Understanding anxiety and facilitating twinship selfobject functions among social workers: Psychodynamic contributions to multicultural education

URL Link

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02650533.2012.719491

Full Citation

Eunjung Lee (2013) Understanding anxiety and facilitating twinship selfobject functions among social workers: Psychodynamic contributions to multicultural education, Journal of Social Work Practice, 27:1, 63-78, DOI: 10.1080/02650533.2012.719491

What diversity/subjectivity topics are they discussing?

Multicultural and cross-cultural relating.

Your summary or comments on the article

This article is focused on teaching, but could just as well apply to supervision, and have value for therapy. She finds that curiosity and a quest for growth and self awareness in the relationship are vital contributors.

Abstract

This article addresses the internal and interpersonal process of learning diversity from the
perspective of students/learners. Following a review of the current literature on multicultural
education, the article examines anxiety about and resistance to diversity training among social
workers and students. As an alternative pedagogical perspective on multicultural education,
the article discusses some constructs in self psychology that have contributed to multicultural
education, in particular the selfobject experience of ‘twinship’ that facilitates personal and
professional self development. Cultivating common ground among participants through the
twinship selfobject function in multicultural education is important for (1) human connection
and relatedness and (2) helping participants regulate their anxiety in dealing with cognitively
loaded and affectively charged issues in multicultural education. Two classroom examples from
the author’s own experience in MSW diversity-training courses illustrate the absence and
presence of the twinship selfobject function in multicultural education.

Resource contributed by:

jen sermoneta