Family Therapy in India: A New Profession in an Ancient Land?

This paper examines the need for family therapy in India and its evolution as an integrated academic discipline and widespread form of clinical practice. Included is a discussion of the numerous factors placing Indian families at risk today, both common and more serious child, marital, and family difficulties, the current status of mental health services and minimal emphasis on family-based treatment, and the potential benefits of family therapy to such a radically diverse and rapidly changing society. Targets of and settings for family therapy training are highlighted, and a brief outline of a training-the-trainer approach is provided.     

Reconstructing Hymens or Constructing Sexual Inequality? Service Provision to Islamic Young Women Coping with the Demand to be a Virgin

In Islamic culture, there is an imperative demand that women should be virgins on their wedding night. Service providers in The Netherlands are increasingly confronted by Islamic young women who find themselves in serious difficulties because they are no longer virgins, and are about to enter a forced or arranged marriage. These young women report a diversity of problems such as loneliness, social isolation, depression, despair, suicidal feelings, identity problems and serious conflicts with parents. In this article we focus attention on the circumstances that can result in these types of difficulties, and also critically consider the kinds of help that young Islamic women are given. Attention is paid to the question of whether existing forms of service provision, especially surgical reconstruction of the hymen, take sexual and other inequalities into account.     

Mapping Men's Mental Health

The central theme of this paper is that men are at one and the same time both damaged and damage-doing. The process of being damaged through the agency of masculinity predisposes men to exploit, dominate and abuse—not only as boys, as partners and fathers, but as priests, teachers, therapists, lawyers, nurses, psychologists and psychiatrists. Mental health services need to see both aspects of this male equation: a focus on male abuse alone leads to punishment, containment and, very likely, the continuation of abuse; a focus on male damagedness alone preserves the ideology of male unaccountability. However, evidence reviewed here suggests that most traditional psychiatric services fail to acknowledge the impact of inequalities on men's mental health as comprehensively as they fail to acknowledge the impact of these inequalities on the mental health of women. This is a significant problem, and we suggest ways that a gendered analysis of masculinity can be used to help address this deficit. This analysis is used to develop a map of men's mental health that not only accommodates traditional categories of mental health difficulty, but other important consequences of the close association between masculinity and sexuality inequality, especially the use of violence and the capacity to do harm. This analytical framework also invites consideration of the invisibility of male distress, the disallowing and desensitizing of ‘vulnerability, and their submersion in a kind of psychology of entitlement. Finally, we consider the implications of this mapping exercise for mental health services and for working with men.     

The President’s New Freedom Commission: Capitalizing on Opportunities to Advance School-Based Mental Health Services

The report from President George W. Bush’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health (NFC), Achieving the Promise: Transforming Mental Health Care in America(2003), proposes goals and recommendations for improving mental health services. This report has significant implications for the delivery of mental health services through the schools. A focused discussion of the potential opportunities and challenges of implementing NFC recommendations related to school-based mental health is presented. Strategies for addressing five key areas at the intersection of school mental health and the Commission’s recommendations include: stigma reduction, suicide prevention, expansion and improvement of school mental health, and screening and treatment of co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders.     

Comment on “The Self‐Care of Psychologists and Mental Health Professionals” (Dattilio, 2015)—Working With the Mentally Ill Is a Mental Health Hazard: What Can We Do About It?

It has been known for many decades that the risk of burnout, psychological distress, mental illness, or suicidal ideation is higher in mental health professionals (MHP) compared with many other professions and the general population; however, MHPs often disregard their own mental health for the sake of helping others, sometimes with fatal consequences. Paradoxically MHP tends to avoid seeking professional help for their own mental health issues. Apart from the serious risk to one's health that this poses, MHPs are now mandated to report any impairment that affects their ability to practice. The aim of this commentary is to emphasise the heightened risk of mental illness among MHP, and includes some risk factors associated with burnout, psychological distress, or mental illness in MHP. It explores some of the barriers to help seeking, including stigma, and highlights mindfulness as a self‐care strategy to prevent psychological distress and burnout. The commentary makes recommendations for inclusions into current psychology postgraduate as well as undergraduate curriculum. It concludes with recommendation for suitable support from professional bodies to help maintain good mental health and to help prevent mental illness among MHPs.     

民办高校大一新生心理健康状况调查

采用症状自评量表对民办高校8111名大一新生进行问卷调查。结果表明,民办高校的大一新生在强迫、恐怖、精神病性三个因子上的得分显著高于全国常模,在躯体化、人际关系、敌对、抑郁、偏执五个因子上的得分显著低于全国常模;女生在各个因子上的得分均显著高于男生;本科生的心理健康水平低于总体学生的平均水平。     

How Do People Pursue Happiness?: Relating Personality, Happiness-Increasing Strategies, and Well-Being

Five hundred ethnically diverse undergraduates reported their happiness strategies – that is, activities undertaken to maintain or increase happiness. Factor analysis extracted eight general strategies: Affiliation, Partying, Mental Control, Goal Pursuit, Passive Leisure, Active Leisure, Religion, and Direct Attempts at happiness. According to multiple regression analyses, these strategies accounted for 52% of the variance in self-reported happiness and 16% over and above the variance accounted for by the Big Five personality traits. The strongest unique predictors of current happiness were Mental Control (inversely related), Direct Attempts, Affiliation, Religion, Partying, and Active Leisure. Gender differences suggest that men prefer to engage in Active Leisure and Mental Control, whereas women favor Affiliation, Goal Pursuit, Passive Leisure, and Religion. Relative to Asian and Chicano(a) students, White students preferred using high arousal strategies. Finally, mediation analyses revealed that many associations between individuals’ personality and happiness levels are to some extent mediated by the strategies they use to increase their happiness – particularly, by Affiliation, Mental Control, and Direct Attempts. The authors would like to thank Sabine French for comments on earlier drafts and Andrew Comrey, Dan Ozer, and Chandra Reynolds for their valuable statistical advice.     

论儿童心理发展的模块性问题

模块理论是当代认知心理学中影响很大的一种关于人类认知结构性质及其组成的观点,它对儿童心理发展特别是认知发展领域的研究产生了重要影响。本文从儿童心理发展的视角,探讨了模块理论对于我们理解人类心理发展的意义。     

亲子间心理状态术语、非心理状态术语使用与儿童心理理论的关系

本研究通过观察亲子互动游戏来考查母亲———孩子间心理状态术语、非心理状态术语使用与儿童心理理论发展的关系。实验结果表明,控制了年龄因素后,儿童心理理论发展和母亲心理状态术语使用存在显著相关,提示母亲有效地谈论心理状态对儿童心理理论的发展具有影响;儿童心理理论发展与其心理状态术语使用也存在显著相关,提示儿童将心理理论任务中涉及的表征问题与信念词所隐含的表征属性相联系是形成心理理论、正确使用心理状态术语的前提。当控制了母亲和儿童的心理状态术语使用总数后,母亲及孩子非心理状态术语的使用与儿童心理理论发展都不再存在显著相关,提示非心理状态术语的使用是以心理状态术语使用为中介而对儿童的心理理论发展产生影响。