Spivak’s Fantasy of Silence: A Secular Look at Suicide

Gayatri Spivak’s response to the attack of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2011, the event otherwise known as 9/11, was one of many responses that denote the event’s traumatic impact. In psychoanalytic terms, the psychic condition of trauma, identified by Lacan as the encounter with the real, is a shock which the subject initially misses; as such, the subject is compelled to make intelligible what was missed through what Lacan calls ‘fantasy.’ According to Zizek in Welcome to the Desert of the Real, the cinematic quality of the planes crashing into the towers, iterating the fantasies of Hollywood disaster films (16), pointed to a haunting in America of some historical trauma that returned in the real of 9/11 (17). Zizek’s reflection on 9/11 as a haunting in cinematic terms, pointing to a confluence of his scholarship and the event, sets a precedent for this paper’s focus on seeing in Spivak’s response to the suicide acts of 9/11 a haunting of the suicide rite of Sati in her earlier scholarship. This paper reviews Spivak’s representation of suicide in “Can the subaltern speak?” (1988) and “Terror: A Speech After 9/11” (2004), noting the non-coincidental echoes between these projects with respect to secularism and silence, affirming this paper’s proposal that in Spivak’s work, a trauma shared by western secular society is evident as a fantasy of silence.     

The ��Semiotic Self��: From Peirce and Mead to Wiley and Singer

Norbert Wiley (1994) provides a synthesis of Peirce??s and Mead??s views on the self. The Peirce-Mead ideal type model of the self involves the I and the me as well as the I and the you. Hence, at each moment we are a combined ??me-I-you?? in past, present and future. Milton Singer (1989) discovers the semiotic self through his anthropological research, but does not apply the concept as rigorously as one might hope. Peirce??s triadic epistemology and Pragmatism is explored to frame his contribution to the semiotic self. His categories of Firstness, Secondnes and Thirdness are briefly considered. Some anecdotal information about the self in Indic Civilization is discussed. It is argued that the INSOR model can be useful. The key is to move beyond Cartesian notions and to see the semotic self as a ??semiotic object,?? always subject to interpretation by the person engaged in symbolic interaction and exchange.     

Adolescent sexual behavior—family characteristics,parental involvement,and associated mental disorders

Abstract

Manifold factors connect with adolescent sexual behavior, but studies on their reciprocal associations are scarce. This study seeks to find the ways in which parental involvement, family characteristics, depression, and delinquency are connected to adolescent early/risky sexual behavior, and to what extent they modify each other. A population-based self-report survey of nearly 187,000 adolescents (50.4% girls) was used. The most important of the family variables was living in a two-parent family, which showed the clearest inverse association with early/risky sexual behavior throughout adolescence. Depression and delinquency persisted associated with sexual behavior in the presence of the family variables.     

Clinical Challenges Following An Adolescent’s Death By Suicide: Bereavement Issues Faced By Family,Friends, Schools,And Clinicians

Given the increasing prevalence of adolescent deaths by suicide, social workers are increasingly likely to be called upon to respond to traumatically bereaved families, peers, and possibly professional colleagues following an adolescents death by suicide. The authors discuss current trends in adolescent suicide. A stress diathesis model is applied to considering risk factors and their clinical implications following an adolescents death by suicide. Using a case scenario, the authors discuss clinical issues of complex bereavement following suicide, along with some suggestions for effective clinical follow-up with surviving families, peers, and professionals.     

Into the Wilderness—A Case Study: The Psychodynamics of Adolescent Depression and the Need for a Holistic Intervention

Adolescent depression has become epidemic in the United States, with statistics showing that one in five adolescents may suffer from depression (Brent and Birmaher in N Engl J Med 347(9), 2002). This article examines adolescent depression from a psychodynamic perspective, and identifies the psychodynamics of adolescent depression as the affective correlates that stem from unresolved developmental conflicts, issues of separation/individuation, the search for identity and the development of the true self. This article presents wilderness therapy as a holistic intervention which can be used to address the intrapsychic, developmental and relational factors that give rise to adolescent depression. Wilderness therapy is a modality of mental health treatment that takes place outdoors and utilizes challenge and adventure, group work and other structured clinical interventions. A clinical case study presents wilderness therapy as an effective intervention for adolescent depression that can promote positive self-image and enhanced coping skills, and discusses limitations and implications for social work practice.     

Suicide ideation,anxiety, and depression: Are children a protective factor for male Veterans?

ABSTRACT

Numerous mental health disorders plague our veterans when they return from deployment including anxiety and depressive disorders, which have been linked to elevated suicide risk when left untreated. Family factors, such as parenthood status, may serve as a protective factor against these mental health issues. This study examined the role of parenthood status of male veterans (N = 234) based on age of the child in order to determine whether a child’s age (minor children v. adult children) affects the likelihood of meeting diagnosis criteria for anxiety, depression, and suicide ideation after controlling for marital status. Three hierarchical binary logistic regression models were constructed to assess the predictive influence of children 18 years old and younger, children older than 18, and no children with the results indicating that parenthood status did meaningfully enhance the prediction of suicide ideation. Complete findings, clinical implications, and future considerations are discussed.     

Parent–Child Conflict and Suicide Rumination in College Students: The Mediating Roles of Depressive Symptoms and Anxiety Sensitivity

Abstract

Objective: Parent–child conflict, depressive symptoms, and anxiety sensitivity have each been identified as risk factors for suicide ideation in college students. This study examined the relations among these risk factors and suicide rumination utilizing transition theory to guide the hypothesized relations. Participants: Undergraduate college students participated in this study in the spring of 2012 (January to May). Methods: Participants completed self-report measures of parent–child conflict, depressive symptoms, anxiety sensitivity, and suicide rumination, among other measures. Hypothesized pathways and mediation were tested using path analysis. Results: Suicide rumination was positively and uniquely predicted by depressive symptoms, anxiety sensitivity, and parent–child conflict. The relation between parent–child conflict and suicide rumination was, in part, accounted for by depressive symptoms and anxiety sensitivity. Conclusions: Results suggest that it would be advisable for clinicians to assess for students’ conflicts with their parents in conjunction with their levels of depression and anxiety when assessing for suicide risk.     

To Invade or Not to Invade? A New Look at Gomulka,Nagy, and Soviet Foreign Policy in 1956

Why did the Soviet Union intervene in Hungary but not in Poland? This article argues that the crisis in Hungary was much deeper. Hungarian communist officials were perhaps more willing to tolerate Soviet military “assistance,” because they were haunted by the political rightist “reaction” and their collective memory of the “white terror” that had overthrown Bela Kun’s communist regime in 1919 and made the communist party illegal in Hungary. There was no real Hungarian “Poznan.” Thus, Kremlin leaders, Hungarian party officials, Hungarian reform communist intellectuals, and even the student organizers of the October 23 demonstration were caught off guard by the revolution; it seemed to come from nowhere. Kremlin leaders could understand Polish workers’ demands for bread, but had a harder time understanding Hungarian demands for freedom. Both Gomulka and Nagy attempted to bridge the fundamental contradictions of de-Stalinization, namely, that to achieve political consolidation, their party leaderships had to strike a compromise between the aspirations of their populations and the demands of the Kremlin. Reasons whv Gomulka succeeded. at least in the shortrun, and Nagy failed can be found both in their different personalities and the differences in the natures of the Polish and Hungarian crises.     

Home Futures: Living in Yesterday’s Tomorrow? Home Futures,An Exhibition by the Design Museum,London in Partnership with IKEA Museum,Almhult – 2018-9

ABSTRACT

Home Futures, the major exhibition at the Design Museum, London, and IKEA Museum Sweden, explores the trajectory of radical domestic visions from the 1960s—but it seems that the future was closer in the 1960s than now.     

Social Activity,School-related Activity,and Anti–substance Use: Media Messages on Adolescent Tobacco and Alcohol Use

In this article, we present the effects of three hypothesized protective factors—social activities, school-related activities, and anti–substance use media messages—on adolescent tobacco and alcohol use. Data were drawn from the “Monitoring the Future” research project, which was conducted by the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. The sample included 2,551 twelfth-grade students. The results of the structural equation model showed that exposure to media anti-drug messages had an indirect negative effect on tobacco and alcohol use through school-related activity and social activity. The results suggest that comprehensive ecological interventions encompassing media, family, and school can increase the preventive effects of adolescent's substance use.     

Unpacking Court Divorce Decrees,Children’s Outcomes,and Three Unconfounded Determinants: An Evidence-Based Look

This article examines evidence on 3 determinants of the outcomes of children of divorce that are shaped but neither confound or are confounded by court decrees for custody and parenting time: father contact or involvement, high interparental conflict, and domestic violence. This evidence is brought to bear in an analysis that contrasts predictions based on the rationales for sole maternal versus joint custody and explores implications for judicial decision making. It is found that the best-interests-of-the-child standard better serves children in contested cases when this evidence is taken into account. A call is made for rebuttable presumptions for joint custody and commensurate parenting time except when parent-perpetrated violence or other patterns of abusive behavior are substantiated. Steps for judicial reform are proposed.     

The Effect of Unemployment Duration on National Suicide Rates: A Time Series Analysis, 1948–1982

Abstract

Periods of increasing unemployment are associated with increases in suicide rates. Unemployment increases suicide among laid off persons, new entrants, reentrants to the labor market, and groups indirectly affected—the underemployed, those fearing unemployment, the families of the unemployed, and even those suffering from falling real wages, a condition endemic in major recessions. The present investigation deals with a neglected unemployment measure: the duration of unemployment, a condition known to be critical to the generation of extreme behavior such as suicide. Controls are introduced from alternative perspectives on the problem including the incidence of divorce. The data analyzed refer to yearly measures of the variables over a 31 year period. The results of a Cochrane-Orcutt iterative regression analysis indicate that the greater the duration of unemployment the greater the suicide rate. Using ex post forecasting techniques it is estimated that increases in unemployment during the Reagan administration have been associated with at least 929 additional deaths from suicide. The duration of unemployment increases suicide rates for both males and females. The model explains between 59 and 88 percent of the variance in suicide.     

‘Normalizing’ female cancer patients: Look good,feel better and other image programs

Image programs are a specific type of psychosocial cancer service developed to help women address the appearance‐related side effects of cancer treatment. They include the Look good, feel better program, medical and mastectomy boutiques and other cosmetic and makeover programs. In this paper I argue that the primary goal of image programs is to ‘normalize’ female cancer patients by hiding the physical evidence of illness and by reconstructing women with cancer as physically attractive, heterosexual and not disabled. The recovery of femininity and a feminine appearance is seen as central to recovering health. As a result, image programs take on a certain clinical legitimacy and become powerful reproducers of heterosexist and ableist discourses of gender and wellness.     

Relational,Indirect, Adaptive,or Just Mean: Recent Studies on Aggression in Adolescent Girls—Part II

Recent research on gender differences in aggressive behaviors is reviewed in this second of a two-part article on the aggression of girls. The objective here is to use findings from studies done by social scientists to confirm and extend vivid reports in recent popular texts (Hadley, 2003). Findings are first summarized and then detailed with methodological issues and some theoretical implications discussed by way of conclusion. This recent research supports observations of differences in the aggression of boys and of girls. It points to the need for further research and discussion on the topic of gender and aggression.     

Desiring T,Desiring Self: “T-Style” Pop Singers and Lesbian Culture in China

This article examines an emerging group of “T-style” female singers in the popular music scene in China. The expression “T,” which is developed from the term “tomboy,” refers to lesbians with masculine gender style. It is a widely used form of identification in local lesbian communities in China. The emergence of “T-style” female singers coincided with the rapid development of local lesbian communities in major cities in China. By exploring the intersections—or mutual modeling—of “T-style” singers and local lesbian gender culture, this article also analyzes the different receptions of “T-style” singers by local lesbian women, and explores whether “T-style” singers are seen as a “cultural resource” that aids the construction of lesbian gender and sexual identities.     

Deviant Peer Behavior and Adolescent Delinquency: Protective Effects of Inhibitory Control,Planning, or Decision Making?

We examined relations between adolescent perceptions of deviant peer behavior and delinquency as moderated by inhibitory control, planning, and decision making in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development at age 15 (N = 991). Adolescents reported perceptions of deviant peer behavior. Inhibitory control, planning, and decision making were assessed behaviorally. Delinquency was evaluated with a latent variable comprised of parent‐guardian perceptions of adolescent delinquency and adolescent self‐reports. Only inhibitory control moderated the relationship between deviant peer behavior and delinquency, showing that better inhibition protected against delinquency in contexts of high levels of adolescent perceptions of deviant peer behavior. Findings are discussed in the context of theories of adolescent delinquency and risk taking.     

‘Look at me! Oh Lord have mercy!’: images of roller-coaster riders and the work of self-recognition

The omnipresence of screens in contemporary life presents an unprecedented variety of ways of displaying as well as ways of seeing, reacting to and consuming images. This paper focuses on commercial and mediatised leisure spaces in the shape of theme parks and on on-site procedures of production and display of images of roller-coaster riders. Contemporary roller-coaster machines combine speed with high-resolution photography, to supply an enmeshed, mobile-cum-visual product, and the study asks how the images are displayed – by the corporations who run the theme parks and how they are received – by the consumers. First, the material settings in which images of roller-coaster riders are produced and displayed are explored, and then the ‘work’ that viewers engage in when they see themselves is addressed ethnographically in detail: What discursive actions and reactions are publicly performed when consumers face their images? I conceptualise the activities of viewing, and specifically of viewing images of oneself, as ‘work’, a concept which I borrow from Erving Goffman (as in ‘face-work’) and, more recently, from Mark Andrejevic (‘the work of watching’). By using qualitative and ethnographic methods, the study supplies up-close observations and analyses of the media spaces and logic in contemporary amusement parks, and the ‘work’ that viewers undertake when confronted with their images. This study contributes to our understanding of the proliferation of images of oneself in leisure and tourism, of the mediatisation of consumer publics, and of consumers’ activities of viewing their images and reacting to them when the latter are displayed commercially on public screens.