Counseling Psychology

This paper develops the concept of riding instincts, even to die through a queer reading of Winnicott's "Primary Maternal Preoccupation." Primary preoccupation narrates the ongoing establishment of what Winnicott calls "instinctual life." Turning to queer social history and a clinical case, a relational-structural similarity between pederasty and primary preoccupation is proposed, and the concept of pederastic enactments is used to capture the fraughtness of this similarity. A patient's deadened instinctual life is explored in relation to his family history and queer identity, and the difficulty of riding instincts, even to die in the treatment is connected to the neoliberalization of desire.

Turning to object relations psychoanalysis and Black critical theory, I argue that the violence of racialization works in and through clinical and national settings. The setting is theorized in terms of its phantasmatic and phantomatic dimensions: The former refers to phantasies that ensnare certain bodies in a mythologized past, while the latter refers to the irreducibly material histories that those phantasies fail to ensnare (i.e., the phantom world). The case of a Confederate statue's proposed removal is used to illustrate the tension between phantasm/phantom at a national level, while Searles's writings demonstrate the interplay of phantasm/phantom in a clinical context.

The author begins by turning to a recent confrontation with four men who chanted homophobic slurs in his neighborhood. He uses this experience to state some of his ideas regarding violence and the setting. Visceral belonging is considered a problem insofar as it is tethered to a setting that constitutively excludes Blackness and queerness in structurally precise ways. Intervention into the setting is theorized as a temporal movement, and the fire of such intervention is couched as a tension of opening and a willingness to burn.

Uppgivenhetssyndrom, or resignation syndrome (RS), is a disorder that until recently was thought to affect the children of refugees in Sweden alone. The heuristic of psychopolitics is used to theorize RS as a form of abjection (Bataille, Kristeva) and petrification (Fanon, Marriott), and the movement from petrification to petrification in hallucinosis (Fanon, Bion) is delineated: first these children are petrified by persecutory and culturally specific stereotypes that precede and exceed them symbolically, and then, through a succession of shocks, they enter a post-traumatic stupor in which the faltering symbolization of the stereotype gives way to the (dis)embodiment of abject thinghood. Marriott's distinction between mirror as mask and mask as mirror allows the attribution of RS not only to sociocultural mimesis and the psychosocial impact of stereotypes (mirror as mask) but also to a socially imposed absence that the stereotype simultaneously conceals and reveals (mask as mirror). RS (petrification in hallucinosis) is considered the (dis)embodiment of this socially imposed absence.

People with disabilities are perhaps the largest and most expanding group of individuals in the United States. Despite the fact, they are considered a minority and constantly struggle to succeed in society. Factors include negative stigma towards people with disabilities, lack of accommodation, discrimination, and insufficient education system. The Independent Living Center is the primary advocacy organization for people with disabilities in America, achieving many institutional changes to help persons with disabilities gain the same opportunities in life with those without disabilities. However, a history of their oppression is difficult to reverse and there is still a significant lack of awareness towards ablebodyism in the United States.

A negative body image can damage the psyche and the physical health of adolescent girls and boys. Appearance schemas develop as a cognitive processor for images pertaining to how a person should look in society. Determinants that lead to negative appearance schemas include media messages, family and peers, and environment (external forces). Study showed that girls were more prone to develop diet strategies because of their weight. However, perception of what is considered “acceptable” or “normal” in appearances are different from culture to culture. On study suggests evidence that the Westernization of some cultures have changed the way some Asian counties perceive what is “attractive” for a woman. Strong roots in cultural identity can help prevent negative body image in adolescent boys and girls. Tongan and Fijian boys all showed high level of BMI but low level of body dissatisfaction, similar evidence can be found within black and Latino cultures. Early prevention of body dissatisfaction is the key to a healthy development of the mind for adolescent children.

Racism still exists! It just has taken on a new form, a more subtle form, made up of two types: covert and overt racism. With the help of the social media, this neo-racism against specific group of people are gaining spotlight in the public. Studies show that physical illnesses within the African American population is highest compared to other ethnic minorities because of high level of stress caused by exposure to racism. Many findings propelled the psychology field to implement diversity training among professionals but oftentimes, internalized racism occurs in the workplace. The popular "colorblind" approach debunks the notion that racism, in fact, can be a source of high stress among patients. Supervisor-supervisee relationships are affected due to supervisors not acknowledging the prior fact, which causes aspiring psychologists to practice mediocre mental healthcare or simply drop out of these programs. The National Center for Education Statistics (2011) reported that majority of any psychology degrees were given to white American students and U.S. Census Bureau’s data (2001) showed that the graduation rate for racial minorities were much lower than white students (APA, 2003). The institutionalized racism within the mental health care system benefits white majority with treatments and research that center around their needs while there is a clear lack of any benefits gained by targeted minorities. In order to balance the disparity, diversity studies and diversity training should be standard within the workplace.

The current global refugee crisis is receiving much media attention due to the astonishing numbers of refugees being displaced across countries. This is an opportunity to look further into the consequences of war – one result being that many families are displaced from their homes and forced to migrate elsewhere for safety. This thesis hopes to answer some questions that pertain to what refugees experience during their time of living in their war-torn countries and resettlement and some factors that influence it. Studies reveal main themes that are commonly observed in refugee and immigrant families. Refugees are more vulnerable to developing PTSD due to the severe trauma they are exposed to. In addition, migrants and refugees both go through personal, cultural, and societal adversities after they’ve been relocated to a new country. Much of the qualitative data show that the effects of these challenges have been passed down within familial relationships. Despite facing many hardships, researchers in the field are looking into ways that can empower this vulnerable population to better cope with their stress and trauma. One of the potentially effective therapeutic practice may involve the concept of resilience and coping which is closely related to an individual’s trauma, personality traits and mentality. Preventions and treatment for refugees so far revolve around the integration of their original culture and tapping into their abilities to cope. However, this thesis also aims to cover some of the gaps within the refugee research including a lack of cultural specific assessment tools, the mixed results in various studies involving posttraumatic growth and effects of discrimination, and exclusion of unregistered refugees in sample demographics.

This paper examines the potential link between disturbances in sleep cycles and onset of dementia. It is focused on obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea (OSHA) and Alzheimer's Disease. People who are diagnosed with either of these diseases have one thing in common:  quality of sleep.

This is a graduate level paper that was a part of an assignment for a couple's counseling course. This paper introduces the history of LGBT treatment in mental health, specifically, couples therapy, various factors in couples therapy that influences couples work with LGBT clients, specific challenges and issues that come up in LGBT couples, and concluding findings from prior literature.