Displacement as trauma and trauma as displacement in the experience of refugees

This paper investigates the relations between displacement, home, trauma and the self in the experience of refugees, which has become an issue of unexpected and far-reaching proportions in recent times. It questions to what extent and under what conditions displacement in the world may be traumatic and how trauma may be considered the effect of an inner displacement. Refugees’ lives are marked by forced migration that is related to a certain suffering due to the changes in their family, relational, social and cultural lives. The paper explores the extent to which these changes can represent a break so significant as to be traumatic. It outlines the way in which traumatic experiences can produce an inner displacement and reorganization of one’s mental life that leads to a focus on traumatic complexes. Under the most severe traumatic conditions, this can be understood as a displacement of the central axis of Self, in which the ego complex yields its position to other complexes, with a deep change in the organization and functioning of self. The experience of refugees highlights the way in which we live in a matrix of conscious and unconscious links between inner and outer worlds that need deeper and simultaneous consideration to understand their implications and mutual resonances for the psyche. Clinical cases of refugees will illustrate some aspects of these interconnections.     

The personality profile of IPS employment specialists,and how it relates to job satisfaction: A longitudinal cohort study

The role of the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) employment specialist is a new type of occupation within mental healthcare. High turnover among employment specialists necessitates improvement in their recruitment and retention. One element that impacts retention is job satisfaction. We assessed the personality of 38 employment specialists (Big 5 Inventory-2) and measured job satisfaction over three time periods. Compared to norm data, employment specialists were significantly higher on Extraversion (ΔT = 8.0, CI: 5.59–10.42), Agreeableness (ΔT = 7.8, CI: 5.56–10.12), Conscientiousness (ΔT = 3.3, CI: 0.8–5.84), Open-mindedness (ΔT = 3.5, CI: 0.97–6.07), while lower on Negative emotionality (ΔT = −3.5, CI: −6.5 to −0.42). Extraversion had a substantial longitudinal positive effect on job satisfaction (β at T1 = 0.39; CI: 0.10–0.73) (β at T2 = 0.40; CI: 0.03–0.80), while Negative emotionality – a substantial negative effect (β at T1 = −0.60; CI: −0.90 to −0.30) (β at T2 = −0.50; CI: −0.90 to −0.12). Male gender was significantly associated with higher job satisfaction at the time point 1 (β = −0.46; CI: −0.80 to −0.14). Age, length of employment in the role, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness and Open-mindedness were not found to have substantial significant effects on job satisfaction of employment specialists. Recruiting employment specialists who score high on Extraversion and low on Negative emotionality may be a good fit for the role and job satisfaction.     

Patterns and correlates of personal,family, and prior placement variables in an interagency community based system of care

We examined interrelationships among personal, family, and prior service utilization data collected on young people selected to participate in a Chicago suburban area system of care, with a detailed consideration of a subset of 176 White participants aged 9–20 years. Data obtained through a review of archival information and then analyzed included WISC IQ grade retention, medication status, DSM diagnostic group, adjudication, marital status of parents, living situation before selection, maternal employment, public assistance status, family risk status, and placement history. Results showed that IQ and specific DSM diagnostic category were not important correlates of personal, family, or placement variables, although having a DSM diagnosis of any kind was. Family risk factors, including family history of mental illness, substance abuse, criminal conviction, and violence in the family, were related to other family variables, primarily. Adjudication and prescribed medication appeared to have been alternative responses to these young people's problems. A cluster analysis of these system of care participants' placement histories indicated five clusters characterized by varied personal and family correlates, as well as different patterns of placement usage.     

Placement Stability Following Short-Term Residential Care

Youth discharged from a short-term residential facility and reunified with their parents were contacted at least one year after discharge to determine whether or not they had a disruption in their placement since reunification. Follow-up intervals of 149 youth contacted (82% of the eligible sample) ranged from a minimum of 12 months to a maximum of 30 months post-discharge. Differences in the time to placement disruption were analyzed using survival analysis techniques. After controlling for adjustment differences during the treatment program, youth behavior problems, and family problems, a significant interaction of youth age and treatment intensity was found: Compared to the others, younger youth who received additional treatment components had placement disruptions later and less frequently.     

Learning on Work Placement: The Narrative Development of Social Competence

This paper explores the development of social competence by examining examples of research interviews conducted with 35 British undergraduate students on work placements. Work placement schemes are a characteristic of contemporary higher education, which is particularly geared towards students’ development of employability and transferable skills. Among these skills is that of social competence which is often taken for granted as emerging from normative adult developmental processes. Research on social competence is mostly confined to developmental psychology and focused on studying children and adolescents in their social settings. Moreover, the methodology of social competence is often developed from a child-developmental perspective, neglecting the situation-specific development beyond childhood. The paper argues that social competence is examinable as situated discursive practice and that it is essential to understanding career development. Membership categorisation analysis identifies the participant’s fluid positioning in narrating experiences of work and university. Lastly the paper addresses implications for theories of development and learning and considers ways in which this study can be expanded in the future.

Liberal naturalism and the scientific image of the world

ABSTRACT

This paper distinguishes between the theoretical scientific image (of the posits of the successful sciences) and the practical scientific image (which, besides explanatory posits, includes everything presupposed by the practices of doing science (e.g. scientists, funding agencies, laboratories, chairs and other artifacts, linguistic communication, a just and democratic ethos). The popular idea that there is a conceptual clash between the scientific and manifest images of the world is revealed as largely illusory. From the perspective of a liberal naturalism, the placement problem for ‘problematic’ entities or truths is not solved but dissolved. Persons, say, are not posits of any explanatory science, but beings acknowledged as rational agencies in second-personal space. Core elements of the manifest image (e.g. persons) are more deeply rooted in our conceptual scheme than any version of the scientific image.