Book Review: Psycho-Social Explorations of Trauma, Exclusion and Violence. Un-Housed Minds and Inhospitable Environments by Christopher Scanlon and John Adlam

IF 2.3 2区社会学 Q1 SOCIAL ISSUES

Critical Social Policy Pub Date : 2023-06-12 DOI:10.1177/02610183231178532

Peter Wood

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Abstract

T his is a highly original book whose argument is supported by an ambitious, wide-ranging historical perspective and an agreeably fluent literary style. Addressing what the authors call the psycho-social, they focus on group dynamics conducive to what others might call resistance to mental healthcare, although “resistance” is not a word Christopher Scanlon and John Adlam would use in this context. It is their view that when a society, represented by its dominant group, attempts mental health treatment for what it considers to be a subject group, the result will be iatrogenic. The authors liken it to a “disturbance at the meeting point of two cultures” (p. 107). One of these “cultures” is disorganized and incoherent, again in their view, and this allows the dominant culture to excuse itself for failing: “We tried.” They illustrate this disturbance with imaginative deployment of Plutarch’s apocryphal story of Alexander the Great and Diogenes the Cynic. Alexander, stooping to conquer, asks grandly what he can do for Diogenes who squats naked in his tub. Diogenes tells the great conqueror to stop blocking his light. According to the authors, rejection of help confuses the system as “we experience our authority as being thwarted or disrespected by those we imagine we are trying to assist” (p. 96 italics in original). Unfortunately for their thesis, the population of this subject group is not clearly delimited: it could be those least able to stand up for themselves, such as the homeless, or those recently released from a psychiatric ward with nowhere to go, or it could be any group “dislocated in modernity” (p. 6). At some points in their discussion it seems to refer to a general state of mind International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 73: 69–74, 2023 © 2022 The American Group Psychotherapy Association, Inc. ISSN: 0020-7284 print/1943-2836 online DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00207284.2022.2141010

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书评：创伤、排斥和暴力的心理社会探索。Christopher Scanlon和John Adlam的《未被安置的心灵与无法住院的环境》

这是一本极具原创性的书，其论点得到了雄心勃勃、广泛的历史视角和令人愉快的流畅文学风格的支持。针对作者所说的心理社会，他们关注有助于其他人所说的对心理健康的抵抗的群体动态，尽管克里斯托弗·斯坎伦和约翰·阿德拉姆在这种情况下不会使用“抵抗”这个词。他们认为，当一个以其主导群体为代表的社会试图对其认为是受试群体的人进行心理健康治疗时，结果将是医源性的。作者将其比作“两种文化交汇点上的骚乱”（第107页）。在他们看来，其中一种“文化”是无序和不连贯的，这让占主导地位的文化可以为失败开脱：“我们尝试过了。”他们用普鲁塔克关于亚历山大大帝和犬儒主义者第欧根尼的虚构故事的想象力来说明这种混乱。亚历山大弯下腰准备征服，他堂而皇之地问，他能为赤裸着蹲在浴缸里的第欧根尼做些什么。第欧根尼告诉这位伟大的征服者停止阻挡他的光芒。根据作者的说法，拒绝帮助混淆了系统，因为“我们的权威被我们想象中试图帮助的人阻挠或不尊重”（原文第96页斜体）。不幸的是，对于他们的论文来说，这一主题群体的群体并没有明确界定：它可能是那些最不能够为自己辩护的人，比如无家可归的人，或者那些最近从精神病病房获释无处可去的人，也可能是任何“在现代性中错位”的群体（第6页）。在他们讨论的某些方面，它似乎指的是一般的精神状态《国际群体心理治疗杂志》，73:69-742023©2022美国群体心理治疗协会，股份有限公司ISSN:0020-7284打印/1943-2836在线DOI:https://doi.org/10.1080/00207284.2022.2141010

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来源期刊

Critical Social Policy Multiple-

CiteScore

4.70

自引率

8.70%

发文量

期刊介绍： Critical Social Policy provides a forum for advocacy, analysis and debate on social policy issues. We publish critical perspectives which: ·acknowledge and reflect upon differences in political, economic, social and cultural power and upon the diversity of cultures and movements shaping social policy; ·re-think conventional approaches to securing rights, meeting needs and challenging inequalities and injustices; ·include perspectives, analyses and concerns of people and groups whose voices are unheard or underrepresented in policy-making; ·reflect lived experiences of users of existing benefits and services;