Interviews: In the political melee don't forget the green corner...!

individual
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

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Therapeutic alliance

"Sir Robin cited research conducted by two psychologists on interviews during the 1987 general election campaign. Dr Peter Bull and Kate Mayer found that Kinnock and Thatcher avoided more than half the questions put to them. They concluded the party leaders used 31 different forms of evasion, among them ignoring the question, acknowledging the question without answering, questioning the question, attacking the question, attacking the interviewer, declining to answer, giving an incomplete answer, repeating a previous answer and claiming already to have answered the question." FT Weekend. p.1

Source:
Katz, Ian, (2014) The death of the political interview. FT Weekend, Life & Arts, September 6-7th. p.1.

Book: The Empathy Exams & Michel Serres Institute

individual
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic ------------------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

group

	The Natural Sciences
Local, Society & Socio-	-Economic

As recent posts reveal I'm overwhelmed with reading at present. Material that is essential for the TEL course and reading more tangential and yet potentially enjoyable titles. It will be a busy summer as all this is brought together(!?). Especially as I've a literature search in mind as a module submission - progress permitting.

The publication of Jamison's book this (N) spring sits well after the findings last year about the benefits of reading fiction in increasing empathy.

Since 2008-2009 I've lost touch with the work of Michel Serres:

Jones, Peter, Exploring Serres’ Atlas, Hodges’ Knowledge Domains and the Fusion of Informatics and Cultural Horizons (Aug 15, 2007). SOCIAL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CONNECTING SOCIETY AND CULTURAL ISSUES. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1842504 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1842504

- having only just found the Institute. I only scratched the surface of Serres' oeuvre in the above paper and must recharge my reflective capacity.

Book cover image: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20800427,00.html

My source: The Empathy Exams
FT Weekend, June 7-8, 2014.

Never give up on someone ...

individual
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic ------------------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

group

Never give up on someone with Mental Illness – 

when 'I' is replaced with -
'We'  'illness' becomes 'Wellness'

Thanks to colleague Julie Draper - apparently this is doing the rounds on Facebook and elsewhere.

If you must rumple the care domains - rumple them together

individual
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic ------------------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

group

'A Man’s body and his mind, 
with the utmost reverence to both I speak it, 
are exactly like a jerkin, and a jerkin’s lining; – 

rumple the one	– you rumple the other.’ 1

¹ Sterne L. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1761), vol. 3, ch. 4 (eds M New, J New). University of Florida Press, 1978.

Source: Royal College of Psychiatrists (2013) Whole-person care: from rhetoric to reality Achieving parity between mental and physical health. Occasional Paper 88, March 2013. p.2.

Wellbeing: A Complete Reference Guide

Several years ago well-being was everywhere so it seemed. I even blogged about this wondering about the professional side of caring and the care professions:

Well-being and the dilution of 'caring'

What triggered the reflections above in 2010 was the appearance of the British Journal of Wellbeing (BJW). I subsequently learned that the journal launched in April 2010 was published until the end of 2011; the publisher (MA Healthcare) then launched a new journal the British Journal of Mental Health Nursing (BJMHN). I was also advised that although BJMHN has some similarities to BJW, it has more of a nursing focus. 

So, perhaps there was some merit in my thoughts back in 2010 and yet well-being (or wellbeing) is a central discussion point. It has to be if we are to conjoin:

health education : health care 

'being' - 'well' (physically, mentally, ....)

self care : care services

health literate - health 'expert' / professional
.....

I now wonder if the scope of the volumes in a complete reference guide on wellbeing as indicated below, might benefit from an overarching conceptual framework?

This reference set comprises six volumes that focus on the ways wellbeing has been studied and can be applied across different aspects of the life course.

• The first multi-volume examination of all elements of wellbeing.
• Volumes cover children and families; the workplace; the environment; aging and later life; economics; and policies of wellbeing
• Each volume brings together leaders of their respective fields in an edited volume of original articles
• Presents a synthesis of the latest research on this growing and interdisciplinary area of study

Wellbeing: A Complete Reference Guide
Edited by Cary L. Cooper, CBE
Distinguished Professor of Organizational Psychology and Health at Lancaster University, UK
Now available in print and online
6 volumes • 3,000 pages • Hardcover
Print Edition ISBN: 978-1-118-53882-1

* 
Personal communication: Sam Gournay
Sent: Wednesday, 20 March 2013, 11:30
Subject: FW: Message from MA Healthcare website

Book: The Last Asylum

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic ------------------------------------------- mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

individual

The Last Asylum	-sociology -medicine
medical- social-

group - population

Winwick Hospital remembered

Image source: Metro

4th International Symposium on Pervasive Computing Paradigms for Mental Health

May 8 - 9, 2014 - Tokyo, Japan
NEWS: The paper submission deadline has been extended to February 22, 2014

You are warmly invited to participate in the 4th MindCare 2014 symposium which is focused on the use of technologies in favor of maintaining and improving mental wellbeing. It will be hosted at the University of Tokyo. The symposium will bring together top researchers and practitioners from various technological, medical and psychological disciplines.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
MindCare 2014 will feature two state-of-the-art keynote speeches given by:

• Neema Moraveji - Director of Calming Technology Lab, Stanford University, USA
• Manabu Honda - Director of the Department of Functional Brain Research, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Tokyo, Japan

The accepted papers will be published in Springer's LNICST series and will appear in the SpringerLink - one of the largest digital online libraries which covers a myriad of scientific disciplines. In addition, the accepted papers will be available in EU digital library (EUDL) and indexed in Scopus and EI as well as submitted for indexing in ISI Proceedings. Selected papers will be given a possibility to be extended for a journal publication.

two books two islands two doctors II

Book cover: The Story of San Michele

Here are some additional images and text from Villa San Michele (sorry about the accessibility issue):

Description of the Dining Room Villa San Michele

Skeleton mosaic carrying water and wine

two books two islands two doctors - beyond a cappuccino

My uncle Doug (I do miss him) mentioned a book to me when I was some time around 1974. I think I found a copy in their bookcase when the whole family used to visit on a Sunday afternoon.

A decade later 1983, the year before I got married I visited Sorrento and during this holiday took a day trip to Capri.

With my fiancé I found myself walking around the Villa San Michele. The book was The Story of San Michele by Axel Munthe. I don’t recall consciously deciding to go to Anacapri, but I found myself there. It really made an impression on the 24 year old. What an amazing place to be, study, to try to be creative if not grandiose.

I’m sure I read the book after this visit, it dawning on me that this was - not just - that place, but the story too.

In between on holiday in Kefalonia in 1995 and read Captain Corelli’s Mandolin while there. Axel Munthe was a doctor and there’s a doctor in de Bernières’ book.

Two islands, two doctors, two books: fact and fiction and the spaces in between.

Thirty years later it was a lovely experience to take the bus to Anacapri this September and spend some time at San Michele.

Now the mix of history and styles is a bit jarring, but it is still, for me at least, an amazing space to be. The views of the Bay of Naples are stunning.

The light, the air, the sky.

Inspirational.

At some point if I could spend some time there, beyond a cappuccino...

The Bay of Naples - Vesuvius from San Michele 4 Sept 2013

literatureandmedicine

Study on attitudes to epistemic uncertainty in safety - Call for participants

From: Eugenio Alberdi, e.alberdi AT CSR.CITY.AC.UK
To: SOCIOTECH AT JISCMAIL.AC.UK
Sent: Tuesday, 17 September 2013, 19:57
Subject: Study on attitudes to epistemic uncertainty in safety - Call for participants

The Centre of Software Reliability and the Department of Psychology at City University London are running a study on reactions to epistemic uncertainty in decision problems about safety.

Perceived errors in such decisions are often debated hotly after the fact, but there is still a need to study how the input to the decision maker can help or hinder correct decisions.

If you are involved in any capacity with probabilistic reasoning about safety and risk, we would be grateful if you take the survey at:

http://www.csr.city.ac.uk/people/eugenio/probabilities_survey.html

This study arises from research project UnCoDe -
(UNcertainty and COnfidence in safety arguments: effect on expert DEcision makers):

http://www.city.ac.uk/informatics/school-organisation/centre-for-software-reliability/research/research-projects/uncode

All participants will have the opportunity to read the final report from the study and the other project outputs.

Regards,

_eugenio

Dr. Eugenio Alberdi

Research Fellow, Centre for Software Reliability,

City University, London, Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB

Email: e.alberdi AT city.ac.uk

Tel: +44 (0)20 7040 8424  Fax: +44 (0)20 7040 8585

http://www.city.ac.uk/informatics/school-organisation/centre-for-software-reliability/staff/dr-eugenio-alberdi

Book review "Clinical Intuition in Psychotherapy: The Neurobiology of Embodied Response"

Clinical intuition is something that in formal learning terms is intangible, but in practice is earned and relied upon as a gift of experience. When I first received this book from the author Terry Marks-Tarlow, leafing through I thought the emphasis was on the neurobiology presaging a rather technical read. The references to brain structures, neocortex, brain waves ... seemed to suggest a reductive approach, remote from my conception of intuition in clinical practice. I need not have worried, the initial discussion on the brain and evolutionary development is not just a foundation for what follows but as the title suggests underpins and integrates the whole text. Despite the title and as the foreward advises you do not have to be a psychotherapist to read and appreciate this book. The stall is set from the outset in the introduction which explains that chapter one defines clinical intuition:

Clinical intuition is defined from a neurobiological perspective as a right-brain, fully embodied mode of perceiving, relating, and responding to the ongoing flows and changing dynamics of psychotherapy. (p.3)

The introductory material here is essential foundation reading for people starting a career in psychology and mental health related disciplines. The evolutionary development of the brain from reptile through to the mammalian brain is invaluable. Tying this to specific brain functions and circuits - care, fear, panic, play, lust, rage and seeking - helps integrate brain anatomy, perception, emotion, and behaviour. The advances in neurobiology to follow will no doubt demand that we all extend our understanding of this interdisciplinary fusion.

The book itself (hardback edition) is very well produced, the type face easy to read and the book well structured and with a well balanced mix of illustrations and photographs. The reference listing at the end runs over thirteen pages and is well grounded historically and in having regard to ongoing research. The index is comprehensive (fourteen pages) and a resource itself providing a look-up approach. The book's use of case studies, thirteen in total informs the text and provides some continuity through the book. Dialogue between therapist and client is easy to follow and illustrations are provided with ample explanation in situ. The references also utilize web-based resources.

I recall intuition coming up as a thread on several occasions on the psychiatric-nursing list especially between 1998 and 2004. Intuition is a central quality for all personnel working in health and social care. We must also recognise intuition as a human trait as when non-health professionals exercise the judgement that: "Wait a minute, we need a clinical opinion here." Self-care is also discussed. I had a Pythonesque moment - "Is this the right room for an argument?" - considering psychotherapy as a therapeutic modality within therapies as a whole. Here in the UK (and no doubt elsewhere) self, brief and solution based therapies rule economically. Even though the shortage of psychological intervention is recognised in the UK through IAPT improving access to psychological therapies, we need to ask: how does psychotherapy fare in the current (austerity) climate? To what extent can clinicians exercise intuition? Therapy relies on caseness, relationships and narrative, but to what extent can these be acknowledged and delivered within the economical time frames that frequently operate? 

Although there's no specific chapter on training for clinical intuition, Marks-Tarlow provides a list of how researchers have characterized clinical intuition (more recently in the 1980-1990s); five characteristics are proposed:

• Sudden recognition;
• Immediate knowledge;
• Emergent awareness;
• Non-verbal insight; and 
• Holistic integrative sensibilities. (pp.42-43).

 Of the first two sudden recognition and immediate knowledge, I thought of the intuitive sense that is applied upon receiving a referral. That is the assumptions (not always helpful) that arise from the information provided (and missing) and where this leads you? But of course, is this clinical intuition? Intuition as the author makes clear (p.3 and) throughout the book is in psychotherapy. Intuition here (and for me) depends on interpersonal - therapeutic - interaction. What precedes is something else (data integration, hypothesizing, reasoning...?). I can however still see explanatory avenues in the above that can help us travel from the conceptual (reduced) to a holistic whole. I did wonder about the role of intuition in suicidal ideation and risk management, but this is also a question of referral criteria and caseness.

I would very much like to write myself about information and complexity and these themes recur in the text, especially the latter. Several 'spaces' are discussed too: social, physical and spatial schemas. The work of Buzsáki on the hippocampus, navigation and maps - landmark navigation - is fascinating in chapter 7 Navigating the Seas. I have likened Hodges' model to a cognitive periplus - an ancient maritime map. Over the next few months I'll post some quotes from the book.

This is an excellent book that I heartily recommend. The discussion of what is implicit in the brain and so in therapy, what is embodied and wisdom in mentoring invites re-reading. Finally but vitally there is much humour and humanity here too.

Many thanks to Terry Marks-Tarlow for the review copy.

New Scientist: Article on Cotard's syndrome [ and Hodges' model ]

Nine years ago, Graham woke up and discovered he was dead.

He was in the grip of Cotard's syndrome. People with this rare condition believe that they, or parts of their body, no longer exist.

... more

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

individual

Cotard's syndrome Belief    "I am dead"   delusion (or?) depression      self                                   suicide  "I have no brain"    theory of mind         consc psychotherapy                            senses - taste smell	PET - positron emission tomography ICD 11 - classification?  attempts               'default network mode' iousness          body (parts)        brain function frontal and parietal lobes  anaesthesia  low metabolic activity   physiology
social impact, family, friends, carers sense making  social understanding stigma      interview Jules Cotard (1840–1889), a French neurologist	media      unemployment quality of life   autonomy   control research funding      access to treatment specialist services     referral processes

group - population

Source: New Scientist, 1 June 2013.
Mindscapes: First interview with a dead man

Wikipedia: Cotard delusion

Learning theory: an A3 poster

Source: Richard Millwood - A new learning landscape

As the poster demonstrates and Millwood's notes explain learning theories are very varied and yet a constant in terms of teacher education. What is less permanent is the significance of learning styles, which are included above. I wonder if there is an A3 poster addressing that question? A different treatment would be needed, one that might for example show the ups and downs of the literature? What theoretical underpinning has been proposed for learning styles? What are the connections to forms of literacy? I had a brief search, but found nothing to compare with the above effort.

Richard Millwood has provided a great resource and is seeking feedback. The pdf version is very readable on my laptop in HD; plus there is a CMap tools version with links.

It seems blended learning really is the hybrid? It is traditional in face-to-face sense, but can be found in multiple combinations within Millwood's formulation. Is there a place for gestalt learning - a further link with learning styles?

I'm subscribed to a Vygotsky list that is very active; most of the posts pass like e-leaves in the wind-e, a case of info overload.

Vygotsky has a place above:
it is a small place.
So it looks like there really is a lot to take in. Oh joy!

A sentence in a word - precarity - and a bad spell of 'whether'

In the past couple of months I've acquired three books to review. One of them is:

Philosophical And Theoretical Perspectives For Advanced Nursing Practic, Cody.

I'm pleased to say that over half the book now has extra notes (in pencil). Within the text and my reflections there are a great many potential posts. In chapter 18 though Doane and Varcoe write:

Subsequently, there has been little discussion about what is required to develop and enact that sensitivity and/or the knowledge, capacities, and skills required for ethical and responsive nursing relationships within the complexities of current health-care milieus. For example, as social inequalities deepen and neoliberal ideologies hold individuals responsible for their own health and well-being regardless of how poverty, disability, remote geographical locations, or other inequalities determine health, notions of obligation, responsibility, accountability, and efficiency are as vital to nursing relationships as are notions of compassion, responsiveness, trust and respect. Thus, nurses require a broader understanding of relationships and their significance to ethical nursing practice. p.204.

The sentence in (my) italics can be summed up in one word - a recently discovered concept for me - that of: precarity.

Here the definition on Wikipedia (c/o the above link):

Precarity is a condition of existence without predictability or security, affecting material or psychological welfare. Specifically, it is applied to the condition of intermittent or underemployment and the resultant precarious existence. The social class defined by this condition has been termed the precariat.

Nursing is bound to be affected by the socio-economic environment. Caution is needed as the weather impacts, puts pressure on nursing's values.

Doane, G.H., Varcoa, C. (2013). Relational Practice and Nursing Obligations. In Philosophical and Theoretical Perspectives for Advanced Nursing Practice (5th ed.), by W. K. Cody (Ed.). (Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett.

Oxford Philosophy and Psychiatry Summer School and launch of new Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Psychiatry

University of Oxford Philosophy and Psychiatry Summer School to host book launch of the new Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Psychiatry. 

The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Psychiatry offers the most comprehensive reference resource for this area ever published and we are delighted to announce the launch as part of the Summer School. Sponsored by Oxford University Press, the launch will open with a short address from Dr Anita Avramides (Reader in Philosophy of Mind, University of Oxford). The book is written and edited by an international team comprising world-leading philosophers and psychiatrists, resulting in an authoritative volume. We are very happy to welcome several of these team members to the Summer School where they will be delivering key sessions:

• Values in Mental Health Practice - Professor Bill Fulford (Emeritus Professor of Philosophy and Mental Health, University of Warwick, and Member of the Philosophy Faculty, University of Oxford)
• Ordering Disorder: Mental Disorder, Brain Disorder and Therapeutic Intervention - Professor George Graham (Professor of Philosophy and Neuroscience, Georgia State University)
• Karl Jaspers and the Ethics of Incomprehensibility - Professor Giovanni Stanghellini (Professor of Dynamic Psychology and Psychopathology, University of Chieti)

These sessions form part of an intensive programme delivered through keynote lectures and seminars offering opportunities for substantial dialogue between philosophers, scientists and mental health practitioners.

The Summer School will take place at St Catherine’s College, Oxford (14 – 19 July 2013) and includes opportunities to network and socialise with fellow delegates, faculty members and invited speakers. Residential and non-residential options are available.

Further details available: www.conted.ox.ac.uk/ppss2

My source: NURSE-PHILOSOPHY at JISCMAIL.AC.UK (IPONS)

Papers, case formulation and hyperbole

I am enjoying a three night break in Keswick where it is dry, windy and chilly. Invigorating for all that.

In between taking in the hills and the atmospherics of the skies I am working on completing the revision to the - scope of nursing - paper. There is still a paragraph to lose to reduce the length for the target journal.

The case formulation and h2cm paper is taking shape too - 5,000 words. I am sure the ongoing advice and thoughts of my co-author on the scope effort is making a difference. As a result the case formulation paper will be in final draft form soon. Then I'll seek some feedback from a CBT therapist before trying to locate a journalistic home. Here's a snippet from the draft:

... If the talking therapies are specialised forms of conversation then we should also be able see case formulation as being on a continuum, derived from narratives that can include extreme case formulation, and hyperbole (Norrick, 2004). The specific therapies discussed here [cognitive behavioural therapy and cognitive analytical therapy] are concerned with overstatement and exaggeration in thought not just speech. Things may be said in everyday speech that are rhetorical and not necessarily indicative of deeply held core, dysfunctional beliefs. ...

Norrick, N.R. (2004). Hyperbole, extreme case formulation. Journal of Pragmatics 36. 1727–1739.

I receive regular reminders about a part time PhD application that remains incomplete. So I will address this too (and check other opportunities) over the next few days.

Post on a new laptop and a socio-technical-existential addiction to follow ....

Dialectics in therapy, case formulation, h2cm and a tree

Kuyken et al. (2009) propose three dialectics that are useful in an evaluation of their model for case conceptualization, these are:

Released today - 28th Jan 2013

nomothetic – idiopathic; 
simple – complex; 
and subjective – objective.

This act of identifying polarities can be described as a diagrammatic formulation in itself.

These dialectics and many others can be readily incorporated into h2cm: for example;

socio – technical,
macro – micro.
...

Kuyken, W., Padesky, C., Dudley, R. (2009). Collaborative case conceptualization. New York, The Guilford Press.

Update on new papers: 1. Case formulation & 2. Scope of Nursing

At present, with the support of a co-author, I am editing a paper on Hodges' model and the scope of nursing. The text some 6000 words was submitted to a journal last April and rejected, but as ever feedback is golden and the comments are being used to revise. The referees have set a challenge as amongst several points I tease out where the inherent theoretical perspectives lie in Hodges' model and how their identification within h2cm helps to define the scope of nursing.

Another paper in final draft - 4400 words - concerns the model and case formulation. At last I've arrived at this topic. Hodges' model is basically a simple drawing with care concepts superimposed. Cognitive behavioural therapy [CBT] and cognitive analytical therapy [CAT] make use of case formulation and CAT utilizes what are called sequential diagrammatic formulations.

The old website pages were written rather on the fly. They almost comprise a 'to-do-list' of thoughts and findings to revisit and check. Of two old pages one dealt with possible ideas and sources that might inform the structure of Hodges' model; the other page theory.

On the latter page I learned of SDRs - the sequential diagrammatic reformulations used in CAT and related this to the care domains of h2cm -

It feels good to be able to address this theme at long last.

In just over a week I'm looking f/w to a three day break in the Lakes. Weather permitting some  walking and a few runs, a bike ride, writing and Drupal - which I have put down of late...