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Money as emotional currency
No full textThe importance of money and our relationship to it is impossible to ignore in a decade defined by global economic crisis and financial instability. Integrating a psychoanalytic perspective with insights offered by economics, this book contributes to a debate that aims for a better understanding of money in its dual functioning – as omnipresent component of our external reality, as well as powerful agent of our emotional responses.
The main argument proposed is that the intense and complex emotional charge that money can engender stems from the role that money has not so much in the external world, but in an internal economy ruled by phantasy, where every external transaction has an internal counterpart, whose impact is mysterious, deep and far-reaching.
The book explores the impact of the emotional undercurrent stirred by money from its beginnings in childhood to its consolidation into adult life, for individuals and society alike, and with an emphasis on ordinary development, rather than on pathology. Bringing together Freud’s seminal work with more recent applications of psychoanalytic thinking to financial markets, with Borges’ prose and Lacanian insights, this book crosses discipline and school boundaries with the aim of making new insights possibl
Psychodynamic psychotherapy and the treatment of depression
No full textThe psychodynamic explanation of depression is that it has its origin in infancy and childhood experience. This contribution gives an account of the main themes of the foremost psychoanalytical psychodynamic accounts of the nature and origin of depression. This is followed by a review of supporting evidence for this clinically derived model. An account is given of empirical and observational studies which support it, together with a brief overview of direct outcome research into the efficacy of psychotherapy treatmen
Shared understandings? The interface between systemic psychotherapists and the family courts
No full textThis qualitative research set out to explore how far understanding is shared between systemic psychotherapists who write expert reports for family courts and the judges who receive them, with particular reference to various concepts involved in the process such as truth, objectivity and expertise itself. Data obtained from semi-structured interviews with systemic “experts” and family judges was analysed using Grounded Theory. In response to ideas emerging from initial interviews, the focus broadened to consider how, despite the potential advantages of a relational approach to this working context, the possibility of these benefits being delivered by the involvement of systemic psychotherapists remained “invisible” to judges. Different beliefs were identified around the idea of being able to assess openness to change without actually introducing change. The complexity of cases and the responsibility of making hugely significant decisions about children and families were seen to require family judges to be more “interventive” than judges in other areas of law, and systemic experts to be more “certain” than in other contexts. The values, beliefs and sources of knowledge which inform the ways in which experts and judges reconcile those challenges and tensions within the context of a rapidly changing family justice system were compared. Some ideas were generated both about ways of supporting and enhancing these professional roles, and about implications for practice
Pieces Of Molly: An ordinary life
No full textMolly's journey starts as everyone's does, in the womb. In most memoirs the ten years after conception and birth are swiftly passed over, but here we see life from the beginning through the eyes of Molly, a small child grappling with the realities of life as she grows up in rural England at the end of the Second World War. She is a curious little detective, keen to find out as much as she can about life and love. For her, the shadows behind the doors only make sense in hindsight, and buried family secrets come to light as she struggles with the problem of how and who to be in the world. This is a story that examines the boundaries between memory and imagination, hope and illusion
Collaboration between schools and the voluntary sector: Challenges and opportunities in implementing Promoting Alternative Thinking Skills (PATHS)
No full textThe pursuit of happiness: A new ambition for our mental health
No full textIn February 2011, I published the Coalition Government’s mental health strategy, No Health Without Mental Health. It was widely welcomed for its emphasis on parity of esteem between physical and mental health and the promotion of wellbeing.
Three years on, the strategy still sets the right direction. But translating it into practice has been painfully slow. Despite the evidence base, the NHS remains doggedly stuck in a model of care that separates the physical from the psychological and the social. Yet it is only by bringing them together that we can hope to make the best use of the resources available and improve the wellbeing of the nation.
This institutional bias against mental health was brought into sharp focus recently by the decision of NHS England to raid the budgets of Mental Health Trusts to help Acute Trusts deliver the recommendations of the Francis Report, as if the same issues did not arise in mental health. Some good may come from this sorry episode, if statements by NHS England translate into deeds, but the bias runs deep.
Over the past twelve months, the Mental Health Commission has taken stock of where we are today and what we need to do to realise the ambition of the mental health strategy. Our goal has been to identify the key changes that will reduce the number of people experiencing lifelong mental health problems over the next 5 to 10 years and help those who suffer mental health problems to recover.
The Commission has identified five big shifts in policy and practice for England.
First, make the mental wellbeing of the nation or the ‘pursuit of happiness’ a clear and measurable goal of government. The tools are available to evaluate policy and measure its impact with wellbeing in mind. This needs leadership from the top of government and sustained action to tackle stigma.
Second, roll out a National Wellbeing Programme led by Public Health England to foster mutual support, self-care and recovery. They would be locally tailored by Health and Wellbeing Boards to make the best of the skills and talents in communities up and down the country, building up community capacity where necessary.
Third, prioritise investment in the mental health of children and young people right from conception. By scaling up what works, we can transform the life chances of hundreds of thousands of children and reduce the costs to society of low educational attainment, negative behaviour, worklessness, crime, and antisocial behaviour.
Fourth, make our places of work mental health friendly. The cost to business in terms of sickness absence and lost productivity runs to £23.5 billion. There is good practice, it should become the norm, and it would save money. Government must take the lead in its own employment practice and set the standard in its procurement.
Fifth, close the treatment gap that leaves almost one in ten of the adult population needlessly suffering from depression and anxiety and 1-2 per cent of the adult population experiencing a severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia. These people do not receive the parity of care and outcomes which you would expect if you had a physical illness such as cancer. Equip primary care to identify and support the mental and behavioural health needs of its patients. Integrating mental health and social work expertise into the primary health care teams to ensure a holistic approach.
The Commission believes that NHS England should be set the clear goal of achieving parity of funding for mental health over the next decade. We are under no illusions about the difficulties of making these changes over the next five years against a backdrop of financial constraint. However, we believe that the case for spending to be rebalanced towards mental health is overwhelming. For example, poorly-managed long-term mental and physical health problems cost the NHS £13 billion a year.
The cost of doing nothing, or simply settling for gradual change, runs to billions of pounds, but the real cost is measured in human misery, misery for want of a determination to act on the evidence.
Rt Hon Paul Burstow M
An exploration of the effectiveness of Educational Psychology consultation in supporting the development of emotional regulation skills in young people who have been adopted: A series of single subject case histories
Get PDFChildren who are adopted can experience significant developmental delays which are noticeable
for years after their adoption. A particularly prominent area of delay is in the arena of emotional
and social development, most notably emotional regulation (ER).
The central focus of this thesis asks to what extent the increasingly advocated, theoretical and
practice framework of consultation can effectively support the development of those young
people’s emotional regulation skills following early trauma impact. The aim is not to draw
general conclusions about adopted young people, but to provide a source of rich descriptions
about this specific group of young people, their parents and school staffs’ experiences of
consultative Educational Psychology (EP) involvement and identify implications for EP practice,
particularly in relation to ER change. This is following Government agendas (e.g. Every Child
Matters), as well as the Educational Psychology (EP) profession itself, discourses regarding the
perceived value and effectiveness of EPs, and the scope of their work.
In order to explore this issue a concurrent mixed methods, qualitative-led, multiple case study
design was adopted. Four young people (aged between 10 and 14 years old) were the focus of
individual single case studies.
Young people, their parents and school staff completed a number of specific questionnaires preand post- consultative Educational Psychology intervention (relating to executive functioning
and emotional regulation), as well as weekly Likert scales in order to build a detailed picture
over time. Parents and teachers were subsequently interviewed to elicit their experiences and
perceptions of the overall consultation process and specific consultation meeting. Data was
gathered on their reflections of whether changes had taken place, and if so, their reasoning as to
what contributed to making that difference
Families changing families: The protective function of multi-family therapy for children in education
No full textThe Marlborough Family Education Centre (MFEC) uses a specific multi-family group approach with families where children exhibit (primarily) conduct problems and function poorly in school. Research indicates that failure to intervene with these children carries great potential cost to both the family and society. Outcomes for 50 families receiving intervention from the MFEC were compared with a control group of 28 who had access to a range of interventions, but not the multi-family group approach pioneered by the MFEC. Data on child and family social, emotional and behavioural functioning were collected at the point of referral, and at 6 and 12 months. Parents of children receiving support from the MFEC reported statistically and clinically significant improvements in their children that were maintained at 12 months whereas there was no change in the control group. In addition, measures of family functioning were fairly stable for the MFEC group, while the control group showed significant deterioration over the same time period. Other results were not significant. These findings are interpreted within the context of early intervention. The methodological limitations of the study are considered and suggestions for future research are outlined
