Thinking about Scenarios of Grandparenthood

ABSTRACT

The term “grandparenthood” was first coined by the psychoanalyst P. Redler, to denominate the intrapsychic and interpersonal relationship between grandparents and grandchildren. Grandparenthood involves a specific relationship with specific conflict areas and with its own process of development, named by this author “grandparenthood crisis”. In this phase, grandparents must cope with different experiences of mourning. The joys of becoming a grandparent help compensate for these sorrows. For children, the figure of grandparents evolves during their development and implies different functions across each development stage.

Despite the importance of grandparenthood in the family context, this is a poorly studied topic in Child Psychology. In this paper, we make a review of the scarce literature on this subject, aiming to relate it with the theory of the “Narcissistic scenarios of parenthood” described by Manzano and Palacio (2005). We emphasize the importance not only of the figure of the grandparents in the child’s development, but also the importance of the relation with the grandchild holds for the grandparent in this life stage. We also try to explore the subject of intergenerational transmission.     

Gender and Suicide in India: A Multiperspective Approach

The gap between male and female suicide rates in India is relatively small. However, society's views on female and male motives are quite different. In order to investigate the perceptions of male and female suicide, we interviewed a focus group of university professors as well as police inspectors, crime reporters, and hospital nurses in Bangalore. We also obtained four narratives of suicide. Women tended to be blamed for their own or their husband's suicide, although they were also viewed more often as victims of life adversities than men. A historical review illustrates that both men and women have been associated with culturally sanctioned suicides. One known form is sati, and we discuss the recent case of sari-murder of Roop Kanwar in 1987. The social sciences and the media also pay a lot of attention to the typical female suicides, symbolizing their role as martyrs of society, which seems to compensate for attribution of blame.     

Mental competence and the question of beneficent intervention

The authors examine recent arguments purporting to show that mental incompetence (lack of decision-making capacity) is not a necessary condition for intervention in a person's best interests without consent. It is concluded that these arguments fail to show that competent wishes could justifiably be overturned. Nonetheless, it remains an open question whether accounts of decision-making capacity based solely on the notions of understanding and appreciation can adequately deal with various complexities. Different possible ways of resolving these complexities are outlined, all of which need further exploration.