Action, movement, and intervention: Reflections on the sociology of Alain Touraine

Cet article examine les déclarations qu'Alain Touraine fait pour sa sociologie de Taction. On argumente qu'alors que Touraine presente une critique puissante des assomptions des fonctionnels en sociologie, sa propre analyse de la société'post-industrielle' ou 'programmée'à des implications historiques et théologiques qui le raménent à une analyse des fonctionnels plus conventionnelle. Nous continuons ensuite à examiner les implications de cette tension centrale pour sa méthode 'd'intervention sociologique' et pour son analyse substantielle de la nature de 'nouveaux mouvements sociaux.
This paper examines the claims Alain Touraine makes for his sociology of action. It is argued that while Touraine presents a powerful critique of functionalist assumptions in sociology, his own analysis of the 'post-industrial' or 'programmed' society has historicist and teleological implications which lead him back towards more conventional functionalist analysis. We examine the implications of this central tension for his method of 'sociological intervention' and for his substantive analysis of the nature of 'new social movements.     

Neurobiology and the Therapeutic Action of Psychoanalytic Play Therapy with Children

This paper presents neurobiological aspects of the therapeutic action of psychoanalytic play therapy. The author contends that play integrates diverse modes of neural processing because of its inherently enactive and verbal nature. Admixtures of new and familiar self/other configurations emerge, simultaneously shaping and fostering integration of procedural and declarative modes of experience. Complex self-other configurations develop in play therapy because of its intrinsic integration of multiple experiential modes. The paper includes an illustration of play treatment with a boy who presented with a disorganized attachment pattern, an attendant deficit in affect regulation, and who manifested frank psychotic symptomatology.     

From Affirmative Action to Diversity: Critical Reflections on Graduate Education in Sociology

This article explores the contradictory results of the shift from a race‐conscious affirmative action discourse to a broader “diversity embrace” that advocates tolerance, equality, and respect for cultural differences on university campuses. Drawing on critical race theory and research on the practice of affirmative action in organizations, we argue that the diversity embrace subsumes recognition of racialized histories, social relations, and practices in favor of a “color‐blind” rhetoric that reinforces negative assumptions about the academic merit and worthiness of underrepresented minority students (URM). Our review of the status and condition of URM graduate students in sociology departments reveals that minority inclusion is part of a larger strategy that emphasizes individual and group differences rather than corrective action for past discrimination. We find that access and inclusion in graduate programs in sociology have been uneven with relatively few departments producing a majority of URM sociology doctorates. The diversity embrace obscures their continual low representation in graduate programs, fosters professionalization practices detrimental to these students, and undermines efforts to create a “critical mass” of faculty of color. Such practices constitute a racial project that preserves White privilege at the individual and institutional levels.     

Taking up the Challenge of Grief: Film as Therapeutic Metaphor and Action Ritual

The case is presented of an eleven year old boy who has twice suffered the loss of his mother —first through his adoption and second through her subsequent suicide. Four years after these events he presented with a number of behavioural problems attributed to a block in his grieving process. Initially therapy was difficult because of the client's inability to express his feelings verbally and because of a number of restraints noted to be operating within the family system. A breakthrough was made through the use of the film ‘The Never Ending Story’? as a therapeutic metaphor and as the basis of an action ritual. Relevant literature (bereavement, cybernetic theory, metaphor and ritual) is discussed. Therapy is detailed.     

The Therapeutic Action of Play in the Psychodynamic Treatment of Children: A Critical Analysis

This paper critically appraises the therapeutic action of play in psychodynamic child therapy and identifies obstacles to utilizing play therapeutically with children. An examination of the functions of action and verbal means of communication as well as their roles in shaping therapeutic relationships in treating children is provided in light of recent theoretical advances. The significance of engaging children directly through play and for redressing the balance between action and verbalization in child therapy is discussed.

Reflections on Reflections:

No abstract available for this article.     

Triadic Reality,the Now System,and Maternal Desire: Thoughts on Daphne de Marneffe's Maternal Desire

Maternal desire is discussed as it coexists with and is tutored by paternal desire and the spousal relationship. Triadic reality and the Now moment are introduced as relevant variables in the regulation of all intrapsychic and interactive phenomena.     

Identifying Therapeutic Action in an Attachment-Centered Intervention with High Risk Families

This paper describes an attachment-based intervention for mothers known to Child Welfare Services where past and current trauma complicates family preservation and promotion of child well being. The first part of the paper describes the innovative Attachment-Centered Parent–Child Therapy service that has been delivered to high-risk families with children from 0 to 3 years of age. The intervention uses a group format that has the added benefits of enhancing social support and being highly cost effective. The intervention also integrates video filming both in terms of capturing essential features of the group intervention for review and supervision of clinical staff, and is fundamental in the observation-based empirical assessments. Quantitative data from an initial pilot study supporting the efficacy of the intervention is presented. As well, qualitative data is presented including a case study that highlights therapeutic action shown to positively impact the quality of the mother–child relationship.     

Stranger to Desire: Entering the Erotic Field

Founded in infancy but continuing throughout adult life, subsymbolic body patterns form a crucial, unconscious element in the infrastructure of our intimate and erotic lives. Viewing the psychoanalytic relationship, at its foundation, as a somatic dyad, this essay explores the life of the body as well as that of the mind in a psychoanalytic exploration. Drawing from the clinical literature of body-centered psychotherapy and the work of Wilhelm Reich, this article presents a detailed case discussion to illustrate the use of body-centered interventions within a psychoanalytically informed psychotherapy.     

Reflections on Accuracy

The difference between test accuracy and predictive accuracy is presented and defined. The failure to distinguish between these two types of measures is shown to have led to a misguided debate over the interpretation of prevalence estimates. The distinction between test accuracy defined as sensitivity and specificity, and predictive accuracy defined as positive and negative predictive value is shown to reflect the choice of the denominator used to calculate true positive, false positive, false negative, and true negative rates. It is further shown that any instrument will tend to overestimate prevalence in low base rate populations and underestimate it in those populations where prevalence is high. The implications of these observations are then discussed in terms of the need to define diagnostic thresholds that have clinical and policy relevance.     

Reflections on PSA

A personal reflection on the history of the Pacific Sociological Association in the USA and the Pacific Basin. Essay ends with suggestions for the PSA’s future.