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The purpose of this PDE was to test the effectiveness of an intervention program and to determine whether providing social and emotional learning (SEL) techniques to a group of Haitian immigrant adolescent children would increase their self-esteem and increase their satisfaction in relations with peers and family as well as improving their generalized contentment as measured by a battery of standardized tests. An orientation class was presented to fifteen Haitian children and their parents and the Hudson Scales were presented to the children as a pre-test before the intervention and as a post-test afterwards. Classes were held weekly after school. the hypothesis was that a 16-week program of Social and Emotional Learning would produce statistically significant increases in self esteem, relations with peers and families and generalized contentment in a group of Haitian adolescents who have exhibited behavior problems. Many of the students suffer from conduct disorders, attention deficit disorder and other problems frequently associated with the highly at-risk children who come to the United States from Haiti. Students came to the sessions and reported that they looked forward to the lessons with joy and anticipation. the results of this PDE were that without exception, scores on Hudson Scale pre-and post-tests administered four months apart showed significant positive change. Parents reported that the students' interactions with their peers, family and teachers are better since they were involved in the project, which has now become a regular activity at the center where it was carried out.
Contemporary developments in western health-care (Allopathy), though moving towards holism, lack an integrative conceptual foundation. This work offers a conceptual foundation for an interpretation of human-being that is holistic (conceptualizes mind/matter) and is compatible with western medical concepts. I offer a philosophical speculation portraying the holism of processes of health, illness, and healing. This speculation begins with an interpretation of human-being as a psycho-physical process of assimilation; in the personal locus of this process the mind-matter dichotomy dissolves. There are four sections in this work: (1) The statement of the philosophical speculation; this is the "Theory of Analogous Functioning" (T.A.F.). (2) This theory is set in a framework of analysis of systems of medicine as interpretations of the structural-functional nature of human-being. This analysis results in: (1) systems of medicine appearing as "meaning systems", that is, "lenses" through which physicians view patients; and, (2) clarification of the "comprehensive organic rationale" (COR) underlying holistic systems (Chinese, Asian Indian, T.A.F.). This analysis reveals the conceptual "form" common to these interpretations of the holistic nature of human-being. That is, a "generic form" of holism is revealed. (3) Discussion of the relation of four fields of thought to the holistic interpretation of human-being presented in T.A.F., in four appendices. Appendix A. Process philosophy. A.N. Whitehead and Hans Jonas. Discussion of the concepts "prehension" and "transcendence." Appendix B. Hermeneutics. Discussions of contemporary works supportive of process theories: R.C. Neville's theory of "value" in Nature; Richard Rorty, issues of western concepts of knowledge ("Mirroring of Nature"); and Mark Johnson's non-objectivist theory of meaning. Appendix C. Medical anthropology. A discussion of the relation of belief to healing. Appendix D. Systems of medicine. Five systems are discussed as "meaning systems": Allopathy, Acupuncture, Ayurveda, Homeopathy, and Tibetan Medicine. (4) A discussion of cancer from the process perspective of T.A.F. This perspective suggests some cancers may be the consequence of disrupted processes of personal psycho-physical assimilation. In summary, T.A.F. defines human-being as a locus of psycho-physical assimilation, and is the basis for a holistic system of diagnosis and therapy compatible with western medical perspectives. This theory rests upon a conceptual foundation identical in form to the conceptual foundations of traditional Chinese and Indian systems of health-care. Thus, T.A.F. rests upon philosophical resolution of the mind-matter dichotomy, and offers a method of analysis from which a system of holistic diagnosis and therapy can be developed.