I have placed the two items described below on the human-nature.com
web site. Comments very welcome.

  'The House of Trauma'
http://human-nature.com/rmyoung/papers/pap134.htm

I was asked to act as chair to a conference on trauma at the
University of Sheffield in June 2001 and to make some fairly brief
introductory remarks to the afternoon session. I adopted a sceptical,
though (I hope) scholarly stance, believing, as I do, that there is a
spuriously authoritative aura around the concept of 'trauma' (as
there is around 'stress') and that we can usually achieve a more
evocative - and less hyped-up - narrative about people's troubles
without resorting to such scientistic terms.


'Meritocracy: A Critique'
http://human-nature.com/rmyoung/papers/pap133h.htm

Essay review of _The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy_
by Nicholas Lemann.
New York: Farar, Strtaus and Giroux, 1999.


There is a list of my writings with links giving access to the texts,
which can be viewed on line or downloaded, at
http://human-nature.com/rmyoung/papers/

The human-nature.com web site has been extensively revamped with
innumerable links to potentially interesting sites as well as many
classic texts
http://www.human-nature.com

Robert Maxwell Young
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http://www.human-nature.com
Last lines of 'Oedipus Rex':
'Sons and daughters of Thebes, behold: this was Oedipus,
Greatest of men; he held the key to the deepest mysteries;
Was envied by all his fellow-men for his great prosperity;
Behold, what a full tide of misfortune swept over his head.
Then learn that mortal man must always look to his ending,
And none can be called happy until that day when he carries
His happiness to the grave'