Externalizing and Unpacking the Problem:Understanding Symptoms and Suffering

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
SuEllen Hamkins
Keyword(s):  
Effective Treatment ◽  
Therapeutic Practice ◽  
Michael White ◽  
Negative Identity ◽  
The Way

Seeing the problem as separate from the person is a stance that informs narrative psychiatry. This stance gives us firm footing in responding to our patients with respect and empathy and frees us to nimbly and creatively work with them to mitigate the unwanted effects of problems in their lives. We don’t blame patients for their problems. Rather, we align with them side-by-side to look out at the problem together and see what can be done about it. What this means is seeing problems as separate from our patients’ identities; that is, as outside of what they value and who they are striving to be. In doing so, we see both the problem and the person more clearly. Externalizing the problem in this way is a therapeutic practice that is one of our most powerful narrative interventions. It shifts the psychological landscape in which we are working. Patients often experience their problems as all encompassing. By externalizing the problem, it becomes circumscribed and we can more easily unpack it: characterize it, determine its boundaries, discover how it is impinging on a person’s life, expose the ways in which it operates, and discern what supports it and what weakens it. Separating the problem from the person makes it easier to see how patients are succeeding in living their lives in ways that they find satisfying and how they have freed themselves from the influence of the problem. We can more easily discover areas of the patient’s life in which the problem is not operating or is powerless, and we can more readily discover strengths and resources that a patient can draw on to overcome the problem. Not seeing problems as integral to who patients are provides immediate relief from negative identity conclusions, which are often piled on top of other unwanted effects of problems. These discoveries are energizing, inspire hope, and point the way toward effective treatment. The practice of externalization was developed by Michael White as a way to objectify problems instead of objectifying people.

A new kind of surgery for a new kind of war: gunshot wounds and their treatment in the British Civil Wars

2018 ◽  
pp. 57-77
Author(s):  
Stephen M. Rutherford
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Effective Treatment ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Survival Rates ◽  
Gunshot Wounds ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Treatment Methods ◽  
Surgical Practice ◽  
The Way

This chapter examines the medical challenges posed by the increased number of gunshot wounds during the civil wars, and sets out the changes in the way these wounds were treated. The treatment of battlefield wounds expounded in surgeons’ manuals, is placed in context with what we now understand about the biology, pathology and effective treatment methods for wounds. The techniques used by the civil-war surgeon are compared with those of later periods. Despite a lack of understanding of microbiology, physiology and, in many cases, anatomy, many methods employed by civil-war military surgeons reflect good contemporary surgical practice. Despite the lack of antibiotics, anaesthetics, hygienic environments and high-quality surgical implements, survival rates from injuries on the field arrear to have been considerable, if treated. In developing treatments for the problems posed by gunshot wounds, some civil-war surgeons used an evidence-based approach, and laid the foundations for much modern surgical practice.

The biopsychosocial model in psychiatry: Engel and beyond

2020 ◽  
pp. 6-22
Author(s):  
Rebecca Roache
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Mental Disorder ◽  
Effective Treatment ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Biopsychosocial Model ◽  
Biopsychosocial Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Way

This chapter examines the biopsychosocial model in psychiatry. The term ‘biopsychosocial’ is most strongly associated with George L. Engel, whose most famous article on the biopsychosocial model was published in 1977. In advancing the model, Engel aimed to make explicit how the biological, the psychological, and the social all had a place in conceptualizing mental disorder, and to systematize and enshrine this recognition in the way in which psychiatry is practised. In making decisions about how to treat mental illness, or a given patient, adopting a biopsychosocial approach should involve keeping in mind that the most effective treatment may involve a solely biological intervention, a solely psychological one, a solely social one, or a combination of these. Indeed, a useful and effective biopsychosocial approach reminds one to consider all of these possibilities, and select the most promising one, based on the available empirical evidence.

Levinas in therapy

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-297
Author(s):  
Bob Plant
Keyword(s):  
Emmanuel Levinas ◽  
The Other ◽  
Potential Significance ◽  
Therapeutic Practice ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Critical Questions ◽  
Conceptual Apparatus ◽  
The Face ◽  
Short Explanation ◽  
The Way

Emmanuel Levinas’ semi-phenomenological analyses of the “face-to-face” encounter with “the other” are frequently alluded to in the therapeutic literature. Indeed, for some therapists, Levinas provides the conceptual apparatus to reconfigure traditional therapeutic practice. While acknowledging the importance of his work, in this article I raise critical questions about the way Levinas’ ideas are often used by psychotherapists. The discussion is divided into five sections: First, I provide a short explanation of the motivations for writing this paper. Second, I offer an overview of some prominent themes therapists typically draw from Levinas’ writings. Next, I present my own reconstruction of the face-to-face encounter. Then, drawing on the previous reconstruction, I outline the main questions Levinas-inspired therapists need to address. Finally, I reconsider the potential significance of Levinas’ work for therapists.

When Family Gets in the Way of Recovery

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-104
Author(s):  
Kelly C. Belmontes
Keyword(s):  
Substance Use ◽  
Motivational Interviewing ◽  
Effective Treatment ◽  
Social System ◽  
Support Systems ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Interpersonal Problems ◽  
Problematic Behaviors ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Way

Alcohol and substance use often results in the individual experiencing social and interpersonal problems. Among many of the factors that impact alcohol and substance use, relationships can be part of the problem or the solution. Support systems are considered to be a key ingredient of effective treatment. Unfortunately, the individual’s social system may not be, either intentionally or unintentionally, supportive of the individual’s recovery. In an effort to address this challenge to an individual’s recovery, motivational interviewing principles and practices can be applied to families and other social systems that are ambivalent to changing problematic behaviors that may be negatively impacting the individual’s recovery or substance use cessation goals.

Self-sacrifice for in-group's history: A diachronic perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Babińska ◽  
Michal Bilewicz
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Psychology ◽  
Historical Events ◽  
Emotional Events ◽  
Reciprocal Process ◽  
The Way

AbstractThe problem of extended fusion and identification can be approached from a diachronic perspective. Based on our own research, as well as findings from the fields of social, political, and clinical psychology, we argue that the way contemporary emotional events shape local fusion is similar to the way in which historical experiences shape extended fusion. We propose a reciprocal process in which historical events shape contemporary identities, whereas contemporary identities shape interpretations of past traumas.

What is the purpose of cognition?

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aba Szollosi ◽  
Ben R. Newell
Keyword(s):  
Infinite Number ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
The Way

Abstract The purpose of human cognition depends on the problem people try to solve. Defining the purpose is difficult, because people seem capable of representing problems in an infinite number of ways. The way in which the function of cognition develops needs to be central to our theories.

Peculiarity Parameters

1976 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
pp. 233-254
Author(s):  
H. M. Maitzen
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
Magnetic Fields ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Observational Evidence ◽  
Rotator Model ◽  
Peculiar Behaviour ◽  
Field Spectrum ◽  
Oblique Rotator ◽  
Ap Stars ◽  
The Way

Ap stars are peculiar in many aspects. During this century astronomers have been trying to collect data about these and have found a confusing variety of peculiar behaviour even from star to star that Struve stated in 1942 that at least we know that these phenomena are not supernatural. A real push to start deeper theoretical work on Ap stars was given by an additional observational evidence, namely the discovery of magnetic fields on these stars by Babcock (1947). This originated the concept that magnetic fields are the cause for spectroscopic and photometric peculiarities. Great leaps for the astronomical mankind were the Oblique Rotator model by Stibbs (1950) and Deutsch (1954), which by the way provided mathematical tools for the later handling pulsar geometries, anti the discovery of phase coincidence of the extrema of magnetic field, spectrum and photometric variations (e.g. Jarzebowski, 1960).

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