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Aims Experiencing shame can be a risk factor for relapse for people recovering from alcohol dependence, but for some it may act as a necessary protective factor for preventing relapse. Knowing how best to manage shame is therefore an important issue, yet the precise nature of the relationship between shame and alcohol dependence remains largely unexplored. Research Questions 1) In what ways do participants tell their stories of shame? 2) How is shame experienced and/or understood by those in recovery from alcohol dependence? Method Eight participants were recruited from Alcoholic Anonymous (AA) groups and invited to tell their story of recovery. Stories were then analysed using a narrative analysis, focusing on how participants narrated their stories and made sense of their experiences of shame in particular. Findings Participants spoke about an inherent deep-rooted negative view about themselves, which was present long before alcohol dependence developed. Alcohol served as a means of connection to others and a way of artificially relieving feelings of worthlessness. Recovery was about finding somewhere safe to talk about feelings of shame and make sense of these experiences. Conclusions The results indicate that management of shame is an important component of recovery programmes for alcohol dependence.

Supplemental material, AUT723836_Lay_Abstract for How pupils on the autism spectrum make sense of themselves in the context of their experiences in a mainstream school setting: A qualitative metasynthesis by Emma I Williams, Kate Gleeson and Bridget E Jones in Autism

Contemporary English abortion law is now typically thought to be a development of the twentieth century, and little academic attention has been paid to its development before the 1938 case of R v Bourne or the Abortion Act 1967. Sir James Fitzjames Stephen’s nineteenth century perspectives on pregnancy, abortion and the doctrine of necessity informing the basis of contemporary governance of abortion, child destruction, and infanticide as distinct from homicide, are often overlooked. Stephen understood abortion, child destruction and infanticide as distinct crimes with a common motivation and intention. The desperation of women to conceal or remedy the ‘miserable’ and emotionally destabilising condition of unplanned pregnancy typically defined each crime; the exception being cases of medical emergency during pregnancy which sometimes defined abortion and child destruction. Stephen argued that punishment required public assent and support in order to deter crime, and severe punishment in these cases rarely had either. In the twentieth century Stephen’s radical Victorian arguments to conceptualise abortion as a legitimate medical procedure (in the case of necessity), and to characterise child-killing as distinct from homicide, were finally effective: his model for law therefore informs contemporary English law in these areas.

Objective: Recent studies have tried to determine which aspects of chronic illness heighten the risk for depression, with functional impairment receiving the most attention. There is growing evidence that functional impairment accounts for most of the association between chronic illness and depression. This study examines the relative contribution of cognitive function, physical function, and chronic illness to depression 2 years later in a nationwide sample of elders aged 70 and older. Methods: This is a longitudinal community-based study of 5,289 elders completing two waves of assessment in the Asset and Health Dynamics among the Oldest Old study. Depression assessment included an abbreviated version of the CES-D and of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (the CESD-8 and the CIDI-S). Cognitive function, physical function, and presence of chronic illness assessed at Wave 1 were examined as predictors of depression at Wave 2 while controlling for Wave 1 CESD-8 score. Results: In a full multivariate model, most baseline cognitive function, physical function, and chronic illness variables predicted depression as measured by the CESD-8 at Wave 2. The associations were markedly weaker between baseline variables and the Wave 2 CIDI-S. The Wave 1 CESD-8 score predicted all-cause mortality by Wave 2 (Z = 3.13; p > Z=0.002) even after controlling for key health and functioning variables. Conclusion: Chronic illness, physical function, and cognitive function all independently predict depressive morbidity in late-life. The CIDI-S appeared less informative about these key relationships when compared to the CESD-8. The significance of depressive symptoms was demonstrated by their independent association with all-cause mortality at 2-year follow-up.

In this thesis I examine the ways in which the modern state addresses sex. I want to ascertain by what considerations the state is informed in its relationship to sex. What is behind the state’s regulation of sexual practices? What is its interest in regard to sex? To answer these questions I examine fundamental artefacts of the modern state, especially the law (but also the bureaucracy), as directed by the 1993 English court case of Brown. Brown involves the search for the sexual subject; The Lords in Brown were at a loss for how to conceptualise the subject before them. Their search is my own: who is the sexual subject? What is his relationship to the state? To answer these questions, Brown directs me for authority to two widely separated moments of supposed classic ‘discontinuity’: the 1957 Wolfenden Report, and the late-Victorian Queen’s Bench. These two moments in government - the 1960s and the 1880s - are usually depicted as ideologically different, indicating discontinuity, difference, change and perhaps even revolution between the relative approaches of the state to sex. And yet, in Brown, both are upheld as appropriate contemporary authorities on sex, the individual and the state. Here I take my cue from the Lords and interrogate the artefacts of these two periods in government to ascertain the story of the 20th century state’s relationship to sex. My thesis is a political analysis that incorporates genealogy in its focus on law as indicative of the state. It incorporates a detailed study of primary artefacts of the state: detailed analyses of seemingly discontinuous moments including individual court cases, individual Committees, individual treatises and opinions and political memoirs. I conclude by drawing together my overall argument, that during the 20th century there has been no radical change of the modern state in regard to sex, and that the success of the permissive mythology has generally blinded us to this fact. Not only have we mistaken the nature of the permissive state as concerned with evolution, we have erroneously been persuaded of the blanket repression of the Victorian state. The big break, the discontinuity of the 1960s, that often is described as ‘revolutionary’ (and inevitable in the teleology of progress), is a re-configuration of the same object as the Victorian state. The permissive state enacts the latest stage in the great Victorian project of embodying the sexual subject – a subject at once embodied and created as an object of control.

Obwohl die Notwendigkeit eines reflexiven Ansatzes in der qualitativen Forschung weithin anerkannt wird, ist das Wissen über Möglichkeiten der Umsetzung im Forschungsprozess vergleichsweise unentwickelt. Bei der Untersuchung von Gesundheitsüberzeugungen von Laien sind die Forschenden selbst mit involviert, und insoweit ist die traditionelle Unterscheidung zwischen "Laien" und "Experten" teilweise hinfällig. In unserem Beitrag beschäftigen wir uns mit einigen theoretischen und praktischen Konsequenzen, die aus dieser Beobachtung erwachsen, am Beispiel einer empirischen Untersuchung, in deren Rahmen der Erstautor gesunde Personen über eine Vielzahl an gesundheitsbezogenen Themen befragte. Zur Unterstützung eines reflektierten Umgangs mit diesem Material wurde der Erstautor von der Zweitautorin entlang des in der Studie verwendeten Leitfadens interviewt; auch dieses Interview wurde wie alle anderen transkribiert und ausgewertet. Wir diskutieren Vorteile und Probleme, die mit diesem Vorgehen verbunden waren. Obwohl wir wissen, dass "Rezepte" zum Umgang mit Reflexivität im qualitativen Forschungsprozess problematisch sind, plädieren wir gleichwohl dafür, solche Strategien systematisch in den Forschungsprozess einzubinden, damit dieser transparent und sensitiv hinsichtlich spezifischer Forschungsinteressen bleibt. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0302266, Although the need for reflexivity in qualitative research is widely acknowledged, the practical means by which researchers can engage in this process are comparatively underdeveloped. Researching lay health beliefs necessarily highlights the researchers' own embodied concerns and thus problematises the traditional distinction between "lay" and "expert" perspectives. We critically examine a range of theoretical and practical issues raised by these observations, with reference to an empirical study that involved the first author interviewing healthy participants about a range of health related topics. As an aid to reflexive practice, the first author was interviewed using the same interview schedule as used with study participants by the second author, this data being subsequently transcribed, coded and analysed in the same way. A range of benefits and difficulties encountered with this strategy are discussed. Acknowledging that there are problems with prescriptions regarding how to approach reflexivity in qualitative research, we nevertheless emphasise the need for the practical implementation of this process to be both clear and sensitive to specific research interests. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0302266, Aunque se reconoce en gran medida la urgencia por la reflexividad en la investigación cualitativa, no está comparativamente desarrollado el conocimiento sobre las posibilidades de su aplicación en el proceso de investigación. Los investigadores mismos están involucrados en investigaciones sobre las creencias que los legos tienen sobre salud, así, la diferencia tradicional entre legos y expertos es en parte débil. En nuestra contribución nos referimos a algunas consecuencias teóricas y prácticas que resultan de esas observaciones a ejemplo de una investigación empírica, en cuyo marco el primer autor interroga a personas sanas sobre una variedad de temas relacionados a la salud. Para el apoyo de un manejo reflexivo de ese material el primer autor fue entrevistado por el segundo autor a lo largo del estudio, también esa entrevista fue transcripta y evaluada como todas las demás. Nosotros discutimos acerca de las ventajas y los problemas que se presentaron en este proceso. Aunque sabemos que es problemático dar recetas para el manejo de la reflexión en el proceso de investigación cualitativa, abogamos no obstante por incluir sistemáticamente tales estrategias en el proceso de investigación, para que permanezca en forma transparente y abierta respecto a los específicos intereses investigativos. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0302266