by Corina on 21 May 2013
The fascinating Adler Museum of Medicine was the venue for the launch of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy in South Africa, edited by Prof Cora Smith, Dr Glenys Lobban and Prof Michael O’Loughlin. It might sound like a book aimed only at academics, students and psychotherapy practitioners, but this latest title from Wits University Press is meant to appeal to non-medical readers as well. It is described as a must-read for anyone concerned with individual and social change in the South African context and challenges readers to think beneath the surface of South African life.
Professor Cora Smith, one of the editors of this collection, told the launch guests that the book was suggested by Dr Glenys Lobban, who graduated from Wits with a Master’s Degree and went on to do her PhD in Psychoanalytic Studies at New York University. When she returned to South Africa, she made a generous donation to the Wits Medical School and was most impressed with the psychodynamic work being done locally, which led to her suggesting that it be published. Professor Smith approached a number of her colleagues and asked if they would be prepared to share their work.
She described how there has been little formal training in classical psychoanalysis in South Africa and that the vast majority of South Africans could not afford expensive long-term training, or indeed psychoanalysis. Practitioners have had to adapt their models of psychodynamic therapy and adjust their concepts to a diverse context, which they have developed as part of their practice and training.
This has proved to be a positive influence as most countries face financial restrictions and the limitations of managed health care and are now seeking short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy models. Also, with the advent of the digital age, young people have less patience for long-term methods and seek shorter term treatments with quicker results. Globally, the reality of multiculturalism requires psychotherapy models that are more sensitive to diversity. This global pressure to produce effective short-term psychodynamic models in diverse cultural, religious, ethnic and racial contexts has meant that South Africa has come into its own in this area.
Professor Smith described the work of the ten contributors to this publication, who have done work in areas ranging from race and racism, violence, crime and trauma, the relationship between classical psychoanalytic psychotherapy and traditional healing practices, gender relations and domestic violence, serial murder and AIDS orphans, to dealing with post-conflict trauma. She gave special thanks to the dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Professor Ahmed Wadee, for his full support for the project, and to the Wadee Trust who provided half the finances for the project, along with the Faculty.
Lastly, she thanked all the patients whose case studies make up this volume. “Grateful thanks to our patients for sharing their lives and their pain with us and for teaching us what we know.”
Professor Wadee said that this publication represents a major achievement for the Faculty. He was most impressed by the indigenous knowledge it contains and how it puts things in perspective.
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by Corina on 21 May 2013
As part of Africa Day celebrations at Wits University, Wits University Press, Centre for Africa’s International Relations and Wits International Relations Department invite you to a launch and discussion of three recently published books dealing with questions of peace, security and development in Africa.
The books that will be launched are Peacebuilding, Power and Politics in Africa by Gwinyayi A Dzinesa and edited by Devon Curtis, Region-building in Southern Africa : Progress, problems and prospects edited by Chris Saunders, Gwinyayi A Dzinesa and Dawn Nagar as well as The EU and Africa: From Eurafrique to Afro-Europa edited by Adekeye Adebajo and Kaye Whiteman.
A panel of African scholars will discuss these books from the prism of South Africa’s current engagement in African conflicts, Africa’s relations with Europe, and the celebrations surrounding the 50th anniversary of the formation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the predecessor of the African Union (AU).
Event Details
- Date: Thursday, 23 May 2013
- Time: 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM
- Venue: Seminar Room
Southwest Engineering Building,
East Campus,
Wits University | Map
- Speakers: Prof Gilbert M Khadiagala, Professor of International Relations at Wits; Dr Adekeye Adebajo, Executive Director, Centre for Conflict Resolution; Prof Siba Grovogui, Professor of International Relations, Department of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
- RSVP: corina.vanderspoel@wits.ac.za
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by Mafeno on 16 May 2013
Join Michael de Jongh as he discusses his book Roots and Routes: Karretjie People of the Great Karoo: The Marginalisation of a South African First People at the Bayworld Complex in Port Elizabeth. This book has recently received the Hiddingh-Currie Award 2013.
The discussion is part of Bayworld’s celebration of International Museum Day. De Jongh will also be available to sign books.
Don’t miss it!
Event Details
- Date: Tuesday, 21 May 2013
- Time: 6:00 PM for 6:30 PM
- Venue: Bayworld Complex,
Beach Road,
Humewood,
Port Elizabeth | Map
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by Sandy on 16 May 2013
South Africa supposedly has one of the best Constitutions in the world, one which is intended to control and constrain the exercise of power by the state so that it does not threaten the liberty and security of citizens. But, in reality, does the Constitution contribute more to the security of some groups than others? Does it help to ensure certain types of security but not others? And does it have greater impact on some institutions than others? Falls the Shadow: Between the Promise and Reality of the South African Constitution is based on the assumption that the Constitution has a significant impact on the security of South African citizens and communities but that this impact is differential.
The chapters in the book explore what kind of differential impact the Constitution has, explain what accounts for the differences, examine the consequences of the different impact and consider whether there are any general observations and hypotheses that emerge from comparative perspectives.
CONTENTS
Chapter 1: Introduction – Mind the Gap! – Dr Laurie Nathan (Research Fellow at the University of Cape Town and the Crisis States Research Centre, London School of Economics)
Chapter 2: You can’t eat the Constitution: Is democracy for the poor? Adv Tseliso Thipanyane
Chapter 3: Access to justice: The role of legal aid and visil society in protecting the poor – Dr Kristina Bentley
Chapter 4: Xenophobia – Whose Rights? Whose Safety? – Judith Cohen (Head of Programme: Parliamentary and International Affairs Programme, South African Human Rights Commission)
Chapter 5: Custom and constitutional rights: an impossible dialogue? – Mazibuko Jara
Chapter 6: Access to social security: miners fighting for their health rights in South Africa – Meryl du Plessis
Chapter 7: Judicial Selection: What qualities make for a good judge? – Susannah Cowen
Chapter 8: Judicial Appointments: Do procedural shortcomings hinder access to justice? – Abongile Sipondo and Chris Oxtoby
Chapter 9: Intelligence Bound: The South African Constitution and Intelligence Services – Dr Laurie Nathan
Conclusion – Things fall apart: the centre cannot hold – Prof Richard Calland (University of Cape Town)
About the editors
Laurie Nathan is a research fellow at the University of Cape Town and the London School of Economics (LSE). At LSE he co-ordinates a research programme on regional security and is a member of the Management Committee of the Crisis States Research Centre. He is a member of the United Nations Mediation Roster and the United Nations Security Sector Reform Experts Roster.
Richard Calland is an Associate Professor in Public Law at the University of Cape Town. His latest book is Anatomy of South Africa: Who Holds the Power? (Zebra Press, 2006). He is co-director of the International School for Transparency, secretary-general of the African Network of Constitutional Lawyers and a senior associate of the University of Cambridge’s Programme for Sustainability Leadership.
Kristina Bentley is Senior Research Officer with the Democratic Governance and Rights Unit in the Department of Public Law at the University of Cape Town. She is author (with Adam Habib) of Racial Redress and Citizenship in South Africa (HSRC Press, 2008 and Assistant Editor of Politikon, the official journal of the South African Association of Political Studies (SAAPS).
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- Falls the Shadow: Between the Promise and Reality of the South African Constitution edited by Kristina Bentley, Laurie Nathan, Richard Calland
EAN: 978191989590166
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by Corina on 16 May 2013
In his short story, “Propaganda by Monuments”, Ivan Vladislavic describes a South African shebeen owner who writes to Russia to ask for one of their “surplus” statues of Lenin. In her book, Picturing Change: Curating visual culture at post-apartheid universities, Brenda Schmahmann references Vladislavic’s story as she describes how Danie de Jager’s sculpture of four galloping horses, titled “Freedom Sculpture”, was moved from Strijdom Square to the University of Pretoria in 2007.
De Jager’s widow, Elsa, was hesitant about the move, as she was worried that it would be vandalised because of it’s history and meaning, and she suggested the Voortrekker Monument‘s Heritage Centre as an alternative venue. She had previously explained that the sculpture “was related to South Africa becoming a republic and in the process getting away from its British colonial past and the very tragic implications it had in particular for the Afrikaner”.
The new plaque that was attached to the sculpture by the university does not mention its past, leading Schmahmann to ask, “But can such a sculpture be rehabilitated? Is a simple act of decontextualisation sufficient to liberate it from its ignominious past?”
Read the excerpt in the Mail & Guardian:
In his short story entitled Propaganda by Monuments, Ivan Vladislavic imagines a scenario in which a South African shebeen owner secures one of Russia’s colossal “surplus” statues of Lenin to adorn his premises in Atteridgeville.
In response to his letter sent to Russia in early 1992, Boniface Khumalo receives the provisional promise of a 7m-high head of VI Lenin to enable a transformation of his business from the Boniface Tavern into the VI Lenin Bar & Grill. With the letter indicating the positive response to his inquiry in his pocket, Khumalo visits the site in Pretoria formerly known as Strijdom Square.
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by HSRC Press on 15 May 2013
Nazmeera Moola writes about the current state of South African unions in the latest Financial Mail online. She quotes from the preface to HSRC Press’ COSATU’s Contested Legacy, which describes the umbrella organisation as “a movement that has inspired thousands of men and women in various occupations to take charge of their lives by combining in trade unions across different industries to defend life, limb and dignity in the face of a dehumanising socioeconomic system”.
Moola suggests that wage increases are a short-term solution and that the “long-term solution is to improve government service delivery so that workers’ average living conditions improve”:
I was chatting recently to a petrol attendant who said his monthly wage of R 4, 500 made it very difficult to support the eight people in his extended family who depended on him. SA has talked a lot about the low “social wage” (namely, poor service delivery) in the past year. But there is also the high unemployment rate, which causes the average wage earner to support a large number of people.
The union movement in SA is at a critical juncture. The preface to the 2012 book Cosatu’s Contested Legacy, edited by Sakhela Buhlungu and Malehoko Tshoaedi, describes the history of the organisation as “the story of a movement that has inspired thousands of men and women in various occupations to take charge of their lives by combining in trade unions across different industries to defend life, limb and dignity in the face of a dehumanising socioeconomic system”.
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