Robert van Voren | |
---|---|
Johannes Bax | |
Born | Montreal, Quebec, Canada | July 25, 1959
Citizenship | Canada, Netherlands, Lithuania |
Alma mater | Amsterdam University |
Known for | his Russian studies, human rights activism and participation in struggle against political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union |
Awards | |
Scientific career | |
Fields | political science, psychiatry |
Institutions |
|
Website | robertvanvoren |
Robert van Voren (publishing pseudonym of Johannes Baks,[1] Dutch: Johannes Bax,[2] born 25 July 1959, Montreal, Quebec, Canada[3]) is a Dutch human rights activist,[4] sovietologist and historian.[5]
He is a professor of Soviet and post-Soviet studies in the Ilia State University in Tbilisi (Georgia) and in the Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas (Lithuania)[6] as well as a visiting professor at University of Silezia, Katowice, Poland. He is also Chief Executive of the international foundation Human Rights in Mental Health-Federation Global Initiative on Psychiatry and Executive Director of the Andrei Sakharov Research Center for Democratic Development at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania.
YouTube Encyclopedic
-
1/1Views:947 755
-
Joints: Crash Course A&P #20
Transcription
I am so glad that you guys are not five years old! If you were all in, like, kindergarten, the only way I could teach you about your skeletal system would be to sing you that stupid song. You know, “The toe bone’s connected to the foot bone, the foot bone’s connected to the ankle bone...the ankle bone’s connected to the leg bone.” Like apparently there’s one leg bone. For the purposes of teaching college-level anatomy and physiology, let’s just say that that song is … reductive. Insufficient. For that song to be at all useful for remembering all 206 bones that make up your skeletal structure, it would have to begin with something like: “The distal phalanx is connected to the middle phalanx …” and then end with something like: “the frontal bone meets the parietal bone along the coronal suture.” And it would probably take like two and a half hours to sing the whole thing. But there is way more to know about your skeletal system than just the names of the bones. In addition to bones, there’s cartilage and fibrous connective tissue that allows them to work together. And maybe more importantly, if you’re going to gonna talk about the physiology of your skeleton, you have to talk about joints. Joints are the meeting places between two or more bones -- and even though it might not sound mathematically possible, you actually have more joints in your body than you have bones. In a lot of places -- like your hands and feet -- each individual bone is part of more than one or two joints. And then there’s the matter of what all that bone, cartilage, connective tissue -- and the joints that they form -- actually work together to do. And that is … move. Body movements happen when muscles contract across joints, moving one bone toward another. And studying the different types of movements your body is capable of, is not only pretty fun, it’s also one of the best practical ways to understand your bones and joints. If you ask me, all of that is infinitely more interesting than memorizing what goes where and pretending like a “backbone” is really an anatomical structure. So. Aren’t you glad you’re a grown-up? Dont worry, it’s not anyone you knew. It’s plastic, and it’s a little bit smaller than the average adult skeleton. But -- other than having me stand in front of a giant x-ray machine for 10 straight minutes -- I can’t think of a better way to walk you through the major anatomical structures of your skeleton. Now, if you managed to retain our introduction to human bones last week, you’ll recall that anatomists typically divide the skeleton into two major parts: the axial and the appendicular. The axial structure includes all 80 midline bones that form your skull, vertebral column, and thoracic cage. Starting at the top here, your skull’s eight cranial and fourteen facial bones form your body’s most complex bony structure, coming together to do some pretty great things, like protect your brain, help you see, smell, hear, eat, and you know, have a face. The 33 irregular bones in your vertebral column start with your atlas vertebra -- the one that holds up your skull, and is named for the Greek god Atlas, who held the world on his shoulders as a punishment. I’m not saying you’ve got a huge head or anything. I’m just saying that’s what it’s called. The vertebrae run down from your skull to your pelvis, providing the central support for your upper body and completing the enormously important job of protecting your spinal cord -- the main communication line between nearly all of your body, and your brain. Most of your vital organs are protected by the 12 pairs of ribs and dagger-like sternum that together comprise your thoracic cage, which also provides attachment points for your back, chest, shoulder, and neck muscles. Now, the appendicular skeleton includes your upper and lower limb appendages and pectoral and pelvic girdles that attach to the axial skeleton at the shoulder and the thigh. And even though your arms and legs clearly serve different functions -- unless you spend a lot of time walking around on your hands or picking stuff up with your feet -- both sets of limbs share a similar set-up. They’re each composed of three major segments -- a common arrangement we see in loads of animals all the way back to fish, which anatomists refer to as “one bone, two bones, lots of bones and digits.” We can’t all be Dr. Seuss. And that’s just about enough anatomy for this plastic skeleton to pay for itself. I’d rather focus on the physiology of the skeleton, and in order to do that, we’ve got to talk about joints. As is often the case in anatomy, we classify joints both by what they’re made of, and by what they do. Because form follows function, we can't really talk about one without talking about the other. So, the structural classification of your bones is all about what kind of material binds those bones together -- like, is it a fibrous tissue or cartilage, or a special fluid-filled joint cavity. But the functional classification focuses on how much that joint can move. So, for example, you have joints in your body that don’t move at all. These include, say, the joints between the bones that make up your cranium. These non-moving joints are called synarthroses. But you also have joints that move only slightly, like the spot where your two pubic bones meet to form your pelvis. That joint exists mainly to absorb shock from walking and running, but it also has proven very handy during things like childbirth. These partly-moving joints are called amphiarthroses. Finally, there are the diarthroses, which are fully movable, like your classic knee and elbow joints. They’re mostly found in your limbs. But if you eventually find yourself in the business of examining and treating people’s joints -- and there are a lot of doctors who do -- then it’ll be especially useful to know the structural classifications. Structurally speaking, you’ve got fibrous, cartilaginous, and synovial joints. Fibrous joints connect bones with dense fibrous connective tissue, and are mostly immovable -- like those sutures between your skull bones. As you might guess, your cartilaginous joints unite bones using cartilage, and are similar to their fibrous brethren in that they don’t move very much, and they lack a joint cavity. But the family of joints that make all the sports, and the entire art of breakdancing, and yoga possible, are the freely movable synovial joints. Most joints in your body fall into this category. Although they do make use of cartilage and fibrous connective tissues like ligaments, they’re different in that the bones they join are separated by a fluid-filled joint cavity. The cool thing about these cavities is that they contain a bit of viscous, egg-white-like synovial fluid that acts like grease on a hinge. Without that lubricant, just running down the street could cause enough friction not only to wear out your joint surfaces, but actually overheat your joints enough to essentially cook the surrounding tissue and leave your legs smoking like a desperate Looney Tunes character. These freely moveable synovial joints come in six different configurations that together allow pretty much any movement your body can make, from a subtle head nod to a vigorous jumping jack. All of which you will find in action at your typical dance party. Seriously, though, dance parties are an excellent place to study skeletal physiology. I mean let’s just take this from my perspective: I’m at my high school prom. I’m wearing a tux that is really uncomfortable and I’m feeling kind of shy, standing on the edge of the crowd. Maybe I want to test the waters out a little bit with like a little hand dancing. Just the hand going. Waving my hand from side to side -- it’s a type of gliding movement, one that occurs when one flat bone surface glides over another. All these motions use gliding, or plane joints, like the one between the distal ends of your radius and ulna, and the carpal bones of your wrist. But say after a while I feel like these gliding movements just aren’t enough to fully express myself. I have to enlist the more versatile angular movements. These are the types of motion that either increase or decrease the angle between two bones across any plane in the body, like if I bob my head, or kick my leg up, or raise the roof. If people still do that. If that bending motion decreases the angle of the joint and brings those bones together, like when I bend my arm together, that movement is called flexion. When I bend it back, I’m increasing that angle, and it’s called extension. And if I continue that motion beyond my normal anatomical positioning, and it’s somewhat dangerous, that is called hyperextension. These motions enlist the hinge joints. Similarly, my oval-shaped condylar knuckle joints allow my fingers to bend and ball up for a good fist pump. Now I’m getting super into it. I might like raise my arms up over my head. Well, the act of raising my arms away from my body is called abduction, while moving them back down toward the body is called adduction. And this here, like, lasso movement? That’s circumduction -- a combination of all five of those movements that allow the forearm to move in a circle while the elbow joint stays relatively stable. Which really makes you wanna give credit to those cowboys. Now if you want to get really serious about that lassoing and expand it enough to include the entire arm, the move eventually will morph from an angular movement to a rotational one -- a motion that turns the bone around its axis, in this case, the humerus. Hip and shoulder joints use a ball-and-socket design that allow rotational movement, but the more flexible a joint is, the more unstable and fragile it is -- which is one reason why you see so many dislocated shoulders and hip replacements. And it’s worth pointing out that some movements are just special and unique and weird, and only occur in a few select joints -- especially in your hands, feet, and jaw. For example, your ability to touch your thumb to your fingertips or give a thumbs up is thanks to opposition movement, facilitated by your saddle joint, which makes your thumbs opposable. The pivot joint between your radius and ulna allow you to rotate your palm forward or anteriorly in a motion called supination, and turning it backward or posteriorly is called pronation. So that’s what I like to think is the more grown-up approach to teaching you about your skeleton. It did not involve any singing, but yes, a little dancing. And it was worth it, because you learned about the basic structure of your skeletal system, including the arrangements of both the axial and the appendicular skeleton. And we went over the structural and functional classifications of your joints, along with the major types of movement that they make possible. Special thanks to our Headmaster of Learning Thomas Frank for his support for Crash Course and free education. This episode was co-sponsored by Greg Avarbuch, Faht-Mah ikh-Bahl, and Ricky D. Shields. Thank you to all of our Patreon patrons who help make Crash Course possible through their monthly contributions. If you like Crash Course and want to help us make great new videos like this one, you can check out patreon.com/crashcourse Crash Course is filmed in the Doctor Cheryl C. Kinney Crash Course Studio. This episode was written by Kathleen Yale, edited by Blake de Pastino, and our consultant, is Dr. Brandon Jackson. Our director is Nicholas Jenkins, the editor and script supervisor is Nicole Sweeney, our sound designer is Michael Aranda, and the graphics team is Thought Café.
Education
Graduated from the Marnix Gymnasium in Rotterdam in 1979, and in 1986 achieved a master's degree at the University of Amsterdam in Modern and Theoretical History with a specialization in Soviet History with Russian language. Robert van Voren defended his PhD in Political Sciences at Kaunas Vytautas Magnus University in October, 2010.[7]
Career
From 1978 to 1987, Robert van Voren worked as a Secretary of the Podrabniek Fund in The Netherlands. 1978-1989 he was an Associate of the Bukovsky Foundation in Amsterdam, where he also became a Board Member in 1988-1989.
He was a founding member of the International Association on the Political Abuse of Psychiatry (IAPUP) in 1980.
Since 1980, he also travelled frequently to the USSR to meet with dissidents and relatives of political prisoners. On average, he would make four trips per year. The goal was to deliver humanitarian aid, collect evidence on human rights violations and smuggle samizdat out of the country. He was arrested in 1983, but still managed to continue traveling to the USSR until its disintegration.[8]
Since 1986, Robert van Voren has been the Secretary-General of the International Association on the Political Use of Psychiatry (renamed in 1991 into Geneva Initiative on Psychiatry, in 2005 into the Global Initiative on Psychiatry, and to Human Rights in Mental Health-FGIP in 2014).
Between 1991 and 1997, he worked as a Coordinator of Western Aid to Psychiatry of the Ukrainian Ministry of Health, and in during 1994-1997 he was the Permanent Representative of Ukraine in the Benelux for Humanitarian Affairs. Since 1994, Robert van Voren has been the Board Member of the Kyiv Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Totalitarianism and Civil War. In 1994, he also founded the Ukrainian Information Center in the Netherlands, where he also became a Board Member from 1997 to 1998.
1996-1997 he was also a Board Member of the Second World Center. From 1996 to 1999 he was among the members of the Committee on Mental Health of the Netherlands International Health Platform.
Between 1996 and 2010 he also worked as a Secretary/Treasurer of the publishing house "Sphere" in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Since 2010, Robert van Voren is the Patron of the Gladys School for Community Health Work and Development in the Gampaha District, Sri Lanka.
From 2011 to 2013, he was the Chairman of the Board of the Themis Foundation for Prison Reform, and from 2013 to 2017 he was the Director there.
Between 2013 and 2015, he was a Member of the Board of the Netwerk International Mental Health in The Netherlands as well as the Vice-President for Europe at the World Federation for Mental Health.
Robert van Voren has been a Member of the Board of Advisors of the Charity "Rights in Russia" in the United Kingdom since 2013. Since 2014, he has been the Chairman of the Board of the "Foundation to Preserve History of Maidan" in Kyiv, and since 2015 - a Patron of the BEARR Trust, United Kingdom.
From 2015 to 2017, Robert van Voren was the Vice President of the World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH) for constituency development, and the Chairman of the Human Rights and Ethics Committee of the WFMH. From 2017 to 2020, he was in the board of the World Federation for Mental Health, and since 2016, he has been on the board of the Penal Reform International (PRI) in the United Kingdom.
In addition, Robert van Voren has been active in academic field – as a professor, as a publishing scientist, and as a manager of different academic departments in various universities.
In 2022, Robert van Voren was awarded the Pardes Humanitarian Prize in Mental Health.[9]
References
- ^ Mykoliuk 2013.
- ^ Boersema 2001.
- ^ Voren 2009b, p. 271.
- ^ Moran 2010.
- ^ Donskis 2009, p. 314; Mykoliuk 2013
- ^ Voren 2013c; Clark 2014
- ^ "Board & Staff". www.gip-global.org (in Dutch). Retrieved 2023-10-30.
- ^ van Voren, Robert (2009). On Dissidents and Madness. New York/Amsterdam.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ "Pardes Humanitarian Prize in Mental Health". Brain & Behavior Research Foundation. 2017-03-15. Retrieved 2023-10-30.
Sources
- Royal College of Psychiatrists. Is there a resumption of political psychiatry in the former Soviet Union?; 3 August 2014.
- Boersema, Wendelmoet. Johannes Bax heet eindelijk Van Voren [Johannes Baks is finally called Van Voren]. Trouw. 18 January 2001. Dutch.
- Clark, Fiona. Is psychiatry being used for political repression in Russia?. The Lancet. 11 January 2014;383(9912):114–115. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(13)62706-3. PMID 24422214.
- Dobryanskaya, Mariya [Мария Добрянская]. Роберт ван Ворен: «Финансовые потоки нужно направлять на создание европейской модели психиатрии…» [Robert van Voren:"Financial flows must be directed at creating European model of psychiatry…"]. НейроNews: Психоневрология и психиатрия [NeuroNews: Psychoneurology and psychiatry]. January 2010;1(20). Russian.
- Donskis, Leonidas. A Litmus test case of modernity: examining modern sensibilities and the public domain in the Baltic States at the turn of the century. Peter Lang; 2009. ISBN 3-0343-0335-1. p. 314.
- Freedom for another Soviet dissident. The Glasgow Herald. 18 February 1987:1.
- Gordon, Harvey. Reform of forensic psychiatry in the former Soviet Union. The Psychiatrist. 31 July 2006;30(8):313. doi:10.1192/pb.30.8.313.
- James, George. Soviet dissident told to leave. The New York Times. 19 October 1985.
- Keukens, Rob; Voren, Robert van. Coercion in psychiatry: still an instrument of political misuse?. BMC Psychiatry. 2007;7(Suppl 1):S4. doi:10.1186/1471-244X-7-S1-S4.
- Lavrinenko, Inga [Инга Лавриненко]. Ракурс [Rakurs]. Эта война — только первый шаг, следующая война будет внутри России, которая начнет распадаться — голландский политолог [This war is only the first step, the next war will be in Russia which will start to disintegrate, says Dutch political scientist]; 18 February 2015 [archived 23 February 2015]. Russian.
- Leygraf, Vrolg. Ist die nachträgliche Sicherungsverwahrung am Ende? [Is compulsory hospitalization unprofitable in the end?]. Der Nervenarzt [The Neurologist]. 27 June 2010;81(7):867–872. German. doi:10.1007/s00115-010-3046-0.
- Lumans, Valdis. Robert van Voren, Undigested Past: The Holocaust in Lithuania. European History Quarterly. July 2014;44(3):586–588. doi:10.1177/0265691414537193au.
- Makhashvili, Nino; Voren, Robert van. Balancing community and hospital care: a case study of reforming mental health services in Georgia. PLoS Medicine. 8 January 2013;10(1):e1001366. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001366. PMID 23319895.
- Moran, Mark. Psychiatric abuses once led to Cold War confrontation. Psychiatric News. 5 November 2010;45(21):6. doi:10.1176/pn.45.21.psychnews_45_21_009.
- Myagkova, N. [Н. Мягкова]. Украинская психиатрия: уроки прошлого и настоящего [Ukrainian psychiatry: the lessons of the past and present]. Вестник Ассоциации психиатров Украины [The Herald of the Ukrainian Psychiatric Association]. 2012;(2). Russian.
- Mykoliuk, Oksana. Punitive psychiatry in the USSR. Book by Dutch human rights champion tells about cruel treatment of dissidents in the 1970s-1980s. The Day newspaper. 6 February 2013.
- Rogers, Paul; Keukens, Rob; Voren, Robert van. Reforming the delivery of forensic mental health and prison mental health in the Republic of Georgia. Mental Health Practice. February 2006;9(5):38–40.
- Skorokhod, Olga [Ольга Скороход]. Голландский канадец спасал советских диссидентов из психушки [Canadian of Dutch origin saved Soviet dissidents from psikhushka]. Gazeta.ua. 1 February 2013. Russian.
- Targum, Steven; Chaban, Oleh; Mykhnyak, Serhiy. Psychiatry in the Ukraine. Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience. April 2013;10(4):41–46. PMID 23696959.
- Tomov, Toma; Voren, Robert van; Keukens, Rob; Puras, Dainius. Mental health policy in former eastern bloc countries. In: Knapp, Martin; McDaid, David; Mossialos, Elias (eds.). Mental health policy and practice across Europe. McGraw-Hill Education; 2006. ISBN 0-335-21467-3. p. 397–425.
- Voren, Robert van. Appeal to Western psychiatrists. The Psychiatrist. 1 September 1992;16(9):590. doi:10.1192/pb.16.9.590.
- Voren, Robert van; Whiteford, Henery. Reform of mental health in Eastern Europe. Eurohealth. Spring 2000 [archived 26 April 2013];6(2, special issue):63–65.
- Voren, Robert van. Comparing Soviet and Chinese political psychiatry. The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. 2002a;30(1):131–135. PMID 11931361.
- Voren, Robert van. The WPA World Congress in Yokohama and the issue of political abuse of psychiatry in China. The Psychiatrist. 1 December 2002b;26(12):441–442. doi:10.1192/pb.26.12.441.
- Voren, Robert van. Reforming forensic psychiatry and prison mental health in the former Soviet Union. The Psychiatrist. 31 March 2006;30(4):124–126. doi:10.1192/pb.30.4.124.
- Voren, Robert van [Роберт ван Ворен]. История повторяется и в политической психиатрии [History repeats itself in political psychiatry too]. Новости медицины и фармации [Medicine and Pharmacy News]. 2009a;(303). Russian.
- Voren, Robert van. Political abuse of psychiatry—an historical overview. Schizophrenia Bulletin. January 2010a [archived 2011-07-26];36(1):33–35. doi:10.1093/schbul/sbp119. PMID 19892821. PMC 2800147.
- Voren, Robert van. Abuse of psychiatry for political purposes in the USSR: a case-study and personal account of the efforts to bring them to an end. In: Helmchen, Hanfried; Sartorius, Norman (eds.). Ethics in psychiatry: European contributions. Springer Netherlands; 2010b. (International library of ethics, law, and the new medicine. Vol. 45). ISBN 90-481-8720-6. p. 489–507.
- Voren, Robert van [Роберт ван Ворен]. От политических злоупотреблений психиатрией к реформе психиатрической службы [From political abuses of psychiatry to the reform of psychiatric service]. Вестник Ассоциации психиатров Украины [The Herald of the Ukrainian Psychiatric Association]. 2013a;(2). Russian.
- Voren, Robert van. Psychiatry as a tool of coercion in post-Soviet countries. The European Parliament; 2013b. doi:10.2861/28281. ISBN 978-92-823-4595-5.
- Voren, Robert van [Роберт ван Ворен]. Психиатрия как средство репрессий в советских и постсоветских странах [Psychiatry as a tool of coercion in post-Soviet countries]. Вестник Ассоциации психиатров Украины [The Herald of the Ukrainian Psychiatric Association]. 2013c;(5). Russian.
- Voren, Robert van. Is there a resumption of political psychiatry in the former Soviet Union?. International Psychiatry. August 2014 [archived 5 September 2014];11(3):73–74.
- Voren, Robert van. Fifty years of political abuse of psychiatry – no end in sight. Ethics, Medicine and Public Health. January–March 2015a;1(1):44–51. doi:10.1016/j.jemep.2014.12.001.
- Voren, Robert van. Ending political abuse of psychiatry: where we are at and what needs to be done. Psychiatric Bulletin. 30 April 2015b. doi:10.1192/pb.bp.114.049494.
- Vytautas Magnus University. Prof. van Voren discussed maidan events; 16 May 2014.
- Voren, Robert van. Путин спровоцировал мировой конфликт [Putin provoked a world conflict]. Новое Время [New Time]. 10 October 2015c [archived 12 October 2015]. Russian.
- Voren, Robert van. Путин - неизлечимый пироман, повышающий ставки [Putin is an incurable pyromane who rises stakes]. Новое Время [New Time]. 12 September 2015d [archived 22 September 2015]. Russian.
- Voren, Robert van. Домашний русский медведь. Москва застала Запад врасплох [The pet Russian bear. Moscow caught the West unawares]. Новое Время [New Time]. 26 June 2015e [archived 26 July 2015]. Russian.
- Wynnyckyj, Andrij. Geneva Initiative on Psychiatry promotes reform of mental health institutions in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Weekly. 8 December 1996:3.
Books
- Voren, Robert van. Political psychiatry in the USSR. Amsterdam: Stichting Comité Vladimir Boekovski [Vladimir Bukovsky Foundation Committee]; 1983.
- Voren, Robert van. Koryagin: a man struggling for human dignity. Second World Press; 1987. ISBN 90-71271-07-2.
- Voren, Robert van. Pere-strojka of de-strojka?: de Sovjetunie op weg naar de eenentwintigste eeuw [Pere-strojka of de-strojka?: the Soviet Union by the twenty first century]. Buijten & Schipperheijn; 1988. Dutch. ISBN 9060646835.
- Voren, Robert van; Bukovskiĭ, Vladimir. Gorbatsjov, tussen hoop en illusie [Gorbachev, between hope and illusion]. Buijten & Schipperheijn; 1988. Dutch. ISBN 9060646738.
- Voren, Robert van; Bloch, Sidney. Soviet psychiatric abuse in the Gorbachev era. International Association on the Political Use of Psychiatry; 1989. ISBN 90-72657-01-2.
- Voren, Robert van; Bon, Alexander. Nationalism in the USSR: problems of nationalities. Second World Center; 1989. ISBN 9071271102.
- Voren, Robert van. On dissidents and madness: from the Soviet Union of Leonid Brezhnev to the "Soviet Union" of Vladimir Putin. Amsterdam—New York: Rodopi; 2009b. ISBN 978-90-420-2585-1.
- Voren, Robert van. Cold War in psychiatry: human factors, secret actors. Amsterdam—New York: Rodopi; 2010c. ISBN 90-420-3048-8.
- Voren, Robert van. Neįsisavinta praeitis: Holokaustas Lietuvoje [Undigested past: the Holocaust in Lithuania]. Kaunas: Vytauto Didžiojo universitetas (Vytautas Magnus University); 2011. Lithuanian. ISBN 9955127163.
- Voren, Robert van. Undigested past: the Holocaust in Lithuania. Amsterdam—New York: Rodopi; 2011. ISBN 940120070X.