Keep on Dreaming~

Foster Care Queensland is having its annual Foster Care Conference across the weekend of August 4-5, 2007. Held this year at the Functions Centre, Southport Sharks AFC Southport the conference theme is: “Fostering- Rebuilding the Dreams“. Foster carers, kinship and relative cares as well as Government and non-Government workers, and other stakeholders are encouraged to attend.

Here are some further details:

Registration will take place in the foyer from 5:00pm – 7:00pm on

Friday evening and again from 8:00am – 9:00am on Saturdaymorning.

Saturday Traditional Welcome

9:00am Official Opening – Desley Boyle, Minister DChS

Keynote Speaker – Dr Howard Bath – former Executive Director of

Barnardo’s and Marymead Child and Family Centre, current

Executive Director of Thomas Wright Institute.

Workshops 1 x am 1 x pm (1.5 hours each)

Foster Care Queensland Inc Annual Recognition Dinner

MC – David Bradford, Redcliffe DChS

Keynote Speaker – Bob La Castra

Sunday Workshop (1.5hours)

9:00am Conference Close – Robin Sullivan

Overview of Conference 2008

Lunch 1:00 pm
More details about the workshops available can be accessed here

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I am really looking forward to the event. Imaginif… in the future I can put together a poster to present myself, or maybe even present! Who knows, till then, it will be great to network, learn and hopefully bring a lot back to the kids in my care; As well as share with those others in foster communities. Will keep you updated, meanwhile don’t forget that there is a competition ending soon over at Imaginif…

We Don’t Need a Brain

How amazing life is. Neurocognition students might like to have a read of an article (and links) over at Corpus Callosum. The report is on recent finding of a 44 year old French man who has minimal brain tissue yet goes to work each day, maintains family relationships, walks, talks, reads and processes the days events much like the rest of us.

As MRIs, PET and CAT scans were not available when he was a child his experience of water-on-the-brain went without a complete neurological assessment. As an adult he had some leg pain, brain scans were part of the diagnostics, and walla! Wonders of wonders, plasticity had adapted available brain tissue to ensure that he functioned as well as many of us “normals,” if not better (he is a tax officer, this indicates a high degree of patience methinks).

His ventricles had enlarged to an enormous degree and so most of his brain consists of fluid. It has been suggested that his ability to function may be due to small changes continuously over time.

I remember as an undergrad watching a doco on a young Japanese boy who had only a small amount of brain surrounding his brain stem. He too was surprising doctors with his abilities at communication, locomotion and emotional intelligence. He was not functioning to the level of other kids his age (he was about 4 at that time), but he was engaging with the world around him, expressing joy and anger, and relishing the committed love of his mum.

The doco went on to say the boy’s ability to function beyond that expected was probably because mum spent so much time stimulating his senses through touch, sound, colour and movement.

Over at Alternative Science is an article about a uni student performing quite well with a similar minimal brain. Again, hydrocephalus was evident.

It also presents a healthy debate topic for psychology and the concept of consciousness. It may be, as the scriptures of old have foretold – a brain is not necessary] for existence.

For some “brainest” snarks about public servants and brain size skip to here.

Analysis of Psychoanalysis through Alfred Hitchcock’s Films

As a psychology tutor and perpetual student of the science of psychology (it is!), I love to sit down to be thrilled by a Hitchcock movie ~ misogynist yes unfortunately, and yet such a clever director delivering engaging characters and thought-provoking story lines. The most recent viewing of an AH film for me was The Birds, enthralling to watch as I live in tropical Far North Queensland where birds (and bats) forever fly through the house (I live in a QLDer; a house which is actually one big open window), unless they are a Pee-Wee and then they stroll (past the two cats!) stopping to pick up dropped breakfast crumbs.

Over at Neurophilosophy http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2007/07/the_psychology_of_alfred_hitch.php

an intriguing article reminds us that AH was one of the first directors to introduce a psychological focus to his narratives. It is pointed out that although AH had his reservations about Freud and the psychoanalytic approach…

… AH relied on the use of numerous psychoanalytic symbols and motifs in his movies.Repression is one of the Defence Mechanisms of Freud’s that is noted to be highlighted in AH films; another being the Oedipus Complex; however, the most overriding archetype that is reportedly featured across AH genre of narratives is that of the Strong Mother Figure. However, how one operationalizes the concept of “strong” is clearly debatable. Personally, I think that Norman Bates mother was not a “strong mother figure” because she was highly authoritarian and extended long arduous punishments to her son. Whereas, Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hendren), in The Birds (1963), is a character I identify as a SMF because she often takes the lead in interactions and relationships, is not adverse to taking risks, she also does not appear to threatened by other women when it comes to the game of love, and does not hesitate to take charge of a situation when she feels she can; regardless that at the end of the film she is catatonic – induced by a bird attack, not from a broken heart.

For psychology students, or students of the history of, I endorse the idea of attending to AH films to see how one director utilized and evaluated the psychoanalytic approach. Students often ask me how to better understand how a particular school of thought would interpret an even or person; Mo has provided an insightful direction.

To develop a better understanding of psychoanalysis for you, the following links may be a starting point:

Freudian Themes in Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Spellbound’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A596748

Personality, Pathology, and the Act of Creation:
The Case of Alfred Hitchcock
http://www.peele.net/lib/hitch.html

Psychoanalysis in Bringing up Baby and Vertigo
http://www.offscreen.com/biblio/phile/essays/baby_vertigo/

be thrilled; beware your navel gazing~