Marital Therapy My Way — Creating a Workable Reality

This paper is one of a series in which experienced therapists were invited to outline their approach to marital therapy — Editor.     

The Way we Were — and Will Be

When extremists, both feminists and anti-feminists, perpetrate the myth that equality means death to the family, women such as myself have a hard time working out what our real options are — and indeed what our real feelings are. Some choose to opt out of families; some choose to make a lot of money pursuing their own careers; some choose to travel the country lecturing women that they don't need equal rights, just husbands to support them. But the underlying reality is no different for the most committed feminists and the most vocal defenders of the traditional family.     

The Sexual Body of the Young Jew as an Arena of Ideological Struggle, 1821–1948

This article analyzes professional discourse on masturbation to illustrate how child sexuality serves as a site for symbolic ideological struggles. Sex instruction manuals written in central Europe in the nineteenth century Palestine and Israel in the twentieth century are the basis for broader discussions on religious and scientific discourse on child and adolescent sexuality within the Jewish communities. By tracing the development of new forms of expert knowledge, we show how expert discourse on masturbation gradually transformed it from a symbolic moral evil into a medical disease and a psychological problem, before declaring it a legitimized behavior.     

What is Real in the Age of Virtual Reality?“Retraining” Frame Analysis for a Technological World

How do social actors determine what is really happening and what is not? This distinction, analyzed in such depth by Erving Goffman in Frame Analysis, now requires further analysis as technologies such as virtual reality become ever more affordable and available, transforming many aspects of everyday life and, inevitably, the definition of the “real” experience itself. This article considers the ways that experience is generated and organized in modern social life, arguing that a “refraining” of frame analysis and a “reconceptualization” of reality itself is necessary to help us understand the ways in which social worlds involving highly sophisticated technologies are created and endowed with meaning by actors, as well as the subtle, long-term effects of such technologies.     

Now — and Now — and Now: Time,Space and the Material Entanglements of the Classroom

This study examines time and children in the classroom based on free‐flowing observations written in class by 10‐year‐old pupils. The concept of entanglement is activated to consider time together with space and matter and explore the dynamics in which these elements interact. The analysis unsettles the notion of time as a separate, ‘outside’ parameter: rather than examining children in time, this viewpoint enables us to see children as being or becoming of different times and entangling with material elements. On the other hand, entanglements also produce different moments of now, which are seen as multiple and hybrid. The author suggests an understanding of research with children as ‘lively entanglements’ in which special attention should be given to things that matter to children.     

Children's conceptions of economics — The constitution of a cognitive domain

The understanding of economics of 89 Israeli children, aged 7–17, was probed by means of interviews and questionnaires. Questions asked covered a broad range, including: commerce, production, strikes, capital investment, and the causes of inflation. The answers are analyzed in a cognitive framework. It is argued that economic understanding is initially based on “conceptions”, small but growing interpretative vignettes which provide a meaningful account of economic actions. Macro-economic phenomena which lie outside the explanatory scope of single conceptions are understood later than the behavior of individual actors.     

“I'm Not Going to Leave Her High and Dry”: Young Adult Support to Parents during the Transition to Adulthood

The transition to adulthood is a critical time in the life course, and the role of parental support during the transition has been one of the most prominent discussions in this literature. Yet while research has focused attention on the support passed from parents to young adult children during the transition, it has generally ignored the support that young adults may provide their parents. Utilizing qualitative interviews, this article explores the types of support one group of young adult children provide to their families during this time in the life course. It then examines how this assistance to parents intersects with young adults' ability to meet their own social and human capital goals.     

Three Wise Young Men,a Cyber Community and Music — Counselling As Social Action: Storying a Community of Care in the Aftermath of Violence

This article describes counselling practice as social action, reporting on a case of children witnessing community violence and its aftermath. Highlighted is the role of friends who made a stand of solidarity against such violence. Outsider witness practices helped recruit and grow a community of care for the client and his friends. This community of care was significantly enhanced by the involvement of a lawyer/musician/activist who composed a song with the three friends to take a stance against guns and violence in their society. Caring solidarity, generosity and doing hope together formed small but significant alliances against entrenched practices of violence.     

Fundamentals of Theory and Practice Revisited; The Reality of Voices: ‘Auditory Hallucinations’

This paper describes some recent developments in approaches to voice‐hearing and relates them to contemporary ideas about psychosis and therapy. The author looks at the growing body of work on cognitive behavioural therapy for psychosis. She examines the similarities and differences between these approaches and those of innovators like Marius Romme and Sandra Escher, Philip Thomas, Michael White and the Hearing Voices Network. The author describes some influences upon her own systemic practice with clients diagnosed with schizophrenia, in a Community Mental Health Team in Wales.     

Empathy — Still at the Heart of Therapy; The Interplay of Context and Empathy

Developing skilled and delicate approaches and interventions aimed at assisting families (or systems) to solve entrenched problems has been an exciting and stimulating aspect of family therapy over its relatively short existence. Recently, more and more authors have re-emphasised the need for respect and mutuality in dealing with clients, the need for the therapist to be aware of the clients' frames of reference and idiosyncratic solutions, some arguing that it is preferable to take less of the expert, interventionist stance. The necessity for empathy underlined in many earlier approaches to therapy is mentioned, though generally ‘in the small print’, in the reports of the processes being investigated and developed. This article re-considers empathy, always known to be at the heart of the counselling/therapy¹ process, but perhaps too easily assumed at present. It contends that empathy remains essential, that it can be understood more fully, and thereby used more effectively. Some of the traditional understandings of empathy, mostly from writings on individual therapy, are considered. Working with families and systems demands a broader understanding and different applications. The therapist must be capable of empathy with the context and the relationships as well as with individuals. While asserting that human beings are generally capable of empathy, the article examines some particular aspects of its use in therapy, particularly with families; it contends further that a fuller understanding of empathy can enrich the whole process of therapy. The article argues that empathy remains an indispensable guide to intervention with the family, the system or the person, whatever form the intervention (or non-intervention) may take.     

Gender and Bureaucracies —A Critique of Ferguson's ‘The Feminist Case Against Bureaucracy’

Within the area of gender and organization studies there is a tendency to generalize about organizations and how they affect people working in them. In feminist analysis, salient in Kathy Ferguson's ‘The Feminist Case Against Bureaucracy’, there is a tendency to have a one-sided view on bureaucracies and to regard these merely as products of ‘maleness’ and as incompatible with (radical) feminism. On the basis of a case-study of three different bureaucracies, this article questions the assumption of incompatibility and argues for a more nuanced assessment of gender and bureaucracies.     

“It's Hardly Fair to Bring a Child Into the World With the Way Things Look…”: Anomie,Mistrust, and the Impact of Race,SES, and Gender

This article examines the impact of race, socioeconomic status (SES ), and gender on subjective outlook using anomie and general mistrust as indicators. Specifically, this study addresses the following questions: (1) How do African Americans and whites compare with respect to anomie and mistrust? (2) Do racial differences in anomie and mistrust vary by SES ? (3) Do African American women have higher levels of anomie and mistrust than whites and African American men? and (4) Are African Americans becoming more or less trusting and anomic over time? Using data from the General Social Survey (GSS) (1972–2014), the analysis reveals significant racial differences in social outlook as measured by anomie and mistrust. African Americans indicate higher levels of both anomie and mistrust than whites even after controls for SES and the other variables. The racial gap in anomie and mistrust increases with increases in SES . Being African American and female is associated with higher levels of anomie but not mistrust. African American mistrust decreases relative to whites over time. More affluent African Americans’ anomie levels slightly increase relative to similar whites over time. Explanations using the “rage of a privileged class” and “intersectionality” ideas are evaluated.     

“Like a violet unseen”—the apotheosis of absence in Hutterite life*

Cet article tente de comprendre la manière dont les Hutterites imprègnent de signification les phénomènes invisibles et imperceptibles. II comprend trois parties principales. La première est une analyse structurale qui, tout en demontrant que l'absence de designation est un aspect important de la symbolique hutterite, ne réussit pas à relier significations et actes. La seconde partie utilise la théorie pragmatique de la communication pour comprendre comment l'absence fonctionne dans la conduite réelle (dans l'appel a l‘église et à la chorale). Cependant cette théorie pragmatique est aussi superficielle car elle engendre un paradoxe qui est un artefact produit par l'analyse et elle échoue à pénétrer la réalité psychologique de la vie quotidienne des Hutterites dans laquelle l'absence de choses “mondaines” sert à signifier la présence de l'Esprit-Saint. La dernière partie utilise un procédé littéraire et une métaphore musicale pour essayer d'evoquer l'imprégnation mystique de la réalité hutterite. In this paper an attempt is made to understand how Hutterians imbue unseen and unheard phenomena with meaning. The paper consists of three basic parts. The first section is a structural analysis which, while it demonstrates that the absence of designata is an important aspect of Hutterian symbology, fails to relate meaning to acts. The second section utilizes pragmatic communication theory to understand how absence functions within actual behaviour (in the call to church and singing). However, the pragmatic theory is also superficial in that it produces a paradox which is an artifact of analysis and it fails to penetrate the psychological reality of Hutterite life in which the absence of worldly things serves to signify the omnipresent Holy Spirit. The third section utilizes a literary device and a musical metaphor in an attempt to evoke the mystical sentiment of the Hutterian reality.     

“教友圈”:青年白领基督徒的交际方式

宗教能否有效地创造社会网络,近几年来成为学界探讨的热点话题。对上海青年白领基督徒的研究发现,基督教对青年白领群体的社会网络,也就是"教友圈"的形成具有促进作用。频繁的小众化聚会是"教友圈"形成的有利条件;各类宗教活动是"教友圈"内互动的主要方式;网络平台是"教友圈"内部沟通的手段。此外,"教友圈"还有拓展其他关系网络的重要作用。     

“Just a Typical Teenager”: The Social Ecology of “Normal Adolescence”—Insights from Diabetes Care

In Western society “normal adolescence” is understood to be a biologically driven phase characterized by emotional turmoil and irrational behavior. Despite being discredited within academic literature this discourse persists both in formal theory and everyday use. Drawing on the case of diabetes care, I argue that the discourse of “normal adolescence” derives its power from its value as a vocabulary of motive through which to navigate the contradictions inherent in the social order at this stage of the life‐course. While helping us to comprehend sociologically the ecological niche in which “normal adolescence” is sustained, this analysis raises questions about the persistence of this discourse for social action.     

And yet they thrive!—Regaining the relevance of a transparency system

Over the past decade, a host of donor organizations implemented transparency systems to make international development aid more transparent to the public. These initiatives have met with little public interest, but their proliferation and development show no sign of diminishing. This article shows how internal importance to the political system, fueled by formal rankings and the exhibition of transparency systems as a flagship initiative, can replace relevance to the public as a driving force for sustainable development. The article concludes by discussing the possibility of a future development where transparency systems finally do connect with user groups, such as citizens of both donor and recipient countries, and gain a relevance even beyond original intentions.