Seth C. Kalichman is an American clinical community psychologist and professor of

social psychology Social psychology is the scientific study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people or by social norms. Social psychologists typically explain human behavior as a result of the r ...

at the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Hart ...

, known for his research into HIV/AIDS treatment and

HIV/AIDS denialism HIV/AIDS denialism is the belief, despite conclusive evidence to the contrary, that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) does not cause acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Some of its proponents reject the existence of HIV, while othe ...

. Kalichman is also the director of the Southeast HIV/AIDS Research & Education Project in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, Georgia, and Cape Town, South Africa, and the editor of the journal '' AIDS and Behavior''. He is the developer of the

Sexual Compulsivity Scale The Sexual Compulsivity Scale (SCS) - Sexual Sensation Seeking and Sexual Compulsivity Scale - is a psychometric measure of a high libido, hypersexuality and sexual addiction. It was developed by Seth Kalichman. It consists of statements that must ...

Education

Kalichman completed a B.A. (Psychology) from the

University of South Florida The University of South Florida (USF) is a public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, and other campuses in St. Petersburg and Sarasota. It is one of 12 members of the State University System of Florida. USF is ...

in 1983 and then a further PhD in clinical community psychology.

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 Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki KStJ (; born 18 June 1942) is a South African politician who was the second president of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008, when he resigned at the request of his party, the African National Congress (ANC ...

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". 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. He argues that denialism is often a

coping strategy Coping refers to conscious strategies used to reduce unpleasant emotions. Coping strategies can be cognitions or behaviours and can be individual or social. Theories of coping Hundreds of coping strategies have been proposed in an attempt to ...

, and that followers are often anti-government, anti-establishment, and prone to

cognitive distortion A cognitive distortion is an exaggerated or irrational thought pattern involved in the onset or perpetuation of psychopathological states, such as depression and anxiety. Cognitive distortions are thoughts that cause individuals to perceive rea ...

s; he says that leaders in denialism exhibit

paranoid personality disorder Paranoid personality disorder (PPD) is a mental illness characterized by paranoid delusions, and a pervasive, long-standing suspiciousness and generalized mistrust of others. People with this personality disorder may be hypersensitive, easily i ...

Sexual compulsivity scale

Kalichman developed the

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.

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

. Royalties from the book fund antiretroviral drugs for people with HIV/AIDS in Africa. He was previously on the faculties of

Loyola University Chicago Loyola University Chicago (Loyola or LUC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1870 by the Society of Jesus, Loyola is one of the largest Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Cathol ...

Georgia State University Georgia State University (Georgia State, State, or GSU) is a Public university, public research university in Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1913, it is one of the University System of Georgia's four research universities. It is also the ...

, and the

Medical College of Wisconsin The Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) is a private medical school, pharmacy school, and graduate school of sciences headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The school was established in 1893 and is the largest research center in eastern 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 The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

since 1992.

Awards and honours

*1997 Early Career Award in Health Psychology from the

American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States, with over 133,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It ha ...

. *2005 Distinguished Scientist Award from the

Society of Behavioral Medicine The Society of Behavioral Medicine (abbreviated SBM) is an American nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting research in the field of behavioral medicine. History SBM was established in 1978, with its first meeting taking place in Chicago ...

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:

References

External links

University of Connecticut, faculty

Kalichman's 'Denying AIDS' blog

on

Little Atoms ''Little Atoms'' is a website, podcast and magazine dedicated to ideas and culture. The radio show broadcast weekly from London on Resonance FM 104.4. It is hosted by Neil Denny. The website is edited by Padraig Reidy. The first edition of '' ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kalichman, Seth Living people University of Connecticut faculty HIV/AIDS researchers HIV/AIDS denialism American social psychologists Academic journal editors Year of birth missing (living people) University of South Florida alumni