Research has shown that loneliness and social isolation have a significant negative impact on the physical and psychological health of older adults living in the UK, impacting not only on their quality of life, but on society as a whole through increased use of health services. There is a movement, however, that is committed to alleviating loneliness in older adults through befriending: where an unrelated volunteer gives their time to provide companionship on a regular basis to an individual in their own home. Drawing on the author’s personal experience as a befriender, there is an emotive and affective dimension to caring, that is often contradictory and conflictual, and that is missing from the current, predominantly descriptive qualitative literature in this area. Applying psychoanalytic concepts to sociological and psychological research, specifically the free association narrative interview technique (Hollway and Jefferson, 2000) and using transference and countertransference to support analysis and interpretation, produces data that contradicts previous views of the volunteer as rational, intentional, and coherent in their understanding and explanation of their own behaviour. This study has shown that the befriending experience is highly affective and often conflictual, producing similar anxiety that the both the befriender and the organisation through which they volunteer strive to alleviate. There are conflicting tensions between caring and sacrifice and in between being a friend but in fact restricted in the ‘behaviours’ that constitute this friendship. A richer understanding of the experience of befriending, from the point of view of the befriender, can help support organisations in the recruitment and retention of volunteer befrienders, as well as helping to develop further befriending services for older people based on this new knowledge.

This thesis explores how we might think the relation between psychoanalysis and the cultural field through Donald Winnicott's concept of the environment, seeking to bring the concept into dialogue with more “classical” strands of psychoanalytic theorizing. A substantial introduction sets out the rationale behind the thesis by reading Freud and Winnicott in relation to the “classic” and the “romantic” (Strenger 1989), or the “negative” and “positive” (Rustin 2001), in psychoanalytic thought. It goes on to outline the value of bringing these tendencies together in order to think the relationship between psychoanalysis, culture and change. The chapters which follow move from psychoanalysis as a “cultural cure” – a method and discourse drawing on and feeding into a broad conception of cultural life – towards a notion of “culture as cure” informed by Winnicott's theory of the environment. Chapter one examines Freud's refusal of the “culture”/ “civilization” distinction and considers what it means for the idea of a cultural cure. Chapter two considers whether Winnicott's thinking about “culture” ultimately prioritises the aesthetic over the political. Chapter three uses Aldous Huxley's Brave New World ([1932] 1994) to explore an analogy between totalitarianism, technology and maternal care. Chapter four turns to the series In Treatment (HBO 2008-) to think about the intersections of therapy and technology in terms of reflection and recognition. Chapter five employs Ian McEwan's Saturday (2005) as a means to reflect on the capacity of culture to cure. Ultimately, I suggest that social “cure” may require more than “good-enough” cultural forms and objects, but Winnicott's “romantic” theorization of the aesthetic, coupled with a “classic” attention to structures of power and oppression may offer a means of thinking the relationship between psychoanalysis and culture in potentially transformative ways.

A proposta desta pesquisa baseia-se num diálogo entre Psicanálise e Direito, através da função do testemunho na Justiça Restaurativa. Para tanto, primeiramente aponta algumas das principais problemáticas na articulação dessas duas áreas, através de autores da psicanálise, principalmente. Em seguida, realiza uma breve contextualização da crítica sobre o desenvolvimento do sistema jurídico (com M. Foucault) e da questão da penalidade e a partir daí contextualiza a proposta Justiça Restaurativa. Dessa proposta, depreende a questão do perdão e da culpa, aqui abordados pelo viés da psicanálise e da filosofia (com J. Derrida e H. Arent) e aponta, ainda, para questões advindas da filosofia do Direito (através de F. Ost), como sobre o lugar de Juiz, entre outras. Por fim, sublinha a questão da performatividade dos atos de fala, critica a função do testemunho e suas relações com a memória, com a história e, ainda, com a Utopia. Como metodologia, se vale da pesquisa em psicanálise. / This research's proposition is based on a dialogue between Psychoanalysis and Law, through the testimony's functions on Restorative Justice. Therefore, primarily it points some of the main articulational issues of both areas, through psychoanalysis authors, principally. After, it does a brief critical contexting about the development of the law system (with M. Foucault) and of the matter of penalty and based on this it contexts the proposition of Restorative Justice. From this proposition, it infers the matters of forgiveness and guilt, boarded from the perspective of psychoanalysis and philosophy (with J. Derrida and H. Arent) and points, although, to matters come from Law's philosophy (through F. Ost), as the place of the Judge, among others. Finally, it underlines the matter of the performactivity of the speeching act, criticizes the testimony's function and its relations to memory, to history, and even to Utopia. As methodology, it exploits of the psychoanalysis' research.

Esta pesquisa propõe uma investigação teórica acerca do transexualismo, buscando instrumentos que possam abrir novas possibilidades de compreensão e tratamento do fenômeno para além do campo da patologia. Inicialmente, expõe sua definição clássica e a distinção diagnóstica de quadros clínicos próximos. Interroga a literatura sobre a possibilidade de que o transexualismo seja um fenômeno atemporal e analisa suas especificidades históricas contemporâneas. Num segundo momento, trata do desenvolvimento da identidade sexual segundo Freud e segundo Stoller, que importou para a psicanálise a noção de gênero. Aborda a teoria de gênero de Butler e as questões que endereça à psicanálise de cunho estrutural, que ratificaria a visão patologizante dos gêneros ininteligíveis prevalecente na cultura heteronormativa da modernidade. Debate sobre a pertinência da determinação de uma identidade transexual. Finalmente, discorre sobre a clínica que relega o transexualismo ao campo da patologia sustentada pelas teorias de Stoller e de alguns psicanalistas lacanianos. Como forma de se contrapor a tal clínica, esta pesquisa trabalha as noções psicanalíticas de Verleugnung, semblante, gozo e sinthoma. Contempla o registro do real, privilegiado nos últimos momentos da obra lacaniana, a partir do qual o caráter patologizante da clínica psicanalítica é esvaziado: a direção é a singularidade de cada sujeito. Conseqüentemente, a psicanálise lacaniana se desvencilha da heteronormatividade, abrindo lugar para a legitimação de novas manifestações da sexualidade / This research proposes a theoretical investigation of transsexuality, seeking the means to open new possibilities to understand and treat this phenomenon outside the field of pathology. First, it refers to the classic definition of transsexuality and to a diagnostical distinction of related clinical cases. It questions the literature on the possibility that transsexuality might be a timeless phenomenon, and it analyzes its contemporary historical particularities. Secondly, it covers the development of a sexual identity according to Freud and then according to Stoller, who imported the concept of gender into the psychoanalysis. It addresses Butler\'s theory of gender and the issues this theory directs to structural psychoanalysis, which would ratify the pathologizing view of the unintelligible genders that prevail in the modern day heteronormative culture. It debates the pertinence of determining a transsexual identity. Finally, it considers the practice defended in theories by Stoller and by some Lacanian psychoanalysts that relegates transsexuality to the field of pathology. In order to counterbalance the aforementioned practice, this research considers the psychoanalytical notions of Verleugnung, semblance, jouissance and sinthome. It contemplates the order of the Real, favored in the last instances of the Lacanian work, from where the pathologizing character of the psychoanalytical practice is abandoned: the route is the singularity of each subject. Consequently, Lacanian psychoanalysis detaches itself from heteronormativity, making space for the legitimization of new manifestations of the sexuality

Esta dissertação busca interrogar a relação entre o obsceno e o suicídio, levando em conta a teoria psicanalítica. Inicia-se falando sobre a leitura de Durkheim sobre o suicídio e diferentes abordagens psicanalíticas sobre o tema. Opta-se por seguir a leitura de Jinkis e Pipink, que entendem que o suicídio pode ser lido como ato, ato falho, passagem ao ato ou acting out. Então, uma breve apresentação sobre cada um desses conceitos é feita, seguida pela análise de como um suicídio pode ser lido em cada uma dessas situações. Logo, parte-se para uma reflexão acerca do obsceno, que é entendido como o que não pode ser colocado em cena. Relaciona-se o obsceno com a morte, que é mostrada em sua vertente repugnante, que está relacionada com o impensável de nossa desaparição. Uma vez que o obsceno comporta a dialética mostrar-ocultar, ele coloca em jogo a pulsão escópica e, por conseguinte, a questão do olhar em psicanálise é abordada. O olhar é entendido como uma das vertentes do objeto a e se relaciona com o desejo de ver, desejo de saber. Por fim, aborda-se a relação entre o obsceno e o suicídio, sustentando-se a ideia de que o suicídio pode ter um lugar obsceno. / This dissertation seeks to interrogate the relationship between suicide and the obscene considering the psychoanalytic theory. Starts talking about Durkheim’s reading on suicide and different psychoanalytic approaches to the topic. Is chosen to follow the reading of Jinkis and Pipink who understand that suicide can be read as an act, Freudian slip, passage to the act or acting in out. Then, a brief presentation on each of these concepts is made, followed by how a suicide can be read in each of these situations. So, we go to a reflection about the obscene, which is understood as what can not be put into play. Relates obscene with death that is shown in its disgusting aspect, which is related to the unthinkable of our disappearance. Once obscene involves the dialectical show and hide, it brings into play the scopic drive, therefore the question the gaze in psychoanalysis is discussed. The gaze is understood as one aspect of the object a and it relates to the desire to see, desire to know. Finally, it handles the relationship between the obscene and suicide, where it supports the idea that suicide may have a obscene place.

Cette thèse propose une investigation sur la manière dont les sujets se constituent dans la psychanalyse à partir des discours de vérité qu’ils tiennent sur eux-mêmes. Nous basant sur la pensée de Michel Foucault, nous avons défini pour notre recherche deux orientations méthodologiques : (1) le premier axe consiste à étudier comment les discours de vérité d’une époque déterminent des modalités d’être pour des sujets ; (2) un second axe vise à analyser comment le sujet se constitue par les discours de vérité qu’il énonce à son sujet. Nous émettons l’hypothèse que les différentes modalités de rapport entre le sujet et la vérité procèdent d’une formation historique et que pour comprendre comment la pratique du dire vrai sur soi dans la psychanalyse implique un certain mode de constitution du sujet, il est nécessaire de passer par une analyse de cette pratique d’un point de vue généalogique. Dans la première partie du travail, nous considérons comment certains discours et pratiques porteurs de rapports de pouvoir dans la modernité ont formulés des vérités sur le sujet : l’élaboration d’une anthropologie avec la formation des sciences humaines ; la production d’une science du sujet à partir d’une histoire de la sexualité. Dans la deuxième partie, nous orientons notre recherche sur l’histoire des relations entre le sujet et la vérité à partir de la problématique du gouvernement. Cheminant avec Foucault le long de ses lectures successives de la tragédie Œdipe Roi de Sophocle, nous identifions un lien significatif entre des anciennes pratiques de vérité et des formes de subjectivité, au point que l’établissement de la justice exige que la vérité puisse être dite sous la forme d’un « je ». Mais si celui qui dit la vérité en première personne dans Œdipe est différent de celui qui dit la vérité dans les premiers siècles du christianisme, alors il importe de définir au moyen de quelles techniques et pratiques de vérité le christianisme a introduit une rupture dans l’histoire de la subjectivité entre les anciens modes d’être sujet et ceux qui constituent la généalogie du sujet moderne. Suivant l’hypothèse de Foucault, nous identifions dans cette rupture la formation d’une herméneutique de soi. Dans la troisième partie, nous abordons l’exigence de formulation d’un énoncé de vérité dans l'histoire de la psychiatrie et ses conséquences dans la constitution de la psychanalyse. Le dire vrai sur soi de la psychanalyse doit prendre en compte l’élaboration d’une théorie du sujet qui, en contestant la pensée anthropologique, s’insère dans une science de la sexualité. Le dire vrai sur soi de la psychanalyse pose à nouveau le problème des rapports entre le sujet et la vérité au sein d’une herméneutique de soi, dans la mesure où le sujet de la psychanalyse se constitue dans un rapport étroit à la vérité qui passe nécessairement par le langage, par l’expérience de la finitude et par l’autre. Notre recherche se clôt sur la proposition d’une alternative à ce modèle de subjectivité avec une analyse de la pratique de la parrêsia dans l’Antiquité, pratique qui se déploie à travers une esthétique de l’existence selon les dimensions d’une éthique et d’une politique de soi. / This thesis proposes an investigation on the constitution of subjects in psychoanalysis through discourses of truth. Based on the studies developed by Michel Foucault, we define two methodological orientations for our research: (1) the first one consists in analyzing how the discourses of truth of a historical period determine modalities of being for the subjects; (2) and the second aims to examine how the subject is constituted by the discourses of truth that he tells about himself. Our hypothesis is that the different modalities of relationship between subject and truth have a historical formation and that it is necessary to analyze its genealogy in order to understand how the practice of truth-telling about oneself in psychoanalysis implies a certain constitution of the subjects. In the first part, we consider how some discourses and practices involving power relations in modernity have formulated truths about the subject: the development of an anthropology with the formation of the human sciences; the production of a science of the subject from a history of sexuality. In the second part, we orient our research towards a history of the relationship between subject and truth, considering the problematic of the government. Based on Foucault’s studies on the tragedy Oedipus the King by Sophocles, we identify a significant link between practices of truth in Antiquity and forms of subjectivity; for the establishment of justice, the truth needed to be said by an “I”. But if the first person who tells the truth in Oedipus is different from the first person who tells the truth in the first centuries of Christianity, it would be necessary to define from what techniques and practices of truth Christianity has promoted a rupture in the history of subjectivity between the ways of being subject in Antiquity and those that constitute a genealogy of the modern subject. Following Foucault’s hypothesis, we see in this rupture the establishment of a hermeneutics of the self. In the third part, we discuss the requirement to formulate statements of truth in the history of psychiatry and its consequences for the constitution of psychoanalysis. Truth-telling about oneself in psychoanalysis must consider the elaboration of a theory of the subject that, contesting the anthropological thought, participates in a science of sexuality. Truth-telling about oneself in psychoanalysis relocates the problem of the relationship between subject and truth into the hermeneutics of the self, and this insofar as the psychoanalytic subject is constituted by a close relationship with the truth that necessarily passes through language, the experience of finitude and the other. Finally, we present an alternative to this model of subjectivity through the characterization of the practice of parrhêsia in Antiquity, which encompasses an aesthetic of existence related to an ethics and a politics of the self.

This research takes up psychoanalysis as an analytical lens to examine participants' literacy narratives, particularly how critical discourses are engaged and resisted, in order to generate multiple and competing definitions of what it means to be critical in the composition classroom. Using autoethnography as research method, participants narrated their literacy histories by anchoring personal stories in the broader cultural and social contexts of their lives. The researcher lays out competing definitions of criticality as refracted through each participant's narrative arc, ultimately suggesting how teachers of composition might use autoethnography as a way of doing critical work.

Understanding the purpose and functional dynamics of those suffering with a clinical diagnosis is one of the first steps in conceptualizing effective interventions in psychotherapy. This bloc focuses on case conceptualization from diagnosis to treatment, using Adlerian principles to help re-direct clients toward the useful side of life. Working with anxiety, depression, trauma, and schizophrenia and delusional disorders is emphasised.

Book Summary: Psychopathology & Psychotherapy: DSM-5 Diagnosis, Case Conceptualization, and Treatment, Third Edition differs from other psychopathology and abnormal psychology books. While other books focus on describing diagnostic conditions, this book focus on the critical link between psychopathology and psychotherapy. More specifically, it links diagnostic evaluation, case conceptualization, and treatment selection to psychotherapy practice. Research affirms that knowledge and awareness of these links is essential in planning and providing highly effective psychotherapy. This third edition incorporates detailed case conceptualizations and treatment considerations for the DSM-5 diagnoses most commonly seen in everyday clinical practice. Extensive case studies illustrate the diagnostic, case conceptualization, and treatment process in a way that makes it come alive. Written by practicing clinicians with expertise in specific disorders, this book will be an invaluable resource to both novice and experienced clinicians.

A belief shared by all members of the research team was that evaluation is a tool that can be used to improve the effectiveness of clinical practice. Prompted by this interest, a research project was designed to gather descriptive data about evaluation in the private sector. The research question reads: To what extent and in what way are licensed clinical psychologists and clinical MSW's in the private sector involved in evaluating their practice? a. Are these clinicians using formative and/or summative evaluation? b. What techniques and/or mental processes do they use?