Abstracts
Abstract
«THE HIDDEN DIMENSION : THE CIRCULAR INDEX» AN INTRODUCTION TO RE-EDUCATION PROGRAMS WITHIN THE COMMUNITY
It was in seeking to define and operationalize the prevention of juvenile delinquency that we discovered the circular index. First we will describe the method we followed in a clinical experiment and study on the marginal adolescent as he interacts with his school environment. Then we discuss our new understanding. Instead of seeing the social reality piecemeal, we saw it as a whole. There always seems to be a greater and greater distance between the evaluation in the form of detection, psycho-social and criminological evaluation and the supportive programs we are trying to elaborate and apply for reeducation within the community.
The nosographic school is represented by the work of Hochman (1971). He asks whether this school has not reached its limits; he doubts its descriptive and prescriptive value. Nonetheless, we ask him to give us time, for to answer categorically in the affirmative can have grave consequences for a country or a province. While agreeing that our clinical and research theory belongs to a part of the nosographical school, it is not so much its descriptive and prescriptive value that is in question as the relationship between the two entities.
This is why we are making a brief inventory of the outside restraints on our own clinical thinking. Among these, there is the lack of time available to the practitioner, his lack of resources, his inability to refer to the past, the difficulty of sharing his experience with that of others in a scientific manner, the mobility and uncertainty of the practitioner, etc.
Second, we raise a number of restraints which are part of the clinical thinking of the practitioner. Two general types of restraints are described. The first refers to the different theoretical frames of reference of the practitioner, the second particularly concerns his work methods.
Third, we place the linear index against the circular index. The linear index is defined as any evidence by which the first characteristic questions the individual's relations with abstract entities. The circular index is defined as any evidence attributed to an individual in relation to systems and groups. As to the systematizing of the circular index, we will have to wait another few months. Nevertheless, an example of the circular index is given through the study of a negative gang in the neighbourhood.
The last part of the article deals with palliatives that can be used to reduce internal and external restraints on the clinical thinking and can but encourage this dialectic between the descriptive and prescriptive elements of the nosographic school. Among these palliatives, there is an urgent need to make an inventory of circular indices, to put them in order and to find the best methods to obtain them. In addition, a clinical table_mjist be constructed connecting the different resource items the practitioner needs to apply various supportive programs within the community once the accent is placed on rehabilitation, socialization and or the clinical prevention of the behaviour, and or the structure of the marginal personality.
As a last palliative, we describe a way in which we give the client the evaluation we have made of him, explaining to him his behavioural and psychodynamic profile. For us, the aim of this last palliative is not only to evince greater respect for the client, but also to recognize his potential participation in his own program of treatment.
Resumen
LA DIMENSION ESCONDIDA EN CRIMINOLOGIA CLINICA :
EL INDICE CIRCULAR
ENSAYO SOBRE LA REEDUCACION EN MEDIO LIBRE
El autor cree haber descubierto el indice circular al intentar definir y operacionalizar la prevencion de la delincuencia juvenil. Describe, en la primera parte de su trabajo, el itinerario seguido gracias a una experiencia a la vez clinica y de investigacion, la cual ha puesto en inter-accion al adolescente marginal con su medio escolar. Enseguida se llega a la fase de la explosion. A una vision hasta entonces dividida de la realidad social, el autor opone una vision global de la misma. A su parecer, existe siempre una distancia cada vez mas grande entre la parte evaluativa — en forma de deteccion y evaluacion psicosocial y criminologica — y los programas de sosten que se intentan elaborar y aplicar en medio libre.
Refiriendose a Hochman (1971), el autor descubre la razon nosografica. Hochman se pregunta si esta razon no esta caduca y duda de su valor descriptivo y prescriptivo. Sin embargo, el autor pide se aplace este debate puesto que contestar categoricamente por una afirmacion puede tener consecuencias enormes para un pais. Admitiendo que el racional clinico y de investigacion utilizado pertenece a la razon nosografica, el autour pone en tela de juicio menos el valor descriptivo y prescriptivo de dicha razon nosografica que la relacion existente entre estas dos entidades.
De esta manera consigue realizar un inventario, que no pretende ser completo, de las limitaciones exteriores al racional clinico. Entre estas pueden citarse : la falta de tiempo de que dispone el especialista, la carencia de recursos puestos a su disposicion, la imposibilidad de efectuar retrospecciones, la dificultad de compartir de manera cientifica su experiencia con la de otros, la mobilidad e inestabilidad del especialista, etc.
En una segunda etapa, el autor expone algunas limitaciones pertenecientes al racional clinico del especialista y describe dos grandes categorias de limitaciones : la primera se refiere a los diferentes marcos teoricos de referencia del especialista, la segunda concierne particularmente los metodos de trabajo del mismo.
En una tercera fase, el autor opone los indices lineal y circular. Define el primero como todo signo cuya principal propiedad consiste en presentar al individuo en sus relaciones con entidades abstractas. En cuanto al indice circular, es definido como todo signo atribuido a un individuo en relacion con sistemas y conjuntos. Por lo que se refiere a la sistematizacion del indice circular, habra que esperar aun varios meses. Sin embargo, presenta un ejemplo de dicho indice a partir del estudio de una banda negativa del barrio.
La ultima parte del articulo se refiere a los paliativos que pueden ser utilizados con vistas a reducir las limitaciones internas y externas del racional clinico y que solo pueden favorecer la dialectica entre las partes descriptiva y prescriptiva de la razon nosografica. Entre dichos paliativos figuran la urgencia de efectuar un inventario de los indices circulares, de sistematizarlos, de descubrir los mejores metodos para obtenerlos. Ademas, es urgente construir un cuadro clinico que ponga en relacion las diferentes unidades de recursos que el especialista necesita para elaborar y aplicar diferentes programas de sosten en medio libre, segun que se insista en la reeducacion, la socializacion o la prevencion clinica de la conducta o de la estructura de la personalidad marginal.
Como ultimo paliativo, el autor describe un metodo utilizado para devolver al cliente la evaluacion que sobre el se ha efectuado, explicandole su perfil comportamental y psicodinamico. Este ultimo paliativo tiende no solamente a respetar mas al cliente, sino tambien a reconocerle un potential de participacion en su proprio programa de tratamiento.