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Group Relations as ritual (from seduction to translation)
No full textGroup relations conferences in the Tavistock tradition make use of psychoanalytic and systemic perspectives to bring into focus group dynamics around boundaries, roles, task, and authority, assisting the participants to move from fragmentation to integration, while considering possible applications of the learning to the individual's organisational life. In spite of commonalities, no two conferences are ever alike—as epitomised by a familiar statement at opening plenaries that neither participants nor staff know what is going to happen in that particular conference. While this may be axiomatic, it also functions as a strategy of ritual seduction.
Ritual may be understood as a socially approved practice, a pathological enactment, or even a sinister dimension at the level of a cult. The paper considers how ritual behaviour is in evidence in group relations on the Tavistock model and the functions it may serve, including protecting from a both feared and desired exploration of sexuality.
The argument draws from a psychoanalytic understanding of the frame, exploring the nature and need for ritual practices. It considers issues of tradition, leaders as shamanic figures, and the group relations conference as a particular type of performance with the purpose of finding a translation for (and recognition of) socially ambivalent feelings—towards both potential transformation and growth as well as for managing the problematic certitude of the death drive
On the perversity of an imagined psychological solution to very real social problems of unemployment (work-lessness) and social exclusion (worth-lessness): A group analytic critique.
No full textThis article explores some ethical and professional implications of social policies that aim to achieve social inclusion through Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) for the un(der)employed (the work-less) and the ‘socially excluded’ (the worth-less) in the UK. A major ethical concern at the heart of this critique is that such policies establish a boundary between domains of inclusion and domains of exclusion that perversely maintain the very problem they are designed to solve. The article explores how we, as a society, are invited to live in a split world and to hold contradictory conceptualizations about un(der)employment, (workless-ness) and social exclusion (worthless-ness). On the one hand we seem to know that these problems are a consequence of the vagaries and vicissitudes of national and international economic policies, yet on the other hand are invited to believe that these problems are a result of individuals’ psychological failures. In these ways dissembling conversations about an ‘imagined’ psychological depression replaces conversations about the very real socio-political and economic ‘depression’ that underlies it—and ‘psychotherapy’ is in danger of becoming the medium through which this dissembling is operationalized
The still point of the turning world? Building on Balint: A personal view
No full textIn this article, I will respond to the conference title “Building on Balint” by briefly considering some of the inherent obstacles to Balint work, before describing the current state of play in the UK. I will argue that Balint work might benefit from exploring its relationship with attachment theory more fully. In particular, I emphasize an important new role for Balint groups within contemporary health-care organizations—one that enhances a feeling of emotional security for the professional within the organization and also benefits the teamwork and morale of the organization itself. I will give an example of a Balint group in a health-care organization for vulnerable doctors and finish by giving a report on the development of Balint groups for medical students in the UK
Vulnerable birth mothers and repeat losses of infants to public care: Is targeted reproductive health care ethically defensible?
No full textThis article aims to advance debate about the ethics of targeted reproductive health care
for birth mothers who have experienced recurrent care proceedings. Making
reference to new research eviden
ce that reports the scale of
the problem of repeat care
proceedings in England, the article considers the role that enhanced reproductive health
care might play in helping mothers exit a cycle of care proceedings.
Emerging practice
initiatives are introduced which are
all stretching the boundaries of statutory
intervention, by working intensively with mothers
following
removal of children to public
care.
The central argument of this paper
is that a positive interpretation of rights
provides a warrant for
pr
oviding enhanced access to contraception, but this must be part
and parcel of a holistic, recovery focused approach to intervention.
C
aution
is also raised
in respect of the
reasons that may lie behind a pattern of rapid
repeat pregnancy for this
particular group
of women. Issues of loss and grief are clear
complicating factors in reproductive
decision
-
making where an infant or child has been
removed to public care, the
magnitude of which must be firmly acknowledged. Charting
novel theoretical gro
und,
discussion draws on a conceptual vocabulary from the
literature on other forms of
perinatal loss, suggesting that the notion of ‘replacement
baby’ may help to explain why
some mothers are caught in this negative cycle. Although
this article is prompte
d by
escalating concerns about the human and economic costs of
repeat care proceedings in
England, discussion will be relevant to a number of
international contexts such as the
U.S.A. Canada and Australia where cognate systems of
child protection give rise
to
similar patterns
Why should doctors look at art? A study of Hokusai's Great Wave [On Reflection]
No full textMost of the literature in the field of medical humanities concerns the written word. Only a small proportion addresses the visual arts, examining why doctors might benefit from looking at great pictures or sculptures, as part of their broader education. In this article I want to use one famous image – Hokusai's Great Wave – to demonstrate what you can gain from studying a single work of art closely. I hope to show how doing so can develop your powers of observation, and deepen your understanding of the relationship between what you know and what you see
Liberation practices: Towards emotional wellbeing through dialogue
No full textLiberation psychology is an approach that aims to understand wellbeing within the context of relationships of power and oppression, and the sociopolitical structure in which these relationships exist. Liberation Practices: Towards Emotional Wellbeing Through Dialogueexplores how wellbeing can be enhanced through dialogue which challenges oppressive social, relational and cultural conditions and which can lead to individual and collective liberation.
Taiwo Afuape and Gillian Hughes have brought together a variety of contributors, from a range of mental health professions and related disciplines, working in different settings, with diverse client groups. Liberation Practices is a product of multiple dialogues about liberation practices, and how this connects to personal and professional life experience. Contributors offer an overview of liberation theories and approaches, and through dialogue they examine liberatory practices to enhance emotional wellbeing, drawing on examples from a range of creative and innovative projects in the UK and USA.
This book clearly outlines what liberation practices might look like, in the context of the historical development of liberation theory, and the current political and cultural context of working in the mental health and psychology field. Liberation Practices will have a broad readership, spanning clinical psychology, psychotherapy and social work
A comparison of audio recordings and therapist's process notes in child and adolescent psychoanalytic psychotherapy
No full textTherapistsʼ process notes - written descriptions of a session produced shortly afterwards from memory - hold a significant role in child and adolescent psychoanalytic psychotherapy. They are central in training, in supervision, and in developing oneʼs understanding through selfsupervision and forms of psychotherapy research. This thesis examines such process notes through a comparison with audio recordings of the same sessions. In so doing, it aims to generate theory that might illuminate the causes of significantly patterned discrepancies between the notes and recordings, in order to understand more about the processes at work in psychoanalytic psychotherapy and to explore the nature of process notes, their values and limitations. The literature searches conducted revealed limited relevant studies. All identified studies that compare process notes with recordings of sessions seek to quantify the differences between the two forms of recording. Unlike these, this thesis explores the meaning of the differences between process notes and recordings through qualitative data analysis. Using psychoanalytically informed grounded theory, in total nine sets of process notes and recordings from three different psychoanalytic psychotherapists are analysed. The analysis identifies eight core categories of findings. Initial theories are developed from these categories, most significantly concerning the role and influence of a ʻcore transference dynamicʼ between therapist and patient. Further theory is developed on the nature and function of process notes as a means for the therapistʼs conscious and unconscious processing of the session, as well as on the nature of the influence of the relationships – both internal and external – within which they are written. In the light of the findings, a proposal is made for a new approach for learning about the patient and clinical work, ʻthe comparison methodʼ (supervision involving a comparison of process notes and recordings), and, in particular, for its inclusion within the training of psychoanalytic psychotherapists. Further recommendations for research are also made