Tavistock and Portman E-Prints Online
Not a member yet
2774 research outputs found
Sort by
Trans men and friendships: A Foucauldian discourse analysis
No full textWhile research focusing on friendships of sexual minority individuals has increased over the last two decades, studies of transgender persons’ friendships have been largely absent. Yet, within mainstream literature it has been demonstrated that friendships are central both to identity formation and as support in terms of psychological need and distress. Given that trans people face important identity challenges and may well be disenfranchised within society, the role of friendships warrants study. Research which has occurred has largely focussed on trans women, yet trans men face particular issues in terms of their relationships with lesbian women and being positioned as joining patriarchy. This study explored this gap in the literature and used Foucauldian discourse analysis to explore friendship and gender identity. Dominant discourses identified included ‘friends as family’, ‘romance’ and discursive practices of ‘disowning male privilege’, ‘effeminate heterosexual male’ and ‘gender fluidity’ which counter hegemonic (trans) male re-positioning within friendships. The results indicate that trans men elevate the status of friends to those of other culturally dominant relationships (e.g. family or sexual partner). Furthermore, their friendships, in particular friendships with lesbian women, can become complex platforms from which to contest privilege and power associated with their (trans) masculinities. Conceptual and research implications are discussed
Creating a space to think in a structured world: An exploration of the structures, relationships and emotions emerging in Network Meetings in the wider context of child care proceedings
Get PDFThis research stems from a long term interest in the challenges of engaging with families often
described as “multi-problem families”, who appear reluctant to engage with or are unable to access
the complex professional systems that are put in place to protect and support children. Breakdown
between parents and professionals is said to feature in 70% of cases brought before family courts in
care proceedings (Brophy 2006). The literature review will consider the characteristics of the UK child
care and family justice systems that may contribute to this state of affairs and explore a number of
projects and analyses that have attempted to address it.
The study investigates the complex dynamics between parents and professionals involved in care
proceedings, through detailed observations of Network Meetings - a practice that has developed in a
Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) and which takes place at the start of court
mandated multi-disciplinary parenting assessments. The project has three intersecting dimensions: a
detailed description of what happens in these meetings, a contextual description of what this tells us
about the care system and an ethically grounded analysis of a developing clinical practice aimed at
mediating the transition between court and clinic.
The study evolves into an ethnography-inspired exploration of the structures, relationships and
emotions emerging in Network Meetings and in the wider context of care proceedings. The
methodology draws on a number of epistemological traditions in an attempt to capture the complexity
and multi-layered nature of knowledge and experience. An “experience-near” approach is proposed
from a “critical realist” perspective that encourages self-reflexivity.
A thematic analysis of the meetings highlights some of the characteristics of care proceedings:
the court’s emphasis on structure
the tendencies of “adversarial systems” towards polarisation, binary thinking and closure.
complex relationships between the court and the clinic
In this context the request for a parenting assessment emerges as a search for a liminal space
(Turner 1969) or thinking space to unravel complex and often contradictory stories, perspectives and
experiences that are contested in the adversarial domain of the court and contribute to impasses and
delay. The Network Meeting is analysed as a developing professional practice comparable to a kind
of ritual that evolved over time in a particular agency and context in an attempt to create a boundaried
space for a therapeutic assessment to be planned within the court timetable.
Findings illustrate the attempts of professionals to move the system from the structure-dominated
domain of the court to a space where less tangible aspects of human systems can be brought into
light and opened to scrutiny. The concept of “communitas” and its relationship to “structure” as
defined by Turner is used loosely to identify aspects of this transition during Network Meetings. The
challenges of defining and researching “communitas” are explored through a critical reflective review
of the methodological journey in this project. Conclusions highlight the challenges and value of bringing stakeholders together to experience the
emotional and relational qualities of the system, to face the nature of impasses and engage with the
complex dynamics, polarised positions and multiple perspectives involved in order to create a more
authentic and fruitful thinking space. The characteristics of this space are considered together with the techniques used by practitioners (particularly chairs of meetings) in their attempts to move towards it
Survival and creativity in a changing world
No full textThis editorial is an introduction to the summer issue of the journal containing a wealth of stimulating papers which continue to grapple with the challenges of working, and indeed surviving, within the National Health Service (NHS). Although the first paper overtly focuses on survival as one of its main themes, all of the papers are in some way about not only how psychoanalytic psychotherapy practice may survive in the modern NHS, but how a psychoanalytic perspective may enable us to survive in an ever-changing world
Working together, or keeping apart? A critical discourse analysis of the revised working together guidance (2013)
Get PDFThis article gives an account of a discourse analysis in which a section of revised Government policy, Working Together to Safeguard and Promote the Welfare of Children, was subjected to critical discourse analysis (CDA). Setting out the context in which the policy was published, this article outlines the recent policy context and articulates the chosen method of CDA to undertake a small-scale study in relation to the revised Working Together and discusses the findings of the analysis. It offers an insight into how the issue of child protection is understood, managed and made tolerable, through the policy's discourse. It concludes that the revised documentation, a result of Munro's review of child protection (2011), fails to adequately acknowledge the complexity involved in protecting and safeguarding children
Developing therapeutic couple work in dementia care: The living together with dementia project
No full textThis paper describes an approach to working with couples where one partner has a dementia, which is currently under development at the Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships. This draws upon video-based methods that have been used with parents and children, as well as in psychoanalytic couple psychotherapy, to develop an intervention to assist emotional contact, communication and understanding in couples living with dementia. Our approach includes the person with dementia and their partner, focussing upon the relationship between them and using shared involvement in everyday activities as a basis for enhancing emotional contact. Evidence is reviewed of the need for such an approach, which aims to foster the resilience of the couple's relationship and strengthen their capacity to manage the emotional challenges of the situation. The importance of services holding a relational view in their delivery and the economic and humanitarian consequences of a neglect of this in dementia-care settings are also discussed
Seeing and being seen: The psychodynamics of pornography through the lens of Winnicottt's thought
No full textThe chamber of maiden thought
No full textLiterature is recognised as having significantly influenced the development of modern psychoanalytic thought. In recent years psychoanalysis has drawn increasingly on the literary and artistic traditions of western culture and moved away from its original medical–scientific context. Originally published in 1991 The Chamber of Maiden Thought (Keats's metaphor for 'the awakening of the thinking principle') is an original and revealing exploration of the seminal role of literature in forming the modern psychoanalytic model of the mind.
The crux of the 'post-Kleinian' psychoanalytic view of personality development lies in the internal relations between the self and the mind's 'objects'. Meg Harris Williams and Margot Waddell show that these relations have their origins in the drama of identifications which we can see played out metaphorically and figuratively in literature, which presents the self-creative process in aesthetic terms. They argue that psychoanalysis is a true child of literature rather than merely the interpreter or explainer of literature, illustrating this with some examples from clinical experience, but drawing above all on close scrutiny of the dynamic mental processes presented in the work of Shakespeare, Milton, the Romantic poets, Emily Bronte and George Eliot.
The Chamber of Maiden Thought will encourage psychoanalytic workers to respond to the influence of literature in exploring symbolic mental processes. By bringing psychoanalysis into creative conjunction with the arts, it enables practitioners to tap a cultural potential whose insights into the human mind are of immense value
Psychoanalysis and Gravity
No full textGravity is a film directed by Alfonso Cuaron, released at the end of 2013. I managed to watch the film with friends. Among us, the film had created a
love/hate reaction, mainly depending upon the initial expectation. Some had expected to watch a science fiction film, others a love story. I found myself watching the film with almost no pre-set agenda and I discovered my own
response to be truly unexpected. From the very beginning of the film, it felt awkwardly familiar. I let my mind wander into thinking about psychoanalytic training, therapy and the patients. Are there any similarities between an astronaut in Space and a trainee psychotherapist in London, I thought? It was only weeks before the Easter break and I already felt the intensity of feelings rising in the consulting room. How different, really, is the journey of therapy fromthe one into Space? The plot of Gravity unfolds solely in Space. There are only two characters in the film: Ryan Stone played by Sandra Bullock, and Matt Kowalski played by George Clooney. Ryan Stone is a medical engineer embarking on her first space shuttle mission after the tragic loss of her daughter. By contrast, Kowalski
is a veteran astronaut with experience in travelling into Space, and thus, has a deep knowledge of what this journey entails. Kowalski had repeated this journey several times, and takes a sensitive approach towards Stone. Stone, on
the other hand, appears nervous, yet eager to learn. Can one really identify with both characters, I wonder
Clinical uncertainty in primary care: The challenge of collaborative engagement
No full textThis is a book about primary care clinicians and the clinical uncertainty endemic to their work. Even when seemingly straightforward, each patient raises unique questions regarding how best to listen to their complaints, empathize with their suffering, or respond to their silences. This book is also about addressing uncertainty in primary care practice and engaging it. Engagement requires knowledge, explicit and tacit, placed in the service of a single patient’s problem. It also requires carefully managed communication, facilitating dialogue with the patient and encouraging shared problem-solving.
Most importantly, this book is about collaborative engagement with case-based uncertainty in the setting of small groups of clinicians. Sommers and Launer contend that the medical profession’s tradition of working independently should be augmented with an explicitly shared, collegial one of jointly creating wisdom through practice-based learning