Borderline welfare : feeling and fear of feeling in modern welfare / Andrew Cooper and Julian Lousada.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cooper, Andrew.

Contributor:

Lousada, Julian.

Series:

Tavistock Clinic series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Welfare state--Psychological aspects.

Welfare state.

Public welfare--Psychological aspects.

Public welfare.

Welfare recipients--Psychology.

Welfare recipients.

Borderline personality disorder--Social aspects.

Borderline personality disorder.

Social aspects.

Psychological aspects.

Physical Description:

xii, 237 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Karnac, 2005.

Summary:

Which 'forms of feeling' are facilitated and which discouraged within the cultures and structures of modern state welfare? This book illuminates the social and psychic dynamics of these new public cultures of welfare, locating them in relation to our understanding of borderline states of mind in individuals, organizations and society. Drawing upon their idea of a psychoanalytic sensibility rooted in Wilfred Bion's notion of 'learning from experience', the authors aim to access the new structures of feeling now taking shape in marketized and commodified health and social care systems. Integrating their reflections on clinical work with patients, consultancy with public sector organizations, political analysis, and the traditionof Group Relations Training, they offer a wide-ranging perspective on how contemporary social anxieties are managed within modern public welfare. Our collective struggle with fears of dependency and loss, and the demands of living and working in an interdependent 'networked' world give rise to fresh challenges to our ability to maintain depth of emotional engagements in welfare settings.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Introduction: the psychoanalytic study of welfare 1

Chapter 2 Borderline states of mind and society 25

Chapter 3 The state of mind we're in: sincerity, anxiety, and the audit society 59

Chapter 4 The psychic geography of racism: the state, the clinician, and hatred of the stranger 83

Chapter 5 The broken link: polemic and pain in mental health work 105

Chapter 6 Surface tensions: emotion, conflict, and the social containment of dangerous knowledge 125

Chapter 7 Surface and depth in the Victoria Climbie Inquiry Report: exploring emotionally intelligent policy 145

Chapter 8 The vanishing organization: organizational containment in a networked world 171

Chapter 9 Conclusion: Complex dependencies and the dilemmas of modern welfare 189

Chapter 10 Methodological reflections: clinical sensibility and the study of the social 205.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 225-232) and index.

ISBN:

1855759055

OCLC:

60320763