Browsing by Person "Sagan, Olivia"

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Along the Continua: Mentally Ill Artists Uninterrupted
(Nova Science, 2010) Sagan, Olivia; Corrigan, A.
Art making and its interface with dissociative identity disorder: No words that didn’t fit
(Taylor & Francis, 2018-08-21) Sagan, Olivia
Studies point to promising developments in expressive arts therapy work with clients who experience dissociation as one of a constellation of symptoms of trauma. Individuals diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder, however, may be hesitant to engage with long-term therapy and its relationship. This article presents the case of one such individual, a participant in a narrative phenomenological study who was able to develop her own visual art-making practice. Reflections on this practice revealed that it offered a safe place for her to explore the voice of her “parts” hitherto silenced. Her narrative has implications for professionals working in the expressive and talking therapies.
Being-in-the-World of the Sociological Imagination: Understanding Living with and Beyond Cancer
(Routledge, 2017) Pascal, J.; Sagan, Olivia; Cox, G.; Thompson, N.
In this chapter we bring together both C. Wright Mills' sociological and Martin Heidegger's philosophical ways of seeing the world, with the aim of exploring the lived experience of people living with and beyond cancer (PLWBCs). It is important to note at the outset that this chapter is not about dying, or palliative care, but about the meanings created in the face of a cancer diagnosis, with its concomitant possibilities for death. People living with and beyond cancer were once referred to as survivors- and considered the lucky- ones, in that they escaped death. What often goes unrecognized are the losses, which need to be grieved, yet are often rendered invisible in everyday life and everyday discourses of remission and survival.
Between the Lines: The Transitional Space of Learning
(Sense Publishers, 2011) Sagan, Olivia; Boddington, A.; Boys, J.
Can music lessons increase the performance of preschool children in IQ tests?
(Springer-Verlag, 2014) Kaviani, H.; Mirbaha, H.; Pournaseh, M.; Sagan, Olivia
The impact of music on human cognition has a distinguished history as a research topic in psychology. The focus of the present study was on investigating the effects of music instruction on the cognitive development of preschool children. From a sample of 154 preschool children of Tehran kindergartens, 60 children aged between 5 and 6 were randomly assigned to two groups, one receiving music lessons and the other (matched for sex, age and mother's educational level) not taking part in any music classes. Children were tested before the start of the course of music lessons and at its end with 4 subtests of the Tehran-Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale (TSB). The experimental group participated in twelve 75-min weekly music lessons. Statistical analysis showed significant IQ increase in participants receiving music lessons, specifically on the TSB verbal reasoning and short-term memory subtests. The numerical and visual/abstract reasoning abilities did not differ for the two groups after lessons. These data support studies that found similar skills enhancements in preschool children, despite vast differences in the setting in which the instruction occurred. These findings appear to be consistent with some neuroimaging and neurological observations which are discussed in the paper.
Cocreation or Collusion: The Dark Side of Consumer Narrative in Qualitative Health Research
(SAGE, 2016-08-11) Pascal, Jan; Sagan, Olivia
Health, mental health and social care policy are dominated by the imperative of employing person-centred approaches. Such involvement of the 'consumer' is generally claimed to provide a counter-narrative to the psychiatric and medical paradigm of illness. Taking a critical and reflexive standpoint, we find ourselves asking: Is there a dark side to employing person-centred approaches and potential loss and risk to participants themselves? To explore these questions further we undertook a condensed critique of the current mental health, health and social care policy arena. We then move to methodological concerns about ways in which person-centred research, including our own, can inadvertently reproduce the neoliberalist agenda. To conclude, we offer our own lived experiences as a cautionary tale. We also posit that a post-Foucauldian governmentality framework can assist researchers to avoid contributing to the very problems we wish to resolve.
Connection and reparation: Narratives of art practice in the lives of mental health service users
(Routledge, 2012-09) Sagan, Olivia
This article reports on research which set out to explore the meanings attached to community-based arts practice within the lives of individuals with enduring mental health issues. The research was a collaborative venture, with the first phase culminating in a film, which montaged the lives and works of the artists involved. The audio-visual narrative interviews yielded rich data, which may be analysed to explore a number of themes and issues pertinent to understanding this participant profile. However, this article focuses on specific strands in the narratives which enable an exploration of the meanings attached to art practice and to different forms of engagement in the arts. What such meanings may tell us about the individual's strategies for survival, recovery and positive psychological functioning is discussed. The discussion centres on how learning from narratives can be brought to our developing understanding of positive psychology and the role of art practice in well-being. The concluding part of this article looks briefly at how consideration of both positive psychology and psychotherapeutic processes can further our understanding of how art practice and its narratives impact on individuals with enduring mental health difficulties.
Continua - Mentally ill artist students uninterrupted
(Karnac Books Ltd, 2012) Sagan, Olivia; Bainbridge, A.; West, L.
Emotion-Related Words in Persian Dictionaries: Culture, Meaning and Emotion Theory
(2015-09) Kaviani, H.; Sagan, Olivia; Pournaseh, M.
Aimes: Vocabulary, written or oral, may potentially mirror the attitudes, emotionality, thinking styles, mentality and cultural tendencies among people. This research aimed to scrutinise the emotion-related words (ERWs) vs. the cognition-related words (CRWs) of three Persian dictionaries (namely, Moeen, Amid and Moaser), exploring cultural differences in terms of positive/negative and somatic/non-somatic aspects. Method: All entries in these three dictionaries were scrutinised by three independent judges all of whom were psychologists. The final judgments incorporated feedback which included descriptive and qualitative comments provided by a cognitive linguist. Non-parametric data (frequencies and ratios) on somatic/non-somatic, positive/negative and common/uncommon components of the target words were analysed by SPSS for Windows v19. Results: The results show that the ratio of negative ERWs is higher than positive ERWs, compared to both positive and negative CRWs. Moreover, 30-45% of ERWs were somatic (contained body-related component/s). Conclusion: The findings appear to be in line with theories suggesting that people with Eastern cultural backgrounds are more likely to express their feelings through body-related words; a fact that may be correlated with the high level of somatisation symptoms in Eastern countries.
Foreword
(Bloomsbury, 2021-11-18) Sagan, Olivia; Stern, Julian; Sink, Christopher, A.; Ho, Wong Ping; Walejko, Malgorzata
Group attachment through art practice: a phenomenological analysis of being seen and showing
(Emerald, 2015-06-23) Sagan, Olivia; Sochos, A.
The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of a social art practice and group attachment in the life of a mental health service user with a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used as a means by which to explore interview data and bring to bear theories of attachment and psychosocial theories of the creative process. The study found that the process of coming to be seen and showing, relating and narrating, was part of a process enabled by experiences of group attachment within specific groups. These groups appeared to share the core principles of a TC. The artist's improving reflective capacity and art practice informed and strengthened each other within a context of attachment, containment, communication, inclusion and agency (Haigh, 2013). Whilst phenomenological work of this kind is small scale, the nature of the involvement with the participant facilitates a first person narrative which allows unique insight into human meaning making. The study offers pointers regarding the role of social art practice and emphasises the importance of developing attachments as part of mental well-being, as well as the potential role and challenge of this for individuals with severe relational problems. The study stresses the importance of groups that nurture particular experiences such as belongingness and sense of agency, and suggests why these experiences may be more effective for some individuals than one-to-one therapy. The research adds to the debate regarding the benefits of engaging with the arts and the means by which the value of publicly funded community arts projects can be assessed. It also puts forward the case for TCs as potentially offering a substantial springboard not only to recovery but to higher creative functioning.
Heroes and Hostages: The Toll of the Bad Faith Narrative
(Routledge, 2010) Sagan, Olivia
Steeped as we are in a culture of therapy and emotionalism it may seem strange to us now to consider that until relatively recently, expressive writing was not encouraged among individuals who arguably are most in need of expressive outlet, those suffering from mental ill health. Indeed, there are examples of psychiatric patients instead being denied writing materials (Hornstein). Such denial however, apparently only succeeds in making the quest to produce autopathography (Couser ) more forceful and illness and trauma more demanding of expression. A bibliography of first-person narratives of madness compiled by Hornstein has now more than 700 titles listed. The propagation of such narratives extends into mainstream publishing, with an entire genre being steadily built up. Mainstream literature has also embraced stories about such stories with the creation of characters who, locked in psychiatric institutions, write out their story on unwanted paper-surplus to requirements which is then imprisoned under the floor-board (Barry ).
“Hope crept in”: A phenomenological study of mentally ill artists’ biographic narrative
(Routledge, 2014-10-30) Sagan, Olivia
Background: The ways in which involvement in art practice may support a recovery trajectory in the lives of the mentally ill are well documented although evidence is charged with lacking clarity and of being inconclusive. Numerous studies, however, indicate benefits such as cognitive distraction; ''derailing'' of negative thinking patterns; increased social capital; and enhanced sense of belonging. Aims: This study used narrative interviews to explore what meanings were made by people with mental health difficulties of engaging in an ongoing visual art practice. Methods: Phenomenological Interpretative Analysis (IPA) was used to analyse 50 interviews. Two superordinate themes of regression and progression were identified through which to explore the shifts in narrative between exploring one's past and looking ahead to the future. In this context, the theme of hope emerged, and the research explored the ways in which the individual's art practice was implicated in engendering and sustaining it. Results: Results suggest that artistic activity facilitated a contained autobiographical analysis and a reimagining of oneself in the future, in which hope played a fundamental part. Conclusion: This research suggests that a dialectic between despair and hope is facilitated by the autobiographic elements of an art practice. Through this movement from a perceived static past to a more fluid future is experienced.
Impacts of COVID-19 restrictions on Scotland’s Refugees: Sudden-onset isolation in a neglected population group.
(Queen Margaret University, 2021-09-14) Vidal, Nicole L.; Salih, Maleeka; Strang, Alison; Sagan, Olivia; Smith, Cameron
This report summarises the findings of a rapid COVID-19 response research project led by the Institute for Global Health and Development at Queen Margaret University, working with support from the Scottish Refugee Council and Scottish Local Authorities. The research cohort were refugees and asylum seekers receiving services from either the Scottish Refugee Council or Local Authorities and their respective partners.Vidal
Insight on OutReach: Towards a critical practice
(Intellect, 2010) Sagan, Olivia; Candela, E.; Frimodig, B.
This article touches on several kinds of arts practices and activities that bear upon debates concerning the social role of the arts. This then informs our main argument that a re-examination needs to take place of the arts outreach activities undertaken by institutions of higher arts education (HAE). We suggest that the boundaries between socially engaged contemporary art practice, community arts and the arts outreach activities of institutions, with their contested terms and multiple perspectives, are more porous than often suggested and would benefit from a fluidity of debate in and through them. We also argue that the theory, socio-political motivation and ensuing practice which powers arts outreach should, in many instances, be re-energized with a radicalization in line with twenty-first century polyphonic concerns. These ideas are explored through the lens of Insight on OutReach, an outreach project at University of the Arts London.
Interminable knots: hostages to toxic stories
(Routledge, 2011-03-23) Sagan, Olivia
This paper presents one case study from a five-year psychosocial exploration of the auto/biographic activity of a small group of mental health service users. Each individual voluntarily took part in a weekly basic expressive literacy course in which they were encouraged to improve their writing skills. Biographic narrative interviews which employed a free-associative approach were conducted with the participants over the research period. In addition, the literacy sessions were observed, and the written products analysed to track changes in auto/biographic representation. Interviews gradually developed to reveal insights into the way auto/biography, narrative, learning and writing were being used by the participants, each of whom was a 'newcomer' to both expressive writing and auto/biographical activity. This paper will give a brief overview of some of the findings across the group which suggest the possible reparative processes involved in auto/biographic writing. However, it appeared that both a constructive and destructive use was made of the thinking processes in the transitional space which was constructed by the literacy sessions, the written product and the interviews. Biographical data suggested the deployment of various defence mechanisms, triggered by a complex interplay of psychological and socioeconomic factors but also by the impacts of particular forms of mental illness. Despite the literature documenting the sanguine effects of much auto/biographic engagement, from the 'talking cure' to current records of expressive writing amongst mentally ill individuals, this research unearthed some evidently more troubling processes. These sometimes enmeshed the writer and researcher in the interminable knots of remembering and repeating, incarcerating the individual in the claustrophobic plot of a toxic story.
The is-ness of things: reflections on observation used in contexts where words are hard to find
(Routledge, 2025-04-24) Sagan, Olivia
Leaving or Staying “Home” in a Time of Rupture: International Students’ Experiences of Loneliness and Social Isolation during COVID-19
(2024-01-04) Wallen, Linnea; Sagan, Olivia; Scally-Robertson, Mhairi
During COVID-19, international students were faced with the decision of remaining in their country of study or returning to their home countries, with little knowledge of when they would next be able to return or leave. Both choices left the students vulnerable to feelings of loneliness and social isolation. This paper examines how international students at a Scottish university experienced and navigated leaving or staying “home” and how loneliness and social isolation characterised these experiences. We further contextualise these experiences through Holbraad et al.’s (2019) prism of “rupture”. The data were generated between February-July 2021 through semi-structured focus groups and qualitative questionnaire comments and were analysed through Thematic Analysis. We discuss three themes: 1) Liminal Friends and Strangers, 2) Sense of Home and Family, and 3) Staying or Leaving the Country. The study contributes to the expanding body of research on experiences of loneliness and social isolation amongst international students.
Legacy of art making: Finding the world
(Palgrave, 2022-02-02) Sagan, Olivia; Walker, Carl; Zlotowitz, Sally; Zoli, Anna
Arts in Health has become both an umbrella term for a variety of creative interventions in health settings and for a disciplinary arena in which the borders of psychology, therapy and community arts practice are blurred, indeed contested. In its many practices, the roles of patient and expert are reimagined and relationships renegotiated. There is often an allegiance, albeit one often not articulated, to Freirean and Feminist pedagogy where learning is experiential and has the potential to be transformative. Such practices are underpinned by a tacit acknowledgment that the nature of ill-health is complex; and that understanding it better requires individual biographies and trajectories to be seen as embedded within a given socioeconomic climate and culture. This chapter draws on a community-based arts project in which artists with histories of mental health difficulties collaborated in the making of a film about their practice. Described elsewhere (Sagan 20011; 2012; 2014) the project is revisited to foreground one aspect of the data, that of the legacy of art making practices in terms of a shift in understanding of the self and other. This legacy can include a heightened political and moral awareness and a more meaningful engagement in various forms of activism and resistance. This, it is speculated, is a more sustainable and conscious engagement as it is embedded and embodied as part of a person’s narrative identity. The chapter revisits the narratives of the participants who reflect on art making, personal discovery, community activism, and giving an account of oneself (Butler, 2005). This experience is considered through a psychoanalytic phenomenological lens (Atwood & Stolorow, 2014) exploring how subtle shifts in the relationship with(in) I and I and Thou (Buber, 1958) occur. This is specifically explored via Hannah Arendt’s (1973) work on loneliness and the ways in which a political system can alienate and isolate people. The ‘loss of the world’ (Arendt, 1968) experienced acutely in mental illness is considered, and it is suggested that a restoration of a sesnse of the world can be achieved through art making practices. Psychoanalytic phenomenological thinking that brings together psychoanalytic understanding of inter and intra-relationship with the conceptualisation of our Being-in-the-world (Heidegger, 1962) offers a useful framework for exploring complex human experience on the borders of mental reparation, agency and personal transformation. It offers a means by which we can also illuminate legacy changes in the way we think of ourselves, others and the world and critically re-consider our community participatory interventions.
The loneliness epidemic
(British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, 2022-11-29) Sagan, Olivia