Michael O'Loughlin

The Development of Subjectivity in Young Children: Theoretical and Pedagogical Considerations

The author presents the outlines of a theory of subjectivity that is anchored in processes of identification. Subject formation is a continual process of becoming that is constituted by three interrelated processes: (1) intrapsychic factors within each child; (2) effects of participation in groups on the kinds of identifications and disidentifications a child adopts; and (3) effects of the discursive practices of society on the kinds of subjectivity a particular child performs. The author begins by outlining Melanie Kleins theory of the development of individual subjectivity through early object relations. Then, using neo-Kleinian writings, the effect of group membership on the childs evolving sense of subjectivity is explored. Ways in which specific discursive environments at home, at school, in popular culture and media etc. can either open up possibilities for expanded subject identification for children or limit those possibilities are then explored. Finally, the author explores the pedagogical implications of this way of thinking, focusing on the ethical responsibilities of teachers to understand the workings of otherness in subject formation so that they might create classroom communities that foster empathy and positive identity formation and diminish the capacity of children to hate and exclude others.

The complex subject of psychosis

Psychological resilience is built on the capacity accurately to reflect on ones thoughts and feelings in relation to the thoughts and feelings of others. The strong link between bullying and psychosis highlights ways in which social isolation inhibits the development of these capacities. Prevailing ideas about psychosis tend further to marginalize individuals already struggling with social isolation. We present interview data that show ways in which identified patients may stumble over diagnoses, thereby exacerbating extant cognitive or perceptual difficulties. In striking contrast, a Lacanian perspective marks the importance of recognizing the Subject in the context of experienced difficulties. Such a view is supported by outcome data that highlight the importance of attending to the psychosocial contexts in which psychosis arises, and the human connections through which such distress might be moderated.

A psychoanalytic exploration of collective trauma among Indigenous Australians and a suggestion for intervention

Objective: Psychoanalysis is used to explore the effects of the annihilation of culture and how this leads to a loss of identification with a collective subjectivity and triggers catastrophic symptoms including loss of collective hope, the rise of addictive and self-destructive behaviours, and the intergenerational transmission of trauma among Indigenous Australian communities. Conclusions: I propose restorative educational interventions for young Indigenous children that seek to engage them with ancestral memory, cultural narratives, and a sense of purpose so that healing from historically transmitted trauma may be initiated and a grounded sense of subjectivity restored.

Working Obliquely with Children

Two case vignettes are presented to illustrate an approach to working with children that, following Mannoni (1999), the authors term “oblique.” Key attributes of this approach, loosely patterned on Lacanian technique, are then explored. Among these are the need to create an anxiety-free space in which the demand of the child can emerge, use of the analysts unconscious as receptor for the child patients unconscious, adoption of a limp posture by the analyst to allow the reanimated unconscious of the child to act upon the analyst, and a recognition of the value of techniques such as squiggle and progressive mirror drawing in offering the kind of blank canvas that provides a receptive space in which the child may inscribe her or his unconscious. The paper concludes with the claim that approaches such as this offer a riposte to societies in which the increased academic and social expectations placed on children erases the possibility of desire and the power of the question.

Closing the gap: Narrating the prose of severe psychic suffering

In seeking to characterize “the prose of suffering,” complex considerations surface in regard to our own understanding of suffering, our motives for engaging in such inquiry and our capacity to understand the social production of suffering – a production abetted in part by the regimes society puts in place ostensibly to mitigate suffering. How is it possible, then, “to do justice to the way others experience the world and whatever is at stake for them”? In this field note we give a preliminary account of an attempt to engage in ethically grounded collaborative inquiry with persons with chronic psychiatric impairments – a group that experiences significant marginalization in many societies.