Exploring racism

Whilst the concept of 'race' has no basis in genetics or biology, the dynamics of racism pervade all aspects of modern life--including the consulting room. In this paper the relationship between a white therapist and a black patient is explored through an unbidden thought and a verbal slip that occurred in the course of the therapy. The amplification and examination of these unwanted 'slips' are used to shed light on the subtleties of the effects of difference in colour on the relationship. It is argued here that the interaction reflects and illuminates the asymmetrical relationship between 'black' and 'white' in modern-western society. This is then considered using the concepts of the cultural unconscious and social unconscious as ways of understanding the tenacity of racism in ourselves.     

Drawing Memories: Edouard Manet's Remembrances of the Past

The author examines Edouard Manet's quotations of traditional masters in his work. Instead of debating whether Manet simply imitated, competed with, or paid tribute to the great painters of the past, the author suggests that Manet used the depictions of his painterly past not as a remedial but as a deliberate device. By relying primarily on Freud's Interpretation of Dreams and Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious, the author interprets the traditional works embedded in Manet's paintings as dream thoughts lying behind a façade. The author examines these depictions as if they were associations and memories of Manet's painterly past and in so doing uncovers Manet's subtle use of the past as a means of articulating social commentaries and of creating dialogues with both his contemporaries as well as his predecessors. Drawing on Freud's idea of deferred action (Nachtraegklichkeit), the author illustrates how Manet reflects upon the present through images of the past while at the same time rearticulating the scenes of the past through the lens of the present.     

An examination of the cognitive processes involved in childhood obsessive-compulsive disorder

The cognitive theory of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is the most widely accepted account of the aetiology and maintenance of this disorder in adults. This paper investigated whether cognitive processes were evident in a sample of children with a primary diagnosis of OCD. Using an idiographic approach, as proposed by the Obsessive-Compulsive Cognitions Working Group, this paper assessed cognitive appraisals of responsibility, probability, severity, thought-action fusion, self-doubt and cognitive control. Ratings of these cognitive appraisals were obtained across a sample of children with OCD, and were compared with ratings from a clinical control group of anxious children and a non-clinic control group. It was hypothesised that consistent with the cognitive theory of OCD, children in the OCD group would display higher estimations of these cognitive processes in comparison to anxious and non-clinic children. Results of this investigation provide preliminary support for a cognitive conceptualisation of OCD during childhood. OCD children reported significantly higher ratings of responsibility, severity, thought action fusion and less cognitive control in comparison to non-clinic children. OCD children could also be clearly differentiated from anxious children on ratings of cognitive control. Implications of this investigation are discussed and directions for future research are highlighted.     

Encountering the shadow in rites of passage: a study in activations

Jung's concept of the shadow is explored in this paper through his writings on its realization and assimilation in which he says the shadow may be experienced as the regressed and denied 'other self' in each individual. However, this is not the whole picture, and he also points to the fact that the shadow contains more than something merely negative. While in no way treating them as 'patients', the paper will also touch on the experience of the anthropologist, Bronislaw Malinowski, and the writer, Joseph Conrad, in their personal encounters with the shadow. All three encountered the shadow whilst going through rites of passage of their own and each owes much to the Romantic Movement. In this context, attention is directed to the writings of the philosopher and theologian, Johann Gottfried von Herder, who discovered a deeper understanding of his destiny in the course of a sea voyage.