July 2007 - Posts
Just to say that there won't be another entry in this blog for the best part of a month now because I'm off for a holiday in North Wales - somewhere I've been visiting for very many years. When the weather there is good it's very good ........
but when it's bad it's hard to imagine how it could be worse!
Like most people I'll be taking the books on holiday that I
ought to be reading - textbooks - and the books I
want to be reading, which are a good deal lighter. One that's highly recommended, and neatly bridges the gap, is "
We need to talk about Kevin" by Lionel Shriver. It challenges our assumptions about parenting. Wherever you go, and whatever you read, have a good summer!
Otherwise known as Channeh Sabat - quite a fiddly one, this, but worth the effort
Serves 2
4oz Chickpeas, cooked 1 Tb Chopped Parsley
3 Cloves Garlic 2 Tb Tomato Pure
2 Small Onions Half Tb Lemon Juice
Half tsp Turmeric* Quarter tsp Cinamon
Half tsp Paprika* 2 Cardamoms
1 tsp Fenugreek* 1 tsp Mint
Half tsp Cumin* Half tsp Garam Masala
2 tsp Coriander* Quarter tsp salt
Eighth tsp Chilli Powder
Cook Chick peas with one clove of Garlic. Saute onions and garlic until brown, add chilli powder and small amount of water and boil off. Add spices marked *, stir for one minute and then add chickpeas and more water and cook for 5 minutes. Add salt, pure, parsley, lemon juice, cardamoms, cinamom and mint. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Uncover, add garam masala, cover and place in oven at Regulo 4 for 10 minutes. Alternatively, and I have to say I've never noticed much different in the taste, just add the Garam Masala towards the end of the cooking and serve straight from the hob.
There's no way that I'm going to be foolish enough to promise a "Film of the Month" on top of the "Recipe of the Month" - though that would certainly be worth doing - but there's no doubt that the cinema often offers us a very clear demonstration of key theoretical concepts brought to life. A good example of this is "The Prince of Tides", a pretty elderly film starring Barbara Striesland and Nick Nolte.
This is not a particularly good film but is still a useful focus for considering the value of a Psychodynamic approach. Those who would argue against such an approach will tend to suggest that the past is just the past, and it’s the present and future that we need to consider. The Prince of Tides is useful peg on which to consider this.
In the beginning of the film we see the central male character, Nick Nolte with his family. He presents as being very cheery, very extrovert. He is clearly loved by his daughters. We soon see that his his relationship with his wife is not so good - she is finding it hard to reach him. His relationship with his mother is even worse - he is very hostile to her. She enters the story with the news that his sister has attempted suicide - not for the first time - and is now in a hospital in New York, where Nolte must visit her.
He goes to New York where he meets Barbara Striesland who plays a wildly improbable psychiatrist. For the benefit of the story she has a number of sessions with Nolte with the purpose of discovering his sister’s story - he is to act as her memory. As the story progresses we hear about the violent father, the domestic rows and violence. The brave older brother who died several years previously - shot in somewhat bizarre circumstances by government officials. None of this would seem to explain Nolte’s complete withdrawal from feelings, his unwillingness to look or talk about the past, his inability to hold down a job etc.
Eventually - after a fair bit of totally unprofessional behaviour - Streisland helps him to reach the centre of the story. When he was eight years old three escaped convicts burst into their home and raped his mother, his sister and himself. His elder brother shot two of them, his mother knifed the third. All this was, of course, highly traumatic. What made it much more so, and left such profound reverberations, was what the mother did next. She instructed the children to help her bury the bodies, clean the blood off the walls, clear up the house - and then act as if nothing had happened. Within a few hours the violent father was home from work and everything was back to normal. The rapes were never spoken about again.
If we look at Nolte’s behaviour it now begins to make sense. It was important for him to create a “surface” persona because going any deeper into himself would be too painful. It would seem very unlikely that he would ever achieve any change in his life without looking into the past - without experiencing the pain of the suppressed experience. We can make connections here with the tasks of grieving - To accept the reality of the loss, to experience the pain of the loss, to learn to live without that which was lost and to reinvest emotional energy. His mother’s strategy of actually denying that anything had happened left him stuck at the beginning of the grieving process.
In true Hollywood style the catharsis leads him, ultimately, to a fulfilling relationship with his wife, a decent job and the respect of his community. And importantly, a feeling of regret and loss. For the first time he was able to allow himself to feel. If you watch this film try to make sure that you see the original cinema release version, rather than one that's been cut for an early evening TV audience. I recently saw a drastically cut TV version which tended to leave the viewer feeling that Nolte was making rather a lot of fuss about nothing in particular!
We're very pleased to announce a new placement opportunity within the University, working as part of the counselling team in Student Sevices as an "Associate Counsellor". This is an exciting inovation and will obviously be of interest to anyone keen to take up a high quality placement. It's important to note that the interviews won't take place until the end of September - so you'll still need another placement to meet the requirements for entry onto the Diploma, but we'd strongly encourage students to explore this further. I've attached a compilation of information sheets with this posting which should tell you more.
An application form can be obtained from Monday 9th July via Student Services reception at Caerleon (UWN Counselling Service at Student Services, E20 Rathmell Building, Caerleon Campus, NP18 3YG or telephone 01633 432657 or email: counselling@newport.ac.uk) and the closing date for receipt of completed forms is 7th September 2007.