To Whom Does the Subject Speak? Between the Relational and Lacanian Schools of Psychoanalysis: A Conversation With Adrienne Harris and David Lichtenstein,Moderated by Chris Christian

Relational psychoanalysis is a relatively new but increasingly present school in contemporary psychoanalysis. Lacanian psychoanalysis is a dominant presence in France and South America but far less so in the English-speaking clinical world. And there is little contact between them. Adrienne Harris, one of the founders of relational psychoanalysis, and David Lichtenstein, a prominent New York-based Lacanian-influenced psychoanalyst, came together in the spring of 2012 for a rare conversation about the differences, similarities, and potential meeting points between these two psychoanalytic movements. The conversation spanned a wide psychoanalytic landscape from the origins and influences of these two movements to their conceptualization of basic psychoanalytic notions such as the unconscious, the self, the process and purpose of the psychoanalytic project, the nature of trauma, the work of interpretation, and the role of the analytic relationship. Ferenczi, Winnicott, and Bromberg offered common theoretical ground for this comparative conversation.     

The House of Difference,or White Silence

In this article I track three ways of confronting the question of whiteness and its attendant problematic of racism. I look at two personal episodes one involving inheritances from white explorer forebearers and the place of racism in fetishized objects and second in the institutional difficulties within psychoanalysis in finding ways to speak about race and the dilemma of being a beneficiary of racism. Finally I look at the hidden racism in a much lauded psychoanalytic article, Joan Riviere's (1929 Riviere , J. ( 1929 ). Womanliness as a masquerade . International Journal of Psychoanalysis , 9 , 303 – 313 . [Google Scholar]) “Womanliness as a Masquerade,” and in the light of these three problems speculate on “whiteness.” I argue that the intergenerational transmissions of guilt and disavowal together leave a blank psychic space that makes an authentic expression of racial consciousness and genuine reparation currently difficult and certainly, even if well intentioned, partially compromised.     

The Role of Friendship,Trust, and Love in Happy German Marriages

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the role that friendship, trust, and love played in the courtship and marriages of eleven German heterosexual couples (twenty-two individuals, including three couples of mixed national heritage) who reported their marriages to be happy. A conceptual model is proposed of how the components of friendship, trust, and love (i.e., love experienced as emotion, behavior, and commitment) may form a foundation for happy German marriages. Identified themes inform suggestions for how these findings can be used by educators, practitioners, and clergy to support and strengthen German marriages.     

Employers' Experiences and Views of Grow Your Own Social Work Programmes: A Qualitative Interview Study

In the light of expressed support for Grow Your Own or employer sponsored schemes for social work training, this article explores why they are not so frequently adopted. It draws on findings from a multi-method study of GYO activities and outcomes in England, in particular interviews with 27 participants from 20 organisations employing social workers and funding GYO activity. These interviews revealed that GYO was seen as a means to recruit and retain new social workers, specifically to recruit workers who were able to start practice immediately and needed minimal support, but also to widen access to the profession and to demonstrate evidence of the employers' wider commitment to its non-qualified staff by providing a career pathway. Not all those interviewed were able to provide firm data as evidence of their belief in the value of GYO schemes. The article concludes that the reasons for the decline in GYO schemes lie in the sizeable investment required to develop and sustain them. It identifies some mismatch between the need for immediate solutions to workforce shortages and the longer-term investment in students and in workforce development staff who are necessary to reap the benefits of such schemes.     

BLACK IS,BLACK AIN'T: BIRACIALS,MIDDLE-CLASS BLACKS,AND THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF BLACKNESS

Several scholars claim that group cohesion among black Americans is necessary for black advancement. Our research examines the extent to which group cohesion is possible given the increasing diversity of Black America, particularly with regard to race and class. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 33 middle-class blacks and 40 black-white biracials, we explore (1) the similarities and differences in the experiences of both groups, (2) their encounters with marginalization, (3) how they negotiate perceived marginalization, and (4) the extent to which all of the above are shaped by socially constructed ideas of blackness. We find that narrow notions of “authentic” blackness challenge group cohesion and threaten to splinter the black community along class and ethnic/racial lines. However, we find evidence of greater tolerance for the community's racial diversity than its class diversity. Nevertheless, the data presented here suggest that the increasing heterogeneity of Black America poses significant challenges to group cohesion.     

When Do First-Year College Students Drink Most During the Academic Year? An Internet-Based Study of Daily and Weekly Drinking

Abstract

Objective: The authors investigated the alcohol consumption trajectories among first-year university students. Participants: A sample of 415 students attending a large university in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, was recruited. Methods: Students completed a baseline questionnaire and 26 weekly brief Internet surveys assessing alcohol consumption from September 2006 to April 2007. Results: Findings indicated that alcohol consumption varies considerably as a function of time of the academic year. Overall trends indicate that students drink more heavily at the beginning of each semester and less during exam periods. Daily patterns indicate that most drinking occurs on weekends. The highest drinking days in the first academic year included Halloween, New Year's Eve, and St. Patrick's Day. Conclusions: The present study provides evidence that periods of high and low alcohol consumption are contingent upon specific events and the time of the year.     

Truth or Dare

The performative identities of both Black and queer characters in film have been noted by academics in “Black queer diasporic theory” (Rinaldo Walcott) and artists such as Cheryl Dunye and Isaac Julien, with particular focus on the ways in which these identities have been constructed from both within and outside of their respective communities. Australian Indigenous and lesbian filmmaker Sonja Dare took the discourse one step further, however, in her 2007 release Destiny in Alice, a twenty-seven-minute mockumentary film which parodies a David Attenborough-style search for the rare “desert lesbian” of Alice Springs in Australia's outback. Her film actively pursues the intersection of cultural and sexual expressiveness and suppression, interrogates notions of belonging and exclusion within these communities, and challenges marginalisations of all subaltern identities in the evolving criticality of performing race, sex and gender in modernity.     

The Educational Consequences of Teen Childbearing

A huge literature shows that teen mothers face a variety of detriments across the life course, including truncated educational attainment. To what extent is this association causal? The estimated effects of teen motherhood on schooling vary widely, ranging from no discernible difference to 2.6 fewer years among teen mothers. The magnitude of educational consequences is therefore uncertain, despite voluminous policy and prevention efforts that rest on the assumption of a negative and presumably causal effect. This study adjudicates between two potential sources of inconsistency in the literature—methodological differences or cohort differences—by using a single, high-quality data source: namely, The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. We replicate analyses across four different statistical strategies: ordinary least squares regression; propensity score matching; and parametric and semiparametric maximum likelihood estimation. Results demonstrate educational consequences of teen childbearing, with estimated effects between 0.7 and 1.9 fewer years of schooling among teen mothers. We select our preferred estimate (0.7), derived from semiparametric maximum likelihood estimation, on the basis of weighing the strengths and limitations of each approach. Based on the range of estimated effects observed in our study, we speculate that variable statistical methods are the likely source of inconsistency in the past. We conclude by discussing implications for future research and policy, and recommend that future studies employ a similar multimethod approach to evaluate findings.     

Disasters and dilemmas: aid agency recruitment and HRD in post-tsunami Sri Lanka 1

Abstract

This article examines the ethical dimensions and implications of recruitment and human resource development that face both local and international aid agencies operating in the context of an emergency response. Focusing on post-tsunami Sri Lanka it contends that, although the rapid proliferation of humanitarian organizations responding to the disaster created a boom in employment opportunities with international agencies, it also resulted in a human resource crisis for local ones and consequently the erosion of national emergency response capacities. It argues that the current recruitment and HRD practices of humanitarian organizations are insensitive to the disaster response needs of local agencies. It concludes with a call for international aid agencies to be more aware of the implications of their recruitment and HRD strategies in disaster-affected countries and recommends a number of ways in which practices could be improved to support, rather than diminish, local capacities.