Court Declares UC Lead Plaintiff in Dynegy Securities Suit
A federal court named the University of California as lead plaintiff in the Dynegy Securities fraud class action lawsuit Oct. 28.
The 27-page ruling came in response to a June 25 motion by UC to be named lead plaintiff in the case. It was based on the amount of losses UC sustained and its ability to litigate the case on behalf of the shareholders.
The UC’s losses totaled $112.4 million, based on 4.16 million shares purchased between Nov. 1, 2000 and May 7, 2002. The losses represent less than one-quarter of 1 percent of the UC portfolio, which stands at $51 billion.
UC has retained Milbery Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach LLP as counsel on behalf of the University. Seven other shareholders that sought lead plaintiff status included the New York Hotel Trades Council and Hotel Association of New York City pension funds, Banknorth Investment Management Group and RRZ Investments Management.
Professor Finishes Work on Nazi Psychoanalysis
UC Santa Barbara professor recently completed research that claims the Nazi reign in Germany affects most aspects of modern life.
German Professor Laurence Rickels completed a three-volume work, “Nazi Psychoanalysis,” which provides evidence that Nazism has affected modern psychoanalysis and therefore modern life.
“It’s really an exhaustive history of the technical and theoretical innovations that were introduced at that time,” Rickels told the University of California Office of the President.
The first volume gives the history of psychoanalysis, beginning with the work of Sigmund Freud during World War I. Rickels said the Nazis used Freud’s work to develop a means of warfare aimed solely at the minds of their enemies, coining the phrase, “psychological warfare.”
“There is a myth most of us like to believe that there was no Freud in Nazi Germany,” Rickels told UCOP. “Even though [Carl] Jung’s pronouncements were more ideologically compatible with the stuff the Nazis liked to talk about, when it came to actual practice, they gave the advantage to the psychoanalysts. They kept Freud’s science because it worked.”
The second volume addresses advances in psychoanalysis made during World War II, such as German air strikes on British cities that he claims led to the development of family therapy, a common treatment among psychiatrists today.
The final volume examines Nazi fascination with science and technology.
Rickels began the work in 1991, intending to write only a single volume.
“It is something I really wanted to write, but I am glad it’s finally out of the house,” he said.
– Compiled by Cameron Balakhanpour and Stephanie Tavares
