#agraphia

I’ve been reading the excellent The Mind’s Eye by Oliver Sacks, in my continuing search to learn all the things about medical history to provide interesting challenges for Ruth in my next novel. It’s fascinating, as are most of Sacks’ books, but this is probably not his best. He tells multiple stories of people who have various visual losses, of the ability to read, to see with binocular vision,…

Les psychologues et les étudiants de psychologie ont souvent beaucoup de choses à écrire : notes cliniques, bilans, rapports, mémoires, thèses… L’écriture est généralement vécue comme un désagrément : l’auteur n’arrive pas à commencer, il se noie dans la bibliographie, a l’impression d’écrire des banalités, ou il manque de temps. La difficulté à écrire semble être une marque professionnelle par laquelle les psychologues se reconnaissent entre eux.

Pour contourner ces difficultés, Paul Silvia propose de mettre en place un groupe de soutien à l’écriture appelé agraphia (de a - privatif et graphie, écriture). Le groupe permet a chacun de parler de ses projets d’écriture, des plaisirs ou des difficulés qu’il rencontre. Il est surtout orienté vers la production de texte car il aide chacun à se donner des objectifs de travail raisonnables

Pour que les membres du groupe écrivent effectivement les textes qu’ils ont à écrire, il est organisé autour de règles simples : 1) les objectifs sont à court terme et sont suivis; 2) le groupe ne traite que d’écriture; 3) le groupe apporte des renforcements positifs

 Les buts à court terme facilient le suivi du travail. Des buts comme

faire le plan de mon article

écrire la conclusion de mon mémoire

écrire 1000 mots

sont des objectifs raisonnables tandis que “Ecrire mon article” est un objectif trop lointain et trop vague. Les objectifs sont suivis sur un document partagé en ligne

Le groupe ne s’occupe que d’écriture. Son but est de fixer des objectifs, et de suivre l’avancement du travail

Les renforcements sociaux sont des récompenses informelles et sociales qui dédommagent des sacrifices que le travail d’écriture a rendu nécessaire.

J’ai créé sr Facebook un groupe Agraphia https://www.facebook.com/groups/ecrireenpsychologie Si vous êtes psychologue ou étudiant en psychologie et que vous devez éccrire quelque chose en psychologie, vous êtes chaleureusement invité.

Paul Silvia a décrit le groupe Agraphia dans :

Hello madgrads -

I know that we all suffer from "writer's block," although that's probably not a good phrase to describe it.  At least, for me.  I know when I'm not blocked, I'm completely stymied, and can't even bring myself to sit down and open the file, let alone attempt to write and then find myself "blocked."

I've found a technique that helps.  Perhaps it will help you too.

"Agraphia" is the inability to express oneself in writing.  An Agraphia group has gotten me unstuck.

Here's how it works:

- You assemble a group of classmates or colleagues who want to develop more discipline about their writing.

- You commit to be accountable to one another.

- You meet periodically (mine meets weekly), and each person sets writing goals they want to achieve before the following meeting.  Since we're all working on different projects, everyone's goals are different.  One person might want to finish edits on her proposal.  Another might want to finalize a conference submission.  Someone else might want to complete the research for a lit review.  The key is to choose a goal that's somewhat challenging, but still attainable.  In my group, we keep track of these on a spreadsheet that we all share through Dropbox.

- At the next meeting, each person reports on whether they achieved their goal, and if not, what the obstacles were.  Others give advice and motivation.  Perhaps the person "bit off more than they could chew" in setting too large a goal, perhaps they allowed distractions to get in the way, perhaps it couldn't be helped.  Other group members will give you empathy and support.  Then you set new goals for the coming week.

Our group never misses a meeting.  I'm told this is essential, as these groups can tend to fizzle out if people aren't committed.  But if you can bring together some committed people, it's amazing.  My partners and I will hang around after our meeting and work, individually, on our laptops.  It has created a discipline for me.

It also uses "social shaming" in a good way.  We have promised to be honest to one another, and in a week where I didn't achieve my goals, I'm a bit embarrassed about it - especially if the others achieved and surpassed theirs.  But it's valuable to examine whether the goal was feasible in the first place, and hear my partners' ideas about how to do better next time.

A lot of you have shared that you struggle with writing.  Being accountable to others can help.

That said, I share my goal for today: to transcribe three interviews.  I'll report back tonight to let you know how I did.

The Woman Who Could Write, But Couldn't Read

A recent stroke left one 40-year-old woman with some unusual symptoms.

One morning, a kindergarten teacher was about to take attendance for her class when she realized she couldn't read the paper in her hands. She tried looking over her lesson plans, but like the attendance sheet, they seemed to be covered in incomprehensible symbols.

She didn't know it yet, but the teacher, identified only as M.P. in a recent case study her doctors published about her in the journal Neurology, had had a stroke. The stroke afflicted a very specific part of her brain, leaving the 40-year-old woman with some unusual, but not unprecedented, symptoms—and plenty of functioning outside of that. Her case study is a fascinating look at what the brain, and human ingenuity, are capable of.