Silence, Its Use and Abuse: A View from Self Psychology

This article seeks to explore the use and abuse of silence in the therapeutic process. A review of its many meanings will be illustrated by brief excerpts from case material, demonstrating that silence is a fertile mode in which the self may be enriched and strengthened. Silence can be understood as the source of quiet growth in which distortions of the self can be reflected upon and then transformed through greater recognition of opportunity and choice. It is the intention of this note to stimulate discussion of silence from the view point of other theories, as well.     

Preservation of self in the nursing home: Contradictory practices within two models of care

Researchers have identified several aspects of nursing home care that interfere with residents' preservation of self. This paper examines how different models of care shape residents' opportunities for preserving a sense of self, adult identity, and agency. Using ethnographic data, I analyze staff practices in two facilities that reflect the contrast between the home and hospital models of long-term care. Previous research on long-term care suggests that an informal, “home-like” approach to care creates more opportunities for residents to preserve a sense of self-identity, whereas a formal, “institutional” approach fosters depersonalizing practices that interfere with residents' psychosocial well-being. My research suggests, however, that both approaches can have contradictory effects on residents' preservation of self. I analyzed patterns of objectification and infantilization that emerged in the social interactions between residents and staff members, as well as practices that mitigated these patterns. This study highlights how a larger culture of ageism and stigma surrounding dependency can become embedded in micro-level practices and underscores the challenges of defining and implementing “good” care.     

Corporate divestiture and performance: an institutional view

In this study, we investigate how the institutional environment affects shareholders’ reaction to a firm’s announcement of divestitures. Traditionally, divestiture research has adhered to a financial economics perspective, in which shareholders anticipate certain economic outcomes from corporate divestitures and react accordingly. However, this research has not delivered a distinct understanding of the performance effects of corporate divestitures. To structure and integrate previous work, we apply a neo-institutional perspective of the stock market. We argue that at certain times, the institutional support for corporate diversification is relatively low. During these periods, there is a high rate of divestitures. The high divestiture activity legitimizes this corporate action and leads to a positive reaction of the stock market to new divestiture announcements. This means that individual evaluations of the possible performance outcomes of divestments are not the only factor determining the stock market reaction to a corporate divestiture announcement. Rather, investors might consider the perceived institutionalization of this corporate action when making their purchasing decisions. Using a meta-analytical technique, we find support for our prediction that different performance effects of divestitures, as revealed by previous studies, can be attributed to different conditions of the macro-economic environment. We discuss the implications of this result for research and management practice.     

Urgent engagement in 9/11 pregnant widows and their infants: Transmission of trauma

The potential effects of maternal trauma on mother–infant interaction remain insufficiently studied empirically. This study examined the effects of the September 11, 2001, trauma on mother–infant interaction in mothers who were pregnant and widowed on 9/11, and their infants aged 4–6 months. Split‐screen videotaped interaction was coded on a one‐second basis for infant gaze, facial affect, and vocal affect; and mother gaze, facial affect, and touch. We examined the temporal dynamics of communication: self‐contingency and interactive contingency of behavior by time‐series methods. We documented heightened maternal and infant efforts at engagement in the 9/11 (vs. control) dyads. Both partners had difficulty tolerating moments of looking away as well as moments of negative behavior patterns. Heightened efforts to maintain a positive visual engagement may be adaptive and a potential source of resilience, but these patterns may also carry risk: working too hard to make it work. A vigilant, hyper‐contingent, high‐arousal engagement was the central mode of the interpersonal transmission of the trauma to these infants, with implications for intervention.     

Questioning Heteronormativity: Lesbian and gay challenges to education practice in British Columbia,Canada

This paper explores social movement organizing within social institutions, using the cases of the Surrey book banning and the Trinity Western University, two cases of activist litigation in British Columbia, Canada. In these cases, lesbian and gay teacher activists challenged heteronormative constructions in educational practices, in one case by introducing lesbian and gay-positive reading materials in the elementary grades, in the other by challenging the right of an evangelical university to train teachers for the public education system. In the context of the existing literatures on social movements within institutions and challenges to education practices, the paper emphasizes two main conclusions: 1) challenges to educational practice may be mounted by teachers themselves, despite their professional and 'insider' status and 2) a range of different types of relationships are possible between social movement challenges within social institutions and social movements outside of institutions. In the cases presented here, the strategies, discourses and frames of 'insider' challenges to educational practices were drawn from the teacher-activists' location as part of the broader legally focused Canadian lesbian and gay movement.     

Creating caring institutions for community informatics

This paper explores the potential affordances of applying a feminist ethics of care approach to community informatics practices in public internet access facilities. As feminist technology scholars have long observed, technology and technoculture are strongly encoded as masculine, privileging traits such as scientific knowledge, rationality, objectivity, and distance. These characteristics are expressed in traditional infomediary practices in a variety of ways, including notions of expertise, ways of conceptualizing technology, emphasis on skills attainment, and deficit-based models of user behavior. In contrast, ethics of care emphasizes the importance of relational and situated knowledge, pluralistic voices and experiences, and relationships bound by mutual interdependence. Traditionally, caring has been feminized and thus necessarily excluded from technoculture and relegated to invisible and unpaid labor. Caring and associated affective labor practices remain an under-examined subject in infomediary practices. Public libraries and community technology centers are logical places to explore for care work, given that they share many characteristics of the spaces where care work has historically been performed. We argue that an ethics of care framework has several possible affordances for infomediary practices in these institutions, including highlighting the gendered power dynamics that define and shape existing practices; distributing care work and making existing care work visible; and envisioning a more holistic and ethical approach to engaging diverse publics. We translate Tronto’s seven warning signs for ‘bad care’ in institutions into seven positive guidelines for providing ‘good care’ in public internet access facilities, then contextualize these for community informatics institutions and practices.     

Bonding and bridging among first generation Asian migrants in Australian protestant churches

Around a third of Asian migrants to Australia self-identify as Christians, and many join churches where they meet fellow migrants and other Australians. Churches might thus be places that can foster the integration of Asian migrants into Australian society. This paper uses social network and social capital theory to examine the prevalence of bonding and bridging among 61,386 churchgoers from 2135 Protestant churches who completed the Australian National Church Life Survey in 2011. We compared levels of bonding and bridging social ties of first-generation Asian migrants (FGAM) with Australians born of Australian-born parents (ABOAP). FGAM joining congregations had fewer social ties than ABOAP, and developed bridging (but not bonding) more slowly. FGAM had lower bonding but higher bridging in MonoAnglo congregations compared with Multicultural or MonoAsian congregations. The results suggest that FGAM who are in MonoAnglo churches may be less tightly bound to their congregation, but more likely to bridge beyond it, than are FGAM in multicultural or largely Asian congregations.     

Sudanese and Somali Refugees in Canada: Social Support Needs and Preferences

The aim of the study was to identify the unique support needs and preferences of African refugees in Canada. In‐depth interviews were conducted with Sudanese and Somali refugees (n=68) living in two cities in central and western Canada. Refugees were interviewed individually to identify their support needs, current sources of support, available support programmes, barriers to access to support resources, and preferred support interventions. These refugees reported major support needs, depleted social networks, and barriers to accessing services and supports. They identified distinct preferences for support from peers from the same country of origin and professionals. Participants wanted group‐level support supplemented by one‐to‐one support. Transportation, child care, meals, and peers matched by language and gender were recommended to enhance accessibility to support programmes. These findings can inform the design of support intervention research and enhance the relevance and supportiveness of services and programmes for recent refugees.     

A Place for Sexual Dysfunctions in an Empirical Taxonomy of Psychopathology

Sexual dysfunctions commonly co-occur with various depressive and anxiety disorders. An emerging framework for understanding the classification of mental disorders suggests that such comorbidity is a manifestation of underlying dimensions of psychopathology (or “spectra”). In this review, we synthesize the evidence that sexual dysfunctions should be included in the empirical taxonomy of psychopathology as part of the internalizing spectrum, which accounts for comorbidity among the depressive and anxiety disorders. The review has four parts. Part 1 summarizes the empirical basis and utility of the empirical taxonomy of psychopathology. Part 2 reviews the prima facie evidence for the hypothesis that sexual dysfunctions are part of the internalizing spectrum (i.e., high rates of comorbidity; shared cognitive, affective, and temperament characteristics; common neural substrates and biomarkers; shared course and treatment response; and the lack of causal relationships between them). Part 3 critically analyzes and integrates the results of the eight studies that have addressed this hypothesis. Finally, Part 4 examines the implications of reconceptualizing sexual dysfunctions as part of the internalizing spectrum, and explores avenues for future research.     

Chlamydia Trachomatis Infection in a Female College Student Population

Abstract

“Physical Dependence on Nicotine in Gum: A Placebo Substitution Trial,” JOHN R. HUGHES, et al. To test whether ex-smokers become physically dependent on nicotine in gum, we entered eight ex-smokers who were using nicotine gum into a randomized, double-blind, placebo-substitution trial. When placebo was substituted, seven of the eight subjects were observed to have withdrawal symptoms and two relapsed to smoking or nicotine gum. This result suggests that physical dependence (i.e., withdrawal) may be a cause of behavioral dependence on nicotine gum (i.e., use of gum beyond the recommended period) and physicians should emphasize the need for gradual reduction of nicotine gum. (Journal of the American Medical Association 1986;255:3277–3279.)

“Absence of Therapeutic Benefit From Antacids or Cimetidine in Non-Ulcer Dyspepsia,” OLOF NYREN, et al. We randomly assigned 159 patients with non-ulcer dyspepsia, defined as chronic or recurrent epigastric pain without concomitant symptoms of the irritable bowel syndrome and with no evidence of organic disease, to treatment for three weeks with an antacid suspension one and three hours after meals, 400 mg of cimetidine twice a day, or placebo, according to a double-blind, double-dummy model. The intensity and duration of epigastric pain were recorded by the patients four times daily during a one-week period without therapy and during the three weeks of treatment. The mean reduction in pain intensity after three weeks in the placebo group was 25 percent. Neither antacid nor cimetidine treatment resulted in more than a 4 percent better effect. The reduction of pain was statistically significant (P < 0.01) in all three groups. The time course of the pain scores in the groups receiving active drugs followed closely those in the placebo group, and there were no significant differences between the groups at any stage of the treatment. We conclude that the neutralization or suppression of gastric acid is of no clinical value in patients with this syndrome. (New England Journal of Medicine 1986;314:339–43.)