Understanding Vulnerabilities in Contemporary Society: Psychological Insights and Reflections

Understanding Vulnerabilities in Contemporary Society: Psychological Insights and Reflections explores the constructs of ‘vulnerability’, with an aim to move beyond the linguistic and normative appropriation of the word. It does this by uncovering diverse life experiences of varied individuals and communities who have largely remained unseen and unheard. With dynamically transitioning sociocultural circumstances, the boundaries demarcating the included versus the excluded, the accepted versus the unacceptable other, the endeared versus the disparaged continue to multiply. As we struggle with these numerous identities and categories, we are forced to encounter compounded vulnerabilities. The book explores the various ways in which an individual encounters and even embraces vulnerability in order to ensure survival. To help readers arrive at a broad understanding of the many underlying concerns, the book explores diverse issues such as gender, sexuality, adolescence, child abuse, exploitation, forced migration and homelessness. Based on rigorous empirical work, using traditional and alternative approaches to inquiry, the book provides critical insights for psychosocial and clinical interventions and will especially be of interest to psychologists, therapists and counsellors.

Table of Contents:
Foreword by Girishwar Misra Preface and Acknowledgements Introduction Everything That We Could Carry: Understanding Vulnerabilities in Refugees - Pallavi Ramanathan and Nandita Babu Growing Up Asian-Indian in USA: Identity Development and Psychosocial Adaptation - Revathy Kumar and Sarita Y. Shukla Mental Health Vulnerabilities of the Third-Gender Community - Divyani Khurana and Ishita U. Bharadwaj Voicing Vulnerabilities Around ‘Caste’ Stigma: A Qualitative Study - Ritu Singh and Alka Bajpai Psychological Trauma in Child Sexual Abuse: Withstanding Vulnerability and Nurturing Resilience - Sujata Satapathy and Rajesh Sagar Invulnerable Parkinson’s Caregivers: An Existential Phenomenological Perspective - Supreet Kaur Bhasin and Ishita U. Bharadwaj Positive Deviance: Use of Phenomenon in Vulnerability to Depression - Rajbir Singh, Lokesh Gupta and Dinesh Chhabra Women and Work in Post-reform India: Reality of Vulnerability and Exclusion - Padmini Ravindra Nath and Chandrika Soni Vulnerabilities of Desire: A Qualitative Study with Indian Housewives - Annie Baxi Reflections on Psychic Pain around (In)Fertility and ‘Being’ of a Woman - Ishita U. Bharadwaj The Experience of Vulnerability and Resilience of Adolescent Girls in Slums - Nandita Babu and Varuni Sethi Managing Vulnerabilities of Institution Building and Organizational Change: The Role of Trust - Nidhi Prakash Index

About the Author :
Nandita Babu is a professor, Department of Psychology at the University of Delhi. She was awarded the prestigious Canadian Commonwealth Scholarship for her doctoral research in Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto. As a Fulbright Visiting Fellow, she has worked as an adjunct faculty in San Diego State University, United States. As a developmental psychologist, she has keen interest in areas such as socio-cognitive development in children, literacy acquisition during early childhood and adolescent psychology. Her passion for and expertise in teaching and research are reflected in her many publications and community outreach programmes. Anand Prakash is a professor of psychology at the University of Delhi, and is currently the Head of the Department of Psychology. His academic career spans four decades. He received the Young Scientist award of the Indian Science Congress Association in 1987 and the Career Award of the University Grants Commission (UGC) of India in 1993. He is a Fulbright-Nehru scholar. He has worked in various committees of Government of India, such as the Expert Institution of Eminence and Special Committee of National Education Policy on Inclusion and Equity of the UGC. He was the chairman of the task force formed by Government of India for developing the National Aptitude Test. His publications in Hindi journals and magazines are widely appreciated for making psychology popular.   Ishita U. Bharadwaj is an assistant professor, Department of Psychology at the University of Delhi. With a PhD in existentialism, she is keenly committed to exploring the nuances of qualitative research for understanding the socio-clinical interface around the self and being, gender, psychology of margins, narratives of illness and alternative education. She has been actively engaged in building Manastha, the counselling centre run by the Department of Psychology, University of Delhi. Her recent doctoral supervisions have been in the area of woman and madness, suicide-attempt survivors, psychic pain and healing.