Career guidance in multicultural societies: identity,alterity, epiphanies and pitfalls

This paper provides a scoping approach to the issue of career guidance in multicultural societies. It starts off by exploring the meaning of ‘culture’, moving away from ‘back-pack’ approaches that consider culture as a set of worldviews and dispositions that are readily shed or put on, to anthropological understandings of culture as deeply held ways of meaning making that permeate all levels of one’s life and one’s relationship with others. Such complex approaches to culture challenge career guidance workers to problematise notions they hold of themselves and of others, and to face up to the challenge of alterity. In effecting this troubling reaching inwards and reaching outwards, and in striving for the epiphany of ‘knowing’, a number of pitfalls need to be acknowledged and overcome. These include our own incipient monoculturalism, the romanticisation, essentialisation and exoticisation of culture, as well as restricted notions of equality.     

The Great Mother and the Terrible Mother: mimesis,alterity and attachment in adolescence

This paper discusses attachment, the longing for familiarity and sameness (mimesis), the search for difference and separateness (alterity) and the problem with the Other¹ seen through the lens ofthe individuation process in adolescence. These are explored with reference to relational aspects and Levinas and Girard's divergent views of the Other. The relational space, which in Phillip Bromberg's (2003) words is ‘uniquely relational, but still uniquely individual’ and in which analyst and patient ‘stand together in the space between realities’, might under exceptional circumstances be transformed into ‘a twilight space where the impossible becomes possible’ (p. 573). I will sketch a developmental trajectory starting from primitive states, in which the presence of the Other,as a separate entity cannot be tolerated and where the patient strives for total mimesis. Should the analyst prematurely shatter this illusion, she becomes an alien ‘Other’; a wolf in sheep's clothing. I trace the current psychoanalytic paradigm shift to an emphasis on the co‐creation of meaning in the interpersonal space and explore what alterity consists of and how much of the other's unknowability can be tolerated and respected without a translation into one's own idiom. The clinical vignettes illustrate aspects of therapy which normally lie outside the analytical remit and are culled from an inpatient setting and private practice.     

Music, mourning, and consolation

The attacks of September 11, 2001, prompt a consideration of the role of music in mourning and trauma. The intrapsychic functions of music in the mourning process are explored, as is music as a unique response to trauma and as a special aesthetic expression of a range of affects connected with grief. Also explored is the allied notion of consolation, a topic underdeveloped in the analytic literature.     

Dynamics of a stressful encounter: cognitive appraisal, coping, and encounter outcomes

Despite the importance that is attributed to coping as a factor in psychological and somatic health outcomes, little is known about actual coping processes, the variables that influence them, and their relation to the outcomes of the stressful encounters people experience in their day-to-day lives. This study uses an intraindividual analysis of the interrelations among primary appraisal (what was at stake in the encounter), secondary appraisal (coping options), eight forms of problem- and emotion-focused coping, and encounter outcomes in a sample of community-residing adults. Coping was strongly related to cognitive appraisal; the forms of coping that were used varied depending on what was at stake and the options for coping. Coping was also differentially related to satisfactory and unsatisfactory encounter outcomes. The findings clarify the functional relations among appraisal and coping variables and the outcomes of stressful encounters.     

Dying to live: mourning,melancholia and the adolescent process

The author reviews the main points in Freud's 1917 paper 'Mourning and Melancholia' and relates them to the process of both normal and troubled adolescent development. Using clinical examples she illustrates the ways in which the processes Freud describes in melancholia operate in some disturbed adolescents such that instead of mourning the lost objects of their childhood, they become stuck, remaining ambivalently attached to them and incorporating them into their final adult identity and sexual organization.

L'auteur passe en revue les points essentiels du texte de Freud « Deuil et mélancolie » (1917e [1915]) et les relie aux processus du développement, normal et pathologique, de l'adolescence. À l'aide d'exemples cliniques, il illustre la manière dont les processus décrits par Freud dans la mélancolie sont mis en ?uvre chez certains adolescents perturbés?:?au lieu de faire le deuil des objets perdus de leur enfance, ils restent bloqués dans l'ambivalence de leur attachement À ceux-ci et s'efforcent de les incorporer dans leur identité adulte et leur organisation sexuelle finale.

L'autrice passa in rassegna i punti principali dell'articolo del 1917 di Freud 'Lutto e melanconia' e li mette in relazione al processo dello sviluppo adolescenziale sia normale che disturbato. Utilizzando esempi clinici l'autrice illustra i modi in cui i processi che Freud descrive nella melanconia operano in alcuni adolescenti disturbati cosi' che invece del lutto per la perdita degli oggetti dell'infanzia, gli adolescenti rimangono incastrati e ambivalentemente attaccatti ad essi, incorporandoli nella loro identita' adulta finale e nell'organizzazione sessuale.

Die Autorin rezensiert die Hauptpunkte in Freud's Abhandlung ' Trauer und Melancholie' und bezieht sie auf den Prozess sowohl der normalen als auch der gestörten adoleszenten Entwicklung. Anhand von klinischen Beispielen illustriert sie die Art und Weise, in denen die Prozesse, die Freud in der Melancholie beschreibt, in einigen gestörten Jugendlichen operieren, so dass sie anstatt die verlorenen Objekte ihrer Kindheit zu betrauern, sie festgefahren sind und ambivalent an sie gebunden bleiben und sie letztlich in ihre Erwachsenenidentität und sexuelle Organisation inkorporieren.     

Fantasy,defense, and the representational world

This paper discusses the manipulation of mental representations, particularly in relation to the psychoanalytic concepts of conscious or unconscious fantasy. A distinction is made between the unconscious phenomenal (experiential) aspect of representations and the nonexperiential, quasi-structural aspect. The concept of the representational world is described and elaborated, and its development is seen as a consequence of the infant's interaction with itself and the external world. Processes such as identification and projection can be seen in terms of changes in self and object representations, and the same is true for all the mechanisms of defense. The content of unconscious wishes is transformed, by use of such mechanisms, into representations that are acceptable to consciousness. Major transformations of unconscious representational content occur in the process of creating unconscious (preconscious) fantasy, and further transformations are frequently needed before such (preconscious) fantasies are permitted access to consciousness. The concept of projective identification is considered in the light of the ideas put forward in the paper.     

Levinas in Japan: the ethics of alterity and the philosophy of no-self

Does the Buddhist doctrine of no-self imply, simply put, no-other? Does this doctrine necessarily come into conflict with an ethics premised on the alterity of the other? This article explores these questions by situating Emmanuel Levinas’s ethics in the context of contemporary Japanese philosophy. The work of twentieth-century Japanese philosopher Watsuji Tetsurō provides a starting point from which to consider the ethics of the self-other relation in light of the Buddhist notion of emptiness. The philosophy of thirteenth-century Zen Master Dōgen casts doubt on Watsuji’s commitment to reciprocal self-other relationality, showing that the idea of self-emptiness disrupts any conventional understanding of reciprocity and promotes instead other-oriented compassion. Despite interesting similarities between the ethics of alterity and Buddhist compassion, a Buddhist-influenced understanding of alterity differs from Levinas on important points, by making possible the claim that all others—human, animal, plant, and mineral—are ethical others.     

Parenting a damaged child: mourning, regression, and disappointment

This paper is an examination of the long-term parenting experiences of parents who have given birth to CNS damaged infants. In particular, the focus is on the mourning, regression, rage, and depression that frequently attend these parents throughout their lives and can become pathological and pathogenic interferences with the provision of good-enough parenting. Several clinical vignettes were presented, each of which illustrated the usefulness of different psychoanalytic clinical theories about normality and pathology of parenting and parent-child interaction. The now-classical contribution of Solnit and Stark (Mourning and the Birth of a Defective Child, 1962) is reviewed along with Benedek's and others' psychoanalytic theories about normal parenting. The thinking of these writers is within the framework of structural/libidinal theory and seems to be useful in describing certain parenting problems that concern the mourning and regressive aspects of parenting. However, it was proposed that some of the adaptive coping and pathology encompassed by Solnit and Stark's explanations is not comfortably illuminated by the structural clinical theory of conflict and drives. Freud's discussion (1917) compares mourning and melancholia, which he differentiated as related but dynamically distinct clinical phenomena. This work is briefly recalled as an earlier point in theory building where structural theory was not sufficient to explain clinical depression and rage that exceeds normal mourning (as in Freud's melancholia). It is felt that an additional theoretical perspective on parenting provided by self psychology can fill in some of the gaps left by structural theory explanations. The self psychology perspective is particularly helpful with understanding the rage, ambivalence, and chronic depression often experienced by parents of damaged children. According to this perspective, the damaged child is a disappointing selfobject for the parent, and the parent's self organization will give him the resources to cope adaptively or to develop narcissistic pathology. Three types of intrapsychic problems for a parent are described: mourning the lost object, the fantasied perfect child; experiencing and recovering from regression to early identifications with his own parents; withstanding tension and regulating one's self (experiencing chronic depression and rage) when confronted with a great disappointment in a selfobject (represented by the damaged child). It is important when designing intervention strategies in a hospital or pediatric clinic setting to clarify which type of problem is the major focus of the parent's struggle.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)     

Loving, discernment, and distance: pastoral care in schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is very common in our society, yet many people, both clergy and lay, are afraid of it and do not know what to do when confronted with someone who suffers from the disorder. Strange ideas and behavior can be frightening for those who don't understand and often result in further marginalization, even within the church community. This article seeks to outline the main features of schizophrenia and considers how to deal with particular situations which may arise in pastoral care. It suggests ways of dealing with people who express religious delusions and also argues that the "staples" of pastoral care--relationship building, empathy and inclusion--may not always be appropriate in the care of people with schizophrenia, who often need a "safe distance" between themselves and others. Some practical advice for families is also offered.     

Pointing Unknowingly: Fantasy, Nonsense and 'Religious Understanding'

Lewis, Charles M. (ed.), Relativity and Religion
Tessin, Timothy and von der Ruhr, Mario (eds), Philosophy and the Grammar of Religious Belief     

Icarianism,Masochism, and Sex Differences in Fantasy

May's theory that the female fantasy pattern is masochistic and moves from deprivation to enhancement, while the male fantasy pattern is Icarian and moves in the opposite direction, is critically reviewed. His study was replicated using 12 Icarian male, 12 non-Icarian male, and 12 sadomasochistic female Ss, 8 TAT cards, and a different scoring system in addition to May's. Results failed to support May's conclusions that a) males fantasy abrupt failure more than females, b) females fantasy resurgence after failure more than males, or c) either male or female fantasies regularly move in the directions predicted. It is concluded that May's findings were produced by specific stimulus effects rather than being characteristic of spontaneous fantasy.