Search Results

The completion of a study upon the psychosocial process used for solving a serious problem (lengthy work interruption due to burnout) prompted the author's methodological reflections. These are pertinent for qualitative research based on interviews. Comments bearing on the potential and limits of the researcher's emotivity and creativity focus on two issues : the collection and the analysis of data. The non-directive approach illicits “dramatic” interviews, theatre serving as an analogy to define their parameters. This procedure for collecting data calls forth the researcher's emotivity, and his creativity is stimulated at the moment of analysis. Guidelines are provided to monitor the researcher's subjectivity.

Social workers in clinical practice do not write much about their daily experience. To obviate to this shortcoming, the author describes here a type of group intervention in mental health : designed for women in need of emotional help, the time-limited group process is based on a feminist approach. The theoretical bases of the program are sketched ; the clinical intervention is described along its historical development. Some results are reported on three different categories : feelings, behaviors and attitudes. The implications for social prevention are outlined.

From the 1950s through late 1980s, Jeanne Lapointe's publications in magazines, newspapers and conference papers show the effectiveness of her speech which, even without any books, helps transforming Quebec's intellectual and literary landscapes. Since they unveil the foundations of her fight against discourses of domination, her radio columns aired on Radio-Collège, a program broadcast on Radio-Canada, serve to construct the discursive genesis of her feminist thought, which was still embryonic in the 1950s. Highly enlightening, the unpublished texts from the series Revue des Arts et des Lettres (1952-1954) and L'écrivain et son style (1955) reveal her humanist ideal, which arises from a both personal and collective revolt and will constantly guide her subsequent speak-outs. In order to make the epistemological change she wishes happen, Lapointe makes the literary criticism a committed act which draws its strength on the stylistic exercising. From the figures of her speech, i.e. her “inimitable accent”, emanates a portrait of the intellectual and the woman who gradually imposes herself as the standard bearer of a modern discourse that her generation strives to make effective against thought obscurantism. Through criticism poetics, the author shows that the secret of one of the most efficient feminist voice of Quebec's twentieth century lies in taking advantage of an authentic and demanding subjectivity.

Objective: For schema therapy, significant weight is given to early experiences of social life. They lead to the creation of memories, largely implicit. These memories are reactivated in specific contexts and are often managed through dysfunctional strategies. Schema therapy seeks to modify these memories categorized as patterns. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), meanwhile, aims to transform our reactions linked to our learning history and to develop a greater flexibility taking into account what occurs in the present moment. Several techniques originate from the mindfulness tradition and seek to transform the individual into a witness of his own experience, rather than someone acting out patterns based on his learning history. Despite their different paradigms, it is possible to combine these approaches. As schemas manifest through somatic reactions, thoughts, affects, action tendencies, it becomes possible to try to change the relationship between the individual and these private experiences through the use of mindfulness, philosophical concepts and techniques derived from ACT. This is the aim of this article. Method: Essay presenting the use of a schema mindfulness flash card to help patients tolerate intense affects generated by the activation of schemas and to attain greater adaptive flexibility (Healthy Adult mode). Conclusion: It is possible to integrate ACT techniques and concept to schema therapy in order to facilitate adaptive flexibility.

Keywords: thérapie des schémas, schémas précoces inadaptés, thérapie d'acceptation et d'engagement, ACT, fiche mémo, schema therapy, early maladaptive schemas, schema flashcard, Acceptance and commitment therapy, ACT, mindfulness

Objectives: This article is exploring different forms of constraint that are exerted in the field of drug addiction treatment. The objective of this article is to establish benchmarks and to stimulate reflection about the ethical and clinical implications of those constraints in the field of drug addiction treatment.Methods: This article is presenting a critical review of different forms of constraint that can be exerted in Canada in regard to the treatment of drug addiction. In the first section of the article, a definition of therapeutic intervention is proposed, that includes the dimension of power, which justifies the importance of considering the coercive aspects of treatment. The second section, which represents the core section of the paper, is devoted to the presentation of different levels of constraint that can be distinguished in regard to drug addicts who are under treatment.Results: Three levels of constraint are exposed: judicial constraint, institutional constraint and relational constraint. The coercive aspect of treatment can then be recognized as a combination of all tree levels of constraint. Judicial constraint refers to any form of constraint in which the court or the judge is imposing or recommending treatment. This particular level of constraint can take different forms, such as therapeutic remands, conditions of a probation order, conditions of a conditional sentence of imprisonment, and coercive treatment such as the ones provided through drug courts. Institutional constraint refers to any form of constraint exerted within any institutional setting, such as correctional facilities and programs offered in community. Correctional facilities being limited by their own specific mission, it might have a major impact on the way the objectives of treatment are defined. Those limitations can then be considered as a form of constraint, in which drug users don't have much space to express their personal needs. Finally, relational constraint refers to any form of constraint in which the drug addict might be coerced to treatment under the pressure of people from the immediate environment, such as members of family, friends or employers. Even if this form of constraint is not as obvious as the ones exerted by court and correctional facilities, it has to be considered by practitioners who are evaluating the motivation of drug addicts under treatment.Conclusion: Considering the diversity of constraints that are exerted on drug addicts who are under treatment, it appears that we should be always aware of the ethical and clinical challenges facing practitioners every day. The recognition of those constraints can also help to understand how important it is to consider the institutional and social context in which treatment is being provided.

Keywords: traitement, intervention, toxicomanie, dépendance, contrainte, pouvoir, obligation de soins, Canada, Treatment, intervention, drug addiction, constraint, power, coercive treatment, Canada

The prevalence of patients diagnosed with both a psychiatric and an addiction disorder is considerable. Like many other large urban centers, Montreal harbors many of these socially marginalized individuals. In spite of a wide range of resources for the treatment of each condition taken singly, there has been until recently an alarming dearth of programs aimed at providing integrated treatment models. In recent years, the CHUM has endeavored to implement such a program in order to address the multiple needs of a population often rendered vulnerable in many respects. In this article, the authors address the magnitude of this “dual diagnosis” problem, existing intervention models and the obstacles faced by this population in terms of access to health care ; they describe the steps leading to the establishment of an Addiction Psychiatric Unit at the CHUM and the challenges arising from the creation of a multidisciplinary integrated treatment model in an urban setting.

Pathological gambling implies an inadequate, persistent and chronic practice of gambling which has major impact on affected individuals, their families and the society (APA, 2003). Many risk factors of social, psychological and biological nature contribute to the development of pathological gambling. New populations have been found to be at risk to develop pathological gambling : patients who suffer of Parkinson Disease's. Development of pathological gambling in those patients would mainly be related to the medication used to treat Parkinson Disease's, dopaminergic agonist. Numerous neurological studies have been conducted on the subject since recent years, but few psychologists know this problem and almost no studies have been made to understand the psychological aspect of this problem.