Using a modified, systematic literature review I will examine issues of subjectivity, gender, and differnce in relation to psychoanalytic feminist theory. Psychoanalytic feminism evolved out of a reaction to classical psychoanalytic theory. In particular, the works of Chodorow (1978), Kristeva, (1977, 1989) and Benjamin (1988) were used. The literature revew will discuss the development of these theoretical perspectives and the understanding of subjectivity, gender and difference in psychoanalytic feminism and the implication this has for clinical practice.

Pre-literate children experience written text as a meaningless material object, the word-object, but the compulsory and institutional aspects of reading pedagogy make this an experience from which they cannot escape. Some children begin to associate their own negative experiental sense with the word-object before they are able to learn to read. As reading pedagogy continues, these children begin to read back experiental sense which prevents them from converting the word-object to meaningful text. Experiental sense is repressed because it is psychically painful. It retains qualities of phenomena repressed from childhood: it is active and intractable to reason. The result is an intractable illiteracy which may be interpreted as biologically based �dyslexia.� Further attempts at reading pedagogy in childhood and adulthood generally result in reproduction of the inability because this pedagogy requires learners to attempt to read linguistically which elicits experiental sense. As these children become adults, their avoidance of reading sometimes structures their social relations to accommodate and compound their problems. The method to overcome the problem replaces experiental sense with positive feelings about written language. The power of language to denote emotions of pleasure and affirmation from learners� lives is used. These emotions are enhanced through a technique of affirmative intersubjectivity. Short spoken affirmative texts are made by learners, tape recorded and reproduced as written texts by the literacy worker. Through allowing learners control and autonomy over their spoken and written texts, the positive emotions in them are associated by learners with the written texts. Exercises on the affirmative written texts are used to demonstrate regularities about written language. Learners then progress to reading suitable independent texts and other activities. There are suggestions about how to enhance learners� feelings as competent readers and writers. The thesis uses a methodology of action research and includes five case studies of adults with literacy problems. Concepts from social theory, psychoanalysis and object relations theory are used and adapted to understand written language, schooling and illiteracy.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2008. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 51).

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 50-53).

Na literatura psicológica, encontramos pesquisas realizadas com gêmeos visando estudar a influência de fatores genéticos versus ambientais na estruturação da personalidade e também no campo da psicopatologia. Entretanto, existem poucos relatos de pesquisas voltados para a interação intra-par de gêmeos e entre os gêmeos e seus cuidadores, especialmente em relação às questões edípicas. O fenômeno, tão estudado pela psicanálise, tem sido pouco investigado na vivência de situações triangulares entre os co-gêmeos e seus pais. O método de Observação Psicanalítica modelo Esther Bick inspirou o planejamento desta tese, que tem como objetivos: observar e descrever as relações objetais triangulares entre os gêmeos e seus pais durante o primeiro ano de vida; analisar a possibilidade de a triangulação edípica ocorrer prioritariamente entre o par de gêmeos; verificar se a \"presença real\" do co-gêmeo poderia exacerbar a vivência como \"terceiro excluído\" entre os gêmeos. Participaram cinco pares de gêmeos recém-nascidos e suas respectivas famílias, sendo dois pares masculinos(monozigoto e dizigoto), dois pares femininos (monozigoto e dizigoto) e um par de sexos diferentes. Foram realizadas visitas semanais com duração de uma hora cada, às residências dos gêmeos, durante o primeiro ano de vida, a fim de observar os gêmeos e seus cuidadores. A observadora pode presenciar o que se passava na relação intra-par de gêmeos, bem como entre os gêmeos e demais pessoas presentes. Após cada sessão de observação foi elaborado um relatório constando os comportamentos observados e as percepções da observadora em relação aos fatos. Foram estudados especialmente os seguintes fenômenos observados nas famílias de gêmeos: atendimento individual mãe-gêmeos; atendimento conjunto mãe-gêmeos; disputa de colo/atenção materna; atendimento pai-gêmeos; relacionamento intra-par de gêmeos. As relações triangulares envolvendo os co-gêmeos e seus pais foram analisadas, tendo como subsídio as teorias de Freud e Klein a respeito das questões edípicas. Foram percebidas quatro formas de relação triangular além do triângulo edípico filho-mãe-pai nas famílias estudadas. / In the psychological literature, we have found researches performed with twins where the aim was to study the influence of genetic factors versus environmental ones in the structuring of the personality and also in the field of the psychology. However, there are few reports of researches related to the twins\' intra-pair interaction and between the twins and their caretakers, especially in relation to the oedipal issues. The phenomenon, so studied by the psychoanalysis, has been little investigated in the experience of triangular situations between the co-twins and their parents. Esther Bick method of Psychoanalytic Observation model inspired the planning of this thesis, which has as its objectives: to observe and to describe the oppose triangular relationships between the twins and their parents during the first year of life; to analyze the possibility that the oedipal triangulation may happen essentially between the pair of twins; to verify if the \"real presence\" of the co-twin could exacerbate the existence as a \"third excluded\" between the twins. Five pairs of just born twins and their respective families participated in the study; among them we have two male pairs (monozygotic and dizygotic twins), two female pairs (monozygotic and dizygotic twins) and a pair of different sexes. Weekly visits were carried out with an hour duration each, to the twins\' residences, during the first year of life, in order to observe the twins and their caretakers. The observer could witness what happened in the twins\' intra-pair relationship, as well as between the twins and among the other people present. After each observation session a report was elaborated including the observed behaviors and the observer\'s perceptions related to the facts. The following observed phenomena were specially studied in the twins\' families: individual attendance mother-twin; pair attendance mother-twins; dispute of mother\'s holding/attention; father-twins attendance; twins\' intra-pair relationship. The triangular relationships involving the co-twins and their parents were analyzed, having as its subsidy Freud\'s and Klein\'s theories regarding to oedipal relations. It has been noticed four triangular relationship forms besides the triangle son-mother-father oedipal one in the studied families.

The present study investigated the relationship between variables of father’s behaviour and their daughter’s levels of self-esteem - both were explored based on the perceptions of the daughter. Self-esteem was viewed as the measure of worthiness that one attributed to oneself, whilst the variables of father’s behaviour included support, punishment, control, rejection, indulgence, autonomy and protectiveness. The same elements of mother’s behaviour were also considered to see how they related to their daughter’s self-esteem; the primary motive for doing this was to provide a contrast to the outcome of the fathering information. The participation of seventy-seven young adult women between the ages of 21 and 34, and from different race groups and cultural backgrounds was requested through a number of associates who then passed the relevant questionnaires on to their associates. Respondents were asked to return the questionnaires fully completed, and data on father variables and self-esteem were then used from these questionnaires. Statistical analysis involved non-parametric analyses in the form of Spearman’s Correlation Rank and demonstrated a significant, negative correlation between protectiveness and self-esteem (r =-.368, p<0.001, 13.54% of variance) only for the father behaviours, while for the mother behaviours significant correlations existed between praise and self esteem, rejection and self-esteem, punishment self-esteem and protectiveness and the young adult women’s self-esteem. Theoretically and practically the implications of the findings suggest that parents and the roles they play may have an impact on their daughter’s self-esteem, at least for this sample, and thus future research into the meanings of the above findings and their impact on children - or more specifically - female children is a worthwhile undertaking, as is consideration of the stereotypical gender roles that society upholds. / Brenda Radebe

Magister Psychologiae - MPsych / Although deficits in object relations patterns have been identified in populations of violent offenders, few studies have examined the object relations of male juveniles incarcerated for violent crimes. The present study examined four dimensions of object relations, as measured by the Thematic Apperception Test and Westen's Social Cognitions and Object Relations Scale with a sample of eight male juvenile offenders incarcerated for violent crimes as De Novo and Eureka Youth Care Centres. These dimensions are complexity of object representations, affect tone of relationship paradigms, capacity for emotional investment in relationships and understanding of social causality. / South Africa

The Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale—Global (SCORS-G) is a relatively new scoring system for the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) that provides information about an individual's functioning in a variety of domains, including intrapsychic and interpersonal. Participants in this archival study had been administered a variety of measures as part of a routine clinical assessment, including the TAT, Rorschach, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2, and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. Selected TAT stories were rescored using current SCORS-G scoring criteria. This dissertation evaluated the factor structure of the SCORS-G in an outpatient sample with a principal component analysis (PCA), finding support for a two-component solution. The SCORS-G was then compared to well-established measures of personality functioning, social cognition, and object relations using correlational analyses, with mixed results. Lastly, support was found for using the SCORS-G as a tool for discriminating individuals with a history of violent or problematic relationships from those without such a history. Implications for card selection based on card pull and the impact of bland protocols were explored.

South Africa’s foreign policy decisions and behaviours are routinely referred to as “schizophrenic” by scholars and political commentators alike. A malady of the human brain, the World Health Organization (WHO) defines “schizophrenia” as “a severe mental disorder, characterized by profound disruptions in thinking, affecting language, perception, and the sense of self [that] can impair functioning through the loss of an acquired capability to earn a livelihood, or the disruption of studies”. If schizophrenia is a disorder of the human mind, then diagnosing a state with this disorder implies an acceptance of the argument that, indeed, “states are people too”. Yet, for all of the diagnoses of foreign policy schizophrenia handed to the South African state on such a regular basis, very few scholars have seriously contemplated the implications of state personhood for our understanding of politics among nations, and the importance of this approach to International Relations (IR) for research on state behaviours. Pushing Alexander Wendt’s (1999) claim that “states are people too” beyond its present conceptual limits, this research undertakes a personology of South Africa as state-person. “Personology” is, in its simplest form, a science of persons: how they exist in relation to others, how they differ from others, and how their experiences of the world affect their cognitions and behaviours. Persons are more than just identities. Persons have emotions, they maintain relationships with significant Others, and they experience internal conflicts that spark certain defensive behaviours. Behaviours, in turn, take on specific patterns in individuals based on historical experiences of the external world, and on the individual’s internal configuration that predisposes it to certain courses of action that are again based in past experiences of the individual’s interactions with Others. In this sense, the project distinguishes between “identity” and “personality” as two interrelated, but distinct, components of personhood. While constructivist IR to date has contributed significantly to our understanding of state identities, considerations surrounding personality remain unexplored. In the context of the above, the thesis asks the question “how do South Africa’s experiences of relationships with other state-persons shape its behaviour in international politics, and why do these behaviours take on these unique dynamics?” Departing from a reexamination of the South African state’s identity as both difference from and likeness to Others, the thesis incorporates insights from personality theory and psychoanalysis to propose a workable model for analysing state behaviours. Through an examination of significant events from South Africa’s recent foreign relations, the thesis considers both defensive mechanisms employed by the state to protect its Self when faced with criticism from peers, and the reasons why these specific defences are employed in the way that they are employed. An understanding of the functions of narcissistic defences in individuals allows us to make sense of seemingly inconsistent, self-contradictory or incoherent behaviours beyond unexplored accusations of a disordered mind. Persons communicate their Selves, and their experiences of the world, through carefully selected symbols – both linguistic and non-linguistic. The study of these symbols, or semiotics, has long been the purview of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), which takes both linguistic and non-linguistic forms of communication as the foundations of social practice. Drawing heavily on the work of, among others, Foucault, Derrida and Lacan, CDA concerns itself with the social and political context of agency and structure, observable through the lenses of representation, manipulation, interpretation, that is embedded in the discourses of individuals or groups within societies. Discourse is produced with the aim of achieving something; this may simply include positioning the Self within society, communicating with Others to achieve the common aims of the group, or eventually, to change the external world in a way that corresponds to the individual’s inner image of its Self in relation to outside world. Informed by this understanding of discourse as the performance of the Self, and the means through which to satisfy internal desires, the project looks at ways in which the South African Self is narratively constructed and performed in relation to significant Others, and how South Africa attempts to shape the external world according to its own mentalistic images of itself-in-theworld.

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