Voice of the Voiceless: The Project of Black Identity in Carrie Mae Weems’s From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried

Of the pieces shown in the 2016 exhibit “30 Americans” at the Tacoma Art Museum, Carrie Mae Weems\u27s From here I saw what happened and I cried (1995-1996) was one of the most impactful. Weems\u27s piece is composed of 33 toned images - with two blue-toned images bookending the other red-toned images - framed in circular mattes with sandblasted text over the glass frame. For this work, Weems re-presents daguerreotypes commissioned by Louis Agassiz in 1850; Each portrait, toned in blood-red, has a sandblasted text overlay that, when put together, presents an American narrative of black identity (the full text is included in the works cited). In this essay, I use Frantz Fanon’s “The fact of blackness” to analyze Weems’s piece within the context of queer theory. Fanon’s theories show the significance of Weems’s appropriation of the daguerreotypes – as she attempts to show that the subjects (as well as the black community in America) have been endlessly categorized and victimized and humiliated at the hands of (and for the benefit of) white people. Weems’s piece reclaims these identities and narratives imposed on her subjects while at the same time forcing viewers to confront the bloody reality of the black American experience

The experience of adjustment to relationship changes in men whose female partners have an acquired brain injury (ABI)

Background: An ABI and its consequences affect not only the injured person, but also those in relationships with that person, particularly partners and other close relatives. Previous research suggests that an ABI may impact more negatively upon partners than other relatives, but little research has specifically explored the experiences of men. This study explored the experience of adjustment to relationship changes in men whose female partners have an ABI. In particular this study was interested in what changes in their relationship with their partner men have experienced, and how they have adjusted to these changes. Method: A qualitative approach was taken and eight men were interviewed. The data was analysed using thematic analysis from a critical realist epistemological perspective. Findings: Five themes were identified within the data: ‗Initial reactions to the brain injury‘, ―She‘s a lot the same, but she‘s not the same‖, ‗Relationship changing‘, ‗Responsibility and burden‘, and ‗Coping and support‘. Men had experienced wide-ranging and numerous changes in their relationships which impacted upon them emotionally and practically. ‗Just getting on with it‘ was a widely used way of coping, as well as drawing on different sources of support. However, there was an overall sense that men had been left to navigate a frightening and unknown territory without much support or guidance. Conclusions: This study adds to the current literature on the previously neglected and unheard experiences of men whose female partners have an ABI. Future research could explore different aspects of men‘s experiences utilising more in-depth qualitative methodologies. Couples‘ experiences could also be explored by interviewing couple dyads together. Several clinical and policy-level implications have been identified, including increasing ABI awareness, information provision, routine access to support for partners, further curiosity about men‘s support needs, and working systemically in brain injury services

The development and evaluation of the paediatric index of emotional distress (PI-ED)

Purpose: Current measures of anxiety and depression for children and young people (CYP) include somatic symptoms and can be lengthy. They can inflate scores in cases where there is also physical illness, contain potentially distressing symptoms for some settings and be impractical in clinical practice. The present study aimed to develop and evaluate a new questionnaire, the paediatric index of emotional distress (PI-ED), to screen for emotional distress in CYP, modelled on the hospital anxiety and depression scale. Methods: A school-based sample (n = 1026) was employed to examine the PI-ED’s psychometric properties and a clinical sample of CYP (n = 143) was used to establish its sensitivity and specificity. Results: Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses identified a bi-factor model with a general emotional distress factor (‘cothymia’) and anxiety and depression as co-factors. The PI-ED demonstrated good psychometric properties and clinical utility with a cutoff score of 20. Conclusion: The PI-ED is a brief, valid and reliable clinical screening tool for emotional distress in CYP