Farhad Dalai of Limbus has written to let us know about the next Limbus Lecture which will be held on November 9th, 2019, at Dartington near Totnes in Devon. Here are fuller details:

The lecture will be presented by Peter Wilson, who will speak about his theme:

Me loves me: What is this thing called: Narcissism? And resistance in Adolescence?

The lecture and discussion will take place between 10.30 am and 1pm, (arrivals from 10am).

The venue is Studio 3, The Space, Dartington Hall, Totnes
The fee is £20 and may be paid online at  Limbus or on arrival at the venue.

Abstract
‘ Narcissism’ is a word that rings resplendently in contemporary popular culture. It seems everyone can be called narcissistic these days one way or the other, some with greater prominence than others. It is no surprise that we are left wondering at the end of it all,.what the word actually means. This paper is an attempt to make sense of narcissism from a psychoanalytic point of view, starting with Freud’s seminal work on the subject and following through to the views of Kohut and Kernberg, in the seventies in Chicago.
The clinical significance of the the concept will be discussed particularly in relation to adolescence – adolescents being immersed as they are in a time of life which is particularly preoccupied with questions of body and psychic identity and integrity. A number of case examples will be given to highlight the technical problems of dealing with what might be called ‘ narcissistic resistance’ in the psychotherapy of adolescents.

Peter Wilson is a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist. He trained in child psychoanalysis at the Hampstead Child Therapy Course and Clinic (now the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families) from 1967 – 1971.
Since then he has held senior positions in the NHS, at the Institute of Psychiatry, Peper Harow Therapeutic Community and the Brent Consultation Centre and the Brandon Centre for adolescents.

He was the co founder and Director of Young Minds, the national child mental health charity and later the Clinical Adviser to the Place2Be charity that provides a comprehensive counselling service in schools across the country. He has been actively involved in policy developments in the field of child and adolescent mental health services and has numerous papers and chapters on a range of subjects relating to child and adolescent development and psychotherapy. He currently lectures and teaches in various institutions, including the Anna Freud National Centre, The Tavistock Centre, The Institute for Arts in Therapy and Education and,the British Psychotherapy Foundation.

Here are dates for future Limbus events to be held during 2020.

Feb 1, 2020 Denise Cullington Ten Things I Love About Psychoanalysis
June 6, 2020 Sarah Benamer Not So Hysterical Now?- Psychotherapy, Menopause & Hysterectomy
Oct 3, 2020 Fellicity De Zulueta TBA
Nov 14, 2020 Mike Tait Meeting and Matching the Moment of Hope

Full Details are available online at Limbus.

Noel Howard, of Social Care Ireland and the editor of CÚRAM, the Irish care magazine, has sent these comments about John Cross and the book Charles Sharpe has written and compiled about John.
The Irish Journal of Applied Social of Applied Social Studies will be a publishing Noel’s full review of the book in a forthcoming issue.

Dear Charles,
Congratulations on the publication of A Shared Experience. It is hard to believe that you only met John in 2008 because reading the book I get a feeling that somehow, you knew each other for far longer.

I think this book comes at a good time for those who work caring for children because, to use a phrase I’ve used elsewhere, the essence of caring is not about commodification but about relationships. In Ireland at any rate, social care workers are more than ever subjected to the jargon of supposed certainties which benefit no one, least of all, children with difficulties.

I find, in reading your book, that John was the real antidote to what now can tie social care workers up in knots – on the one hand regularly encouraged to use their professional judgement and yet when they do, even with positive results, can find themselves facing a bureaucratic nightmare. There was a time, and this is perhaps another example of my dinosaur status, when one could write in a log book, “Tom had a very good morning”, safe in the knowledge that those you worked with and worked for knew what was meant. Now, on good authority, I believe you must detail how and why Tom had a very good morning. The very core of the ebb and flow of life in residential care is now subject to the latest buzz words, one of which at the moment here is “journey”. Everyone, from the cat to the King has to be on a journey of some sort. But enough of my meanderings and back to the book.

The saddest part for me has to be the boy saying to John on his being withdrawn from New Barns by his local authority, “John, you said I could always live here.”
The most infuriating part was of course the story of the trial which kept bringing Arthur Miller’s line in The Crucible to mind…”You are pulling down heaven and raising up a whore.” Most striking of course is your description of John’s lack of bitterness and resentment and in that I think he was a  better man than most. I know, in fact, I’m certain, I would be very far behind him in that attitude. Also, it was lovely to read of Jim Nichol being so impressed by what Eve Foster and Maureen Ward had to say. It struck me that they perhaps were the best inspection service a unit might hope for, somewhat removed but imbibing all that was good around them.
The anecdotes from those who worked with John were, as with most anecdotes about people in this kind of work, quirky and revealing. Of course his innate modesty and true sense of justice were what most come through in the book as well as a thorough delving into what constitutes the therapeutic task.

Interesting you mention that John had no great reliance on theoretical matters and yet there is a very evident theoretical base in his conversations with you and the extracts from his writings. Also, you get across the idea that he was always about with his cup of tea and that can’t be said of many managers now pressurised by all kinds of bureaucratic demands.

Applicable I think to John also and to many who worked with him are those lines from Wordsworth:
That best portion of a good man’s life
His little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.

I hope, Charles, that the book gets the readership it richly deserves and well done in bringing John’s life and times to us.
Noel.

This letter has also been published as a permanent article in the goodenoughcaring Journal.
A Shared Experience John Cross, his life, thoughts and writing by Charles Sharpe, published by Abbeyhill Press Totnes in 2018. Price £7.995
To request a copy of this book email charlessharpe45@icloud.com
All the proceeds of the sale of this book go to sustaining the John Cross Archive currently maintained by PETT at the Barns Centre, Toddington, Glos.

Farhad Dalal informs us that the next Limbus lecture will be on Saturday, June 9th from 10.30am to 1pm at Studio 3, Dartington Hall.

The Lecture, A Fair Chance in Life: Helping Children Flourish will be given by Sue Gerhardt, the author of the deservedly praised, ( in my view, [ed] ), and influential book Why Love Matters : how affection shapes a baby’s brain published in 2004 by Brunner  – Routledge.

On Line Booking through the website

John Cross

John Cross, for over 60 years an influential figure in the field of planned environment therapy in therapeutic communities for children has died aged 85 at his home in Cheltenham. He retired from his role as Director of the Planned Environment Therapy Trust in 2012. Until the onset of his illness in the autumn of 2015,  John continued to be  involved in the daily life of PETT at Toddington in Gloucestershire.

In 1952, his early ambition to take up a place at Durham University and  to become a politician faded on the completion of his National Service when the direction of his life was altered by a summer placement at Bodenham Manor School where David Wills was the Warden. John decided that what was going on at the school felt right and that shared experience in a therapeutic community would provide the pathway for his life. In the following decades John was engaged in the community life of Bodenham Manor School, Herefordshire, Ashley House Remand Home, Worksop, New Heys Reception Centre, Liverpool and New Barns School, Toddington.

At the same time as he was engaged as a member of the group of children and adults at New Barns John became a psychotherapist, served as a magistrate in the Juvenile Justice System, was the Chairman of the Youth and Family Courts and  Vice Chairman of the Gloucestershire Probation Committee.

John maintained his relationships with those who had been with him and his colleagues at New Barns. Over the years he became a ‘best man’ at their weddings and a godparent at the christening of their children many times over.

John played an influential role in a number of other organisations. He was a founding member of the Association of Workers with Maladjusted Children (AWMC) which later became the Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties Association (SEBDA) and for over 40 years served on its Council. Prior to his death was John was the only living founding member of PETT. He was a founding member of other groups too including the Charterhouse Group, Young Minds and the Child Care History Network.

Over his career John wrote and presented a number of influential papers about therapeutic communities and planned environment therapy and he co-authored the controversial 1979 Quaker publication Six Quakers Look at Crime and Punishment: A Study Paper.

John was a Quaker. He was a man modest about his achievements. For him achievement was the shared experience of a community. John is survived by his two sisters Sybil and Cynthia. He will be sorely missed and fondly remembered by so many of the people with whom he shared experience and a community life.

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Here is the text of an interview with John from 2010 and this is the article he wrote for the goodenoughcaring Journal in 2012, Some tentative thoughts on the concept of planned environment therapy is at http://goodenoughcaring.com/the-journal/some-tentative-thoughts-on-the-concept-of-planned-environment-therapy/

Following our recent announcement that issue 19 of  the goodenoughcaring Journal will contain articles by  Justin Frost, Noel Howard, John Stein, Michael Marlowe we are pleased to add Cynthia Cross and Maurice Fenton to the our list of authors for this issue which goes online on June 15th, 2016. Further details will appear on this page soon.

The final teenage issue (no.19) of the goodenoughcaring Journal will be online on June 15^th, 2016. There will be articles by John Fallowfield, Justin Frost, Ni Holmes, Noel Howard, John Stein, Michael Marlowe. More details will be announced in the next few weeks as will news of further articles.