of Australia”. It’s an accurate characterisation in part.</p>
<p>The PM who’ll hobnob at the G7 and soon sup at a White House state dinner has his feet firmly planted in the local community centre, his ear tuned to his “quiet Australians”, the people he asserts are alienated because the “Canberra bubble” too often has ignored them.</p>
<p>We only have to observe what he’s done and how he talks. Setting up “Services Australia”. A pledge to bust “congestion” - in traffic, regulations, the bureaucracy. Badgering the public service to improve delivery. Moving to try to stop the export of plastic waste. An inquiry into the NDIS.</p>
<p>He dog-whistles to his “quiet Australians” - not in a racist way, but through deriding the “Canberra bubble” and publicly putting the bureaucrats in their place.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/against-the-odds-scott-morrison-wants-to-be-returned-as-prime-minister-but-who-the-bloody-hell-is-he-116732">Against the odds, Scott Morrison wants to be returned as prime minister. But who the bloody hell is he?</a>
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<p>Morrison likes the practical; he looks from the ground up. It’s all about Mr and Mrs Average from the Sutherland Shire. Indeed, that’s him and Jenny, although their address is Kirribilli House. After he became PM, Morrison moved very quickly to define himself to the public as one of them. When Sky’s David Speers asked about his image as “the daggy dad with the baseball cap”, Morrison said: “Well, that’s how it’s described by others, but you’re describing my life … This is who I am.”</p>
<p>Can he maintain the guise of separation from the Canberra elite, given he’s its most powerful member? Monash University political scientist Paul Strangio says: “It will take political and image-making dexterity by the prime minister to sustain the idea that he is somehow distinct from that ‘bubble’.” </p>
<p>There’s been much claimed about Morrison’s lack of an “agenda” beyond the now-legislated tax cuts, but it’s notable that since the election he’s organised “deep dives” into policy areas.</p>
<p>He gets together the minister, public servants and interested or qualified backbenchers. The sessions run from one to four hours; Morrison stays through them. Topics have included recycling, youth suicide, veterans’ mental health, NDIS, water, aged care.</p>
<p>He also has reviews and inquiries in train or pending, including one on industrial relations, where he has signalled he’ll proceed cautiously. On the fraught area of religious freedom, still in the works, backbenchers have been extensively consulted to smooth the path to decisions.</p>
<p>“Relative to his two predecessors, he has a much better idea of what he wants to do – he’s a better long-term planner than [they were],” says someone familiar with all three of these Liberal PMs.</p>
<p>Former Liberal staffer David Gazard, a close personal friend, describes Morrison as a “pragmatic incrementalist – he will get what he can get in areas he wants to go to”. He’s fortunate that the post-election Senate is set to be easier than the last one.</p>
<p>The questions hang. Is the incrementalist capable of implementing major reforms that the country will need? Will he make a substantial entry in the history book of Australian prime ministers?</p>
<p>Given Morrison’s pragmatism, even his caution, his decision to put Indigenous constitutional recognition on his agenda sits oddly. It is becoming clear that, with his veto of any reference to a “Voice to Parliament” being put in a referendum question, the initiative is likely to fizzle into a disappointing stalemate.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-morrison-can-learn-a-lot-from-the-public-servants-but-will-he-listen-121646">Grattan on Friday: Morrison can learn a lot from the public servants, but will he listen?</a>
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<p>Other issues are unavoidable but intractable. While the internal Liberal wars over climate and energy policy have quieted, the rifts remain. This is a self-imposed “wicked problem” for the Liberals - beyond, it seems, any leader to satisfactorily resolve - and the struggle with energy prices will continue.</p>
<p>Morrison is methodical, always political, perennially in action. “He would be the kind of person you’d expect to have a job list on his desk,” says a minister. “I think he’s conscious of the short time frame of the federal cycle. He’s task-oriented - he wants to get stuff done and move on to the next project.”</p>
<p>One source likens his work style to rugby league’s “playing moves in blocks”, proceeding systematically from one thing to another. Another says he picks three or four things to drive, while putting others into “wider orbits”.</p>
<p>Morrison the family man has his nuclear political family. Frontbenchers in his innermost circle are Stuart Robert (minister for government services and the NDIS) and Alex Hawke (minister for international development and the Pacific), both his factional mates from way back, as well as Ben Morton (assistant minister to the prime minister), who travelled on the campaign plane with him.</p>
<p>His chief of staff, John Kunkel, is a close confidant, as is Phil Gaetjens, his incoming departmental head, on whom he’ll lean heavily for advice on turning political objectives into policy outcomes.</p>
<p>Those who work with Morrison stress how focused he is. A close observer describes his responses to problems. “He doesn’t dwell too much on pondering the entrails. He says, ‘How do we fix this?’ His temperament is his biggest asset – he’s unflappable. He’s confident in his ability to handle the situation he confronts.”</p>
<p>This confidence reveals at times his arrogant side. That’s always been there (as when, in events before his downfall as head of Tourism Australia, he wrongly thought Prime Minister John Howard would side with him rather than with the minister, Fran Bailey). The arrogance is more concealed now, but shows when he summarily dismisses awkward questions as of interest only to the “bubble”.</p>
<p>His natural instinct is for command and control, but this operates subtly in managing his ministers. He gives them rein in their own areas, but tells them not to freelance outside their remit. Their “charter letters” emphasise goals and performance.</p>
<p>He exhorts backbenchers to shut up publicly, but can’t make them, and they’ve been speaking out on subjects from China to superannuation and industrial relations. This is messy but quite different from the destructive sniping of the last term.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-being-a-trump-bestie-comes-with-its-own-challenges-for-scott-morrison-120609">Grattan on Friday: Being a Trump 'bestie' comes with its own challenges for Scott Morrison</a>
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<p>In looking at Morrison’s positive first year it’s easy to forget how things can turn. Strangio identifies at least three risks: the party’s right could decide to “seize the moment” and make divisive demands; the electorate could, over time, become frustrated with Morrison’s tendency to incrementalism, interpreting it as inertia; or, conversely, Morrison might eventually surrender to an impulse to which all prime ministers are prone - to leave some big imprint, and thereby plunge himself into political choppy waters. </p>
<p>There’s a bit of muttering in some Nationals quarters about how Morrison has intruded onto their turf. He’s dominated the drought issue, and sees as part of his constituency rural “quiet Australians”. The Nationals did well at the election, but party leader Michael McCormack is treated (respectfully) as a pushover. A Nationals source contrasts Morrison with Howard, who let the junior Coalition partner be seen having a few wins.</p>
<p>Morrison has found himself spending a lot of time on foreign policy; with the low-key Marise Payne backward in coming forward, he is effectively his own foreign minister.</p>
<p>Donald Trump has lionised the PM, quite a mixed blessing (and naturally Australia has signed up to the American request to be part of the freedom-of-navigation mission in the Middle East).</p>
<p>The Pacific Island leaders gave Morrison both barrels over Australia’s climate change policy and coal, when he was wedged between them and domestic politics. Australia’s “Pacific step up” bogged, at least momentarily, in the acrimony of Tuvalu.</p>
<p>Morrison finds himself in office at a time when managing Australia’s relationship with China is becoming increasingly challenging. Indeed, central in his current preoccupations is policy on China, which includes complex responses in resisting that country’s various encroachments on Australian sovereignty. It’s far from being all about trade.</p>
<p>But the most immediate worry is the economy. Will the “global headwinds” turn gale force, requiring more government stimulus and threatening the surplus? With wage growth sluggish and interest rates, already near rock bottom, cut twice since the election, the Reserve Bank prods the government to help with the load.</p>
<p>So far, Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg are holding back and hoping that the tax package will do enough. The quiet Australians, the people who rode with Morrison’s promises about ensuring good economic management, are watching, quietly.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122260/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>After 12 months as prime minister, Morrison looks the strong leader, clearly in charge, with few constraints. But will he make a substantial entry in the history book of Australian prime ministers?Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1134402019-04-12T02:06:02Z2019-04-12T02:06:02ZAmerica and the world still need the WTO to keep trade and the global economy humming<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268892/original/file-20190411-44781-1lxc2b4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The WTO's home in Geneva.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/geneva-august-18-world-trade-organization-150489857?src=Ohp3Q9anSM6lue2OrPqqTg-2-68">Martin Good/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>President Donald Trump <a href="https://piie.com/blogs/trade-investment-policy-watch/us-exit-wto-would-unravel-global-trade">has made no secret</a> of his disdain for the World Trade Organization.</p>
<p>Since taking office, the Trump administration <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-wto-judge/world-trades-top-court-close-to-breakdown-as-us-blocks-another-judge-idUSKCN1M621Y">has been blocking the appointment</a> or reappointment of WTO judges – imperiling the essential work of its court in issuing trade rulings. The president has <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45364150">even threatened</a> to leave the global body if it doesn’t “shape up.” </p>
<p>But what exactly is the WTO, why does it matter and should Americans care if the U.S. left it? </p>
<p>As an international trade <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=yNkGbyQAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">scholar</a>, I believe the WTO matters a great deal. To show why, I’d like to start with the history, which begins long before the agreement establishing the WTO <a href="https://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/marrakesh_decl_e.htm">was signed</a> 25 years ago, on April 15, 1994.</p>
<h2>History of the WTO</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.wto.org">Geneva-based WTO</a> was the culmination of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/rules-based-trade-made-the-world-rich-trumps-policies-may-make-it-poorer-97896">50-year effort</a> spearheaded by successive U.S. governments to establish and secure a rules-based multilateral trade regime.</p>
<p>Before World War II, European powers imposed harsh trade restrictions against countries outside their empires, which hurt U.S. exporters substantially. This <a href="http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo24475328.html">also contributed</a> to Japan going to war to carve out an “East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere” and Nazi Germany attacking eastward to obtain “living space” – that is, vassal territories – nearby.</p>
<p>The 1948 <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/gatt.asp">General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade</a>, the WTO’s predecessor, was designed to avoid a repeat of the collapse of trade in the 1930s that <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520275850/the-world-in-depression-1929-1939">worsened the Great Depression</a> and to eliminate market access as a reason to go to war. But this agreement applied only to trade in goods, not services. </p>
<p>Efforts to forge a <a href="https://www.wto.org/english/theWTO_e/minist_e/min96_e/chrono.htm">more comprehensive trade treaty</a> didn’t succeed until the 1990s, following the so-called Uruguay Round of trade talks, which ultimately led to the creation of the WTO on Jan. 1, 1995.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266581/original/file-20190329-71016-s1vedx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266581/original/file-20190329-71016-s1vedx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266581/original/file-20190329-71016-s1vedx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266581/original/file-20190329-71016-s1vedx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266581/original/file-20190329-71016-s1vedx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266581/original/file-20190329-71016-s1vedx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266581/original/file-20190329-71016-s1vedx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The WTO’s creation was a significant accomplishment of the Clinton administration.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Watchf-AP-A-DC-USA-APHS352110-President-Bill-Cl-/6b2b47ed07674cd28d0fe9fda02f0b14/9/0">AP Photo/Greg Gibson</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A success story</h2>
<p>The result has been spectacularly successful. <a href="https://comtrade.un.org/pb/">Country exports</a> as a share of global output surged from less than 5% in 1948 to over 30% today.</p>
<p>This enabled countries to <a href="https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/10thi_e/10thi03_e.htm">grow faster and steadier</a> and brought peace and prosperity to Europe and Japan. </p>
<p>Members of the WTO, which currently number 164, agree to four core principles: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Nondiscrimination, which means all imports are subject to the same tariff rate, with some exceptions;</p></li>
<li><p>Reciprocity, which balances the reduction of barriers and allows for retaliation; </p></li>
<li><p>Transparency;</p></li>
<li><p>Decision-making by consensus.</p></li>
</ol>
<h2>How it works</h2>
<p>The WTO facilitates trade negotiations among member countries to open up markets and <a href="https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/dispu_e.htm">settle disputes</a> that arise. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dda_e/dda_e.htm">Subsequent rounds of negotiations</a> have allowed countries to take big steps toward trade liberalization, while balancing concessions with benefits. </p>
<p>When disputes arise, such as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/george-w-bush-tried-steel-tariffs-it-didnt-work-92904">Trump steel tariffs</a>, impartial panels adjudicate using WTO rules and permit injured countries to sanction violators. The U.S. <a href="https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/dispu_by_country_e.htm">ranks among the most frequent</a> and successful users of this, which has helped keep markets open for American exporters.</p>
<h2>What would happen if the U.S. left</h2>
<p>If the U.S. were to leave the WTO, other countries could freely raise tariffs against it. And the U.S. would lose access to the dispute settlement mechanism, which would make retaliation the only response available. </p>
<p>This would inevitably raise prices and reduce choice for U.S. consumers, undercutting the competitiveness and profitability of companies that rely on imports and slow economic growth.</p>
<p>The WTO’s demise would also raise the odds of violent conflict among states because it would reduce opportunities for peaceful economic expansion.</p>
<p>I know the WTO is far from perfect. Its reliance on consensus decision-making at times hampers progress on pressing problems, and its dispute settlement process can be slow. </p>
<p>That said, the WTO remains one of today’s most valuable international organizations, and I believe the world would be poorer and less peaceful without it.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-wto-99274">article</a> originally published on July 3, 2018.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113440/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen J. Silvia does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A quarter-century ago, more than 100 nations agreed to engage in freer trade with one another and signed the declaration that established the World Trade Organization.Stephen J. Silvia, Professor of International Relations, American University School of International ServiceLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1139752019-03-28T20:12:28Z2019-03-28T20:12:28ZWhy pay transparency alone won’t eliminate the persistent wage gap between men and women<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265887/original/file-20190326-36248-mf03wx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The gender pay gap has proved difficult to close. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/gender-pay-gap-488107402">Ian johnston/shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>No matter how you slice the data, women in the U.S. earn a lot less than men. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-poverty/cps-pinc/pinc-05.2017.html">A typical woman working full-time makes 81 cents</a> for every dollar a man earns, little more than the 77 cents she got a decade ago. Within careers, it can vary widely, with female physicians and marketing managers earning 71 cents, while female registered nurses are at 92 cents. A university degree doesn’t help, as women with a bachelor’s earn just 74 cents of every college-educated man’s dollar.</p>
<p>One of the <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/point-taken/should-salaries-be-transparent/#poll">popular solutions</a> proposed for <a href="https://pay-equity.org/day.html">narrowing this persistent gap</a> is <a href="http://www.law.uci.edu/lawreview/vol4/no2/Estlund.pdf">pay transparency</a>. There are two rationales for this. First, employers will be less likely to pay women less than men for the same job if salaries are known. Second, if a woman knows how much her male colleagues are earning for doing the same work, she’ll be in a better position to negotiate a higher salary. </p>
<p>The House <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/7/text">passed a bill on March 27</a> <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/house/436121-house-passes-paycheck-fairness-act">designed to promote equal pay and transparency</a> by, among other things, banning employers from asking applicants about their salary history and preventing them from retaliating against employees who compare wages. </p>
<p>Many states <a href="https://www.salary.com/blog/pay-transparency-laws-mean/">have already passed similar laws</a>, while the federal government has <a href="https://www.law.com/nationallawjournal/2019/03/04/federal-judge-hits-trump-agency-for-illegal-move-to-stop-new-pay-data-rule/?slreturn=20190228082114">issued</a> <a href="http://www.dol.gov/ofccp/regs/statutes/eo11246.htm">a few regulations</a> along these lines. </p>
<p>The question is, are they working? As an <a href="http://law.ubalt.edu/faculty/profiles/modesitt.cfm">expert in employment discrimination law</a>, including equal pay, I have my doubts about many of these laws. </p>
<p><iframe id="suLUh" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/suLUh/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>No salary disclosure required</h2>
<p>Part of the problem is that with one exception – government employees – the laws currently in place to promote pay transparency do not actually require disclosure of individual salary information. </p>
<p>For example, the <a href="http://www.dol.gov/ofccp/regs/statutes/eo11246.htm">government regulation</a> that has been touted as a pay transparency law prohibits federal contractors only from retaliating against employees who disclose their own salary. And states with the <a href="https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/California_Equal_Pay_Act.htm%20https://labor.ny.gov/formsdocs/factsheets/pdfs/p828.pdf">toughest laws</a>, such as California and New York, use similar language.</p>
<p>The idea behind these anti-retaliation laws is to allow employees to disclose their pay without repercussion, eliminating pay secrecy policies and customs.</p>
<p>For these laws to create actual pay transparency, however, employees must be willing to share salary information. And while there <a href="http://www.hreonline.com/HRE/view/story.jhtml?id=534359883">appears to be a trend</a> toward employee willingness to do so, it is at odds with the <a href="http://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1345&context=bjell">longstanding social norm</a> against discussing pay.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265889/original/file-20190326-36260-hdcomb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265889/original/file-20190326-36260-hdcomb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265889/original/file-20190326-36260-hdcomb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265889/original/file-20190326-36260-hdcomb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265889/original/file-20190326-36260-hdcomb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265889/original/file-20190326-36260-hdcomb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265889/original/file-20190326-36260-hdcomb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Whole Foods is one company that allows employees to know other employees’ salaries.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Future-of-Work-Entry-Points/98b921ce6cf9454da667dada856a84be/30/0">AP Photo/Steven Senne</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Finding a link to pay equity</h2>
<p>In the absence of a legal requirement to disclose actual wages, an increasing number of companies are making salary information transparent on their own. </p>
<p>Different companies have taken varying approaches to this. For example, Whole Foods <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/at-whole-foods-paychecks-are-public/">allows workers to check</a> their colleagues’ salaries, while social media scheduler Buffer <a href="https://open.buffer.com/transparent-salaries/">publicly discloses the formula</a> it uses to determine employees’ salaries. At the extreme end of transparency, <a href="http://www.fedsdatacenter.com/federal-pay-rates/">many governmental employees’ salaries</a> are publicly available, depending on the state. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.law.uci.edu/lawreview/vol4/no2/Estlund.pdf">Proponents argue</a> that transparency decreases the gender pay gap because if employers disclose salaries, they will also be disclosing any gap that exists, which will lead to efforts to eliminate it. This is precisely what happened at Buffer, which, after disclosing employee salaries, found a wage gap and <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/03/pay-transparency-gender-gap/475683/">changed its compensation system</a> and hiring priorities to eliminate it. </p>
<p>The federal workforce, where <a href="https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/reference-materials/reports/governmentwide-strategy-on-advancing-pay-equality-in-the-federal-government.pdf">the pay gap is significantly lower</a> than in the private sector, can also be seen as support for the argument that pay transparency <a href="https://www.dol.gov/wb/resources/womens_earnings_and_the_wage_gap_17.pdf">helps reduce it</a>. The <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/finance/391965-equal-pay-for-women-elusive-55-years-after-landmark-law">federal wage gap ranges</a> from about 4 percent to 9 percent, when controlling for relevant factors that affect pay, <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w21913.pdf">compared with 8 percent to 18 percent</a> among all employers.</p>
<h2>Limited research</h2>
<p>But there is little actual research that supports these arguments.</p>
<p>I don’t know of any empirical study of how pay transparency affects the gender wage gap, such as what happens to the gap when companies shift from withholding to disclosing employee pay. While <a href="https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/reference-materials/reports/governmentwide-strategy-on-advancing-pay-equality-in-the-federal-government.pdf">research does exist</a> comparing the federal workforce’s wage gap with the private sector’s, it does not show whether pay transparency is a factor. </p>
<p>It is quite probable that the most important reason for the smaller federal wage gap is the government’s highly structured pay and promotion system. Because pay is based on a job’s classification, with step raises that are identical, there is less chance for men and women to be paid different amounts for doing the same job.</p>
<p>When one looks more closely at the anecdotal evidence, pay transparency appears more likely to be simply one part of narrowing the pay gap. For example, while <a href="http://fortune.com/2015/08/18/tech-transparency-wage-gaps">Buffer eliminated its pay gap</a> after disclosing employee salaries, Salesforce <a href="https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2016/03/equality-at-salesforce-equal-pay.html">did so after merely conducting an internal review</a>. </p>
<p>The common link in these approaches is not pay transparency but recognition of a gap and a commitment to closing it. Thus, transparency can assist in pushing companies toward recognition of a problem but isn’t an essential component to eliminating it.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265888/original/file-20190326-36248-3c1e9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265888/original/file-20190326-36248-3c1e9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265888/original/file-20190326-36248-3c1e9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265888/original/file-20190326-36248-3c1e9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265888/original/file-20190326-36248-3c1e9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265888/original/file-20190326-36248-3c1e9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265888/original/file-20190326-36248-3c1e9y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In 2016, the World Economic Forum found that the global gender pay gap will not close for another 170 years if current trends continue.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Gender-Pay-Gap/9a24d93c03e3434a9890915aa632745b/20/0">AP Photo/Jessica Hill</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Pitfalls of transparency</h2>
<p>One downside to pay transparency is the effect on employee morale.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.princeton.edu/%7Eamas/papers/card-mas-moretti-saezAER11ucpay">fascinating study</a> on the effect of revealing salaries of University of California employees showed that employees below the median salary for their position had decreased job satisfaction and an increase in desire to change jobs. </p>
<p>This was not offset by improvements in employee morale among those who were paid higher than the median salary. Thus, there was a net overall decrease in employee morale. </p>
<p>On the other hand, a 2015 <a href="http://fortune.com/2015/10/15/pay-transparency/">PayScale survey suggests</a> that transparency has the opposite effect, encouraging retention, because employees tend to think they’re more underpaid than they actually are.</p>
<p>To avoid negative consequences, the <a href="https://www.shrm.org/publications/hrmagazine/editorialcontent/2014/0914/pages/0914-salary-transparency.aspx">Society for Human Resource Management recommends</a> that employers be prepared to explain any reasons for pay disparities that are revealed. This also suggests that how an employer handles a pay gap matters more than the disclosure of it. </p>
<h2>Other factors influencing the gap</h2>
<p>Another factor affecting the pay gap is simply an <a href="https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/reference-materials/reports/governmentwide-strategy-on-advancing-pay-equality-in-the-federal-government.pdf">employee’s initial salary</a>, which is usually higher for men than women for the same job.</p>
<p>California <a href="https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/California_Equal_Pay_Act.htm">recently passed a law</a> to combat this by prohibiting employers from asking applicants for salary history, and the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/7/text?r=2">bill the House just passed</a> would do the same thing. If employers don’t know the prior salaries of applicants, presumably they will offer the same pay to everyone. </p>
<p>This is a good start, but it may not be enough to completely close the wage gap. Even if offered the same salary, men are usually rewarded for negotiating a better salary – while <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/03/19/3416122/texas-republican-pay-gap-negotiate/">women are penalized</a> for doing the same. </p>
<p>Other factors blamed for why women earn less than men include seniority and time off to care for a baby or sick family member, and companies need to take these components into account as well if they wish to eliminate gender disparities in pay. </p>
<p>Putting this all together, pay transparency in and of itself doesn’t necessarily help close the gender pay gap. It creates opportunities for employers to reconsider their current compensation systems but doesn’t mean they’ll necessarily do anything about it. </p>
<p>So while pay transparency is a good idea, on its own it probably won’t be able to eliminate the persistent pay disparities between men and women. More aggressive legislation, such as the recent California prohibition on asking for prior salary or the pending House bill that makes it far more difficult for employers to pay women less than men, is likely needed to combat the persistent gender pay gap. </p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/could-knowing-how-much-your-coworker-earns-help-close-the-gender-pay-gap-58570">article</a> originally published on May 1, 2016.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113975/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nancy Modesitt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Women make about 81 cents for every dollar a man earns, little changed in recent years. Could more pay transparency change that?Nancy Modesitt, Associate Professor of Law, University of BaltimoreLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1081492019-01-04T11:32:40Z2019-01-04T11:32:40ZThe euro at 20: An enduring success but a fundamental failure<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252330/original/file-20190102-32130-qxmvu7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The euro just turned 20.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/20eurorolls-3d-illustration-1256956459?src=cxFu0ptNgtux_c25nNTx5Q-1-61">Marc Osborne/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>New Year’s Day 1999 saw the largest monetary changeover in history. On that date, just 20 years ago, 12 members of the European Union formally adopted a brand-spanking-new currency, the euro. </p>
<p>Today <a href="https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-the-euro-3305928">seven additional EU member states</a> use it, along with Montenegro, Kosovo, Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City. If survival is the ultimate gauge of success, then this grand monetary experiment can be said to have succeeded. </p>
<p>But as <a href="https://www.sec.gov/fast-answers/answersmperfhtm.html">investment advisers say</a>, past performance is no guarantee of future results. </p>
<h2>History lesson</h2>
<p>To understand why, it helps to recall the motivations of the euro’s founders. </p>
<p>The first full-throated call for a single European currency was in the <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/432/publication6142_en.pdf?1546441529">Werner Report issued in 1970</a>. Its authors feared that the <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/brettonwoodsagreement.asp">Bretton Woods system</a> of currency pegs to the dollar was terminally ill and that its collapse would wreak havoc with exchange rates within Europe and therefore with the continent’s economy. The proposal was renewed in 1989 in the <a href="https://www.cvce.eu/en/education/unit-content/-/unit/02bb76df-d066-4c08-a58a-d4686a3e68ff/021072be-929c-4ca0-ad76-32760b5dc2ff">Delors Report</a>, which presented a single currency as the capstone of Europe’s Single Market and its four freedoms: free movement of goods, capital, services and labor. </p>
<p>But these economic arguments <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/eurotragedy-9780199351381?cc=us&lang=en&">did not suffice</a> to tip the political balance toward the euro. In addition there was the belief of leaders like French President Francois Mitterrand and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl that a single European currency would apply irresistible pressure for political integration. It would lead eventually to their ultimate goal: a European political federation not unlike the United States. </p>
<p>Their logic ran as follows. To function smoothly, monetary union requires banking union – in other words, a single supervisor for all the banks and a union-wide deposit insurance scheme. Otherwise banks overseen only by their national supervisors would be allowed to undertake cross-border lending operations irrespective of the impact on neighboring countries. And in the absence of a union-wide deposit insurance scheme, a run on the banks in one country could infect the banking systems of its neighbors.</p>
<p>Similarly, to operate smoothly, a monetary union requires an integrated fiscal system, like those of political federations such as Australia and the United States. States that give up their monetary policy to a higher authority can no longer adjust it to changing national conditions. They can no longer lower interest rates to spur investment when the national economy is slowing more than those of its partners. </p>
<p>But if the partners operate an integrated fiscal system, the more prosperous members can shift resources to the depressed region, substituting for the no-longer-possible interest-rate cuts.</p>
<p>Here’s the rub: Banking union and fiscal union will only be regarded as legitimate if those responsible for their operation can be held accountable for their decisions by citizens. That means more power for the European Parliament – and less for national legislatures. It means that monetary integration creates a logic and therefore irresistible pressure for political integration. </p>
<p>Or so the euro’s architects believed.</p>
<h2>The fly in the ointment</h2>
<p>The problem is that the <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/commfrontoffice/publicopinion/index.cfm/Archive/index">vast majority of Europeans</a>, as distinct from the elites, don’t like the idea of giving up their national sovereignty. They identify as German or Italian first and as European only second, if at all. </p>
<p>They have little appetite for pooling national sovereignty at the European level. And 20 years of the euro have done little to change this.</p>
<p>Hence there was no banking union in the first decade of the euro. In its absence, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.26.3.49">large amounts of capital</a> cascaded across Europe’s internal borders. Banks in Germany and France financed all manner of speculative investments in Irish and Spanish property markets and Greece’s public debt.</p>
<p>When, in 2008 and 2009, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/hall-of-mirrors-9780199392001?cc=us&lang=en&">problems developed</a> in the economies on the receiving end of these flows, the banks curtailed their lending. The Irish, Spanish and Greek governments, facing new constraints on their borrowing, were forced to sharply compress their spending, since there was no fiscal union to transfer resources to them from the more prosperous members. </p>
<p>But rather than advocating the creation such a system, nationalistic commentators in Germany and the members of the <a href="https://www.economist.com/europe/2018/12/08/northern-member-states-unite-on-euro-zone-reform">so-called New Hanseatic League</a> – made up of eight northern European Union countries – warned of the dreaded specter of “transfer union.” In other words, <a href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/road-to-a-european-transfer-union-by-hans-werner-sinn-2018-01?barrier=accesspaylog">they warned</a> that cross-country transfers would all go one way, and that they would be on the paying, not the receiving, end. </p>
<p>In the absence of the political solidarity required for such transfers, the crisis countries were forced to double down on spending cuts. For them, the eurozone was transformed into an engine of deflation and depression. </p>
<p>The conclusion follows that absent a willingness to contemplate political union, banking union and fiscal union are not possible. And without them, monetary union by itself will not stand. </p>
<h2>Still it breathes</h2>
<p>Yet the euro is still with us. </p>
<p>It has survived for fully 20 years. It survived the mother of all stress tests, the global financial crisis. </p>
<p>As the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-13856580">Greek, Irish and Spanish crises all showed</a>, and as the <a href="https://www.cfr.org/article/does-italy-threaten-new-european-debt-crisis">Italian crisis is showing</a> again, exiting the euro <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w13393">is even harder</a> than exiting the European Union. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w13393">As I explained more than a decade ago</a>, abandoning the currency would ignite a full-blown financial crisis, as depositors frantically liquidated their bank balances and investors dumped their government bonds to avoid seeing their savings devalued. Each time a European leader, such as Greece’s newly elected Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in 2015, has contemplated abandoning the euro, this specter has caused a reversal.</p>
<p>But neither is the <a href="https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/meetings/euro-summit/2018/12/14/#">alternative</a> of far-reaching institutional reform in the cards. At their summit last month, European leaders agreed only to modest future steps to build out the monetary union.</p>
<p>They agreed to create a eurozone deposit insurance scheme, but only after problems of nonperforming loans in Italy and other countries were resolved, which is to say no time soon. They agreed to create a euro-area fiscal capacity, but only after high debts were brought down, which means not in this lifetime. They agreed to grant the <a href="https://www.esm.europa.eu">European Stability Mechanism</a>, the rescue fund established in 2012, additional resources and powers, but, again, only after existing bad-loan problems are addressed, which means at best in the very distant future. </p>
<p>This agreement falls far short of banking union, fiscal union and political union. It is an agreement to “work toward” rather than to “establish.” It will not change the operation of the monetary union. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252332/original/file-20190102-32142-16maba4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/252332/original/file-20190102-32142-16maba4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252332/original/file-20190102-32142-16maba4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252332/original/file-20190102-32142-16maba4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252332/original/file-20190102-32142-16maba4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252332/original/file-20190102-32142-16maba4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/252332/original/file-20190102-32142-16maba4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Euros everywhere.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/falling-down-euros-rain-174476393?src=82N0QqCjpP6bzgnrbWE7LQ-1-86">ImageFlow/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Stumbling forward</h2>
<p>So the euro will stumble forward. No one will be happy with its operation. Equally, no one will leave. Progress will be minimal, since there is no appetite for the political union needed to support fundamental reforms. </p>
<p>As a result, the euro remains vulnerable to another crisis. The next crisis could heighten the perceived urgency of fundamental reforms and lead Europe’s citizens to accept the modicum of political integration needed to implement them. So reformed and restructured, the euro would operate better. </p>
<p>Or the next crisis <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-populist-temptation-9780190866280?cc=us&lang=en&">could empower anti-elite</a>, nationalist, anti-EU – that is to say populist – politicians, making it impossible to implement even the modest reforms agreed in 2018. </p>
<p>In which case the euro will function even less smoothly. </p>
<p>Only one thing is certain. History doesn’t run in reverse. For better or worse – and both arguments can be made – the euro is here to stay.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108149/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Barry Eichengreen is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and faculty research fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research. He’s also a nonresident senior fellow at CIGI in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, and serves on the advisory board of the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, DC.</span></em></p>While the euro’s survival for two decades is evidence of its success, it was born with fundamental problems that have weakened it, leading to near-constant crisis.Barry Eichengreen, Professor of Economics and Political Science, University of California, BerkeleyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.