International Business Economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

International Business Economics - Essay Example ts as neighboring countries overlooked there selfish restrictions and focused on a rather mutual beneficial ground in exchange of resources (Zhang, 2012). Furthermore, regional economic integration draws its attention from global economic integration in that they both envision and harvest same benefits. They establish free trade areas where member countries engage in free exchange of resources between themselves. This promotes trade as goods within bloc regions are available and affordable. On the other hand, the member countries are independed to formulate trade policies with non member countries. Long term benefits of free trade areas are creation of customs union and establishment of a common market (Zhang, 2011). A recent study reveals that regional economic integration has significantly improved economic status of developing countries. This is evident as removal of economic restrictions has not only expanded job opportunities within member countries due to free movement and exchange of labor but also created a flat ground where a common understanding between member countries has been established to promote political consensus. According to Zhang (2011) regional economic integration has its advantages, just as it promotes trade; it leads to trade diversions as member countries trade more with each other than non member countries. In essence it means that trading will go on despite if the partner is expensive or inefficient just because they belong to the same economic bloc. It has resulted in creation of trade barriers between member states and non member states. Moreover, production process can shift to member countries with cheap labor and workers may migrate to gain access to good employment opportunities. These sudden shifts can result in increased taxation of resources of member countries. Lastly with continuous discussions and agreements within the flat ground countries may feel that they are giving up more of their economic and political right just

Crime of their child Essay Example for Free

Crime of their child Essay The argument here is whether parents play a significant role in the formation of self control towards committing a crime of their child. Well, psychologically, this is still debatable. This is a matter of â€Å"nature or nurture†. The problem is whether the child’s personality is influenced by the environment’s upbringing, the genetic composition of the child, or both. We can not merely say that the formation of self-control towards committing a crime is environmentally motivated—which in most cases the parent’s discipline to their children. There are a lot of parentless people out there and are doing well in the society. In fact, some of them are more responsible and self-disciplined. The person’s personality is not merely dependent on how he is molded when he is a child but also on how he interacted with the environment he is situated. People have free will and are liberated on how he will decide on his life—what to choose, left or right, black or white, good or bad. Let us now talk about genetic composition alone. Do you think that every person has different levels of self control? For me, it is yes. But we can not directly say that personality is solely influenced by the person’s genetic composition but also the shaping by its environment—the parents. There are some people that are used to be bad but have managed and chose to be good. It’s what we call personal autonomy—we have the control to our lives. To conclude, I personally believe that a person’s character is motivated and influenced both genetically and environmentally. The two factors contribute to the formation of the person’s personality, specifically the formation of self control which we are discussing right now.

Conceptual Art Movement Characteristics

Conceptual Art Movement Characteristics Conceptual art is based on the concept that art may exist solely as an idea and not in the physical realm. For supporters of this movement, the idea of a work matters more than its physical identity. While having its roots in the European Dada movement of the early 20th century and from the writings of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, conceptual art emerged as a recognised art movement by the 1960s. When the expression concept art was coined in 1961 by Henry Flynt in a Fluxus publication, it was also adapted by Joseph Kosuth and the Art and Language group (Terry Atkinson, David Bainbridge, Michael Baldwin, Harold Hurrell, Ian Burn, Mel Ramsden, Philip Pilkington, and David Rushton) in England, in which the term took on a different meaning. This group saw conceptual art as a reaction against formalism and commodification and believed that art was created when the analysis of an art object succeeded the object itself and saw artistic knowledge as equal to artistic production. The term gained public recognition in 1967, after journalist Sol LeWitt used it to define that specific art movement. Conceptual artists began the theory by stating that the knowledge and thought gained in artistic production was more important than the finished product. Conceptual art then became an international movement, spreading from North America and Western Europe to South America, Eastern Europe, Russia, China, and Japan. All these movements came to a major turning point in 20th century art, when the theory that art is idea was reaching a summit debate, challenging notions about art, society, politics, and the media with the theory that art is ideas. Specifically, it was argued that this form of art can be written, published, performed, fabricated, or simply an idea. By the mid 1970s many publications about the new art trend were being written and a loose collection of related practices began to emerge. In 1970, the first exhibition exclusively devoted to Conceptual Art took place at the New York Cultural Centre. It was called Conceptual Art and Conceptual Aspects. Eventually the term conceptual art came to encapsulate all forms of contemporary art that did not utilize the traditional skills of painting and sculpture. Conceptual art also had roots in the works of the father of Dadaism, Marcel Duchamp, the creator of the ready-made. Duchamp had a key influence on the conceptualists for the way he provided examples of artworks in which the concept takes precedence. For example, Duchamps most famous work, Fountain (1917) shows a urinal basin signed by the artist under the pseudonym R.Mutt. When it was submitted to the annual exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in New York it was rejected under the argument that traditional qualities of art making were not being reflected. It was a commonplace object and therefore exceedingly ordinary and not unique. Duchamps focus on the concept of his art work was later defended by the American artist Joseph Kosuth in his 1969 essay Art after Philosophy when he wrote All art (after Duchamp) is conceptual (in nature) because art only exists conceptually. Between 1967 and 1978 Conceptual art rose to its golden age, enabling distinguished conceptualists such as Henry Flynt, Ray Johnson, Robert Morris and Dan Graham to emerge on the art scene. During the influential period of conceptual art, other conceptualists such as Michael Asher, Allan Bridge, Mark Divo, Jenny Holzer, Yves Klein and Yoko Ono also established names for themselves. Conceptual art was intended to convey a concept to the viewer, rejecting the importance of the creator or a talent in the traditional art forms such as painting and sculpture. Works were strongly based on text, which was used just as much if not more often than imagined. Not only had the movement challenged the importance of art traditions and discredited the significance of the materials and finished product, it also brought up the question at the nature of the art form whether art works were also meant to be proactive. Conceptual art was the forerunner for installation, digital, and performance art, more generally art that can be experienced. In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art. Sol Lewitt, Paragraphs on Conceptual Art (1967) Conceptual art is art formed by ideas. It is a form of modern art of which the idea or ideas that a work conveys are considered its crucial point, with its visual appearance being of minor importance. As Sol Lewitt says, What the work of art looks isnt too important. No matter what form it finally have it must begin with an idea. It is the process of conception and realization with which the artist is concerned. Sol Lewitt Paragraphs on Conceptual Art (1967) Conceptual art challenges the validity of traditional art, the existing structures for making, publicizing and viewing art. Moreover it claims that the materials used and the product of the process is unnecessary. As the idea or ideas are of major significance, conceptual art consists of information, including perhaps photographs, written texts or displayed objects. It has come to include all art forms outside traditional painting or sculpture, such as installation art, video art and performance art. Because the work does not follow a traditional form it demands a more active response from the viewer is made to engage the mind of the viewer rather than his eye or emotions., in other words it Marcel Duchamp Fountain 1917 could be argued that the Conceptual work of art in fact only exists in the viewers mental participation. It doesnt really matter if the viewer understands the concepts of the artist by seeing the art. Once out of his hand the artist has no control over the way a viewer will perceive the work. Different people will understand the same thing in a different way. Sol Lewitt, Paragraphs on Conceptual Art (1967) Conceptual artists deliberately produced works that were difficult if not impossible to classify according to the old traditional format. Some consciously produced work that could not be placed in a museum or gallery, or perhaps resulted in no actual art object which hence emphasize that the idea is more important than the artifact. Conceptual art is not necessarily logical. The ideas need not be complex. Most ideas that are successful are ludicrously simple. Successful ideas generally have the appearance of simplicity because they seem inevitable. In terms of idea the artist is free to even surprise himself. Ideas are discovered by intuition. . Sol Lewitt, Paragraphs on Conceptual Art (1967) Echoing the difficulty in classification as mentioned above, conceptual art cannot be defined in terms of any medium or style. Rather, it can be defined in the way it questions what art truly is, a piece of conceptual art is recognized in one of the four forms: a readymade, a term devised by Duchamp through his piece Fountain. (photo) Joseph Kosuths One and Three Chairs 1965 Traditionally, an ordinary object such as a urinal cannot be thought to be art because it is not created by an artist or possesses any meaning of art, it is not unique, and it possesses hardly any probable visual properties of the traditional, hand-crafted art object; an intervention, in which image, text or object is positioned in an unpredicted context, hence rousing awareness to that context: e.g. the museum or a public space; written text, where the concept, intention or exploration is presented in the form of language; documentation, where the actual work, concept or action, can only be presented by the evidence of videos, maps, charts, notes or, most often, photographs. Joseph Kosuths One and Three Chairs (photo) is an example of documentation, where the real work is the concept What is a chair? How do we represent a chair? And hence What is art? and What does it represent?. The three elements that we can actually see (a photograph of a chair, an actual chair and the definition of a chair) are secondary to it. They are of no account in themselves. It is a very ordinary chair, the definition is photostatted from a dictionary and the photograph was not even taken by Kosuth it was untouched by the hand of the artist. If a work of conceptual art begins with the question What is art? rather than a particular style or medium, one could argue that it is completed by the intention This could be art: this being presented as object, image, performance or idea revealed in some other way. Conceptual art is therefore reflexive: the object refers back to the subject, it represents a state of continual self-critique. Being an artist now means to question the nature of art The function of art as a question, was first raised by Marcel Duchamp The event that made conceivable the realization that it was possible to speak another language and still make sense in art was Marcel Duchamps first unassisted readymade. With the unassisted readymade, art changed its focus from the form of the language to what was being said. Which means that it changed the nature of art form from a question of morphology to a question of function. This change one from appearance to conception was the beginning of modern art and the beginning of conceptual art. All art (after Duchamp) is conceptual (in nature) because art only exists conceptually Artists question the nature of art by presenting new propositions as to arts nature. Kosuth, Art After Philosophy (1969) Hence runs the famous passage of the serial essay first published in Studio International in 1969 in Art After Philosophy, in which Kosuth set out his stall for purely conceptual art. In it we find transition from the negative questioning inherent in the aesthetic indifference of Duchamps readymades to the positive investigations of Kosuths distinct brand of Conceptual art: a transition from the wide-eyed surprise of This is art? to a new way of claiming This is art. Before standing a chance of entering into the general vernacular, art first must be conceived, then executed and lastly presented to a public, however small. In the 19th century, in France, the Impressionists were all innovative artists imposing themselves on reluctant audience. The same applies to the great art movements of this era. They consisted of artists producing works that the public for art neither wanted or anticipated, but were forced to gulp down because it posed issues of innovation which could not be avoided. The reluctant audience included collectors and critics, and even older artists, who inevitably feel their own pre-eminence being threatened. Who, after all, is not made to feel uncomfortable by the unknown art form, as for the matter in all things? It is normal and effortless to fall in love with what is preconceived to be good, beautiful, right and proper. We now all love the Impressionists because we have come to acknowledge and therefore feel comfortable with th em. But the first and foremost task of the new art is to instigate a sense of comfort. In autumn 1997, the show Sensation subtitled Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection was mounted at the Royal Academy. It was one of the first to focus on shock art. According to the publicity leaflet, Sensation was both an attempt to define generation and to present Charles Saatchis singular vision in an established public forum. On display were 100 works by 42 artists selected from the Saatchi collection. Works that evoked powerful visual and emotional reactions were selected. With the figure of attendance going over 285,000 Sensation undoubtedly created sensation. Among all the artists shown, Damien Hirst was undoubtedly the most successful and sought after at present. Having several records of the highest ever paid living artist, Hirsts works creates a phenomenon in the current art market. Hirsts work falls into seven categories. The first group are his Natural History series, the tank pieces which he calls incorporates dead and sometimes dissected creatures such as, cows and sheep as well as sharks preserved in formaldehyde. Hirst describes these as suspended in death and as the joy of life and inevitability of death. A pickled sheep, said to have sold for 2.1 million, followed by the first shark. The second group is Hirsts long-running cabinet series, where he displays collections of surgical tools or pill bottles usually found in pharmacy medicine cabinets. The Blood of Christ, was paid $3 million, consists of a medicine cabinet installation of paracetamol tablets. In June 2007 a record was set at Sothebys London for the highest price paid at auction for a work by any living artist, $19.1 million for Hirsts Lullaby Spring, a cabinet containing 6136 handcrafted pills mounted on razor blades. Spot paintings were Hirsts third long-running production. Usually named after pharmaceutical compounds, these paintings consist of fifty or more multicoloured circles painted onto a white background, in a grid of rows and columns. The reference to drugs refers to the interaction between diverse elements to create a powerful effect. The spot paintings were produced by assistants. Hirst tells them what colours to use and where to paint the spots, and he does not touch the final art, only to affirm it as a finished product of art with his signature. In May 2007 at Sothebys New York, a 76 x 60in spot painting sold for $1.5 million. The fourth category, spin paintings, are painted on a spinning potters wheel. One account of the painting process has Hirst throwing paint at a revolving canvas or wood base, wearing a protective suit and goggles, standing on a stepladder, shouting turpentine or more red to an assistant. Each spin painting represents the energy of random. The fifth category is butterfly paintings. In one version, tropical butterflies mounted on canvas which has been painted with monochrome household gloss paint. In another version, collages are made from thousands of mutilated wings. The mounted butterflies are intended as another comment on the theme of life and death. Some of Hirsts art incorporates several categories; together with publicity-producing titles, like Isolated Elements Swimming in the Same Direction for the Purposes of Understanding, a cabinet of individual fish in a formaldehyde solution combines stuffed creatures with the cabinet series, but has the same intention as the spot paintings, to arrange colour, shape and form. The sixth category was a collection of 31 photorealist paintings, first shown at the Gagosian Gallery in New York in March 2005. Most canvases depicted violent death. Hirst pointed out that the artworks were, like the shark and the spot and butterfly paintings, produced by a team of assistants. Each painting was done by several people, so no one is ever responsible for a whole work of art. Hirst added a few brushstrokes and his signature. The seventh category was the much-publicized project a life-size cast of a human skull in platinum, with human teeth, from an eighteenth-century skull. Encrusted with 8,601 pave-set industrial diamonds with a total weigh of 1100 carats, the cast is titled For the Love of God, the words supposedly uttered by Hirsts mother on hearing the subject of the project. It was sold for  £50 million. Hirst says that For the Love of God is presented in the tradition of memento mori, the skull depicted in classical paintings to remind us of death and mortality. And most recently, the collection of 25 works, known as The Blue Paintings, are predominantly white images painted on dark blue and black backgrounds, with pictures featuring iguanas, shells, beetles and a still life of a vase of roses, entitled Requiem, White Roses and Butterflies. The collection also includes two self-portraits, two triptychs and several paintings featuring skulls, one of Hirsts favourite motifs. All the paintings were produced by Hirst himself, without the help of assistants who created some of his most famous pieces. The illustrious Australian art critic Robert Hughes, however, isnt buying the hype. This is partly because Hughes who presents The Mona Lisa Curse, a one-off polemic broadcast on Channel 4 this Sunday considers Hirsts work flashy and fatuous. Indeed he has described Hirsts formaldehyde tiger shark, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, a tacky commodity, and the worlds most over-rated marine organism. The critic said commercial pieces with large price tags mean art as spectacle loses its meaning and identified the British artists work as a cause of that loss. The idea that there is some special magic attached to Hirsts work that shoves it into the multimillion pound realm is ludicrous, Hughes says. [The price] has to do with promotion and publicity and not with the quality of the works themselves. It is not the first time that Hughes has made public his contempt for Hirsts art. Four years ago making a speech at the Royal Academy of Arts annual dinner, he said: A string of brush marks on a lace collar in a Velazquez can be as radical as a shark that an Australian caught for a couple of Englishmen some years ago and is now murkily disintegrating in its tank on the other side of the Thames. Brian Sewell, art critic of the London Evening Standard, was appalled by Hirsts Turner prize-winning work. I dont think of it as art, he said. I dont think pickling something and putting it into a glass case makes it a work of art It is no more interesting than a stuffed pike over a pub door. Indeed there may well be more art in a stuffed pike than a dead sheep. I really cannot accept the idiocy that the thing is the thing is the thing, which is really the best argument they can produce. Its contemptible. Even at his most recent show of his Blue Paintings at the Wallace Collection early reviews for the show were not good. The Guardian said that at its worst, Hirsts drawing just looks amateurish and adolescent, and The Independent dismissed the paintings as not worth looking at. Hirsts work has drawn criticism from all quarters. Predictably, his work has been ridiculed in the tabloid press. When Hirst won the Turner prize in 1995 with Some Went Mad, Some Ran Away, an exhibition he curated and which featured many of his works including Mother and Child Divided (cow in formaldehyde) and Away from the Flock (sheep in formaldehyde) the Conservative politician Norman Tebbit wrote in the Sun: Have they gone stark raving mad? The works of the artist are lumps of dead animals. There are thousands of young artists who didnt get a look in, presumably because their work was too attractive to sane people. Modern art experts never learn. The Daily Mails verdict on the 1999 Turner Prize also referred to Hirsts work: For 1,000 years art has been one of our great civilising forces, the newspaper commented. Today, pickled sheep and soiled beds threaten to make barbarians of us all. Reviewing Hirsts works and the criticisms made on them engage us in discussion about whether the art work he produced command the power and high prices deserved because it is good, or because it is branded? Is the artist famous because of his work, because the public was awed by the shock value of his work, because Charles Saatchi first made him famous with the high price reported in Physically Impossibility, or is he famous for being famous? Another question is perhaps if Hirst is famous because he, as an artist, or took on the role as a social commentator, who offers a profound meditation on death and decay? All these questions clearly imply that Hirsts work and his talent for marketing and branding cannot be ignored. His brand creates publicity, and his art attracts people who would never otherwise view contemporary art. What must not be overlooked is the originality of Hirsts concept. He shaped shared ideas and interests quickly and easily, his work developing during the decade to reflect changes in contemporary life. He made important art that contained little mystery in its construction by relying on the straightforward appeal of colours and forms. His work is striking at a distance and physically surprising close up. Hirst understood art in its most simple and in its most complex. He eliminated abstractions mystery by reducing painting to its basic elements. During the time when art was a commodity, he made spot paintings saucer-sized, coloured circles on white ground that became luxury designer goods. His art was direct but never empty. In the later spin paintings, Hirst emphasized a renewed interest in hands-on process of making, which is referred as the hobby-art technique, drawing attention to the accidental and expressive energy of the haphazard. Like the spot paintings, the cabinet of ind ividual fish suspended in formaldehyde worked as an arrangement of colour, shape and form. Overcoming an initial distrust of its ease of assembly, the work came to be seen in the popular mind as a symbol of advanced art, people were mesmerized by how stunning and beautiful ordinary things of the world could be created and seen. Hirst creating paintings brought together the joy of life and the inevitability of death. A scene of pastoral beauty became one of languid death: in A Thousand Years, flies emerged from maggots, ate and died being zapped by the insect-o-cutor; in In and Out of Love, newly emerged butterflies stuck to freshly painted monochromes. Soon the emphasis changed from an observation of creatures dying to the presentation of dead animals. A shark in a tank of formaldehyde presented a once life-threatening beast as a carcass: it looks alive when its dead and dead when its alive. Hirst was at his most inventive by elevating the ordinary, the typical and the everyday with his fascination. Art is about experimenting and ideas, but it is also about excellence and exclusion. In a society where everyone is looking for a little distinction, its an intoxicating combination. The contemporary art world is what Tom Wolfe would call a statusphere. Its structured around nebulous and often contradictory hierarchies of fame, credibility, imagined historical importance, institutional affiliation, education, perceived intelligence, wealth, and attributes such as the size of ones collection. Great works do not just arise; they are created not just by artists and their assistants but also by the dealers, curators, critics, and collectors who support the work. Todays rapid pace of [artistic] innovation encourages short-term speculation, and speculation, in turn, enables the market to absorb new directions in art. Artistic innovation feeds speculation and vice versa. Moulin, The French Art Market Why has art become so popular? In the first place, we are more educated than before, and weve developed appetites for more culturally complex goods. Ironically, another reason why art has become so popular is that it is so expensive. High prices command media headlines, and they have in turn popularized the notion of art as luxury goods and status symbols. In a digital world of cloneable cultural goods, unique art objects are compared to real estate. They are positioned as solid assets that wont melt into air. Auction houses have also courted people who might previously felt excluded from buying art. And their visible promise of resale has endangered the relatively new idea that contemporary art is a good investment and brought greater liquidity to the market. But the art market also affects perception. Many worry that the validation of a market price has come to overshadow other forms of reaction, like positive criticism, art prizes, and museum shows. Art needs motives that are more profound than profit if it is to maintain its difference from and position above other cultural forms. Nevertheless, collectors demand for new, fresh and young art is at an all-time high. But as Burge (Christopher Burge, Christies chief auctioneer) explains, it is also a question of supply: We are running out of earlier material, so our market is being pushed closer to the present day. We are turning from being a wholesale secondhand shop to something that is effectively retail. The shortage of older goods is thrusting newer work into the limelight. Another Sothebys specialist explains, Our lives are constantly changing. Different things become relevant at different times in our lives. We are motivated by our changing sensibilities. Why can that not be applied to art as well? Art used to embody something meaningful enough to be relevant beyond the time at which it was made, but collectors today attracted to art that holds up a mirror to our times and are too impatient to hang on to the work long enough to see if it contains any timeless rewards. Experts say that the art that wells mos t easily at auction has a kind of immediate appeal or wow factor. On one level, the art market is understood as the supply and demand of art, but on another, it is an economy of belief. Art is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it is the operating clichà ©. Although this may suggest the relationship between a con artist and his mark, the people who do well believe every word they say at least at the moment they say it. The auction process is about managing confidence on all levels confidence that the artist is and will continue to be culturally significant, confidence that the work is a good one, confidence that others will not withdraw their financial support. Amy Cappellazzo from Christies explains what kind of art does well at auctions. Firstly, people have a litmus test with colour. Brown paintings dont sell as well as blue or red paintings. A glum painting is not going to go as well as a painting that makes people feel happy. Second, certain subject matters are more commercial than others: A male nude doesnt usually go over as well as buxom female. Third, painting tends to fare better than other media. Collectors get confused and concerned about things that plug in. Then they shy away from art that looks complicated to install. Finally, size makes a difference. Anything larger than the standard dimension of a Park Avenue elevator generally cuts out a certain sector of the market. These are just basic commercial benchmarks that have nothing to do with artistic merit. With such constraints from the art market, artists would tend to make art that fulfills the criteria to appeal in order to do well in auctions. Collecting is a powerful tactic for making sense out of the material world, of establishing trails of similarity through fields of otherwise undifferentiated material. The drive to acquire more things contains, orders and arranges peoples desires, creating an illusion of mastery through delineating a knowable space within that apparently endless universe of materiality. At whatever scale, collecting is informed by the desire to insure the owner against the inevitability of loss, forgetting and incompletion. (Cummings, N. Lewandowska, M., The Value of Things) Works of art, which represent the highest level of spiritual production will find favour in the eyes of the bourgeois only if they are presented as being liable to directly generate material wealth. Karl Marx on the notion of surplus value in Book IV of Captial When a branded collector like Charles Saatchi purchases an artists work in bulk, displays the work in his gallery, loans the work for display in other museums, or exhibits it in Sensation, the cumulative effect is to validate both the work and the artist. Each stage serves to increase the value of Saatchis own art holdings. Being described both as a supercollector and as the most successful art dealer of our times, Charles Saatchi himself responded, Art collectors are pretty insignificant in the scheme of things. What matters and survives is the art. I buy art that I like. I buy it to show it off in exhibitions. Then, if I feel like it, I sell it and buy more art. As I have been doing this for 30 years, I think most people in the art world get the idea by now. It doesnt mean Ive changed my mind about the art that I end up selling. It just means that I dont want to hoard everything forever. Nevertheless, his practice of buying emerging artists work has proved highly contagious and is arguably the single greatest influence on the current market because so many others, both veteran collectors and new investors, are following his lead, vying to snap up the work of young, and relatively unknown artists. He was also said to be capable of making or breaking an artist. However, his passion for art is not to be overlooked. In pursuit of established and new artists, Saatchi makes a point of visiting both mainstream and alternative galleries, artists studios, and art schools. Moreover, he did fall in love with works that were not saleable but still purchased them, for example, Hirsts A Thousand Years big glass vitrine holding a rotting cows head covered by maggots and swarms of buzzing flies and installation art like Richard Wilsons oil room [both purchased by Saatchi in 1990]. Perhaps Saatchis greatest legacy will be that he, more than any other, have been responsible for pitching modern and contemporary art into the British cultur al mainstream which he set out to achieve from the start. In 2005, British Artist Damien Hirsts work titled The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone living(photo) sold for $12 million dollars. People were asking the same question Why would anyone even consider paying this much money for a shark? Another concern was that while the shark was certainly a novel artistic concept, many in the art world were uncertain as to whether it qualified as art. The problem with conceptual art is that everyone has their own way of imagining it, based on their own fantasies, but perhaps it is not what they thought it is, it is relevant as long as it escapes the strict rules of painting, sculpture, and photography as they prevailed in the past. It thus takes paths that have no rules, where the principle of valorization is not or is only very slightly, based on art history. (Benhamou-Huet, The worth of art, 2008, p.95) But why so much money? What drives these collectors to invest astronomical sums of money as much or more than a working-class man earns in a lifetime in order to possess objects of intrinsic, nonmaterial value? American psychoanalyst Werner Muensterberger explored this quandary in his book Collecting: An Unruly Passion, in which he hints that these avidly amassed objects are like security blankets for grown-ups. The collector, not unlike the religious believer, assigns power and value to these objects because their presence and possession seem to have a modifying usually pleasure-giving function in the owners mental state. The unconscious reasons, then, for what we might call collectors security blankets are manifold. For some, the idea may be that the value of objects they buy will rub off on them. In this way, they may convince themselves that they can be somebody. Money itself is meaningless in the upper classes of the art world everyone has it. What impresses others is the o wnership of precious work. What the rich seemed to want to acquire is what economists call positional goods; possessions that prove to the world that they are really rich. And above all, art distinguishes you. Another part of the answer is that in the world of contemporary art, branding can substitute for critical judgment, and lots of branding was involved here. You are nobody in contemporary art until you have been branded. Saatchi Saatchi believes in global marketing, i.e., the use of a single strate

The New, Old Entertainment Essay -- Computers Technology Essays

The New, Old Entertainment Imagine a world where no one goes outside for a neighborhood soccer game, computer games are the closest thing to activity and the only social interaction comes in the form of online gaming. Now, think to your self is this actually a far fetched idea? The sad reality is that to thousands of what researchers from the Center for Disease Control call â€Å"tweens†, this is their daily life: go to school, do homework and jump on the computer or various other gaming systems. In modern America children seldom go outside to simply enjoy the pleasures of physical activities. The Center for Disease Control noticed this very problem and brought it to Congress in order to help get funding to prevent obesity which is becoming an epidemic. It is from this that the â€Å"Verb† campaign began in June of 2002. The Verb advertising campaign draws children in by appealing to their senses of Ethos, Logos, and Pathos; moreover, the advertisement successfully demonstrates to their audience that physical are worthwhile Furthermore, since this advertisement campaign was brought about through Congress, it contains valid evidence and support for its arguments. The Center for Disease Control used many tests to see what youth are actually interested in. Knowing these children better than nearly any other researchers allowed them to pull on the heart strings of America’s youth, and encourage a change in activity levels. The audiences within these advertisements are youth somewhere in between the years of nine and thirteen. Yet, they are not the sole targets, so are there mothers encouraging them to motivate their youth. The purpose as written within this article is to encourage youth to â€Å"Just get out there. Anytime. Anywhere†. Another... ...he emotional appeals making the intended audience desire to participate in any sort of activity. The credibility of this ad makes us know that the activities can not harm us. The logic reminds us how important it is to workout and be involved with the sports of any caliber. The pathos makes us feel the desire to participate to be out there and to be one of the thousands who are having fun. So now all everyone must do is to keep in mind that video games are fun but there is a great big world out there and it wouldn’t hurt anything to go and enjoy it. The commercials with children all playing inside should not be a reality, rather it should be the fantasy. Hopefully, the children of tomorrow will once again be seen playing soccer until their Mother’s flash the front porch for them to come in, and the video games of today will be pushed to the backs of their closets.

Reflecting on ‘Reflective practice’ Essay

â€Å"Maybe reflective practices offer us a way of trying to make sense of the uncertainty in our workplaces and the courage to work competently and ethically at the edge of order and chaos†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Ghaye, 2000, p.7) Reflective practice has burgeoned over the last few decades throughout various fields of professional practice and education. In some professions it has become one of the defining features of competence, even if on occasion it has been adopted – mistakenly and unreflectively – to rationalise existing practice. The allure of the ‘reflection bandwagon’ lies in the fact that it ‘rings true’ (Loughran, 2000). Within different disciplines and intellectual traditions, however, what is understood by ‘reflective practice’ varies considerably (Fook et al, 2006). Multiple and contradictory understandings of reflective practice can even be found within the same discipline. Despite this, some consensus has been achieved amid the profusion of definitions. In general, reflective practice is understood as the process of learning through and from experience towards gaining new insights of self and/or practice (Boud et al 1985; Boyd and Fales, 1983; Mezirow, 1981, Jarvis, 1992). This often involves examining assumptions of everyday practice. It also tends to involve the individual practitioner in being self-aware and critically evaluating their own responses to practice situations. The point is to recapture practice experiences and mull them over critically in order to gain new understandings and so improve future practice. This is understood as part of the process of life-long learning. Beyond these broad areas of agreement, however, contention and difficulty reign. There is debate about the extent to which practitioners should focus on themselves as individuals rather than the larger social context. There are questions about how, when, where and why reflection should take place. For busy professionals short on time, reflective practice is all too easily applied in bland, mechanical, unthinking ways, Would-be practitioners may also find it testing to stand back from painful experiences and seek to be analytical about them. In this tangle of understandings, misunderstandings and difficulties, exactly how to apply and teach reflective practice effectively has become something of a conundrum. This paper explores current ideas and debates relating to reflective practice. In the first two sections, I review key definitions and models of reflection commonly used in professional practice. Then, in the reflective spirit myself, I critically examine the actual practice of the concept, highlighting ethical, professional, pedagogic and conceptual concerns. I put forward the case that reflective practice is both complex and situated and that it cannot work if applied mechanically or simplistically. On this basis, I conclude with some tentative suggestions for how educators might nurture an effective reflective practice involving critical reflection. Defining reflective practice †¦reflection can mean all things to all people†¦it is used as a kind of umbrella or canopy term to signify something that is good or desirable†¦everybody has his or her own (usually undisclosed) interpretation of what reflection means, and this interpretation is used as the basis for trumpeting the virtues of reflection in a way that makes it sound as virtuous as motherhood. Smyth (1992, p.285) The term ‘reflective practice’ carries multiple meanings that range from the idea of professionals engaging in solitary introspection to that of engaging in critical dialogue with others. Practitioners may embrace it occasionally in formal, explicit ways or use it more fluidly in ongoing, tacit ways. For some, reflective practice simply refers to adopting a thinking approach to practice. Others see it as self-indulgent navel gazing. For others still, it  involves carefully structured and crafted approaches towards being reflective about one’s experiences in practice. For example, with reference to teacher education, Larrivee argues that: â€Å"Unless teachers develop the practice of critical reflection, they stay trapped in unexamined judgments, interpretations, assumptions, and expectations. Approaching teaching as a reflective practitioner involves fusing personal beliefs and values into a professional identity† (Larrivee, 2000, p.293). In practice, reflective practice is often seen as the bedrock of professional identity. â€Å"Reflecting on performance and acting on refection†, as McKay (2008, Forthcoming) notes, â€Å"is a professional imperative.† Indeed, it has been included in official benchmark standards laid down for professional registration and practice (see table 1 in Appendix 1). One example is in the way it has been included, explicitly and implicitly, in all Project 2000 curricula for Nursing Diplomas, while reflection is highlighted as a pivotal skill to achieve required Standards of Proficiencies in nursing and other health professional education (NMC, 2004; HPC, 2004). It has also become a key strand of approaches to the broader field of continuing professional development, work-based learning and lifelong learning (Eby, 2000; HPC, 2006). Given its growing emphasis in professional practice and education, it would seem important to explore the concept of reflective practice in some detail. To this end, this section distinguishes between different types of reflective practice and looks at the sister concepts of reflection, critical reflection and reflexivity. Reflection ‘in’ and ‘on’ practice Dewey (1933) was among the first to identify reflection as a specialised form of thinking. He considered reflection to stem from doubt, hesitation or perplexity related to a directly experienced situation. For him, this prompted purposeful inquiry and problem resolution (Sinclair, 1998). Dewey also argued that reflective thinking moved people away from routine thinking/action (guided by tradition or external authority) towards  reflective action (involving careful, critical consideration of taken-for-granted knowledge). This way of conceptualising reflection crucially starts with experience and stresses how we learn from ‘doing’, i.e. practice. Specifically Dewey argued that we ‘think the problem out’ towards formulating hypotheses in trial and error reflective situations and then use these to plan action, testing out our ideas. Dewey’s ideas provided a basis for the concept of ‘reflective practice’ which gained influence with the arrival of Schon’s (1983) ‘The reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action’. In this seminal work, Schon identified ways in which professionals could become aware of their implicit knowledge and learn from their experience. His main concern was to facilitate the development of reflective practitioners rather than describe the process of reflection per se. However, one of his most important and enduring contributions was to identify two types of reflection: reflection-on-action (after-the-event thinking) and reflection-in-action (thinking while doing). In the case of reflection-on-action, professionals are understood consciously to review, describe, analyse and evaluate their past practice with a view to gaining insight to improve future practice. With reflection-in-action, professionals are seen as examining their experiences and responses as they occur. In both types of reflection, professionals aim to connect with their feelings and attend to relevant theory. They seek to build new understandings to shape their action in the unfolding situation. In Schon’s words: The practitioner allows himself to experience surprise, puzzlement, or confusion in a situation which he finds uncertain or unique. He reflects on the phenomenon before him, and on the prior understandings which have been implicit in his behaviour. He carries out an experiment which serves to generate both a new understanding of the phenomenon and a change in the situation. (Schon, 1983, p. 68) For Schon, reflection-in-action was the core of ‘professional artistry’ – a concept he contrasted with the ‘technical-rationality’ demanded by the (still dominant) positivist paradigm whereby problems are solvable through the rigorous application of science. A contemporary example of this paradigm is the evidence-based practice movement, which favours quantitative studies  over qualitative ones, and established protocols over intuitive practice. In Schon’s view, technical-rationality failed to resolve the dilemma of ‘rigour versus relevance’ confronting professionals. Schon’s argument, since taken up by others (e.g. Fish and Coles,1998), was as follows: Professional practice is complex, unpredictable and messy. In order to cope, professionals have to be able to do more  than follow set procedures. They draw on both practical experience and theory as they think on their feet and improvise. They act both intuitively and cr eatively. Both reflection-in and on -action allows them to revise, modify and refine their expertise. Schon believed that as professionals become more expert in their practice, they developed the skill of being able to monitor and adapt their practice simultaneously, perhaps even intuitively. In contrast, novice practitioners, lacking knowing-in-action (tacit knowledge), tended to cling to rules and procedures, which they are inclined to apply mechanically. Schon argued that novices needed to step back and, from a distance, take time to think through situations. Whether expert or novice, all professionals should reflect on practice – both in general and with regard to specific situations. Schon’s work has been hugely influential – some would say ‘canonical’ – in the way it has been applied to practice and professional training and education. For example, in the health care field, Atkins and Murphy (1993) identify three stages of the reflective process. The first stage, triggered by the professional becoming aware of uncomfortable feelings and thoughts, is akin to Schon’s ‘experience of surprise’ (what Boyd and Fales, 1983, identify as ‘a sense of inner discomfort’ or ‘unfinished business’). The second stage involves a critical analysis of feelings and knowledge. The final stage of reflection involves the development of a new perspective. Atkins and Murphy argue that both cognitive and affective skills are prerequisites for reflection and that these combine in the processes of self-awareness, critical analysis, synthesis and evaluation (see Appendix 2). In the education field, Grushka, Hinde-McLeod and Reynolds (2005) distinguish between ‘reflection for action’, ‘reflection in action’ and ‘reflection on action’ (see Appendix 3). They offer a series of technical, practical and critical questions for teachers to engage with. For example, under reflection for action teachers are advised to consider their resources and how long the lesson will take (technical); how to make the resources relevant to different learning styles (practical); and to question why they are teaching this particular topic (critical). Zeichner and Liston (1996) differentiate between five different levels at which reflection can take place during teaching: 1. Rapid reflection – immediate, ongoing and automatic action by the teacher. 2. Repair – in which a thoughtful teacher makes decisions to alter their behaviour in response to students’ cues. 3. Review – when a teacher thinks about, discusses or writes about some element of their teaching. 4. Research – when a teacher engages in more systematic and sustained thinking over time, perhaps by collecting data or reading research. 5. Retheorizing and reformulating – the process by which a teacher critically examines their own practice and theories in the light of academic theories. While Schon’s work has inspired many such models of reflection and categories of reflective practice, it has also drawn criticism. Eraut (2004) faults the work for its lack of precision and clarity. Boud and Walker (1998) argue that Schon’s analysis ignores critical features of the context of reflection. Usher et al (1997) find Schon’s account and methodology unreflexive, while Smyth (1989) deplores the atheoretical and apolitical quality of his conceptions. Greenwood (1993), meanwhile, targets Schon for downplaying the importance of reflection-before-action. Moon (1999) regards Schon’s pivotal concept of reflection-in-action as unachievable, while Ekebergh (2006) draws on  phenomenological philosophy to argue that it is not possible to distance oneself from the lived situation to reflect in the moment. To achieve real self-reflection, she asserts, one needs to step out of the situation and reflect retrospectively (van Manen, 1990). Given this level of criticism, questions have to raised about the wide adoption of Schon’s work and the way  it has been applied in professional practice and education (Usher et al, 1997). There have been calls for a m ore critical, reflexive exploration of the nature of reflective practice. Reflection, critical reflection and reflexivity Contemporary writing on reflective practice invites professionals to engage in both personal reflection and broader social critique. For example, work within the Open University’s Health and Social Care faculty has put forward a model whereby reflective practice is seen as a synthesis of reflection, self-awareness and critical thinking (Eby, 2000) (see figure 1). In this model, the philosophical roots of reflective practice are identified in phenomenology (with its focus on lived experience and personal consciousness) and also in critical theory (which fosters the development of a critical consciousness towards emancipation and resisting oppression ). Self-awareness Roots: phenomenology – The cognitive ability to think, feel, sense and know through intuition – To evaluate the knowledge derived through self-awareness to develop understanding Reflection Roots: existential phenomenology and critical theory -interpretive and critical theory – tool for promoting self- and social awareness and social action – improving self-expression, learning and co-operation – links theory and practice Reflective Practice Critical thinking Roots: scepticism and critical theory – identifying and challenging assumptions – challenging the importance of context – to imagine and explore alternatives which leads to reflective scepticism Figure 1 Skills underpinning the concept of reflective practice. Other authors argue for the concept of critical reflection, which is seen as offering a more thorough-going form of reflection through the use of critical theory (Brookfield, 1995). For adherents of critical reflection, reflection on its own tends to â€Å"remain at the level of relatively undisruptive changes in techniques or superficial thinking† (Fook, White and Gardner, 2006, p.9). In contrast, critical reflection involves attending to discourse and social and political analysis; it seeks to enable transformative social action and change. For Fook (2006), critical reflection  Ã¢â‚¬Å"enables an understanding of the way (socially dominant) assumptions may be socially restrictive, and thus enables new, more empowering ideas and practices. Critical reflection thus enables social change beginning at individual levels. Once individuals become aware of the hidden power of ideas they have absorbed unwittingly from their social contexts, they are then freed to make choices on their own terms.† Fook and Askeland argue that the focus of critical reflection should be on connecting individual identity and social context:  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Part of the power of critical reflection in opening up new perspectives and  choices about practice may only be realized if the connections between individual thinking and identity, and dominant social beliefs are articulated and realized.† (Fook and Askeland, 2006, p.53). For Reynolds (1998), four characteristics distinguish critical reflection from other versions of reflection : (1) its concern to question assumptions; (2) its social rather than individual focus; (3) the particular attention it pays to the analysis of power relations; and (4) its pursuit of emancipation (Reynolds, 1998). By way of example, Reynolds argues that when managers critically reflect (rather than just reflect) they become aware of the wider environment in which they operate. They begin to grasp the social power exercised by their organisation through its networks and relationships. : In the field of teaching, Brookfield (1995) characterises critical reflection as ‘stance and dance’. The critically reflective teacher’s stance toward teaching is one of inquiry and being open to further investigation. The dance involves experimentation and risk towards modifying practice while moving to fluctuating, and possibly contradictory, rhythms (Larrivee, 2000). A key concept giving momentum to the idea of reflective practice involving both personal reflection and social critique is reflexivity. Reflexive practitioners engage in critical self-reflection: reflecting critically on the impact of their own background, assumptions, positioning, feelings, behaviour while also attending to the impact of the wider organisational, discursive, ideological and political context. The terms reflection, critical reflection and reflexivity are often confused and wrongly assumed to be interchangeable. Finlay and Gough (2003, p. ix) find it helpful to think of these concepts forming a continuum. At one end stands reflection, defined simply as ‘thinking about’ something after the event. At the other end stands reflexivity: a more immediate and dynamic process which involves continuing self-awareness. Critical reflection lies somewhere in between. Previously, I’ve proposed five overlapping variants of reflexivity with critical selfreflection at the core: introspection; intersubjective reflection; mutual collaboration; social critique and ironic deconstruction (Finlay, 2002, 2003). These variants can similarly be applied to  distinguishing between the types of reflection practitioners could engage in when reflecting on practice. Reflective practice as introspection involves the practitioner in solitary self-dialogue in which they probe personal meanings and  emotions. Intersubjective reflection makes the practitioner focus on the relational context, on the emergent, negotiated nature of practice encounters. With mutual collaboration, a participatory, dialogical approach to reflective practice is sought – what Ghaye (2000) calls a ‘reflective conversation’. Here, for example, a mentor and student, or members of a team, seek to solve problems collaboratively. Reflective practice as social critique focuses attention on the wider discursive, social and political context. For instance, the practitioner may think about coercive institutional practices or seek to manage the power imbalances inherent in education/practice contexts. Finally, reflective practice as ironic deconstruction would cue into postmodern and poststructural imperatives to deconstruct discursive practices and represent something of the ambiguity and multiplicity of meanings in particular organisational and social contexts. At the very least, a critical and possibly satirical gaze could be turned to challenging the ubiquitously unreflexive rhetoric of reflective practice. In practice, introspection is the dominant mode of reflective practice. Sometimes presented as merely a promising personal attribute (Loughran , 2006), it is a predominantly individualistic and personal exercise (Reynolds and Vince, 2004) in which practitioners tend to focus on their own thoughts, feelings, behaviours and evaluations. This passes as legitimate ‘reflective practice’ which professionals then can use to advance their cause to fit formal requirements for continuing professional development. While such reflective practice may take place in dialogical contexts such as supervision sessions, the onus stays on the individual practitioner to reflect upon and evaluate their own practice. What is lacking is any mutual, reciprocal, shared process. Institutional structures and quality assurance  systems encourage, perhaps even require, this individual focus. It starts early on during professional education and training where learners engage professional socialisation and are taught how to reflect, using structured models of reflection. One of the consequences of the lack of consensus and clarity about the concept of reflective practice is the proliferation of different versions and models to operationalise reflective practice.

Agoraphobia †An overview

Agoraphobia is a state of having an intrinsic fright of attending crowded areas, civic places, or open spaces, and at times comes with anxiety assaults. However, the terminology is extensively misinterpreted. Its wordy meaning implies an apprehension of â€Å"open spaces†. Notwithstanding, it is not an appropriate way and rather ambiguous mode of looking at it.Agoraphobics are not generally and frequently afraid of open spaces. They are rather fearful of undergoing panic-stricken emotions, whatever place or wherever time such fearful feelings may possibly engender. For many, this takes place at home, in community gathering or worship places, or in jam-packed supermarkets, places that are certainly not â€Å"open†.In reality, agoraphobia is a state which takes over when an individual shuns spaces or state of affairs that induce anxiety. typical â€Å"phobic situations† might contain circumstances like driving, shopping, crowded places, traveling, standing in line, being alone, meetings and social gatherings. (Nayman 2010)Experts say that agoraphobia occurs due to inner nervousness conditions which later develop so extreme that the sufferer turns paranoid of going in places where panic feelings or anxiety arise. Once the panic attacks begin, these occurrences turn into an ongoing strain.This normally directs an increase in the numbers of panic attacks and, for some individuals, a surge in such situations or events can produce panicky feelings. A handful might experience apprehensive feelings constantly, more emotions of overall distress, instead of panic.Therefore, agoraphobia is both – an intense form and a phobia, besides being a prototype of a shunning behavior. (Nayman 2010) Some agoraphobics may suffer from this phobia so ruthlessly that they totally housebound themselves, due to which they rarely go outside.Many people consider agoraphobia as contradictory to claustrophobia (fear of being locked in closed spaces, e.g. elevators) – however, it is not merely a fright of open spaces.Agoraphobia may cause due to the fear of leaving outdoors, a sort of open space – but it is NOT an anxiety of being in vast openness and without walls, a roof or other peripheries, etc. This trepidation of going outdoors offshoots from an anxiety of being humiliated, cornered and vulnerable someplace while having a panic attack that is never thought to occur within one’s own home. (Gournay 1989)According to the estimates of National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), in America around 3.2 million Americans suffer from agoraphobia. The normal age of the beginning of agoraphobia is 20 years.The Causes:Professionals are not as confident and certain as to what are the exact causes of agoraphobia. Many assume that it might be a product of physical (excessive anxiety) and/or psychological factors how it is connected to an anxiety disorder.Many people suffering from panic disorder will ultimately develop a state of ag oraphobia, because normally agoraphobics undergo a panic attack or disorder which with the passage of time turns into an intense phase of anxiety. The condition might become a traumatic health and social phase that anxiety ridden individuals end up find them trapped in. (Gournay 1989)History of Agoraphobia:In the mid 1960's Agoraphobia was termed as a ‘Phobic Anxiety Disorder’ A prominent German neurologist Westphal was the first to coin the word in 1871. Westphal emphasized on the significance of anxiety interconnected with the condition.Later researches prove that mostly women as compared to men go through this kind of phobia. (depressionguiude.com) phobia.depression-guide.com/agoraphobia.html Physical symptoms of agoraphobia: Sufferers happen to undergo the symptoms when they experience such situations or surroundings that induce anxiety in them.Physical indications may be uncommon since a number of agoraphobic individuals evade situations which they perceive will ac tivate panic. However, if symptoms do appear, they might include: Increased heart beat and an increased breathing rate (hyperventilating).Feeling hot, going red, Stomach upset, Diarrhea, trouble swallowing, breaking out in a sweat, nausea, shivering, trembling, dizziness, feeling light headed, if about to faint, & ringing in the ears. (medicalnewstoday.com)Psychological Symptoms:The Psychological symptoms are sometimes related to the physical symptoms of the phobia which might include:Anxiety that people will take in observation a panic attack, which results in disgrace and discomfiture. Fear that they would be unable to breathe throughout a terror assault, their heart my stop working, or, resulting in their death. Fright that the sufferer himself/herself is going wild and out of control. Other exclusive possible psychological symptoms may include: decrease in morale and self-esteem, out of control sensation, stress, general feeling of dread and anxiety. Thinking that without the he lp of others the sufferer himself/herself would never be able to function or survive.   Dread of being left alone. (medicalnewstoday.com)Behavioral symptoms:Behavioral symptoms of agoraphobia may be:Dodging – Escaping from surroundings and situations that may prompt anxiety. In some instances this may be moderate, in which the patent shuns all crowded and public places.In extreme episodes, he/she totally house bounds him/herself, or ties at the hip of a close friend or loved one. Avoids going in a crowded train. In some very intense occurrences the person can't leave the house or considers it impossible to do so.Encouragement – the sufferer direly needs encouragement or reassurance from someone very close. He/she might go out to shops or marketplaces provided a trustworthy friend comes along too. On the contrary, in acute instances the sufferer can't bear or stand being alone at all.Safety measures – needing to take along some items in order to confront or fac e boldly the environment or places triggering anxiety. For instance, some of such individuals need to have an alcoholic drink before stepping into a crowded place, while others may not go outside until they are sure to keep their tablets along.  Run away – escaping or running away from nerve-racking places or situations straight away and going back home. (medicalnewstoday.com)How To Identify Agoraphobic Students And Assist Them To Learning Better:A handful of American students in their final years leave their studies due to agoraphobia, & of course no individual or student in a class room student can stand being tagged as an â€Å"agoraphobic patient† or a â€Å"sufferer†.Fortunately, we have school psychologists working with great concerns on such matters, even though the process of identifying such agoraphobic students is not a herculean task, because the indications or symptoms are conspicuous enough to pin point such individuals.The course teachers can be of great help for the psychologists seeking agoraphobic students in academia. Once identified, the process of helping them do better in their educational lives is discussed below.Case Study And Treatment Of The Disorder:Consider the instance of scottfin, a high school student about how she overcame this disorder.â€Å"I am not a teen anymore, but I remember having terrible panic attacks in class. I didn't know what they were. Now don't laugh or maybe you should, but I thought I was being possessed by the devil. Don’t know why I thought that, but I didn't have anything to base what I was going through on. I finally got help from a doctor, and he put me on medication.It made them disappear. It was a huge relief. I later learned that it is very common. I hope you will be able to get some help, and get on with your life. I want you to know it does get better. Hang in there. The teen years are hard enough, but then to have this on top of it is intolerable. I wish you the best!â⠂¬ This shows that this phobia can be treated if the sufferer is ready to coordinate. And as stated earlier school therapists can do a lot to treat agoraphobics via helping them develop coping skills to curb their fright and anxiety. Systematic desensitization, a sort of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), is a viable behavioral method used to cure agoraphobics.It is based on the foundation of getting the person relaxed, asking him/her to then ponder over the gears of the phobia, operating from the slightest fearful to the most fearful. Ongoing and Steady introduction to real life phobias is also a method deployed which has practically aided patients to conquer the fears.(Eisenstadt 2003) According to some findings at National Institute of Mental Health, approx 75% agoraphobics having specific phobias shed their fears through this method of cognitive-behavioral therapy. (psychologistanywhereanytime.com)Anti-apprehension and anti- trauma remedies are often prescribed to help reduce the indicators’ toll on this disorder. Some drugs which facilitate in controlling the operation of serotonin (brain’s secretion controlling transmissions relating mood changes) are often prescribed. Nonetheless, these prescriptions do not crack the phobia wholly; it can decrease unease so that the sufferer can handle the phobia.Hypnotherapy or Hypnosis is another method in which patients are made to speak about their intrinsic frights being in a subconscious state. It can prove an effective therapeutic technique used by clinical psychologists. (Eisenstadt 2003)Another famous technique to heal the disorder is called Emotional Freedom Techniques, which is assumed to be one of the most viable forms of psychological treatments. It is a method widely accepted by doctors all over the world.However, this must be taken into account that during the handling of agoraphobia, the counselor or psychiatrist might have to travel with the sufferer or spend time with him/her personally maintain a therapeutic distance.