Stellenbosch University: SUNJournals
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Editorials
No full textPINS launched itself, in September 1983, with the following editorial briefing: "Psychology in society is a journal which aims to critically explore and present ideas on the nature of psychology in capitalist society. There is a special emphasis on the theory and practice of psychology in the South African context". This was followed by a 20 page editorial article outlining the context of the formation of this new journal and the role it saw itself fulfilling. This briefing was minimally, yet significantly, altered two years later in PINS 3 (1985), by the inclusion of the term "apartheid" as a central defining feature of our society, and to register psychology's complicity with this form of racial oppression. The editorial masthead now read: "Psychology in society is a journal which aims to critically explore and present ideas on the nature of psychology in apartheid and capitalist society. There is a special emphasis on the theory and practice of psychology in the South African context"
Psychotherapy as abuse: Jehu, D (with Davis, J, Garrett, T, Jorgenson, L M, & Schoener, G R) (1994) Patients as victims: Sexual abuse in psychotherapy and counselling. Chichester: John Wiley. 241pages. ISBN 0-47194398-3 pbk.
No full textDerek Jehu and his associates set out to provide a concise presentation of the issues and regulatory provisions regarding the sexual abuse of patients by mental health professionals in the United States and the United Kingdom. In Section 1 of the text the reader is introduced to some of the major issues and controversies in the field. The first of these issues relates to the difficulties involved in defining sexual abuse. Although there is a general consensus in the literature that explicit sexual acts (sexual intercourse, genital fondling, etc) between a therapist and client, in the context of ongoing therapeutic contact, are always improper/abusive, there is less agreement as to the propriety of other forms of intimate behaviour (e.g., touching or hugging). As Jehu points out, behaviours such as touching may be appropriate in some circumstances (e.g., when used as an expression of reassurance, support or comfort) but not in other circumstances (e.g., when therapists use touch to evoke sexual arousal in themselves, when touch is used by therapists as a transitional step in a sequence towards more intimate sexual involvement, or when touch is used with patients who are likely to incorrectly perceive nurturant touching as sexual/abusive in nature)
Editorial: Whither Or Wither TRC? Special issue: The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission
No full textPINS's (Psychology in society) plan to devote a special issue to the operations and effects of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was hatched in 1998. At this stage, the TRC's Committee on Human Rights Violations had completed the harrowing testimony-collection from survivors and produced a report summarising their findings (TRC, 1998); the Committee on Amnesty was embroiled in hearings with perpetrators of politically motivated human rights violations, and in (contentious) judgement about whether the intent and quality of their "truths" warranted their "pardon"; and the Committee on Reparation and Rehabilitation had yet to find a way to begin their work of compensation and healing. Two years on, it is difficult to discern signs of "closure• in any of these realms. This is not to disavow ongoing, well intentioned and committed work within (and without) the TRC process, but to acknowledge the shifts in public discourse that have come to interrogate the map, the route and the destination of the TRC. Thus, what would count as "closure•, and to whom
Prime evil: In his own words: De Kock, E & Gordin, J (1988) A long night's damage: Working for the Apartheid State. Johannesburg: Contra Press. ISBN 0-620-22198-4 pbk. 331 pages
No full textFrom a socio-historical perspective, A long night's damage: Working for the Apartheid State provides the reader with an invaluable insight into the mind-set and the amorality of the South African State during the so-called "Total Onslaught", through the experiences of former South African Police Colonel, Eugene De Kock. The book documents the grim exploits of De Kock, at one time the Apartheid government's most efficient political assassin, when shooting, burning, poisoning and blowing up bodies of anti-Apartheid activists was the "patriotic" norm for certain sections of the Security Branch Police. Now 51 years old, De Kock is serving a double-life sentence, plus 212 years, in Pretoria Central Maximum Security Prison, for 89 crimes, including 6 murders
Ways of seeing madness: Swartz, L. (1998) Culture and mental health: A southern African view. Cape Town: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-570981-0.
No full textLeslie Swartz suggests that his book could be used as a tool to think about questions of mental health and culture. In this it is a significant contribution to the practice of mental health in the South African context. The book gives the reader an understanding of the intricacies of the practice of mental health in a context from distinct from that in which the theories and practices originally emerged. It also facilitates an understanding of how one can effect (and how practitioners are effecting) a change in the practice of mental health so that it deals with the dynamics and issues of the context of South Africa
Research in practice: Terre Blanche, M and Durrheim, K (eds) (1999) Research in practice: Applied methods for the social sciences Cape Town: UCT Press ISBN 1-919713-35-2 pbk. 511 pages.
No full textThis marvellous book performs a double subversion of ·methodology" for psychology students. First of all the book is a counterweight to the hegemony of US American psychology and its imitators in Europe. One of the little cracker quotes in the margin reminds us, for example, that the US Defence Department employs more psychologists than any other company or organisation in the world (p198). It is very difficult to find psychology textbooks that are not saturated with US American values and advertisements for particular culturally-specific kinds of psychology and psychopathology Research In practice, then, ensures that the usual US publisher's ruse of binding in some extra pages about the part of the world it hopes to peddle its wares to is thoroughly addressed. In this book we have hundreds of examples specifically about South Africa, ranging from the discussions of representation (of atlas projections of the world in which the size of Africa is diminished or emphasised) to arguments about how representations are made (of experiences of health among mineworkers in Carletonville). There is a deliberate localisation of research concerns, and so the concerns of South African students are hooked all the way through
THE PSYCHO-SOCIAL SIDE OF HEALTH CARE: Ross, E & Deverell, A (2004) Psychosocial approaches to health, illness and disability: A reader for health care professionals. Pretoria: Van Schaik Publishers. ISBN 0 627 02567 6. Pages 327.
No full textNOT THE KILLING KIND! Cartwright, D (2002) Psychoanalysis, violence and rage-type murder: Murdering minds. Hove & New York: Brunner-Routledge. ISBN 1-58391-202-9. Pages 202.
No full textEditorial
No full textThe theme of this number of PSYCHOLOGY IN SOCIETY (PINS) could be said to be related to an investigation of the psychology of the subaltern, and more especially in the southern African context, the racialised other. In many ways the oppressed have never had it so bad. The so-called revolutions of the late 1980s have wreaked more havoc than brought any significant material benefits. As certain hegemonic projects that contained the false unity in nation states have collapsed, the effects have not been the flowering of democratic freedoms and a disciplined and respectful politics of difference. Instead, we have witnessed some of the most savage onslaughts against ordinary people in their different struggles for freedom and dignity; from Sarajevo to Boipatong; from Los Angeles to Mogadishu; from Huambo to Baghdad. And yet the politics of the time seems to be a kind of transpolitics, to borrow a term of Baudrillard's, a politics of global and international forces that leaves very little space and hope for the actions of ordinary citizens
Township Violence, Levels of Distress, And Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Among Displacees from Natal
No full textThis paper focuses on research carried out in 1990 with victims of the Natal violence. Natal is one of the areas severely affected by violence. This is characterised by brutal attacks, injuries, deaths of thousands of people, loss and destruction of property, and the uprooting, fragmentation and dislocation of communities. The study examined the relationship between exposure to violent incidents, levels of distress, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among displacees of the 1990 violence in Natal. The first hypothesis was that exposure to traumatic events at the time of the conflict would have direct effects on levels of distress. Secondly, because displacees were exposed to a range of violent events outside normal human experience, it was hypothesized that many would display symptoms of PTSD. The sample consisted of 120 displacees who had fled their homes following violent attacks on their community, and were staying in refugee camps in the Pietermaritzburg area. The incidence of PTSD and levels of distress were measured by the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Inventory adapted for displacees. A brief interview schedule to obtain demographic information and details pertaining to traumatic experiences during the conflict was devised for this study. Results indicated an 87% incidence of PTSD within the sample, indicating that the majority of the sample were expressing symptoms of distress associated with the trauma they had experienced. More specifically, factors such as witnessing killings, the death of family members or friends, or being injured at the time of the conflict, were found to significantly affect the levels of distress reported. Implications of these findings are discussed