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Dangerous Journey: Memories of Containment in Cuba
Get PDFThe author reconstructs and theorises the immediate, challenging period that follows the end of a personal training analysis. He takes the experimental approach of self-analysing the emotional turbulence with the use of diary entries and dreams from a two-week tourist trip to Cuba, revealing his preoccupation with attempts at maintaining the psychic space established in his long analysis. He hopes his autoethnographic reverie may generate further thought and debate regarding the implications and possible meanings of this universal but underreported time-point for the psychoanalytic clinician; and be of interest to others who may have similar experiences they connect with
The Temporal Space: The development and manifestation of individual creativity and its organisational relevance
Get PDFThis thesis uses biographical narrative interviews to follow the lives of four individuals who have been successful in a variety of creative careers. It explores the development of their individual creativity through the inter and intra-psychic experiences that have helped or hindered the development of their creativity; how these early experiences manifested in later life and the relevance this has had on their careers and on the organisations they have existed in. The findings show four main states of mind / valences in the enactment of creativity: connecting, disrupting, outsiding and storytelling, and explores how they emerge through the participants’ experiences. There is an exploration of the interconnected relationship of each of these valences and how the participants’ creativity flows between them from the point of initiation to enactment. It also explores the way the participants create a space that invites others to join them in their creativity and how organisations can either give them a space for their creativity to emerge and flourish or become too restrictive for it to be initiated. Finally, this thesis places the findings in the context of existing theories within the psychosocial field of individual and organisational research to consider possible implications for the wider field of study
Closing the circle, to open a creative space: Can the intentions of avowedly psychoanalytic research methodologies be fulfilled in methods that are deeply congruent with this epistemology? A methodological study to inform future psychoanalytic research endeavours.
Get PDFIn this study, I have grappled with the challenge of developing a start-to-finish qualitative research method deeply congruent with the ontology and epistemology of psychoanalysis. I have drawn on the history of psychoanalytic research interviewing, most specifically the work of Hollway and Jefferson (Free Association Narrative Interview, 2000/2013) and Holmes (Reverie Research Method, 2017, 2019), which has been thoroughly analysed and taken forward by Archard (e.g. 2019, 2021). Through a process of sifting and synthesising existing literature, I have produced a nine-step guide for undertaking psychoanalytically informed interviews and four novel data-analysis questions. I operationalised my method with a research informant on the topic of her experience of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service’s (CAMHS) Initial Assessments. Questions of ethics permeate discussions around taking psychoanalytic concepts outside the context in which they developed (e.g. Holmes, 2019). I offer a contribution to this debate through consideration of how the unconscious is theorised in interview-based research. I draw upon Bollas’s theory of the receptive unrepressed unconscious (e.g. 2006) and Bion’s theory of thinking (1962/1991) to counter criticisms of researchers veering beyond the research brief, into analysing the informants themselves. This can happen when researchers interpret contents of the informant’s repressed unconscious that may emerge in the research context. I illustrate how psychoanalytic supervision can be used in a novel way, contributing unconscious data from the freely associative conversation this entails. I then consider my data through the concept of parallel process (e.g. Morrissey & Tribe, 2001; Sumerel, 1994) as an ethical alternative to the controversial transport of the psychoanalytic concept of transference-countertransference dynamics out of the clinic setting. I chose substantial transcript excerpts for the vivid way in which they seem to capture the dynamic unconscious-to-unconscious communication process. I show how I explored these using my four data-analysis questions and in so doing, I take a step towards filling the methodological gap identified by Attride-Stirling (2001) regarding the need to analyse data in a systematic and clearly disclosed way. I am guided throughout by Bion’s (1970/2004) proposition of the ultimately unknowable nature of reality and Allison’s idea of a modest epistemology (cited in Stänicke et al., 2020)
Parents’ views on their children’s sleep difficulties and their approach to help seeking: An exploratory study
Get PDFBackground: The impact of sleep on physical and mental health is significant. This is evidenced through a wide range of literature (Williamson et al., 2020). This includes educational and personal outcomes for young people (Konen et al, 2015). The patterns and habits that children form in early life can support them to develop positive sleep habits and routines into adulthood (Sutton et al., 2019). Research has shown that parents can be reluctant to seek support for children’s sleep difficulties (Cook et al., 2020). In a longitudinal study by Williamson et al. (2020), 5107 children were recruited at birth and monitored for sleep difficulties up to the age of 11; almost half the children had some form of reported sleep difficulty. This high prevalence provides further rationale for the current exploratory study. Despite how well-established the importance of sleep is, there is little research into what specifically parents would seek or use in terms of support. Aims and objectives: This research aimed to establish what support parents would like or have sought for sleep difficulties of children aged 3-11 in mainstream primary schools in England. Further aims were to find out what parents consider when deciding whether to seek such help. Methods: The study used a mixed-methods design. Data was collected using an online questionnaire for parents to explore help desired and sought. Semi-structured interviews were used to explore parents’ views, experiences and considerations on their help-seeking journeys. The questionnaire data was analysed using descriptive statistics and content analysis; and the interview data was analysed using reflexive thematic analysis (RTA). Results and Conclusions: Analysis of quantitative data is presented alongside key themes identified from qualitative data: Losing Sleep; Weighing it Up; Experiences of Support; Family Matters; What about me? The findings are reviewed in relation to existing literature and implications for educational psychology (EP) practice are highlighted. The strengths and limitations of the study are discussed alongside recommendations for future research. The main implications are the consideration, going forward of the unique position of EPs and how they could be utilised to best support families in which children struggle with the important area of a human’s existence, sleep
In their own words: American student narratives of challenges and struggles while studying abroad
Get PDFThis thesis explores the lived experience of American students studying abroad in the UK and is interested in understanding a range of challenges and struggles students face while abroad. One unique challenge for participants was experiencing the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, which resulted in all participants returning to the US prematurely to continue their studies virtually. Whilst there are numerous studies on students studying abroad, most of these studies seek knowledge via surveys, questionnaires, or semi-structured interviews. This study was an independent doctoral study that sought rich biographic narrative data using a psycho-social interview design with six participants two months after their semester had ended. A hybrid of Wengraf's (2001) Biographic Narrative Interpretive Method (BNIM) was used to capture participants' lived experiences in their own words. Systemic and Psychoanalytic theory was used to observe, contextualise and analyse data. The findings suggest participants' struggles are, at times, displaced by the positive dominant abroad narrative, which unintentionally leaves little space for difficulties to be acknowledged and shared openly. However, when participant narratives emerged they were conceptualised as surface or deeper narratives. The surface narratives contained easier-to-describe difficulties related to differences between the US and UK educational systems. Deeper narratives contained difficulties related to emotional, psychological, and biographical narratives intersected by internalised cultural, social, and societal demands. Findings show that participants used defence mechanisms to protect themselves against the anxiety of re-telling stories about their difficult experiences. Rather than isolated experiences, the findings show these participants experienced several intersections of personal, social, familial, academic, cultural, and peer group difficulties, which impacted their study abroad experiences
Playing the mind
No full textPlay is important in analysis with patients of all ages – with adults we may be able to play with words, ideas and metaphor – but with children we play in more physical ways. In this Trust Scientific Meeting Marianne Parsons presents her paper ‘Playing the Mind'. The paper brings three very different child patients who were unable to play at first but became able to use play creatively to represent and work through their internal states of mind and make developmental progress. The paper emphasises the need for a setting in which play can unfold safely and spontaneously without intrusive interpretations. It addresses the importance of the analyst as a developmental object, and also as a partner who engages with the play in a fine-tuned way to suit the needs of each individual chil
Is the effect of menu energy labelling on consumer behaviour equitable? A pooled analysis of twelve randomized control experiments
No full textMenu energy labelling has been implemented as a public health policy to promote healthier dietary choices and reduce obesity. However, it is unclear whether the influence energy labelling has on consumer behaviour differs based on individuals’ demographics or characteristics and may therefore produce inequalities in diet. Data were analysed from 12 randomized control trials (N = 8508) evaluating the effect of food and drink energy labelling (vs. labelling absent) on total energy content of food and drink selections (predominantly hypothetical) in European and US adults. Analyses examined the moderating effects of participant age, sex, ethnicity/race, education, household income, body mass index, dieting status, food choice motives and current hunger on total energy content of selections.
Energy labelling was associated with a small reduction (f2 = 0.004, −50 kcal, p < 0.001) in total energy selected compared to the absence of energy labelling. Participants who were female, younger, white, university educated, of a higher income status, dieting, motivated by health and weight control when making food choices, and less hungry, tended to select menu items of lower energy content. However, there was no evidence that the effect of energy labelling on the amount of energy selected was moderated by any of the participants' demographics or characteristics. Energy labelling was associated with a small reduction in energy content of food selections and this effect was similar across a range of participants’ demographics and characteristics. These preliminary findings suggest that energy labelling policies may not widen existing inequalities in diet
Waiting with parents: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of the parent experience of psychoanalytically-informed parent work
Get PDFBackground & Aims: Psychoanalytically-informed parent work is central to the success of a child’s psychotherapy. Although well-documented in literature, there is a dearth of research which is reflected in the limited attention parent work receives on clinical training programmes and resource-stretched NHS CAMHS. This study primarily examined the lived experience of parents in parent work. The secondary research aim, guided by the interdisciplinary research project, Waiting Times, was to investigate experiences of waiting and time in parent work. In line with project theory, parent work was conceptualised as a form of temporal care: waiting with. During data analysis the aims converged: waiting with provided a framework through which to explore parent experience. Methodology: IPA methodology was employed to examine the semi-structured interviews of five parents. The analysis comprised two sequential stages: a classical IPA followed by a dialogical exchange between the results of the first analysis and the extant Waiting Times theoretical notion, waiting with. Findings: A first-order IPA generated themes pertaining to experiences of ambivalence, containment and temporality. Building on these findings, a second-order analysis generated an idiographic theoretical model based on three statements: 1. The offer of parent work is linked with ambivalent feelings 2. The prolonged experience of being waited with creates new time, and parents feel: a sense of relief; understood and less alone 3. Parents’ experiences of time and waiting are linked to their capacity to wait with their child. Conclusions: This study highlighted the potential of parent work to engage parents in a transformative process, a shift in their experience of time and capacity to wait which is linked to an improved capacity to support their child. Whilst not claiming to be generalisable, the findings support literature that champions parent work in child psychotherapy interventions. Clinical implications and ideas for future research are also considered
A Qualitative Review of Pre-Service Training of Educational Psychology Consultants in the United Kingdom
No full textIn the field of Educational Psychology, consultation is both a core competency to be achieved by the end of pre-service training and a practice that infuses all aspects of service delivery post-qualification. The present study aimed to explore the perspectives of university educators on preparing trainee educational psychologists to consult, especially following significant systemic change at social-political and professional standard levels. A qualitative exploratory design was chosen to inform semi-structured interviews with 14 participants from 16 universities in the United Kingdom providing post-graduate training. These interviews were analyzed thematically, with 10 over-arching themes identified. Themes are discussed across three aspects: (i) systemic factors, (ii) facilitators and barriers in consultation training in the current UK context and (iii) curriculum content and pedagogic methods used in consultation training at pre-service level. Strengths, limitations, and implications for applied practice and future research are discussed