The counselor perspective on the use of directives in counseling in China: Are directives different in China as in the United States?

Eight Chinese counselors were interviewed about their use of directives in counseling. They typically believed that directives can be beneficial in counseling Chinese clients. They used directives to extend the influence of counseling beyond sessions, meet client needs and expectations, and fit their own personality and orientation. In terms of conditions that need to be met for directives to be helpful, they identified client factors such as readiness, communication styles, past experience, and insight; the counselor factor of ability to communicate directives; and the therapeutic relationship. They emphasized the importance of clients acquiring a new perspective as a result of directives. Cultural factors in using directives are discussed.     

Childhood trauma from a patient and a psychoanalyst perspective: linking chronic depression to relational multiple trauma

The relationship between multiple childhood trauma, as well as adversity, and chronic depression has been reported repeatedly. However, there is a lack of clinical differentiations of these findings. We complemented patient self-ratings, using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), with psychoanalysts’ perspectives in order to provide finer grained clinical differentiations of the trauma behind chronic depression. These differentiations connect the trauma scales with early relational experiences. We developed a bespoke instrument derived from psychoanalytic trauma concepts. A subsample of 52 cases of chronically depressed patients alongside their 24 psychoanalysts was taken from the LAC depression study, in order to complement patient and psychoanalyst ratings. Our results confirm the connection between multiple childhood trauma and chronic depression. Besides relational trauma, the psychoanalysts’ perspective found separation trauma and transgenerational transmission of trauma to be significant. These traumatic relationships seem to precede and accompany adverse life events and/or traumatic experiences. They may even prevent adequate coping and/or processing of such experiences. Patient interview material from study intake and five-year follow-up further provides an insight into the changes the trauma narratives undergo throughout time. These changes emerged due to a joint reconstruction of the meaning of traumatic experiences throughout the course of the psychoanalytic process.     

MULTILAYERED SOCIOCULTURAL PHENOMENA: ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN SUBJECTIVE WELL‐BEING AND ECONOMIC STATUS

In this article, incoherent results of the associations between subjective well‐being and economic status at multiple social levels are shown. Although individual‐level positive associations are shown within developed countries, national‐level associations disappear among developed countries. Group/area‐level associations, meanwhile, do exist within Japanese societies. From these inconsistent phenomena, a sociocultural unit is proposed, within which well‐being of people is collectively shared based on mutual reciprocity. The simple addition of social scientific results themselves cannot reconstruct the whole range of phenomena. Humanities could be considered as the glue, which adds sociocultural meanings to the generalized scientific results.     

A three city comparison of the public's knowledge and attitudes about AIDS

A survey of knowledge, beliefs and attitudes about AIDS was administered simultaneously in San Francisco, New York and London to a total of 399 persons. The aim was to investigate how such knowledge and attitudes may he influenced by social and cultural contexts, as well as by disease epidemiology. Across all samples of the general public (excluding risk group members) in the three cities, general fear of AIDS and anti-gay attitudes were significantly negatively correlated with knowledge about AIDS. In the London sample, general fear of AIDS and anti-gay attitudes were significantly and positively associated with both sexual and general health behavior change. Only sexual behavior change, however, was significantly correlated with general fear of AIDS and anti-gay variables for the New York sample. Neither of these variables was significantly associated with behavior change of any kind in the San Francisco sample. We accounted for these inter-city differences by proposing a four-stage model of public response to an epidemic over time. Our data support the need for specific programs aimed at the general public that take into account sociocultural and AIDS epidemiologic differences across different sociocultural contexts.     

Primitive Drivers: Racial Science and Citizenship in the Motor Age

Lay participation in the deliberation of techno-scientific issues has become an important objective of policy making in many countries. Using the example of a series of Round Table discussions dealing with genome research allows us to analyse the ways in which the participants of this event construct their arguments during the discussion. Explaining the observed discursive strategies we focus on performative aspects of the deliberation process. In such a way it is taken into account how the setting of a given participatory process influences the ways in which participants are enrolled and enact their participation accordingly. In the analysed case, the setting was not taken as a given, but public participation and its discursive framework became itself subject to negotiation during the process. Hence, the discursive power of individual experiences and the legitimacy of personal interests as the argumentative basis were negotiated during the Round Table discussions. The participants only rarely grounded their statements in practical knowledge and individual experiences. Instead we saw them performing other discursive repertoires, e.g. drawing on societal benefits. Individual perspectives were often transcended and articulated in the form of super-individual arguments which endowed participants' statements with substantial discursive power and provided an alternative rationale for contributing to the deliberation without explicit reference to personal experiences. More broadly, the observed reluctance of the participants to speak-up for their personal interests can be seen as a result of a political culture that favours the advancement of de-individualised perspectives in public deliberation.     

Trauma Recovery in Interprofessional Cross-Cultural Contexts: Application of an Ethical Framework

Research into the complex interactions of personal, professional, and interprofessional ethics is in its infancy. Where interprofessional decision making is made in cross-cultural contexts, ethical dilemmas multiply; inversely, research to guide judgments is sparse. This study sought to explore interprofessional ethical decision making within a project, which delivered Western trauma-recovery training to counselors in Palestine. A cross-cultural interprofessional ethical framework was adapted and later applied to project decision making. A case study is presented based on field note reflections. Researchers perceived the following to be important in addressing ethical decision-making dilemmas: defining interprofessional and cross-cultural language; long-standing relationships of trust; workers liberated from organizational agendas; democratized processes; and flexible structures. Recommendations are provided to help plan and evaluate interprofessional cross-cultural initiatives.     

The institutional evolution of religion: innovation and entrepreneurship in ancient Israel

In light of contemporary advances and in an effort to supplement and add to the vibrant discourse surrounding the evolution of religion, a distinctly sociological theory that returns to and pushes forward the insights of Durkheim and Weber is offered. The unit of evolution is the institutional sphere, or the macro-level structural and cultural sphere of religious action, exchange, and communication; and evolution is the process by which religious entrepreneurs are able to secure material and symbolic independence vis-à-vis other strata and, thereby, carve out an autonomous religious institution to reproduce their symbolic, normative, and organizational innovations. To illustrate the way this sociological theory of institutional evolution works, and how it accounts for multi-linear evolutionary paths, while considering contingencies, the evolution of the Ancient Israelite religion from the late 8th century BCE to the end of the Exile in the late 6th century BCE is examined.     

Countertransference—Transference seen from the Point of View of Child Psychoanalysis

This paper explores the ‘point of interaction’, that interface where the psyches of the patient and analyst meet. The author examines what is activated in the analytic pair at the point of interaction, with a particular focus on the mental activity of the patient and analyst. This exploration of the mental activity of the patient and analyst is from a theoretical position that combines contemporary Freudian and Kleinian perspectives on the therapeutic process. The author concludes that the capacity for mutuality in both the patient and analyst rests upon a part of the mind that is connected to a certain aspect of the Oedipus complex. Finally, the point of interaction is also discussed as a place where there is a potential meeting of minds around divergent methods and applications of psychoanalytic treatment. Clinical material is presented to illustrate these points.     

All by Myself? Independence and Coordination During Distress Episodes from 14 to 24 Months Among Latino Children

Growing research suggests that socialization toward independence with a focus on ‘separate individuality’ may be a culture specific rather than universal socialization goal. Among Latino families, children of mothers high in formal schooling have shown more independent and less coordinated patterns of interaction than children of mothers low in formal schooling. This longitudinal research explored the balance between independence and coordination during mother–child interaction around distress by examining age‐related changes and within‐group variation among Latino children. Fifty Latino dyads were videotaped during unstructured interactions in their homes at 14 and 24 months of age. Episodes of distress were identified and then classified according to individual contributions and coordination (e.g. [child] independent, mother‐led, coordinated). Coordinated and independent resolutions were the most frequent type at both ages. To examine the balance between these for each child, a proportion of episodes resolved in each type was calculated. Children in both groups (high maternal schooling, low maternal schooling) increased in coordination, but only children with higher maternal schooling also increased in independent resolutions. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Experiences of shame by race and culture: An exploratory study

This study explored experiences of shame in the context of racial and cultural belonging. Participants were a multiracial purposive sample of 11 South Africans (five females and six males, four white, two coloured, two Indian and three black Africans; in the age range between 40 to 61 years). The participants completed a semi-structured interview on their perceptions of shame in the context of family and community. The interview data were analysed utilising interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA). Participants from all racial groups considered shame experiences primarily in relation to violation of family and community norms and values. Findings show that male white Afrikaans-speaking participants narrated shameful experiences mainly with regard to the violation of religious (Calvinist) norms and values. Furthermore, the violation of racially constructed boundaries was also likely with females with an Indian and white Afrikaans culture background. Overall, the findings suggest white Afrikaans culture to be less shaming of individuals in comparison to black, coloured, or Indian cultures. Shame beliefs appear to be culturally nuanced in their salience to members or racial-ethno groupings.