Creating a family state of mind: using psychoanalytic ideas to treat families where children resist or refuse contact with a parent

Separated families, where children resist or refuse visitation with one parent, present a complex treatment picture for clinicians. Application of psychoanalytic concepts can increase the clinician's understanding of the family members' response to the familial separation and inform the clinician's treatment decisions. The concepts of couple state of mind, projective gridlock, transgenerational transmission of trauma, and Nachträglichkeit, or après coup, are proposed as useful in appreciating the family members' individual and familial psychological responses to the trauma of parental separation. Multiple clinician functions necessary in the treatment of this complex family dynamic are explicated. A case example is included. Family state of mind is proposed as a newly named function for the clinician as well as the family members.

The Power of System’s Coupling in the Development of Smallholder-Private Forests

The smallholder-private forests initially developed through various catalysts, particularly the government's greening program. The various functions of smallholder-private forests in economic, social, and environmental life has encouraged the forests as an integral part of community life. This condition is termed as a status of adjusted to each other (couple state) between the forests and community life. The couple state needs to be studied to help in improving community lives through the development of smallholder-private forests. A systems approach is required in learning the couple state. The main topic of research was the system’s coupling between smallholder-private forest systems and livelihood systems. The degree of the system’s coupling was measured using the value of the coupling coefficient (R). This study aimed to determine the degrees of coupling in three main farmer livelihoods. The study began by developing the causal loop diagram (CLD) of the coupling of the two systems. Samples of 72 head of the family that work as full farmers, part-time farmers, and non-farmers were taken purposively in Semoyo Village, Gunungkidul Regency. Data of farmers conditions were obtained through interviews by using questionnaires, and the conditions of smallholder-private forests were obtained through tree measurements. The results found that there was a dynamic coupling of the community forest system with community life in the three main livelihoods studied. The highest order of coupling degrees was full-time farmers, part-time farmers, and non-farmers, respectively. The difference in degrees of coupling in the three main livelihoods can be used as a basis for stakeholder intervention in formulating regulations, policies, and coaching to improve the quality of life of the community. Keywords: system’s coupling, Gunungkidul, smallholder-private forests, systems approach

Contemporary approaches to the encapsulation and dispersion of trauma: Holocaust trauma as a barrier to couple intimacy

This article describes a contemporary approach to dealing with the encapsulation and dispersion of transgenerational trauma. It focuses on how such trauma, when undigested, can create barriers to intimacy in a couple. The lead author and couple therapist not only describes her clinical approach, but provides a theoretical framework from which to view this type of trauma and the way in which it can impact on a couple relationship. The second and third authors provide individual and shared commentaries aimed at highlighting the applicability of couple therapy to psychoanalytic work with individuals. The authors conclude that experience working with couples enriches individual psychoanalytic work as a result of the focus on the “couple state of mind” this work affords.