- Table View
- List View
Instructional-Design Theories and Models, Volume IV: The Learner-Centered Paradigm of Education
by Charles M. Reigeluth, Brian J. Beatty, and Rodney D. MyersInstructional-Design Theories and Models, Volume IV provides a research-based description of the current state of instructional theory for the learner-centered paradigm of education, as well as a clear indication of how different theories and models interrelate. Significant changes have occurred in learning and instructional theory since the publication of Volume III, including advances in brain-based learning, learning sciences, information technologies, internet-based communication, a concern for customizing the student experience to maximize effectiveness, and scaling instructional environments to maximize efficiency.In order to complement the themes of Volume I (commonality and complementarity among theories of instruction), Volume II (diversity of theories) and Volume III (building a common knowledge base), the theme of Volume IV is shifting the paradigm of instruction from teacher-centered to learner-centered and integrating design theories of instruction, assessment, and curriculum. Chapters in Volume IV are collected into three primary sections: a comprehensive view of the learner-centered paradigm of education and training, elaborations on parts of that view for a variety of K-12 and higher education settings, and theories that address ways to move toward the learner-centered paradigm within the teacher-centered paradigm. Instructional-Design Theories and Models, Volume IV is an essential book for anyone interested in exploring more powerful ways of fostering human learning and development and thinking creatively about ways to best meet the needs of learners in all kinds of learning contexts.
Writing the Self in Bereavement: A Story of Love, Spousal Loss, and Resilience (ISSN)
by Reinekke LengelleWinner, ICQI 2022 Outstanding Qualitative Book AwardIn Writing the Self in Bereavement: A Story of Love, Spousal Loss, and Resilience, Reinekke Lengelle uses her abilities as a researcher, poet, and professor of therapeutic writing to tell a heartfelt and fearless story about her grief after the death of her spouse and the year and a half following his diagnosis, illness, and passing. This book powerfully demonstrates that writing can be a companion in bereavement. It uses and explains the latest research on coming to terms with spousal loss without being prescriptive. Integrated with this contemporary research are stories, poetry, and reflections on writing as a therapeutic process. The author unflinchingly explores a number of themes that are underrepresented in existing resources: how one deals with anger associated with loss, what a healthy response might be to unfinished business with the deceased, continuing conversations with the beloved (even for agnostics and atheists), ongoing sexual desire, and secondary losses. As a rare book where an author successfully combines a personal story, heart-rending poetry, up-to-date research on grief, and an evocative exploration of taboo topics in the context of widowhood, Writing the Self in Bereavement is uniquely valuable for those grieving a spouse or other loved one, those supporting others in bereavement, and those interested in the healing power of poetry and life writing. Researchers on death and dying, grief counsellors, and autoethnographers will also benefit from reading this resonant resource on love and loss.
The Importance of Being Educable: A New Theory of Human Uniqueness
by Leslie ValiantIn the age of AI, why our future depends on better understanding what makes us humanWe are at a crossroads in history. If we hope to share our planet successfully with one another and the AI systems we are creating, we must reflect on who we are, how we got here, and where we are heading. The Importance of Being Educable puts forward a provocative new exploration of the extraordinary facility of humans to absorb and apply knowledge. The remarkable &“educability&” of the human brain can be understood as an information processing ability. It sets our species apart, enables the civilization we have, and gives us the power and potential to set our planet on a steady course. Yet it comes hand in hand with an insidious weakness. While we can readily absorb entire systems of thought about worlds of experience beyond our own, we struggle to judge correctly what information we should trust.In this visionary book, Leslie Valiant argues that understanding the nature of our own educability is crucial to safeguarding our future. After breaking down how we process information to learn and apply knowledge, and drawing comparisons with other animals and AI systems, he explains why education should be humankind&’s central preoccupation.Will the unique capability that has been so foundational to our achievements and civilization continue to drive our progress, or will we fall victim to our vulnerabilities? If we want to play to our species&’ great strength and protect our collective future, we must better understand and prioritize the vital importance of being educable. This book provides a road map.
The Importance of Being Educable: A New Theory of Human Uniqueness
by Leslie ValiantIn the age of AI, why our future depends on better understanding what makes us humanWe are at a crossroads in history. If we hope to share our planet successfully with one another and the AI systems we are creating, we must reflect on who we are, how we got here, and where we are heading. The Importance of Being Educable puts forward a provocative new exploration of the extraordinary facility of humans to absorb and apply knowledge. The remarkable &“educability&” of the human brain can be understood as an information processing ability. It sets our species apart, enables the civilization we have, and gives us the power and potential to set our planet on a steady course. Yet it comes hand in hand with an insidious weakness. While we can readily absorb entire systems of thought about worlds of experience beyond our own, we struggle to judge correctly what information we should trust.In this visionary book, Leslie Valiant argues that understanding the nature of our own educability is crucial to safeguarding our future. After breaking down how we process information to learn and apply knowledge, and drawing comparisons with other animals and AI systems, he explains why education should be humankind&’s central preoccupation.Will the unique capability that has been so foundational to our achievements and civilization continue to drive our progress, or will we fall victim to our vulnerabilities? If we want to play to our species&’ great strength and protect our collective future, we must better understand and prioritize the vital importance of being educable. This book provides a road map.
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy in Sport and Performance: An Applied Practice Guide
by Paul Mccarthy Sahen Gupta Lindsey BurnsMany sport and performance psychologists worldwide practise cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) as a therapeutic and applied practice approach. But no textbook currently offers a blueprint to understand and use CBT in sport and performance settings. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy in Sport and Performance: An Applied Practice Guide builds upon a tangible foundation for the practice of CBT and related techniques in sport and performance contexts. This new book presents key points to help students and practitioners bring CBT into the sport and performance context. We focus on the ‘what is’ and the ‘how to’. Drawing upon the latest research and a wealth of applied practice experience, this easy-to-use guide takes the reader through each step of the CBT process with case examples, plain instructions, and worksheets to maximise the quality and depth necessary for effective CBT practice. As an applied guide, this book educates undergraduates and postgraduates in sport and performance psychology (and all its variants). This book is an instrumental guidance material for sport and exercise psychology students but also invaluable as a practice guide for performance psychology trainees in applied practice placements and as a refresher primer for established professionals.
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy in Sport and Performance: An Applied Practice Guide
by Paul Mccarthy Sahen Gupta Lindsey BurnsMany sport and performance psychologists worldwide practise cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) as a therapeutic and applied practice approach. But no textbook currently offers a blueprint to understand and use CBT in sport and performance settings. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy in Sport and Performance: An Applied Practice Guide builds upon a tangible foundation for the practice of CBT and related techniques in sport and performance contexts. This new book presents key points to help students and practitioners bring CBT into the sport and performance context. We focus on the ‘what is’ and the ‘how to’. Drawing upon the latest research and a wealth of applied practice experience, this easy-to-use guide takes the reader through each step of the CBT process with case examples, plain instructions, and worksheets to maximise the quality and depth necessary for effective CBT practice. As an applied guide, this book educates undergraduates and postgraduates in sport and performance psychology (and all its variants). This book is an instrumental guidance material for sport and exercise psychology students but also invaluable as a practice guide for performance psychology trainees in applied practice placements and as a refresher primer for established professionals.
The Secret Mind of Bertha Pappenheim: The Woman Who Invented Freud's Talking Cure
by Gabriel BrownsteinThe story of a patient who changed the world, and the mystery of her illness. In 1880, young Bertha Pappenheim got strangely ill—she lost her ability to control her voice and her body. She was treated by Sigmund Freud&’s mentor, Josef Breuer, who diagnosed her with &“hysteria.&” Together, Pappenheim and Breuer developed what she called &“the talking cure&”—talking out memories to eliminate symptoms. Freud renamed her &“Anna O&” and appropriated her ideas to form the theory of psychoanalysis. All his life, he told lies about her. For over a century, writers have argued about her illness and cure. In this unusual work of science, history, and psychology, Brownstein does more than describe the controversies surrounding this extraordinary woman. He brings Pappenheim to life—a brilliant feminist thinker, a crusader against human trafficking, and a pioneer—in the hustling and heady world of nineteenth-century Vienna. At the same time, he tells a parallel story that is playing out in leading medical centers today, about patients who suffer symptoms very much like Pappenheim&’s, and about the doctors who are trying to cure them—the story of the neuroscience of a condition now called FND.The Secret Mind of Bertha Pappenheim argues for the healing art of listening and describes the new &“talking cures&” emerging out of neuroscience today.
Supporting Young Children of Immigrants and Refugees: The Promise and Practices of Early Care and Learning
by Maura Sellars Scott Imig Doug ImigThis text offers a comprehensive portfolio of approaches to support young children with refugee backgrounds. It covers trauma-informed pedagogies, transitioning to school, authentic inclusion, play, social and emotional learning, and intergenerational trauma.In early childhood centres around the world, teachers and directors can be uncertain of how to meet the needs of newly arrived children. Based on empirical research in five countries, this book offers insights from early childhood educators who are working hard to support families and young children with refugee and asylum-seeker experiences. It illustrates the link between theory and practice and the importance of developing culturally sensitive classroom strategies to effectively support the emotional and cognitive needs of multilingual, multicultural students whose common experiences may only include displacement, trauma, and loss. Rather than offering a measure for ‘success,’ this book shares the knowledge and experience of practitioners who understand the work and the very particular circumstances of these children’s lives. The authors bring these perspectives together in order to inspire other professionals who face this challenging work, encouraging the reader to reflect, to consider how relevant some of the ideas may be in their own contexts, and to contemplate the principles which allow their professional actions to make a difference.This book is an essential resource for early childhood educators and leaders who want to ‘open the door’ to genuinely inclusive, empathetic, and supportive practice. It will be of great interest to researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of early childhood and primary education.
Supporting Young Children of Immigrants and Refugees: The Promise and Practices of Early Care and Learning
by Maura Sellars Scott Imig Doug ImigThis text offers a comprehensive portfolio of approaches to support young children with refugee backgrounds. It covers trauma-informed pedagogies, transitioning to school, authentic inclusion, play, social and emotional learning, and intergenerational trauma.In early childhood centres around the world, teachers and directors can be uncertain of how to meet the needs of newly arrived children. Based on empirical research in five countries, this book offers insights from early childhood educators who are working hard to support families and young children with refugee and asylum-seeker experiences. It illustrates the link between theory and practice and the importance of developing culturally sensitive classroom strategies to effectively support the emotional and cognitive needs of multilingual, multicultural students whose common experiences may only include displacement, trauma, and loss. Rather than offering a measure for ‘success,’ this book shares the knowledge and experience of practitioners who understand the work and the very particular circumstances of these children’s lives. The authors bring these perspectives together in order to inspire other professionals who face this challenging work, encouraging the reader to reflect, to consider how relevant some of the ideas may be in their own contexts, and to contemplate the principles which allow their professional actions to make a difference.This book is an essential resource for early childhood educators and leaders who want to ‘open the door’ to genuinely inclusive, empathetic, and supportive practice. It will be of great interest to researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of early childhood and primary education.
Ethnotheatre: Research from Page to Stage (ISSN)
by Johnny SaldañaEthnotheatre transforms research about human experiences into a dramatic presentation for an audience. Johnny Saldaña, one of the best-known practitioners of this research tradition, outlines the key principles and practices of ethnotheatre in this clear, concise volume. He covers the preparation of a dramatic presentation from the research and writing stages to the elements of stage production. Saldaña nurtures playwrights through adaptation and stage exercises, and delves into the complex ethical questions of turning the personal into theatre. Throughout, he emphasizes the vital importance of creating good theatre as well as good research for impact on an audience and performers. The volume includes multiple scenes from contemporary ethnodramas plus two complete play scripts as exemplars of the genre.
Lectures on Perception: An Ecological Perspective (Resources for Ecological Psychology Series)
by Michael T. TurveyLectures on Perception: An Ecological Perspective addresses the generic principles by which each and every kind of life form—from single celled organisms (e.g., difflugia) to multi-celled organisms (e.g., primates)—perceives the circumstances of their living so that they can behave adaptively. It focuses on the fundamental ability that relates each and every organism to its surroundings, namely, the ability to perceive things in the sense of how to get about among them and what to do, or not to do, with them. The book’s core thesis breaks from the conventional interpretation of perception as a form of abduction based on innate hypotheses and acquired knowledge, and from the historical scientific focus on the perceptual abilities of animals, most especially those abilities ascribed to humankind. Specifically, it advances the thesis of perception as a matter of laws and principles at nature’s ecological scale, and gives equal theoretical consideration to the perceptual achievements of all of the classically defined ‘kingdoms’ of organisms—Archaea, Bacteria, Protoctista, Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia.
Herbal Treatment of Major Depression: Scientific Basis and Practical Use (Clinical Pharmacognosy Series)
by Scott D MendelsonThis unique volume presents new understandings of the neurochemical nature of major depression, and how herbs and their constituent flavonoids and terpenes appear to address some of the mechanisms now thought to be involved. It explores how recent studies of the rapid antidepressant effects of ketamine inform neuroscientists about deep intracellular mechanisms of antidepressant action that have little to do with simple enhancement of monoaminergic activity. These mechanisms include actions on PI3K, Akt, mTOR, GSK3, BDNF, and other intracellular pathways. New theories of the pathophysiology underlying major depression, such as oxidative damage, inflammation, stress and insulin resistance are then explored.Key Features: Focuses on oxidative damage, inflammation, and metabolic syndrome. Explains that a significant percentage of people treated for major depression obtain little if any relief from standard antidepressant medications. These facts lead to discussion of herbs that can be used to treat major depression, as well as consideration of the scientific basis for how these herbs act. The antidepressant properties of 66 herbs are discussed, along with dosing and safety information.
Training Teachers in Emotional Intelligence: A Transactional Model For Elementary Education
by Elena Savina Caroline Fulton Christina BeatonTraining Teachers in Emotional Intelligence provides pre- and in-service teachers with foundational knowledge and skills regarding their own and their students’ emotions. Teachers are increasingly charged with providing social-emotional learning, responding to emotional situations in the classroom, and managing their own stress, all of which have real consequences for their retention and student achievement. Focused on the primary/elementary level, this book is an accessible review of children’s emotional development, the role of emotions in learning, teaching, and teachers’ professional identity. The book provides strategies for teachers to foster their emotional awareness, use emotions to promote learning and relationships, foster emotional competencies in students, and stay emotionally healthy.
Human Aging
by Paul W. Foos M. Cherie ClarkThis text offers a readable and friendly presentation of the important methods, findings, and theories of human aging, while actively involving the reader in meaningful exercises and critical thinking. Students are repeatedly challenged to apply information in the text to the older adults in their own lives. Specifically, suggestions for enhancing the lives of their older relatives are offered and encouraged. These include guidelines for discussions they might have regarding social, emotional, and environmental changes as well encouraging intellectual and social interaction. In this Edition: Emphasis on the science of the study of aging and why questions in aging are difficult to answer, how social scientists attempt to handle such difficulties, and the successes and failures social scientists have had thus far in answering those questions. The text also demonstrates how current research findings are now being applied in the real world and/or how they might be applied in the future. Cross-cultural comparisons and ethnic group comparisons are included wherever possible. Each chapter begins with "Senior View," which introduces students to a real person and gives them a chance to hear what older adults think and say about important issues related to the chapter and a chance to compare those opinions to the research findings. Each chapter ends with "Making Choices," emphasizing the important behavioral, emotional, and social choices that students can make now to prolong a healthy, happy life. "Chapter Projects" offer the opportunity for active learning, as students investigate for themselves an issue related to the chapter. Instructors can expand these projects for students who want to learn more, or for independent study. "Focus on Aging" boxes compliment the material in the text, providing additional insight and examples, and encouraging critical thinking. Every chapter includes discussion questions, study questions, chapter exercises, and related online resources.
Behavior and Culture in One Dimension: Sequences, Affordances, and the Evolution of Complexity (Resources for Ecological Psychology Series)
by Dennis WatersBehavior and Culture in One Dimension adopts a broad interdisciplinary approach, presenting a unified theory of sequences and their functions and an overview of how they underpin the evolution of complexity.Sequences of DNA guide the functioning of the living world, sequences of speech and writing choreograph the intricacies of human culture, and sequences of code oversee the operation of our literate technological civilization. These linear patterns function under their own rules, which have never been fully explored. It is time for them to get their due. This book explores the one-dimensional sequences that orchestrate the structure and behavior of our three-dimensional habitat. Using Gibsonian concepts of perception, action, and affordances, as well as the works of Howard Pattee, the book examines the role of sequences in the human behavioral and cultural world of speech, writing, and mathematics. The book offers a Darwinian framework for understanding human cultural evolution and locates the two major informational transitions in the origins of life and civilization. It will be of interest to students and researchers in ecological psychology, linguistics, cognitive science, and the social and biological sciences.
Understanding Employee Engagement: Theory, Research, and Practice (Applied Psychology Series)
by Zinta S. ByrneUnderstanding Employee Engagement is a comprehensive source for the science and practice of employee engagement. This book provides a rigorous and objective review of scholarship and empirical research on engagement from around the world. Grounded in theory and empirical research, this book debates the definitions of engagement, provides a thorough evaluation of empirical findings in the engagement field including a focus on international findings, and offers practice implications for organizations. The book is broad, with references and research across disciplines and countries, as well as new sections addressing current challenges, such as virtual engagement, engaging the aging workforce, and perspectives on diversity and inclusion. Employers can learn how to foster an engaged organization; practitioners can learn how to measure, identify, and implement evidence-based solutions to disengagement; and researchers can master the existing engagement literature and begin to study the many propositions and new models the author proposes throughout the book. This book is an essential read for scholars, researchers, practitioners, and business leaders alike for understanding how to measure, identify, and implement evidence-based solutions to foster employee engagement.
Pioneering Perspectives in Cooperative Learning: Theory, Research, and Classroom Practice for Diverse Approaches to CL (Routledge Research in Education)
by Neil DavidsonOffering first-hand insights from the early originators of Cooperative Learning (CL), this volume documents the evolution of CL, illustrating its historical and contemporary research, and highlights the personal experiences which have helped inspire and ground this concept. Each of the chapters in Pioneering Perspectives in Cooperative Learning foregrounds a key approach to CL, and documents the experiences, research, and fruitful collaborations which have shaped and driven their development. Contributions from leading scholars include Aronson, Davidson, Kagan, Johnson & Johnson, Schmuck, the Sharans, Slavin and Madden, as well as retrospective pieces on the work of Deutsch and Cohen. These chapters detail the historical development of cooperative learning, cooperation versus competition, and cover major approaches including the jigsaw classroom; complex instruction; the learning together model, and several more. Chapters include qualitative, personal, and retrospective accounts, whereby authors outline the research and theory which underpins each approach while highlighting practical strategies for classroom implementation.This text will primarily be of interest to professors, researchers, scholars, and doctorial students with an interest in the theory of learning, educational research, and educational and social psychology more broadly. Practitioners of CL with an interest in varied forms of small group learning and classroom practice, as well as those interested in the history and sociology of education, will also benefit from the volume.
Perception as Information Detection: Reflections on Gibson’s Ecological Approach to Visual Perception (Resources for Ecological Psychology Series)
by Jeffrey B. Wagman Julia J. C. BlauThis book provides a chapter-by-chapter update to and reflection on of the landmark volume by J.J. Gibson on the Ecological Approach to Visual Perception (1979).Gibson’s book was presented a pioneering approach in experimental psychology; it was his most complete and mature description of the ecological approach to visual perception. Perception as Information Detection commemorates, develops, and updates each of the sixteen chapters from Gibson’s volume. The book brings together some of the foremost perceptual scientists in the field, from the United States, Europe, and Asia, to reflect on Gibson’s original chapters, expand on the key concepts discussed and relate this to their own cutting-edge research. This connects Gibson’s classic with the current state of the field, as well as providing a new generation of students with a contemporary overview of the ecological approach to visual perception.Perception as Information Detection is an important resource for perceptual scientists as well as both undergraduates and graduates studying sensation and perception, vision, cognitive science, ecological psychology, and philosophy of mind.
Just Relationships: Living Out Social Justice as Mentor, Family, Friend, and Lover
by Douglas L. KelleyBringing a social justice lens to daily interpersonal relationships, Just Relationships offers a perspective on existing social science theory that demonstrates how our personal relationships should be grounded in fairness and justice. Douglas Kelley utilizes concepts from a variety of academic disciplines and helping professions to examine the barriers encountered in achieving balanced partnerships. This student-friendly book brings the important new perspective of social justice to courses focusing on interpersonal relationships and family relationships, supplementing traditional textbooks. This book presents key relationship theories in each chapter and then applies them from a social justice perspective; uses thought-provoking case studies and guiding questions to enhance student learning; examines a number of different types of interpersonal relationships including family, friends, lovers, and mentor-mentee relationships within a variety of socioeconomic and sociocultural contexts.
Denying Death: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Terror Management Theory (The\enlightenment World Ser. #11)
by Lindsey A. Harvell Gwendelyn S. NisbettThis volume is the first to showcase the interdisciplinary nature of Terror Management Theory, providing a detailed overview of how rich and diverse the field has become since the late 1980s, and where it is going in the future. It offers perspectives from psychology, political science, communication, health, sociology, business, marketing and cultural studies, among others, and in the process reveals how our existential ponderings permeate our behavior in almost every area of our lives. It will interest a wide range of upper-level students and researchers who want an overview of past and current TMT research and how it may be applied to their own research interests.
Handbook of Strategies and Strategic Processing (Educational Psychology Handbook)
by Daniel L. Dinsmore, Luke K. Fryer, Meghan M. ParkinsonHandbook of Strategies and Strategic Processing provides a state-of-the-art synthesis of conceptual, measurement, and analytical issues regarding learning strategies and strategic processing. Contributions by educational psychology experts present the clearest-yet definition of this essential and quickly evolving component of numerous theoretical frameworks that operate across academic domains. This volume addresses the most current research and theory on the nature of strategies and performance, mechanisms for unearthing individuals’ strategic behaviors, and both long-established and emerging techniques for data analysis and interpretation.
Collaborative Spirit-Writing and Performance in Everyday Black Lives (ISSN)
by Bryant Keith Alexander Mary E. WeemsCollaborative Spirit-Writing and Performance in Everyday Black Lives is about the interconnectedness between collaboration, spirit, and writing. It is also about a dialogic engagement that draws upon shared lived experiences, hopes, and fears of two Black persons: male/female, straight/gay. This book is structured around a series of textual performances, poems, plays, dialogues, calls and responses, and mediations that serve as claim, ground, warrant, qualifier, rebuttal, and backing in an argument about collaborative spirit-writing for social justice. Each entry provides evidence of encounters of possibility, collated between the authors, for ourselves, for readers, and society from a standpoint of individual and collective struggle. The entries in this Black performance diary are at times independent and interdependent, interspliced and interrogative, interanimating and interstitial. They build arguments about collaboration but always emanate from a place of discontent in a caste system, designed through slavery and maintained until today, that positions Black people in relation to white superiority, terror, and perpetual struggle.With particular emphasis on the confluence of Race, Racism, Antiracism, Black Lives Matter, the Trump administration, and the Coronavirus pandemic, this book will appeal to students and scholars in Race studies, performance studies, and those who practice qualitative methods as a new way of seeking Black social justice.
Developing Trauma-Responsive Approaches to Student Discipline: A Guide to Trauma-Informed Practice in PreK-12 Schools (Routledge Research in Education)
by Kirk Eggleston Erinn J. Green Shawn Abel Stephanie Poe Charol ShakeshaftBuilding on comprehensive research conducted in US schools, this accessible volume offers an effective model of school leadership to develop and implement school-wide, trauma-responsive approaches to student discipline.Recognizing that challenging student behaviours are often rooted in early experiences of trauma, the volume builds on a model from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to walk readers through the processes of realizing, recognizing, responding to, and resisting the impacts of trauma in school contexts. Research and interviews model an educational reform process and explain how a range of differentiated interventions including Positive Behaviour Interventions and Supports (PBIS), social-emotional learning (SEL), restorative justice, and family engagement can be used to boost student resilience and pro-social behaviour. Practical steps are supported by current theory, resources, and stories of implementation from superintendents, principals, and teachers. This text will benefit school leaders, teachers, and counsellors with an interest in restorative student discipline, emotional and behavioural difficulties in young people, and PreK-12 education more broadly. Those interested in school psychology, trauma studies, and trauma counselling with children and adolescents will also benefit from the volume.
Narrating Estrangement: Autoethnographies of Writing Of(f) Family (ISSN)
by Lisa P. Z. Spinazola David F. PurnellThe stories in Narrating Estrangement: Autoethnographies of Writing Of(f) Family demonstrate the pain, anguish, and even relief felt by those who contemplate estranging or who are estranged, whether by choice or circumstance. Despite the social assumptions persisting about the everlasting nature of family relationships, when people make the complicated and often difficult decision to disconnect from family members, they experience shame, stigma, and isolation because of social pressures to maintain those relationships at all costs.Each contributor uses the act of storytelling and the autoethnographic mode of scholarship and writing to find clarity in their individual, unique, and complex situations. Several authors’ explorations restore some of what they have lost through estrangement—such as a sense of identity, emotional health and well-being, and feelings of belonging—due to the breakdowns in social and family support systems meant to be unconditional and "permanent." The stories display the wide array of reasons why family members become estranged, delving into different types of estrangement, permanent and/or intermittent. In doing so, the writers in this book demonstrate that family relationships are neither easily categorized nor neatly ended—their impact on an individual’s life continues and changes, even in and through estrangement.This book adds to the ongoing scholarly conversations about family estrangement for students and researchers interested in autoethnography and qualitative inquiry, in a wide range of disciplines in the social sciences, healthcare, and communication studies.
Freud as Philosopher: Metapsychology After Lacan
by Richard BoothbyUsing Jacques Lacan's work as a key, Boothby reassesses Freud's most ambitious-and misunderstood-attempt at a general theory of mental functioning: metapsychology