Ritual,Change and Psychotherapy

Symptomatic behavior often appears or is initially perceived during transitional stages in the life cycle when changes in behavior and relationships are culturally appropriate. Symptomatic behavior legitimates lack of change in the relationships of the symptomatic individual and those in his or her social context. By this it provides a pseudo-solution to the universal problem of dependency and autonomy (Sluzki & Vernon, 1971), which must be solved by individuals in every society. Many non-Western societies have rites of passage (van Gennep, 1960) to ritualistically mark significant transition. The performance of these rituals helps individuals change their position in the social context while at the same time validating the context. Rites of passage are characterized by paradoxical communications. The paradoxical structure of these rituals will be described and implications for the use of ritual in family therapy will be suggested using a case example as illustration.     

Death Among Hindus in India and England

This article examines the nature of beliefs and attitudes that Hindus have acquired toward the notion of death, rebirth, the afterlife, and the transmigration of the soul. The Law of Karma, notwithstanding its inherent contradictions, plays a crucial role in the acquisition of such beliefs and attitudes. The article discusses the manner in which such deterministic values have influenced the development of the Indian psyche. The article then examines the powerful influence of the caste system including the role of the Brahmin priests, on the maintenance of the rites, the rituals, and the religious ceremonies related to funerals and the ceremonies thereafter. The beliefs and practices of Indians concerning death serve functional and cathartic purposes not only for the bereaved family but also for the community as a whole. A conceptual model of cultural differences is developed, which is used to examine the similarities and differences in the process of bereavement between the Indian and English societies.     

IVF in a pro-natalist culture: Experiential accounts of Indian women

The paper discusses the subjective constructions and lived experiences of in-vitro fertilization (IVF) that are shaped by the ideologies of pro-natalism, pro-genetics and patriarchy prevalent in India. The booming IVF industry is situated amidst the dialectics of pro-natal culture and health policies directed towards population control. Being out of pocket expenditure sans insurance cover, IVF is afforded only by a small minority. Yet their availability is compelling, whereby childless couples feel obligated to try them out in order to absolve themselves of the guilt of not having tried enough. Across India, the fertility of women is celebrated through rites and rituals that commence at menarche and find reiteration at festivals and wedding ceremonies. Hence childless women bear the brunt of stigma, trauma and familial pressures that push them to turn to commercially operated fertility clinics in a bid to overcome childlessness along with guilt and shame associated with it.     

First Episode Psychosis: A Magical Realist Guide Through Liminal Terrain

This paper presents a narrative of a client, ‘Eva’, who experienced what is termed by psychiatry a first episode psychosis. As a family and relationship counsellor practicing narrative therapy with its backdrop of post‐structuralism and curiosity of exploring new entry points for narratives of identity, I tentatively sought new ways to engage with Eva's story. My endeavour in meeting with ‘First Episode Psychosis’ is described through adopting a listening position from a reading of magical realist literature. This extends Michael White's political exploration of ethnographer Arnold van Gennep's liminal spaces (in the rites of passage metaphor) to understand units of experience, units of meaning, and the fluidity of identity in psychosis, which is contextualised as a response to events in the client's story.     

Coming of age and awakening to spiritual consciousness through rites of passage

A contemporary American form of the ancient idea of rites of passage can guide young people toward deeper meaning and strengthen their sense of identity and connection to the community.     

Parkour: Adventure, Risk, and Safety in the Urban Environment

Parkour is a new sport based on athletically and artistically overcoming urban obstacles (e.g., climbing up and vaulting over walls). In this paper, I position parkour as a form of urban adventurism allowing for tests of individual character. This involves what I call rites of risk and rituals of symbolic safety. Together these rites and rituals allow individuals to seek out exciting and dangerous activities while couching their risk-taking in discourses and practices that affirm the value of the self. Thus, although parkour can be dangerous, practitioners use symbolic forms of safety to give their actions meaning and emphasize their ability to handle the risks involved.     

Identity Satisfaction Over the Life Course in Sexual Minorities

A variety of models have been proposed to understand the process of coming to terms with a sexual minority identity. What has not been so clearly explored is how an individual's satisfaction with his or her sexual identity develops over the life course. This article explores satisfaction with sexual identity in a large cohort (N = 2,269) of self-identified lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals, and considers satisfaction not only from a chronos (life span) but also from a chairos (stage of development) framework. Data show a clear relationship between age group and increased satisfaction with a sexual minority identity. Resilience may be an important contributor to increased satisfaction.     

The Double Center of Gravity in Durkheim's Symbol Theory: Bringing the Symbolism of the Body Back In

By studying Durkheim through a Schopenhauerian lens, the one-sidedly cognitivist and functionalist reception of his social theory can be balanced. Durkheim explicitly rejected such monistic interpretations. His dialectical approach was always aimed at an essentially dualistic perception of man and society, wherein the lower pole, the individual, is central. In Durkheim's symbol theory, this position leads to two kinds of symbols: those that are bound to the human body, here called "this and that" symbols, and those people can choose freely, here called "this for that" symbols. This twofold symbol theory can already be found in medieval philosophy (e.g. Dante Alighieri) as well as in the work of Paul Ricoeur. For Durkheim the human person is the symbol par excellence. By implication the rituals in which the person is (re)constructed, that is the rites of passage, should be central. The interpretation here opens up new perspectives for a more psychological interpretation of Durkheim's sociology.     

The role of sexual behavior in the identification process of gay and bisexual males

This study examined the role of same‐sex sexual behavior in the identification and coming‐out process among three cohorts of gay and bisexual males. The sequence through which the males identified their same‐sex attractions was coded as either sex‐centered (labeling of sexual identity after first same‐sex sexual encounter) or identity‐centered (labeling of sexual identity before engaging in sex with males). The project tested whether developmental sequence was a significant predictor of later adjustment to sexual identity and relationship involvement. Findings demonstrate that the proportion of sex‐centered males decreased as a function of age cohort. Moreover, sex‐centered males reported higher levels of homophobia toward other males, more lifetime sexual partners, and more heterosexual sexual and romantic relationships. Thus, the route males take to identify and label their sexual identity is a good predictor of future adjustment and relationship involvement.     

Alcohol abuse as a rite of passage: the effect of beliefs about alcohol and the college experience on undergraduates' drinking behaviors

Qualitative studies of alcohol's ritual influences indicate that college undergraduates who drink heavily tend to view alcohol use as integral to the student role and feel entitled to drink irresponsibly. Our analyses, based on a standardized measure of these beliefs administered to approximately 300 students, confirmed these findings. Among our sample, beliefs about alcohol and the college experience had an effect on levels of alcohol consumption similar in magnitude to that of other variables commonly associated with a risk for heavy drinking. Moreover, the alcohol beliefs index moderated the effects of three risk factors--gender, high school drinking, and friends' use of alcohol--on respondents' drinking behaviors. These findings are discussed within the context of the anthropological literature on liminality and rites of passage and with regard to strategies for intervention that address the structural roots of the widespread abuse of alcohol on college campuses.     

Celebrating Ourselves: The Family Reunion Rituals of African‐Caribbean Transnational Families

In the past decade, family reunions have become an important ritualized event among Afro‐Caribbean transnational migrants. Dispersed across a large number of North Atlantic countries, Afro‐Caribbeans have turned to organizing events specifically designed to reunite kinfolk. The rituals constitute a celebration of family as a distinct social group with a kin‐based, lineage‐like identity. Re‐creating kin ties among those spread across different nations and transmitting kin‐based connections to their offspring are the main incentives for holding these rituals. In this article I describe three different recent family reunions, one held in Barbados, one in Grenada, and one in Trinidad and Barbados. I analyse the specific forms these rituals take, relate their differences from the social positioning of the core members of the kin groups and discuss the signifying practices of the reunions for maintaining Caribbean family connections in the diaspora. Finally, I raise questions about how the kin‐based identities constructed in the reunion rituals intersect with race/class, ethnic and national identities.     

Paradoxes of Sexuality,Gay Identity,and the Closet

In this project, I illustrate how eight premises of sexuality, gay identity, and the closet contribute to the existence of paradox, an interactional situation constituted by contradiction. I first outline the following premises: gay identity is (1) inextricably tied to the metaphor of the closet; coming out is necessary when gay identity (2) is invisible; the closet draws meaning (3) only in relation to heteronormative contexts; gay identity, as a (4) stigmatized identity, makes coming out a (5) potentially dangerous act; coming out is conceived of as a (6) necessary and important, (7) discrete and linear, (8) inescapable and ever‐present process. I then use autoethnography to describe and analyze the lived experience of paradox in terms of these premises. I conclude by formulating ways a gay person can negotiate paradox in, and by way of, interaction.     

Transition of Rituals in the Nagasaki City Atomic Bomb Memorial Ceremony

This article focuses on rituals in the wake of a disaster, particularly those rituals that concern the dead. Previous studies have paid little attention to such rituals, which have developed and evolved over a long period of time. A diachronic case study of the Nagasaki atomic bomb memorial ceremony shows that memorial rituals gradually shift their attention from the dead to the living. The characteristics observed in this ceremony that orient towards the living can be distinguished from folk rituals, whose central object is to appease or comfort the dead, and also from political rituals, whose aim is to honor the dead and acknowledge the tragic past within a political framework. In addition to economic as well as political factors, the broadcasting of the Nagasaki ceremony on television is instrumental in the changes in these rites and the inclusion of the third-person plural subject: the “we”, appears to be vital in apprehending the experience of violent death. Relying on historical materials, photographs, and data collected by participatory observation and interviews, this article aims to show how people use symbolic practices to make meaning out of violent death.     

A Twin Study of Objective and Subjective Pubertal Timing and Peer Influence on Risk‐Taking

This study used a behavioral genetic design to test whether three measures of pubertal timing moderated peer influence on risk‐taking in a sample of 248 female adolescent twin pairs (M_age = 16.0, SD = 1.5) from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Peer influence was operationalized as the quasi‐causal association between girls' self‐reported risk‐taking and the risk‐taking reported by their friends. Girls with earlier ages at menarche and who perceived themselves as more developed than peers were more susceptible to peer influence on risk‐taking. However, age‐standardized ratings of body changes did not moderate peer influence. This study highlights distinctions between multiple measures of pubertal timing, using an innovative synthesis of genetically informative data and peer nomination data.     

From Fat to Thin: Informal Rites Affirming Identity Change

Rituals provide public solutions to some types of life crises, or change. There are crises which beset the individual in modern society which are not easily addressed by public ritual. The present paper observes such a life crisis and identifies conscious rites performed by individuals. These rites are called, “personal definitional rites”, and take place in situations demanding identity changes. Newly acquired identity is performed ritually in an attempt to elicit recognition of a new social state. Thirty-six patients clinically defined as obese underwent gastric reduction surgery. Patients were interviewed after having lost excess weight in order to understand the social results of the dramatic change in appearance. Patients described various “rites” they used to complete their conversion from fat to thin. These rites are compared to rites of transition and definition.     

Reformulating tradition and modernity: Moroccan migrant women and the transnational division of ritual space

In this article I analyse the rituals that transnational migrants who live and work in Europe (mainly Italy) perform in Morocco during their return there for summer holidays. The transnational dimension of rituals and ceremonies reveals the diverse ways in which Moroccan families gain social recognition across transnational space. I explore how migrants construct and display their identities contextually and in opposition to multiple Others. By performing the traditional rituals associated with important turning points in their lives in Morocco, migrants seek to reintegrate themselves and maintain their membership of their community of origin. At the same time, however, these performances bring to the surface a hidden agenda: the assertion and exhibition of migrants’ differences with respect to those who have stayed behind. These rituals, which provide a perspective through which to analyse the intersection of global and local interconnections, also reveal complex and shifting interpretations of ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity’, and the practices in which these are embedded. I conclude by suggesting that, in this process, migrants develop a creative interplay with ‘traditional practices’ by subverting, reformulating and giving new creative shape to their meaning and content.     

14‐Month‐olds anticipate others’ actions based on their belief about an object's identity

Past research has accumulated evidence regarding infants’ false‐belief understanding, measuring their gaze patterns or active helping behaviors. However, the underlying mechanisms are still debated, specifically, whether young infants can compute that others represent the world under a certain aspect. Such performance requires holding in mind two representations about the same object simultaneously and attributing only one to another person. While 14‐month‐olds can encode an object under different aspects when forming first‐person representations, it is unclear whether infants at this very age could also predict others’ behavior based on their beliefs about an object's identity. Here, we investigate this question in a novel eye‐tracking‐based unexpected‐identity task. We measured 14‐month‐olds’ anticipatory looks combined with their looking time, using a violation‐of‐expectation paradigm. Results show that 14‐month‐olds look longer to an actor's reach that is incongruent with her false belief about the identity of an object compared to a congruent reach. Furthermore, infants correctly anticipated the actor's reach based on her false belief. Thus, as soon as infants represent dual identities they can integrate them in belief attributions and use them for consequent behavioral predictions. Such data provide evidence for the flexibility of false‐belief attributions and support proposals arguing for infants’ rich theory‐of‐mind abilities.     

The Downfall of Gomułka

Marina Tsvetaeva’s 1934 “Chërt” (The Devil) forms a central part of the cycle of autobiographical prose she wrote in emigration. This article assembles clues to the hidden origins of the Devil she describes in prose about her grandfathers, some of it censored in pre-1990 editions of her works. Tsvetaeva’s Devil is not simply metaphysical: it has the unusual appearance of a Great Dane. Though she goes on to trace its appearances in the literature and culture of her childhood, some of its physical features (eyes, nose, colour and posture) link it with other people in her life. The vivid details of the Devil suggest relationships, though peculiarly mediated ones, to members of her own family, especially her maternal grandfather, Aleksandr Danilovich Mein. The poet describes herself using Pushkin’s poem “Utoplennik” to camouflage her own sense of self from her mother. Much of the rest of “The Devil” describes her recognition of the Devil in varying symbolic or even phonetic guises, tracing how the poet stayed faithful to him even after he ceased to appear visibly, how she found and read his symbols in surrounding reality—e.g., card games, toys, rituals for finding lost objects—and in unexpected, otherwise respectable, parts of society, including her own grandfather. As always, Tsvetaeva creates a story that affirms her identity as a poet and illustrates the work she had to do to achieve that identity.     

Gender relations,transnational ties and rituals among Bosnian refugees

In this article I show how Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) refugees reproduce, contest and construct their ethnic and religious identities. Using ‘ritual’ in a broad sense to refer to everyday routinized activities and practices that characterize family hierarchies and gender relations, as well as more easily identifiable religious rituals, I show that rituals assert belonging to a community and an identity, but are also, in the process of construction and contestation, selectively evoked and ignored. ‘The Other’ constructed through certain rituals is not merely the non–Muslim Bosnian (Serbs and Croats), but also, for refugees, other Bosnian Muslims who stayed behind. Moreover, engagement in secular and religious rituals, and the wider issue of identity constructions cannot be understood fully without exploring the dynamics between refugees and people who have remained in Bosnia. Competing constituencies claiming ‘Bosnianness’ and ‘Muslimness’ can be found across national boundaries and complicate the attempt to construct a community of believers or nationals, or both.     

Designing Lives and Empowering Clients: The Case of Sue

This case response centers on the client Sue, a professional mediator who seeks counseling to resolve a conflict with her employer that threatens her vocational identity (M. C. Rehfuss, 2003). P. B. Baltes's (1997) Selective Optimization With Compensation model of human development and J. Heckhausen and R. Schulz's (1995) Life‐Span Theory of Control are used to frame Sue's career development, identify her current control orientation, and assist her in making the transition from compensation to an optimizing strategy. Such a strategy aims to preserve her vocational identity while satisfying the needs of her employer.