Coming out stories framed as faith narratives, or stories of spiritual growth

The tension between religion and sexuality is particularly pronounced for gay and lesbian people who are often “caught in the middle” between a constitutional sexual orientation and a religious body that rejects it. This paper demonstrates how gay men can be helped in trying to integrate these deeply human and intrinsic parts of themselves, using a developmental approach first articulated by Robert Kegan. It argues that such development is often reflected later in theological language: in this case, in these men's coming out narratives, which are often framed as stories of spiritual growth.     

Coming to terms with coming out: review and recommendations for family systems-focused research.

For lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) adolescents and young adults, coming out to family members, especially parents, is a major psychological decision and hurdle due to both perceived fears and actual negative consequences. But beyond the literature on factors associated with the decision to come out and parents' initial reactions to the disclosure, empirical studies of what unfolds afterward, and how the family adjusts to the LGB adolescent's identity over time, are sparse and scattered. This article reviews and integrates findings from studies of the individual-, dyadic-, and family-level variables associated with positive outcomes, focusing particularly on relationship variables. Methodological concerns within this body of research are discussed, and research recommendations are offered. A preliminary working model of how families successfully come to terms with coming out is proposed to guide future research that will advance theory and clinical work with LGB youth and their families.     

Moral and spiritual education as an intrinsic part of the curriculum

This paper reports on a case study undertaken within a small, rural primary school in the UK to explore the extent to which it was possible to run a moral and spiritual programme as an intrinsic and inclusive part of the curriculum based on the children’s acquisition of virtues. The pupils were encouraged to build on their own experience and reflect on virtues such as ‘kindness’, ‘reliability’ or ‘responsibility’. Some positive associations were indicated between the moral and spiritual programme at the school and outcomes such as the pupil’s ability to resolve conflict and self-regulating behaviour as well as examples of empathy and altruism. The curriculum showed some effective ways of encouraging young people to be reflective and responsible for their own actions. This study was developed by observation of an assembly and targeted lessons together with semi-structured interviews. There was also a review of documentation related to the virtues programme to give a triangulated approach.     

Homosexuality: Coming out of the confusion

The author asserts that earlier theoretical assumptions contribute to the conceptual confusion about homosexuality in much contemporary psychoanalytic research. Bergeret's article, recently published in this Journal , is exemplary of this confusion. The author refutes his contention that homosexuality is not 'true' sexuality but merely a defensive, narcissistic fixation away from, or a nearly psychotic denial of, heterosexuality. He then clarifies specific areas of conceptual confusion regarding homosexuality still prevalent in psychoanalytic discourse that derive from earlier theoretical premises. These areas of confusion include manifest versus latent homosexuality, narcissism and bisexuality, oedipal dynamics and development, and transference and technique.     

Dramatic conversation: An exploratory application of Burton's discourse model

The British sociolinguists Sinclair and Coulthard have generated a systematic approach to the analysis of natural conversation using classroom discourse. Burton has articulated an innovative development of this model that she claims is applicable to a broad range of spoken discourse. She focuses on the language of dramatic plays. Her model is explained, and in an attempt to assess its viability, an application to a brief exchange in a Tennessee Williams play and its Italian translation is proposed. Interesting differences between the interactive structures of the two texts are revealed, indicating that Burton's model may be fruitful for the analysis of fictional dialogue. However, theatre talk may differ in as yet unknown ways from natural conversation.     

Women and men in conversation: a consideration of therapists' interruptions in therapeutic discourse

Studies of day-to-day conversation have shown that interrupting can be used as a gendered means of determining both conversational topic and speaker. This paper explores the nature of interruptions in therapeutic conversations in this light. Drawing upon two recent studies of therapists' interruptions, the author offers some preliminary ideas for consideration by therapists, clinical supervisors and researchers.     

Coming out in community psychology: personal narrative and disciplinary change

Community psychology as a discipline has not focused its attention on the lives of lesbians, gay men, and bisexual (LGB) people, despite the field's potential to collaborate with this population in dealing with the many psychosocial challenges they face. Professional and personal barriers that community psychologists must confront conducting research and developing interventions with the LGB community are described. Community psychology work with LGB communities is often a coming out experience for LGB community psychologists, and a questioning of sexual orientation fot heterosexual community psychologists. Conceptual analyses and empirical reports are presented that exemplify how community psychologist can contribute to decreasing the pervasive stigma LGB people face. The use of an ecological model, a focus on the development and evaluation of preventive interventions, and a recognition of the diversity within the LGB population are core perspectives that can direct future work by community psychologists. Issues ranging from testing ways to empower young LGB people to analyses of the impact of the sociopolitical climate on LGB lives demonstrate the rich range of contributions community psychologists can make.     

"Elicitation hooks": a discourse analysis of chaplain-patient interaction in pastoral and spiritual care

The article considers the communicative role of the hospital chaplain and maps some of the language strategies deployed to facilitate disclosure of the patients' concerns and achieve enhanced spiritual care. These include: i) involvement, ii) politeness and iii) encouraging disclosure or exploring emotion.     

Soviet writings on atheism and religion: Supplement

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Soviet writings on atheism and religion: Supplement

     

Identity development of homosexual youth and parental and familial influences on the coming out process

This paper examines the literature on identity development of homosexual youth, and parental and familial influences on the coming out process. Research indicates that homosexual adolescents who have a close relationship with their parents and families tend to come out at a younger age and to experience more positive identities than do those who have a poor relationship.     

Inviting passage to new discourse: ‘Alive moments’ and their spiritual significance

Some social constructionists assert that therapeutic change occurs when clients' meanings for problems and solutions shift from those found in resource‐impoverished discourses to those affording resourceful and preferred possibilities. Referred to as ‘positioning theory’, our research examined this assertion by inviting clients and therapists to speak of a significant, but ambiguous, experience in unfamiliar discourse: spiritual discourse. Clients were asked to review videotapes of their sessions, selecting moments that felt most ‘alive’ to them for discussions with the researcher, including inquiries as to whether ‘alive’ moments held any spiritual significance. The outcomes are portrayed as a ‘poetic collaboration’ between the researcher, clients and therapists — while clients' and therapists' reported experiences for changes in discourse and meaning are highlighted. Implications regarding sensitivities required when co‐constructing meanings for ambiguous but significant experiences in therapy are discussed. Possibilities for more research examining poetic practices and processes in therapy are also considered in terms of positioning theory.     

Hume's atheism and the role of Cleanthes

This is a reply to Willem Lemmens' discussion of my interpretation of the Dialogues on Natural Religion in my 2000 collection Themes from Hume: Self, Will, Religion. I use Lemmens' careful textual analysis to clarify my considered position and to further the reading of Part 12 of the Dialogues.     

Metaphor and the discourse of virology: HIV as human being

Most analysis of the metaphors of AIDS has considered lay rather than scientific discourse. In general, that analysis has uncovered linguistic strategies that tend to distance the disease from people who are healthy. Moreover, it has criticized those strategies insofar as they categorize and dehumanize the AIDS patient. My own analysis, however, focuses on the writing of Robert Gallo, one of the virologists who claimed credit for isolating the HIV as the cause of AIDS. By examining Gallo's popular and scientific writing, I uncover the metaphor system that underlies his work — and perhaps the work of other virologists studying the HIV. I find in Gallo's writing a system of metaphor that personifies and humanizes the HIV (or the HTLV-III as he originally named it). This system differs significantly from lay systems that tend to objectify AIDS. I argue that the metaphor system that underlies Gallo's work is in fact productive, but that it might preclude other ways of conceptualizing the disease and its causes. The co-factor theory, for instance, entails a different metaphoric system entirely. I suggest that AIDS researchers might examine their own language in an effort to critique the metaphors they use and explore the possibility of using new metaphors.     

Skeptical theism and the challenge of atheism

Skeptical theists hold that we should be skeptical about our ability to know the reasons that God would have for permitting evil, at least in particular cases. They argue for their view by setting aside actions that are wrong in themselves and focusing their attention on actions that are purportedly right or wrong simply in terms of their consequences. However, I argue in this paper that once skeptical theists are led to take into account actions that are wrong in themselves, as they must, they cannot escape the conclusion that there is a logical contradiction between the existence of an all-good, all-powerful God and what would have to be God’s permission of the significant and horrendous evil consequences of immoral actions found in our world.

     

Exploring religious and/or spiritual identities: part 1 – assessing relationships with health

ABSTRACT

There is considerable debate about the distinction between being religious and being spiritual. It is time to move beyond this issue to an examination of the health-related implications of being religious and/or spiritual. Three health outcomes are used in this study: self-rated health, depressive symptoms, and alcohol use. The data are from a large nationwide random probability survey of adults of all ages who reside in the United States (N?=?2,876–2,883). Four self-identified categories of religiousness/spirituality are examined: religious and spiritual, spiritual only, not religious/not spiritual, and religious only. Tests are performed to see if membership in each category offsets the noxious effects of lifetime trauma on the health-related outcomes. A clear pattern emerges from the data. Lifetime trauma is associated with less favourable health ratings, more symptoms of depression, and greater alcohol consumption. However, these relationships are substantially stronger among people who say they are religious only.