The lives of Mary Foote: painter and Jungian

Mary Foote (1872‐1968) was a successful early twentieth century American artist who suddenly closed her New York studio in 1926 to go to Zurich to study with Jung. There she joined his ‘Interpretation of Visions’ seminars (1930‐1934), which she recorded and edited. This work won Jung's praise and his friendship, but all too often Foote was seen merely as a secretary or background figure. Deirdre Bair's biography of Jung suggested that Foote's life and work deserved fuller study, if only to rebalance our view of Jung's early women followers. This paper takes up that work to ask how Foote's early life and career led to her important work in preserving and describing Jung's earliest attempts to apply his theories to clinical practice.     

Claiming Subjectivity: Re-Storying Clinical Psychology and Myself

This article explores becoming a clinical psychologist later in life. Drawing on the author’s experience as a developmental psychologist who becomes a clinical respecialization student, it traces shifts in narratives of identity, belongingness, perspectives on psychology, and ways of knowing that both influence and construct her perspective on age and midlife. The paradigm shifts of going from professor, to student and intern, and philosophical shifts, transitioning from a stance of objectivity, to one informed by deep subjectivity, are considered. The ways that age matters is pondered as an artifact of the larger social construction of aging. The article proposes that a rich later-in-life perspective often includes the capacity to utilize self-knowledge and affective interpretation that nurtures subjectivity. The capacity to summon subjectivity facilitates rich authentic empathic connection with patients in clinical practice. The author explores the process of learning and re-storying herself in a manner that draws on self-reflection, clinical subjectivities, the life-learned ability to be humble, and a theory-informed lens of clinical psychology that is truly different from developmental psychology. The promise for future contributions to both clinical work and the greater field by “new” clinicians at midlife is explored.     

What do Secular-believer Women in Israel Believe in?

Secular-believers, who constitute about 25% of Israeli Jews, are self-identified secular people who believe in some kind of divinity. Based on in-depth interviews with secular-believer women, this study aims to reveal their theological assumptions and claims. It examines metaphors and images participants used to relate to the divine as well as the theological categories they emphasized. The study uncovers the pluralistic nature of secular-believers’ beliefs and the common tendency to address faith-related content in a positive light.     

Intimate Partner Violence in African Immigrant Communities in the United States: Reflections from the IDVAAC African Women’s Round Table on Domestic Violence

African women face many challenges when they come to the United States due to the immigration experience, acculturation, and leaving family members in countries of origin. Intimate partner violence (IPV) complicates African women’s experience within their home countries as well as in the United States. There is little literature on IPV in African ethnic groups. This information is even sparser regarding IPV among African immigrant and refugee communities in the United States. To better address the needs of these communities, the Institute on Domestic Violence in the African American Community brought together service providers and survivors representing 16 different African countries to attend a roundtable and explore issues of IPV. This article highlights the unique challenges they identified.     

The Interface Between Spirituality and Violence in the Lives of Immigrant African Women: Implications for Help Seeking and Service Provision

Immigration is one of many risk factors for intimate partner violence (IPV) due to the resulting stressors of acculturation and discrimination, in addition to economic changes in the family. Research is limited on African immigrant survivors of IPV in the United States, specifically in terms of women’s experiences with faith-based leaders when seeking help. Although informal help seeking with family elders is the preferred help-seeking method, in light of limited family support available in the United States, women often seek help from faith-based leaders. This qualitative study explored 15 African women’s experiences and perceptions of help seeking with faith-based leaders, and examined the role of spirituality in the lives of African immigrant women who experience IPV. Results indicate experiences of feeling blamed, stigmatized, and misunderstood, in addition to lack of practical help. Women’s self-isolation, however, did not preclude them from engaging in spiritual behaviors, forgiveness, and beliefs in God’s benevolence and future justice. Implications for coordinated responses between secular service providers and faith-based leaders and future research are discussed.     

The role of social support in women’s health and recovery processes

The aim of this study was to assess the psychological state of women who have undergone surgery for breast cancer or cardiac surgery, including examination of the role of social support in both groups. The study included 48 women (mean age: 66.04?±?8.3 years). They were divided into two groups according to diagnosis: 23 women (mean age: 69.2?±?8.6 years) who underwent heart surgery (cardiac group, CG) and 25 women (mean age: 63.2?±?7.0 years) treated for breast cancer and associated with the Women After Mastectomy Club (oncology group, OG). In addition to the assessment of socio-demographic variables, the following self-report questionnaires were administered: Satisfaction with Life Scale, Acceptance of Illness Scale, Beck Depression Inventory, Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory as well as Berlin Social Support Scale. In the CG, the severity of depressive symptoms was two times higher than in OG (p?=?.003). In both groups, there was a high percentage (80%) of women with severe symptoms of anxiety (p?=?.37). In both groups, the level of life satisfaction was similar (p?=?.58), but OG was characterized by a higher level of acceptance of the disease (p?=?.003). The correlation analysis showed that in both groups, social support was related differently to the parameters of emotional state. Women treated for breast cancer were in a better mental condition than women treated for heart disease. The support coming from other women in similar circumstances (Women After Mastectomy Club) seems to be more effective than the support coming from the patient’s immediate environment. The results for social support ought to be interpreted not only through the prism of mean values of received support, but also with regard to the information on the sources of support.     

Intimate partner violence among HIV positive pregnant women in South Africa

The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) and associated factors among pregnant HIV-infected women in primary health care facilities in Nkangala and Gert Sibande districts, Mpumalanga, South Africa. Participants were 673 women who were, on average, 28.39 ± 5.73 years old. Data were collected through Audio Computer Assisted Self Interview (ACASI), and analysed using the IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Overall, 56.3% reported having experienced either psychological or physical IPV, and 19.6% reported physical IPV. In logistic multivariable regression analyses, higher levels of depressive symptoms and greater perceived stigma were associated with combined physical and psychological IPV. Psychological IPV and physical IPV were also individually associated with greater perceived stigma and higher levels of depressive symptoms. The design and implementation of evidence-informed interventions that can empower and protect HIV-infected pregnant women from IPV is essential to managing their health-related quality of life.     

Older English churchgoing women as voluntary providers of welfare

The contribution of UK Christian churches to the provision of welfare projects, relying largely on a pool of volunteer labour, has long been recognised by a number of commentators. What is also now recognised is that it is women who have made up and still make up the majority of these volunteers but they are a largely ageing – and declining – population, hence the question arises as to whether most churches in Britain can continue to provide the same levels of support for much longer. This article considers the factors which have made women longstanding and committed individuals in both their churches and their civic communities, and argues that the same conditions do not pertain for their children. Unless more volunteers are forthcoming from secular organisations, we are likely to be seeing a significant gap in voluntary welfare provision at precisely the time when state funding for welfare is being drastically cut and more volunteers are needed, not fewer.     

Solus Christus within Empire: Christology in the Face of Violence against Women

When seen as the theocentric political confession it is, the confession “only Christ” is possible and meaningful for victim/survivors of violence against women. To confess only Christ undoes what is “required” in an empire of violence against women and is the recognition that Jesus Christ embraces our bodies, all of them. Moreover, this confession changes the body's response—individual and communal—to violence in an empire of violence against women.     

From the Exclusion of Women to the Transformation of Philosophy: Reclamation and its Possibilities

In the mid‐1980s, feminist philosophers began to turn their critical efforts toward reclaiming women in the history of philosophy who had been neglected by traditional histories and canons. There are now scores of resources treating historical women philosophers and reclaiming them for philosophical history. This article explores the four major argumentative strategies that have been used within those reclamation projects. It argues that three of the strategies unwittingly work against the reclamationist end of having women engaged as philosophers. The fourth type, the one that seeks to transform philosophical practice and reconstruct its history, is the only strategy that will result in that engagement because it is the only strategy that pays sufficient attention to the mechanisms by which women have been excluded from philosophy and its history.