Volume 09

Book Review: Kaplan, S. (2008).Children in Genocide: Extreme traumatization and affect regulation, London: International Psychoanalysis Library...

Carol Roderick, M.Ed., Ph.D. In Children in Genocide: Extreme traumatization and affect regulation (2008), Suzanne Kaplan explores the affects and memories of individuals who have survived extreme traumatization during their childhood, specifically Jewish survivors of the Holocaust and teenagers who survived the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. In the introduction, Kaplan explains that she has aimed to “write a text that can, to the greatest extent possible, convey a fraction of the feeling of what it meant to be a child during a genocide” (Kaplan, 2008, p.1). The majority of the book is devoted to presenting an analysis of the oral life histories of the survivors interviewed. The experiences are organized into three themes: 1) perforating, how the psychic shield is has been perforated by intense trauma; 2) space creating, the inner psychic processes through which the persecuted create mental space helps to survive the psychological damage and trauma; and 3) age distorting, a twisting of time that results in participants not feeling their actual chronological age. Age distorting is presented as containing aspects of perforating and space creating, and is linked to reproductive patterns of the survivors. A chronology of genocide events is used to organize these themes, through which the life histories of participants are presented in rich descriptive detail. Kaplan focuses both on the content of the interviews conducted as well as how the memories of the atrocities survived were recounted (the affects). The text provides readers with a glimpse into lived experience of these horrors in a manner that can only be achieved through narrative. The analysis of the life histories is presented as a theory in the final chapter, From conceptual models to a theory. Here, concepts previously presented as life histories are reorganized into a table and then into a diagram. The diagram represents Kaplan’s theory, the affect propellor. The affect propeller is offered as an analytic tool for the affect regulating of extremely traumatized individuals. Trauma linking, an inner psychological consequence of perforating, is contrasted with generational linking, the result of successful space creating. These four concepts are associated with levels of affect regulation, from low to high integration. These levels include affect invading, affect isolating, affect activating, and affect symbolizing. Each level of affect regulation is assigned one blade of the affect propeller diagram. Each blade is subdivided into three levels of linking processes two levels of trauma linking (destructive) and one of generational linking (constructive). The blades rotate around the center of affect regulating. Kaplan claims to have used grounded theory methodology for this research. Grounded theory is a complete package from collection, coding, analyzing, memoing, theoretical sampling, sorting, writing, and using the constant comparative method (Glaser, 1998). The result is a set of carefully grounded, well integrated hypotheses organized around a core category. The theory helps to explain as much of the behavior within the substantive area as possible with as few concepts as possible (Glaser, 1978). Kaplan’s theory falls short of a classic grounded theory in a variety of ways, three of which I will address here. The goal of grounded theory is to uncover a main concern of individuals and how these individuals attempt to resolve or process this concern (Glaser, 1998). This contrasts with qualitative research methods where the goal is description. The author states that the aim of her research was to present the life histories of individuals who have survived genocide and to communicate what it means to be a child during genocide. This aim...

Theory buried under heavy description

Vivian B. Martin Ph.D. Children in Genocide: extreme traumatization and affect regulation, International Psychoanalysis Library, 2008 In journalism when a reporter puts the main news or point of the story deep down in the text, we say she’s buried the lead, the lead being the main point of the story and usually the first paragraph. In Children in Genocide: extreme traumatization and affect regulation, psychoanalyst Suzanne Kaplan buries her theory. Her study of the after effects of trauma among Holocaust survivors who were children during their persecution and survivors of atrocities during the Rwandan atrocities of the 1990s, is filled with highly descriptive material from the many interviews that serve as data. An interesting grounded theory is peeking out from under all the disciplinary discourse and historical background one must read through to get to what grounded theory readers will consider the juicy parts: concepts on affect regulation in trauma survivors. Published by the International Psychoanalysis Library, it’s clear that the author’s work was necessarily grounded in psychoanalytic assumptions and theory for the main audience. Kaplan drew on psychoanalytic theory to help her understand what is going on in the interviews. But the procedures of classic grounded theory helped the author take the mounds of data and create theory. Kaplan did some of the grounded theory analysis as part of a dissertation, later extending the work. Kaplan makes reference to grounded theory’s influence in just a few words on two pages in this book (pg. 13, 206), so grounded theory’s impact is never explicated here. The presentation of her theory suffers for this. Nevertheless, the book provides an opportunity for some discussion of the role of theoretical sensitivity in grounded theory and the challenge of navigating the preconceptions of received theories and models. The book deals with the memories of elderly Holocaust survivors who were children in hiding or concentration camps. Kaplan makes use of visual archival material as well as interviews she conducted. As a comparison group, she draws on interviews people whose trauma is still relatively recent: survivors of the Rwandan crises. By comparing the immense childhood suffering of groups whose persecution is separated by time and culture, Kaplan was able to identify recurring patterns that led to her eventual theoretical model. She states that generational collapse as the “core process.” (As will be noted shortly, she also names other concepts as core processes, making aspects of her presentation unclear). Genocides wipe out families, leaving the survivors with broken links. Kaplan introduces the concept of perforating to describe the tearing away experience, which has many indicators and invades physical and psychic space. The realization that a number of the interviewees chose to forgo reproduction (“because I was a child myself” with the disruption occurred) alerted Kaplan to a continued pattern of generational collapse. The concept pf space creating signifies the mental strategies for survival. She writes that space creating is an attempt to recapture a normal time: “Space creating refers to a psychic room that an individual, as a child, creates according to his or her needs” (p.56). The mental link may be to a hiding place or other space associated with a safer time. In much the same way that classic works such as Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning (1946) outlines the everyday mental strategies people used to survive life in concentration camps, Kaplan presents space creating as a survival strategy that helps people hold on to their humanity and spirit. Space creating is necessary...

Comments on the reviews of Kaplan, S. (2008). Children in genocide: Extreme traumatization and affect regulation. London: International Psychoanalytical Association...

Suzanne Kaplan, Ph.D. My choice of grounded theory as research approach has been made against the background of three factors. The first and foremost is that my research interest evolved when I carried out two interviews with survivors who were children themselves during the Holocaust, i.e. from the data. The information that I obtained gave me a strong sense of urgency, a motivation, to try to understand the major concerns for child survivors, based on their own perspective. I decided to start doctoral studies after many years in clinical practice. My interest thus emerged from the interviews and not from an existing theory. Grounded theory is a method that sticks closely to the empirical and that aims to create theoretical models based on the development of concepts, of relationships between concepts and of theories concerning social and psychological processes from a certain aspect tied to a special context (Glaser, 1978). Secondly, only little research has been devoted to the area of child survivors of genocide. Even if psychodynamic theory was in the back of my head, grounded theory was of immense importance in keeping earlier professional experiences and ‘established’ theories away. Last but not least, I have received many important impulses in connection with Glaser’s lectures and workshops at Stockholm University in 1999 and 2001, respectively. There are some ongoing discussions as to how strict a researcher must be in order to designate his or her research as grounded theory named as ‘classical’ or ‘ideal’. Also Glaser states (1998, p.16), “… partial doing grounded theory by stopping before the package is finished is better than no doing at all”. The pilot study “Child survivors and child bearing” (Kaplan, 2008, Chapter 3) can be seen as a theoretical sketch to which I returned several times during the research process as this was the entry to a hyphotheses that child survivors do not seem to experience themselves being in their chronological age. Thus the code ’age distorting’ emerged. Starrin et al. (1991) stress the importance of theoretical sketches during the course of research work, since these purport to connect the data with the final analysis. Later, the dynamic between the psychological phenomena that I conceptualized as ’perforating’ and ’space creating’ respectively emerged as an explaining connection in the context of genocide. This is what I meant by ”association” in the text, a concept that may be misunderstood. The pilot study, an extended doctoral study on Holocaust child survivors and a post doctoral study in Rwanda have formed the basis for my empirically grounded theory presented in the book Children in Genocide: Extreme traumatization and affect regulation. Through the study in Rwanda I wished to find more data that could be relevant for the emerging theory. I got access to different kinds of data through the similar and different characters of the two contexts, and through the descriptions of old incidents and rather recent incidents. These were two different places and cultures, but maybe similar phenomena, thus also a widening and deepening of data. My working through of the interview material started with an ambition to be open in the face of this material, with a minimum of preconceived notions, and a refusal to describe the psychological phenomena that came forth in terms of illness. “Pattern search is survey modeled as it aggregates incidents like surveys aggregate people. And then the task is to start relating these conceptual patterns to generate a theory using theoretical codes” (Glaser, 1998 p. 31). I was...

Organizational Careers: A forward theory

[ The following paper is extracted from Glaser, B.G. (1968). Organizational careers: A sourcebook for theory. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company. The full text is available through www.sociologypress.com] Barney G. Glaser, Ph.D., Hon. Ph.D. Introduction In general, organizations obtain work from people by offering them some kind of career within their structures. The operation of organizations, therefore, depends on people’s assuming a career orientation toward them. To generate this orientation, organizations distribute rewards, working conditions, and prestige to their members according to career level; thus these benefits are properties of the organizational career. To advance in this career is to receive more or better of all or some of these benefits. Generally speaking, therefore, people work to advance their organizational careers. But also, generally speaking, people do not like to talk about their careers or to be asked about them in everyday conversations with many or unknown people. In this sense, a person’s own organizational career is a sensitive or “taboo topic.” Discussions with others about one’s career occur only under the most private, discreet conditions. As a result, while people may talk abstractly and generally about careers, these discussions are typically based on a combination of the little they know of their own career and much speculation. They often have very little particular or general knowledge based on actual careers. These observations apply also to a large sector or the sociological community, as indicated by a brief perusal of the table of contents of sociological monographs and readers on organizations. The topic of careers is seldom discussed and almost never concertedly focused upon. Several sociologists, however, have written on careers in general in their focus on problems of work and professionals. Many of their discussions, of course, clearly refer to organizational careers, though these sociologists are writing on the general topic of occupational careers. There is a difference between these two topics. An occupational career is a very general category referring to a patterned path of mobility wherever it may take people geographically, organizationally, and socially while following a certain type of work. An organizational career, in contrast, is a specific entity offered by an organization to people working in it, using its services, or buying its goods. Purpose of This Reader Since so much of what we all do is linked with organizations, it is very important to consider an organizational career as a special entity and develop our understanding of it. We hope to achieve this purpose partially by bringing together many articles on careers that fit the category of organizational work careers. This act itself will initiate much general understanding. We also wish to start the generation of a formal, grounded theory of organizational careers by initiating comparative analysis of these articles (Glaser & Strauss, 1967, Part I). In its beginning operation, a comparative analysis for generating theory starts with the general understandings gained by reading about the same problem from the perspective of several different organizational careers. Pursuit of the comparative analysis brings out several other purposes of this reader. For the interested reader, whether sociologist or non-sociologist, this book brings together a very rich body of comparative knowledge, experience, and thought on organizational careers. The general understandings, concepts, and strategies gained by merely reading it will aid the reader in “making it” in his own career. With little information on which to base our decisions, we are continually trying to decide and manage how to move through the organization to some advantage. The comparative analysis...

Navigating the Process of Ethical Approval: A methodological note

Eileen Carey, RNID, BSc. (hons), MSc. Abstract Classic grounded theory (CGT) methodology is a general methodology whereby the researcher aims to develop an emergent conceptual theory from empirical data collected by the researcher during the research study. Gaining ethical approval from relevant ethics committees to access such data is the starting point for processing a CGT study. The adoption of the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (UNESCO, 2005) is an indication of global consensus on the importance of research ethics. There is, however, a wide variation of health research systems across countries and disciplines (Hearnshaw 2004). Institutional Research Boards (IRB) or Research Ethics Committees (REC) have been established in many countries to regulate ethical research ensuring that researchers agree to, and adhere to, specific ethical and methodological conditions prior to ethical approval being granted. Interestingly, both the processes and outcomes through which the methodological aspects pertinent to CGT studies are agreed between the researcher and ethics committee remain largely ambiguous and vague. Therefore, meeting the requirements for ethical approval from ethics committees, while enlisting the CGT methodology as a chosen research approach, can be daunting for novice researchers embarking upon their first CGT study. This article has been written in response to the main challenges encountered by the author from an Irish perspective when seeking ethical approval to undertake a CGT research study with adults with intellectual disabilities. The emphasis on ethical specifications meant that the CGT author had to balance ethical principles and rules with issues of ‘not knowing before one is in a position to know’ and ‘trusting in emergence’. Ethical prescription challenged the emergence inherent within CGT methodology. While acknowledging the need for ethical requirements, this paper is intended in particular to illuminate methodological challenges which may confront novice classic grounded theorists, and offer some insight into the practicalities of balancing the requirements of ethics committees with the requirements of the CGT methodology. The author demonstrates that the meticulous nature of the CGT methodology must not be overshadowed when meeting the requirements of ethics committees. The author seeks to encourage novice classic grounded theorists to approach ethics committees with research proposals which reflect the fundamental principles of CGT methodology while challenging experienced classic grounded theorists researchers to stand firm on ethics committees supporting such proposals. Introduction In Ireland in 2009, there were 26,066 people registered on the National Intellectual Disability Database (NIDD, 2010). Of the above figures 25, 556 people with intellectual disability are in receipt of services, 98% of the total population registered on the NIDD (NIDD, 2010). The current focus of Irish service delivery when working with and for this group of people is Person Centred Planning (PCP). The National Standards for Disability Services define a person centred service as one which is designed, organised and provided around what is important to the person from his or her perspective (NDA, 2004). CGT methodology fits closely with some of the principles of person centred planning in that it focuses on explaining what the main issue of concern for the person is and how he/she continually resolves this concern. Currently, in Ireland, there is a dearth of research representing what is actually happening in the lives of people with intellectual disabilities. CGT methodology is particularly suited to looking at rarely explored phenomena where extant theory would not be appropriate. In such situations, a grounded theory building approach is anticipated to generate novel and accurate insights into the phenomenon under study (Glaser and Strauss, 1967)....

Institutional Review Boards: Perspectives from the United States

Alvita Nathaniel, Ph.D., FNP-BC, FAANP Introduction In the U.S., all research must be approved by an Institutional Review Board (IRB) that evaluates research protocols for the purpose of protecting human subjects. This paper includes a brief history of the development of public policy that guides institutional review boards in the U.S. and commentary on the responsibilities of a grounded theory researcher interested in applying for approval for a research study. An institutional review board (IRB) is a formally constituted committee that approves and monitors biomedical and behavioural research with the purpose of protecting the rights and welfare of research participants. An IRB performs scientific, ethical, and regulatory oversight functions. In the U.S., it is common for grounded theorists to experience frustration with the IRB protocol submission process. Facets of the application process may seem rigid, redundant, and non-applicable. Review board members may not seem to understand or appreciate qualitative methods and delays are common. In addition, a conglomeration of disparate policies and procedures coupled with a variety of types of review boards creates a system that defies description. Nevertheless, a researcher who understands public policy and the responsibilities of institutional review boards can learn to develop research applications that are quickly approved. Created to protect the rights of human subjects, institutional review boards’ policies and procedures flow from ethical principles and two critical 20th century documents. The ethical considerations of harm versus benefit, privacy, confidentiality, respect for persons, truthfulness, and autonomy undergird the protection of human research participants. These principles began to be codified during the Nuremberg trials in response to atrocities committed by Nazi era German physicians in the name of medical research (October 1946 – April 1949). Developed by the panel of international judges overseeing the Nuremberg Military Tribunals and with the assistance of physician consultants (Shuster, 1997), the code served as a set of principles against which the experiments in the concentration camps could be judged (Burkhardt & Nathaniel, 2008). Subsequently, the Nuremberg Code became a blueprint for the Declaration of Helsinki. Addressed primarily to physicians in 1964, the World Medical Assembly developed this declaration as a “statement of ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects….” (World Medical Association, 1964). In the years that followed, governments began to develop regulations based upon ethical principles, the Nuremberg Code, and the Declaration of Helsinki. In 1962, the Kefauver-Harris Bill expanded the principles from the Nuremberg Code by ensuring greater drug safety in the United States. Enacted after thalidomide was found to have caused severe birth defects, the Kefauver-Harris Bill 1) empowered the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban drug experiments on humans until safety tests have been completed on animals, 2) required drug manufacturers and researchers to submit adverse reaction reports to the FDA, 3) required drug advertising to include complete information about risks and benefits, and 4) required informed consent from clinical study participants (First Clinical Research, 2010). In 1966, the U.S. Surgeon General issued a policy statement entitled Clinical Research and Investigation Involving Human Beings in the form of a memorandum to the heads of the institutions conducting research with public health service grants (Sparks, 2002). The policy, which stipulated that all human subject research must be preceded by independent review, was the origin of IRBs in the U.S. (Sparks, 2002). Other public policies followed the Surgeon General’s memorandum. An important longitudinal study began before the Surgeon General’s policy statement and continued for many years afterwards. Every country has profound stories about violations of...