CE Marking, Product Standards And World Trade

Book Description

CE Marking, the European system of mandatory product safety standards, has created major obstacles for US exporters to the European Union (EU). CE Marking, Product Standards and World Trade is one of the first books to analyze the nature and dynamics of this major non-tariff trade barrier. David Hanson looks at the patterns of EU decision-making through a functional comparative analysis with the US, and in the context of the institutional alliances and rivalries that shape outcomes. An increasingly important but little understood issue, CE Marking is also an example of a growing problem in international commerce - the impact of inconsistent domestic product requirements on international trade. The author examines the way in which the EU has implemented the CE Marking system, its impact on US exporters, the dynamic of US-EU trade and negotiations, and the political and administrative arrangements that support them. This comprehensive study will be of great interest to students and scholars of industrial economics and international business. Business people and policymakers will also find much of interest in this timely volume.

Customer Reviews:

Afterthoughts on Second Thoughts.......2001-11-19

Paul Simpson is a psychologist who claims to have been deeply involved in what he calls "regression therapy," facilitating clients to recover forgotten "memories" through an induced hypnotic state. Eventually he came to question the validity of this method of therapy and the accuracy of the "memories" which were "resurrected" by it. This led to his contacting the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, whose tenets he now vociferously proclaims. He has become a strong advocate for accused parents and is involved in Project Middle Ground, serving as a supposedly unbiased mediator between accused parents and their accusing child (p. 119).

While some of Simpson's observations and concerns are quite valid, he unfortunately loses significant credibility through the manner in which he argues them. Generally he creates a worst case scenario and portrays it as a seemingly universal representation of all therapists and clients who believe in the concept of recovering dissociated, traumatic memories (e.g. pp. 3-6, 62, 115-17, 133, 137-38, 151-57, 166, 186-87).
He also erroneously lumps all such therapists together and labels them as "regressionists" when in reality this term should only be applied to those who deliberately age-regress their clients through hypnotic techniques for the purpose of recovering "forgotten memories." He ignorantly considers "dissociation" to be merely a renaming of "regression theory" (pp. 63, 203).

If his book were truly about the small group of true "regressionists" (frankly a term I've not heard before), it might have more validity, but I do not believe that this narrow focus is his intent. Nevertheless, using this term cleverly gives him a seemingly more legitimate platform to stand on as he wages his war against those he perceives as charlatans and witch hunters.

He engages in a similar type of "word gymnastics" when he attempts to convince his readers that any attempt to recover "forgotten" traumatic memories is not only unscriptural but in essence an unrecognized error of following the doctrine of demons. In these arguments he mockingly calls the process a "spiritual gift" (p. 184), a "doctrine" (p. 184), a "philosophy" (p. 188), a "new gospel" (p. 191), and a "miraculous event" (p. 192) just so he can falsely apply scriptures using these words to the phenomenon. He then paints a rather unsettling picture. Instead of believing in the existence of a covert web of multi-generational Satanists, which many "regressionists" claim, Simpson seems convinced that the therapists facilitating the recovery of these memories are the ones whom Satan is using to accomplish his agenda in the world (pp. 190-94).

In another place he twists psychological information to support his argument in a manner that less informed readers probably would not catch. After presenting good material on the characteristics of fantasy prone and easily hypnotized individuals, he quotes from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV) that individuals with DID "tend to be highly hypnotizable." In questioning why this is so, he claims to have found the "secret of the False Memory Crisis." He says, "It's not that MPDs and repressed memory victims accidentally happen to be hypnotic virtuosos. It's the other way around." Highly hypnotizable people are particularly vulnerable when falling into the hands of "regressionist" therapists to imagine themselves into a false diagnosis of MPD [DID] (pp. 165-66).
His error is in failing to acknowledge that dissociability and hypnotizability are virtually synonymous terms (referring to a high propensity for entering an altered state of consciousness), meaning that dissociative individuals are indeed by their very nature "hypnotic virtuosos." The two are inseparable.

Another concern within the book is Simpson's inconsistent documentation. While his book is prolifically footnoted, some of his key technical points lack any footnotes at all(e.g. pp. 56-62; 121, 123, 134, 136, 161). He also fails on at least one occasion to list critical information regarding a study supporting his view(p. 45).

He claims there is little corroborating evidence to legitimize recovered memories (p. 11). While acknowledging the reality of true child abuse, Simpson seemingly only believes reports of such abuse if the person has "free standing" memories.

Making no allowance at all for dissociated traumatic memories, he also seems to question the existence of Dissociative Identity Disorder (pp. 24-25) even though this is fully recognized and described in the official diagnostic manual of psychologists (DSM-IV). On the other hand, he gives a lengthy description of "False Memory Syndrome" (pp. 105, 108, 121), which has never been professionally recognized or included in any diagnostic manual. Furthermore, after shooting down the definitive nature of symptoms lists others have established for suspecting buried childhood trauma (pp. 31; 94-102), he seemingly has no compunctions about creating his own list of symptoms which he says indicate a person is believing in false memories (pp 121-22).

Simpson's call for some sort of external corroboration of abuse memories and the witness of at least two individuals before making accusations of presumed perpetrators is both valid and biblical. Sprinkled through his chapters are other valid points regarding the potential influence of predisposing belief systems, mind contamination, suggestibility, and group dynamics in possibly creating "false memories," particularly in fantasy prone individuals. If he had presented these dynamics in a more balanced manner, allowing for the reality of true recovered memories as well, his book would make a more valuable contribution to the subject.

Simpson concludes his book by referring to the "mountains of research findings that contradict regressionism" (p. 224). Somehow I missed seeing these "mountains." The best I can say is that he presented material to cast a "reasonable doubt" on the validity of memories evoked under hypnotic conditions through the suggestions of therapists. However, the fervency with which he tries to cast this description on all therapists who believe in accessing dissociated, traumatic memories, his total rejection of any legitimate "recovered memories," his seeming manipulation of terminology and Scripture, and his selective documentation leave me wondering why.

An accurate, thoughtful account of false memory ........1998-11-13

Dr. Paul Simpson presents an honest, most accurate account of the the effects of Recovered Memory Therapy and its tragic aftermath. Falsely accused parents and client/victims of RMT will find answers to the many questions related to this phenomenom. As a "retractor" of false memories and a therapist intern, I appreciated Dr. Simpson's courage to come forward as a therapist who had once been involved with this most unethical treatment. I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Simpson at a recent conference. There, he apologized to all parents and clients negatively effected by RMT. His apology, given in the name of all RMT therapists, touched my heart. This book is a "must read" for all therapists and those who have recovered memories of abuse. I encourage all to read this book with an open mind. Take the time to have Second Thoughts.

Second Thoughts about the validity of recovered memory.......1998-04-18

Dr. Paul Simpson is a christian psychologist who was very involved in the practice of helping his patients recover memories of abuse through the very popular therapy called RMT.

Like so many other therapists today, Dr. Simpson at first believed he was doing God's work, helping to retrieve memories of real abuse so that his patients could be healed from broken lives which had stopped working due to emotions out-of-control and destructive personal behaviors.

Later he discovered he had been greatly in error as are his colleagues who continue to practice RMT today commonly resulting in false memories, and assigning the false identity of "abuse victim" to dependent patients desperate for answers to their problems in living.

The author says the Christian Church is in great error in its acceptance of the concept of recovered memory and needs to do more to aid the falsely accused parents of children giving false witness based upon therapy suggested "memories."

The expose of what is happening in today's therapy is all the more important because it comes from someone who was inside the clinical office and involved from start to finish. Also, it is important because Dr. Simpson has all the right credentials, a born-again Christian, alumni of Christ for the Nations, Rapha therapist, dedicated care-giver. Still, his practice of RMT hurt his christian patients and their families.

Simpson says in RMT, he saw 100% of his patients go into severe decompensation[nervous breakdown] due to the effects from recalling or imagining vile scenes of horrific abuse. This led them to become very dependent upon him in an unhealthy way. Some of them could not even open their own mail. One assumes this is the point where such a patient will accept the label of MPD or satanic high priestess for themselves. Anything just to get it over with and back to a sense of normalcy.

Paul Simpson says he prayed with his clients and asked God to bless the therapy and still had ungodly results. He now realizes that God will not bless idolatry and occult practices no matter how much a spirit filled Christian might pray. Obedience to bibical principles and truth is absolutely necessary to avoid self-delusion.

Dr. Simpson gives an account of how his patients lives were affected before and after his therapy with them. The statistics as to how they were functioning supports his statement that he never saw a single patient who was better off after the therapy for having remembered such abuse.

This important book is must reading for all Christians and especially those who believe wrongly that christian psychologists will not lead them into error or that the Spirit of God will keep them safe from consequences of their idolatry.

The author has appeared on the James Dobson radio program Focus on the Family to discuss his book and the topic of RMT. Paul Meier was also on the show claiming that his own SRA and MPD patients were valid. He was talking when he should have been listening.

Book Description

Max Weber's best-known and most controversial work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, first published in 1904, remains to this day a powerful and fascinating read. Weber's highly accessible style is just one of many reasons for his continuing popularity. The book contends that the Protestant ethic made possible and encouraged the development of capitalism in the West. Widely considered as the most informed work ever written on the social effects of advanced capitalism, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism holds its own as one of the most significant books of the twentieth century. The book is one of those rare works of scholarship which no informed citizen can afford to ignore.

Customer Reviews:

Great theory, but not always an easy read.......2007-07-30

Max Weber's thesis that the Protestant work-ethic helped give rise to the spirit of modern capitalism is well known, but how true is it? Weber goes into an impressive review of historical details on how Luther's concept of the calling became the Calvinist concept of labor to glorify God, and finally the Puritan concept that is applied to business as well as anything else. In short, the Protestant hard-work ethic, intended to be a sign of election and to glorify god, inadvertently (at least in part) gave birth to the spirit of capitalism, of sustained, planned, methodical profit-making. Though capitalism is no longer dependent upon religion for maintaining its ethos (we are all caught in the rat race), it is fascinating how Weber makes a compelling case that a once anti-materialist Protestant Christianity came to affirm the capitalist spirit by way of a hard-working ethic. Many of Weber's themes are persuasive, if also controversial. Weber has by no means isolated the final or full cause of the take-off of capitalism in modern times, but he has made a good case for one contributing factor. Would that his style of writing had been a bit more direct - Weber's insights are at least worth careful reading.

Value edition for the budget minded.......2007-06-06

The "reviews" about Weber's thesis could fill libraries. Ooops! They actually have!

So let's ignore that.

The focus here is on value, and this Dover value edition is perfectly fine for the thrifty college student on a limited budget who needs to read this work for an assignment but doesn't want to be at the mercy of the University Library.

This is a seminal work that reaches far into other fields of inquiry, so it is likely you will need it no matter what your field.

The binding is an el-cheap-o slab of glue, so it won't lie flat on your desk when you are transcribing a quote for a citation.....but since you've downloaded the text file you'll just cut and paste anyway.

Academic citations to this edition are perfectly acceptable in scholarly papers and under MLA, ASA, APA, ACS, APSA, "Turabian" and MHRA style guidelines (and perhaps others).

A Very Standard Economic Postulate.......2007-04-15

Assuming Max Weber's thesis to be true proves useful. By assuming it as a postulate, one gains a potential way of understanding the beliefs of the western-world's upper pareto boundary and the typical ressentiments / bad faith (bad-tempered, difficult mental traps everyone who tries to create something can't help but fall into from time to time, mea culpa!) of the lower.

Max Scheler (who advised Karol Wojtyla as a Ph.D. student) seems to have done something similar to what Max Weber describes the upper pareto boundary (somewhere over the rainbow as the song goes) as having done. Max Scheler "attempted to reconcile Nietzsche's ideas of master-slave morality and ressentiment with the Christian ideals of love and humility."

Anyway, just projecting a few of my other readings onto this one a bit. L8R.

Don't buy the Dover edition of this book........2006-10-26

The Dover edition of the book has been bound so tightly that it's difficult to turn the pages--and to read the words, which are nearly swallowed up by the binding. It feels like if you force it at all, the whole binding will come unglued.

It may be cheap, but it *feels* so extremely cheap that it's just not worth the money saved. Buy yourself another edition--or for that matter, just get the text free online. Anything's better than trying to read this edition.

great idea, little proof.......2006-09-26

As part of my enquiry into the forces that the Reformation unleased, I decided to at last read this classic.

Alas, it was disappointing in that Weber makes the assertion - that reformation-spawned ideologies were the foundation of the capitalist revolution - and then offers little historical explanation as proof of his thesis. Instead, what he does is to painstakingly describe the ideologies in question, to show that they are compatible conceptually with his definition of capitalism (the rise of an urban bourgeoisie that created wealth by investing in industry as a major new economic actor, eventaully leading to the eclipse of the old land-based aristocracy). As Hannah Ardnt said, so long as you are far enough from reality, you can make almost any ideas appear compatible. As such, I was unconvinced that a) the feeling of being among the elect made people work harder to prove it by material success and b) that a heightened sense of individuality that arose with separation from the papist ideologies augmented this pursuit of self-development via the massing of personal capital. While the protestant ideologies may conform vaguely to these notions, that does not in the slightest prove a direct causal connection. Indeed, one might argue that it was the repression by the Inquisition - against the bourgoise's challenge to traditional aristocrats - that may have delayed the development of capitalism in Catholic countries for a few centuries. (That capitalism did develop in many Catholic countries also undermines the book's prinicpal thesis.)

This essay is interesting as a pioneering attempt at sociological determinism from a rather existentialist perspective, but reading the whole thing was a bit much for me. Weber was a great and innovative thinker, however out of date his modes of reasoning have become - they are strictly qualitative. Not recommended except asof historical interest.

Flee to the Fields: The Founding Fathers of the Catholic Land Movement

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Theology of Homesteading

Flee to the Fields: The Founding Fathers of the Catholic Land Movement

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Theology of Homesteading.......2007-05-08

I, as an Independent Sacramental priest, have been for years looking for a theology that would promote getting back to the land and getting rid of industrialism without turning into New Age non-sense or becoming radical and xenophobic. I have worked hard to develop my concept in this, but "Flee to the Land" has given me a wonderful articulation of this theology, which arises from the Catholic Land Movement of early 20th Century Britain and Scotland.

The names of the authors are all the chief members of the Catholic Land Movement and the Distributism school of thought: Hilaire Belloc, Fr. Vincent McNabb, Harold Robbins, et al. They present the ideals of the Catholic Land Movement from the diagnosis of the problem and its causes, the steps to overcoming it on through various stages until the ideal is presented in a fashion that appears very workable.

The best part about this book is that 73 years after it was first published, there is little about it (aside from a few specific historical references) that is not still very timely. If anything, the premise and thesis of this work has only grown more true and more important.

I would recommend this book to any Christian who wanted a theological or a specifically Christian philosophical basis for a back to the land movement that is based in reality and doesn't overlook the potential problems in achieving the goal.

I am planning to implement a more ecumenical version of the plan herein described in the relatively near future and hope that others will, too. I think the inspiration for those who would like to see this is present in this book and should be looked to for a road map that can be used almost anywhere toward this end.

Anyone who loves Dorothy Day or the Catholic Worker Movement, the Distributivist Movement and related themes will love this book.

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