Containing Anxiety In Institutions

Isabel Menzies Lyth has formulated a way of thinking about social structures as forms of defence. The author extends her analytic range to cover themes of children in long-stay hospitals and day-care institutions, and the maternal role today.

Isabel Menzies Lyth has formulated a way of thinking about social structures as forms of defence. The author extends her analytic range to cover themes of children in long-stay hospitals and day-care institutions, and the maternal role today.

Drawing from the Independent tradition in psychoanalysis, this book explores the application of psychoanalytic thinking to the daily work of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapists and reflects on developments in what is actually done and why.

This book revisits the theory of social systems as a defence against anxiety first set out by Elliott Jaques and Isabel Menzies Lyth in papers which they published in 1955 and 1960, and which have been influential points of reference ever since. Menzies Lyth's study of the nursing system of a general hospital, with its roots in both psychoanalysis and socio-technical systems thinking, has remained one of the most convincing demonstrations of the influence of unconscious anxieties on social behaviour, and of their effects in inducing dysfunctional defensive systems in organisations. The theory of 'social defences against anxiety' remains one of the most significant contributions of the 'Tavistock school' to the study of human relations. Contributors explore this theory as a generative paradigm, capable both of theoretical extension and of empirical application to different institutional settings. They review changes which have taken place in the theoretical and social context since these ideas were first advanced, and assess what conceptual revisions these developments require.

Transforming Despair to Hope: Reflections on the Psychotherapeutic Process with Severely Neglected and Traumatised Children offers a thorough overview of the problems and rewards of trying to help severely neglected and traumatised children. Drawing on over 40 cyears of clinical experience, Monica Lanyado provides a historical and social perspective on this challenging population, as well as helpful theoretical frameworks and thoughtful support for all professionals and clinicians working with these children. This book brings together selected past writings and new chapters from Lanyando. In it she describes the consequences of severe neglect and trauma on a child’s emotional development, and then goes on to examine what it is that brings about positive change. By using vivid clinical examples of therapeutic practice with these children, she elucidates the difficulties associated with this population, as well as for those who care for them in families and in residential settings. Transforming Despair to Hope is a valuable resource for child and adolescent mental health professionals and trainee clinicians, as well as those in related fields working with children in need.

An ethnographic study of deinstitutionalisation, explores the lives of women with intellectual disabilities.