Injustice continues to be a highly discussed topic in many scholarly disciplines, including rhetoric and law. Scholars in both fields are exploring how language in legal discourse contributes to systematic inequality, discrimination, and unfairness--racial and nonracial. This rise in scholarly interest correlates with civic concern, as there have been many court cases in the last few decades that have captured public and media attention. One of these cases involved Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin, two teenage boys who were convicted for murdering three 8-year-old boys. Echols and Baldwin were tried during the late 20th-century satanic panic, a well-documented social phenomenon in which many Americans found themselves jailed for crimes they did not commit. In Echols and Baldwin's case, the prosecution leaned on the rhetorical situation of the satanic panic, convicting the teenagers with hardly any physical evidence, few reliable witnesses, and little proof that either defendant knew the victims. Though the case was later overturned, no claims of prosecutorial misconduct were admitted as justification for a retrial. This thesis analyzes the prosecution's closing arguments with a focus on Burkean pentadic ratios. The prosecution successfully convicts the defendants by claiming that Echols and Baldwin killed the boys to satisfy satanic beliefs, which becomes the pentadic element "purpose." Other pentadic elements are always contained within or paired with this purpose, thus emphasizing and prioritizing the larger rhetorical situation, the ongoing satanic panic, to promote a sense of fear in the jury that ultimately leads them to convict. The thesis concludes by suggesting that courts consider the rhetorical situation outside the courtroom as well as within to protect others against similar miscarriages of justice.

Several studies targeting individuals with panic disorder have demonstrated that Cognitive-behavioral treatment (CST) is the psychological treatment of choice. CST interventions that include exposure to panic symptoms, along with cognitive restructuring. breathing retraining, and relaxation training are more effective than any of these components administered alone. Past studies have demonstrated the efficacy of imparting the above CBT components in the form of bibliotherapy (BT) in the treatment of panic disorder. The present study examined the differential effectiveness of BT and self-regulatory treatments in the treatment of individuals with panic attacks. The present study examined a much purer version of a self-help bibliotherapy intervention by reducing therapist contact much more than prior studies had done. In addition, the present study examined the additive effectiveness of self-regulatory components-self-monitoring (SM) and feedback (FB)--to BT. Sixty-three participants who experienced a DSM-IV full-blown or limited symptom attack in the two weeks prior to beginning the Self-help Project were assigned via stratified randomization to 1 of 4 experimental conditions: 1) BT alone (N = 17); 2) ST plus DML (daily self-monitoring plus feedback; (N = 15); 3) DML (N = 13); or 4) WL (N = 18). The present study utilized a pre - post treatment assessment design with pre-treatment assessment occurring two weeks prior to treatment and post-treatment assessment occurring approximately two weeks after the end of treatment. Treatment was 8 weeks in duration. Participants were sent pre-treatment assessment and treatment materials via mail in order to minimize therapist contact. At post-treatment assessment, participants were assessed either in-person or via mail/phone depending upon their geographic location. It was expected that participants in all treatment conditions would experience less full-blown panic attacks, limited-symptom attacks, avoidance, fear of having a panic attack, panic cognitions. panic symptoms, state anxiety and depressive symptoms and increases in coping strategies and coping self-efficacy than participants in the WL condition. Furthermore, it was expected that participants in the BT plus DML condition would experience more change on the above dependent variables than participants in the BT alone and DML alone conditions from pre- to post-treatment assessment. A 4 X 2 repeated measures MANOVA revealep no Condition by Time interaction or Condition effect. However, a main effect for time across conditions emerged. Univariate tests revealed significant reductions from pre- to post-treatment assessment for full blown panic attacks, avoidance. fear of having a panic attack. panic cognitions, panic symptoms, depressive symptoms, and state anxiety. In addition, an exploratory 4 X 2 repeated measures ANOVA revealed a Condition by Time interaction with partiCipants in the BT and BT plus DML conditions increasing in coping self-efficacy from pre- to post-treatment. Partial correlations revealed that change in coping self-efficacy was related to lower scores on the Panic Attack Symptoms Questionnaire (PASQ) at post-treatment assessment for participants in the BT and BT plus DML conditions. The results of this study are discussed in terms of motivational issues and the effectiveness of such "pure" self-help interventions with individuals experiencing panic attacks. / Ph. D.

Master of Arts / Department of English / Elizabeth C. Dodd / At the age of 12, I developed a condition that caused me to hyperventilate, black out, and on occasion, experience horrific visions. Though the visions were sparse at first, they quickly increased in number as weeks progressed. In the eighth grade, they became a daily occurrence. Though at the time I knew there was something wrong with me, I had no idea what was causing my symptoms. Because the episodes caused many inconveniences and embarrassments, I withdrew from social activities and stopped attending school altogether. Believing that my problems were the result of a physical illness, my parents had my blood tested for diseases such as mononucleosis. I also underwent an MRI, which checked for any tumors or abnormalities in my brain. When all of my tests came back negative, I was referred to a psychiatrist. I told the psychiatrist about my inclination to avoid social activities, but refrained from telling her about the hallucinations. Despite my withheld information, she determined I had an extreme case of clinical depression and agoraphobia. Though I was comforted by the notion that I had been granted a diagnosis, I still found it impossible to leave my bedroom without having the strange episodes. As my symptoms of depression increased, my interest in living decreased. But with the help of family and close friends, I was able to persevere and accept my circumstances despite the discomfort they created in my world.

Thesis (MA (Psychology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2004. / The main objective of the study was to adapt the Implicit Association Task (IAT) to asses implicit self-relevant fear associations in individuals suffering from social phobia and panic disorder. This involved the development of computerbased word stimuli classification tasks in which participants were expected to classify individually presented words belonging to one of four word categories, namely self-related ‘me’ words, other-related ‘not-me’ words, threat-related words (physical or social threat) and corresponding safety-related words. Two response keys on the computer were to be used, each representing two word categories during a specific trial (e.g., the one representing ‘me’ and ‘threat’, and the other ‘not-me’ and ‘safety’ words). The demanded task was to classify the presented words as quickly and accurately as possible. This resulted in the construction of the Physical Threat Implicit Association Task (PIAT) and the Social Threat Implicit Association Task (SIAT). Both IAT versions were administered to a group of 17 participants diagnosed with social phobia, 17 diagnosed with panic disorder, and 17 ‘normal’ controls. Fear-domain specific self-threat association biases were expected for the social phobics on the SIAT, for the panickers on the PIAT, as well as significant differences with the performances of the control group on the IAT tasks. A secondary objective of the study was to investigate the relationships between the IATs and performances on a variety of self-report scales, namely the Social Phobia Inventory, the Panic Disorder Severity Scale, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and the Beck Depression Inventory-II. In contrast to what was expected, the results of both the PIAT and SIAT did not demonstrate a facilitation of the classification task during trials when ‘me’ and ‘threat’ words were allocated to one category (i.e., response key), and ‘notme’ and ‘safety’ to the other. On the contrary, all three participant groups demonstrated significant effects in the opposite direction. Furthermore, the differences between the groups on both IATs were insignificant. With the exception of a significant, negative correlation between the results on the SIAT and the Social Phobia Inventory for the social phobia group, all the other IAT and self-report scale correlations were insignificant. The results were explained in terms of a newly proposed ‘two-forces’ cognitive theory. It was speculated that the IAT effects might have been the result of two opposing forces operating at different stages of the information processing system. This is namely (a) a disruption of performance by attention diversion during an early pre-attentive stage of processing, versus (b) a facilitation of the classification task by implicit association during later elaborative stages of processing, with the former apparently making the major contribution to the final IAT effect. This may be a phenomenon unique to anxiety disorders. The implications for future research of the findings and the newly proposed theory were also discussed.

The main objective of this study was to study individuals experience of panic disorder. The underlying method in the study was of qualitative art, were theme based analysis were used and semi structured interviews were conducted. Six interviews were conducted with individuals that for themselves or with the help of primary care for filled the DSM-IV criteria for panic disorder. The results showed that the participants felt that their panic disorder was more or less prominent depended on the stability of the participants subsistence. The participants felt less of their panic disorder if they had a more stable subsistence and felt the panic-disorder were more prominent if the participants felt more stressed. The interviews led to four themes, The Individuals experience of panic disorder, life situation, sense of losing control and a sense of no one would understand. / Syftet med studien är att undersöka individers upplevelse av panikångest. Studien är kvalitativ och bygger på tematisk innehållsanalys, för studien har sex semistrukturerade intervjuer genomförts med individer som enligt sig själv eller sjukvården uppfyller DSM-IV kriterier för panikångest. Resultatet presenterar den enskilde individens upplevelse av panikångest. Resultatet visar att intervjupersonerna upplevde sin panikångest som mer eller mindre framträdande beroende av stabiliteten i deras tillvaro. En stabil tillvaro upplevdes av deltagara minska panikångesten och en mer stressad tillvaro, upplevdes av deltagarna att öka deras panikångest. Intervjuerna ledde fram till fyra teman, Individens upplevelse av panikångest, livssituation, känsla av total kontrollförlust samt känsla av att ingen skulle förstå.

The current investigation examined the singular and interactive effects of anxiety sensitivity (AS) and perceived control over anxiety-related events in the prediction of panic symptoms using a biological challenge paradigm. Two hundred and twenty-nine participants (mage = 21.02, SD = 7.55, 124 females) were recruited from the greater Burlington, Vermont community. Results indicated that pre-challenge AS, but not perceived control over anxiety-related events, significantly predicted post-challenge panic attack symptoms, anxiety focused on bodily sensations, and interest in returning for another challenge (behavioral avoidance). There were no interactive effects between AS and perceived control over anxiety-related events. For the physiological measures, pre-challenge AS was predictive of change in skin conductance level (pre-post challenge), and pre-challenge perceived control over anxiety-related events was predictive of change in respiration rate (breathes per minute). No significant effects were evident for heart rate and there were no significant interactive effects between AS and perceived control over anxiety-related events for any of the physiological variables. Findings of the investigation are discussed in relation to the role of AS and perceived control over anxiety-related events in terms of vulnerability for panic psychopathology.

Anxiety disorders, including Panic Disorder, and alcohol problems co-occur at greater rates than chance in the general population. It has also been suggested that alcohol is used to cope with anxiety symptoms, such as trait anxiety. While pregnancy may be a protective period against Panic Disorder and panic symptoms, trait anxiety remains relatively stable during pregnancy. The purpose of the present study was to examine differences in rates of current Panic Disorder, panic attacks, and trait anxiety in pregnant and non-pregnant women receiving care at an urban OB/GYN clinic. The study also examined correlates and differences in alcohol use and at-risk drinking among these women. In addition, the study assessed whether meeting diagnostic criteria for Panic Disorder, having had a recent panic attack, and trait anxiety influence alcohol use and at risk drinking among women, and whether pregnancy status moderates these associations. Participants included pregnant (N = 412) and non-pregnant (N = 139) women receiving care at VCU Health Systems' OB/GYN clinics. As predicted, pregnant women were less likely than non-pregnant women to have current Panic Disorder and/or a recent panic attack. There were no differences in trait anxiety levels between pregnant and non pregnant women, and women with Panic Disorder and/or a recent panic attack had higher trait anxiety compared to women without Panic Disorder and/or a recent panic attack, regardless of pregnancy status. After controlling for demographics, Panic Disorder and higher trait anxiety were significant predictors of greater amounts of alcohol consumption in pregnant and non-pregnant women. In addition, non-pregnant women with high trait anxiety consumed greater amounts of alcohol than pregnant women with high trait anxiety. Furthermore, race and panic attacks were both predictors of being at-risk for problematic drinking. Overall, current study findings support the need to examine Panic Disorder, panic attacks, and trait anxiety, as potential risk factors for alcohol use among pregnant and non-pregnant women in the community. Study findings have important implications for assessment and treatment of panic, anxiety, and alcohol use.

In this paper, I expand on poststructuralist and feminist theories of the body, gender, and subjectivity through an analysis of media discourse on childhood obesity. Through textual and narrative analyses of news segments on childhood obesity, I demonstrate that the obese child's body, as an abnormal body, is represented as a text of the 'abnormal' conditions in which that body is produced. Thus, the single-mother family structure and/or nonwhite and working class families -- families saturated with the excessive, out-of-control subjectivity of the Other-- are visible on the excessive, out-ofcontrol body of the obese child. I will argue that the discourse surrounding childhood obesity is indicative of a moral panic, where children's bodies are used to express a fear of the destabilization of the normative family structure and a fear of an irrational, excessive, over-consuming society saturated with the subjectivity of the Other.

O presente trabalho tem como objetivo estudar e questionar o Transtorno do Pânico no âmbito da Psicanálise. O conjunto dos sintomas que definem o Transtorno do Pânico para a Psiquiatria é o mesmo estabelecido por Freud na Neurose de Angústia. São dois campos epistemológicos distintos que estudam um mesmo fenômeno. Para Freud o ataque da angústia é concebido como inseparável do conceito da angústia propriamente dita. Legitimada por essa análise, o estudo sobre angústia em Freud constitui-se, dividido em dois tempos, teoria econômica e funcional. Lacan estuda a angústia retomando os conceitos freudianos, mas propondo novas articulações e formulações. Esta pesquisa está norteada pela angústia enquanto fenômeno psicopatológico, pois é dela que trata as crises de pânico, mas a angústia não é deixada de lado. Embora parte da questão se resolva quando se constata a correlação entre pânico e neurose de angústia, outras surgem. Qual é o enquadre atual para a neurose da angústia? Se Freud concedeu-lhe, em última teorização, o caráter de sinal frente a um perigo, Lacan acrescentará que o perigo é relativo à presentificação do vazio do Outro, sendo o Sinistro (Freudiano), sua manifestação, o fenômeno que representa a angústia em sua forma psicopatológica / The purpose of this work is to study and investigate Panic Disorder within the Psychoanalysis sphere. The set of symptoms that define Panic Disorder to Psychiatry is the same established by Freud in Anxiety Neurosis. They are distinct epistemology fields that study the same phenomenon. Freud conceives anxiety attacks, the major symptom of Anxiety Neurosis as inseparable from the real anxiety concept. Legitimated by this analysis, the study on anxiety by Freud is divided into two bases, economic and functional theories. Lacan studies anxiety stepping back to freudian concepts but proposing new articulations and formulations. Taking anxiety as reference while a phenomenon, because it is from it that Panic crisis is treated, the anxiety while a concept conceived as the structural portion of psychoanalytical theory is not overlooked. Although part of the issue is cleared when the correlation between Panic and Anxiety Neurosis is established, others may occur. On what account this is mentioned today? If Freud granted it in his last theorization, the type of sign in the presence of danger, Lacan will add that the danger is related to the presence of emptiness of the Other, in which the Sinister (freudian), its manifestation, would be the phenomenon that stages anxiety in its psychopathological form

In the four decades since Stanley Cohen (1972) first theorised the ‘moral panic’, there has been immense technological change in the field of communications and media. Whilst Cohen’s original model relies on elite-driven mediated narratives, I argue that moral panics have taken on a memetic quality in the convergent and participatory mediascape. In other words: in an age of social media, moral panic discourses are increasingly open to contestation, reinterpretation, and recirculation by multiple actors and groups. In this thesis, I examine one such group – the web’s largest white nationalist (WN) forum, Stormfront. To do so, I trace three racialized media events as they circulate on and through the Forum. Here, I show how the mechanics of the moral panic have fundamentally shifted in the digital age. I explore the means by which Stormfront users exploit this semi-democratised mediascape in an attempt to ‘manage’ and exploit moral panics surrounding episodes of racialized violence. To this end, I explore the topologically entangled shuttling back and forth of ‘online’ and ‘offline’ lives and spaces to argue for a more-than-digital geography of computer mediated communication. Here, I show how the Forum’s ‘collective voice’ is often given expression through selective quotation by mainstream media surrounding racialized moral panics. This process of remediation, I argue, allows explicitly racist groups fugitive access to mainstream discourse, and turns mainstream media outlets into unwitting nodes in a white nationalist broadcast network. However, I argue that this public-facing process, opens WNs up to increased scrutiny, leading to strategic and contingent deployments of contradictory repertoires of race. In doing so, I examine repertoires of race in such WN interventions - highlighting their flexible and contingent construction of racialized categories in the negotiation of contemporary structures of feeling (Williams 1977; Anderson 2014). I contend that a digitally-inflected antiracism must attend to the contingent, translocal, and assembled nature of racism online if it is to be effective.