Drowning in a Sea of Love

Jade McGleughlin’s textured paper frames writing enactments that help describe breaches in narrative consequent to trauma. I work from my own understanding of enactment as a particular reader of McGleughlin’s fieldwork: moving from ceramics to photography to Bionian Field Theory to ethnography to Betty Woodman to Gadamer’s player/played distinction to call attention to the anticipatory processes involved in reading and in reading enactments—by which I mean the enacted dimensions of the act of reading that pertain to the experience of reading about enactments.     

An Exodus

Being part of a family, any family, is an emotionally challenging experience. Being the only girl in my family was rife with much emotional turmoil alongside great love and devotion.

In writing this memoir I was able to call into my awareness all of those feelings: grief, sadness, joy, and the deep tenderness for both of the extraordinary parents I had and the home that housed that very rich and impactful upbringing.

My parents' deaths and the anguish of selling my family home all came down in rapid succession. It was a merciless experience. Like Persephone, those events sent me so far down into the underworld and forced me to face my shadow from every direction that I am only now beginning to climb back out into the sunlight and face this second half of my life.

Stories are spirit medicine; taking these sometimes painful yet evocative events and crafting them into art has both soothed the heartache and given me the gift of honoring my childhood and embracing my womanhood.

It is in the remembering where the softness lies. And so I remember it all; but most especially that swim, the very first one with my daddy dear that will always live in my heart...     

Rituals of Madness in the Practices of Place

While completing a PhD in literature with a focus on the practices of physical and linguistic spaces, I was also working and sleeping (on call) at a dilapidated house in a poorer part of Bristol in case I was needed by one of five paranoid or clinically psychotic residents. I gave out medication in the morning, then went home to study in a small rented room. I began to see ritual everywhere - in my professors' routines; my own habits; the behaviours of the mentally ill patients. This paper is the story of a number of madnesses and the problems with reading ritual performance in everything we do.     

Talking About Talking About Patients

Several years ago, I talked about a case in a clinical seminar. I presented the work in a style that is different from usual because I was experimenting with how to best evoke the experience of being with this patient for my listeners. This paper is a continuation of that presentation, now through written rather than spoken word. In writing it, I struggled with the same dilemma of how to evoke the ambience, the feel of being with this patient. I begin with a discussion of some of the dilemmas involved in writing up clinical work when the aim is to stay close to the experience rather than to illustrate theoretical or technical points. I present a few sample vignettes of my work with this patient and then an analysis of how my writing style, including use of sounds, grammar, and word placement, contributes to evoking experience. I continue with a brief discussion of my experiences in presenting the case in the seminar and use these experiences to highlight aspects of the case. I ask the reader to become personally involved in the experiment by paying attention to what is evoked when reading the material.     

Wittgenstein,Ethics and Basic Moral Certainty

Alice Crary claims that “the standard view of the bearing of Wittgenstein's philosophy on ethics” is dominated by “inviolability interpretations”, which often underlie conservative readings of Wittgenstein. Crary says that such interpretations are “especially marked in connection with On Certainty”, where Wittgenstein is represented as holding that “our linguistic practices are immune to rational criticism, or inviolable”. Crary's own conception of the bearing of Wittgenstein's philosophy on ethics, which I call the “intrinsically‐ethical reading”, derives from the influential New Wittgenstein school of exegesis, and is also espoused by James Edwards, Cora Diamond, and Stephen Mulhall. To my eyes, intrinsically‐ethical readings present a peculiar picture of ethics, which I endeavour to expose in Part I of the paper. In Part II I present a reading of On Certainty that Crary would call an “inviolability interpretation”, defend it against New Wittgensteinian critiques, and show that this kind of reading has nothing to do with ethical or political conservatism. I go on to show how Wittgenstein's observations on the manner in which we can neither question nor affirm certain states of affairs that are fundamental to our epistemic practices can be fruitfully extended to ethics. Doing so sheds light on the phenomenon that I call “basic moral certainty”, which constitutes the foundation of our ethical practices, and the scaffolding or framework of moral perception, inquiry, and judgement. The nature and significance of basic moral certainty will be illustrated through consideration of the strangeness of philosophers' attempts at explaining the wrongness of killing.     

Containment,curiosity and consultation: an exploration of theory and process in individual systemic psychotherapy with an adult survivor of trauma

This paper describes an individual therapy from the author's private practice. On referral, the client came to therapy requesting help with her 8‐year‐old daughter. Within the assessment, a single episode of trauma was revealed. Further therapeutic conversations told of multiple memories of trauma. The main therapeutic work has now ended, the contract being left that the client can continue to request appointments if she wishes. I show how systemic therapy from Post Milan and Narrative models, including practices from other orientations, has been useful and name three key practices as being crucial to the work, containment, curiosity and consultation. I suggest parallel processes operating between myself and my client as well as between the therapy and consultation. Distinct phases in the therapy recovery are identified. The discussion will consider themes of containment, curiosity and consultation.     

Is a kantian Musical Formalism Possible?

In this article, I consider whether a suitably stripped‐down version of Kant's aesthetic theory could nevertheless provide philosophical foundations for musical formalism. I begin by distinguishing between formalism as a view about the nature of music and formalism as an approach to music criticism, arguing that Kant's aesthetics only rules out the former. Then, using an example from the work of musicologist and composer Edward T. Cone, I isolate the characteristics of formalist music criticism. With this characterization in mind, I conclude by showing that even if Kant's aesthetic theory is reduced to its most fundamental claims, the logic of formalist music criticism precludes its practice within even a kantian perspective.     

Creativity,Spontaneity, Impasse,and Leaps of Faith: Reply to Commentaries

In my reply to the commentaries, I address several points of convergence with and divergence from Drs. Danielle Knafo and Philip A. Ringstrom. I clarify my view that while shame can drive the creative process, the thrust of my paper is about ways in which shame can close down access to one's creative potential, as well as creating obstacles to vitality and intimacy in relationships. I expand on how it was indeed a visceral, embodied sense of my own shame which served as an “informant,” as Ringstrom suggests, of Julia's chronic experience of shame, opening a door to our exploration of the repetitive enactments between us. Grounding my understanding of therapeutic action and enactments in a relational perspective, I describe how I view enactments as inevitable and co-created, and reflecting on them collaboratively as a potentially useful opportunity in analytic work. I resonate with Ringstrom and Knafo's belief in the creativity inherent in the psychoanalytic process, and the importance of spontaneity and risk taking, particularly in negotiating impasses in treatment. Finally, I describe Julia's poetic reflections upon reading the paper.     

Blowin' in the Wind—Considering the Impact of “Inadvertent Touch” Commentary on Paper by Graham Bass

In my discussion of Graham Bass's paper, my comments fall under three main categories: an aspect of Bass's theoretical/technical view that informs his conscious clinical choices, his incredible work with Robert as presented in the written case, and, finally, theory in practice as exemplified in his phrase, “inadvertent touch.” I mean for my perspective and the purely personal associations that are stimulated by this case to evoke further discussion and, in general, open some sort of useful dialogue. I believe that anybody who sits with severely dissociated patients would agree that, side-by-side with the necessary terror creeping around in the room, we often experience a confusing, sometimes even silly, “higgledy-piggledy” that seems pathognomonic to the work entailed. This weird experience seems, almost, to set our sense of continuity and logic on its edge. When reading Bass's paper, we must, to maintain our equilibrium, begin by taking for granted some of the contradictory, nonlinear aspects of his reporting, which is, after all, an accurate reflection of what happens in this work. At the level of theory in practice, I consider the implications for symbolic realization in the clinical process when touch need not be relegated to the category of the “inadvertent.”     

This is Not a History Lesson; This is Agitation: A Call for a Methodology of Diffraction in US‐Based Community Psychology

Agitation, as deployed by the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), occurs when imaginations and curiosities are piqued, and self‐interest is made visible. In this framework, agitation is a step in creating change. In this paper, I outline two agitations within US‐based community psychology. I then describe a third agitation that is underway; I add my voice and call for a methodology of diffraction as a contribution to critical reflexivity practices within US‐based community psychology. Consistent with the IAF framework, I do not provide solutions. I write this paper as a provocation to help us think imaginatively and creatively about our actions and future, so that we can consider the paradigm shifts needed to move into critical ways of understanding connection, responsibility, accountability, and creating change—of interest during Swampscott and today.     

Creative Writing as Resistance and Discovery in an Analysis

This paper was originally written as a graduation paper for the completion of adult analytic training. In this paper I trace and explore multiple uses of creative writing in my personal analysis, illuminating the development of analytic phases and process. The creative writing used in this paper is primarily from the first three and a half years of my analysis, well before entering analytic training. It is an eventual interpretation on the part of my analyst, as well as the rest of my analysis and analytic training, that allow me to realize that while my writing felt like self-discovery, it also served as resistance, defense against the entirety of my affective world and internal conflicts. A poem written much later in the analysis is included, as it reveals the integration of struggled with concepts, as well as the pain of the inevitable separation of termination.     

The Analyst's Uses of Theory and the Theory the Analyst Uses: Reply to Commentary

Where Slochower focuses her discussion on the analyst's multiform uses of theory, I focus my response on how the theory we each use informs a quite different way of understanding what is at issue for my patient in the apparent disengagement that marks her quest for help. More broadly, I consider how the theoretical perspective Slochower brings to her rendering of my clinical understanding and position makes for a reading that diverges significantly from my own view of what transpired in the treatment process I present.     

An Elegy,a Love Song,and a Lullaby

In the course of the past decade, I have found himself looking as much to poets and the experience of reading poetry as to the work of other analysts in my ongoing effort to become a psychoanalyst. Both the poet and the psychoanalyst are individuals whose life's work is that of making “raid[s] [on] the inarticulate” (Eliot, 1940, p. 128) in their effort to delve as deeply as possible into what it is to be human and to render that experience in the medium of language. To this end, I offer a reading of Seamus Heaney's (1987) “Clearances,” an elegy Heaney wrote for his mother soon after her death. I explore the ways in which the experience of mourning—whether in a poem or in an analytic experience—is not simply “conveyed” (as if illuminating something already there) but created in the very act of writing/saying the poem or of bringing feelings to life in words in an analytic session.

I begin by presenting a brief biographical account of Heaney not to “explain” his poetry in analytic terms but to allow the reader to create a more imaginative, more human reading of the poem as he or she enters into the conversation between the life of the man and the life of the poetry. Then I discuss the ways in which “Clearances” comes to life as a variety of coexisting forms of love that together shape an experience of grief.     

Trust,Testimony, and Prejudice in the Credibility Economy

In this paper I argue for a special kind of injustice I call “trust injustice.” Taking Miranda Fricker's work on epistemic injustice as my starting point, I argue that there are some ethical constraints on trust relationships. If I am right about this, then we sometimes have duties to maintain trust relationships that are independent of the social roles we play.     

Does “Making a Difference” Still Make a Difference?: A Textbook Author’s Reflections

Drawing on my experiences with teaching Psychology of Women and writing three editions of a textbook across two decades starting in 1990, I reflect on the core feminist call to make the personal political. By tracing the chronology and interplay of my textbook writing with my teaching, research, and editing, I speculate about an apparent disconnection between my experiences and research with students (who embrace the feminist call to make a difference) and the textbook market to veer toward less women-centeredness and activism in the pursuit of gender studies. I make my case that the activist goal of making a difference continues to make a difference in individual women’s lives, in women’s relationships, and in a social justice agenda.     

‘A Way Out’ and A Way In: Reply to Commentary

I express my appreciation for Michal Rieck's thoughtful and fully felt reading of my paper. I underline her points that the regression that an unobtrusive yet fully engaged analyst can allow, is not solely a phenomenon in work with more disturbed patients, and that the essence of this position is to be without separateness. I outline a process of the “flow of enactive engagement,” which fosters a narrative unfolding of the field of the treatment. I suggest that the flow of enactive engagement is a contemporary mutual form of enacted free association and that Rieck is correct in saying that from my perspective psychoanalytic cure need not involve the analyst's interpretation. The mutual enactment itself can be the interpretation.     

'You get used to it': Working with trauma in a burns unit of a South African children's hospital

I report here on the first stages of my work as a consultant clinical psychologist in a burns unit of a South African children's hospital. I show how the enormous trauma of the work leads inevitably to the adoption of defences on the part of staff against the pain and load of their work. I use the writing of Menzies Lyth and other authors as a basis for understanding staff defences in their daily work. I then describe the process whereby it has become possible to institute a form of group support for the staff. It has been important to think not only of the maladaptive but also of the helpful function of defences, and to recognize the staff's need for continuity and acceptance on the part of the consultant.     

A nutritionist and an educator in professional horseracing: using reflection to create ‘My process’

The present paper provides the reflective accounts of a practitioner as both a lecturer in further and higher education, and as a performance nutritionist within professional horseracing. Adopting a first-person writing style and through the use of creative non-fictional anecdotes, I share critical accounts ‘in-action’ that shaped my initial teaching philosophy and my introduction to horseracing. These shared events culminate in me questioning my initial approach to performance nutrition within the harsh and challenging sport of horseracing, and despite being contrasting vocations, how ideologies from education can be adopted into the practice of nutrition. I close by reflecting upon my reflections and my initial trepidations, however, go on to conclude that engaging in these processes acted as a tool to think critically, self-assess and develop my own practices.     

Towards an integrated identity in counselling psychology: Graduate,professional and academic experiences

The paper is a reflective summary of my identity as a counselling psychologist. It discusses personal life, work and training experiences. The reason I would like to publish such a work is to encourage students in Greece, where the field of Counselling Psychology is less developed, to consider this kind of specialization, as well as to continuously enhance their professional identity, assimilating both practice and research opportunities, throughout their career paths. The paper focuses on three major influences in my development and training in the field: (a) graduate experiences as a doctoral student, writing a thesis on women's professional development, (b) work experiences in a career center of a large academic institution, and (c) academic and instructional experiences in a School of Psychology, where I teach and supervise research of both undergraduate and graduate students. The above influences delineate three separate, yet integrating identities: the identity of a feminist, the identity of a practitioner, and the identity of a researcher and instructor in the academia–that is, the identity of a scientist. My intention is to show how these three identities have been well integrated all these years, improving continuously my level of work in each and every dimension.