Poetic Justice: Engaging in Participatory Narrative Analysis to Find Solace in the “Killer Corridor”

The author engaged with adolescents at a community‐based youth organization as “co‐researchers” to delve deeper into the lived experiences of youth of color residing in an urban neighborhood undergoing change. Participatory narrative analysis was used to empower participants to produce texts to make sense of their lives and their home, school, and neighborhood contexts. The process of engaging youth as co‐researchers and experts in issues pertaining to their own neighborhood is discussed. Nuanced analyses of poems‐as‐data is shown to be critical in informing the recent surge of interdisciplinary, community‐engaged, place‐based initiatives focused on neighborhood revitalization, violence prevention, and positive youth development.     

The Psychoanalysis of Narcissism and the Inevitability of “Postmodern” Psychoanalysis

In my exploration of postmodern psychoanalysis, I take as my starting point the complex issue of narcissism as developed by Freud. After pointing out some of the theoretical and clinical difficulties and complexities that arise in the analysis of narcissism, I discuss the diversity of the models and interpretations that then become possible; plurality in psychoanalysis is an inevitable consequence of this. The analysis of narcissism thus opens up many questions that lead me to explore some of the answers that both our forebears and present-day psychoanalysts have suggested.     

Partners’ representations of diabetes as mediators between patients’ representations and adherence to self-care behaviors,in type 2 diabetes

The purpose of this study was to analyze partners’ representations of diabetes as mediators between patients’ illness representations and adherence to all self-care behaviors, in recently diagnosed type 2 diabetes (T2DM) patients. The sample included 340 patients and their respective partners. The instruments used were: Revised Summary of Diabetes Self-Care Activities (RSDSCA); Medication Adherence Report Scale (MARS); and the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (Brief-IPQ). A mediational effect of partners’ representation of diabetes consequences was found between the same patients’ representations and exercise, foot care, and self-monitoring of blood glucose. Partners’ representations of personal and treatment control, were mediators between the same partners’ representations and self-monitoring of blood glucose. No partners’ representations mediated patients’ representation and adherence to medication or diet . This study emphasized partners’ representations on patient’s adherence to exercise, foot care and monitoring of blood glucose, in recent diagnosed T2DM patients. Interventions to promote adherence in T2DM should promote convergence between patients and partners’ diabetes representations. This study provides some evidence for the need to treat T2DM within the dyad to improve adherence, starting after the diagnosis.