The Barretstown Experience Author(S) Kearney, Peter James Publication Date 2011-12 Original Citation Kearney, P.J

The Barretstown Experience Author(S) Kearney, Peter James Publication Date 2011-12 Original Citation Kearney, P.J

UCC Library and UCC researchers have made this item openly available. Please let us know how this has helped you. Thanks! Title The Barretstown experience Author(s) Kearney, Peter James Publication date 2011-12 Original citation Kearney, P.J. 2011. The Barretstown experience. PhD Thesis, University College Cork. Type of publication Doctoral thesis Rights © 2011, Peter J. Kearney http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ Item downloaded http://hdl.handle.net/10468/695 from Downloaded on 2021-10-10T19:37:21Z The Barretstown Experience Peter James Kearney PhD Thesis University College Cork Department of Sociology, School of Philosophy and Sociology. December 2011 Head of Department: Professor Arpad Szakolczai Supervisor: Dr Kieran Keohane TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration …………………………………………………………. 6 Acknowledgements ……………………………………………………. 7 1. Abstract …………………………………………………………. 8 2. Introduction ………………………………………………………… 12 3. The Barretstown Experience as a Rite of Passage INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………...... 27 Barretstown in History EXPERIENCE, SOCIAL DRAMAS AND RITES OF PASSAGE ….. 28 The Experience of Camp Experience and Ritual Social Dramas Ritual Communication Ritual Types Rites Of Passage Stigma CHILDHOOD CANCER AND SOCIAL THEORY ………………… 42 THE BARRETSTOWN EXPERIENCE …………………………..... 44 Rites of Separation Liminality, Communitas Reintegration DISCUSSION ……………………………………………………..... 51 CONCLUSION …………………………………………………….. 57 4. Tripartite Camp Experiences in America, U.K., and Europe INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………... 60 The Painted Turtle Outreach L’Envol, France and Over The Wall, U.K. Imus Ranch TRIPARTITE EXPERIENCES …………………………………….. 72 Social Alchemy 5. Serious Fun: the motto of Barretstown begets playful mimesis INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………….. 78 The Fun – Play Relation THEORIES OF PLAY AND MIMESIS …………………………….. 81 PLAY ……………………………………………………………….. 82 The Main Characteristics of Play Play Development Therapeutic Recreation 2 Traditional Theories of Play The Aesthetics of Play The Imaginary Locus of Play Relations The Ambiguity of Play MIMESIS ………………………………………………………….. 94 Triangular Mimesis Proximal Mimesis Distal Mimesis Modernity and External Mimesis Mimesis of Apprenticeship and Appropriation Unconstrained Mimesis and the Scapegoat Mechanism Mimetic Innovation and the Gift Relationship 6. Grace, Beauty and Irenic Transformation INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………… 108 The Subjunctive Mood of Mimesis-Play Ludic Liminality and Cultural Creativity GRACE …………………………………………………………… 111 The Supernatural Dimension The Unseen Hands of God and the Market IRENIC TRANSFORMATIONS …………………………………. 115 Rites of Passage and Grace Epiphanic Moments In Worship: Epiphanic Art The Wreath of Wild Olive The Gracing of Dionysus The Three Graces THEORETICAL SUMMARY …………………………………… 122 AFTERTHOUGHT ………………………………………………. 130 7. Salutogenesis: The Elixir of Life – a Principle of Heterostasis INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………... 132 History of Concept Etymology The Disability Paradox and Quality of Life Salutogenesis and Flow Salutogenesis and Pathogenesis HOMEOSTASIS …………………………………………………. 139 Health or Pathology – the medical paradigm HETEROSTASIS ………………………………………………… 144 Salutogenesis and Quality of Life – the social paradigm The Homeostatic Heterostatic Relation The Heterostatic Spirit of Greed and Grace COMPONENTS OF SALUTOGENESIS ………………………… 149 SENSE OF COHERENCE ……………………………………….. 150 3 RESOURCES …………………………………………………….. 152 Outsourced Human Resources Generalised Resistance Resources 18. The River of Life THE RIVER OF RISK ……………………………………… 157 Pathogenic Risk THE RIVER OF LIFE ……………………………………… 157 Salutogenic Challenge The Society of Munchausen and Pangloss Illness and Disease A PAEDIATRIC PERSPECTIVE ON SALUTOGENESIS … 162 Sense of Coherence and Development Assessment Word Birth Growth of Resources and Development of Coherence The Relay Moment Growth and Development Physical Growth Physical Development Social Growth Social Development EMBODIMENT AND QUALITY OF LIFE ………...……… 175 The Emblematic Body: the lived, the social, the political Childhood Cancer Survivors’ Sense of Coherence SENSE OF COHERENCE QUESTIONNAIRE ……………. 180 The 13-item Sense of Coherence Questionnaire 9. Quality of Living INTRODUCTION ……………………………………….…. 186 A Heterostatic Sense of Coherence The Disability Paradox Survival and Quality of Life Socio-Economic Circumstances QUALITY OF LIFE AND THEORY …………………….... 201 Health Sciences Humanities A NEW APPROACH ………………………………………. 205 SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION ……………………………. 206 10. Conclusion ………………………………………………………….. 208 11. References ……………………………………………………..…… 214 4 12. Appendix ……………………………………………………………. 225 I. Recorded and Transcribed Interviews……………………………….…. 226 II. Conference Presentations………………………………………………. 227 III. Ethics Permission………………………………………………………. 228 IV. Barretstown map and photograph ……………………………………... 233 V. Diagram: flow / sense of coherence …………………………………… 235 VI. The Originary Hypothesis ……………………………………………... 236 VII. Publications ……………………………………………………………. 237 VIII. A Day in the Life of Camp …………………………………………….. 238 IX. Barretstown Organisational Structure …………………………………. 239 X. Personal View 1976 …………………………………………………… 240 5 Declaration The submitted thesis is my own work and has not been submitted for another degree, either at University College Cork or elsewhere. Signed: Peter J. Kearney 6 Acknowledgements I am indebted to Dr Kieran Keohane, who was a brilliant supervisor and a Cara. I thank Siun as always for her care and easy encouragement. I thank all the wonderful people in Barretstown, the Painted Turtle and the Hole in the Wall Connecticut, who have found a way of making a difference to the less fortunate. In particular, I thank Terry Dignan, who introduced me to Barretstown and Eimear Kinsella for her exemplary management of the med shed. I thank my colleagues especially John Good, John O’Brien, John McNamara, Marian Cadogan, Siobhan O’Sullivan, Lorcan Byrne, James Cuffe and Julian Davis for good humoured support. I thank Professor Nancy Scheper-Hughes without whose help it would have been impossible to negotiate the intricacies of the University of California, Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects, and who made our family feel very welcome in Berkeley. 7 1. Abstract 8 This thesis will formulate, understand and explain the transformative experience of Barretstown and similar camps for seriously ill children in terms of four sociological / anthropological concepts as follows: ‘rite of passage’ (Victor Turner and Arnold van Gennep), ‘mimesis’ (René Girard and Mihai Spariosu), ‘grace’ (Arpad Szakolczai) and ‘salutogenesis’ (Aaron Antonovsky). Barretstown Castle Holiday Camp for seriously ill children may have long- term beneficial effects on children with life threatening illnesses. The presented evidence suggests that the experience is a contemporary rite of passage. The different stages of separation, transition and reaggregation can be identified. The separation from family and normal society is remarkably complete. Established norms no longer prevail in the transitional phase of liminality. Specially trained Caras / Councillors guide the children’s experience of communitas that facilitates a life enhancing ritual process. Reviews of tripartite camp experiences elsewhere disclose transformation weaknesses when the rite of passage pattern loses its integrity. Reports from the Imus Ranch revealed a different approach that contrasted with the beguiling and playful experiences of Barretstown and its sister camps. René Girard has claimed for several decades that we are mimetic creatures. He concentrated on acquisitive mimesis, which provokes rivalry and violence; but mimetic desire may have an alternative spiritual ambition. The ethos of mimesis can broadcast a tenor of behaviour that may intone graceful giving as well as greed. The Caras are in another world of health and wellbeing so they cannot provoke envy from the illness perspective of the campers. The charismatic Caras become graceful models who inspire playful mimesis and irenic transformations in the campers. The Imus ranch experience is more in keeping with indoctrination and mimesis-imitation than the mimesis-play of the camps as contrasted by Mihai Spariosu. 9 For Szakolczai grace may permeate the stages of a rite of passage through graceful initiation, playful performance and healing celebration. The grace of Barretstown imbues sick children with an aesthetic appreciation and playful mimesis of their Caras. The three stages in Barretstown are connected by the children’s prior experience of serious illness, which has disrupted their lives. Graceful interaction in the rite of passage has the power to restore the breech in their world. The ludic approach to the prevailing culture is not based on a reordering power but is a peaceful way of illuminating new ways of being. It does not try to be contentious and thereby divide and conquer a community, but seeks to heal and reunite the stricken with the healthy. Antonovsky introduced the term salutogenesis to explain his findings that nearly one third of female survivors of the holocaust could still enjoy life to the full. His remarkable insight led to recognition that salutogenesis and pathogenesis were separate processes. Health was not just a consequence of correcting pathogenic deficits and restoring a homeostatic equilibrium. Salutogenic health is more like joie de vivre that expresses a heterostatic orientation towards optimal experiences. Antonovsky considered that a sense of coherence was the core concept of salutogenesis

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