History and Theory: An English Story

no abstrac

History and Theory: An English Story

no abstrac

De l’histoire sociale au tournant linguistique et au-delà. Où va l’historiographie britannique ?

Cet article examine en premier lieu l’émergence et le triomphe d’un ensemble d’opinions et d’hypothèses déjà importantes dans la façon d’écrire l’histoire britannique depuis le xixe siècle, mais qui devinrent prépondérantes au cours des trois décennies suivant la Seconde guerre mondiale. S’affirmait l’idée que le contexte qui influait de façon fondamentale sur les événements politiques et qui façonnait la lutte des idées n’était autre que le social. L’article examine ensuite le rôle du tournant linguistique dans le déclin de ce paradigme. Le tournant linguistique a mis en exergue la nécessité d’un changement radical de perspective : non seulement une nouvelle façon d’écrire l’histoire, mais aussi réfléchir aux façons dont il faudrait aborder l’histoire britannique et sa position dans le monde. Les historiens ont opté pour une forme d’éclectisme, adoptant pour une bonne part les hypothèses et les procédés de l’approche discursive et même, lorsque c’est approprié, les techniques de la déconstruction. Ainsi, les travaux des spécialistes d’histoire économique sur la relation entre l’économie, l’administration politique et la puissance impériale de la Grande-Bretagne jusqu’à 1815 ont rejoint dans une large mesure l’approche discursive pratiquée par les spécialistes de l’histoire des partis et des mouvements politiques.This paper first examines the emergence and triumph of a set of attitudes and assumptions, which had already been prominent in the writing of British history since the 19th century, but which became dominant in the thirty years following the Second World War. In these was expressed the belief that the social was the fundamental terrain that shaped the way in which the events of political history and the battle of ideas were played out. Secondly, it examines the place of the linguistic turn in the decline and displacement of this ethos. Arguments about the linguistic turn pinpointed the need for a fundamental change of outlook, not only in thinking about how history should be written, but also in reflecting on how British history and its place in the world would need to be approached. Historians have generally employed a defensible form of eclecticism, adopting many of the assumptions and procedures of the discursive approach and even, when appropriate, techniques of deconstruction. The work of economic historians upon the relationship between Britain’s economy, polity and imperial power in the period up to 1815 has, therefore, largely dovetailed the discursive approach of historians of parties and political movements

The nature of trauma memories in acute stress disorder in children and adolescents

Background: There is increasing theoretical, clinical and research evidence for the role of trauma memory in the aetiology of acute pathological stress responses in adults. However, research into the phenomenology of trauma memories in young people is currently scarce. Methods: This study compared the nature of trauma narratives to narratives of unpleasant non-traumatic events in young people (aged 8-17) who sought emergency medical attention following an assault or road traffic accident. Data were collected within 2-4 weeks of the index event. Symptom severity was assessed by child self-report and face-to-face diagnostic interviews. Comparisons of narrative indices were made between those children with acute stress disorder (ASD) and those without ASD. Results: Among participants (n = 50), those with ASD (38%) had significantly elevated levels of disorganisation in their trauma narrative, compared both to trauma-exposed controls and to their unpleasant comparative narrative. This effect was not accounted for by age. Regardless of ASD diagnostic status, trauma narratives had significantly higher sensory content and significantly lower positive emotion content compared to the unpleasant comparative narrative. These effects were not significant when age was included as a covariate. Acute symptom severity was significantly predicted by the level of disorganisation in the trauma narrative and the child's cognitive appraisals of the event. Conclusions: These data provide the first empirical evidence that disorganisation is not only directly linked to symptom severity, but also specific to the trauma memory. In addition, it provides support for the adaptation of adult cognitive models to acute pathological stress reactions in children and adolescents

CRUISE, a Tool for the Detection of Iterons in Circular Rep-Encoding Single-Stranded DNA Viruses

Iterons are short, repeated DNA sequences that are important for the replication of circular single-stranded DNA viruses. No tools that can reliably predict iterons are currently available. The CRUcivirus Iteron SEarch (CRUISE) tool is a computational tool that identifies iteron candidates near stem-loop structures in viral genomes

Cohort profile: mental health following extreme trauma in a northern Ugandan cohort of War-Affected Youth Study (The WAYS Study).

War experiences are associated with the risk of long-term mental health problems. The War-affected Youths (WAYS) Study comprises a cohort of 539 youths (61% female) aged between 18 to 25 (at baseline) randomly sampled from the population of war-affected youths in northern Uganda. The study aims to chart the trajectory of long-term mental health consequences of war and the roles of individual, family, and community contextual risk and protective factors in influencing the course of mental health using Social Ecology Model, thus, addressing both the individual and its social ecology. Knowledge of postwar contexts may inform policy and guide interventions on postwar psychosocial adjustment and reintegration in conflict-prone Great Lakes region of Africa (Rwanda, Burundi, DR Congo, Uganda, Central African Republic, and South Sudan). Two waves of data collection have been conducted and more data collection is planned. At baseline, information on demographic characteristics, pre-war experiences, psychosocial outcomes, coping, stigma/discrimination, family and community acceptance and relationship, family functioning, and post-war experiences were obtained. At follow-up, information on general health, gender-based violence, PTSD, social skills, trauma memory quality, rumination, self-esteem, and psychosocial outcomes were collected. Approval to access the data can be obtained on application to the Principal Investigator upon submission of a research proposal with ethical approval from the applicant's institution. This research is funded by Wellcome Trust and Gulu University.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

Including the 'spiritual' within mental health care in the UK, from experiences of people with mental health problems.

Spirituality as a dimension of quality of life and well-being has recently begun to be more valued within person-centred treatment approaches to mental health in the UK. The aim of this paper is to provide indicators of the extent to which accessing a spiritual support group may be useful within mental health recovery from the view point of those in receipt of it. The study design was a small scale exploratory study utilising mixed methods. Quantitative methods were used to map the mental health, general well-being and social networks of the group. These were complimented by a semi-structured open-ended interview which allowed for Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) of the life-history accounts of nine individuals with mental health problems who attended a ‘spirituality support group’. Data from unstructured open-ended interviews with five faith chaplains and a mental health day centre manager were also analysed using thematic analysis. The views of 15 participants are therefore recounted. Participants reported that the group offered them: an alternative to more formal religious organisations, and an opportunity to settle spiritual confusions/fears. The ‘group’ was also reported to generally help individual’s subjective feelings of mental wellness through social support. Whilst the merits of spiritual care are appealing, convincing services to include it within treatment may still be difficult

Savings bank depositors in a crisis: Glasgow 1847 and 1857

Savings banks were created as a means to encourage the newly created working class to save for the uncertainties of urban industrial life. This article explores the success of the Savings Bank of Glasgow, and pays particular attention to the response of savers to the financial and commercial crises of 1847 and 1857. The crisis of 1847 was shallower but longer lasting in Glasgow, while that of 1857 was greatly exacerbated by local conditions in the short term, but of little long-term importance to savers. It suggests that, in both crises, some elements of contagion may have been present but that those who panicked in 1857 were systematically different from those who did not

Sexual violence and general functioning among formerly abducted girls in Northern Uganda: the mediating roles of stigma and community relations--the WAYS study.

BACKGROUND: Although sexual violence in war is associated with long-term mental health problems, little is known about its association with general functioning and the factors that explain this association. This study aims to illuminate the path from sexual violence to poor functioning. The prevalence of sexual violence among formerly abducted girls in Northern Uganda was assessed as well as the extent to which stigma and community relations explain the association between sexual violence and general functioning. METHOD: In a cross-sectional analysis using data from the WAYS study (N = 210, baseline age 22.06, SD = 2.06, minimum-maximum 18-25), the extent of mediation of the association between sexual violence and general functioning was assessed in multiple regression models. RESULTS: Sexual violence was found to be associated with increased stigma, poor community relations, and poor general functioning. The association between sexual violence and general functioning was mediated by stigma and community relations. The bootstrap results indicated significant mediation by stigma of 47 % (95 % confidence interval [CI] 35 to 78 % and by community relations of 67 % (95 % CI: 52 to 78 %) in the association between sexual violence and general functioning. CONCLUSION: Thus, poor functioning among formerly abducted girls is largely mediated by stigma and poor community relations. However, due to the relatively small effect sizes of the associations, targeted interventions to prevent impaired functioning may have only modest benefits to the formerly abducted girls. Interventions to alleviate the toxic effects of sexual violence in formerly abducted girls would benefit from a holistic approach that targets stigma and poor relationships within communities

Trauma memory characteristics and the development of acute stress disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder in youth

Background & objectives: The present study addresses gaps in knowledge regarding the association between trauma memory processes and posttraumatic stress responses in youth. Our primary goal was to explore the relative contribution of perceptions of trauma memory quality versus narrative trauma memory characteristics to explain overall adjustment.  Methods: Children (N = 67) were interviewed within four weeks (T1) of an injury leading to hospital treatment and then again eight weeks later (T2). In each interview, the child told a trauma narrative (which were later coded), and answered the Trauma Memory Quality Questionnaire (Meiser-Stedman, Smith, Yule, & Dalgleish, 2007a), a self-report measure indexing the sensory, fragmented, and disorganised characteristics of trauma memory. They then completed measures of Acute Stress Disorder (ASD) symptoms and associated psychopathology at T1 and measures of Posttraumatic Stress (PTS) symptoms and associated psychopathology at T2.  Results: Self-reported trauma memory characteristics predicted ASD symptoms cross-sectionally at T1 and PTS symptoms prospectively over time. At both time points, self-reported trauma memory characteristics accounted for all of the unique variance in symptoms initially explained by narrative characteristics. A reduction in self-report ratings, but not the hypothesised narrative features (e.g., disorganised or lexical elements of the narrative), significantly predicted a reduction in PTS symptoms over time.  Limitations: The small sample size and the absence of a within-subjects narrative control were the main limitations of the study.  Conclusions: These findings underscore the importance of self-reported trauma memory characteristics to the aetiology of PTSD