What’s in Our Name? Exploring Meaning and Narrative Identity in Parents’ Naming of Firstborn

The aim of this research was to investigate aspects of the spirituality of children in Victorian state primary schools. The researcher's experience as a teacher of Christian Religious Education (CRE) in Victorian state primary schools motivated her to investigate the spiritual experiences of contemporary children in this secular, and largely unexplored, context. The objective was to enhance the teaching of Christian Religious Education in these schools. The theoretical framework for this research was hermeneutic phenomenology, drawing on Gadamer's (1975) 'fusion of horizons', and Ricoeur's (1974, 1985) methods of textual interpretation and his concept of 'narrative identity'. A review of the literature of recent research into children's spirituality suggested to the researcher that children's spirituality can be expressed in four dimensions: 1) consciousness and 2) relationships, 3) identity and 4) roadmap, with an integrating central concept of worldview. This conceptualization became the basis for the research method. The research method consisted of three semi-structured interviews, two group interviews and one with individual children. These interviews were conducted in three Victorian state schools, with a total of 24 children aged eight to ten years (grades three and four). The group interviews explored the children's experiences relating to heightened consciousness (for example, awe and wonder) and their relationships with the Transcendent, other people and the natural world. The individual interviews explored the meaning-making dimensions of identity (self concept), and roadmap and worldview (values and aspirations). These interviews were video-taped, and transcribed. Profiles were prepared on each child based on Champagne's (2003) spiritual modes of being. There were four major findings of the research.;Firstly, the children demonstrated their capacity to 'reach out' with a heightened consciousness to explore their understanding of, and relationship with the natural world, the Transcendent, and other people (Hay & Nye, 2006). Secondly, the children demonstrated innate spiritual resources within themselves (Hart, 2003). The different environments in which the children were living seemed to have an impact of the development of their values, and their 'sense of meaning and connectedness' (Hyde, 2008). For most of the children the social context was non religious. This meant that the children used contemporary resources other than religion to express meaning and values. Finally, the children's sense of identity seemed to grow out of all these factors, as they tried to construct a meaningful 'story' of their lives (Ricoeur, 1985). These findings led the researcher to revise the initial conceptualization of children's spirituality to a more dynamic construction culminating in a sense of self identity and meaning. Based on this study the researcher recommends that the teaching of CRE in state schools attempts to enhance this sense of self-identity by providing the children with Biblical language and stories as vehicles for expressing their innate spiritual awareness through their own story. This may also encourage a meaningful relationship with Other. Furthermore, introduction to Christian values can both enhance the positive and critique the negative values of the society in which these children are developing their sense of self-worth and connectedness.

In the pursuit of a better understanding of the self in romantic relationships, this dissertation holds three research perspectives on people’s personality and their romantic relationships: a narrative identity perspective, a life-span perspective, and a process-based perspective. The narrative identity perspective was employed in Studies 1 and 2, in that Study 1 examined personality from an integrative actor–agent–author standpoint and Study 2 theoretically elaborated on the nexus between the narrative identity approach and the study of romantic relationships. More specifically, findings from Study 1 revealed that the actor (expressed as personality traits), the agent (expressed as life goals), and the author (expressed as life narratives) showed empirical associations that can be meaningfully interpreted in light of master motives (i.e., getting along, getting ahead, and a compound of both). Study 2 discussed the relevance and benefits of conceptualizing and analyzing relationship experiences as narrative representations, highlighting narrative methodologies as a valuable tool for understanding such relationships. The life-span perspective was employed in Studies 3 and 4, investigating whether age matters for personality and romantic relationships. Corresponding aspects were examined in both areas: Life goals as a striving-related aspect of personality (Study 3) and the Michelangelo phenomenon as a striving-related aspect of romantic relationships (Study 4). More specifically, results from Study 3 revealed that age matters for life goals insofar as goal-importance domains and goal-attainability domains mapped onto developmental tasks that adults usually encounter in a respective life stage. Moreover, the association between goal importance and goal attainability was largely bidirectional over time, and goal attainability, rather than goal importance, was positively related to later subjective well-being; these effects were largely independent of age. Findings from Study 4 revealed the Michelangelo phenomenon as a fairly age-independent principle, underscoring that people of any age were likely to move toward their ideal self and to benefit from this movement. The process-based perspective was employed in Study 5 and examined three daily relationship processes in the transactional link between personality and relationship satisfaction. Findings from this study indicated that people with interpersonal vulnerabilities (i.e., neuroticism, low self-esteem, insecure attachment) reported lower levels of beneficial daily emotional, cognitive, and behavioral relationship processes (i.e., perceived responsiveness, positive expectations, and self-disclosure) and higher day-to-day variability in these processes. However, only the level of these processes, not their variability, explained later relationship satisfaction. The same was true for the reversed direction in that lower levels of beneficial relationship processes mediated the link between relationship satisfaction and later interpersonal vulnerabilities. As such, insights into couples’ daily lives contribute to explaining personality–relationship transactions in romantic couples. In sum, this cumulative dissertation offers a nuanced view on people’s personality and their romantic relationships through the application of three distinct yet converging research perspectives. An outlook on how these research strands can be merged in future research is provided.

Individuals with cognitive communication disorders and aphasia experience changes to cognition, communication and psychological status, which can alter their identity and sense of self. Narrative approaches and project-based interventions have both been shown to positively influence renegotiation of identity and sense of self. Poetry shares many of the features of narrative approaches. Six individuals with cognitive communication disorders and one with aphasia co-designed a 6-month poetry group that used a narrative approach to poetry and a project-based intervention to disseminate their work. Qualitative analyses identified eight themes, including poetry is healing, didn't know I was capable of writing poetry, poetry provides clarity, poetry refills my tank, poetry provides a sense of accomplishment, learning from one another and feeding off of one another, poetry as a way to process recovery, and poetry has given me a new identity. Qualitative findings suggest that poetry and project-based interventions have positive effects on renegotiation of identity and sense of self. Poetry supports the expression of trauma and experiences through a metaphorical lens. This helps poets to feel comfortable sharing their compositions with groupmates and disseminate them more broadly. Poetry provides a mechanism for reframing illness narratives into their new narrative identities.

This study examines the narrative identity construction of six self-identified lesbians born between 1945 and1950. This generation of women who are now in their sixties and seventies have lived through immense social change including the decriminalisation of homosexuality, the gay rights movement, civil partnership and gay marriage. They are the first generation to have the opportunity to live openly as lesbians. This study is interested in the impact of such significant social change on their identity construction. The study used semi-structured in-depth interviews to ask six participants how they had experienced living with a lesbian identity. All participants were white and UK born. All were educated to at least degree level and all were in or retired from professional employment. Data was analysed using narrative method grounded in a social constructionist epistemology. Four themes emerged: 1) Participants reported feeling marginalised as children, and unable or unwilling to fulfil the life trajectory expected of them; 2) Finding a community, usually a feminist or lesbian group enabled the development of a positive lesbian identity; 3) Lesbian identity was constructed as more than a sexual identity, rather as a political identity and a way of life; 4) Participants constructed an overall life-narrative of redemption, a narrative which progressed from struggle to satisfaction. The study examines the particular discourses used in identity construction. It is argued that participants are influenced by inversion model, feminist, queer and redemptive narrative discourses. The benefits of using a social constructionist approach for LGBT research are discussed in order to offer a critique of psychology’s role in constructing subjects as well as to gain a fuller picture of participants’ social and political worlds. The implications of this study’s findings for counselling psychology are discussed.

There is no consensus as to whether people with advanced dementia can create a narrative identity. It is most often thought to be disturbed due to autobiographical memory disorders. In this paper, we examined how people with advanced dementia constructed their narrative identities in relation to their professional experience. This qualitative study used data obtained from 8 semi-structured interviews. The interviewees were people with advanced dementia aged between 66 and 89years. We analyzed the dataset based on the textual-oriented discourse analysis. The study participants created narrative identities. Their narrative identities were constructed within residual professional discourses learned during their lifespan. These discourses blended their narrative identities into coherent stories about who they are now, offered languages to describe current experiences, and emphasized important values for their self-image. The participants built narrative identities by referring to the past and imagining a better present with the omission of the future. The past was valued positively and was a source of positive nostalgia. Projections of a better present served to reveal their needs and assess ways to meet them. We argue that people with advanced dementia can create complex and coherent narrative identities. They are constructed around discourses and not only using autobiographical memories. Encouraging them to create narrative identities in the dialogue can be a simple therapeutic method by which they can maintain a sense of self-cohesion and belonging to the world.

This study investigates the impact of Turkish ‘settlers’ on conceptions of collective identity in northern Cyprus during the period 1995-2013. It traces the discursive effects of immigration and the citizenship status of populations from Turkey on competing identity narratives in the context of Cyprus’s EU accession by focusing on three distinct empirical domains: political parties, civil society and the print media. Inspired by the conceptual framework of the poststructuralist discourse theory and constructivist readings on nationalism and immigration, the investigation seeks to explain the discursive mechanisms of identity construction and transformation in relation to immigration from Turkey which represents a key element in the narration of identity in northern Cyprus. More specifically, the thesis explores how the presence of populations from Turkey has been framed within the dominant narratives on identity along two antagonistic versions: Turkishness and Cypriotness. Using qualitative methodology based on discourse analysis, the empirical sections trace the continuity and change in these narratives and their framing of the ‘settler issue’ in the course of Cyprus’s EU accession and the ongoing anticipation on part of the Turkish-Cypriot community for eventual membership. The purpose of the investigation is to reveal the logic of securitization within both discourses that compete to attach a meaning onto identity in northern Cyprus. The findings demonstrate that the discursive space of the Turkish-Cypriot community is dominated by these competing, securitised versions of subjectivity and belonging. Traditionally interpreted within the hegemony of Turkishness, the antagonistic reading of immigration and the citizenship status of ‘settlers’ by the subversive Cypriotness discourse also reveals the potential to significantly increase the appeal of alternative visions and projects through securitization. Indeed, the northern Cyprus case testifies that appeal to identity involves much more than a source of self-identification, involving a contestation over autonomy, statehood and purpose. In this sense, the thesis aspires to make a contribution in both empirical and conceptual terms. The investigation of identity politics in relation to Turkish ‘settlers’ provides fascinating empirical findings on Turkish-Cypriot politics and society but also the Turkish-Cypriot perceptions of Turkey which have attracted limited scholarly attention thus far. Placing the investigation within the wider discourse-analytical framework also offers significant insights to complement existing understandings of the political relevance of identity in particularly intriguing migration settings found in unrecognised states but also in other contexts involving similar dynamics such as the presence of a ‘kin’state. The current thesisthus offers a particular aspect of the infamous ‘Cyprus Problem’ but one that points to many ‘bigger’ stories in Europe and beyond.

BackgroundIn the field of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), possibilities of prediction are advancing due to the ever‐widening spectrum of technical and biomedical development. Such procedures become available to healthy persons, revealing risk probabilities to develop Alzheimer’s dementia in the course of one’s lifespan. The disclosure of and confrontation with such information can influence the individual’s self‐understanding, identity and life planning which raises various (bio‐)ethical issues on an individual and societal level. In this qualitative part of the PreTAD project, we aim to reveal information on the participants’ identity, through the analysis of their narrations ( = narrative identity), by focusing on language patterns participants use to express their positioning concerning risk prediction.MethodIn this qualitative‐explorative approach, we conduct N = 40 interviews with the following groups of participants: (a) general population, (b) first‐degree relatives of persons with Alzheimer’s dementia, (c) patients diagnosed with subjective cognitive decline (SCD). The interview design is guided by three themes relating to risk prediction of Alzheimer’s dementia: (1) individual experiences, (2) points of access and needs, (3) contextualization and associations. With this approach we seek to enable a ‘conversational’ interview in which linguistic patterns, (self‐)positioning and stance towards risk, health and disease reveal attitudes, individual values and therefore narrative identity. The basis of the multifaceted qualitative and linguistic analysis are Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and Conversation Analysis (CA).ResultPreliminary results show that the deliberate approach of thematically segmented but rather unstructured interaction and the focus on patients’ narrations proved fruitful in identifying findings concerning the participants’ identity and sense of self in the context of risk‐prediction of dementia. By focusing analytically on linguistic stance (attitude) and direct/indirect (self‐)positioning of the participants, we can gain in‐depth insights into individual values and attitudes towards risk, risk prediction of Alzheimer’s dementia and health.ConclusionAccording to initial findings, the focus on narrative identity leads to important insights into self‐understanding of persons confronted with a potential risk and can help to refine ethical questions concerning risk prediction. To ensure good clinical practice regarding predictive interventions those should be acknowledged in counselling and risk disclosure communication.

The essay illustrates how MacIntyre’s After Virtue offers a constructive critique of modern individualism through the concept of “practice,” which is at the basis of MacIntyre’s ethical realism and constitutive of the narrative identity of self, based on the Aristotelian anthropology of human perfection. The essay takes into consideration the concept of community, highlighting the differences between MacIntyre and Communitarianism. The last section focuses on education, its crisis in advanced modernity, and how MacIntyre’s perspective offers an avenue for overcoming that crisis by means of the realism inherent in virtuous education.

The Narrative-identity as a Possibility in the Age of Self-identity Crisis - Focusing on a Literary Therapeutic Writing Text of University Student

iStock/Lazy_Bear, hearing loss, health care, mental health.Human beings are constantly telling stories about their experiences and the world around them. Whether it's recapping their latest TV binge with a colleague or sharing a recent surprise encounter at a coffee shop with a friend, people construct and share stories about their experiences and the details of their lives.1 Over time these stories are internalized and evolve into one's life story. In the field of psychology, this is called narrative identity.2 One way that audiologists can better understand patients and improve the quality of their hearing health care services is by discovering and understanding the patients’ identities.3-5 In our recent qualitative study,6 we uncovered the identities that adults with hearing loss (HL) construct when telling stories about their experiences with HL and hearing aids (HAs). Our goal was to describe the nuances of these identities in a way that can ultimately help audiologists better understand their patients, improve their provision of person-centered hearing health care,6 and ensure better overall health for more adults with HL via consistent adherence to an HA treatment plan.7,8 STUDY HIGHLIGHTS In our study, 30 adults diagnosed with HL who reported using their HAs during all waking hours shared stories about their experiences surrounding their HL and HAs. We gathered the narratives via a guide based on narrative and semi-structured interviewing principles,9,10 then used thematic narrative analysis11 to categorize and understand the HA users’ identities. Our analysis revealed five narrative identities that emerged from the participants’ stories: (1) the satisfied user, (2) the overcomer, (3) the dispassionate user, (4) the resigned user, and (5) the griever. The satisfied user identity emerged from narratives in which the individual seemed to easily accept their HL and adapt to their HAs. They perceived their HAs to be beneficial and worthwhile. For example, one user named Jasper described his experience as: “I was shocked [LAUGHTER] when I left the [audiologist's] office! Woah! The high frequencies are coming in big—and I'm a commuter cyclist, so I'm on my bike quite a bit. All of a sudden, I'm hearing cars and the buzz. You know, the grinding on the street… I was really shocked at how much I'd missed and was missing.” The overcomer narrative identity was revealed in stories that underscored the obstacles individuals faced throughout their journeys. Nonetheless, these HA users were able to overcome their hardships and construct a new normal for their lives.12 This finding echoes existing research that documented people's ability to tell stories where they were able to overcome their challenges and thrive13,14—a type of resilience often linked to better health outcomes.15,16 One such user Bill shared: “…I really realized I had a deficiency in hearing because [SIGH] my communication with potential customers was… I started writing down incorrect phone numbers and incorrect addresses. I guess that's when I really realized that I had a problem. I started leaving them [HAs] on longer at that time—almost till I went to bed. And I put them on in the morning when I got up, but (to me) in a sales position that I had, it was a must. Some of the most embarrassing things with the hearing aids—I [would be in] the middle of a discussion and all of a sudden I hear “BEEP, BEEP, BEEP”—the battery would give me an indication [that it was dying]. I used to hold out as long as possible, and I would say, ‘Excuse me, Mother Nature is calling me’. I was embarrassed to, you know, change the batteries. So, I went to the bathroom and changed the batteries… The HAs were actually a key to my success in the position I had. I had a very good career with [the store], and I attribute that a lot to the HAs.” Narratives of the dispassionate users conveyed little affect regarding their HL diagnoses or experiences with HAs. Instead of describing their experiences with emotion, they focused more on describing the factual details of their experiences. For example, one such user Estelle's narrative reads relatively emotionless: “Realizing HL was a problem in the family, I decided I just needed to have hearing tests and get a hearing aid so that I would be able to at least hear as well as I thought that I might be able to.” People reflecting the resigned user narrative identity described feelings of resignation surrounding their HAs. Interestingly, they recognized the benefit of HAs while also recounting their irritation toward their HL diagnoses as well as their difficulties in adopting consistent HA use habits. They presented their HA use as an obligation rather than a choice. For example, one resigned user Leslie shared: “And I was like, ‘Oh, crap.’ I missed that entire quiz question, and I was really, really fed up with that. So, I was like, ‘Dang it. Like I am going to like at least try and do something.’ I'm really, really tired of missing important stuff in class. I had a friend at the time who was doing audiology, and she really tried to push me to come here [university clinic]. And so, yeah. Then I got fit with HAs, and it's been very interesting.” Lastly, the griever narrative identity emerged from stories where individuals were in a state of mourning surrounding their HL diagnosis and yearned for their lives to be different. As with other grievers, Janice's story suggests that she has not fully accepted her HL and wishes life was different. “It was always disappointing to me as I learned later that—you know—I could have been given some medication that I would not have had to deal with this [HL] my whole life, which hasn't always been easy [CRYING]. I don't think people realize how emotional it is to have your hearing not be where everybody else's is at.” CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS Understanding how a patient identifies is important for health care providers because the relationship that exists between who people believe they are and how they behave has significant implications for their treatment adherence.17 For example, patients with an overcomer identity (the most prevalent identity in our study6) likely face an array of experiences and emotions while adjusting to their HL diagnosis and HA adoption. During this time, these patients can either work to reduce any negative feelings and conquer existing barriers to HL acceptance and HA uptake (thus becoming an overcomer), or they can succumb to those barriers and ultimately cease HA use altogether. Audiologists should be ready to execute different counseling techniques (e.g., motivational interviewing) to facilitate how these patients work through their barriers to become overcomers instead of non-users. Similarly, when patients identify themselves as dispassionate users, audiologists must work with them to set a consistent follow-up schedule, during which the audiologists should employ robust person-centered care and effective counseling to ensure that the patients do not allow their impartiality to their HL diagnosis and HA uptake become reason enough to reduce their consistent use of HAs. In conclusion, our study begins to shed light on the narrative identities of individuals with HL who use HAs. From a clinical perspective, the findings are particularly helpful when considering how these identities are important to audiologists’ holistic understanding of individuals who are diagnosed with HL and adhere to HA recommendations.

(In memory of Chris Newell)With its title 'able', this issue called for articles and essays which explore ability from a disability perspective, rather than disability from an able-ist perspective. One take on the title 'able', is that it invites a fresh perspective on disability, with a focus on abilities and productivities (defined differently, in non-able-ist terms), rather than lack and aberrance. This affirmation of abilities is characteristic of many of the articles and essays in this issue, particularly in the narrative accounts of lived experience. Another take on 'able' evident in these articles is the critique of able-ist assumptions and discourses. Some writers, such as Campbell, Goggin and Wolbring, overtly address the value of insights offered through disability to deconstruct the ‘able-ist’ perspectives which dominate and limit our social worlds, even within disability studies. Campbell provides an overview of scholarship on disablism and able-ism: ‘Disablism’ works as "a set of assumptions (conscious or unconscious) and practices that promote the differential or unequal treatment of people because of actual or presumed disabilities". While Campbell acknowledges the importance of disability studies with its various critiques of the practices and production of disablism, "specifically … examining those attitudes and barriers that contribute to the subordination of people with disabilities in liberal society", she also identifies an ‘able-ist project’ within disability studies, which can serve to reinscribe the able-ist perspective and assumptions. Campbell argues: "the challenge then is to reverse, to invert this traditional approach, to shift our gaze and concentrate on what the study of disability tells us about the production, operation and maintenance of ableism."Goggin also calls for this inverted approach, with scrutiny of the under-examined category ‘able’: If we think of the impact and significance of “whiteness”, as a way to open up space for how to critically think about and change concepts of race; or of “masculinity” as a project for thinking about gender and sexuality — we can see that this interrogation of the unmarked category of “able” and “ability” is much needed. Goggin notes that while disability has been subject to critique and examination (like the all too conspicuous and scrutinised disabled bodies), there has been surprisingly little critique of ability: "nor have we witnessed a thoroughgoing recognition of unmarked, yet powerful operations of ability in our lives and thought". Wolbring also contends that “there is a pressing need for society to deal with ableism in all of its forms and its consequences”. Through his discussion of categories of ‘able’ and ‘ableism’, he identifies a dominant discourse around ‘species-typical’ versus ‘sub-species-typical, defined from the dominant ‘able-ist’ perspective. This discourse has a long history and is linked to the discourse around health, disease and medicine. This is … a model that classifies disabled people as having an intrinsic defect, an impairment that leads to ‘subnormal’ functioning. He insists on the importance of work within Disability Studies which questions that medical model and explores the issue of ‘who defines whom’ as sub-species typical. Many of the articles published here recognise the interdependence of such categories of ‘abled’ and ‘disabled’, drawing attention to the work they perform – usually naturalised and invisible – in producing ‘common sense’ understandings of human value and performance. The able-ist perspective produces disability in terms of lack and deviance from the human norm (which Wolbring calls ‘species typical’). This able-ist production of disability – with its sense of lack and revulsion for the aberrant body/mind – is a powerful undercurrent informing our understanding of human agency. It underpins legitimising discourses which define humanity, particularly modernist discourses of medicine and technology which address the ‘improvement’ of human lives and promise to eradicate disability. It is also crucial to the meaning of so many media narratives, since such narratives, whether in news, documentary or film/tv drama, are predominantly about dilemmas of human agency, of people’s ability or failure to act, to overcome setbacks and limitations. The notion of agency – which drives or impedes the narrative and its resolution – is just as prevalent in media narratives which include people with disability, even those narratives which celebrate their outstanding achievements (in spite of disability). The disability becomes the impediment that must be overcome or be transcended. This more general pattern is represented in emblematic form in many Hollywood action narratives: sometimes the ‘villain’ who impedes the hero’s path is ‘disabled’, or the hero must overcome some disability within themselves (often figured as a temporary disability – such as Superman’s disablement with exposure to kryptonite). While such media stories offer extremes of the ability/disability paradigm, the categories inform our wider debates and understandings of human performance and value. Human agency and the improvement or enablement of this agency – configured in conventional ‘able-ist’ terms – is key to narratives in medical science, technology and innovation, education, as well as in literature and culture, and media narratives which define and interact with our understandings of human activities and performance. Several articles in this issue examine the relationship between technology and innovation, and the able-ist project of modernity and its positioning of people with disability. Goggin addresses the relationship between technology, innovation and disability, calling for a reversal of mainstream logic which sees technology as something which ameliorates disability and improves the lives of people with disability. He points to the work of writers who demonstrate the vital role of people with disability as users of technology, to inform design in the innovation process, and improve the lives of all users of technology. In this context the 'disability perspective' helps break through the limitations of the able-ist perspective. In their article “iTunes Is Pretty (Useless) When You’re Blind”, Kate Ellis and Mike Kent critically examine the promise of digital technology “to open up the world to people with disabilities”, showing the limitations of iPods and iTunes for many people with disabilities (in particular the difficulties for users of screen readers and Braille tablets). They focus on the way that technologies and innovations designed to improve access for people with disabilities “actually enhance access for all users”. They draw on the example of the Lectopia lecture recording and distribution system which has enhanced the educational outcomes for all students where it has been adopted. This resonates with Goggin’s piece on technology and innovation, and the benefits of converging the perspective of the disabled user, with the ‘user’ as considered in technology design. In her article on photographer William Yang’s photographic portraits of his friend Allen dying of AIDS, Catalina Florescu addresses the history of medicine and its role in perpetuating ‘able-ist’ evaluations of disability. In the nineteenth century, how much was medicine responsible for defining ugly as ill, deformed, and getting old, versus beautiful as healthy, and then, for the sake of the community’s health, firmly promoting these ideas? Furthermore, with the rise of photographic art, medicine was able to manipulate and control these ideas even more efficiently. She quotes Deborah Lupton, “the new technology of photography that developed from the mid-nineteenth century became a valuable strategy in the documentation of patterns of disease and illness, and the construction of the sites of dirtiness and contagion”. This emphasis on the historical role of technology in managing and defining, and potentially redefining, understandings of ability and disability, is similar to the scrutiny of technologies that occurs throughout other articles and essays in this issue, including those essays by McDonald, Wain and Place, which address the lived experience of disability. Human agency is also a central theme in cultural and media studies: the modern impulse to bring about social change through critique, depends on a belief in human agency and in the ability to generate change and address social inequalities. The recognition of the role of culture, language and representation, in the contested domain of (unequal) social relations, is vital to critical practice within cultural and media studies. Given this belief in human agency, the assumption that human subjects are able to change the social order, it is vital for practitioners of cultural and media studies, to question the nature of those assumptions, aware that human agency is so often defined in ‘able-ist’ terms. As such the writings in this issue bring a valuable perspective to cultural and media studies more generally, through their critique of the able-ist assumptions that underpin conventional understandings of human agency. Several articles in this issue examine media representations, some drawing attention to those that produce different perspectives on ability and disability. Much has been written about the power of filmic, theatrical and literary representation of disability to engage with, reflect, influence and challenge dominant (able-ist) cultural and social attitudes and narratives (Garland-Thomson, Darke, Shakespeare). Bruno Starrs’ piece on Dance Me to My Song (1997) reveals that while that film is listed in Rolf de Heer’s oeuvre, its primary author is Heather Rose Slattery, a woman with cerebral palsy who wrote, co-directed and played Julie, the lead character. Starrs asserts that in the film Julie is not held up as an object of pity, ra

This book gives a sociolinguistic account of Syrian Christian and Telugu Catholic personal names. Unlike previous works on the linguistic or sociolinguistic analysis of the personal names of Indian Christians, which have mainly used a reflexive approach to analyse names, this book takes a constitutive approach by analysing the personal names of two Indian Christian communities (Telugu Catholics and Syrian Christians) from the perspective of community members. This novel approach provides greater insights into individuals’ motivations for naming and how names are used to create social identities. 'A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Indian Christian Names: The Case of Telugu Catholics and Syrian Christians' also provides a historical background of how names have evolved in these communities and explores the adaptation strategies used by Indian Christians through the act of naming (e.g., appending caste titles to Christian names, the use of Sanskrit personal names and Christian surnames) as well as the role of culture in naming (e.g., the use of other names, the role of caste titles in indicating one’s identity). This book paves the way for more qualitative studies to arise in the analysis of first names and will be valuable to graduate students and academics in the fields of onomastics, linguistics, religious studies, and history. It will also appeal to those interested in Indian Christianity in general.

This study aimed to examine the occupational lives of persons served in the Basic Health Unit or employed in the National Institute of Social Security within communities in Belem, Brazil. A mixed-method design was performed with qualitative interviews and two quantitative measurements, the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure, and the Health Assessment Questionnaire. The intent was to provide occupational therapists a better understanding of the need for their service in both institutions. The two populations included were similar regarding age, gender, and race, however, although connected geopolitically, differences in educational level, income, and access to goods and services were noted. The results demonstrated that both groups experienced difficulties and unfulfilled wishes for their occupational performances and lack of occupational engagement, due to environmental circumstances, which may lead to a risk of occupational injustice. This study contributes valuable knowledge which may determine if occupational therapy services could benefit these populations.

Despite advancements in pharmacological treatments, living with inflammatory arthritis (IA) (including rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriatic arthritis (PsA), and axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA)) can make it challenging to engage in social activities, which may increase the risk of loneliness. Although loneliness is predominantly prevalent in IA, its origin and impact on mental health status on daily life with IA remain unexplored. Therefore, the objective of this study was to describe the experiences of people with IA in relation to loneliness. Semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with purposefully sampled participants who reported loneliness. Reflexive thematic analysis was applied to analyze data. The interviews included fourteen participants (RA (n = 5), PsA (n = 5), and AxSpA (n = 4)) with median age of 47 (range 25-76). We developed three themes: (1) "Loneliness amplifies the negative impact of IA," illustrating the experience of loneliness as an integrated part of the participants' struggles; (2) "Excluding myself from what I need the most," detailing participants' awareness of their need but inability to engage in social activities; and (3) "Longing for loneliness to be addressed," expressing unfulfilled wishes for health professionals to address loneliness. Participants in our study reported that loneliness had a profound impact on their overall well-being and self-management. Overall, there is a critical need to address loneliness as an essential issue for people with IA, highlighting the necessity for increased support and recognition. By addressing loneliness, health professionals can protect patients' mental health and help them navigate social connections, enhancing their self-management and overall well-being.

<p>This research aims at showing the connection between the characters’ reality and fantasy on identity crisis in <em>Alice through the Looking-Glass </em>novel by Lewis Carroll. Thus, the conducted research was analyzed using qualitative method with the approach of psychoanalytical literary criticism: <em>Psychoanalysis</em> by Freud as well as the theory of <em>Psychosocial Development</em> by Erikson to seek the identity crisis of the character Alice. As the conclusion of the research; 1) Alice’s <em>‘ego’</em> cannot manage her <em>‘id’</em> which is difficult to be gratified in reality that triggers Alice overreact her defense mechanisms; 2)<strong> </strong>Alice’s fantasy works as a defense mechanism which is caused by her unfulfilled wishes in reality; 3) It is revealed that Alice experiences identity crisis at the phase of autonomy versus doubt and shame as well as initiative versus guilt which influences her behaviors, resulting <em>Childhood Onset schizophrenic (COS)</em> personality disorder.</p><p><strong>Keywords</strong>: identity crisis; psychoanalysis; interpretation of dreams; personality disorder; schizophrenia</p>