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Researching the moral dimension of first-person narratives
No full textResearch with reflexive, narrative accounts has grown in popularity within psychology, not least because it legitimates the deployment of clinical skills. These skills are often directed toward evaluating the quality and substance of narratives according to criteria that are intrinsic to models of psychological well-being and clearly relate to professionally held moral goods. I describe a tension for the clinician-researcher between, on the one hand, evaluating a narrative according to widely accepted norms of “good“ storying and, on the other, allowing the participants' own ethical logic to be privileged. Using narrative extracts from a project on parents of transgendered teenagers, I illustrate these two broad approaches to reading reflective narrative accounts. I argue that we require more studies taking a direct interest in the ordinary, unremarkable work of ethical accounting within a local moral order. Research that focuses on the moral particularity of each participant could help us both in understanding the way that ethical reasoning guides action—grasping how participants' uncertainties are expressed in the vocabulary of moral choice—and in deepening our scrutiny of the meaningfulness and relevance of our preferred clinical judgements and the ethical biases they reveal
Growing Children: Dyslexia. 30 August 2012, BBC4
No full textSeries in which child psychologist Laverne Antrobus explores how child development is affected by three major developmental disorders. Laverne looks at how growing children are affected by the common learning disability of dyslexia through the eyes of children and families affected by it. There have been some amazing and exciting developments in neuroscience that are beginning to unlock the dyslexic brain and Laverne takes us on a journey that shows these fascinating new discoveries and theories. The viewer is taken into the world of a dyslexic and shown why the brains of dyslexic people process information from the world around us so differentl
Assessing the prevalence of mental health disorders and mental health needs among preschool children in care in England
No full textAlthough school-aged children living in foster care have been identified as a high-risk group for mental health and developmental disorders, there is a paucity of data relating to preschool children in care (CIC). This study aimed to identify the prevalence of mental health and developmental disorders along with corresponding need for interventions in preschool CIC. All CIC aged 0 to 5 years in an inner city local authority underwent comprehensive, multifaceted assessments consisting of the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (J. Squires, D. Bricker, & E. Twombly, 2003), interviews with caregivers based on the Preschool Age Psychiatric Assessment (H.L. Egger & A. Angold, 2006), Mullen Scales of Early Learning (E.M. Mullen, 1995), and systematic clinical observation. Of 58 eligible preschoolers, 43 completed the assessment. At least one mental health disorder was found in 26 (60.5%) participants, and at least one developmental disorder was found in 11 (25.6%). When mental health and/or developmental disorders were considered together, 30 (69.8%) preschoolers fulfilled criteria for at least one diagnosis, and 18 (41.9%) had two or more comorbid conditions. Whereas 36 (83.7%) of the preschoolers needed an intervention, only 3 of these had received adequate input. In conclusion, preschool CIC constitute a high-risk group for mental health and developmental disorders. Without age-appropriate assessments, their needs go undetected, and opportunities for early intervention are being missed
The silent child: Communication without words
No full textThe Silent Child: Communication without Words describes a way of understanding and communicating with children who are not speaking, but rather using their bodies and somatic symptoms to express states of mind. Jeanne Magagna has worked for 45 years trying to find ways of helping these children, varying in age and symptoms. Using infant observation methods of understanding primitive states of mind expressed through gestures of eyes, hands, body posture, she has worked in in-patient or out-patient settings with contributors: a group of psychiatrists, psychologists, family and child psychotherapists, physiotherapists, nurses, therapeutic care workers, teachers, parents’ groups and work discussion seminar members in out-patient and in-patient settings. In their chapters, the professionals and a parent show how they use their observation, empathy and countertransference experiences to promote understanding in the silent child and his/her parents and siblings.
This book is particularly important for mental health professionals, teachers and parents who are encountering ‘a child communicating without words’. It will assist them in being curious and nurturing rather than paralysed by the experience of having to think without the child’s verbal response
Understanding violence: Does psychoanalytic thinking matter?
Get PDFA coherent psychoanalytic theory of violence has been hindered by the very few psychoanalysts who have actually worked with violent patients, by political allegiance to certain psychoanalytic schools of thought, a naïve belief that all violence is typically not intentional, but rather a problem of impulse control, and the lack of understanding of recent neurobiological findings concerning aggression. Although intensive psychoanalytic treatment is usually not appropriate for violent individuals, the authors assert that a comprehensive understanding of violent behavior from a psychoanalytic perspective is of relevance for all mental health practitioners interested in the nature of human aggression. Actual violence is informed by bodily enactments and regressions to primitive subjective states; the effects of trauma on representation and symbolic functioning; the demarcation between affective and predatory violence; and understanding how all of our mental processes, including cognitions, wishes, memories, unconscious phantasies, ego-defenses, and object relations, are originally rooted in the body. The authors review the historical psychoanalytic literature on violence and critique contemporary psychoanalytic theorizing regarding the etiology of violent behavior in the light of some neurobiological research findings. They conclude with treatment recommendations for those clinicians whose patients have been violent toward others
Baked beans for bereavement
No full textMy primary goal in conducting the research was to investigate and hypothesise about the relationships and patterns involved in childhood bereavement. Methodologically, I applied a combined process, to view both the data and my work with bereaved children. I explored the relationships between the stories told in a therapeutic dialogue, and the emergent patterns within my research data. Furthermore, this study will analyse and discuss the literature around grief as an interdependent transactional process, as well as the unique characteristics of childhood bereavement. I will describe and investigate patterns within the data of the National Child Development Study (NCDS) and discuss the blossoming concept of routine, as it relates to the processing of grief in children
Enabling and inspiring: A tribute to Martha Harris
No full textMartha Harris (1919-1987) was one of the most influential and also one of the most loved psychoanalysts of the generation that trained with Melanie Klein. She also worked with Wilfred Bion, and wrote many books and papers on psychoanalytic training and child development. Her colleague James Gammill cites Mrs Klein as saying: "She is one of the best people I have ever known for the psychoanalysis of children … and she has a mind of her own." Harris was responsible for the child psychotherapy training at the Tavistock Clinic from 1960 onwards, developing laterally the method founded on infant observation that had been put in place by Esther Bick. She established cross-clinic work discussion groups, a pioneering schools’ counselling course (in collaboration with her husband Roland Harris), and individual work with disturbed children in the school environment. Her belief that psychoanalytic ideas could and should “travel”, both geographically and across the professions, led to her seeding the “Tavi Model” in many other countries through regular teaching trips, in company with her later husband Donald Meltzer.
Her influence was not as a theorist, but as a teacher with an extraordinary capacity to engage processes of introjective learning in both students and readers. This tribute by some of those who studied with her is not simply testimony to a remarkable teacher and clinician whose wisdom has been rarely equalled; it also offers inspiration to others who may be struggling to find ways of using psychoanalytic ideas imaginatively in a variety of contexts - clinical, social or scholarly - in what can at times appear to be an unreceptive world
Life beckoning. A thematic analysis of change in a deprived boy in long-term foster care, during intensive psychoanalytic psychotherapy
No full textThis research is based on a single case study of psychoanalytic therapy with a young adolescent boy in care. It is part of a growing movement to identify research methods for exploring the place of unconscious expectations, emotion and affect, in relationships. It experiments with methods for testing out psychoanalytic theory and contributing findings to evidence, modify or expand theory in new directions.
The patient Simon, had a history of deprivation and showed many features of ADHD and oppositional conduct disorder. The research locates him in a “family” of children who share histories of early traumas and serious behavioural difficulties. Therefore findings, while grounded in clinical material from a single case, and restricted in scope, are of relevance to work with a very needy and challenging population of children, who are often a major cause of concern to their carers, teachers, social workers and to mentalhealth professionals.
The research examines clinical material through the framework of Bion’s theoretical claim that identifies thinking as at bottom an emotional process, and relates symbolic capacity to early emotional experiences of communication and containment. The framework was selected because of its relevance to the particular features of the patient, which emerged through the detailed study of session records. The analysis of patient therapist
interaction follows Bion in looking at thinking and learning, side by side with the sort of internal objects active in the therapeutic relationship, and the emotions
connected to them.
Through a detailed focus on these aspects of clinical material, the author assesses some current ideas about what interferes with a deprived child’s capacity to think and learn from experience; and what are the factors in a therapeutic relationship that can help a child’s capacity in these areas to grow
