Treading the tightrope of femininity: Transforming gendered subjectivity in a therapeutic community

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 390-404
Author(s):  
Inna Perheentupa ◽  
Suvi Salmenniemi

This article examines the therapeutic self-transformation process in a self-help group in Russia. Drawing on participant observation and interviews, and engaging with debates on therapeutic technologies and the transformation of gender relations, it explores how the self-help group shapes how participants come to understand and act upon themselves. It shows that the process of self-transformation is profoundly gendered, problematising femininity and identifying it as an object of therapeutic intervention. Rather than collectively contesting gendered power and disadvantage, participants are invited to cultivate traditional notions of femininity and masculinity and learn to draw pleasure from them. We argue that this message may be appealing to women because it speaks to their lived experience of exhaustion and precarity, and offers them the prospect of overcoming it through a mythologised heteronormative order. It offers solace and a potential escape route where room for political agency is limited and feminist discourse heavily vilified. Yet the article also shows that participants do not merely internalise the ideological messages of the group, but engage with them in contradictory and ambivalent ways.

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 270-294
Author(s):  
Kristen Lee Hourigan

Utilizing a symbolic interactionist framework, this article analyzes data from 30 semistructured interviews of individuals who have lost loved ones to homicide and 32 months of concurrent participant observation of relevant social networks and local events, including self-help group meetings, in order to explore the factors that foster or impede forgiveness after homicide as well as the association between forgiveness-related feeling rules and lived experience of forgiveness. Key findings include the discovery of a forgiveness-fostering factor that had been previously overlooked (evidence of pro-social change) and evidence that the internal emotional transformation of forgiveness remains possible through understanding and empathy, despite several factors that may make forgiveness of extreme harm more challenging and/or less likely than forgiveness of more minor harm. Findings demonstrate that discrepancies between one’s forgiveness-related feeling rules and actual lived experiences of forgiveness are overcome through a redefinition of the situation, including with regard to remorse, severity, and intentionality.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Errix Kristian Julianto ◽  
Yusuf Efendi

ABSTRAKSelf Help Group merupakan kelompok-kelompok termasuk orang dengan ikatan bersama yang secara sukarela datang bersama-sama untuk berbagi, menjangkau dan belajar satu sama lain dalam lingkungan yang terpercaya, mendukung dan terbuka (Knight, 2014). Tujuan penelitian ini adalah Menganalisis pengaruh Pengaruh Self Help Group  Terhadap Tingkat Harga Diri Keluarga Dengan Penderita Skizofrenia Di Poli Jiwa Puskesmas KalitiduDesain penelitian ii menggunakan Pre eksperiment dengan pendekatan one group pre-posttest design. Populasi pada penelitian ini adalah Seluruh keluarga penderita Skizofrenia di PKU Jiwa Kalitidu yang berjumlah 32 dengan teknik total sampling diperoleh 32 responden. Instrumen yang digunakan adalah kuesioner Harga diri. Kemudian penelitian ini dianalisa menggunakan wilcoxon sign rank.Dari hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa lebih dari sebagian responden mempunyai tingkat harga diri rendah yaitu terdapat 18 (56,2%) responden sebelum di beri self help group sedangkan setelah diberikan Self Help group menunjukkan bahwa sebagian besar responden mempunyai harga diri tinggi yaitu terdapat 25 (78,1%)  responden. Berdasarkan uji statistik dengan menggunakan SPSS uji Wilcoxon  Signed Ranks antara nilai pre test dan post test menunjukkan bahwa kondisi responden sebelum dan setelah dilakukan intervensi dengan self help group pada harga diri dengan  nilai uji wilcoxon  sebesar 0, 001 dengan nilai kesalahan sebesar   0,05.Berdasarkan hasil penelitian dapat disimpulkan ada pengaruh dari Self Help Group terhadap harga diri  keluarga dengan penderita depresi di poli jiwa puskesmas kalitidu Bojonegoro. Diharapkan para keluarga dengan penderita depresi di poli jiwa puskesmas kalitidu bojonegoro tetap aktif dalam mengikuti kegiatan Self Help Group di poli jiwa puskesmas kalitidu bojonegoro sehingga keluarga mampu meningkatkan harga diri. Kata Kunci       : Self Help Group, Harga diri, Skizofrenia  ABSTRACTSelf Help Groups are groups including people with common ties who voluntarily come together to share, reach out and learn from each other in a trusted, supportive and open environment (Knight, 2014). The purpose of this study was to Analyze the effect of Self Help Group Influence on the Self-Esteem Level of Family with Schizophrenia Patients in Psychiatric Poly at Puskesmas Kalitidu. This research design uses Pre experiment with one group pre-posttest design approach. The population in this study were all families of Schizophrenics in PKU Kalitidu Mental, amounting to 32 with a total sampling technique obtained by 32 respondents. The instrument used was the self-esteem questionnaire. Then this study was analyzed using Wilcoxon sign rank.From the results of the study showed that more than a few respondents had low levels of self-esteem, there were 18 (56.2%) respondents before being given a self-help group while after being given a Self-Help group showed that most respondents had high self-esteem ie there were 25 (78 , 1%) of respondents. Based on statistical tests using the SPSS Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test between the pre test and post test values indicate that the condition of respondents before and after intervention with self help groups on self-esteem with Wilcoxon test values of 0, 001 with an error value of 0.05. Based on the results of the study it can be concluded that there is an effect of the Self Help Group on the self-esteem of families with depressed patients at the mental health clinic of Bojonegoro kalitidu. It is expected that families with depression sufferers at the Kalitidu Bojonegoro mental health clinic remain active in participating in the Self Help Group activities in the mental health clinic at Kalitidu Bojonegoro so that families are able to increase self-esteem.Keywords         : Self Help Group, Self-Esteem, Schizophreni


2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 755-771
Author(s):  
Jean Collingsworth

he self-help book is a prominent cultural and commercial phenomenon in the therapeutic ontosphere which permeates contemporary life. The generic term ’ontosphere’ is here co-opted from IT to describe a notional social space in which influential conceptualisations and shared assumptions about personal values and entitlements operate without interrogation in the demotic apprehension of ’’. It thus complements the established critical terms ’discourse’ and ’episteme’. In the therapeutic ontosphere the normal vicissitudes of life are increasingly interpreted as personal catastrophes. As new issues of concern are defined, it is assumed that an individual will need help to deal with them and live successfully. Advice-giving has become big business and the self-help book is now an important post-modern commodity. However a paradox emerges when the content and ideology of this apparently postmodern artifact is examined. In its topical eclecticism the genre is indeed unaligned with those traditional ’grand narratives’ and collective value systems which the postmodern critical project has sought to discredit. It endorses relativism, celebrates reflexivity and valorizes many kinds of ’personal truth’. Moreover readers are encouraged towards self-renovation through a process of ’bricolage’ which involves selecting advice from a diverse ethical menu along-side which many ’little narratives’ of localized lived experience are presented as supportive exemplars. However in asserting the pragmatic power of individual instrumentality in an episteme which has seen the critical decentering of the human subject, the self-help book perpetuates the liberal-humanist notion of an essential personal identity whose stable core is axiomatic in traditional ethical advice. And the heroic journey of self-actualization is surely the grandest of grand narratives: the monomyth. Thus the telic self-help book presents the critical theorist with something of a paradox.


Author(s):  
Shruti Agrawal

The chapter is based on the Self Help Group-Bank linkage Programme in India. The objective of the chapter is to assess the SHGs access to credit under SHG-Bank Linkage Programme, to know the progress of SHG-Bank Linkage Programme in India and to evaluate the impact of SHG-Bank Linkage Programme in India. Finally the chapter ends with suggestions to improve self help group-bank linkage programme and concludes that SHG-Bank Linkage Programme has provided a more favorable environment for enhancing India's potential for greater equitable growth with empowerment while considering the positive signs in their performance.


1985 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 353-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis Klass

This article is an attempt to describe the Compassionate Friends (TCF), and self-help group, as an effective intervention in the severe bereavement after the death of a child. The research method is participant observation. Three decisions form the framework of the description: the decision to attend the group, the decision to affiliate, and the decision to transform oneself into a helper within the group. The decision to attend seems to be rooted in a variety of expectations, supported by a variety of experiences with professional interventions or with other self-help groups. Affiliation has, first, a cathectic dimension that entails a unity with those whose lives have also been shattered, an appropriate object on which to attach the energy formerly given to the child, and a sense of family in a supportive community. Second, affiliation has an experiential dimension that is an attempt to develop an existential stance in a problematic world based on solutions to concrete problems that are shared among the members. The decision to become a helper is key to the TCF process, for it is the concept that helping others is the best way to help the self that allows the cathectic dimension to become complete in reinvestment and allows the experiential dimension to change from using the experience of others to sharing one's own experience. As time progresses, some members move to formal organizational leadership while others tend to become less regular in attendance, though they do so with some ambivalence. The article ends with the claim that analysis of other interventions using schemas similar to those used in this study could be done.


1997 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 198-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey S. Nevid ◽  
Rafael A. Javier

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to compare a culturally specific, multicomponent behavioral smoking cessation program for Hispanic smokers with a low-intensity, enhanced self-help control condition. Design. Participants who completed pretreatment assessment were randomly assigned to treatment conditions. Smoking status was evaluated at posttreatment, 6-month follow-up, and 12-month follow-up intervals. Setting. The study was based in predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods in Queens, New York. Participants. Ninety-three Hispanic smokers participated: 48 men and 45 women. Intervention. The multicomponent treatment involved a clinic-based group program that incorporated a culturally specific component consisting of videotaped presentations of culturally laden smoking-related vignettes. The self-help control program was enhanced by the use of an introductory group session and follow-up supportive telephone calls. Measures. Smoking outcomes were based on cotinine-validated abstinence and self-reported smoking rates. Predictors of abstinence were examined, including sociodemographic variables, smoking history, nicotine dependence, acculturation, partner interactions, reasons for quitting, self-efficacy, and linguistic competence. Results. Significant group differences in cotinine-validated abstinence rates in favor of the multicomponent group were obtained, but only at posttreatment. With missing data included and coded for nonabstinence, validated abstinence rates at posttreatment were 21% for the multicomponent group and 6% for the self-help group. At the 6-month follow-up, the rates were 13% for the multicomponent group and 9% for the self-help group. By the 12-month follow-up, the rates declined to 8% and 7% for the multicomponent and self-help groups, respectively. A dose-response relationship between attendance at group sessions and abstinence status was shown at posttreatment and 6-month follow-up intervals. Conclusions. The results of the present study failed to show any long-term benefit from use of a clinic-based, culturally specific multicomponent smoking cessation intervention for Hispanic smokers relative to a minimal-contact, enhanced self-help control.


1968 ◽  
Vol 125 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
SAMUEL WAGONFELD ◽  
HOWARD M. WOLOWITZ
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Group A ◽  

2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. K. BARIYA ◽  
P. R. Kanani ◽  
S. J. Parmar

The present study was an attempt to identify the impediments faced by SHGs under Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP). A total of 90 women self help group members as respondents were selected from Amreli district of Gujarat. The study findings revealed that the self help group women mainly encountered with the lack of knowledge in record maintenance. Their dependency on family male member was another impediment in solving money problems. Handling of bank account in which SHG Women were unaware of the rules has continuation of project and its expansion in other villages by establishing new SHG and addition of new activities have been largely suggested by most SHG-women. Although they were found not competent in performing bank formalities, yet their co-ordination among members and interpersonal trust were intact. Internal loaning and loaning through bank, clashes in their loan taking time, lack of time for meeting, dependency on members of family, and lack of marketing information needed major reforms as suggested by SHG members.


2005 ◽  
Vol 23 (27) ◽  
pp. 6516-6523 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen M. Emmons ◽  
Elaine Puleo ◽  
Elyse Park ◽  
Ellen R. Gritz ◽  
Rita M. Butterfield ◽  
...  

Purpose Cancer survivors smoke at rates that are only slightly lower than the general population. This article reports on the final outcomes of Partnership for Health, a smoking cessation intervention for smokers in the Childhood Cancer Survivors Study (CCSS). Methods This study is a randomized control trial with follow-up at 8 and 12 months that involved smokers (n = 796) enrolled onto the CCSS cohort. Participants were randomly assigned to either a self-help or a peer-counseling program that included up to six telephone calls from a trained childhood cancer survivor, tailored and targeted materials, and free nicotine replacement therapy. The intervention was delivered by telephone and postal service mail. Results The quit rate was significantly higher in the counseling group compared with the self-help group at both the 8-month (16.8% v 8.5%; P < .01) and 12-month follow-ups (15% v 9%; P ≤ .01). Controlling for baseline self-efficacy and readiness to change, the intervention group was twice as likely to quit smoking, compared with the self-help group. Smoking cessation rate increased with an increase in the number of counseling calls. The cost of delivering the intervention was approximately $300 per participant. The incremental cost-effectiveness of the intervention compared with controls was $5,371 per additional quit. Conclusion Interventions to prevent future illnesses are of critical importance to childhood cancer survivors. The Partnership for Health intervention resulted in a doubling of smoking cessation quit rates. Because of the seriousness of smoking among childhood cancer survivors, this intervention model may be appropriate as a multicomponent treatment program for survivors who smoke.


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