Empathy, Normalization and De-escalation


Book Description

This book describes theory and techniques of empathic communication, normalization and de-escalation procedures for the management of aggressive or violent patients in clinical critical settings'. Consisting of 9 chapters, it discusses in detail the self-regulation of empathy in potential dangerous interactions, as well as common mistakes and nonprofessional reactions. It also explores the basic concept of neurobiology of violence and aggression behaviour, such as brain circuitry and neuromodulators, and other rapid tranquillization guidelines. The final chapter focuses on the crucial topics of post-aggression debriefing.Based on the clinical experience of the editors and authors, who work in emergency psychiatry settings, the book offers practical key expressions to promote a normalization talk, to calm agitated individuals, and to prevent crises both for psychiatric patients and people without mental disorders. It is a useful tool to help readers gain confidence as mediators in critical circumstances and will be of interest for a wide range of practitioners in healthcare settings, from psychiatrists and psychologists, to nurses and other healthcare workers.




Psychiatrization of Society


Book Description

Worldwide, there have been consistently high or even rising incidences of people classified as mentally ill, paired with increasing mental healthcare service utilization over the last decades. While psychiatric institutions have been consistently expanding, psychiatric knowledge has become increasingly dispersed and globalized, making psychiatric vocabularies and classificatory systems widely available, shaping increasing areas of life, creating powerful markets for therapeutic services of all kinds, and impacting how we understand ourselves and others. This process can be described as the psychiatrization of society. Psychiatrization is highly complex, diverse, and global, although it takes different forms in different contexts, involves various actors with largely diverging motives, and is part of a wider assemblage of the psy-disciplines.




Constructive Conflicts


Book Description

Substantially revised for the sixth edition, Constructive Conflicts explains how large-scale political and social conflicts can be waged more constructively, with more positive consequences and fewer destructive consequences for those involved. Drawing on research from political science, sociology, social-psychology, neuroscience, cultural studies, and other disciplines, Dayton and Kriesberg follow the lifecycle of social and political conflicts as they emerge, escalate, de-escalate, become settled, and often emerge again in new forms. The sixth edition presents numerous new examples and cases of conflict episodes that have avoided extreme coercion or violence and which have resulted in the advancement of the interests of most parties involved. The book gives policymakers, concerned citizens, and students a powerful analytical framework, supported by data, for understanding and constructively intervening in conflicts of different type and scale, offering a way out of the destructive cycles of conflict management which have come to characterize contemporary social and political relations. Key revisions and features include: Increased attention to changes in the social and political landscape including the rise of nationalism, the erosion of liberal internationalism, conflicts related to COVID response, political polarization, and the Black Lives Matter movement Thoroughly revised cases and examples throughout Key content revisions such as the growth of bottom-up strategies for peace and conflict management, the rise of misinformation in a ‘post-truth’ era, and insights from neuroscience Table of contents now organized around three distinct book sections and chapter titles revised to reflect new content Numerous new figures and tables in every chapter End-of-chapter summaries, discussion questions, and activities New ancillary teaching materials, including experiential exercises, simulations, and lecture outlines with teaching tips




Social Work Under Pressure


Book Description

Stress, fatigue and burnout are serious problems in the social work profession. High case loads, staff shortages, budget cuts and the challenging nature of the job contribute to high levels of stress, and social workers can crack under the pressure. This accessible book demonstrates how managers and practitioners can overcome workplace distress, fatigue and burnout by understanding the causes and implementing practical strategies. Part 1 outlines how stress, fatigue, burnout and trauma can be identified, how they impact upon social workers, and what strategies can help. Part 2 explores stress in particular settings, covering frontline practice, working with trauma, working with aggressive service users, bullying and violence in the workplace, and making mistakes. The book is rooted in the reality of everyday social work, incorporating the views and experiences of practising social workers. This book is full of techniques and tips that will be invaluable to all social work managers and practitioners seeking to beat workplace stress overload and burnout.




Fear, Society, and the Police


Book Description

Fear, Society, and the Police examines elements of fear and how they can be controlled and turned into an effective and proper response in an emergency situation. Readers of this book will be exposed to ways fear can become an uncontrolled emotion, often leading to unnecessary acts of violence, and will examine ways and means of using reasoning to overcome unfounded fear. The author encourages readers to critically assess circumstances in today’s society that have caused fear, unrest, and division between the enforcers of law and the people they are sworn to protect. Providing examples of how violence in society has had an impact on police–community relations, this book examines the many facets of fear from several perspectives, including historical, personal, and institutional. Security management courses concentrate on the "how and why" of security, yet to become an effective professional security specialist it is recommended the practitioner become educated in the nuances of fear. This book presents a look into the how and why of fear, and will relate to security personnel as it does to police officers. The book brings perspectives based on reality and experience. It will be of interest not only to those who work in law enforcement, but also to students in criminal justice, management and leadership, psychology, and sociology courses. As violence in society escalates, professionalism will require more understanding of fear-based emotions.




Euthanasia: Searching for the Full Story


Book Description

This open access book has been written by ten Belgian health care professionals, nurses, university professors and doctors specializing in palliative care and ethicists who, together, raise questions concerning the practice of euthanasia. They share their experiences and reflections born out of their confrontation with requests for euthanasia and end-of-life support in a country where euthanasia has been decriminalized since 2002 and is now becoming a trivial topic.Far from evoking any militancy, these stories of life and death present the other side of a reality needs to be evaluated more rigorously.Featuring multidisciplinary perspectives, this though-provoking and original book is intended not only for caregivers but also for anyone who questions the meaning of death and suffering, as well as the impact of a law passed in 2002. Presenting real-world cases and experiences, it highlights the complexity of situations and the consequences of the euthanasia law.This book appeals to palliative care providers, hematologists, oncologists, psychiatrists, nurses and health professionals as well as researchers, academics, policy-makers, and social scientists working in health care. It is also a unique resource for those in countries where the decriminalization of euthanasia is being considered. Sometimes shocking, it focuses on facts and lived experiences to challenge readers and offer insights into euthanasia in Belgium.




Emergency Psychiatry


Book Description

Written and edited by leading emergency psychiatrists, this is the first comprehensive text devoted to emergency psychiatry. The book blends the authors' clinical experience with evidence-based information, expert opinions, and American Psychiatric Association guidelines for emergency psychiatry. Case studies are used throughout to reinforce key clinical points. This text brings together relevant principles from many psychiatric subspecialties—community, consultation/liaison, psychotherapy, substance abuse, psychopharmacology, disaster, child, geriatric, administrative, forensic—as well as from emergency medicine, psychology, law, medical ethics, and public health policy. The emerging field of disaster psychiatry is also addressed. A companion Website offers instant access to the fully searchable text. (www.glickemergencypsychiatry.com)







Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-Making in Nineteenth-Century America


Book Description

The groundbreaking debut by the award-winning author of Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments, revised and updated. Saidiya Hartman has been praised as “one of our most brilliant contemporary thinkers” (Claudia Rankine, New York Times Book Review) and “a lodestar for a generation of students and, increasingly, for politically engaged people outside the academy” (Alexis Okeowo, The New Yorker). In Scenes of Subjection—Hartman’s first book, now revised and expanded—her singular talents and analytical framework turn away from the “terrible spectacle” and toward the forms of routine terror and quotidian violence characteristic of slavery, illuminating the intertwining of injury, subjugation, and selfhood even in abolitionist depictions of enslavement. By attending to the withheld and overlooked at the margins of the historical archive, Hartman radically reshapes our understanding of history, in a work as resonant today as it was on first publication, now for a new generation of readers. This 25th anniversary edition features a new preface by the author, a foreword by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, an afterword by Marisa J. Fuentes and Sarah Haley, notations with Cameron Rowland, and compositions by Torkwase Dyson.




Interoception, Contemplative Practice, and Health


Book Description

There is an emergent movement of scientists and scholars working on somatic awareness, interoception and embodiment. This work cuts across studies of neurophysiology, somatic anthropology, contemplative practice, and mind-body medicine. Key questions include: How is body awareness cultivated? What role does interoception play for emotion and cognition in healthy adults and children as well as in different psychopathologies? What are the neurophysiological effects of this cultivation in practices such as Yoga, mindfulness meditation, Tai Chi and other embodied contemplative practices? What categories from other traditions might be useful as we explore embodiment? Does the cultivation of body awareness within contemplative practice offer a tool for coping with suffering from conditions, such as pain, addiction, and dysregulated emotion? This emergent field of research into somatic awareness and associated interoceptive processes, however, faces many obstacles. The principle obstacle lies in our 400-year Cartesian tradition that views sensory perception as epiphenomenal to cognition. The segregation of perception and cognition has enabled a broad program of cognitive science research, but may have also prevented researchers from developing paradigms for understanding how interoceptive awareness of sensations from inside the body influences cognition. The cognitive representation of interoceptive signals may play an active role in facilitating therapeutic transformation, e.g. by altering context in which cognitive appraisals of well-being occur. This topic has ramifications into disparate research fields: What is the role of interoceptive awareness in conscious presence? How do we distinguish between adaptive and maladaptive somatic awareness? How do we best measure somatic awareness? What are the consequences of dysregulated somatic/interoceptive awareness on cognition, emotion, and behavior? The complexity of these questions calls for the creative integration of perspectives and findings from related but often disparate research areas including clinical research, neuroscience, cognitive psychology, anthropology, religious/contemplative studies and philosophy.