The geriatric social worker and his self-awareness

Abstract

Hospice and palliative care services have become an established part of Australian health care in the last decade. Multi-disciplinary teams are usually a feature of such services and social workers are common members of such teams. Yet the exact extent of their use and role in these programs has not been investigated previously. The author conducted a survey of 53 social workers working in such programs and at the same time, another questionnaire was also sent to service directors in all 134 Australian programs about their utilisation and perception of social workers. This article reports the results of both surveys. The results show that a third of the programs employed social workers, but the social workers themselves reported a number of difficulties: nurses are often the dominant occupational group and role-blurring amongst team members is common. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the social work profession.     

Review article: witches,relativism and magic

Enemies of God Christina Larner, Chatto & Windus, London, 1981, £12.95, 244 pp. Rationality and Relativism Martin Hollis and Steven Lukes (eds), Basil Blackwell, Oxford. 1982, £17.50, paper £6.95, 312 pp. Stolen Lightening: The Social Theory of Magic Daniel O'Keefe, Martin Robertson, Oxford, 1982, £27.50, paper £9.95, 581 pp.     

The healing magic of myth: Allegorical tales and the treatment of children of divorce

Children of divorce experience a sense of loss of the intact family which had stabilized their lives. Painful thoughts and feelings may result in defensive resistance of treatment techniques which deal too directly with their situation. This paper explores the use of allegorical tales in the treatment of children of divorced parents. It contrasts the use of such tales with traditional bibliotherapy and with Gardner's (1971) Mutual Story Telling, suggesting that myth and metaphor provide a road around resistance by presenting a cognitive bridge between themes common in the stories and the life experiences of the child of divorce.     

Gypsy fetish: music,dirt, magic,and freedom

This article offers a reading of Transylvania (2006) directed by Tony Gatlif. It makes evident Gypsy identity’s unconscious dynamics when it occupies the position of a fetish within the cinematic story and in the interaction of the viewer with the exotic images on the screen. This specific reading argues that Gypsy fetish signals and covers over a site of psychic pain for the protagonist as well as for the viewer. Our argument insists that as a fetish Gypsy identity props up the social order. In this sense Gypsy identity is not addressed as it often is as a symptom, or more specifically as a challenge to the social order, but instead the analysis renders it to be a concealment of the lack around which the symbolic network is articulated. The article further explores Gypsy identity’s music, magic, dirt, and freedom as its key characteristics which conserve a potential access to what was disavowed and covered over – a lost enjoyment.     

斯人已去风范长存

饶会林先生是在中国开拓并创新城市经济学这门新兴的综合性边缘学科的为数不多的先驱者之一.二十多年来,他以孜孜不倦、勇于创新、不断进取的拓荒精神,百折不挠、实事求是、追求真理的学者良知与智者毅力,辛勤耕耘在科研和教学第一线.先生勤奋自励,著述颇丰,为城市经济学在中国的启蒙、发展作出了重大贡献,也为我们留下了一份极其宝贵的文化遗产和精神财富.     

颗颗珠玑光天眼明--仲跻昆教授和他的新译作

不久前,人民文学出版社编辑李玉侠着人打电话给我,说有一部书要寄给我.几天后,收到她寄赠的仲跻昆教授译的<阿拉伯古代诗选>.李玉侠是该书责编,她知道跻昆是我们夫妇的同窗好友,也知道我们虽不问译事,却一直关注着阿拉伯文学,她负责的书一出版便忙寄赠我们,让我们先睹为快,分享译者与编者的快乐.     

Everyday utopianism: Lefebvre and his critics

The strategy of sociocultural critique through the ‘problematization’ or ‘defamiliarization’ of the habitualized character of everyday life is one that is well-established in the literature, especially for adherents of various neo-Marxisms. However, in recent years, several prominent critics have taken issue with the concept of defamiliarization, arguing that the habit-bound, ‘distracted’ and routinized character of the everyday cannot be easily contrasted with, or superceded by, the exceptional or the extraordinary. Such a position, it is suggested, both denigrates the integrity of daily life and promotes a kind of incipient transcendentalism. The work of Henri Lefebvre is often taken to be representative in this regard, and various phenomenologies or pragmatisms are promoted in his stead. In this article, I take issue with such critics, by analyzing Lefebvre’s writings on such key points as his treatment of routine in everyday life, as well as his concepts of totality, dialectics and critique. I end up asserting that, contrary to what is often said, Lefebvre does not promote a dualistic transcendentalism in which daily life is denigrated, but rather an ‘everyday utopianism’ in which routine and creativity, the trivial and the extraordinary, are viewed as productively intertwined rather than opposed. As such, I seek to defend the notion of ‘critique’ vis-à-vis the everyday, and to demonstrate the on-going relevance of Lefebvre’s work, as well as that of the ‘counter-tradition’ that is loosely associated with his name.