D.Litt. et Phil. / The present study explores the experiences of abused women who kill their intimate male partners and are imprisoned as a result. It looks at the multiple traumas associated with the abuse, killing and imprisonment. Abuse of women violates their right of freedom and security, as well as the right to be free from torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. The experiences are explored within a prison context in which these women are serving hefty sentences as a means of punishment. This is a means of prosecuting perpetrators by the criminal justice system, thus sending out a message that violence is unacceptable. The prison context is metaphorically and physically associated with phenomenon such as isolation, control, labelling, punishment, reform and rehabilitation, among many others. Social Constructionism as a postmodern epistemology becomes relevant in this study in that the concern is in explicating the process by which people come to describe, explain, or otherwise account for the world (including themselves) in which they live. Therefore, the abused women’s experiences are descriptions to be understood through the analysis of the intersubjective influence of language, family, and culture. The implication being that social construction reflects on that which is said about the world, which is the product of shared conventions of discourse that are guided by and limited by the systems of language that we use. Our understandings of reality are embedded in our patterns of action, and these understandings constrain future constructions. Language as an important tool in social constructionism is embedded in the ideas, concepts and memories arising from social discourse and is found in neither the speaker nor the hearer, but somewhere in between. Furthermore, the context of prison afforded me with the opportunity to experience a sense of communality with the women, which according to a social constructionist stance suggests that reality is co-created between people in their quest for meaning from the interpreted experiences. There is no absolute truth that represents its objectivity, implying that as the researcher, I am not entering the system searching for some single truth that is ultimate. This acknowledges that there are realities and reflexivity of events and situations that look for many alternatives deconstructed and constructed equally between the researcher and participants. In conducting this study, a qualitative method of research was used, which focuses on the description, exploration and elaboration of experiences and perspectives of the people being interviewed. The qualitative method is not concerned with numbers and statistical analysis in the way that the quantitative method is. The participants take active charge in describing and exploring experiences that bring about meaning to them and the study. The researcher is equally involved as the participants, and becomes the participant observer. Whilst the focus was directed towards experiences of abuse and the multiple implications of trauma on abused women, the larger social context of their experiences was acknowledged. Five women offenders who are in the Potchefstroom prison, participated in this research. The women were allowed to elaborate on their experiences as experts in their own lives. Through this interaction a relational process of sharing and support emerges, which is characteristic of therapeutic practices with social constructionism. In-depth semi-structured interviews provided a means to explore their incidents of abuse as perpetrated by their intimate male partners. For the purpose of collecting data, an open-ended questionnaire was used. A thematic content method was used to analyse data. Here themes are identified that represent the meaning of events constructed by the participants themselves. A thematic analysis reflected the following themes: Loss and gain, power and helplessness, hope and despair as well as connection and disconnection. Upon the identification and analysis of themes, the discussion of findings which are integrated using the social constructionist theory, was conducted. From the findings the implications of multiple traumas abused women suffer at the hands of their intimate male partners, and the result of killing and imprisonment, are explored.

A presente pesquisa avaliou as fantasias e a construção da parentalidade em pais de crianças com dermatite atópica. Em alguns casos, desde cedo, os bebês denunciam, por meio de sintomas, possíveis entraves emocionais no vínculo com os pais. Esses obstáculos podem se traduzir em distúrbios psicofuncionais, que são considerados manifestações de ordem somática ou do comportamento da criança, sem causa orgânica, associados a um determinismo psicológico e, de modo geral, sinalizam dificuldades na interação pais/bebê. A dermatite atópica é um bom exemplo de doença psicossomática. Referências bibliográficas apontam que a dermatite atópica pode ter início em qualquer idade; contudo, é considerada uma doença característica da infância. Em relação ao surgimento da dermatite atópica, do ponto de vista biológico, estão associados: pele seca, hipersensibilidade, predisposição genética, reatividade vascular alterada entre outros fatores. Na perspectiva dos aspectos psicológicos, autores da psicanálise associam que as crianças que não tiveram as necessidades de estimulação tátil e cutânea devidamente fornecidas podem desenvolver uma tendência a regredir em seu desenvolvimento emocional com o desenvolvimento ou ressurgimento dos sintomas relacionados à pele. Neste contexto, o objetivo do estudo é investigar as fantasias e a construção da parentalidade em pais de crianças com dermatite atópica. Utilizou-se um método de pesquisa qualitativa. A amostra foi composta por três famílias que tinham um bebê com dermatite atópica, com idade de um a vinte e quatro meses. Primeiramente, foi apresentado aos pais o termo de consentimento. Foi feita uma entrevista semiestruturada com os pais e uma observação psicanalítica com a família, finalizando com uma entrevista de devolutiva para os pais, num total de 3 encontros. Como resultado da pesquisa, percebe-se que, para as mães, o projeto consciente de ter um filho não fazia parte dos seus planos ou surgiu depois de um certo tempo. Observamos que todas elas apresentaram dificuldades em acolher os aspectos infantis de seus filhos, sendo que a subjetividade das crianças era pouco valorizada, Assim, conjecturamos que a dermatite atópica pode ser uma forma que os bebês encontraram para comunicar os entraves. Diferente dos projetos das esposas, dois dos participantes apontaram sobre as aspirações de se tornarem pais, fato que colaborou na vinculação com os filhos / The present research has assessed the fantasies and parenting building in parents of children suffering from atopic dermatitis. In some cases, since early ages, babies report, through symptoms, possible emotional barriers in their relationship with parents. These obstacles may be translated into psychofunctional disorders, which are considered to be the children\'s somatic or behavioral events. with no organic cause, associated to a psychological determinism and, in general, are signs of difficulties in the parents/baby relation. The atopic dermatitis is a good example of psychosomatic disease. Bibliographical references indicate atopic dermatitis may have been initiated in any age; nevertheless it is considered a disease typically from the childhood. Concerning the atopic dermatitis arising from the biological point of view are associated: dry skin, hypersensitivity, genetic predisposition, changed vascular reactivity among other factors. In the perspective of psychological aspects, psychoanalysis authors associate that children who did not have the need for tactile and cutaneous stimulation duly provided may develop a tendency to decline in its emotional development with the resurgence or development of the skin-related symptoms. In this context the study aims at investigating the fantasies and the parenting building in parents of children suffering from atopic dermatitis. A qualitative research method was used. The sample was composed by three families who have a baby suffering from atopic dermatitis, with age from one to twenty four months. A semistructured interview was held with the parents and a psychoanalytic observation with the family, ending in a feedback interview for the parents, encompassing a total of 3 meetings. As a result of the research, it is possible to see that for the mothers the conscious project of having a baby was not part of their plans or they have arisen after a certain time. We observed that all of them presented difficulties in hosting the childish aspects of their offspring, and, the subjectivity of the children was poorly valued. Thus, we conjecture the atopic dermatitis may be a way babies have found to report the barriers. Different from the wives\' projects, the respective partners pointed out the aspirations to become fathers, fact that helped in the connection with their offspring

A teoria freudiana não é um corpo imutável, grandes e importantes alterações são percebidas na sua obra e um exemplo desse quadro é a passagem da primeira para a segunda teoria do aparelho psíquico. Existiram vários fatores que contribuíram para essa mudança teórica, dos quais é possível destacar o narcisismo. Dessa maneira, a presente dissertação objetiva compreender como o desenvolvimento do conceito freudiano de narcisismo impactou a passagem do primeiro para a segundo modelo de aparelho psíquico. A pesquisa realizada foi teórico-conceitual de caráter bibliográfico e empreendeu uma revisão histórica de certos elementos da teoria freudiana. A discussão se organiza a partir de três pontos interligados: 1) a elaboração do primeiro modelo de aparelho psíquico no interior da Interpretação dos sonhos, 2) o desenvolvimento do conceito de narcisismo entre 1910 e 1923 e 3) o papel desse conceito para a proposição do segundo modelo de aparelho psíquico em O ego e o id. O final do processo investigativo permite afirmar que a contribuição do narcisismo para a instauração da segunda tópica se deu prioritariamente a partir de duas vias: na alteração das figuras que compunham o conflito psíquico e na estruturação das instâncias que compõem a segunda tópica / The Freudian theory is not an immutable body, substantial and important alterations are perceived in his work and an example of this is the passage from the first to the second theory of the psychic apparatus. There were various factors that contributed for this theoretical change, from which it is possible to highlight the narcissism. Thus, the present dissertation aims to understand how the development of the Freudian concept of narcissism impacted the passage from the first to the second model of psychic apparatus. The research made was of a theoretical-conceptual bibliographical character and undertook a historical revision of certain elements of the Freudian theory. The discussion is organized from three interconnected points: 1) the elaboration of the first model of the psychic apparatus inside The Interpretation of Dreams, 2) the development of the narcissism concept between 1910 and 1923 and 3) the role of this concept for the proposition of the second model of psychic apparatus in The Ego and the Id. The end of the investigative process makes it possible to affirm that the contribution of narcissism to the establishment of the second topic was promoted predominantly from two ways: in the alteration of the figures that composed the psychic conflict and in the structuralization of the elements that compose the second topic

A presente dissertação configura-se como uma interrogação à teoria psicanalítica acerca das ressonâncias do traumatismo na função psíquica da memória. Ambos são conceitos que remetem aos fundamentos da psicanálise, apontando para a constituição do psiquismo, bem como para seus limites. A dissertação procura ampliar o estudo da temática para além da obra de Freud e alcançar as contribuições de Sandor Ferenczi e seus desdobramentos na obra de Nicolas Abraham e Maria Torok. Em Freud, as relações de trauma e memória, principalmente a partir da conceituação de um além do princípio do prazer, apontam para o funcionamento, ou melhor, às falhas de funcionamento nos limites do psíquico - entre corpo e psique, entre percepção e representação - responsáveis pela instauração da memória e a diferenciação psíquica. O traumático foi associado à dinâmica da pulsão de morte e a da angústia automática, que faz continuamente uma demanda de trabalho psíquico, de ligação, anterior à instauração do princípio de prazer. Quando não há possibilidade de ligação e transcrição do acontecimento, seus efeitos apresentam-se de forma negativa como danos narcísicos. Ferenczi considera o papel do objeto como determinante em relação ao destino traumático de um acontecimento. Caso o objeto não possa adaptar-se às necessidades do sujeito e fornecer ou legitimar um sentido ao vivido, interrompe-se o processo de introjeção e inscrição psíquica. Frente ao desamparo psíquico decorrente da ausência de investimento do objeto, o psiquismo se defende por meio da clivagem das impressões traumáticas ou imerge em comoção, da qual não resta memória. Nicolas Abraham e Maria Torok acrescentam que um acontecimento que permaneceu clivado no psiquismo de uma geração - impossibilitado de circulação e figurabilidade - é transmitido enquanto lacuna de memória para a próxima geração. A imagem do trauma como avesso da memória é paradoxal, pois remete tanto às impressões que aguardam uma revelação por meio de uma ligação com uma imagem, no modelo dos sonhos traumáticos, como à pura negatividade relativa à falta de representação, da qual um sentido pode advir mediante somente uma construção que produza um sentimento de convicção. Tal imagem paradoxal pretende oferecer uma reserva psíquica/teórica ao analista enquanto uma figurabilidade possível das ressonâncias do traumático na memória. / The present essay comprises of an interrogation to psychoanalysis theory about the consequences of trauma in the memory psychic role. Both of them are concepts that refer to the psychoanalysis fundamentals, leading to the psychism constitution, as well as to its boundaries. The dissertation attempts to expand the set of themes beyond Freuds work and reaches out Sandor Ferenczis contributions and its unfoldings into Nicolas Abraham and Maria Toroks works. In Freuds, the connections within trauma and memory, especially from the conceptualization of a further than the pleasure principle, point out to the functioning, or even better, the non-functioning gaps at the psychism boundaries - between body and psyche, within perception and representation responsible for memory establishment and psychic differentiation. The traumatic was associated to death instinct and the automatic anguish, which continuously calls forth a psychic work demand, of connection, prior to the pleasure principle instauration. When there is no possibility of connection and transcription of the incident, its effects present themselves in a negative way such as narcissistic damage. Ferenczi considers the object role as determinant on the traumatic event destination. In case the object can not adapt to the subjects needs and provide or legitimate a meaning to what was lived, there is an interruption on the process of introjection and psychic inscription. Face the psychic abandonment due to the absence of the object investment, the psychism defends itself through the cleavage of the traumatic impressions or it immerges in comotion, of which remains no memory. Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok add that an event that has remained cleaved in the psychism of a generation incapable of circulation and figurability is forwarded to the next generation as a memory lacuna. The image of trauma as the inverted side of the memory is paradoxical, once it refers to the impressions that await a revelation through a link with an image, in the traumatic dreams model, as much as to the pure negativity related to the lack of representation, from which a meaning can only occur by means of a construction that produces a conviction feeling. Such self-contradictory image intends to offer a theoretic/psychic restraint to the analist as a possible figurability of the resonances of the traumatic in the memory.

Com a Reforma Psiquiátrica, que propõe a redução da hospitalização e aumento dos serviços na comunidade, a família tornou-se elemento importante na assistência do paciente, passando a assumir inúmeras responsabilidades entre as quais a administração e controle dos medicamentos do doente mental. É de grande importância que o familiar da pessoa em sofrimento psíquico possua informações básicas para a correta administração dos medicamentos. A proposta deste estudo foi verificar o conhecimento do familiar da pessoa em sofrimento psíquico sobre a terapêutica medicamentosa. Tratou-se de estudo quantitativo descritivo exploratório, realizado no Programa de Saúde da Família - Jardim Albertina de uma cidade do interior do Estado de São Paulo. Os sujeitos do estudo foram os familiares dos usuários que pertencem ao referido programa, contando, portanto, com um quantitativo de 61 entrevistas, as quais foram realizadas a partir de um instrumento de coleta de dados previamente elaborado. Ressaltou-se que as mesmas foram obtidas após aprovação do Comitê de Ética e da autorização, por escrito, dos participantes do estudo. Dentre os resultados destacou-se, no que concerne à indicação do medicamento, que somente 36,1% da amostra apresentou conhecimento correto. Quanto à dosagem, teve-se 72,1% apresentando respostas incorretas. Teve-se ainda 26,2% de respostas inadequadas acerca do horário da medicação. Quanto aos efeitos colaterais, 75,4% apresentaram respostas incorretas. Notou-se, assim, um diminuto conhecimento por parte do familiar da pessoa em sofrimento psíquico acerca da terapêutica. É necessária a elaboração de novos estudos com o objetivo de proporcionar a tais familiares um nível de conhecimento que proporcione uma administração de medicamentos e um acompanhamento desse indivíduo com maior responsabilidade e segurança. / With Psychiatric Improvement, which proposes a reduction in hospital confinement and an increase in services towards community, the family became a major element to the patient’s follow-up, having to undertake several responsibilities among which, the administration and control of the patient’s medication. It’s of major importance that the family members of persons, who endure psychic suffering, need basic information for the correct administration of their medication. In this case, the family often undertakes the responsibility and needs some knowledge in order to follow the medication treatment. This study aims to verify the knowledge of family members of persons experiencing psychic suffering, concerning the medication therapy that these persons are subject to. A descriptive and exploratory quantitative study was carried out at the Family Health Program - Jardim Albertina, in a city in the country of São Paulo State, Brasil. Study subjects were family members of users who take part in this program. Thus, our quantitative base consisted of 61 interviews, which were carried out on the basis of a previously elaborated data collection instrument. It is highlighted that these interviews were obtained after the approval by the Ethics Committee and the written authorization from the study participants. Results disclosed that only 36.1% of the sample demonstrated correct knowledge in relation to the indications of the medication. 72.1% of incorrect answers were obtained about dosage, while 26.2% of inadequate answers were obtained about the time of medication intake. As to side effects, 75.4% gave incorrect answers. Therefore, we observed little knowledge among the family members of persons enduring psychic suffering, concerning medication treatment that these persons are subject to. Further research is required to provide these family members with a level of knowledge, which results in safer and more responsible medication administration and follow-up.

From 1914 to 1940 Russia lived through a series of traumatic events: World War I, the Bolshevik revolution, the Civil War, famine, and the Bolshevik and subsequently Stalinist terror. These events precipitated and facilitated a complete breakdown of the status quo associated with the tsarist regime and led to the emergence and eventual pervasive presence of a culture of violence propagated by the Bolshevik regime. This dissertation explores how the ongoing exposure to trauma impaired ordinary perception and everyday language use, which, in turn, informed literary language use in the writings of Viktor Shklovsky, the prominent Formalist theoretician, and of the avant-garde writer, Daniil Kharms. While trauma studies usually focus on the reconstructive and redeeming features of trauma narratives, I invite readers to explore the structural features of literary language and how these features parallel mechanisms of cognitive processing, established by medical research, that take place in the mind affected by traumatic encounters. Central to my analysis are Shklovsky's memoir A Sentimental Journey and his early articles on the theory of prose "Art as Device" and "The Relationship between Devices of Plot Construction and General Devices of Style" and Daniil Karms's theoretical writings on the concepts of "nothingness," "circle," and "zero," and his prose work written in the 1930s. My analysis probes into various modes in which trauma can present itself in a text, in forms other than semantic content, and points to what distinguishes a modernist text from one written under the impairing conditions of trauma, despite their structural similarities.

No description available.

A presente dissertação configura-se como uma interrogação à teoria psicanalítica acerca das ressonâncias do traumatismo na função psíquica da memória. Ambos são conceitos que remetem aos fundamentos da psicanálise, apontando para a constituição do psiquismo, bem como para seus limites. A dissertação procura ampliar o estudo da temática para além da obra de Freud e alcançar as contribuições de Sandor Ferenczi e seus desdobramentos na obra de Nicolas Abraham e Maria Torok. Em Freud, as relações de trauma e memória, principalmente a partir da conceituação de um além do princípio do prazer, apontam para o funcionamento, ou melhor, às falhas de funcionamento nos limites do psíquico - entre corpo e psique, entre percepção e representação - responsáveis pela instauração da memória e a diferenciação psíquica. O traumático foi associado à dinâmica da pulsão de morte e a da angústia automática, que faz continuamente uma demanda de trabalho psíquico, de ligação, anterior à instauração do princípio de prazer. Quando não há possibilidade de ligação e transcrição do acontecimento, seus efeitos apresentam-se de forma negativa como danos narcísicos. Ferenczi considera o papel do objeto como determinante em relação ao destino traumático de um acontecimento. Caso o objeto não possa adaptar-se às necessidades do sujeito e fornecer ou legitimar um sentido ao vivido, interrompe-se o processo de introjeção e inscrição psíquica. Frente ao desamparo psíquico decorrente da ausência de investimento do objeto, o psiquismo se defende por meio da clivagem das impressões traumáticas ou imerge em comoção, da qual não resta memória. Nicolas Abraham e Maria Torok acrescentam que um acontecimento que permaneceu clivado no psiquismo de uma geração - impossibilitado de circulação e figurabilidade - é transmitido enquanto lacuna de memória para a próxima geração. A imagem do trauma como avesso da memória é paradoxal, pois remete tanto às impressões que aguardam uma revelação por meio de uma ligação com uma imagem, no modelo dos sonhos traumáticos, como à pura negatividade relativa à falta de representação, da qual um sentido pode advir mediante somente uma construção que produza um sentimento de convicção. Tal imagem paradoxal pretende oferecer uma reserva psíquica/teórica ao analista enquanto uma figurabilidade possível das ressonâncias do traumático na memória. / The present essay comprises of an interrogation to psychoanalysis theory about the consequences of trauma in the memory psychic role. Both of them are concepts that refer to the psychoanalysis fundamentals, leading to the psychism constitution, as well as to its boundaries. The dissertation attempts to expand the set of themes beyond Freuds work and reaches out Sandor Ferenczis contributions and its unfoldings into Nicolas Abraham and Maria Toroks works. In Freuds, the connections within trauma and memory, especially from the conceptualization of a further than the pleasure principle, point out to the functioning, or even better, the non-functioning gaps at the psychism boundaries - between body and psyche, within perception and representation responsible for memory establishment and psychic differentiation. The traumatic was associated to death instinct and the automatic anguish, which continuously calls forth a psychic work demand, of connection, prior to the pleasure principle instauration. When there is no possibility of connection and transcription of the incident, its effects present themselves in a negative way such as narcissistic damage. Ferenczi considers the object role as determinant on the traumatic event destination. In case the object can not adapt to the subjects needs and provide or legitimate a meaning to what was lived, there is an interruption on the process of introjection and psychic inscription. Face the psychic abandonment due to the absence of the object investment, the psychism defends itself through the cleavage of the traumatic impressions or it immerges in comotion, of which remains no memory. Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok add that an event that has remained cleaved in the psychism of a generation incapable of circulation and figurability is forwarded to the next generation as a memory lacuna. The image of trauma as the inverted side of the memory is paradoxical, once it refers to the impressions that await a revelation through a link with an image, in the traumatic dreams model, as much as to the pure negativity related to the lack of representation, from which a meaning can only occur by means of a construction that produces a conviction feeling. Such self-contradictory image intends to offer a theoretic/psychic restraint to the analist as a possible figurability of the resonances of the traumatic in the memory.

The works of creative writing which culminate in this thesis explore themes of everyday trauma, the gendered body as rendered in writing, and writing as propelled by the aural senses above factors such as logic and plot. Dysphoria of identity through gendered, geographical, and institutional means pervades each work in instances that range from the subtle to the all-consuming. Rhythm and intuition bond at the sentence level in each work, rendering a wildness to the pages. Moved by sensation rather than a drive to make something abundantly clear, the revelations of reading arrive at a level of the associative, the dreamy, and the sound of certain syllables and words as juxtaposed with deliberation posing as spontaneity. Grappling with a simultaneous urge to assimilate and to reject societal and geographical cultural norms, there is a fraught tension and a charged friction to the entire thesis herein.

Current theories of PTSD propose that impaired retrieval of trauma memories may impede processing of these memories and subsequent trauma recovery. This thesis investigated memory retrieval processes in trauma survivors with and without symptoms of posttraumatic stress, and in non-traumatised individuals exposed to a highly arousing event. Study 1 examined deliberate avoidance of unwanted memories in recent trauma survivors. The results indicated that attempts to forget were associated with poorer recall of forgotten information, but the size of this effect did not depend on the presence or absence of Acute Stress Disorder (ASD). Study 2 investigated automatic retrieval inhibition in trauma survivors with or without Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The results suggested that repeated retrieval of trauma-related information by individuals with PTSD can cause inhibition of related, but unpractised information. Studies 3 and 4 examined the relationship between the vantage point of trauma memories, avoidance and posttraumatic stress symptomatology. The findings indicated that recalling a traumatic event from an observer perspective is associated with post trauma avoidance. They also showed that an observer vantage point in the initial few weeks after trauma is associated with poorer long-term post trauma adjustment. Studies 5, 6 and 7 were analogue studies which analysed the impact of heightened arousal on memory retrieval in novice skydivers. The results suggested that elevated arousal can interfere with retrieval of information related to the arousal-inducing event. Study 7 also indicated that autobiographical memory for the event may be impaired. Finally, Study 8 examined the qualities of trauma memories that were accessed via different modes of retrieval. The results provided evidence that intrusive memories were experienced as more realistic and with more intense affect than memories for the same event that were deliberately retrieved. Together, the findings of this program of research extend current theories of PTSD by highlighting the mechanisms through which retrieval of trauma memories may be impaired. The results suggest that the quality of trauma memories is affected by avoidance processes, elevated arousal and level of conscious control the individual exerts over retrieval.