BDSM is the umbrella term used to describe a set of consensual sexual practices that usually involve an eroticised exchange of power and the application or receipt of painful and/or intense sensations (Barker et al., 2007). The range of BDSM-related activities is wide and complex. 'BDSM' denotes the assorted consensual activities involved in the experience of participating in BDSM; bondage and discipline (BSriO), dominance and submission (D/s), and sadism and masochism (SM). Practitioners and authors also often use the abbreviations S/M, EPE (erotic power exchange), or WIITWD (what it is that we do) to describe and discuss the same range of sexual practices and activities, as well as 'top' and 'bottom' and/or 'dominant', 'submissive', and 'switch' to signify the adopted sexual role. Common examples of BDSM include, but are not limited to, spanking, being restrained or tied up, and verbal humiliation. The term 'BDSM' is commonly used and accepted among practitioners, and is the term that will be used throughout this chapter. Regardless of definition, BDSM-related practices are highly individual and subjective, and it should not be assumed that 'one size fits all', as inclinations vary from person to person (Barker et al., 2007). BDSM is practised by a range of individuals from across the sexual spectrum, including homosexual, bisexual, and heterosexual people, as well as transgender and cisgender individuals (Clarke et al., 2010).KeywordsCorporal PunishmentQueer TheoryGender Identity DisorderInternalise HomophobiaParaphilic DisorderThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

How we perceive other cultures is arguably of increasing importance in contemporary society, impacting on realms such as international relations, business and tourism. The qualitative research reported in this paper was carried out in the UK and in Italy and adopted a Personal Construct Psychology approach. It aimed to explore intercultural perceptions in a sample of people who had some degree of experience with the ‘other’ culture, and a unique feature of the research is that it asked how those perceptions might be affected if people from both cultures are given access to each other's perceptions. There was considerable commonality in the perceptions of the English and Italian participants, and each culture envied some of the qualities of the other. However, they initially struggled to accommodate how they were seen by the other and endeavoured to resolve difference by construing at a more superordinate level. The findings also suggest that national identity is rooted in the construing of others’ constructions, achieved through relationship and comparison.

Sexual fantasies, particularly those with a sadomasochistic component, are difficult to research and not well understood. Psychoanalysis has provided some of the most interesting accounts of such fantasies. However, even the richest and most empathic of these are couched in the vocabulary of pathology and within the context of normative genital maturity. In this article, the work of Robert Stoller is reconsidered from the theoretical perspective of existential phenomenology. It is argued that a recognition of the ambiguity of experience and perception helps make sense of the erotic imagination in a way that does not pathologise it.

In this article I want to expand on the pragmatism that runs through Being Human: Human Being in order to think about what a pragmatic psychology might look like. Baert (2005) argued that a pragmatist science has to begin with an acknowledgment of the different interests that might be behind inquiry. The aims of inquiry are linked to useful and appropriate methods. I argue that in personality and social psychology the focus should primarily be on achieving hermeneutic understanding, rather than on finding causal explanation.

Personal construct psychology (PCP) has always been better known for its methods than its theory, but many researchers are not aware of the range of qualitative methods offered by a PCP approach. We argue that PCP methods have been overlooked as tools for the qualitative researcher and that they satisfy some key requirements of much qualitative research, such as the capacity to provide in-depth insight into personal experience, to establish a ‘democratic’ relationship between researcher and participants and to represent the participant’s ‘voice’. We illustrate several of these methods, drawing on research examples. We show how they enable participants to articulate their experience, and how they may be used as part of an in-depth interview. We conclude that Personal Construct methods provide opportunities for qualitative researchers to create innovative ways of researching personal experience.

Traditionally, psychologists have researched bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, and sadism and masochism (BDSM) and its participants from an external perspective, seeing it as pathology. However, there is now a growing body of research aiming to challenge this perspective. This article examines some of the ways BDSM has been reconceptualised by researchers who reject the pathological focus, distinguishing between transgressive and coercive sexualities. We focus on the lived experience of BDSM participation to further illuminate these sexual practices. A descriptive phenomenological analysis of four interview transcripts was employed, with the purpose of producing a general structural experience of BDSM participation, which aims to further understanding of this complex phenomenon. The essential structures of the BDSM experience are discussed in terms of authentic fantasy, rejection of social norms and non-sexual positive outcomes.

It used to be the case that the Psychology of Personal Constructs was better known for its methods (or at least one of them: the repertory grid) than its theory. But now, in the UK at least, no personal construct methods are taught to undergraduates and few become familiar with PCP as a theoretical approach. Although we are focusing here on the UK as an example, we expect that the situation is similar in other countries. Some writers have previously tried to raise the profile of PCP by showing its compatibility with newer theoretical approaches. For example, given the obvious points of agreement between constructivism and social constructionism, some writers (e.g. Botella, 1995) have tried to bring these together in a synthesis. In this plenary we too will discuss the potential for raising the academic profile of Personal Construct Psychology but we will suggest that this can best be done by focussing once again on its methods. We argue that PCP is best ‘advertised’ to researchers using a variety of theoretical approaches by showing how its methods are sympathetic to these.

Preface Issues in Personality A Pragmatic Approach Personal Construction and Meaning A New Humanism The Problem of Choice Psychological Change and Reconstruction The Unconscious and Human Destructiveness A Psychology of Understanding Further Reading Index

This chapter contains sections titled: My Introduction to Personal Construct Theory The Choice Corollary Questioning the Corollary Phenomenology PCT and Objective Thought PCT and the Lived World Concluding Remarks Acknowledgement

This paper describes an experiment in carrying out, as a group, a phenomenological analysis of a qualitative interview on the topic of mistrust. One in-depth interview was analyzed phenomenologically by each of the six members of our group. We then shared and discussed our individual analyses to generate a consensual analysis. Finally, additional or divergent perspectives were offered by individual group members to add further contextual and reflexive dimensions. We consider what we gained from this exercise and the difficulties encountered. We also reflect on the insights into the topic of mistrust produced by our analyses.

Personal Construct Theory (PCT) appears to be frozen in history. Kelly’s work is usually mentioned respectfully in any review of personality theories, yet virtually all contemporary work on PCT is ignored in orthodox psychology. In this article I examine this paradox and suggest reasons for it. I review the way in which PCT is treated in introductory texts, pointing to two types of account. In one, PCT is seen as a pre-scientific prototype of a cognitive approach to personality. In the other, it is seen as working at the phenomenological level of analysis (a level seen as of limited importance). I conclude by thinking about possible futures for PCT, and arguing for its importance as an approach for understanding (not explaining) human action.