Prologue

The discussant begins by describing her British Object-Relations perspective. She emphasizes the difference between obstructive or critical forces within the personality which are best described as a part of the self and those which are felt by the patient to have a quality of otherness about them: the latter are better conceptualized as internal objects since this is closer to the patient's subjective experience. The author stresses the importance—in Scharff's patient's inner world—of the useless maternal—and impotent paternal—object. ‘Stupid’ rather than ‘bad’ objects can affect introjective processes and limit the patient's intellectual functioning because, where the world is seen as uninteresting and unstimulating, it is therefore not worth attending to nor learning from. The author also made a further point. She saw the patient's repetitive bitter self-criticisms, although partly arising out of deprivation, depression, and abuse, as also possibly containing an element of masochistic pleasure in suffering and failure. This would raise delicate technical issues in balancing a sensitive approach to the real suffering with a clearly stated recognition of the addictive repetitive masochistic quality which accompanies it and which may be blocking recovery.     

A Curricular Approach to Primary Prevention

This article explores the development and implementation of a curriculum that makes guidance central to education and that focuses on the prevention of personal and interpersonal problems.     

Reporting the Spiritual in Primary Schools

This paper is concerned with the Office for Standards in Education's (OFSTED's) reporting of the way in which primary schools promote pupils' spiritual development. A sample of reports on primary schools, written in 1999, was scrutinized for evidence of links between inspectors' judgements on each school's provision for pupils' spiritual development and their judgements on its provision for religious education, collective worship and the subjects of the National Curriculum. The analysis raises serious questions about the adherence of inspection teams to OFSTED's (1995) 'Guidance on the Inspection of Nursery and Primary Schools', the internal consistency of individual reports, and ultimately about the reliability of the evidence-base used by HMCI for his Annual Report. This paper is part of a doctoral study, being developed at King's College, London, into the conflict between the government's aims for primary education, as expressed through the curricular requirements of the 1988 Education Reform Act, and the way in which the implementation of those requirements is monitored.     

Resistance to Violence Prevention Interventions in Schools: Barriers and Solutions

Studies of the prevalence and impact of aggression among school-age children and adolescents document the pervasiveness of bully-victim problems and indicate clear linkages between bully-victim problems, psychological distress, and, in rare instances, lethal attacks on perceived tormentors or towards the self. Evidence is slowly accumulating to show how well-conceived school-based strategies can be effective in addressing bully-victim problems—if implemented and sustained. However, anecdotal evidence suggests many comprehensive school-based initiatives suffer from incomplete implementation, resulting in limited effectiveness. We propose that multiple factors nested within different levels of social ecological complexity (e.g., individual, school, community, and culture) limit the widespread use of schoolwide approaches to reducing bully–victim–bystander problems. Challenges arise at each of these levels and can potentially thwart efforts to produce meaningful changes in the problems of peer victimization in and around school. Drawing from efforts to implement and evaluate bully–victim–bystander programs, we describe a core set of potential barriers at each ecological level and offer possible strategies for action.     

Mobilizing Schools for Suicide Prevention

ABSTRACT: Experience in providing consultation and survivor counseling to school personnel following student suicides led to the development of a program of prevention through training school personnel. The goal of the program was to increase the ability of resource persons available to adolescents—teachers, counselors and school nurses—to recognize signs of suicidal depression and to respond effectively to suicidal students. This report describes that program, the reaction of the participants and the observations of the project staff, and comments on the feasibility of this approach as a means of helping to prevent suicide among adolescents.     

Prologue: Introduction and Overview to Special Volume

Abstract

The editors provide an overview of the obstacles that prevent us from ending child abuse in the United States and briefly summarize the various articles in this volume that address these obstacles from multiple points of view.     

Primary Prevention and Assessment

Prevention is related to the need for a comprehensive assessment technology. The failure of training programs to prepare counselors for assessment is viewed as one of the major problems.