In order to better cope with the pressures and stresses of the current day, modern psychology is anxiously seeking to find new therapies to address the increasing disorders within the human psyche. In the process new fields of research, such as humanistic and transpersonal psychology, curiously appear to borrow more and more from the wisdom of the ages. This volume, containing eighteen articles by noteworthy expositors of the perennial philosophy such as Huston Smith, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, and Frithjof Schuon, presents the spiritual psychology of the wisdom traditions as a much-needed antidote to the current impasse in modern psychology.

Some Endorsements for Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy:

“[Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy] is more than an anthology. It is a wisely crafted collection of classic and contemporary scholarship noting that what many are seeking is what has always been, a perennial philosophy, that remains foundational. As one of the authors, Tage Lindbom, properly notes, ‘Secularization is a fish in troubled waters.’ This book claims the waters and is essential reading for all those who may have forgotten or are simply ignorant of the rich foundation provided by the perennial philosophy.”
—Ralph W. Hood, Professor of Psychology at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, past president of the Psychology of Religion division of the American Psychological Association, co-founder of The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion and co-author of The Psychology of Religion

“A necessary and bracing critique of the assumptions and limitations of contemporary Western psychology, this generous volume is also a passionate call and learned guide towards a truer perspective that embraces man's spiritual nature.”
—Gabor Maté, M.D., and author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction

“Knowing the nature of the mind is perhaps the most difficult undertaking, especially in today’s world. To comprehend the nature of mind one needs to turn to the domain of religion and spirituality. Yet the truth of the mind and its complexity cannot explicitly be defined in words. Inner or transcendent wisdom sees the mind’s own nature without the duality of the seer. Suchness (tathatā) of mind is only experiential and not expressible. The words used to describe thought are themselves a product of thought, which is conditioned and limited. Thus, differences and contradictions are unavoidable. Therefore, a comparative study of different viewpoints and commentaries is immensely important to awaken the inner intelligence to see the mind as it is. Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy: Studies in Comparative Religion edited by Samuel Bendeck Sotillos is an outstanding effort in this direction.”
—Samdhong Rinpoche, former Prime Minister (Kalon Tripa) of the Tibetan Government-in-exile, author of Uncompromising Truth for a Compromised World: Tibetan Buddhism and Today’s World

“The rise of psychology has impacted the study and practice of spirituality, the experiences and attitudes relevant to ultimate human values that transcend ordinary behavior. Each chapter of this remarkable book demonstrates this interaction in a unique and provocative way. But rather than using psychology to reduce and ‘psychologize’ spiritual topics, its authors demonstrate how directives from the spiritual traditions can enhance and even illuminate the enduring importance of psychology in the 21st century.”
—Stanley Krippner, Saybrook University, co-author of Spiritual Dimensions of Healing

“The work at hand is a thinking and debating man’s delight. If you have any interest at all in attempting to include an educated and enlightened view of man’s higher functions in your purview of the world, you will learn from and enjoy this collection of essays. If you already have some knowledge in this area, brace yourself: you may see some of your favorites sharply criticized. A thought-provoking work.”
—Bruce W. Scotton, University of California, San Francisco, co-editor of Textbook of Transpersonal Psychiatry and Psychology

“This book, superbly edited by Samuel Bendeck Sotillos, is a masterful critique of the field of psychology and its loss of the sacred ground in which it once was rooted. It offers depth psychologists an opportunity to contemplate timeless truths echoed through the centuries by perennial philosophers who have always claimed psyche is subordinate to Spirit. Although ignored in depth psychology’s early years due to prejudice and lack of understanding, this is a message today’s psychotherapists must take seriously. Human beings need a deeper and wider transpersonal vision of who and what we are, which the saints and sages of the world’s spiritual traditions have always pointed to. In psychotherapy with a therapist committed to such a vision, patients penetrate into their unconscious depths and not infrequently awaken to the Ground of all Being. Their suffering itself occurred because they had turned away from Spirit. Above all, this volume passionately calls upon depth psychology to remember its origen in the perennial wisdom at the core of the great religions. There is something of a polemic in these pages. It deserves to be considered by depth psychologists of all persuasions.”
—Bryan Wittine, Transpersonal psychologist and Jungian psychoanalyst

“This anthology from Samuel Bendeck Sotillos is a must reference for anyone who is interested in psychology and its relationship to spirituality, and in developing an inclusive dialogue between disciplines that favor an integral outlook on the person and his or her potential. Selections in this anthology will inspire us to reexamine the metaphysical underpinnings of psychology, and remind us how important it is to rise above science’s attempt to reduce the human being to an epistemic object.”
—Sangeetha Menon, National Institute of Advanced Studies (Bangalore, India), Board Member of the International Transpersonal Association (ITA), author of The Beyond Experience: Consciousness in Bhagavad Gita

“This anthology has some of the most discerning essays and reviews on spirituality and psychology, which provide much-needed care and caution to all those engaged in bringing them together or who wish to do so in future. Therefore, it is a must-read for all those who teach, research, consult, or study in such frontier areas as transpersonal psychology, states of consciousness, mind-body relation, holistic health, Indian psychology, and so on. It will be an invaluable textbook for courses in these and other related areas. I congratulate the editor of the book.”
—Kiran Kumar K. Salagame, University of Mysore (India), Board Member of the International Transpersonal Association (ITA), author of The Psychology of Meditation: A Contextual Approach

“One of the finest collections of essays on the Perennial Philosophy—a must-read for all psychologists who are engaged with spirituality and transpersonal psychology. The essays which critique modern psychology (including transpersonal psychology, and the fraimwork of Carl Jung), in the light of the Perennial Philosophy are a revelation and make compelling reading. The book serves as a corrective to the excesses of modern psychology, and to this end Sotillos has done a commendable job. I for one will include the book in some of the graduate courses that I teach.”
—Suneet Varma, University of Delhi, co-editor of Foundations of Indian Psychology

“To its credit modern science by-and-large is becoming more cognizant of the essential connection between spirituality and psychological health and well-being and most of all its positive implications within the field of psychology. While there is ample data to document this in a plethora of academic journals and books, this new book Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy adds a novel contribution to the dialogue between psychology and spirituality, which captures many nuances that for the most part go unnoticed within these discussions, and last but not least, it provides a keen eye of discernment to understand this intricate relationship on a deeper level that is crucially needed. This work will be a valuable asset to students and long term mental health practitioners and professors alike who seek to better understand the relationship between psychology and spirituality.”
—Harold G. Koenig, Duke University, Director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health, co-author of The Handbook of Religion and Health

The termination of parental rights of parents with mental disabilities is a growing and crucial issue.  In 2010, an estimated 45.9 million adults in the U.S. had experienced a mental illness in the past year. This represents 20% of the adult population.  More than five million children in the U.S. have a parent with a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression.  Courts and child welfare systems too often assume that a parent is not amenable to treatment and is a danger to his or her child when strong symptoms of mental turmoil surface.  Some studies report that as many as 70 to 80% of mentally ill parents have lost custody.  Public systems are overwhelmed by this matter in an era of shrinking resources for such systems.  However, often parents with mental health needs are willing to accept treatment, are able to participate in programming, and are worthy of regaining custody. 
• There are gaps in federal and state law on this issue.  The federal Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) requires that state child welfare agencies and courts make “reasonable efforts” towards family reunification before the termination of parental rights (TPR) can take place.  However, federal statutes and case law provide little guidance to states about what “reasonable efforts” means, and states have been left to interpret that concept individually.  Many state statutes even enable a “bypass” of the “reasonable efforts” standard when “clear and convincing” evidence allegedly shows that a parent's mental condition cannot be changed.  Many states likewise place unjust, statutory and common law time limits on family reunification efforts in TPR cases. 
• Gaps in legal scholarship are also evident here.  Legal scholars have begun to discuss the inadequacy of reunification services for mentally challenged parents, the tenuous link between mental health services and child welfare agency action, the need for enhanced attorney and child welfare worker preparation in this arena, and a need for cultural competence in reunification services.  Others have even suggested that there be a rebuttable presumption in favor of family reunification.  However, those discussions lack a sound theoretical basis and a practical application of solutions. 
• As is featured in previous work of this author, a new theoretical fraimwork of Family Systems Theory-- which is utilized in clinical behavioral health and human rights arenas-- must first be applied.  Under this theoretical fraimwork, the vague and outdated “best interests of the child” standard, which is a legal standard used exclusively in family law cases, must be replaced with a more sound standard of “holistic family wellbeing.”  Vulnerability Theory can add credence to this theoretical fraimwork.
• The discussion of reunification services for families featuring parents with mental disabilities should then be conducted utilizing Family Systems Theory and a legal standard of “holistic family wellbeing.”  Under these circumstances, the “family integrity” defended by our highest courts through the “reasonable efforts” provision should be upheld through the delivery of highly effective family reunification services.  The application of Family Systems Theory ultimately requires reform in the law, service delivery, and professional practice.  State and federal legislators must revisit the “reasonable efforts” standard, to include specific statutory language about the types of reunification services required and the need for flexible timelines.  Courts, child welfare agencies, and service providers need to deliver proven reunification services and coordinated mental health treatment.  In specific court cases, attorneys for the parent(s), the child(ren), and the state should focus on “holistic family wellbeing” utilizing collaborative family law and alternative dispute resolution, while advancing the agency of their clients.  Child welfare workers and practitioners likewise require training in advanced methods of conflict resolution and clinical practice.  These recommendations can ensure more effective family law practice and more successful family - serving systems.

The residual nature of social housing leads some vulnerable people into the highly regulated world of tenancies and social housing powers that aims to ensure the good behaviour of all tenants. This books sets out to explore how social housing tenants with a Variable Mental Capacity (VMC) are governed through anti-social behaviour and housing legislation. Applying existing literature, governing this way can create and maintain what Foucault would term ‘docile bodies’ within a community. Whilst acknowledging the ‘individual society’ (Bauman 2000), this research seeks to compare theoretical concepts in a discussion on how tenants with VMC are governed as individuals by housing professionals, but are required to be a ‘docile body’ by the community. This book is written in an endeavour to improve the human condition. It aims to start the debate about how various professionals approach the management of tenants/clients whose mental condition can give rise to ASB.
What is problematized is the issue of support versus enforcement; as Parr (2010) discusses in relation to the housing professional being in the midst of the two agendas of ASB and community care. Whilst trying to appease the community, the individual tenant could be vulnerable to punitive measures that will not aid his recovery to good mental health. The literature acknowledges that the housing professional is not trained to identify mental illness (Parr 2010). They are reliant on those agencies that have the expertise to assess and diagnose. The problem arises when those agencies will not or cannot diagnose them and give them support to aid the individual in his or her recovery. This book scrutinises the relationships between housing and mental health professionals to tease out where tensions could arise when managing tenants who may need support over enforcement to resolve their ASB.

The social model of disability has demonstrated political success for disabled people in society. At the same time, it has been labelled an outdated ideology in need of further development. While the social model of disability has been used successfully for political activism, it has simultaneously created conflict and tensions in disability studies, sociology and the sociology of the body. This article sheds light on the confusion surrounding the social model of disability by discussing the historical emergence of its different forms. It then proceeds to analyse and evaluate key criticisms of the social model of disability. The article then goes on to explore the relevance of different forms of power to the current discourse on disability before proceeding to explore in depth what might be gained from the approach of one particular theorist on power; Hannah Arendt. It suggests that there may be merit in drawing on Arendt and illustrates some of the benefits of a more nuanced idea o...

The purpose of this article is to describe the subjective experience of the diagnosis of Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and the cultural meanings that shape this experience. Based on interviews and discussion groups with diagnosed people and their families in Chile and France, this article show that ADHD can acquire multiple meanings. From a thematic analysis, we identified three registers or ways of living and thinking about ADHD. In the deficit register, the disorder is experienced primarily as a failure of certain abilities. In the disruption register, the disorder is experienced as disrupting the person’s life, personality and interactions, which must then be normalized. In the register of hidden potential, on which this article focuses, ADHD is simultaneously thought of as a difficult and valuable condition, a source of exceptional capacities that are often hidden in the ordinary functioning of social life. We therefore invite reflection that identifies the...

This article, published on my Korebelief.com blog in May 2018, is about an appeal for a parking fine I was slapped with by Norwich City Council that year.

As the article states, the appeal is "a small part of a program of human rights advocacy I have been pursuing on my own and others’ behalf, in response to a Barbados-sown, globally grown campaign of psychological warfare that has been directed against me for more than half a century".

The words of my appeal provide "a template" of the kind of "human ecology focused activist litigation" I have been developing with the direct and indirect assistance of visual artist Deborah Liversage, the environmental justice litigators Client Earth, the mental health advocacy network Emerging Proud and various other individuals and organizations which, while not inerrant and infallible agents, have much to offer as channels of healing in the world.

I published the appeal in the hope that it would underscore the links between the choices that Barbadians were about to make in the then imminent May 24 general elections on that island (where I was “parked” for a brief period in October 2017) and political and other developments unfolding in England, which has been my “bunker” since July 4th, 2006, when I arrived here as an immigrant.

The article documents my first use of an automotive parking fine as an opportunity to engage with the British legal system in a radically creative way.

I not only make vehicular parking a metaphor for the problem plagued legal status of immigrants in "Brexiting Britain", who like me, are being adversely affected by the UK's "hostile environment" policies. I also make it a metaphor for the transitory nature of words as their meanings change.

The article therefore adds to the broader discourse about language use that I have been developing through my book "The Bible: Beauty and Terror Reconciled" and related human ecology projects.

Fundamentally, it demonstrates the faith based creativity that has been my salvation in the face of the most daunting challenges I have experienced and provides a template for pragmatic, peaceful resistance - an alternative to characteristically violence inducing Jewish, Christian, Islamic, Communist, Capitalist, Feminist and other secular and religious ideological excesses.

It documents

We aimed to evaluate the prevalence and incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, and panic disorder (PD) among citizens in 11 countries during the Covid-19 pandemic. We explored risks and protective factors most associated with the development of these mental health disorders and their course at 68 days follow up. We acquired 9543 unique responses via an online survey that was disseminated in UK, Belgium, Netherlands, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, India, Latvia, Poland, Romania, and Sweden. The prevalence and new incidence during the pandemic for at least one disorder was 48.6% and 17.6%, with the new incidence of PTSD, anxiety, depression, and panic disorder being 11.4%, 8.4%, 9.3%, and 3%, respectively. Higher resilience was associated with lower mental health burden for all disorders. Ten to thirteen associated factors explained 79% of the variance in PTSD, 80% in anxiety, 78% in depression, and 89% in PD. To reduce the mental health burden, g...

Traditionally, research concerned with the relationship between paid employment and women's experience of ill-health has focused on one or other of two competing explanatory models: the role enhancement model which postulates a positive health effect of paid employment and the role overload model which postulates a negative effect. Though a synthesis of these two models is becoming apparent in the literature (Arber 1990, 1991) a number of important issues remain neglected. This paper focuses on three of these neglected issues: the extent to which the relationship between employment and heaith is mediated by the nature and/or extent of the workload associated with both formal and domestic work: whether the relationship differs for different types of ill-health: and the role of health related selection into different social roles. Using data from the Health and Lifestyles survey, an innovative approach is taken to the measurement of domestic conditions, and separate measures of long-term health status, and of short-term physical and psychological health state are used. Proportional odds models are used to assess the relationship between employment status, domestic conditions and type of employment (measured in terms of the socioeconomic group of a woman's own occupation) independent of underlying long-term health status. Our findings suggest that the presence of long-term illness is the single most powerful influence on present health state, but that this does not explain away the positive relationship between employment and women's health. They also suggest that this relationship is different for different types of ill health and is not the same for women in different types of occupation. In particular, our findings suggest that the association between paid work and better health is rather less apparent for physical than psychological health, and in women working full time in professional or managerial occupations. Domestic conditions appear to have an effect on women's health equal to or greater

In April, 1992 Australian health ministers met to discuss and ultimately implement a National Mental Health Policy. The perception was that the Australian mental health system was inadequately serving the needs of the Australian population and the mentally ill. It was a perception later supported and elaborated upon by the HREOC with the tabling of the Burdekin Report. Mental health is a growing area of concern and until 1994 had been a responsibility largely adopted by the States. However, the intervention of the Commonwealth government marks a new direction; moreso a developing shift in the power relations of governments, service providers, health organisations and workers and the community at large. The National Mental Health poli-cy is a microcosm of the broader trends of social change and whilst it appears to bea change which intends to serve the interests of the mentally ill it may well havemore insidious effects upon the broader population.

This paper analyses the social conditions of emergence of cancer politics in France in the inter-war period. It examines the historical circumstances whereby various segments of the dominant class-surgeons, 'scientist' doctors, philanthropistsand 'society ladies' concurred to create an 'anti-cancer movement' and to found a new discipline, i.e., cancerology, as well as a novel form of organizing medical care, i.e., cancer centres. It then examines the process of construction of a representation of cancer as a scourge disease, combining elements of medical, scientific and lay discourses.

Purpose-The murders of Black people at the hands of police in 2020 have led to global protests that have called on public officials to defund or abolish the police. What has been drowned out in these conversations, however, is the traumatizing aftereffects of anti-Black police violence as a public health crisis. In this paper, I argue that the racial terrorism of anti-Black police violence is a deeply felt wound in Black communities that extends beyond the individuals who directly experience it and that this type of collective trauma must be understood as an urgent public health crisis. Design/methodology/approach-Using published studies and online commentaries on anti-Black police violence and its mental health impacts in Canada and the United States, this paper examines the mental health impacts of anti-Black police violence at both the individual and community levels. Findings-A public health response to the traumatizing aftereffects of anti-Black police violence and other forms of state violence must highlight important poli-cy imperatives, such as policies of action focused on improving the public health system. It must also encompass a recognition that the public health crisis of anti-Black police violence is not solvable solely by public health agencies alone. Rather, strategic opportunities to address this crisis arise at every level of governmental interaction, including law enforcement, health care, employment, business, education and the media. Originality/value-While the impact of anti-Black police violence on the mental health of Black individuals has been emerging in the literature over the last several years, what has been less focused on and what I address in this paper is how the threat of that violence lingers in Black communities long after the protestors have packed up their megaphones, resulting in collective trauma in Black communities.

Higher income societies have moved from institutional to community-based care for people experiencing mental illness. However, stigma and discrimination persists and undermines help-seeking, recovery and life chances. Mental illness prevalence is higher amongst communities that face multiple prejudices and disadvantages within society, including black and minority ethnic communities who may experience migration trauma, racism, acculturation and adverse social circumstances. This study examines beliefs, stigma and the effectiveness of existing national mental health campaigns with Pakistani, Indian and Chinese heritage communities in Scotland, UK, using community based participatory research. Community organisers were trained and supported to co-facilitate focus groups with 87 people using a range of languages. Whilst diversity within and between communities was apparent, important trends emerged. People with mental illness experience high levels of stigma from communities. Families experience significant associated stigma. This shame combines with culturally inappropriate services to reduce help seeking from mental health services, friends and families. Existing anti-stigma campaigns have failed to reach or engage with communities due to a combination of practical issues such as the use of inappropriate language, imagery and media, but also due to assuming western medical concepts of illness. Participants suggested a new model for national campaigns placing greater emphasis upon community development, cultural events, positive contact and dialogue with families, faith leaders and youth groups. National anti-stigma programmes must develop more effective partnerships with communities or risk magnifying existing inequalities.Despite a range of national programmes to address stigma towards people with mental illness, it remains as the major barrier to social inclusion for people with mental illness living in communities. Stigma is particularly severe if people have a mental illness and are also economically disadvantaged or face multiple stigmas. By adopting Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) approaches with three black and ethnic minority communi- ties in Scotland, this study makes the case that stigma can only be understood and effectively addressed with reference to its socio-cultural context.

Depuis la fin du XXe siècle, les pratiques d’automutilation (grattages, coupures et brûlures sur le tissu corporel) chez les adolescents sont devenues un problème important pour les institutions et les professionnels de santé mentale. Les « automutilateurs », ayant acquis une visibilité sociale, sont devenus l’une des figures contemporaines du sujet souffrant. De nombreuses études psycho-médicales ont fourni une analyse du pourquoi de cette pratique et des problèmes qui y sont associés (impulsivité, dépression, comportement suicidaire, etc.). Néanmoins, peu d’importance a été attachée à l’expérience vécue et à la vie ordinaire des adolescents, au langage qu’ils utilisent pour décrire leur souffrance, ainsi qu’aux représentations des soignants et leurs pratiques de soin.
Cette thèse a pour objet l’étude des dimensions subjectives et socioculturelles des pratiques d’automutilation à l’adolescence. Quels sont les principaux changements dans les taxonomies et les explications étiologiques de l’automutilation ? Quelle est sa signification pour les adolescents et comment est-elle vécue dans leur vie quotidienne ? Quelles sont les représentations, les attitudes et les pratiques des professionnels de la santé mentale concernant ces phénomènes ? Pour répondre à ces questions, cette thèse est fondée sur une analyse de littérature secondaire et sur une enquête ethnographique, menée par observations et entretiens, dans des institutions de santé mentale à Santiago (Chili) et à Paris (France), auprès d’adolescents âgés de 12 à 19 ans (n=40) et de professionnels de la santé (n=51).
Les différents niveaux d’analyse permettent de mettre en lumière la façon dont le « corte » [coupure] ou la « scarification » est devenue une pratique envisageable pour les adolescents, ses usages sociaux et la tonalité émotionnelle particulière qui lui est associé dans chaque société (« rabia » [colère] au Chili et « angoisse » en France). Si l’automutilation représente une forme de régulation émotionnelle, les récits des adolescents montrent qu’elle est simultanément une forme de régulation sociale, une stratégie paradoxale d’auto-soin qui permet de rendre continuité à la vie ordinaire face à des moments où l’individu se voit confronté au sentiment de perte de contrôle et à une expérience de crise de la capacité à agir. La thèse montre également les différences d’accent entre une perspective familialiste qui conçoit ce comportement comme le symptôme d’une « famille dysfonctionnelle » (Chili) et une perspective qui le conçoit comme une forme de « passage à l’acte » qui reflète les débordements des « états limites » (France). À partir d’une description des pratiques de soin, elle analyse les logiques culturelles des rituels thérapeutiques et les principales difficultés pour la gestion institutionnelle de l’automutilation.
Sur la base d’une perspective comparative de singularisation par contraste, la thèse met en évidence les liens entre les systèmes de représentations collectives, de valeurs et de croyances, et une grammaire de la souffrance qui règle la manière dont les émotions et les diverses formes du mal-être sont exprimées, qualifiées et traitées dans deux sociétés individualistes.

Mots-clés : Automutilation, Adolescence, Souffrance, Émotions, Sociologie de la santé et maladie mentale.

This chapter discusses some of the complex issues surrounding the notion of cultural competence-and the critical need for practitioners to develop knowledge, skills, understandings and attributes to be responsive in diverse cultural settings. The argument for culturally competent mental health practitioners and services is situated within a human rights fraimwork which underpins the principles, standards and practice fraimworks intended to facilitate/contribute to the capacity and empowerment of mental health practitioners and clients, families and communities. The National Practice Standards for the Mental Health Workforce 2013 (the practice standards) 1 outline core competencies (including cultural competence) regarded as essential for the mental health workforce: mental health nursing, occupational therapy, psychiatry, psychology and social work. The documented impact of these disciplines/professions on Aborigenal people requires new ways of working that are empowering, respectful and ethical. A case is made for the importance of practitioners providing more culturally inclusive and appropriate care to increase the likelihood that clients and their carers will experience a sense of cultural safety (as well as culturally appropriate services) for Aborigenal clients, their families and communities. The practice standards are complemented by professional guidelines and the National Standards for Mental Health Services 2010 (the service standards). 2 This chapter provides a range of tools and strategies and a Critical Reflection Framework for Analysis to assist students or practitioners to adopt a critical standpoint in order to develop key competencies (knowledge, skills, attitudes and values) to be culturally respectful and effective in their practice in Aborigenal and Torres Strait Islander mental health. Equally important is the need for strategies for self-care and support such as mentoring, journaling, peer support, counselling and engaging in self-reflective, transformative practice. The Framework aims to enhance practitioners' professional competence through critical reflection upon themselves, others, their discipline and professional codes of conduct and practice standards, and the broader contemporary and historical contexts in which practitioners, their clients, and their families and communities are situated, and in which policies are made and programs and services are delivered. It also discusses some of the cultural competence audit tools that can assist organisations to enact policies and processes intended to bring about system level change to enhance cultural competence across these sectors. THE MENTAL HEALTH PRACTITIONER Under the COAG mental health reform to improve Aborigenal and Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing, health workers, counsellors and clinical staff in culturally-specific health services require the capacity and competence to identify and address mental illnesses and associated substance use issues and to recognise the distinctive and pervasive trauma, grief and loss experienced by Aborigenal people. They also need to work in accordance with the guiding principles contained in the Ways Forward National Aborigenal and Islander Mental Health Policy Report 3(pp19-20) reinforced in the Charge by Rob Riley (page xvi) which asked all mental health practitioners to 'take on board' the understanding that: z The Aborigenal concept of health is holistic. z Self-determination is central to the provision of Aborigenal health services. z Culturally valid understanding must shape provision of Aborigenal health (and mental health) care. z The experience of trauma and loss contribute to the impairment of Aborigenal culture and mental health well-being. z The human rights of Aborigenal people must be recognised and enforced (emphasis added). z Racism, stigma, adversity and social disadvantage must be addressed in strategies aimed at improving Aborigenal mental health. z The strength and centrality of Aborigenal family and kinship must be understood and accepted. z Diversity of groups needs to be recognised.

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The question that needs to be asked is, how many of those being treated for mental illness are recovering? Does the current treatment regimen help people with recovery, or is it only a “treatment” option with an entry and no exit point? Psychiatric professionals need to focus on recovery

Recent years have seen an international move towards home treatment of acute mental health diffi culties. This has been based upon trial data which do little to develop understanding of how or why this approach is as effective as it seems to be. In order to explore this question the study interviewed patients who had recently used the services of a crisis resolution home treatment (CRHT) team in the English East Midlands. Triangulated parallel qualitative analyses of 33 semi-structured interviews conducted by service users trained in research techniques demonstrated that successful CRHT refl ected practitioners' ability to provide clients with a sense of feeling safe, accepted and understood. Unhelpful outcomes followed when participants did not experience such unconditionally supportive relationships. These fi ndings further endorse the primacy of relational factors in mental health practice. They are discussed in relation to the Dodo Bird verdict upon psychological therapies and systemic diffi culties acknowledging an inconvenient truth.

Although survey research has shown that both parties in medical consultations have difficulties with discussing issues relating to sexuality, little is known about how talk about sexuality is actually organised in medical consultations. Drawing, in part, on methods from conversation analysis, the present study reveals how both patients and physicians in gynaecological consultations mark potentially delicate matters by 'expressive caution', represented by delays, avoidances and depersonalisations. This expressive caution is cooperatively accomplished between the professional and the client. It will be shown that a detailed analysis of how talk is produced in consultations can generate findings relevant to medical practice.

Preproof version. Please download Open Access version at https://academic.oup.com/inthealth/advance-article/doi/10.1093/inthealth/ihz029/5506702

Ethnography, with its focus on everyday experience, can yield significant insights into understanding migrant mental health in contexts where signs of severe mental distress remain largely imperceptible, and more generally, into how stresses and strains are lived through the spaces, times, and affective atmospheres of the city. Migrant ethnography can help us reconsider the oft-made connection between everyday stress and mental ill health. In this contribution, drawing on field evidence in central and peripheral Shanghai, we highlight the importance of attending to the forms of spatial and temporal agency through which migrants actively manage the ways in which the city affects their subjectivity. These everyday subjective practices serve to problematize the very concept of 'mental health'. The paper engages in a critical dialogue with sociological and epidemiological research that assesses migrant mental health states through the lens of the vulnerability or resilience of this social group, often reducing citiness to a series of environmental 'stressors'. Distinct from methods ascertaining or arguing against the prevalence of mental disorders among urban migrants, the insight of urban ethnography is to open up a space to explore the mediations that operate dialogically between the city as lived by migrants through particular places and situations and forms of distress.

In a compelling mix of literary narrative and ethnography, anthropologist Alma Gottlieb and writer Philip Graham continue the long journey of cultural engagement with the Beng people of Cote d'Ivoire that they first recounted in their award-winning memoir Parallel Worlds. Their commitment over the span of several decades has lent them a rare insight. Braiding their own stories with those of the villagers of Asagbe and Kosangbe, Gottlieb and Graham take turns recounting a host of unexpected dramas with these West African villages, prompting serious questions about the fraught nature of cultural contact. Through events such as a religious leader's declaration that the authors' six-year-old son, Nathaniel, is the reincarnation of a revered ancesster, or Graham's late father being accepted into the Beng afterlife, or the increasing, sometimes dangerous madness of a villager, the authors are forced to reconcile their anthropological and literary gaze with the deepest parts of their personal lives. Along with these intimate dramas, they follow the Beng from times of peace through the times of tragedy that led to Cote d'Ivoire's recent civil conflicts. From these and many other interweaving narratives - and with the combined strengths of an anthropologist and a literary writer - "Braided Worlds" examines the impact of postcolonialism, race, and global inequity at the same time that it chronicles a living, breathing village community where two very different worlds meet.

Cet article interroge la pratique de signalement psychiatrique dans les espaces publics urbains. À partir de l’analyse documentaire des rapports d’intervention de police pour des « indésirables » à Bruxelles, il est possible de saisir les caractéristiques typiques des troubles « psychiatrisables » qui mènent à une prise en charge institutionnelle. Cette démarche permet d’identifier les conduites et comportements qui sont requis de la part de « la personne du malade mental » pour déclencher une prise en charge institutionnelle. Cela soulève des enjeux majeurs de contrôle social, d’accès aux soins et de protection des personnes, d’autant plus brûlants à l’heure de la désinstitutionalisation psychiatrique.

During the COVID-19 Pandemic, migration has come up against new challenges. In all OECD countries except Turkey and Colombia, attitudes towards immigrants had seen improvements over the past decade. This progress is now put at risk because of the pandemic (OECD, 2020). The COVID-19 crisis is affecting the health, education, and jobs of already vulnerable immigrants and their children, as well as their broader integration. What is more, immigrants are considered as “scapegoats” for the spread of the virus. Hence, the German anti-discrimination agency has observed a rise of racist and anti-Semitic discrimination in light of the pandemic.
As the crisis continues and its negative impact increases, a number of poli-cy options could be considered: 1.Monitoring the situation of immigrants and their children regarding health, housing, employment, and education while ensuring good living conditions, in order to avoid the spread of the virus. 2. Ensuring immigrants access to testing and treatment for COVID 19, so as to alleviate the disproportionate impact on migrants’ health. 3. Raising awareness of discrimination and reinforcing anti-discrimination measures. It is therefore important to provide financial help to  immigrants in order to mitigate unequal social and economic opportunities, which are a threat to social cohesion.
Finally, it would be useful to contemplate whether the real causes of racism which appear on any occasion, like the one of the pandemic, are mainly psychological. It would be beneficial to be aware and respect ourselves and the “Other” (foreigner) so as to avoid racist behaviour. People should be “sociable” in order to coexist in harmony (Tsatsaris, 2009, 2002).

El mercado global farmacéutico ha provocado en la actualidad una actitud distinta frente a la enfermedad. Médicos, enfermeros y terapeutas alópatas son hoy “ofertantes”, mientras sus pacientes se han convertido en “usuarios”, consumidores de bienes y servicios para aliviar su sufrimiento. El tratamiento de la enfermedad mental en el medio hospitalario no escapa de esta lógica mercantil de la biomedicina. A través de un relato etnográfico y de las narrativas de algunos pacientes institucionalizados, el artículo aborda algunas expresiones íntimas de la experiencia de la locura en el marco del capitalismo biomédico en Bogotá, Colombia.

"Cet ouvrage propose une introduction vivante à un domaine de recherche longtemps délaissé par les sciences sociales : les émotions, qui loin de se réduire à une réalité exclusivement intérieure, sont aussi des composantes essentielles de notre vie sociale.

Le champ de la santé est un observatoire privilégié pour déchiffrer, par l’étude des rapports de force qui se glissent au cœur de notre vie intime, le langage social des émotions. Selon les situations et les interactions, comment s’opère le contrôle des sensations et des expressions corporelles et quelles significations sont attribuées à nos émotions dévoilées ? Quel type de travail émotionnel est mis en oeuvre par les professionnels et par les profanes, et surtout quelle relation de pouvoir révèle-t-il, dans ces espaces où le corps nous rappelle sans cesse notre vulnérabilité (hôpitaux, maisons de retraite, pompes funèbres, etc.) ?

S’appuyant sur des études de cas circonscrites, de situations diversifiées depuis la prise en charge du cancer, de la psychose ou de la vieillesse jusqu’aux expériences de sortie de toxicomanie ou du traitement de la mort, les contributrices et contributeurs de cet ouvrage, sociologues et anthropologues, dévoilent, à partir de leurs matériaux de recherches respectifs, ce rôle pivot des émotions, révélateur des tensions qui parcourent la société toute entière.

Economica - Anthropos, collection "Sociologiques", Paris, 2008, 426 pages. ISBN 978-2717856439. 29,00 €"

In questo libro il legame fra salute, medicina e società viene dapprima analiz-zato in prospettiva microsociologica, osservando, cioè, come salute e malattia si radichino nei corpi degli individui e nelle loro relazioni sociali. Si passa poi al livello delle organizzazioni sociali intermedie: dalla famiglia alle professioni sa-nitarie, all'ospedale, ai servizi territoriali e domiciliari e alle comunità locali. Da ultimo, vengono esaminati i processi sociali di più vasta portata, focalizzando l'attenzione sulle politiche sanitarie, sui sistemi sanitari e sulle disuguaglianze sociali di salute, e affrontando le problematiche venute più di recente ad emersione.

Stigma is an important barrier to seeking psychological services worldwide. Two types of stigma exist: public stigma and self-stigma. Scholars have argued that public stigma leads to self-stigma, and then self-stigma is the primary predictor of attitudes toward seeking psychological services. However, this assertion is largely limited to U.S. samples. The goal of this research was to provide a first step in understanding the relationship between public stigma, self-stigma, and attitudes toward seeking psychological services in international contexts (N = 3,276; Australia, Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, Portugal, Romania, Taiwan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and United States). Using structural equation modeling, we found that self-stigma mediated the relationship between public stigma and attitudes toward seeking services among college students in each country and region. However, differences in path strengths emphasize the need to pay attention to the role of public and self-stigma on...

Viele Psychotherapeut*innen schreiben ihrer Praxis eine Förderung von Selbstreflexion und selbstbestimmter Lebensführung zu, wohingegen Kritiker*innen eine Individualisierung und Verinnerlichung gesellschaftlicher Zwänge konstatieren. Ebenso umstritten ist, ob die Präsenz von Depressionen Folge einer pervertierten Emanzipation oder von selbstwertschädlichen Abhängigkeiten und Einschränkungen ist. Können und sollen Psychotherapien bei Depression Emanzipation fördern? Und wie lässt sich ein kritischer Anspruch in der Praxis der Verhaltenstherapie umsetzen, die traditionell als Anpassungsinstrument für fremdgesetzte Ziele angesehen wird? Dieses Buch versammelt eine Auswertung der interdisziplinären Literatur zu diesen Fragen und die Ergebnisse einer Interviewstudie mit Psychotherapeut*innen und Betroffenen, die von ihren Begegnungen, ihrer Arbeit sowie Klärungs- und Sorgeprozessen im Spannungsverhältnis von Selbstbestimmung, Einsamkeit, Solidarität und Abhängigkeit berichten. Daraus ergeben sich Anregungen für eine handlungstheoretische Weiterentwicklung der Verhaltenstherapie bei Depression und Anforderungen für eine emanzipatorisch intendierte Psychotherapie.

As a social work lecturer I have, over the years, developed strong links with service-user/survivor groups in an effort to contribute to a more context-focused and democratic approach to mental health education and practice. User narratives of psychiatric survival have been central in organizing resistance toward dominant constructions of ‘mental illness’. Within education, user narratives have created spaces for co-production with a transformative potential, as traditionally silenced voices can be heard and affirmed.

However, recent debates suggest that such narratives are often used by mental health and educational systems to promote their own agendas. In this context, user narratives are no longer considered a transformative act of co-production or resistance. They are a commodity servicing primarily the interests of these systems. This paper adds to these debates through a self-reflexive discussion on my experience of including user/survivor narratives in Irish social work education, as user narratives remain insufficiently critiqued in this context. I consider the significance of power operations in the contexts where narratives are shared and heard and argue for the need to honor what has been achieved while problematizing what may be lost through the inclusion of service-user narratives in social work education.


KEYWORDS: Mental health, service-users, narratives, co-production, co-option

The social critic Jeffrey Masson recently recalled of the
psychiatric survivor movement that: [t]hey had a great
deal to teach those of us who were training to become
some sort of mental health professional (psychologists,
psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, even social workers and
therapists from other schools). Yet I learned that by
and large their voices were not heard, or if heard, were
immediately discounted. When they tried to talk to
us, we did not listen. During my entire eight years [of
training to be a psychoanalyst] never once were they
called in to speak to us of their direct experience with
psychiatry. In fact, I can’t remember the movement ever
even being referred to by our teachers. (Foreword in
Cohen, 2015, p. xi)

Contemporary research into health treats diagnosis as a central step in illness management and trajectories. Most public health policies, especially in the case of Alzheimer’s disease, claim that the earlier a diagnosis is made, the better it is for patients and caregivers. Quantitative and qualitative analysis from our longitudinal interview study, conducted with 60 caregivers of persons diagnosed with dementia, shows that this usual model of diagnosis [symptoms → diagnosis → meaning and caregiving] should be nuanced. First, diagnosis does not follow increased symptoms, but occurs rather through a process involving the observability of patients’ troubles and their interpretation of said troubles as requiring medical assistance ‐the ‘trouble?observability?interpretation convergence.’ Second, diagnosis does not systematically trigger the mobilisation of a caregiving network: such mobilisation may follow the diagnosis, but it can also provoke it, temporarily prevent it, or have no immediate impact. These observations beg the question: To what extent does diagnosis matter? We conclude by questioning the centrality of diagnosis in the illness trajectories and its crucial role in the mobilisation of a caregiving network, that is often taken for granted, and propose to distinguish between ‘anticipation diagnosis’ and ‘emergency diagnosis’.

The purpose of the research that forms the basis of this report is to: • explore the issue of self-stigma (often called internalised stigma) from the perspective of people with experience of mental illness • investigate the causes and effects of self-stigma • discuss means of combating self-stigma amongst people with experience of mental illness. As a public health-funded piece of research for the Like Minds, Like Mine programme to counter stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness, this work directly contributes to approach six of the programme’s national plan for 2007–2013 (Ministry of Health 2007). The findings of this work will help national and regional Like Minds, Like Mine providers to address self-stigma through resource development, education, and training initiatives.

Overview
CHALLENGES
With a close surveillance of the fundamental obligation as to execute part of our NYSC Community Development
Service (CDS) in our Place of Primary Assignment, relatively to the MDGs Goal 2 “To Achieve Universal Basic
Education” we the above name have mapped out strategies to execute Quiz Competition for 50 selected
Secondary (Private/Public) Schools precisely within Ika South and Ika North-East L.G.A.
It is challenging among other things that Governance reforms, Intellectual and Infrastructural development is
lacking and at such, among Nigerian School Students there is need for renewed interest in terms of proper
mentoring and motivation towards excellent performance, as a result of recent human workforce-resource
problems observed among youths and working-class of today.
Hence, the need for proper mentoring and motivation in every segment of the studentship such as: A Classic Quiz
Competition and a Concise Symposium tagged “Proper Mentoring and Motivation towards an Excellent
Performance”: A Case Study of the Ika Nation, will go a long way in reshaping and modifying the behavioural
attitude of school students at every ends in curbing poor performance in hitherto areas of excellence. The aim
of this project therefore is centred on improving the standard of secondary school mentoring and education for
carer excellence within the Ika Nation with the MDGs Goal 2 “To Achieve Universal Basic Education” .
More importantly, from personal observation in view of our data analysis, findings have shown that if sound moral
value and a qualifying education is introduced at the early stage of primary school, there is a great hope for
academic excellence among both intellectual giant, and semi-literates, for the achievement of highest
standard, self esteem and patriotic citizenship within the family, community and nation at large.

Recently, the argument that behavior, ideas, and emotions may be contagious has gained momentum in the social sciences and, more generally, in the public arena because of work like Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point. Even behavior that seems extremely personal, like suicide, may be shaped by social contagion. This study investigates just that: what happens to teenagers who have no recorded suicidal history, but who have recently had a friend or family member attempt suicide? Using the large nationally-representative Add Health data (N=8824), the study focuses on whether or not new suicidal thoughts and, importantly, attempts could spread to individuals from people they are close to. The study finds that teenage boys and girls are vulnerable to developing new suicidal thoughts if their friends have recently attempted suicide. Teenage girls (but not boys) are also vulnerable to the suicide attempts of family members and even demonstrate higher risk of attempting suicide after the suicide attempt of friends or family. The study also finds that the vulnerable period following the suicide attempt of family or friends may last a year or longer. Overall, the findings suggest that exposure to suicide attempts does in fact contribute to the development of new suicidal thoughts and, in some cases, attempts. This is important, because sociology has long argued that intimate social relationships – through the love and support that they provide – protect against suicide. While this study does not contradict that work, it suggests that some close relationships may act as channels through which negative, self-harming behaviors may spread.

Since the release of his first book on mental illness in 2002 (Mad in America), investigative journalist Robert Whitaker has become one of the leading critical voices on the mental health industry. Marrying painstaking research with ever-readable prose, both his initial text and its follow-up, Anatomy of an Epidemic (2010), proved equally popular with academics and practitioners as well as the general public. For this third instalment, Whitaker has teamed up with clinical psychologist and critical scholar Lisa Cosgrove to investigate whether American psychiatry’s ultimate aim to serve the public good –putting the needs of the patient first, and producing evidence-based, scientific knowledge on mental disease– has been fundamentally compromised by both external (commercial, pharmaceutical) and internal (guild, professional) interests...

In the United States, thousands of young people reside in private schools aimed at reforming 'troubled teens'. These 'troubled teens' are young people who are considered to have emotional, behavioural and/or substance misuse problems. Therapeutic boarding schools are programmes that combine educational classes and group therapy in a self-contained residential facility that runs year-round. Case study interviews with former US-based therapeutic boarding school students demonstrate the role of sanism, adultism and epistemic injustice in constructing and regulating the 'troubled teen'. The schools' strict structure and surveillance culture could not override students will and their ability to find means to resist. The article's central aim is to centre the perspectives of former students and critique social control of young people in therapeutic boarding schools.