The quality of the patient-therapist relationship, or therapeutic alliance, is widely viewed as an important element of the psychotherapeutic process. Empirically, the therapeutic alliance is a well-established and robust predictor of therapeutic change. With its clear impact on therapeutic success, researchers have increasingly examined factors that contribute to alliance development, including patient psychological characteristics. This study examined the relationship between patients' object relations (i.e., mental representations of self and others) and alliance quality, and whether timing of the alliance rating and the rater perspective (patient vs. therapist) moderated this relationship. Participants were 73 patients and 23 therapists from two outpatient mental health clinics. Patients completed the Bell Object Relations Inventory at baseline, and both patients and therapists completed the Working Alliance Inventory across multiple therapy sessions. On average, patients perceived the alliance more positively than their therapists, and there was a small, but statistically significant, correlation between their perspectives. Patients' general object relations deficits, as well as greater alienation and insecure attachment, were associated with more negative patient-rated alliance quality. On the other hand, patients' greater egocentricity was associated with a more positive patient-rated alliance perception. Patients' object relations did not significantly predict therapist-rated alliance, but symptom severity did. Less severe patient symptomatology was associated with more positive therapist alliance perception. Symptom severity did not predict patient-rated alliance. The number of sessions in which patients engaged was positively associated with therapist-rated alliance, while patient-rated alliance remained stable across sessions. Time of the alliance assessment did not moderate the relationship between object relations and either patient- or therapist-rated alliance. The results suggest that it may be important to consider patients' presenting quality of object relations for treatment planning and for negotiating the therapeutic alliance.

This dissertation explores changing form and political purpose in selected works of Ronnie Govender, by analysing reasons for the shifts in Govender’s choice of genre, and the effects of these genre shifts in his work. Govender is unusual in that he has chosen to recast certain of his most popular works into different genres, throwing up questions of context and impact as associated with these works. The investigation of a selection of Govender’s works that have appeared in at least two genres over a period of change in South Africa allows for an examination of political impact on Govender’s works both during and post apartheid. This study will be analysed within a range of theatre ‘isms’ and theories which influenced Govender’s skills in the theatre. These are important to situate Govender as, firstly, in his early career, a theatre practitioner. Attention will be given to Constantin Stanislavski and the Method Acting Theory, (1937) as the philosophies advocated by Stanislavski were particularly useful to Govender for the staging and performance of his plays. Reference will be made to the ‘Theatre of Commitment’, Community Theatre, Indigenous Theatre, Theatre of the Oppressed and Epic Theatre, as elements of these theories feature in Govender’s writing and stage performances. Some focus will also be given to Zakes Mda (1993), as both Mda and Govender are associated with the ‘Theatre of Commitment’, and share a vision of socio-political change through theatre and literature. As contributors to the South African literary canon, Mda and Govender continuously reinvent themselves through their experimentation with form which results in them consistently producing new works. In addition, this dissertation also examines audience reception of Govender’s stage performances and reader reception in his texts, and this allows for a brief investigation into Reception Theory. The theories of Wolfgang Iser (1978), Stanley Fish (1980) Hans Robert Jauss (in Bahti 1982) and Susan Bennett (1990) will be referred to in so far as they inform the reception of the works selected for the purposes of this study. In order to contextualise Govender as a writer of both plays and prose, a brief biography of his life and his work will be undertaken. The findings of researchers such as Rajendra Chetty (2002) and Pallavi Rastogi (2008) who have studied the work of South African Indian writers will be drawn on in order to contextualise Govender’s writing particularly and his position as a South African Indian writer generally. This dissertation assesses Govender’s contribution to the South African canon, and forwards him as an example of a South African writer who is pointing to new directions in writing. The fictional works selected for this dissertation which best illustrate political purpose, changing form and the changing dynamics of reader-audience response, include The Lahnee’s Pleasure as play, The Lahnee’s Pleasure as novel; “1949”, first as short story then as play; and “At the Edge”, first as short story then as play. These works which have appeared as both play and prose (novel and short story) have been chosen for their versatility and suitability to different genres and because Govender has chosen to recast them in new forms. Reasons for this will be explored. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

<p>Syftet med denna uppsats är att granska hur begrepp betecknande män och maskulinitet, och framförallt begreppet den nya mannen, användes och förstods i receptionen av Ronnie Sandahls debutroman Vi som aldrig sa hora. Utifrån en diskurs- och queerteoretisk ram identifieras olika diskurser som ställs mot varandra, och de diskursiva konsekvenserna av vad begreppet sägs beteckna problematiseras. De två övergripande diskurserna som blottläggs är en jämställdhetsdiskurs, som ser den nya mannen som progressiv, samt en feministiskt förankrad diskurs, som ifrågasätter begreppet och sätter det i relation till ett patriarkat. En närliggande diskurs är föreställningen att unga män idag sägs brottas med motstridiga förväntningar och krav på maskulinitet, vilket är en förståelse som i huvudsak delas av samtliga diskursordningar - här råder diskursiv konsensus. Uppsatsen visar också att ingen av recensenterna problematiserar begreppet man, eller förhållandet mellan män och maskulinitet. Detta förstås som att den förändring avseende maskulinitet och genusnormer som recensenterna vill påskina endast är skenbar.</p>

Syftet med denna uppsats är att granska hur begrepp betecknande män och maskulinitet, och framförallt begreppet den nya mannen, användes och förstods i receptionen av Ronnie Sandahls debutroman Vi som aldrig sa hora. Utifrån en diskurs- och queerteoretisk ram identifieras olika diskurser som ställs mot varandra, och de diskursiva konsekvenserna av vad begreppet sägs beteckna problematiseras. De två övergripande diskurserna som blottläggs är en jämställdhetsdiskurs, som ser den nya mannen som progressiv, samt en feministiskt förankrad diskurs, som ifrågasätter begreppet och sätter det i relation till ett patriarkat. En närliggande diskurs är föreställningen att unga män idag sägs brottas med motstridiga förväntningar och krav på maskulinitet, vilket är en förståelse som i huvudsak delas av samtliga diskursordningar - här råder diskursiv konsensus. Uppsatsen visar också att ingen av recensenterna problematiserar begreppet man, eller förhållandet mellan män och maskulinitet. Detta förstås som att den förändring avseende maskulinitet och genusnormer som recensenterna vill påskina endast är skenbar.

No abstract available. / M.A. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2014.