The Endless Review Process

Welcome to the humiliating world of academic writing, Psyche. Being ahead of the curve is not always so great. As a result of being on the publishing track for your Honours Thesis, you don't know any of the 'unspoken rules' of academic publishing, including: dealing with order of authorship, reporting effect sizes and confidence intervals according to APA guidelines, or dealing with a work study student who may have corrupted your entire data file.

Oh, or the delicate emotions involved in CO-authoring.

I want to be clear. I did the bulk of the work on this paper to get it ready for publication, but there is NO way I would have been able to get it in shape or respond to the demand for revisions without help from three other people: a PhD in my lab, my supervisor, and another person who attached to my lab who guided my rewrite of the lit review. I certainly could not have got it done on time. The other side of the coin though, is that I also would not have suffered from sheer blinding panic where some invisible enemy puts my lungs in a giant vice grip and squeezes for an entire week.

Basically, I got the paper accepted to a journal with major revisions and had two weeks to get things done. Having never done this before, I assumed that a two week deadline was a HARD two week deadline. My supervisor was away on vacay... I had NO idea how to deal with some of the reviewer comments... mind boggling... Sure enough... I panically (wrd?) sent out assertive emails that didn't go over too well with the powers that be... stepped on some toes... you know, all the graceless stuff we tend to do without realizing it while stressed out.

I'm so thankful that there is another person in my lab that I could go to when the stats hit the fan and basically be guided through the delicate emotional rats' nest I had got myself into. You know who you are!!! THANK YOU!

So anyway, this brings me to my point. It AMAZES me how many people in this field really need help negotiating relationships. I've always been pretty good with people being direct with me. "Hey Psyche, I don't like what you just did!" "Okay, let's sit down and talk about it." No problem. When I do start to see problems is when people try to avoid problems/conflict, or try to sugar coat it or tip toe around it. Too many questions are left in my mind. Having already worked as a therapist for 5 years, I have something of an idea of how to word things carefully, how to say what I mean, how to use "I" statements and not accuse. Even so, many people can feel threatened by an assertive communiction style, even when worded "perfectly." There is a lot of sensitivity in this field, apparently.

It gets me thinking about how we are all really defending against something most of the time. Like we are all walking around in transference. It amazes me how many people in psychology don't seem AWARE, not just of their transference - but the fact that they are capable of EXPERIENCING TRANSFERENCE.

It's also interesting that there seems to be a bit of an attitude in this program that one should not be in therapy. Like you have PROBLEM if you go to counselling. It really surprised me. I couldn't imagine not being in therapy and being a therapist. I can't imagine becoming a therapist without having been in therapy. How does one do a good job if they've never experienced it from the other side? How can one deal with one's countertransference without a safe and experienced person in the biz to debrief it with? That's not stuff you want to bring home to your partner or family.

I know it's not like this at every school. But it seems to be the case here. Maybe due to the non-psychodynamic outlook. Psychodynamic theory seems to be quite focused on this kind of experiential learning and support. I really like that style. So it will be interesting. I don't have any kind of practicum or anything this year, and when I do, it will be first with assessments, so not counselling of any kind. Still I wonder what kind of opportunities I will find for that kind of therapy experience? Perhaps I'm lucky that I've already worked at the ORG for so long and had some experience and even freedom to experiment with certain therapeutic techniques (narrative, writing, solution-focused etc...)

I'm also very excited that I am finally getting paid for my TAship this month. It's all going to go on the credit card, but still...