Midlife women's political consciousness may be importantly influenced by a preoccupation with generativity. Analysis of three case studies suggests the importance of several elements for a developmental perspective on women's (and perhaps men's) midlife political activity: childhood family political ideology; earlier adolescent and adult political activity; influences of particular social and historical events at different developmental stages; a desire to be generative or to “make a contribution”; experiences as a parent; and access at midlife to time, energy, and personal resources. In addition, the importance of defining “political activity” broadly, and in the terms meaningful to women themselves, is underlined. finally, the satisfaction associated with recognizing the continuity in one's life commitments must be appreciated as one element of women's midlife political consciousness.
This article discusses the technical considerations that contribute to making "telling one's story" in an incest survivors group a ritual of active mastery leading to psychological growth. Survivors approach the task of sharing memories with a variety of wishes and fears that can emerge as powerful group transference paradigms. These paradigms, while they vividly illuminate the survivor's past and present interpersonal expectations, can threaten to derail the telling experience. Actively interpreted, however, the group transference aspects of the telling experience can yield valuable insights that become the focus for the remainder of the survivor's group treatment. This article details the process of preparing the individual survivor and the group for the process of telling (and listening) and the subsequent task of working through the insights derived from the telling experience. Two case examples demonstrate these techniques.
While behavioral and psychopharmacological approaches are the most effective interventions for treating obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), psychodynamically oriented play therapy can enhance the treatment of children with this disorder. Play therapy techniques are useful in addressing treatment resistance, feelings of shame around OCD symptoms, negative self-concept, and issues of psychosocial adjustment. A case study illustrates this integrated approach to treatment.
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