Seth Kalichman

Seth C. Kalichman is an American clinical community psychologist and professor of social psychology at the University of Connecticut, known for his research into HIV/AIDS treatment and HIV/AIDS denialism. Kalichman is also the director of the Southeast HIV/AIDS Research & Education Project in Atlanta, Georgia, and Cape Town, South Africa, and the editor of the journal AIDS and Behavior.[1] He is the developer of the Sexual Compulsivity Scale.[2]

Seth Kalichman
Occupationprofessor of Social psychology
Known forSexual Compulsivity Scale
Academic background
EducationPhD, University of South Carolina (Clinical-community psychology),B.A., University of South Florida, 1983 (Psychology)
Alma materUniversity of South Florida
InfluencesNicoli Nattrass
Academic work
Era21st century
DisciplineSocial psychology
Sub-disciplineCommunity psychologist
InstitutionsUniversity of Connecticut
Main interestsHIV/AIDS
Notable worksDenying AIDS: Conspiracy Theories, Pseudoscience, and Human Tragedy
Websitedenyingaids

Education

Kalichman completed a B.A. (Psychology) from the University of South Florida in 1983 and then a further PhD in clinical community psychology.[3]

HIV denialism

Kalichman stated in 2009 that "While working in South Africa I became aware of the devastating effects that AIDS denial was having in that country. The former President Thabo Mbeki had enlisted AIDS denialists among his advisors and bought into the idea that scientists are debating the cause of AIDS. Mbeki’s misguided AIDS policies resulted in over 330,000 senseless deaths and 35,000 babies who were needlessly infected with HIV. I was aware of the failure to offer treatment for South Africans living with HIV/AIDS and I knew that AIDS denial was to blame".[4]

Kalichman began researching denialism after reading the work of Nicoli Nattrass and after encountering further HIV denialists in the US, Kalichman spent a year infiltrating HIV denialist groups.[5] He argues that denialism is often a coping strategy, and that followers are often anti-government, anti-establishment, and prone to cognitive distortions; he says that leaders in denialism exhibit paranoid personality disorder.[5][6]

Sexual compulsivity scale

Kalichman developed the Sexual Compulsivity Scale[7] which is a measure of a high libido, hypersexuality and sexual addiction. The Sexual Compulsivity Scale was developed to assess tendencies toward sexual preoccupation and hyper-sexuality drawing on items of persons who self-identify as having a ‘sexual addiction’ and from sexual addictions self-help group. The scale has been shown to predict rates of sexual behaviors, numbers of sexual partners, practice of a variety of sexual behaviors, and histories of sexually transmitted diseases.[8]

Academic career

Kalichman is the director of the Southeast HIV/AIDS Research & Education Project in Atlanta (Georgia, USA) and Cape Town (South Africa); the editor of the journal AIDS and Behavior; and the author of Denying AIDS: Conspiracy Theories, Pseudoscience, and Human Tragedy, an examination of HIV/AIDS denialism.[9][10][5][11] Royalties from the book fund antiretroviral drugs for people with HIV/AIDS in Africa.[5]

He was previously on the faculties of Loyola University Chicago, Georgia State University, and the Medical College of Wisconsin, where he worked under the direction of Jeffrey A. Kelly to help establish the Center for AIDS Intervention Research (CAIR). Kalichman's research focussed on AIDs in the South Eastern United States and South Africa, his research predominantly funded by the National Institutes of Health since 1992.

Awards and honours

Publications
  • 2018 Pseudoscience: The Conspiracy Against Science "HIV Does Not Cause AIDS': A Journey into AIDS Denialism":MIT Press: edited by Allison B. Kaufman, James C. Kaufman: ISBN 9780262037426[12]

References
  1. "AIDS and Behavior". www.springer.com. Springer. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  2. Seth C. Kalichman; David Rompa. "The Sexual Compulsivity Scale:Further Development and Use With HIV-Positive Persons". Archived March 24, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  3. "Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy (InCHIP)". University of Connecticut. Retrieved September 16, 2020.
  4. Wilson, Richard. "Exclusive: Interview with Prof Seth Kalichman, author of "Denying Aids"". Archived from the original on October 6, 2020. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  5. Wortman, James (August 3, 2009). "Debunking the "Beehive" of AIDS Denialism". POZ. Retrieved July 17, 2010.
  6. MacKenzie, Deborah (May 19, 2010). "Living in denial: Why sensible people reject the truth". New Scientist. Retrieved July 17, 2010.
  7. Seth C. Kalichman; David Rompa. "The Sexual Compulsivity Scale:Further Development and Use With HIV-Positive Persons". Archived March 24, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  8. "Sexual Compulsivity Scales (SCS)". Brown School of Public Health. Retrieved September 29, 2020.
  9. Lemelle, Anthony (September 2009). "Seth Kalichman, Denying AIDS: Conspiracy Theories, Pseudoscience, and Human Tragedy". Journal of African American Studies. Springer New York. 13 (3): 361–364. doi:10.1007/s12111-009-9098-1. ISSN 1936-4741. S2CID 142080591.
  10. Moore, John P. (May 14, 2009). "The dangers of denying HIV". Nature. 459 (7244): 168. Bibcode:2009Natur.459..168M. doi:10.1038/459168a.
  11. Palmquist, Matt (November 3, 2009). "Looking Back In Anger". Miller-McCune. Archived from the original on November 6, 2009. Retrieved November 10, 2009.
  12. Bigliardi, Stefano (2019). "The Advocates of Pseudoscience Are Not Monsters – but Pseudoscience Is". Skeptical Inquirer. Center for Inquiry. 43 (6): 58–59.
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