Something to consider : Winnicott on Adolescence

“It comes down to a problem of: how to be adolescent during adolescence? This is an extremely brave thing for anybody to be. It does not mean that we grown-ups have to be saying: ‘Look at these dear little adolescents having their adolescence; we must put up with everything and let our windows get broken.’ This is not the point. The point is that we are challenged and we meet the challenge as part of the function of adult living. But we meet the challenge rather than set out to cure what is essentially healthy.
The big threat from the adolescent is the threat to the bit of ourselves that has not really had its adolescence. This bit of ourselves makes us resent these people being able to have their phase of the doldrums and makes us want to find a solution for them. There are hundreds of false solutions. Anything we say or do is wrong. We give support and we are wrong, we withdraw support and that is wrong too. We dare not be ‘understanding’. But in the course of time we find that this adolescent boy and this adolescent girl has come out of the doldrums phase and is now able to begin identifying with society, with parents, and with wider groups, and to do so without feeling threatened with personal extinction.”

Extracted from: D. W. Winnicott, Clare Winnicott, Ray Shepherd & Madeleine Davis. Deprivation and Delinquency. iBooks.  First published by Tavistock Publications, London, 1984

This entry was posted in goodenoughcaring.com, Opinion on July 23, 2016.

Bob Holman 1936 - 2016

Bob Holman died on June 8th, 2016. He was a man of the community and of community. The story of his life and achievements can be found here

June 15th, 2016 : Issue 19 of the goodenoughcaring Journal is now online

June 15th, 2016 :  Issue 19 of the  goodenoughcaring Journal is now online. In this issue Cynthia Cross writes about children and families attending reviews, Maurice Fenton reflects upon Yeats, Jung and Adolescence,  John Stein considers the nature of feedback, Noel Howard gives an account of  the history of the Irish social care journal Curam which published its 50th issue earlier this year and gives a context to developments in social care in recent decades,  Michael J. Marlowe explores the connection between good relationships and trust,  Justin Frost reviews the film The War Zone, Lesley Morrison writes about residential child care, Charles Sharpe looks at Ian D. Suttie’s ‘attachment to mother’ theory and George Eliot writes about family life in the 1820s. Our Editors think about community and communities. We hope  there is something to interest you in this issue.

Issue 20 of the goodenoughcaring Journal will be published on December 15th, 2016

This entry was posted in goodenoughcaring.com home page on June 15th, 2016

Issue 19 of the goodenoughcaring Journal goes online on June 15th

Issue 19 of the goodenoughcaring Journal goes online on Wednesday, 15th June, 2016. In this issue Cynthia Cross writes about children and families attending reviews, Maurice Fenton reflects upon Yeats, Jung and Adolescence,  John Stein considers the nature of feedback, Noel Howard gives an account of  the history of the Irish social care journal Curam which published its 50th issue earlier this year and gives a context to developments in social care in recent decades,  Michael J. Marlowe explores the connection between good relationships and trust,  Justin Frost reviews the film The War Zone, Lesley Morrison writes about residential child care, Charles Sharpe looks at Ian D. Suttie’s ‘attachment to mother’ theory and George Eliot writes about family life in the 1820s.

This entry was posted on the home page of the  goodenoughcaring  website on June 12th, 2016.

“Where love rules, there is no will to power” : another idea to ponder.

 “Where love rules, there is no will to power, and where power predominates, love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other.”

C.J Jung

Jung no doubt generalised this to all relationships between human beings and human groups and as a maxim it seems to ring true. Is it congruent with parent/child relationships or carer/child relationships ? Is love enough ?

This opinion piece was posted on the home page of  goodenoughcaring.com on May 23, 2016.

Liberating Institutions, a paper by John Burton published by the Centre for Welfare Reform

In what many believe to be a critical time for our social welfare system The Centre for Welfare Reform has just published an exigent and apposite discussion paper Liberating Institutions by John Burton. In this paper John describes the way in which care homes and the people who live and work in them are subjugated  and constricted by a social care system run and regulated for the benefit, protection and preservation of an elite of – mostly well-meaning – politicians, bureaucrats, care organisations and in large part for the profits of owners and shareholders.

However, the author believes that there is an alternative, more hopeful, way to look at the same picture. In every care home there is  another sort of institution trying to get out: a community formed of people in mutual caring relationships in search of self-determination, empowerment and liberation.

John’s paper can be downloaded from the Centre for Welfare Reform’s website here.

John Burton,  an eminent author on social care issues,  has been a generous contributor of articles to the goodenoughcaring journal


This item was first posted on February 25th, 2016 on the home page of goodenoughcaring.com

.

Kilquhanity School, John and Morag Aikenhead

Though perhaps less well-known than his friend and mentor from the progressive school movement A.S. Neill,  John Aikenhead, who in 1940 founded Kilquhanity School near Castle Douglas in Scotland was a Scottish educationalist who believed children should be happy at school and encouraged to learn through their own discoveries. He did not believe that learning could be fully achieved by following without question the imperatives of external authorities. He celebrated humanity and its capacity sometimes to achieve things through first getting them wrong and as a consequence of this,  then getting them right. Hence the  Kilquhanity School motto “Freedom, Equality and Inefficiency” is not tongue in cheek.  John Aikenhead, and his wife Morag Aikenhead saw the Kilquhanity School ' experiment in education' through from 1940 until the school closed in 1997 when Aikenhead felt that a natural end had been reached.

You can find more about John Aikenhead  and Kilquhanity School at http://www.braehead.info/html/50_years_young.html  and  http://www.braehead.info/html/john_aitkenhead.htm

This information piece first appeared on the home page of   goodenoughcaring.com on February 8th, 2016