Abstracts

Colapinto, J. The relative value of empirical evidence. Family Process,
Frank, H. Psychodynamic conflicts in female law students. American Journal of Psychoanalysis .
Riskin, L.L. Sexual relationships between psychotherapists and their patients: toward research or restraint. California Law Review ,
Verhulst, J. & Heiman, J.R. An interactional approach to sexual dysfunctions. American Journal of Family Therapy ,     

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.     

Impartial Nominations for a Prize

A group of peers must choose one of them to receive a prize; everyone cares only about winning, not about who gets the prize if someone else. An award rule is impartial if one's message never influences whether or not one wins the prize. We explore the consequences of impartiality when each agent nominates a single (other) agent for the prize. On the positive side, we construct impartial nomination rules where both the influence of individual messages and the requirements to win the prize are not very different across agents. Partition the agents in two or more districts, each of size at least 3, and call an agent a local winner if he is nominated by a majority of members of his own district; the rule selects a local winner with the largest support from nonlocal winners, or a fixed default agent in case there is no local winner. On the negative side, impartiality implies that ballots cannot be processed anonymously as in plurality voting. Moreover, we cannot simultaneously guarantee that the winner always gets at least one nomination, and that an agent nominated by everyone else always wins.     

Depression and Anxiety Symptoms in Female Adolescents: Relations with Parental Psychopathology and Parenting Behavior

Parental psychopathology and parenting behavior are known to be related to adolescents depression and anxiety, but unique roles of mothers and fathers are not clear. Our aim was to examine the relation of maternal and paternal psychopathology, emotional support, and respect for autonomy, and their interaction to depression and anxiety symptoms in adolescents. In total, 142 female adolescents participated, together with 138 mothers and 113 fathers. Data were analyzed using latent growth curve modeling. Paternal emotional support was negatively related to adolescent baseline level of depression and anxiety symptoms. Further, we found that there was a positive association between respect for autonomy and depression symptoms in adolescents for higher levels of paternal symptoms of psychological problems.     

Lightning Rods in the Local Moral Economy: Debating Unauthorized Migrants' Deservingness in Israel

Localized debates about who unauthorized migrants are and what they do, or do not, deserve unfold in a culturally specific register that is deeply charged with emotion and moral valuation. Structuring such debates are vernacular discursive frames that emerge from, and reflect, a common “local moral economy.” Taking Israel as case study, this article examines six elements of the country's local moral economy – biopolitical logic, historical memory, political emotion, popularized religion, an ideology of “fruitful multiplication,” and hasbara (“public diplomacy”/propaganda) – and explores their impact on public debates about unauthorized and irregular forms of migration. Here, as elsewhere, conventionalized distinctions that frame much migration scholarship – e.g. “economic” vs. “political” migrants, “migrant workers” vs. “refugees,” even the terms “authorized” and “unauthorized” themselves – bear but limited salience. Migration researchers who hope to influence local policy debates must recognize the weight and influence of local moral economies, and the chasms that divide vernacular from conventionalized frames. Achieving this sort of nuanced understanding is, at root, an ethnographic challenge.     

Native Migrant Labour in the Southern Alberta Sugar-beet Industry: Coercion and Paternalism in the Recruitment of Labour*

Les recherches commencent à révéler de façon de plus en plus évidente la présence des autochtones dans les emplois salariés au Canada. Bien que nous constations la participation des autochtones au travail salarié, nous savons peu de choses sur le rôle joué par l'État en vue de les mobiliser pour qu'ils travaillent dans l'industrie canadienne. À partir de l'exemple des autochtones qui sont venus dans le sud de l'Alberta au cours des années cinquante et soixante travailler dans l'industrie de la betterave à sucre, cet article analyse le rôle de l'État dans leur mobilisation. Nous montrons qu'à diffé-rents échelons l'État, par l'intermédiaire de comités de main-d'?uvre fédéraux et provinciaux ainsi que du ministère fédéral des Affaires indiennes, a eu recours à diverses mesures paternalistes et coer-citives pour aider les fermiers du sud de l'Alberta à recruter et à retenir ces travailleurs. L'une des principales mesures utilisées par les gouvernements fédéral et provincial pour pousser les autochtones àémigrer a été de priver de leurs prestations d'aide sociale ceux et celles que l'on jugeait aptes au travail. Research has begun to increasingly document Native peoples' participation in wage employment in Canada. Despite an acknowledgement of native participation in wage labour, little is known of the role of the state in mobilizing Native workers for Canadian industry. Using the case of Native migration to the southern Alberta sugar-beet industry in the 1950s and 1960s, this paper analyzes the role of the state in the mobilization of the native workers for employment. We show that the various levels of the state, acting through federal/provincial manpower committees and the Indian Affairs Branch of the federal government, used a variety of paternalistic and coercive measures to help farmers in southern Alberta recruit and retain Native workers. One of the main measures used by the federal and provincial governments to coerce Native people into migration was to cut off social assistance benefits to those Native people deemed to be employable.     

“刘易斯转折点”假象及其对“人口红利”释放的冲击

本文分析了当前普遍范围的用工荒是由于实际工资低于保留工资引起的农民工用脚投票结果。在此利用新家庭经济学单一模型理论分析这种经济行为是与简单单一个体预期效用最大化的经济行为相区别;农户以家庭为单位在金融资本及现代教育人力资本短缺的情况下通过家庭成员劳动力资本对外投资实施风险规避,在家庭内部实现收入分享,风险共担。这种经济行为带来的在工业制造和农业无法有效释放人口红利的结果,最终导致用工荒和环境负外部性以资本替代劳动的现代农业生产。