‘How can we help when she won't tell us what's wrong?’ Professionals working with South Asian women who have experienced sexual abuse

In this paper, we explore some of the issues facing professionals in the UK currently involved in providing services for South Asian women who have experienced sexual abuse. The study describes part of a wider Economic and Social Research Council funded project, based upon interviews and focus groups with both professionals and women survivors of sexual abuse. Drawing on semi‐structured interviews and two focus groups with 37 professionals including psychological therapists, refuge and project workers, from a range of organisations, our aim in this paper is to provide a discursive analysis of some of the key dilemmas faced by professionals working with sexual abuse in South Asian communities by exploring two central interpretive repertoires: ‘culture not self’ and ‘symptom talk as solution’. The analysis indicates that professionals face a series of dilemmas when working with South Asian women survivors. They highlight the tension between individualised models of personhood in many psychological therapies and the challenge to these by South Asian communities who hold a more relational view of the person. One of the strategies used by professionals to work with the tensions between ‘culture’ and the ‘reality’ of the survivor's pain was the translation of women's distress into symptoms of mental disorder. However, the consequences of this intervention raised some serious issues, including further pathologisation and stigma. The implications of these findings will be discussed in terms of how to understand the experiences of South Asian women from a more socially grounded perspective and to explore the issues they face in accessing and receiving appropriate services to deal with the aftermath of sexually abusive experiences. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Book Reviews

Religions sans Frontières? Present and Future Trends of Migration, Culture and Communication Roberto Cipriani, ed., for the Research Committee “Sociology of Religion”; of the International Sociological Association, Rome, Presidenza del Consiglio del Ministri, Dipartimento Per L'Informazione e L'Editoria, 1994 384 pp. no ISBN on book

Worldviews in Transition: An Investigation into the New Age Movement in South Africa Chrissie Steyn, 1994 Pretoria: University of South Africa (Studia Originalia 22) xvi + 367 pp., R79.00 or £14.86 (+ p&p) ISBN 0–86981–845–7

Women and Missions: Past and Present. Anthropological and Historical Perceptions Fiona Bowie, Deborah Kirkwood & Shirley Ardener, eds, 1995 Berg: Providence/Oxford xx + 279 pp., plates, £14.95 ISBN 9–780854968725

Syncretism/Anti‐Syncretism: The Politics of Religious Synthesis Charles Stewart & Rosalind Shaw, eds., 1994 London: Routledge 215 pp., £37.50 (hb), £12.99 (pb) ISBN 0–415–11117‐X.

Beyond the Basilica: Christians and Muslims in Nazareth Chad F. Emmett, 1995 Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press xix + 303 pp., £17.50 US$22.00 pb, ISBN 0–226–20711–0

Islamic Britain: Religion, Politics and Jolentity among British Muslims Phillip Lewis, 1994 London: I. B. Tauris & Co. 250 pp., £11.95 ISBN 1–85043–861–7

Religion & Revelation: A Theology of Revelation in the World's Religions Keith Ward, 1994 Oxford: Clarendon Press 350 pp., £40 hb, £13.95 pb ISBN 0–19–826466–6 & 826375–9

Religiöser Pluralismus oder christliches Abendland? Herausforderung an Kirche und Gesellschaft Reinhart Hummel, 1994 Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft 223 pp., DM39.80, FR40.80, ÖS311.00 ISBN 3–534–11717–4

A Short History of Judaism Lavinia & Dan Cohn‐Sherbok, 1994 Oxford: Oneworld Publications viii +148 pp., £5.95 ISBN 1–85168–069–1

Unforgotten Fragments Beryl Pogson & Others, compiled by Lewis Creed, 1994 York: Quacks Books 352 pp., £15.95 ISBN 0–948333–29–4

Centenary Fragments Beryl Pogson & Others, compiled by Lewis Creed, 1994 York: Quacks Books 379 pp., £15.95 ISBN 0–948333–36–7

A Plain Guide to Bible Theology: A Realistic Approach L. G. Hardinge, 1993 Swansea: Abertawe Desktop (OR: L G Publication, 1994) 217 pp., £10.50 (pb) ISBN 0–9524013     

Fraisse's theory of emotion and aggression.

This article shows how Fraisse's (1964) theory of emotion is a better explanation of aggression than any other theory of emotion. It discusses conceptual and methodological difficulties in existing theories of aggression and reports a study that supports a hypothesis based on Fraisse's theory. This study, which used Canadian university students equally divided by sex, supports the hypothesis that subjects would be more aggressive when faced with an unexpected annoyance than with an expected annoyance. Aggression was indexed by subjects' evaluation of the target person (confederate) as a source of annoyance.     

Month and season of birth are not associated with Extraversion and Neuroticism in an Egyptian sample

In a sample of 828 (383 men and 445 women) Egyptian undergraduates (M age = 19.6 yr., SD = 1.7), scores on Extraversion and Neuroticism scales of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire were neither associated with the month nor the season of birth.     

Teaching critical psychology of ‘race’ issues: problems in promoting anti‐racist practice

The aim of this paper is to illustrate the difficulties faced by teachers of issues related to ‘race’ and racism in psychology when trying to develop anti‐racist practice in their teaching. I argue that the promotion of anti‐racist practice can be impeded by the institutionalised cultures of some psychology departments and that such cultures have developed out of an over‐reliance on positivist ideas. Positivism obscures the fact that knowledge is constructed from positions of power and privilege, which in turn obscures the social and ideological construction of ‘race’. This is clearly a problem when trying to develop anti‐racist practice in teaching. It also leads to fixed ideas about what should be included in teaching content and what can be considered as good pedagogical practice, where notions of ‘balance’ and ‘neutrality’ are advocated, effectively overriding arguments for understanding the dynamics of knowledge production. It also obscures the power and privilege associated with workings of ‘whiteness’. I illustrate this by presenting examples from my own experiences of teaching ‘race’ issues on undergraduate degree courses. I conclude with suggestions for developing anti‐racist teaching by proposing a collective reflexive approach to changing institutional cultures that are currently at odds with anti‐racist practice. I also invite further discussion and suggestions on how best to achieve such collective conscientisation. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effectiveness of instructor behaviours and their relationship to leadership

This study analysed qualitatively the nature of instructor behaviours and their relationship to leadership. The Critical Incident Technique was used to collect effective and ineffective incidents of instructor behaviour in military training from both instructors' and trainees' perspectives (total incidents = 1150, effective = 696, ineffective = 494), across the three UK Armed Services. Nine dimensions of instructor behaviour were developed with high inter‐ and intra‐coder reliability. No differences were found between instructor and trainee generated incidents or among the three Armed Services. About 82% of the incidents could be recoded with high inter‐coder reliability into categories of both transformational and transactional leadership. Strong relationships emerged between the following dimensions of both instructor behaviour and leadership respectively: Showing and Demonstrating, and Appropriate Role Model; Using Instructional Strategies and Intellectual Stimulation; Feedback, Practice and Adapting, and Individual Consideration; Forms of Punishment and Control, and Contingent and Non‐contingent Punishment. These results inform not only the relationships between instructor behaviours and leadership but also the future training of military instructors, particularly the balance between a traditional authoritarian approach and an individualised supportive one.     

Understanding the Mental Health Needs of American Muslims: Recommendations and Considerations for Practice

American Muslims represent a heterogeneous population that is underserved by the mental health community, despite increased psychological distress reported since 9/11. This article offers professionals an understanding of the mental health needs of American Muslims. Recommendations for conducting culturally responsive assessments and treatment are offered. Los Musulmanes Americanos representan un grupo de población heterogéneo que no se encuentra suficientemente abastecido por la comunidad de profesionales en salud mental, a pesar de un creciente malestar psicológico observado desde el 9/11. Este artículo of rece a los profesionales un entendimiento de las necesidades en salud mental de los Musulmanes Americanos. Se ofrecen tratamientos y recomendaciones para llevar a cabo evaluaciones culturalmente sensibles.