Socio-economic and schooling status of dental undergraduates from six French universities.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate the socio-economic status of French undergraduate dental students. METHODS: A 46-item questionnaire was completed by the dental students of six universities between 1992 and 1995. Subjects related to family background, housing, schooling, income, expenditure and participation in student life were investigated. RESULTS: A total of 1192 out of 1207 questionnaires were returned. Both genders had equal access to dental training. The average overall cost of the four last years of the dental course was 30,302 French francs and varied greatly between faculties, as did the number of hours spent at the faculty for lectures, tutorials and practicals, and clinical work. Overall, the majority of students came from a well off social background, and had a relatively high quality of life while a small minority received no support from their families. Thirty-four per cent of students had never worked. One third of students smoked and one third regularly consumed medication of some sort. A third did not participate in any sport. Only 25% students bought dental text books and 42% of the students reported using the library regularly. CONCLUSIONS: This study offers an accurate description of the socio-economic status of French dental students that could be used as a reference for comparable studies in other European countries.

[The desire for a child and the wish to become a mother]. / Die Forderung nach einem Kind und der Wunsch, Mutter zu sein.

The author presents excerpts from individual and group interviews with infertile women offered participation in an in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) programme. The analysis of these interviews allows a distinction between the explicit desire for a child and a multiplicity of unconscious wishes underlying that desire. It also makes manifest the fantasies attached to these new forms of reproductive engineering, not only on the part of the women involved but also on the part of the physicians wielding these new technologies. Tubert shows the effects IVF programmes actually have: the female body is radically naturalized and the symbolic--which according to Lacan establishes the social position of the subject--is ousted by the biological, degrading the female body to the status of a pure object for modern science to manipulate at will.

[Maternity, sterility and reproduction technology]. / Maternidad, esterilidad y tecnología reproductiva.

The idea of maternity--and paternity as well--reaches far beyond the field of biological reproduction inasmuch as it implies a subject's desire, besides being regulated by the symbolic order: Language, myths, patterns and values of a given culture. From this point of view, infertility cannot be considered as a mere somatic illness, but as a human problem implying psychological and social aspects that require a search for solutions unlikely to be reduced to a sole medical operation. The development of the new reproductive technology is in keeping with the increasing medicalization of human lives, human sexuality, and human bodies.

Maternidad, esterilidad y tecnología reproductiva. / [Maternity, sterility and reproduction technology]

The idea of maternity--and paternity as well--reaches far beyond the field of biological reproduction inasmuch as it implies a subjects desire, besides being regulated by the symbolic order: Language, myths, patterns and values of a given culture. From this point of view, infertility cannot be considered as a mere somatic illness, but as a human problem implying psychological and social aspects that require a search for solutions unlikely to be reduced to a sole medical operation. The development of the new reproductive technology is in keeping with the increasing medicalization of human lives, human sexuality, and human bodies.

[Women: psychopathology and cultural malaise]. / Mujer: psicopatología y malestar en la cultura.

An account of the incidence of mental health and disease criteria in feminine psychopathology is presented as well as a consideration on the increasing medicalization and psychiatrization of women's demand for sanitary help. Symptoms should not be understood separately from the discontent relevant to the place femininity is given in society--hence women's subjective suffering. Observes Freud that, as a child bearer, a woman is more involved with sexual functions--thus placing her at the pulsional pole of culture which reduces a propitiatory space for sublimation processes. Correlatively, Freud sees women as victims of the worst social repression process: women being forbidden to think. Even though discontent, and psychic pain cannot be avoided inasmuch as civilization imposes certain restrictions necessarily, there is, however, an excess of pain related to the feminine position. No cure will be possible if women fail to restore their own place as subjects of their own desire, whose alienation is shown through symptoms.

Mujer: psicopatología y malestar en la cultura. / [Women: psychopathology and cultural malaise]

An account of the incidence of mental health and disease criteria in feminine psychopathology is presented as well as a consideration on the increasing medicalization and psychiatrization of womens demand for sanitary help. Symptoms should not be understood separately from the discontent relevant to the place femininity is given in society--hence womens subjective suffering. Observes Freud that, as a child bearer, a woman is more involved with sexual functions--thus placing her at the pulsional pole of culture which reduces a propitiatory space for sublimation processes. Correlatively, Freud sees women as victims of the worst social repression process: women being forbidden to think. Even though discontent, and psychic pain cannot be avoided inasmuch as civilization imposes certain restrictions necessarily, there is, however, an excess of pain related to the feminine position. No cure will be possible if women fail to restore their own place as subjects of their own desire, whose alienation is shown through symptoms.

Mujer: psicopatología y malestar en la cultura. / [Women: psychopathology and cultural malaise]

An account of the incidence of mental health and disease criteria in feminine psychopathology is presented as well as a consideration on the increasing medicalization and psychiatrization of womens demand for sanitary help. Symptoms should not be understood separately from the discontent relevant to the place femininity is given in society--hence womens subjective suffering. Observes Freud that, as a child bearer, a woman is more involved with sexual functions--thus placing her at the pulsional pole of culture which reduces a propitiatory space for sublimation processes. Correlatively, Freud sees women as victims of the worst social repression process: women being forbidden to think. Even though discontent, and psychic pain cannot be avoided inasmuch as civilization imposes certain restrictions necessarily, there is, however, an excess of pain related to the feminine position. No cure will be possible if women fail to restore their own place as subjects of their own desire, whose alienation is shown through symptoms.