Viscous rotary vane actuator/damper

A compact viscous rotary actuator/damper for use on the Mariner '71 and Viking Programs was developed. Several functions were combined into this single mechanism to control the deployment, latching, and damping of the solar panel arrays used on these space vehicles. The design, development, and testing of the actuator/damper are described, and major problems encountered are discussed

SUTIL: system utilities routines programmer's reference manual

A package of FORTRAN callable subroutines which allows efficient communication of data between users and programs is described. Proper utilization of the SUTIL package to reduce program core requirements and expedite program development is emphasized

A semibuoyant vehicle for general transportation missions

The concept of a small, semibuoyant, lifting-body airship with either a disposable or nondisposable buoyant fluid is discussed. Estimations of fuel consumption, payload capability, power requirements and productivity are made and compared to other flight systems. Comparisons are made on the basis of equal cost vehicles. The assumption is made that, to a first-order approximation, the costs of developing, procuring, and operating a commercial air transport vehicle are proportional to vehicle empty weight. It must be noted that no historical cost data exist for the lifting-body airship and therefore these comparisons must be considered preliminary

The promise (and potential pitfalls) of a public health approach in clinical psychology

David Smail’s work provided an excellent example of how one might view individual distress within its social context, a context which ranged from the level of interpersonal relationships to the forces of global capital. In this paper, I review how individualised solutions to emotional distress are increasingly preferred over collective or structural approaches. Within medicine the discipline of public health has proved to be a useful counter-balance to this tendency. I discuss some of the benefits offered by adopting such an approach in mental health, while also acknowledging the need to address some of its problems (e.g. the rather uncritical use of heterogeneous diagnostic categories of varied validity and reliability). DAVID SMAIL’S work provided an excellent example of how one might view individual distress within its social context, a context which ranges from the level of interpersonal relationships to the forces of global capital. In this article, I will discuss the way in which individual ‘technical’ solutions (medication and individual psychological therapy) are increasingly used in response to psychological distress. I will briefly review long-standing criticisms of this approach, in particular that such interventions are reactive (rather than preventative) and assume that causes (and thus remedies) lie within the individual (rather than in the structural conditions of society). Within medicine, the discipline of public health has proved to be a useful counter-balance to this tendency. Such population-based and preventative approaches are relatively rare within British clinical psychology. In this article, I will discuss some of the potential benefits offered by adopting such an approach in mental health. I will examine some of the obstacles which might be faced in adopting a public health orientation in clinical psychology, and consider the potential pitfalls of such an approach. Lastly, I will discuss how we might move forward, considering, in particular, implications for the training both of clinical psychologists and of public health practitioners

Framing, filtering and hermeneutical injustice in the public conversation about mental health

This article describes how the narrative construct is used in the Power Threat Meaning Framework to refer to personal narratives, cultural narratives and as a meta-theoretical language, synthesizing a range of different theoretical perspectives. It identifies ways in which this approach to narrative may differ from its use in a number of therapeutic traditions. Focusing on medicalization and drawing on the concepts of ideological power, framing, filtering and gatekeeping, it discusses the processes which facilitate the dominance of a medical frame in the public conversation about mental health, proposing that such dominance is an example of hermeneutical injustice. The article concludes, firstly, by suggesting some practices which therapists and other professionals could use to broaden and contextualize therapy conversations and, secondly, by making some proposals for how the public conversation about mental health could be re-balanced

Surveying Qualitative Research Teaching on British Clinical Psychology Training Programmes 1992–2006: A Changing Relationship?

There have been indications that qualitative research has become more popular in British clinical psychology, particularly amongst trainee clinical psychologists. In a 1992 survey conducted by the author, 81% of UK clinical psychology training programmes that responded reported that they taught qualitative methods for an average 4.85 hours and that only a small number of students submitted qualitative dissertations. This article reports the results of a similar survey conducted in 2005–2006. Twenty-six programmes responded (a response rate of 83.9%). In contrast to the 1992 survey, 100% of the responding programmes reported that they taught qualitative methods for an average of 12.6 hours (approximately 31.1% of total research methods teaching). The most popular methods were Grounded Theory, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis and Discourse Analysis. All of the programmes reported that they would accept theses solely using qualitative methods, with an average of 42.8% of dissertations falling into this category in the previous four years. The results are discussed in the context of the development of British clinical psychology and training

De-medicalising public mental health with the Power Threat Meaning Framework

Aims: To propose that much of the language and concepts in public mental health is medicalised and to suggest that the Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF), can be a useful resource for those wishing to take a de-medicalising approach. Method: Examples of medicalisation are drawn from the literature and from practice and key constructs in the PTMF are explained, drawing from the report which presented its research base. Results: Examples of medicalisation in public mental health include: the uncritical use of psychiatric diagnostic categories; the ‘illness like any other’ approach in anti-stigma campaigns; and the implicit privileging of biology in the biopsychosocial model. The negative operations of power in society are seen as posing threats to human needs and people make sense of such situations in varied ways though there are some commonalities. This gives rise to culturally available and bodily enabled threat responses which serve a variety of functions. From a medicalised perspective these responses to threat are characteristically seen as ‘symptoms’ of underlying disorders. The PTMF is both a conceptual framework and a practical tool that can be used by individuals, groups and communities. Conclusion: Consistent with social epidemiological research, prevention efforts should focus on preventing adversity rather than ‘disorders’ but the added value of the PTMF is that varied problems can be understood in an integrated manner as responses to a variety of threats whose functions could be met in different ways. Its message that mental distress is a response to adversity is comprehensible to the public and can be communicated in an accessible way

Social inequality and the diagnosis of paranoia

One of the obstacles to understanding the links between social inequality and mental health distress is the reliance on heterogeneous diagnostic categories. In this paper, it is argued that a solution to this problem is to explore more homogenous experiences of distress. This paper investigates one particular form of distress: paranoia. The relationship between social inequality and paranoia is then examined, focusing on two aspects. Firstly, it is argued that social inequality might affect the experience of paranoia itself since the experience of the surveillance encountered in the everyday use of public space may vary depending on one’s location in social categories like gender, ‘race’ and culture and class (these social categories are, of course, themselves stratified by social inequality). Secondly, mental health service users’ locations in these categories may influence the way that the plausibility of ostensibly paranoid claims are evaluated by mental health professionals. Within the discussion of each category, links are drawn between community and clinical samples to understand how the experience of paranoia may be influenced by these social categories. The paper concludes with implications for research and policy

Realising the Potential of General Population Research to Reconceptualise the study of “Delusions”: From Normalising “Psychosis” to De-Familiarising “Normality”

Over recent decades a research programme involving nonclinical samples has provided a justification for the use of normalising practices within cognitive behaviour therapy for psychosis. These studies have found that, contrary to mainstream psychiatric assumptions, beliefs considered delusional are neither rare in the general population nor qualitatively different from “nondelusional” beliefs, whilst theories from a “normal” rather than “abnormal” psychology have shown them to be intelligible rather than un-understandable. Yet the programme’s inherent limitations have meant that the potential of nonclinical research has not been fully realised. An alternative research programme is proposed which could elucidate the diversity of belief in the general population by examining the role of social norms and lived belief narratives in unconventional belief communities. This could address the limitations of the normalising programme, provide a necessary corrective to the “clinician’s illusion” bias, and prompt a more fundamental reconceptualisation of beliefs considered delusional