Dr Lisa Saville Young

Senior Lecturer in Psychology

Academic Coordinator: Professional Training Programmes in Clinical and Counselling Psychology

MA Clinical Psychology (Natal), MPhil Social & Developmental Psychology (Cantab), PhD (London)

Registered as a Clinical Psychologist with the Health Professions Council of South Africa

e-mail: l.young@ru.ac.za
Phone: +27(0)46 603 8502
Psychology Clinic Room 4

Research Interests

My research draws on psychoanalytic theory alongside discursive psychology, and therefore is situated in a growing field of study called ‘psychosocial research’. Psychosocial research typically analyses interview material, looking for discourses in the text while also paying attention to the emotional and interactive dynamics in the interview encounter, for example. Psychosocial research draws on discourse theory and psychoanalytic concepts (like transference, countertransference, mentalization, anxiety and defences) to interrogate the meaning of phenomena. Psychosocial researchers are therefore not only interested in how things are constructed (e.g. the self, other and relationships) but are also interested in why participants invest in particular discourses over others.

I am available to supervise research projects that use a psychosocial research method. Psychosocial research methods have been used to analyse a number of issues concerning identity and relationships. Topics that I have investigated using this particular approach include adult brother-brother relationships, racial encounters and xenophobia. I am particularly interested in sibling relationships and in gender and race. However, I am open to other topics
that deal with contemporary issues of identity and/or relationships (including psychotherapy).  

Teaching Areas

• Psychotherapeutic Interventions (Psychology 3)
• Counselling Skills Practical (Psychology 3)

• Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (Masters in Clinical and Counselling Psychology)

• Clinical Psychology Practice (Masters in Clinical Psychology)

• Psychosocial Studies (Honours)

• Supervision of Honours and Masters research projects

• Psychotherapy and Assessment Supervision of Clinical/Counselling Masters students

Publications

Saville Young, L. & Jackson, C. (2011). 'Bhuti': Meaning and masculinities in Xhosa brothering. Journal of Psychology in Africa, 21(2), 221-228.

Saville Young, L. (2011). Research entanglements, race and recognisability: A psychosocial reading of interview encounters in (post-) colonial, (post-) apartheid South Africa. Qualitative Inquiry, 17(1), 45-55.

Frosh, S. & Saville Young, L. (2010). Using psychoanalytic methodology in psychosocial research. Researching brothers. In J.Mason & A.Dale (Eds.) Understanding social research: Thinking creatively about method. London: Sage.

Saville Young, L. & Frosh, S. (2010). ‘And where were your brothers in all this?’: A psychosocial approach to texts on ‘brothering’. Qualitative Research, 10(5), 511-531.

Saville Young, L. (2009). Not Knowing: Towards an ethics for employing psychoanalysis in psychosocial research. Psycho-Analytic Psychotherapy in South Africa, 17, 1-26.

Saville Young, L. & Frosh, S. (2009). Discourse and psychoanalysis: Translating concepts into ‘fragmenting’ methodology. Psychology in Society, 28, 1-16.

Frosh, S. & Saville Young, L (2008). Psychoanalytic approaches to qualitative psychology. In W. Stainton Rogers & C. Willig (Eds.). Handbook of Qualitative Research in Psychology. London: Sage.

Saville Young, L. & Mitchell, J (2005). Looking for the siblings: A critical narrative analysis of child evacuation during World War II. International Journal of Critical Psychology, 15, 42-63

Presentations

Saville Young, L. ‘(Br)Other and the Psychosocial’. 14^th International Society for Theoretical Psychology Biennial Meeting, Thessaloniki, Greece, 2011.

Saville Young, L. ‘Research entanglements, race and recognisability’. Paper presented at the 3rd Psychosocial Studies Network Conference, University of East London, London, UK, 2010.

Saville Young, L. ‘Bhuti: A psychosocial reading of meaning and masculinities in talk on ‘brothering’. Paper presented at the 15th South African Psychology Congress, Cape Town, South Africa, 2009.

Saville Young, L. & Frosh, S. ‘Discourse and psychoanalysis’. Paper presented at the Critical Methods Conference, Grahamstown, South Africa, 2008.

Saville Young, L. ‘ ‘Doing brother’ and the constructions of masculinity: A psychosocial approach.’ 2005-6 Graduate Seminars in Narrative and Biographical Research, The Centre for Narrative Research, UEL and The Gender Institute, London School of Economics, London, UK, 2005.

Saville Young, L. ‘Siblings and evacuation’. Paper presented at the International Oral History Conference, London, UK, 2005.
Saville, L. ‘Cross-cultural definition of self: A South African study’. Paper presented at PSYSSA Conference, Durban, South Africa, 1999.

Awards & Grants

2008/09 Andrew Mellon Postdoctoral Research Fellowship

2001 Flanagan Scholarship – Overseas study