Book for review: iii "Philosophy of Care - New Approaches to Vulnerability, Otherness and Therapy"

Before moving beyond Pierron's 1st chapter (the whole book is very worth reading), there is much that reminds me of institutional care:

https://winwickremembered.org.uk/

Recognition of the sub-standard cockroach 'co-habiting' environment away from the entrance corridor, quality of life, task oriented, de-personalising, stagnant, passive, pervasive sense of hopelessness and helplessness. There was a chink of light. 

As registered mental health student's we were on a crusade. Carrying a torch, lit outside in the community to help open the doors to community care.

 On trips outside, gradually the institutional skin sloughed off, to reveal the person - the individual came alive (even through medication). 

'Bill' had a sense of humour, a lovely smile. He'd had the prospect of another life. So many people there for so long: too long. Potential unrealised?

"To be in contact with the other in care is not to exercise a hold over them." p.16. 

The problem is - within institutions this can be forgotten and lost:

"To suspect a substituting mode of solicitude (cf. Heidegger) of being a highhanded charitable hold over someone invites one to consider the ethical and political fecundity of a solicitude which looks ahead. To think through this alternative would amount to unmasking the mechanisms of domination, whether voluntary and involuntary - naturalisation of roles, masculine domination, organisational violence, etc, - at work in care. Doing so politicizes care, enabling it to overcome that democratic optimism which doesn't want to recognize that violence is part of human history (Merleau-Ponty 1996: 124-125), that violence insinuates^ itself into care relations, and, as such, comes under the sway of what Merleau-Ponty called the 'maleficence of living among many' (maléfice de la vie à plusieurs)." p.16. 

^The need to be aware of subtle abuse? 

My notes for chapter 2 'From an Anthropology of Vulnerability to the Ethics of Care' by João Maria André, reflects a lot on relationality, and maps which I've drawn: "(identity is always dialogical identity)" and "how we map ourselves". Again this helps my (other) current reading and draft work. There's time here, plus "there is no such thing as abstract vulnerability - vulnerability is necessarily concrete". p.25. I don't think André mentions future generations but I've added a note; 'I-we' too. There's a triple axis, and more encouragement as Tronto and Gilligan feature. Heidegger's reference to Hyginus' Fable 220 (in which Care moulds man out of clay, Jove grants it spirit, and Earth gives him body, with Care being assigned the task of keeping him alive." (Gaia?) p.26.

As in chapter 1, and previously reviewed text 'General Psychotherapy', the term 'constellation' appears. In chapter 2 it is expanded (with reference to Corine Pelluchon); leading us to "appreciation of the world, and self-care as care for the world" p.29. So, planetary health too. With Hodges' model purposed (1/4) to help bridge the theory - practice gap; this perennial problem exhibits existential relevance here (p.27). We by-passed biopolitics on page 17, but  the interrelation of psychosocial and other examples informs the text (philosophy). As I scribbled, Hodges' model is simultaneously a space for resonance and unconditional positive regard (pp.30-31). Authors inevitably find themselves deliberating upon dualisms, Descartes of course, plus Spinoza and others. Entralgo is nails the duality: "the aim of caring is to lead the I from being 'a body that says I' to a learning how to progressively become, and define itself as, 'a body that says we'". p.35.

Braga, J. & Santiago de Carvalho, M. (Eds.), Philosophy of care: New approaches to vulnerability, otherness therapy. Springer. 

Many thanks again to Springer for my copy.

Individual

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      INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES                   

HUMANISTIC  --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

 SOCIOLOGY  :    POLITICAL 

|

Group

relational 'I' - mind  individual vulnerability intention affection - as movement	climate change 'I' - body maps - cartography Planetary Health action - movement
We context equity - equality social vulnerability	We policy bio-POLITICS accountability of government(s)

See also:
body & soul - Book: Philosophy of care: New approaches to vulnerability, otherness therapy

Book for review: ii "Philosophy of Care - New Approaches to Vulnerability, Otherness and Therapy"

"Being Horizontal: Vulnerability, Interdependence and Resistance" c/o Confabulations

The title of this event last week struck a cord ...

For those who missed "Being Horizontal: Vulnerability, Interdependence and Resistance" last week - which touched on topics as diverse as austerity, invisibility, repetition and rhythm - a recording of the live event is available until 24th February: https://t.co/WnGFdmkMqF

— Confabulations (@con_fabulations) February 13, 2022

 

From the website with some additions:

 

"Being Horizontal: Vulnerability, Interdependence and Resistance"

  Self - INDIVIDUAL - Person

|

 INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC -----------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

|

Community - Group - Population

sleep* ('in dreams') (found) un-consciousness (beware - risk?) intent non-verbal psychoanalysis patient personal vulnerability	gravity collapse position - posture horizontal - vertical human body, form 3D mobility, movement above - below look up/down angle - inclination clinical positions 'other' positions - sex birth, rest, deceased reclined nude "recline -
The 'games that people play', especially those seeking / in power. social customs dance - history - culture social hierarchies	is often associated with feminised and/or racialised powerlessness." fallen soldier (civilian?) choice*: of position look up/down to "Deliberately assuming a horizontal position in front of others can also, as the complex works grouped in this project reveal, challenge, subvert, and politicise dynamics of vulnerability and power."

 

Book for review: iv "Philosophy of Care - New Approaches to Vulnerability, Otherness and Therapy"

Don't worry this is not a chapter-by-chapter review. Having cast the stone that is Hodges' model we will skip a few times.

The use of footnotes varies from chapter to chapter. They inform the text, in several instances being quite illuminating. Beside the footnote (1/3 of a page) I noted - 'baby, cacophony, perception - brain - not overwhelmed but can't ignore' (p.41). Stoicism is the focus in chapter 3; perception, fields, manifold, circles of care, self, time, situation! We have field, subfields, domains.

"Perception is always about a diagnosis of the situation in which the living being finds itself. ...

... perception is always about finding one's "whereabouts" or one's "location" in life's journey." p.42.

On the features of perception, 4/4: "might be termed the breadth or width of the perceptual field." p.42. 

"As pointed out above, all perception has the structure of a compact, continuous, and uninterrupted manifold. In other words, it forms what we have termed a field. But the perceptual field  could contain nothing but the "bare bones" of "inert" qualia, (a manifold of simple qualities impinging themselves upon the perceiver)." p.42. 

The author, Jorge de Carvalho continues another view of qualities that take place in "each given moment". This is the challenge of salience, what is significant? How to 'read' in care: the spoken, the unspoken? 

Developing notes on Hodges' model as a mathematical object, Hodges' model in its basic form as a template, I'm proposing as an empty set. The structure of Hodges' model, its two axes instantiate the "bare bones". In programming/instruction terms ... Hodges' model provides INITIALISATION. A reset. This can act as a prompt for learners to acknowledge the person - the other and consider 'unconditional positive regard'. There's polarity too (p.46) and each living being lives in its own global field, in its own global 'map' - in its own geography" (p.49). Physical geography and the change 'there' is giving rise to cogeographical (a neologism?) disruption - eco-anxiety and climate-angst. 

Psycho-geography: the polarity of our times?

Previously: NHS data breaches: the 'cogeography' of who and where?

Another note, amongst Hierocles' circles is 'reflex arc'. So many feedback loops, cascades to worry about. 

As Jorge de Carvalho writes: 'what we are talking about is a very complex field of fields. ... described both as a compass rose and as a framework of concentric circles" (p.51). [There's a relay race, a torch relay in ancient terms p.54. Care is the object that is passed on. I've a dual-shaped baton to pass on.]

Care is more than perception (p.52), care presupposes a degree of activity or action. I like the acknowledgement of 'vigilant waiting' too. For me this draws in the importance of communication; Watzlawick's Five Axioms of Communication. After all, what happens to all these perceptions? There's vulnerability, fragility and care for the sheer existence and the whole content of a given being (p.56). Jorge de Carvalho, deploys a series of numbered points which helps reading. Page 60's footnote had me drawing circles, unborn at the centre: as one. But the collective unborn in another rough circle. Eachtimeness: I like this Stoic formulation through circles. Fourthly, we arrive at pure care. I'm still pondering on ".. there is no absolute either/or dichotomy between care and its opposite" (p.61). Integration is also here, an issue for modern times, a legacy problem from ancient times?

Luis Mendes's chapter I must read again. The abstract includes:

"Three fundamental aspects will be identified: (a) the need to consider self-existence from a global point of view; (b) the need for an axis for that life-view; (c) the need for correspondence between self-existence and life-view. Apparently, this structure is formal and arbitrary. Secondly, I will analyse the structure of despair. Three fundamental aspects will be analysed: (α) the requirement for a life-view which can be applied to the totality of subjective existence; (β) the requirement for an unconditioned instance of meaning; (γ) the requirement for the exclusion of the possibility of failure." p.79.

I'm sure Kierkegaard has featured in Philosophy Now, and The Philosophers' Magazine. Mendes' focus is arbitrariness. The hypothesis is well explained (p.80) structure of care. There's much for me here: care, life-view (health career - life chances), "a global understanding maps the world" (p.81), existential map, fulfilment, meaning (of course!). Reading -

"So, a life-view needs to be stabilized, to have unity. It needs an instance that works as an axis and as a point of support. We need something to support our life" (p.83).

I could have jumped up, waved and shouted "OVER HERE!" Would Kierkegaard have been pleased? Perhaps I should have read Kierkegaard, not Michel Serres (please see bibliography in the sidebar)? Still time (fingers x'd); especially if there's any interest in the form of co-author(s)? Care is full of ideals. Mendes through Kierkegaard gives my  project encouragement: "Truth is to live for an idea." p.84. Not necessarily truth but the idealism in care, including identity. It is helpful in care to be reminded of the ideal as a calling, hence motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic) is still key. If you're intrinsically motivated, devoted to your chosen vocation, is your pay that important - to the government/organisation that employs you? A shame this is so often lost to political leaders; who, given their chosen vocation, exhibit a markedly short memory.

Braga, J. & Santiago de Carvalho, M. (Eds.), (2021) Philosophy of care: New approaches to vulnerability, otherness therapy. Springer. 

Many thanks again to Springer for my copy, especially given a follow-up request, well post-publication date.

Individual

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      INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES                   

HUMANISTIC  --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

 SOCIOLOGY  :    POLITICAL 

|

Group

personal courage relational - (emotional) care despair - fulfilment motivation ideals	unity - stability maps compass - orientation models - frameworks geography
life as a whole society - community of practice external validation extrnisic motivation	sustainable development goals policy accountability failure (courage here - political convictions?)

See also:

body & soul - Book: Philosophy of care: New approaches to vulnerability, otherness therapy

Book for review: ii "Philosophy of Care - New Approaches to Vulnerability, Otherness and Therapy"

Book for review: iii "Philosophy of Care - New Approaches to Vulnerability, Otherness and Therapy"

Vulnerability: In Art and Care (Ack: Benedict Rubbra)

individual
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INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic --------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
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group

'Vulnerability' by Benedict Rubbra (with permission)

Last weekend I helped my eldest son with some driving SW to Exeter in Devon. While he disappeared to help make a couple's wedding day special (which I understand it was), I spent Saturday morning at Royal Albert Memorial Museum.^*

Serendipity soon arrived as one of the exhibitions was Benedict Rubbra: Eye to Image. I'm very grateful to the artist for being able to display 'Vulnerability' to help illustrate Hodges' model, taking the title literally here; that is, vulnerability within the mental health context plus vulnerable people in society and care.

I had never heard of Mr Rubbra, but I'm glad that I now know not just his work, but his way of working. The video 2/4 below explains the artist's technique:

There are actually several paintings that I could relate to h2cm and travels:

Singing Blackbird

A Wave in Summer

Tranquility
Pantheon (I waited for a plane...)

work that references Fra Angelico

Singing Blackbird and A Wave in Summer are not exhibited at RAMM but are illustrated in: 

Benedict Rubbra: point of balance || Jenny Pery

I've some new draft notes introducing Hodges' model:

The idealised nature of the model is obvious even upon brief examination. How are we intended to navigate the model's axes? Are both similar in this respect? Taking the individual-group axis first, we can see where the idealisation of person-centred care might be located. This is not just by virtue of labelling ('individual'), but is associated with the knowledge that it invites around it. The two upper domains of interpersonal and sciences represent the two forms of nursing care upon which all nursing is based; and around which a parity of esteem debate still rages (Millard and Wessely, 2014). These are mental healthcare (interpersonal) and physical care (the sciences). 

Within these domains we can conceptualise the various activities that make up being human and doing nursing. 

In addition the model as a whole can also be considered, according to need, as being found within a spiritual domain.


Millard, C., Wessely, S., (2014) Parity of esteem between mental and physical health. BMJ 349, g6821–g6821. doi:10.1136/bmj.g6821

*I did my general nurse training at Royal Albert Edward Infirmary - Wigan.

The 8th International Conference on Law Enforcement & Public Health

Vulnerability, policing and public health

6 - 9 September 2026
University of Leeds, UK

About the Conference

The Global Law Enforcement and Public Health Association (GLEPHA) and the ESRC Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre will jointly host the 8th International Law Enforcement and Public Health Conference, LEPH2026 in Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK from 6-9 September 2026.

Following highly successful conferences in North America, Africa and Europe, the 2026 global event in Leeds presents a unique opportunity to spotlight global research and world-leading practice across law enforcement and public health. The 2026 overarching theme will be vulnerability, policing and public health.

The conference will be open to law enforcement and public health agencies, national and local governments, relevant research bodies, academic institutes, policy makers as well as the commercial sector and other partner organisations. Bringing these diverse communities and perspectives together, the conference presents an ideal space for sharing and learning about new approaches, instigating and developing real change in practice, based on the best available evidence internationally.

Full details - conference website ...

My source: Culling followers on Twitter '0 posts', last post years ago ...X may have been accepted legally as a signature, but it might denote injury, illness, or illiteracy. Twitter diehards really are in a 'graveyard'. And yet, amidst the tombstones, I found a POLITICAL care domain gem in @LEPH2026, which led me to @GLEPHAssoc. I will follow when allowed.

Previously: 'law' : 'vulnerability' : 'public health'

Book for review: i "Philosophy of Care - New Approaches to Vulnerability, Otherness and Therapy"

Among the questions that research might answer regards Hodges' model I have in mind:

• At what age can Hodges' model be introduced in the general curriculum?
• Is there consistency in how people view/interpret and apply Hodges' model?
• How simple is it (or complex)?
• Is it a meta-model?
• How can Hodges' model relate to the spiritual?

My B.A.(Joint Hons) is in Philosophy and Computer Science, so the 'Philosophy of Nursing' is a preoccupation. In January 2022 I discovered:

J. Braga & M. Santiago de Carvalho (Eds.), Philosophy of care: New approaches to vulnerability, otherness therapy. Springer.

I requested a copy but ever distracted did not register any further action beyond acknowledgement and being forwarded. Discovering I'd missed this, I picked it up again. I must admit two years ago I was expecting a book with 'care' in the nursing, medicine, health context. Revisiting the 'blurb' I saw that this is not the full picture. Last year and this however drawn to conferences that combine the environment and religion this book really did fit the bill. Requesting a 'review copy' so late in the publishing cycle presents a challenge. 

Hodges' model provides a long-tail, surely a defining property of a lifelong learning resource? This plus a history of cataract surgery brought a print copy and many thanks to Daniela Rohrmann and team. I've now reached Part V, chapter 19 and 'medical care'.

The book's physical quality (printed hardcopy) is up to Springer's usual high quality standard. The fact that much of the contents have, I believe, been translated appears to show at times, in one chapter especially, with missing, or additional words. Perhaps this also reflects proof reading, an important part of production I would have thought (and still best not left to AI)? The font and print size is very readable and the format and design - architecture - of headings and layout are inviting and engage the reader. There are Any problems with grammar, flow were readily overcome. 

In meeting this text I oscillated in expectation - philosopher of care, as in the clinical context; and then the spiritual, pastoral. Which is it? The emphasis is on the latter with the final part focussed more on medicine. The book has extended my appreciation of 'care' in the wider sense, it is rewarding and well-worth reading.

"Finally, the fifth part – Care and Therapy – examines issues relevant to medical

care. This volume would be remiss if it did not take therapeutic care into account.

Practical and theoretical knowledge mutually influence each other. This highly specialized

domain imparts a significant amount of the status that care is given in our

daily lives. Thus, in this last part, the previous themes of otherness and ipseity converge

systematically. Through the theoretical emphasis that is placed on the issue of

suffering – whether it concerns physical illnesses or those of the psychological and

psychiatric realm – the authors of these chapters show us the urgency of thinking

about therapeutic care practices in the light of a theory of intersubjectivity, where

the disease itself and its cure are understood within the communication processes

and not only as exclusively technical-scientific processes." p.vii. (Introduction).

Don't worry I'm not going through each chapter, but Chapter 1 is a fascinating read, the title 'Care: A New Arrival in the History of Philosophy?' https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-75478-5_1 presented an immediate challenge. For me, love, compassion, philosophy - as the love of wisdom, knowledge, what it is be, think, exist, the human condition and more all imply 'care' including care of thought and argument. I'm probably begging the question and I realise the Peirron's purpose is more specific, nuanced. I'm reassured though as care is defined by three criteria:

"(a) care is contextual and anti-essentialist... The characterization of care requires a great deal of attention to the precise details of each situation (Tronto, 2012: 35)."

"(b) care is relational and accepts that human beings , other beings, and the environment are interdependent  (Tronto, 2012: 32)."

"(c) In human societies which would like to assume the equal value of all human life, care needs to be democratic and inclusive  (Tronto, 2012: 36)." p.6.

I must read Tronto - who work has elevated vulnerability as flagship concept of her politics of care (Tronto, 2009) (p.8); 'dialectical' too (p.10). The book is full of many leads, the writing scholarly and authoritative.

With some studies in education and philosophy the pragmatic school of thought quickly surfaces. I see Hodges' model as a pragmatic solution. In addition to the 'pragmatics of care', Peirron opens the door even further in respect of 'care':

"Giving through care involves much more than what is described in the interactional framework of exchanges characteristic of homo economicus (economical animal) paradigm. Giving is not exchanging because care involves so much more than just the provision of a service. Care, as understood as a politically relevant anthropological position, is thus very different from a Hobbes-inspired anthropology which supposes a social epistemology based on a an atomistic approach to individuals. It provides a fundamental interpretation of our social intelligence by thinking it, starting from a relational anthropology within which the concept of vulnerability plays, as we will see, a strategic role. A pathetics of care rethinks the balance between reason and feeling, argument and emotion in the spirit of the tradition of Scottish philosophy, in order to allow a "different voice" to be heard in the analysis, the description, and the support of the human world." p.7. 

The pathetic view of care requires a language, methods, aesthetics that can manage 'the singularity of an enduring life history' (p.10). This equates for me with the health career in Hodges' model.

As usual below I've mapped some concepts to the domains of Hodges' model. I will add to this post too.

Individual

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      INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES                   

HUMANISTIC  --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

 SOCIOLOGY  :    POLITICAL 

|

Group

contextual anti-essentialist relational situated	context human being, other being  and environment - interdependent
context interdependence care in human societies  equality within human societies	context situated human societies are democratic and inclusive

See also:
body & soul - Book: Philosophy of care: New approaches to vulnerability, otherness therapy

Intima - Creativity in a Time of Crisis: Rethinking Vulnerability in Response to Care and Social Justice

individual

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INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ----------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

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group - population

HERO?	HERO?
HERO?	© COVID Hero by Brandon Mogrovejo Fall 2020 Intima

 

Welcome to the Fall 2020

Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine

We invite you to explore the issue.

 

In much the same way narrative medicine practitioners invite their patients to become storytellers, vulnerably disclosing their illnesses, we invited contributors to engage in their own acts of vulnerability to submit their poetry, art, media, fiction, nonfiction, Field Note, and academic pieces to the Fall 2020 issue of Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine.

More specifically, we invited submissions around the theme: Creativity in a Time of Crisis: Rethinking Vulnerability in Response to Care and Social Justice. Pen to paper, brushes to canvas, and strokes to the keyboard produced a wealth of submissions, many of which hearkened the specialized theme, to narrate the challenging public health and racial unrest that marred 2020. Whether the invitation arrived with much anticipation or as a surprise, we were heartened at the warm response we received and the quality of work we accepted for publication.

The pieces comprising the Fall 2020 issue are varied yet many evoke the images of 2020 as you read stanzas in a poem, gaze onto art, or pour over lines of narrated personal experience. Go to theintima.org to dip into the Fall journal today.

 

My source: Intima - mail list.

London: 'The Weight of Being: Vulnerability, Resilience and Mental Health in Art'

In London currently, 20th - 23rd I was on my way to Bankside Gallery and walking by Temple Place, #2 to be precise, on a board outside I read:

'The Weight of Being: Vulnerability, Resilience and Mental Health in Art'

Taking in the mental health and illness of artists, gender, domesticity, industrial and political struggle, COVID, and Gaza I spent and enjoyed a two hour detour. The building is also amazing. The exhibition is on until 19 April 2026, closed on Monday's and today 21st February. Before I share some text from their website, the interior of the building was a 'virtual' experience, but without the technology. Helpfully, the exhibition is spread across several rooms.

'Curated by Angela Thomas, this new exhibition explores artistic expression and mental health. Through depictions of deeply personal and collective experiences, it examines the powerful ways in which artists capture vulnerability, resilience, and their search for solace.

Including the work of a diverse range of twentieth century and contemporary artists and their varying perspectives, The Weight of Being showcases how artists have captured the psychological and emotional impact of societal pressures, resilience in the face of adversity, and existential uncertainty.

Alongside dozens of artworks drawn from galleries and collections across the UK, the portraits, landscapes, and figurative studies of the lesser-known artist John Wilson McCracken (1936–1982) are woven throughout. Denied the opportunity to return to the Slade School of Art following a period of hospitalisation for mental health reasons, McCracken spent much of his career in Hartlepool, producing work that reflects a profound sensitivity to the emotional and social pressures of his time. Shaped by personal and collective struggles, his art offers a deeply human perspective on the exhibition’s themes, revealing how external forces imprint themselves on the mind, body, and creative spirit.' Continued . . .

The building as a whole - Two Temple Place is owned and run by a registered charity, the Bulldog Trust. 

I will definitely (hopefully!) visit again, on the way or returning from the South Bank of the Thames. The video below presents key aspects of the building's amazing interior and history:

Book for review: ii "Philosophy of Care - New Approaches to Vulnerability, Otherness and Therapy"

What I like here is being drawn (rescued then!) from the torrent that is the near reaches of the 

    bit, byte ... data, information, knowledge, wisdom

continuum, to its latter realm. The forever incomplete project of wisdom in 'care':

"Care, which is prior to all curing, identifies a fundamental availableness that has not yet been appropriated in the expert and technical discourses of care specialists." p.9.

This goes back to Pierron's 1st chapter focus upon 'Care: A New Arrival in the History of Philosophy'?

J. Braga & M. Santiago de Carvalho (Eds.), Philosophy of care: New approaches to vulnerability, otherness therapy. Springer.

A real gift for me (Hodges' model) is:

"Narration .. In opposition to the mathematization of the world, which reduces human problems to theoretical questions and to a universalized and rational formulation of moral dilemmas, the philosophies of care present a conflict of interpretations which deconstructs official and stereotyped narratives. Amy (or the voice of care) does not conceive a dilemma as a mathematical problem but rather as a narration of human relations, whose effects extends over time. (Gilligan 2008: 53)." p.13.

In addition to Tronto "Care is <<a species of activity that includes everything we do to maintain, contain, and repair our 'world' so that we can live in it as well as possible. That world includes our bodies, ourselves, and our environment>> (Tronto 2009: 143)." p.15. (see i) - I must add Gilligan to the list. 

In this weekend's FT, there's an item about the sorry state of the UK's statistical infrastructure (a post will follow, and mention of another book). I remember* Derek Hoy (RIP) doing a presentation about using data, and nursing informatics to make nursing visible. I wonder how he would make sense of the contrast between nursing whilst in COVID and post?

"Gilligan puts forward a distinction between a feminine ethics of care, which makes use of the idea of the natural solicitude of women by associating self-sacrifice and concern for others, and a feminist ethic of care, thought of as a critical approach that brings to light the mechanisms which favour the "invisibilisation" of care. The latter makes it possible to analyse the ways in which we lose the capacity to care for the other when relations of mutual caring are damaged." p.14. 

As usual below I've mapped some concepts to the domains of Hodges' model. 

Many thanks again to Springer for my copy.

Please note, also - as usual I am trapped in chapter 1! :-)

Individual

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      INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES                   

HUMANISTIC  --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

 SOCIOLOGY  :    POLITICAL 

|

Group

"Amy - voice of care" relational situated	data, information, informatics visibility statistical infrastructure
context equity - equality social justice	context feminism data - reporting accountability of government(s)

See also:
body & soul - Book: Philosophy of care: New approaches to vulnerability, otherness therapy

*https://hodges-model.blogspot.com/2010/08/drupal-musings-12-semantic-web-icnp.html

body & soul - Book: Philosophy of care: New approaches to vulnerability, otherness therapy

Near the end now of Braga & Carvalho's (2021) Philosophy of care on page 318 I came across:

"When we come up against the demon of acedia, then with tears let us divide the soul and have one part offer consolation and other receive consolation. (Pr. 27)."

Individual

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      INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC  --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

 SOCIOLOGY  :    POLITICAL 

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Group

soul	body

- and a footnote (42):

"The generally accepted treatment for depression, with or without pharmaceutical intervention, is gentleness. Eat well, avoid stress, do not feel guilty; be kind to yourself, seek quiet but real amusement, rest a lot. But such a regime would find little sympathy with the spiritual directors of those afflicted with accidie. The classic cure for accidie is penance, a strict 'rule' of life, self-discipline and hard work" (Maitland, 2008: 113).

Maitland, Sara. 2008. A Book of Silence. London: Granta.

Interesting, the similarity between afflicted and affected?

A lot more to follow ...

Carvalho, C.A.S. Acedia and Its Care. In J. Braga & M. Santiago de Carvalho (Eds.), Philosophy of care: New approaches to vulnerability, otherness therapy. Springer. pp.297-323.

Abbrev. (Pr. 27) Evagrius of Pontus. 1971. Praktikos. ...

With thanks to Springer for hard copy - helps greatly. 👀

Paper: Geopolitical factors and mental health I [mapped to h2cm]

" ... we propose that mental health must be seen as a key strategic goal of foreign policy and be used as a measure of success of the foreign aid to ensure that individual people with mental illness are guaranteed a role and support in the civil society and their needs – clinical or social – do not get swept under the carpet. To this end, we examine some key statistics and to address the mental health needs of those worst placed, we propose an index – the Compassion, Action, Pragmatism and Evidence (CAPE) Vulnerability Index – that identifies the most vulnerable communities so that international aid may be more appropriately targeted, possibly ‘ring fenced’ making mental health a strategic building block of foreign policy." p.779.

individual

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INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ----------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

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group

wither mental health in relief, shorter life compared with general population,  poverty including  As a child As an adult Vicious cycle 1: Disaster experiences - mental health Traumatic Stress Disorder**

Natural & man-made disasters, health crises, e.g. Ebola, Conflict, War Climate warming Humanitarian intervention: Emphasis on physical survival and physical health Statistics: globally Proposed index: the Compassion, Action, Pragmatism and Evidence (CAPE) Vulnerability Index – that identifies the most vulnerable communities

Vicious cycle 1: [**Intergenerational transmission of stress and trauma - Epigenetics, social memory]  Social upheaval, migration and displacement mental illnesses assoc with social failures such as poor parenting, school failure, domestic violence and toxic stress, impacted prospects on earning a living, stigma social exclusion Social Determinants of Health Displacement refugees, poverty, women, children,  trafficking, rape

Foreign Policy Relief: mental illness = denial of - human rights, vote, marriage, inheritance, make a will Vicious cycle 2: corruption - inequality sequestration of assets crime, law & order Disaster ('declaration') Mental health problems cost the world some US$2.5 trillion per year  (US$16.1 trillion by 2030) Foreign aid & assistance Foreign policy Populism

Persaud, A. et al. (2018) Geopolitical factors and mental health I. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 64(8) 778–785. DOI: 10.1177/0020764018808548
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0020764018808548?journalCode=ispa&

n.b. I have added epigenetics and the intergenerational transmission of stress and trauma.

Book review: ii Critical Mental Health Nursing: observations from the inside

Following on from Part i

In fairly recent studies at Lancaster University (2014-2016) autoethnography was notable by its presence. Given the importance of reflection in mental health theory and practice and the self-reflective approach of autoethnography and its qualitative, objective - subjective focus it is not surprising that several chapters adopt autoethnography. From Wikipedia:

Autoethnography differs from ethnography, a social research method employed by anthropologists and sociologists, in that autoethnography embraces and foregrounds the researcher's subjectivity rather than attempting to limit it, as in empirical research. While ethnography tends to be understood as a qualitative method in the social sciences that describes human social phenomena based on fieldwork, autoethnographers are themselves the primary participant/subject of the research in the process of writing personal stories and narratives. Autoethnography "as a form of ethnography," Ellis (2004) writes, is "part auto or self and part ethno or culture" (p. 31) and "something different from both of them, greater than its parts" (p. 32). In other words, as Ellingson and Ellis (2008) put it, "whether we call a work an autoethnography or an ethnography depends as much on the claims made by authors as anything else" (p. 449). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoethnography

Gadsby's chapter 1 "Nursing violence, nursing violence" starts in this research vein. The title is quite an affront to many nurses. These two words do not mix, violence an abomination, antithetical and counter to all that 'nursing' should represent. This is in part why 'care scandals' are so shocking given the vulnerability of those affected and impacted for years to come. Gadsby points straight to the challenge:

"I do not like to say, as  some critics do, that reforms of mental health nursing is impossible; I think of good moments and good colleagues and feel it betrays them. I worry that this chapter will feel that way too." p.14.

There no better learning than when your assumptions are turned on their head; you are forced and can see for that instant the other side of the coin, even if, like an optical illusion it snaps-back. Gadsby presents three conversations. Inevitably in conversations there is the verbatim transcript (as if recorded audio-video), then there is our account of what was said and then what is recorded on paper or in the electronic record. Jonathan Gadsby points out that he was selective in his accounts and this is a prime judgement for mental health nurses. What is pertinent is looking at this from the patient's^* perspective. The complexity of his (John) mind was likely to be interpreted as illness, and this presages coercion and loss of his future.

"He took care of their (mhn's) mental state. I have come to believe that this is common; our simplistic stories leave our service users having to channel their real lives into fairly useless false binaries and sanitised, dishonest versions of their actual experiences, in order to gain or retain any power. p.15.

Rereading the section for this review on 'John' I was surprised it was so short. Reading this was like revisiting several clients of old. 'Old' bears specific mention as some of the situations used in the book, are quite dated - John refers back to 2004. The lessons and insights are still salutary. In exploring 'violence' the chapter starts by explaining debt violence. It is 'social inclusion' in practice (and an appeal to and for justice?) to see this, considering austerity and campaigns stressing the links (ties) between financial vulnerability and mental illness. On 'nursing violence', Gadsby discusses three areas: a few bad apples, 'genre violence' and the world is violent.

My ward experience as a charge nurse was brief 1982-1985, so I have been removed from the 'frontline' of mh services. Without being ageist I've been twice-removed in working with older adults. Since becoming a Community Psychiatric Nurse in 1985 if the narrative had been wholly positive: the funding, policy, education ... what would the experience for patients, staff and carers? If mhn could ask itself the miracle question of solution focussed therapy, what would our history, present, future be like?

Some of Gadsby's points are shocking and reveal the experiential fact of the few bad apples. There is an overlap here with Nikki Marfleet, a speaker at this past week's Health and Justice Summit. @TheLRH stressed the need for assuring that both good and difficult conversations with staff take place. As a student nurse and newly qualified nurse you recall wondering who you were to work with next shift: and not just management-wise. It was not necessarily the 'who' you would be working with, as the 'attitude'. This is a fact of life within many occupations, but in mental health the impact can be literally that. Nikki noted that the difficult conversations can be positive as well as challenging behaviours and attitudes as the desired team culture is built. The bottom line though on the tenor of the difficult conversation is can you, do you, really want to keep that bad apple? I have seen situations were the approach was, if continued, provocative and not deescalating. We have all met them, the individuals, who, even after giving them the benefit of doubt, you are left wondering why are you still here (and somewhere quiet you tell them).

The Recovery Star (Triangle updated) saw Gadsby as a life-coach being an early adopter. 'Recovery' features markedly in the book. The figure and description of Smith's work - 'The structural model of genre'. There are practical insights here, especially for new student nurse. As Gadsby writes of, "trying to change the system from within.", I smiled ruefully. I used to feel sympathy, oops sorry! empathy, for the patients on the Long Stay ward [37A] and others. I had a distinct sense that as a new group of students started, the patients rolled their eyes (and not in some oculargyric crisis*) but out of their patience (yes, the patient's patience) being tested to maximum. As the students set-to to change the behaviour pattern of some key individuals (were they viewed as such?). They slept late, smoked too much, might palm - pretend to swallow their medication, they spent too much time on their beds, their personal hygiene was poor. They were certainly 'key' as subjects for our student assessments; yes, me too.

In my reading, Gadsby alludes to the rationale by which people are attracted to mental health nursing (p.22). Perhaps stories have a formative role to play? [At risk of a slight digression] Recently I've been really surprised by the psychological and medical content of TV programmes I was watching from age 10-11. Star Trek's "Dagger of the Mind" for example; UFO with "Sub-Smash" and "The Man Who Came Back" and many others (in contrast to many peers at the time I only saw "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" in the 80s).

If that is (was) about 'future nurses' Gadbsby refers to Burstow's institutional ethnography, and one "notion of how psychiatry is perpetually on the cusp of a humane scientific breakthrough" (p.23) Critically, this is not Star Trek, but how Burstow explains the violence of the present in terms of time. Gadsby teaches psychiatrists too and this book has lessons for the whole 'multidisciplinary team'. He points out how models of care as we deliberate on 'caring about' versus 'caring for'.

Hodges' model is a 'health career' model, not a model of care, but it can help facilitate all forms of care.

Gadsby and other authors here identify many polarities: care and control, advocacy and correction. In the late 1970s and 1980s we were not just nurses, but 'patient advocate'. The nurse literature and rising profile of human rights called this into question. In mental health though for some formal meetings you may struggle to have an independent advocate present (is that time playing with us again - temporal violence of however many hours, days, months?).

individual

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INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ----------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

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group

The person - individual - self
"proximal experiences"	"over the power horizon" the STATE "distal power"

Gadsby correctly anticipates that this account of experiences, thought and conclusions may be read as damning. The book as whole provokes a real double-bind. The violence is a reality (yes, look at the World, p.25) and so often violence is the news^#. So too, is the compassion to effect (constant) change; even as the medication is administered in the sacrifice zones (pp.27-28).

Gadsby writes: "We frequently work within models that fail to make sense of the connections between inner and outer experience, past, present and future..." (p.25).

Yes, don't we just (whether accidentally or not).

Difficult as this is, this text is vital reading for CMHNs, nurse students and a much wider audience.

More to follow - with possible additions^# here...

^*Seriously, I am grateful to say I have not witnessed this in my 41 year career.


Parts iii

Part iv

Bull, P., Gadsby, J., Williams, S. (Eds.) (2018) Critical Mental Health Nursing: observations from the inside, Monmouth: PCCS Books. ISBN 9781910919408

"I'd like to Teach the World to Sing ..."

 

INDIVIDUAL

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     INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

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GROUP

intelligence

ARTIFICIAL

Peoples Communities Societies Peace

"Joseph Votel, a recently retired head of the Pentagon's Central Command, said last year he was struck by how Israeli forces mounting strikes in Gaza in May had been integrating AI into their operations and by "the impact that is having on their targeting cycles". He says Israel is using AI to generate a large range of potential targets for surveillance to whittle down. This lets its forces "disrupt enemy attacks without the need for a lengthy development period or a longer campaign."  America's armed forces, helped by Palantir (an AI company which, like Anduril, takes its name from "The Lord of the Rings") and other contractors, is trying to build such technology into a system which can narrow down a huge range of potential targets and pass information about them freely to where it is most needed. Given the finite capacity of communication systems, not to mention the vulnerability, this requires that an increasing amount of processing be done "on the edge" - that is, on the platform carrying the sensor.  In 2016 a Pentagon project called Maven started trying to address the "lots of surveillance but not much to show for it" problem identified by General Ryan. The idea was to automate the identification of people and objects in the petabytes of video footage sent back by surveillance drones. It ended up producing software efficient enough to run on the drones themselves. In Scarlet Dragon, a recent-AI focused American exercise in which a wide range of systems were used to comb a large area for a small target, things were greatly speeded up by allowing satellites to provide estimates of where a target might be in a compact format readable by another sensor or a targeting system, rather than transmitting high-definition pictures of the sort humans look at.  In a world where bandwidth is often the biggest constraint such parsimony is a boon. It speeds up kill chains while reducing vulnerability to jamming. At the same time, it puts a greater burden on the automated parts of the system to provide reliable synopses of what they see, which is a worry for people keen to ensure that fully informed and responsible human beings stay on top of all decisions about where and when to blow things up." p.9.

 Signals from Noise. Heads in the clouds. The Economist Technology Quarterly, Defence technology, Hide and seek. January 29th 2022. 442: 9281. pp. 9-10.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR_7Swtv0XM

'Health' is a Many-Splendoured Thing c/o BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4 - Money Box Live: Rental Health Special

 INDIVIDUAL
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 INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

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GROUP

Mental health, Well-being Quality of Life Lived experience Anxiety, Stress, Distress Debt fear Individual vulnerability	Life in Cities Built environment - Urbanisation Human Geographies (Social) Housing Air Pollution, Repair, Damp, Mould, Noise Access to Green S pac es Land-
Social Housing Community - Family, Social cohesion Social inclusion - Social justice Group - Population vulnerability Socio-Economic - Determinants of Health Social poverty 'Living' Wage Good/Bad Tenants/Landlords?	-Lords

Money Box

"Felicity Hannah and Winifred Robinson take questions on the legal rights of renters with experts Jasmine Basran from the housing and homelessness charity Crisis and Tessa Shepperson founder of the The Landlord Law Services she advises landlords of their legal rights and responsibilities.

The number of people renting across England, Wales and Scotland has more than doubled in the last decade.

The picture in Northern Ireland is similar with the numbers of people renting is up by nearly 2 thirds in the last 20 years."

See also: Rental Health

Read in FT Weekend - hopefully the link will work for you:
Lessons from Vienna: a housing success story 100 years in the making

Previous posts: 'Homeless'