https://rebartholomew.com Robert Bartholomew Fri, 02 Jul 2021 04:14:22 +0000 https://rebartholomew.com en https://rebartholomew.com/home-page Fri, 02 Jul 2021 04:14:22 +0000 Robert Bartholomew https://rebartholomew.com/home-page Robert E. Bartholomew The Sociologist ✧ Specialising in Mass Hysteria &amp; Social Panics <img width="3441" height="3072" width_o="3441" height_o="3072" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1d47a189047a5a0273e392a6263090ef2c2962d367803f286ac854c4ef22a95c/AuckuniMag_image.jpg" data-mid="115704001" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1d47a189047a5a0273e392a6263090ef2c2962d367803f286ac854c4ef22a95c/AuckuniMag_image.jpg" /> PhD - Medical Sociology Honorary Senior Lecturer Department of Psychological Medicine University of Auckland Auckland, New Zealand Research Fellow Center for Inquiry Amherst, New York Research Interests Cultural relativism;&nbsp; Ethnographic diversity and human tolerance;&nbsp;Southeast Asian ‘psychiatric’ disorders (amok, latah, koro, spirit possession);&nbsp; History of psychiatry;&nbsp; Mass psychogenic illness and conversion disorder;&nbsp; History of Māori racial discrimination in New Zealand;&nbsp; Post-partum psychosis; Gender studies;&nbsp; Deception by anthropological informants;&nbsp; Collective behaviour (rumour, gossip, fads, crazes, manias, moral panics, stampedes, urban legends, community threat panics, riots, ‘cults,’ social movements, folie a deux); History of witchcraft; False Memory Syndrome;&nbsp; Social delusions;&nbsp; Media hoaxes and the history of tabloid journalism;&nbsp; Critical thinking;&nbsp; Psychology of ghosts and hauntings;&nbsp; Contested medical conditions and claims (Gulf War Syndrome, Multiple Personality Disorder, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, Sick Building Syndrome, Repetition Strain Injury, Facilitated Communication, Morgellons Disease); Mass media influence on society;&nbsp; Fantasy-prone personality;&nbsp; Human perceptual fallibility; Conformity dynamics;&nbsp; Pseudoscience;&nbsp; Cryptozoology (community ‘monster’ panics)&nbsp;&nbsp; Social history of Unidentified Flying Objects in the United States; Social history of the Loch Ness and Lake Champlain ‘Monsters’;&nbsp; Islam in Malaysia;&nbsp; Medicalization of deviance (the inappropriate placement of medical labels onto unfamiliar or unpopular non-western behaviours);&nbsp; Psychological impact of chemical and biological terrorism scares;&nbsp; New England folklore; Malaysian folklore and supernatural beliefs (Jinn, toyol, hantu, Bunian); History of minority religious movements; and Human rights and social justice among Indigenous peoples.