Toward wellbeing: creativity and resilience in the life and work of Madge Gill

It may be tempting to look at aspects of Madge Gill’s life and her responses to the many difficulties she experienced, and then to speculate about possible mental health problems and retrospectively formulate a specific psychiatric diagnosis. To do so, however, would not be a scientific approach to understanding her life, nor would it necessarily be a principled way to try and comprehend who she was and why art-making, Spiritualism and being a medium were so very important to her. Like many people, Madge Gill had problems and deficiencies but to use the magnifying glass of psychoanalysis or other psychological theories in order to psychopathologise her by focusing on deficits, as often occurs in the study of artists, would construct a circuitous cul-de-sac that fails to examine her resilience, creativity and strengths. On the seesaw of life almost everyone faces some degree of psychological, social and physical challenges on the one hand, but we also possess and can develop psychological, social and physical resources to balance out the challenges and help create some sort of equilibrium and obtain a sense of subjective wellbeing . It is through the perspective of developmental psychology along with considering wellbeing theory as a type of equilibrium responding to the challenges and resources one faces and possesses, that we can begin to look at the life of Madge Gill and to try to understand the roles creativity and art-making had in the life and work of this enigmatic Londoner

‘But it makes me uncomfortable’: The challenges and opportunities of research poetry

Along with all the arts, poetry offers creative and expressive possibilities to writers and to audience members. But perhaps poetry, more than any art form, also triggers more uncomfortableness in how to “read” it, more uncertainty about what a poem “means”, and stirs up long-ago unpleasant memories of school experiences writing, memorising, reciting and analysing classroom creations. Poetry suffers, claims Roach (Citation2016), from not being taught well, but also suffers from overly detailed analysis that can reward complex and arcane interpretation, leading to a sense of alienation among those trying to understand what a poem means. When the terms “poetic inquiry” or “research poetry” are added, eyes might gloss over and (many) researchers might run to “safer” art forms and methodologies. And for those who want a definitive interpretation of a poem (e.g. Ferber, Citation2019), or a stanza or even a line, poetry will cause you problems. The argument being that for some a poem can only be interpreted knowing what the writer intended and as readers “we do our best to imagine … what the writer intended” (Ferber, Citation2019, p. 142). For others, however, poetry “contains a multiplicity of meanings” and there is no, singularly correct, unambiguous interpretation (Lotter, Citationn.d..). Bringing our own subjective experiences to reading and listening to poetry, I would argue, is part of the strength and challenge of poetry for arts and health researchers

Observing mentalizing art therapy groups for people diagnosed with borderline personality disorder

This article describes video-based observation of three mentalization-based treatment (MBT) art therapy groups in services for people who have received a diagnosis of personality disorder.Four focus groups (service user researchers, MBT trained psychologists, MBT trained art therapists, and the three art therapists who submitted videos) developed descriptions of the practice they observed on video. A grounded theory method was used to develop a proposition that if the art therapist uses art to demonstrate their attention, this tends to help potentially chaotic and dismissive groups to cooperate, whereas if the art therapist gives the appearance of passivity, it tends to increase the problematic interactions in the group

Conceptualising what we mean by ‘wellbeing’ in the dementias

The term ‘wellbeing’ has experienced a relatively rapid introduction into the lexicon and policy of healthcare in the UK and other countries. Wellbeing research now occurs across different disciplines and clinical populations. Less well understood, however, is how wellbeing is conceptualised, measured and recognised in the dementias and during art activities and how this understanding might impact research and future practice. This paper will firstly, review prevailing wellbeing conceptualisations in order to understand their relevance to dementia and secondly, discuss novel psychological and physiological approaches used to measure and observe wellbeing in art and heritage activities in this population

Converging Welfare States: Symposium Keynote

Susannah Camic Tahk, Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development and Associate Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin Law School, speaks to the Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice 2018 symposium, Always with Us? Poverty, Taxes, and Social Policy. She addresses the following questions: To what extent do the particular advantages of the tax antipoverty programs persist as the tax antipoverty programs take center stage? Can tax programs, once distinguished from their direct-spending counterparts on the grounds of relative popularity and legal and administrative ease of access maintain those hallmarks as the tax-based welfare state grows in size and scope? The first of the tax antipoverty programs was the EITC, a small, nimble program easily administered on a tax return, often meant to encourage people who might otherwise be receiving welfare to go to work. Now, the EITC at the foundation of our federal antipoverty apparatus. What are the consequences? How much have the EITC and its now-lengthy list of companion tax antipoverty programs, retained the advantages of the supplemental welfare state it once was? Or, instead, are the tax antipoverty programs starting to resemble the behemoth direct-spending programs they’ve replaced in the center of the U.S.’s social policy landscape? To what extent can we expect tax programs become more like direct-spending programs, or “welfare” over time? Will the trajectories of the tax antipoverty programs and the direct-spending programs converge

The New Welfare Rights

Participating in the tax system gives rise to what could be enormously powerful rights for poor people. The tax system has become one of the main tools the United States uses to fight poverty. A thick bundle of tax rights accompanies the many tax antipoverty programs. This paper is the first to recognize the potentially substantial rights that poor people have through the tax code. For decades, poverty law advocates and scholars have lamented the decline of the “welfare rights” that poor people once had in their benefits. No one has yet recognized that in fact poor people still have substantial rights in the tax code. These “new welfare rights” are not rights that lawmakers are attempting to weaken but rights that they are strengthening. However, lawyers and lawmakers have yet to unlock the potential that tax rights have to improve the lives of poor people. This paper discusses two methods by which this can happen. First, poverty lawyers can make rights-based legal claims on behalf of their clients, several of which this paper will discuss. Second, lawmakers can use rights-based ideas to help tax administration protect poor taxpayers’ rights more effectively. This paper presents the results of a survey experiment that suggests just one way to redesign existing programs to protect poor taxpayers’ rights

Maintaining the self: meanings of material objects after a residential transition later in life

Introduction: Moving house later in life can be a major transition and valued material objects may be important to this process. The present study aimed to develop an explanatory model for the meanings of material objects to older adults in the context of a residential transition. Method: Using grounded theory methodology, 12 participants were interviewed about the meanings and roles of valued material objects following a residential transition. Older adult participants lived in either their own home or a care home. Results: The model entails two core categories, “threats to identity” and “objects and identity continuity” along with four explanatory concepts, “moving and identity discontinuity”, “connections across time”, “attachments to others”, and “preserving self and ancestors in the memories of the next generation”. Discussion: Objects were described to have important personal meanings which helped people maintain a sense of identity continuity following residential transition. They were associated with comfort, security and life review processes, which support identity continuity later in life. Conclusion: Moving house later in life can threaten a person’s sense of self. However, material objects can help maintain a sense of identity continuity through reminiscence and life review processes. Implications for community and residential care moving house transitions are discussed

Viewing and making art together: an eight-week gallery-based intervention for people with dementia and their caregivers

Objectives: This is the first known study that sought to understand the experience of an eight-week art-gallery-based intervention offered at two distinctly different galleries for people with mild to moderate dementia and their carers. The study examined impact on social inclusion, carer burden, and quality of life and daily living activities for a person with dementia. Method: A mixed-methods pre-post design using standardised questionnaires and interviews involved 24 participants (12 with dementia) and compared similar interventions at a traditional and a contemporary art gallery. Qualitative data was analysed using thematic analysis. Results: No significant pre-post difference was found between the traditional or contemporary gallery groups on quantitative measures. There was, however, a non-significant trend towards a reduction in carer burden over the course of the intervention for both gallery groups. Thematic analysis revealed well-being benefits from both traditional and contemporary art gallery sites that included positive social impact resulting from feeling more socially included, self-reports of enhanced cognitive capacities for people with dementia, and an improved quality of life. Conclusion: Participants were unanimous in their enjoyment and satisfaction with the programme, despite the lack of significance from standardised measures. Further consideration of art galleries and museums, as non-clinical community resources for dementia care, is warranted. The interventions at both galleries helped to foster social inclusion and social engagement, enhance the caring relationship between the carers and PWD, support the personhood of PWD, and stimulate cognitive processes of attention and concentration