Psychotherapy with the Father-Absent Military Family

Defense department regulation changes concerning military dependents have had a marked impact on a large number of service families. One outcome is a specific fractured family—father-absent military family—which has unique characteristics and distinctive problems. In addition to explicit features of military families in general, dynamics of the father-absent fragment are discussed. A psychotherapy strategy is also presented which has been shown to be of value in promoting continued growth in the father-absent military family     

Perceptions of Stepfathers’ Obligations to Financially Support Stepchildren

The perceived fairness of financial arrangements following divorce and repartnering have significant ramifications for social policy and family well-being, yet relatively little is known about public opinion regarding the extent of stepparents’ financial responsibility towards stepchildren’s living costs. This study investigated perceptions of stepfathers’ obligation to financially support stepchildren using quantitative and qualitative methods, and built on previous research by including contextual variables to explore the processes underpinning judgements of kinship responsibilities using a distributive justice framework. Data from a community sample in Western Australia (N = 200) showed a large amount of variability in responses, however most participants believed stepfathers should contribute financially to some extent. Significant reductions in perceived obligations were associated with both cohabiting relationship status and maternal employment, but not with the presence of prior child support commitments by the stepfather. This study highlights the heterogeneity and complexity of attitudes around this issue and associated social policies.     

The Demise of White Revolution: What's Next for Billy Roper?

In August 2011, Billy Roper, white nationalist leader and political candidate from Arkansas, dismantled White Revolution, the Internet web site that he founded in 2002. At the time of its closing, the site posted a membership of over 1000. In 2010, Roper ran for governor of Arkansas and began mobilizing a political party called the Nationalist Party of America. He had intentions of running for President as the party's nominee in 2012. Much of the promotion and fund-raising for his campaign was going to be conducted through the White Revolution online site. Roper subsequently dropped out of the race and discontinued organizing the nationalist political party. In an interesting turn, he has aligned with Pastor Thom Robb's Knights Party (a Christian Identity Klan group) located in Zinc, Arkansas, a rural Ozarks community. Roper's decision to renounce his former status as an agnostic neo-Nazi for Knight status in Robb's Klan group is an indication of subtle shifts occurring in the broader American white supremacist movement that include the convergence of ideologies that were once very different but now appear to be morphing into a new hybrid form.     

Blocked Creativity and Inhibited Erotic Transference

In this paper, I pursue the relationship between erotic transference and creativity. Erotic transference is not solely a resistance to treatment; treatment can involve a resistance to erotic transference, the dynamics of which can have parallels in the inhibition of creativity. Although it is certainly true that erotic transferences may be defensive against other layers of material, there has been a virtual neglect of the deleterious impact of resistance to erotic desire and romantic love for the analyst. The feeling seems to be that erotic transference is a problem to be analyzed when it exists in overt form. The absence of erotic transference in many treatments is often taken for granted, not thought of as constituting a problem or as indicating anything in particular about the patient's psyche that might benefit from analysis. As clinicians, we favor creative expression and promote the psychoanalytic process as facilitating this potential, but we are often ambivalent about a similar approach to erotic transference. A clinical example illustrates the connection that I have in mind between erotic transference and creativity. I have chosen a same-sex case in which the transference was homoerotic, but the larger point I am making has general application to any of the gendered treatment dyads. After focusing on the dynamics of the case, I discuss more generally certain shared features of erotic transference and creativity, as well as inhibitions on the part of clinicians.     

Get It Now: Five Years Later

Abstract

Five years ago, Tennessee Technological University Library implemented the use of Get It Now from the Copyright Clearance Center to provide their users with instant access to journal articles. Funding for this initiative came from the cancellation of expensive ejournal packages. Examining implementation, usage, costs, and pros and cons is helpful for other libraries considering this method of document delivery.     

Bridging the gap: Incorporating qualitative data into quantitative analyses

This paper describes a technique that allows a researcher to incorporate qualitative data from open-ended survey questions into a quantitative analysis. It involves storing the quantitative and qualitative data in two separate files using the same respondent identification number in each. These two files are then linked, via this identification number. This procedure allows one to: access relevant verbatim quotes, identify themes and subthemes, deal with ambiguous answers, interpret the quantitative findings, do deviant case analyses, and identify some types of coding errors. While the intent is for this to be used with large scale survey data, it can also be used in semistructured interviews. The advantage of this technique is that it facilitates the use of qualitative data using programs such as SPSS and SAS that are familiar to most quantitative researchers, without having to learn new skills.