‘THERE IS A WAR ON! SOMEONE IS GOING TO GET KILLED’

This paper describes the first three years of work providing consultation at the interface between adult mental health and children's services. It suggests that significant numbers of children, living with parents whose mental illness may be ‘severe and enduring’, remain hidden from services. The author applies psychoanalytic theory in an attempt to understand the unconscious factors, for organizations as well as for individuals, which may contribute to making it so difficult for services to work co‐operatively to recognize these children's existence and their emotional needs. She reviews some of the related fields in which the application of psychoanalytic thinking has occurred and also describes the context in which the work takes place. A series of vignettes demonstrate some of the difficulties encountered and the ways in which the presence of a neutral third or ‘other’ can contribute to their resolution. She suggests working relationships between adult's and children's services are profoundly affected by the psychotic processes operating in the minds of these parents and that the consultant acts as a container enabling staff to manage the fragmentation and splitting which would otherwise be inevitable.     

Epistemic Pluralism

In this paper epistemic pluralism concerning knowledge is taken to be the claim that very different facts may constitute knowledge. The paper argues for pluralism by arguing that very different facts can constitute the knowledge-making links between beliefs and facts. If pluralism is right, we need not anxiously seek a unified account of the links between beliefs and facts that partly constitute knowledge in different cases of knowledge. The paper argues that no good reasons have been put forward in favour of believing in a unified maker of knowledge. It then appeals to the role of knowledge in order to argue that we have positive reason to embrace pluralism.     

Acting Theory Applied to Counseling: Stanislavski Continues to Contribute to Psychic Healing

ABSTRACT

This article explores a specific aspect of Stanislavski’s methods of training actors to examine the potential benefits for helping clients in the cultivation of new perceptions through empathy, which may, in turn, help toward psychic healing. Stanislavski’s methods of training actors, which is rooted in understanding the human condition, are the underpinnings for most modern acting theories. This discussion builds an additional bridge between acting theory and counseling theory to investigate additional therapeutic benefits of acting in a clinical setting. This article adds to the conversation of the possibility of expanding applications of drama therapy based on specific aspects of acting theories.     

Girls’ perceptions of their mothers at work and home: Warm does not mean weak

Upper elementary school girls were surveyed about their mothers’ and fathers’ warmth, competence, and agency at home and how they imagine their parents at work. Mothers’ warmth at home was positively correlated with perceived competence and agency both at home and at work. Differences between daughters’ perceptions of their mothers and fathers at work are discussed.     

On a Pedestal—Sport as an Arena for Admiration

ABSTRACT

In philosophical analyses of the value of sport, a relatively unheralded feature is the opportunity that sport offers for admiration. While we readily salute many of the things that people admire (the amazing catch, the sensational comeback), we do not sufficiently appreciate that admiration itself is a positive good that is beneficial to the admirer. At a time when much in the world around us seems distinctly unadmirable and when admiration itself is often dismissed as naïve, athletic achievements and the qualities that propel them present palpable counter-evidence to our darker conclusions. Shining a spotlight on sports’ displays of human beings doing difficult things can pay healthy dividends, as admiration fuels aspiration.

The paper proceeds in four stages. It first explains what admiration is and then identifies the kinds of things that sport distinctly offers, to admire. The heart of it demonstrates the value of athletic admiration, tracing how this contributes to a flourishing life in three principal ways: through the role-modeling that it offers, the action that it encourages and the feelings that it fosters. Finally, the paper considers four possible objections, which serves both to clarify and to fortify its central contention.     

“Can we all get along:”1 American political divisiveness in the 21st Century

The current American political divisiveness follows prior divisive periods and is not unique. The simultaneous developments of a culture war and a partisan realignment helped to create division. Disagreement over the proper role of government completed the division. Race is a significant dividing social and political issue in America. For Reinhold Niebuhr, “Democracy is a method of finding proximate solutions to insoluble problems.” Finding agreement over policing policy may be possible, but principled political compromise over underlying issues contributing to racial inequities is likely to be harder.