Angela Foster - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Angela Foster
The Palgrave Handbook of Innovative Community and Clinical Psychologies, 2022
This clear, accessible, manual, written by authors overwhelmingly committed to transparency about... more This clear, accessible, manual, written by authors overwhelmingly committed to transparency about how their work was done, will appeal to clinical psychologists keen to engage in reformist community activism and, as an inscription of an increasingly dominant 'humanist community psychology' thesis, will stimulate engagement with its critical antithesis."
Societies allocate to specific child protection and forensic services a threefold task of assessi... more Societies allocate to specific child protection and forensic services a threefold task of assessing and caring for vulnerable children and treating some of the most deprived, troubled and dangerous adults while protecting others from their destructive attacks. These responsibilities give rise to a range of anxieties as professional staff find themselves sandwiched between these possibly, contradictory demands. This chapter considers the predicament of social workers in child protection services and that of staff working in forensic group care settings.
Routledge eBooks, Jun 6, 2019
Mothers Accused and Abused: Addressing Complex Psychological Needs brings together stories about ... more Mothers Accused and Abused: Addressing Complex Psychological Needs brings together stories about mothers who are accused of harming, and in some cases killing, their children, children who subsequently harm or kill others and the challenges to professionals who work with them. Contributors consider the deeply rooted cycles of neglect and abuse manifested in the childhoods of mothers, who only come to our attention when their extreme distress is expressed through their actions. By recognising the long-standing, unmet dependency needs of abused and neglected women, the book argues that longer term engagement can prevent a seemingly endless repetition of court hearings and imprisonment, and thereby address cycles of neglect. With sections on mothers in prison and interventions following child care proceedings, Mothers Accused and Abused will be a valuable resource to those working in the criminal and civil justice systems, social work and mental health as well as others who, in a professional or personal capacity, encounter troubled mothers and their children.
Journal of Social Work Practice, Sep 1, 1993
Abstract This paper describes a woman who is both damaged and damaging. The mental disorder/distu... more Abstract This paper describes a woman who is both damaged and damaging. The mental disorder/disturbance felt by this woman generates levels of anxiety that she cannot contain, and this anxiety is passed onto the others who constitute her community. For community care to work it must be possible within the community system to identify, think about and manage the anxieties generated by such mental disturbance. The new legislation of community care may encourage us to ignore the reality of mental illness and issues of power, conflict and pain, and their underlying anxieties. Current examples are given of the acute anxieties felt by many workers in the field which, if uncontained, lead to defensive anti-task strategies. When disturbance is projected and disowned it is put out of mind and may then be passed between parts of the system. Even though it may no longer be possible, except as a short term measure, to put the mentally ill out of sight in mental hospitals, the mental disturbance and those in whom it i...
Journal of Marketing Research, Nov 1, 1992
Welcome to Qualitative Research in Action. In the planning of this volume a particular process wa... more Welcome to Qualitative Research in Action. In the planning of this volume a particular process was adopted. The reasons for this were not only due to the geographical spread of the contributors, but also to permit chapters to be exchanged and commented upon. Overall, the purpose was to enable a thematic coherence to emerge within the volume as a whole. It was also recognized that while we talk about the links between process and product in research practice, along with the need to share experiences, this is often not the case when it comes to the production of edited collections. Given this, the idea of 'pairing' was introduced. The aim here was to make the process of writing for an edited collection more thematic, as well as pleasurable and supportive. The result is a book structured around 'issues in practice' as its main focus. Before moving on to provide an overview of the chapters, it is necessary to situate them in terms of the issues that have informed, in various ways, thinking about the practice of qualitative research. To detail these transformations, brought about by a number of different traditions-for example, feminisms, social constructionist perspectives, critical theory, critical realism, postmodernism and post-structuralism-is not my task here. Nevertheless, it is to draw out some of the themes in order to provide a context for the chapters and part headings that appear in this volume.
Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Oct 2, 2019
British Journal of Psychotherapy, Jul 25, 2019
British Journal of Psychotherapy, Jan 22, 2018
British Journal of Psychotherapy, Oct 19, 2010
My contribution to the development of theory and practice has taken the form of writing and teach... more My contribution to the development of theory and practice has taken the form of writing and teaching based on clinical experience, and for this celebration of the work of Robert (Bob) Hinshelwood I have selected four examples of innovation-the first two in the boundaried setting of a therapeutic community, the third in a temporary organization representing care in the community and the fourth in a community service that requested consultancy following the tragic death of a child.
Journal of Social Work Practice, Jul 1, 1994
Summary Managing mental illness in the community is an anxiety provoking business. Yet the legisl... more Summary Managing mental illness in the community is an anxiety provoking business. Yet the legislative emphasis on business management and rapid re-structuring both creates anxiety in workers and carers and appears to devalue those traditional psychotherapeutic skills which facilitate the containment of anxiety. Anxieties that are put out of mind (not contained) have damaging and dangerous consequences for carers, users and members of the public. This paper is about a ten-week workshop with the task of providing a safe, constructive setting where the anxieties generated by community care of the adult mentally ill could be identified, addressed and thought about. The developments within the workshop are analysed as the process shifts back and forth between paranoid-schizoid and depressive position modes of functioning gradually progressing towards the latter. Members gradually found the ability to combine therapeutic and business management skills so that they could regain their authority in relation to th...
Journal of Social Work Practice, Nov 1, 1985
This article, in two parts, describes first the development of a seminar group which Win Roberts ... more This article, in two parts, describes first the development of a seminar group which Win Roberts and I set up for social workers, to promote the use of group work with clients in hospital settings. Each fortnightly seminar consisted of a discussion on aspects of group work theory and practice, followed by our experiential group. The second part describes one of the client groups that was established for people attending hospital for sub-fertility treatment. Parallels are drawn between group processes in the seminar group and the client group, indicating the value of such a seminar group to provide training, supervision and experience of group work.
Journal of Social Work Practice, May 1, 2001
This paper arises out of psychoanalytically oriented consultancy to teams of staff in the helping... more This paper arises out of psychoanalytically oriented consultancy to teams of staff in the helping professions where there is a statutory 'duty to care'. It takes as its premise the seemingly paradoxical hypothesis that workers may need to split off part of their emotional experience in order to preserve their own mental health and provide reliable services to their clients. I argue that while a professional 'duty to care' requires us to be emotionally 'in touch', the demands of our clients together with the demands of the institutional response to the 'duty to care' cause us to split off parts of our awareness. I also argue that provided the splitting does not become extreme we are doing no more or less than the rest of society. In other words, there is a degree of 'normal splitting' which numbs our awareness of danger and destructiveness and seeks to protect us from too much anxiety and pain. Yet if professional workers are charged with the responsibility of assessing risk and acting accordingly for the protection of all concerned they need ways of being 'in touch' (re-integrating the splits) for some or enough of the time. Finally, I will describe ways of being 'in touch', illustrating the difficulty and the pain of re-integrating the splits and some of the insights that can arise out of this work with examples from my consultancy work.
Routledge eBooks, Apr 4, 2021
Taking the view that failure to explore difference is tantamount to bad psychotherapy I use psych... more Taking the view that failure to explore difference is tantamount to bad psychotherapy I use psychoanalytic theory to identify those dynamics at individual, group and organizational levels that make good work in the area of difference so hard to achieve, whether in the consulting room, the classroom or the workplace. I refer specifically to issues of ethnicity, class, gender and sexuality, though the psychological processes identified would apply to other areas of difference.
Routledge eBooks, 2019
The spatial planning law system in Poland does not ensure spatial order and sustainable developme... more The spatial planning law system in Poland does not ensure spatial order and sustainable development in communes. There is no consistency between the government, voivodeship and local government policies. The legal instruments existing in the present system do not fulfill the role assumed by the legislator. As a result, buildings in the municipalities of the suburban area are mostly in the form of administrative decisions, in addition to the local law, causing the phenomenon of uncontrolled suburbanisation. The article presents statistical data illustrating the state of spatial planning in the communes of the suburban area of Białystok in the scope of local plans, decisions on building and land development conditions and building permits. Conclusions from the analysis of the collected materials confirm the phenomenon of the development of communes of the suburban area of Białystok in an unplanned manner, lasting for over a dozen years.
Journal of Social Work Practice, Jun 1, 2013
The Palgrave Handbook of Innovative Community and Clinical Psychologies, 2022
This clear, accessible, manual, written by authors overwhelmingly committed to transparency about... more This clear, accessible, manual, written by authors overwhelmingly committed to transparency about how their work was done, will appeal to clinical psychologists keen to engage in reformist community activism and, as an inscription of an increasingly dominant 'humanist community psychology' thesis, will stimulate engagement with its critical antithesis."
Societies allocate to specific child protection and forensic services a threefold task of assessi... more Societies allocate to specific child protection and forensic services a threefold task of assessing and caring for vulnerable children and treating some of the most deprived, troubled and dangerous adults while protecting others from their destructive attacks. These responsibilities give rise to a range of anxieties as professional staff find themselves sandwiched between these possibly, contradictory demands. This chapter considers the predicament of social workers in child protection services and that of staff working in forensic group care settings.
Routledge eBooks, Jun 6, 2019
Mothers Accused and Abused: Addressing Complex Psychological Needs brings together stories about ... more Mothers Accused and Abused: Addressing Complex Psychological Needs brings together stories about mothers who are accused of harming, and in some cases killing, their children, children who subsequently harm or kill others and the challenges to professionals who work with them. Contributors consider the deeply rooted cycles of neglect and abuse manifested in the childhoods of mothers, who only come to our attention when their extreme distress is expressed through their actions. By recognising the long-standing, unmet dependency needs of abused and neglected women, the book argues that longer term engagement can prevent a seemingly endless repetition of court hearings and imprisonment, and thereby address cycles of neglect. With sections on mothers in prison and interventions following child care proceedings, Mothers Accused and Abused will be a valuable resource to those working in the criminal and civil justice systems, social work and mental health as well as others who, in a professional or personal capacity, encounter troubled mothers and their children.
Journal of Social Work Practice, Sep 1, 1993
Abstract This paper describes a woman who is both damaged and damaging. The mental disorder/distu... more Abstract This paper describes a woman who is both damaged and damaging. The mental disorder/disturbance felt by this woman generates levels of anxiety that she cannot contain, and this anxiety is passed onto the others who constitute her community. For community care to work it must be possible within the community system to identify, think about and manage the anxieties generated by such mental disturbance. The new legislation of community care may encourage us to ignore the reality of mental illness and issues of power, conflict and pain, and their underlying anxieties. Current examples are given of the acute anxieties felt by many workers in the field which, if uncontained, lead to defensive anti-task strategies. When disturbance is projected and disowned it is put out of mind and may then be passed between parts of the system. Even though it may no longer be possible, except as a short term measure, to put the mentally ill out of sight in mental hospitals, the mental disturbance and those in whom it i...
Journal of Marketing Research, Nov 1, 1992
Welcome to Qualitative Research in Action. In the planning of this volume a particular process wa... more Welcome to Qualitative Research in Action. In the planning of this volume a particular process was adopted. The reasons for this were not only due to the geographical spread of the contributors, but also to permit chapters to be exchanged and commented upon. Overall, the purpose was to enable a thematic coherence to emerge within the volume as a whole. It was also recognized that while we talk about the links between process and product in research practice, along with the need to share experiences, this is often not the case when it comes to the production of edited collections. Given this, the idea of 'pairing' was introduced. The aim here was to make the process of writing for an edited collection more thematic, as well as pleasurable and supportive. The result is a book structured around 'issues in practice' as its main focus. Before moving on to provide an overview of the chapters, it is necessary to situate them in terms of the issues that have informed, in various ways, thinking about the practice of qualitative research. To detail these transformations, brought about by a number of different traditions-for example, feminisms, social constructionist perspectives, critical theory, critical realism, postmodernism and post-structuralism-is not my task here. Nevertheless, it is to draw out some of the themes in order to provide a context for the chapters and part headings that appear in this volume.
Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Oct 2, 2019
British Journal of Psychotherapy, Jul 25, 2019
British Journal of Psychotherapy, Jan 22, 2018
British Journal of Psychotherapy, Oct 19, 2010
My contribution to the development of theory and practice has taken the form of writing and teach... more My contribution to the development of theory and practice has taken the form of writing and teaching based on clinical experience, and for this celebration of the work of Robert (Bob) Hinshelwood I have selected four examples of innovation-the first two in the boundaried setting of a therapeutic community, the third in a temporary organization representing care in the community and the fourth in a community service that requested consultancy following the tragic death of a child.
Journal of Social Work Practice, Jul 1, 1994
Summary Managing mental illness in the community is an anxiety provoking business. Yet the legisl... more Summary Managing mental illness in the community is an anxiety provoking business. Yet the legislative emphasis on business management and rapid re-structuring both creates anxiety in workers and carers and appears to devalue those traditional psychotherapeutic skills which facilitate the containment of anxiety. Anxieties that are put out of mind (not contained) have damaging and dangerous consequences for carers, users and members of the public. This paper is about a ten-week workshop with the task of providing a safe, constructive setting where the anxieties generated by community care of the adult mentally ill could be identified, addressed and thought about. The developments within the workshop are analysed as the process shifts back and forth between paranoid-schizoid and depressive position modes of functioning gradually progressing towards the latter. Members gradually found the ability to combine therapeutic and business management skills so that they could regain their authority in relation to th...
Journal of Social Work Practice, Nov 1, 1985
This article, in two parts, describes first the development of a seminar group which Win Roberts ... more This article, in two parts, describes first the development of a seminar group which Win Roberts and I set up for social workers, to promote the use of group work with clients in hospital settings. Each fortnightly seminar consisted of a discussion on aspects of group work theory and practice, followed by our experiential group. The second part describes one of the client groups that was established for people attending hospital for sub-fertility treatment. Parallels are drawn between group processes in the seminar group and the client group, indicating the value of such a seminar group to provide training, supervision and experience of group work.
Journal of Social Work Practice, May 1, 2001
This paper arises out of psychoanalytically oriented consultancy to teams of staff in the helping... more This paper arises out of psychoanalytically oriented consultancy to teams of staff in the helping professions where there is a statutory 'duty to care'. It takes as its premise the seemingly paradoxical hypothesis that workers may need to split off part of their emotional experience in order to preserve their own mental health and provide reliable services to their clients. I argue that while a professional 'duty to care' requires us to be emotionally 'in touch', the demands of our clients together with the demands of the institutional response to the 'duty to care' cause us to split off parts of our awareness. I also argue that provided the splitting does not become extreme we are doing no more or less than the rest of society. In other words, there is a degree of 'normal splitting' which numbs our awareness of danger and destructiveness and seeks to protect us from too much anxiety and pain. Yet if professional workers are charged with the responsibility of assessing risk and acting accordingly for the protection of all concerned they need ways of being 'in touch' (re-integrating the splits) for some or enough of the time. Finally, I will describe ways of being 'in touch', illustrating the difficulty and the pain of re-integrating the splits and some of the insights that can arise out of this work with examples from my consultancy work.
Routledge eBooks, Apr 4, 2021
Taking the view that failure to explore difference is tantamount to bad psychotherapy I use psych... more Taking the view that failure to explore difference is tantamount to bad psychotherapy I use psychoanalytic theory to identify those dynamics at individual, group and organizational levels that make good work in the area of difference so hard to achieve, whether in the consulting room, the classroom or the workplace. I refer specifically to issues of ethnicity, class, gender and sexuality, though the psychological processes identified would apply to other areas of difference.
Routledge eBooks, 2019
The spatial planning law system in Poland does not ensure spatial order and sustainable developme... more The spatial planning law system in Poland does not ensure spatial order and sustainable development in communes. There is no consistency between the government, voivodeship and local government policies. The legal instruments existing in the present system do not fulfill the role assumed by the legislator. As a result, buildings in the municipalities of the suburban area are mostly in the form of administrative decisions, in addition to the local law, causing the phenomenon of uncontrolled suburbanisation. The article presents statistical data illustrating the state of spatial planning in the communes of the suburban area of Białystok in the scope of local plans, decisions on building and land development conditions and building permits. Conclusions from the analysis of the collected materials confirm the phenomenon of the development of communes of the suburban area of Białystok in an unplanned manner, lasting for over a dozen years.
Journal of Social Work Practice, Jun 1, 2013
Mothers Accused and Abused: Addressing Complex Psychological Needs. Edited by Angela Foster , 2019
This is a book of stories about mothers who are accused of harming and, in some instances, killin... more This is a book of stories about mothers who are accused of harming and, in some instances, killing their children; stories about the children who go onto harm or kill others and about the challenges to professionals, therapists and social workers, who work with them.
The contributors to this edited volume are intentionally drawn from a range of different professions and work in a range of settings. The aim is to bring together thinking from these different strands in order to present as comprehensive a picture as possible about the far reaching impact of neglecting needy mothers and what can be done to address this problem which, if not addressed, is perpetuated through generations.
We argue that the provision of longer term therapeutic help that is comprehensive in addressing the intra-psychic, inter-personal and social problems is not only humane but also cost effective. It puts an end to cycles of abuse and deprivation, prevents a seemingly endless repetition of court hearings, care proceedings and imprisonment and reduces the trauma to both mothers and their children.
A book in 5 parts -
Setting the scene,
The pain of relarionships lived and re-lived,
Mothers in prison,
Interventions following child care proceedings,
Ways forward