In this short and fleeting world, There lived a noble soul, Who chose to say, “My people first,” And stayed forever true and whole.
His name itself spoke of peace, Of loyalty and faithful ways, To live in calm, to stand sincere, The meaning carried through his days.
He walks beside us even now, We feel his presence near, Though unseen by our mortal eyes, Our hearts know he is here.
Like Amir Temur, strong and just, He served his people till the end, Leaving longing in every heart, His name on every tongue, my friend.
Jahongirova Gulhayo Jahongirovna Navoi State University Student of the Department of Philology and Language Teaching, English Language Major, Group 101
J.J. Campbell (1976 – ?) is old enough to know better. He’s been widely published over the last 30 years, most recently at The Rye Whiskey Review, Night Owl Narrative, Disturb the Universe Magazine, Crossroads Magazine and The Beatnik Cowboy. J.J. is a 3 time Best of The Net nominee and a two time Pushcart Prize nominee. You can find more info on his latest book, to live your dreams, by going here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/245883678-to-live-your-dreams
(Young Central Asian woman with long dark hair and a black coat over a white collared top)
Missing the spring
The dark days of winter come one by one, Today I long for light, as small as a coin. From its pitch-black face, the rain spares no tears, Will the moonlit night ever understand me?
Not the dim drops poured down by dark clouds, My heart today longs for the blossoms of spring. I wish not for sorrow clouding my soul today, Where have those happy eyes disappeared?
My spring, do not make your poet wait in such longing, My heart yearns to speak verses only for you. My awakening spring, even sleepless nights must end, Burnt hearts, too, are destined to bloom again.
If you come, I have a single request for you: Come, and live forever within my soul. For I have waited for you with endless yearning— Say again and again, “I missed you too, my spring.”
Student of Uzbek Language and Literature Kattakurgan State Pedagogical Institute
1. We reject the false divide between the real and the unreal
Reality is not a fixed surface. It is porous, symbolic, wounded, ecstatic. Myth is not ancient — it is happening now, in the body, in the psyche, in the street, in the underworld of memory. Mythic Transrealism treats the surreal as truth and the truth as a doorway.
2. We honor the wounded, the misread, and the erased
Our stories rise from the margins — not as victims, but as architects. We write from pain without fetishizing it, from survival without sanitizing it. We build sanctuary for those denied one.
3. We fuse mythic structure with lived experience
Archetypes are not abstractions. They are the shapes our lives take when we are pushed to the edge. Descent, transformation, return — these are not literary devices. They are the map of the human underworld.
4. We embrace surrealism as emotional truth
The grotesque, the dreamlike, the ecstatic, the impossible — these are not decorations. They are the language of the psyche speaking in its native tongue. We do not explain the surreal. We inhabit it.
5. We reject institutional gatekeeping
No academy, award committee, or self‑appointed authority defines our worth. Our lineage comes from punk clubs, metal bars, spoken‑word stages, underground presses, and the people who survived what should have broken them. We answer to craft, community, and truth — not to institutions.
6. We write with punk ethos and mythic intent
Punk gives us the refusal. Myth gives us the structure. Transrealism gives us the lens. We combine them to create a literature that is raw, visionary, and ungovernable.
7. We treat editing as ritual and publishing as sanctuary
To edit is to witness. To publish is to protect. To curate is to build lineage. A press is not a business — it is an altar.
8. We honor our lineage openly and fiercely
Our movement stands in conversation with punk priestesses, dark fantasists, weird‑fiction innovators, metal icons, surrealist painters, spoken‑word prophets, and the wounded visionaries who came before us. We name our ancestors. We extend their work.
9. We refuse the binary of high and low art
We claim the sacred in the profane, the poetic in the grotesque, the mythic in the mundane. We write for the page, the stage, the alley, the dream, the wound, the ritual. We do not apologize for where we come from.
10. We create worlds that are emotionally real, spiritually charged, and formally free
Mythic Transrealism is not a style. It is a way of seeing. A way of surviving. A way of transforming the unbearable into the mythic.
11. We build community through reciprocity, not hierarchy
We lift each other. We protect each other. We recognize each other. Our movement grows through kinship, not competition.
12. We write to transform — not to escape
Our work is a descent into the underworld and a return with something true. We do not flee reality. We reforge it.
THE CLOSING VOW
Mythic Transrealism is a literature of survival, vision, and sovereignty. It is a movement born from pain, shaped by punk, sharpened by surrealism, and consecrated by myth. We write because the world is not enough — and because the world is too much. We write to build the sanctuary we were denied. We write to give others a map out of the dark.
This is our lineage.This is our movement.This is Mythic Transrealism.
The notion that Black History Month is futile refuted with substantial historical legacies & diversified narratives.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
In an article by Mema Ayi and Demetrius Patterson from the Chicago Defender, they wrote that “actor Morgan Freeman created a small firestorm…when he told Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes that he finds Black History Month (BHM) ridiculous.” Freeman goes on to say that “Americans perpetuate racism by relegating Black history to just one month when Black history is American history.” I agree with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that as Americans we are tied together “…in an inescapable network of mutuality…Whatever affects one [of us] …affects [all of us] as Americans in this country.
As you can clearly see, a month dedicated to Black history continues to stir controversy. The point of the matter is we can’t continue to ignore the fact that—although we have made progress towards racial unity—we still have ways to go towards racial, harmony, understanding and tolerance if not acceptance.
Scholars and historians such as Conrad Worrill, chairman of the National Black United Front repulsed the commercialization of the celebration, stated Ayi and Patterson. However, they go on to say that “but [Worrill] agrees that Black Americans still need February and every day to reflect on the accomplishments of Black Americans who contributed countless inventions and innovations into society.”
It was in 1926 when Carter G. Woodson created Negro History Week. Now all these years later has evolved into Black History Month. But why do we still need—even in the twenty-first century—a month set aside to recognize Black history in this country? Perhaps you can look within your hearts for that answer. Negro History Week morphed into Black History Month in 1976, when African Americans developed a renewed interest in their ancestral history primarily as a result of Alex Haley’s revolutionary miniseries “Roots.”
Radio personality Cliff Kelley offers an explanation as to why we need Black History Month. Loosely translated, he said that we need it because capricious historians conveniently leave out certain parts of history that do not corroborate their version of history, which I think consist mostly of dead White men. Blacks are virtually removed from it to substantiate the White historical agenda. Plenty of Black youths do not know their history. Most of them think that their history begins and ends with slavery, wrote Patterson and Ayi.
State Representative David Miller (D- Calumet City) asserted that Freeman was right in saying that Black history should be a year-round thing. “We’ve shaped America,” he said. And that Black History Month should serve as a reminder of our legacy. The recently deceased Howard Zinn wrote in his book A People’s History of the United States, “There is not a country in world history in which racism has been more important than the United States.” He poses the question “Is it possible for Blacks and Whites to live together without hatred?” And when it comes to the evolution of racism, he had this to say, “…slavery developed into a regular institution of the normal labor relations of Blacks and Whites in the New World. With it developed that special racial feeling—whether hatred or contempt or pity or patronization—that accompanied the inferior position of Blacks in America… that combination of inferior status and derogatory thought we call racism.” He goes on to say that “The point is the elements of this web are historical, not ‘natural.’ This does not mean that they are easily disentangled or dismantled. It only means that there is a possibility for something else, under historical conditions not yet realized.”
In an article in The Phoenix titled “Is There Hope in Hollywood? Three controversial films tackle race in The Age of Obama,” Peter Keough extrapolates the medium of films are making an effort to bridge the race gap by portraying Blacks as heads of state—in movies like Transformers 2, 2012 and Invictus—although the contexts in which a Black man becomes President is often marred by catastrophe in which case the White leader is killed. Or Blacks are still being portrayed in glaring stereotypical roles as in Precious, with racist clichés like when Precious steals and eats an entire box of fried chicken. The undercurrent of racism is evident even from well-meaning Whites like Joe Biden, when he opposed Obama for President. Biden declared that “[Obama] is the first mainstream African-American who is articulate, and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy” Similarly, another fellow democrat and senate majority leader Harry Reid in his book Game Change, said of Obama that America is ready for a Black President, particularly because he is “light skinned and speak with no Negro dialect.” This leads me to extrapolate that despite all that Blacks have contributed to the making of America, our contributions seemingly become extraneous compared to our prima facie colorful appearance. And I am compelled to recall what Dr. King Jr. so eloquently stated that Black people should be judged “by the contents of their character” and not their skin color.
Many modern conveniences are directly related to or derivative of the inventions of Black inventors: blood banks facilitating life-saving transfusions, the bicycle, the electric trolley, the dustpan, comb, brush, clothes dryer, walkers, lawn mower, IBM computers, gas masks, traffic signals, the pen, peanut butter…the list goes on and on…Dr. Patricia Bath, in 1985, invented specialized tools and systematic procedures for the treatment and removal of cataracts. And, on a less serious note, George Crum who invented the potato chip, and Kenneth Dunkley who invented 3-D viewing glasses and holographs, Lisa Gelobter who invented web animation-online videos, and thanks to the Academy Award nominated film, Hidden Figures, we’re now all conversant with the amazing contributions of mathematical geniuses Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson whose work helped make Neil Armstrong the first man on the moon! All of these achievements have become part of our daily lives here in America and elsewhere as a result of African-American contributions to the economic and scientific stronghold known as America and sadly, we still need Black History Month to remind us!
I sought out some thoughts and comments from local community leaders and young activists on the issue of why we still need Black History Month. I was inundated with a wealth of responses!
Dr. Carolyn L. Turk, an African-American woman and Deputy Superintendent of Cambridge Public Schools stated that “We have moved from celebrating Negro History Week to celebrating Black History Month…these celebrations are…needed and should continue, but I am also a strong advocate for the contributions of African Americans to be recognized…throughout the year, across content areas and to be inclusive of local community history. Knowledge of our past helps connect us to our present and provides hope …for the future…if we are to continue to build on the [legacies of those who came before us].
Bob Doolittle, a white youth pastor living in Cambridge said: “Black History Month can and should take Martin Luther King Day and make it thirty days of celebrating how the right kind of force leaves a legacy of increasing enjoyment of one another by those who are different.”
Shani Fletcher, a bi-racial woman (African- American and Caucasian) of Teen Voices Magazine offered her thoughts… “Black History Month is an opportunity for everyone to celebrate the African-American experience and the role of Black people in the history of the United States… Quite literally, Black people built this country, and our communities’ contributions are a major part of its culture.”
Marla Marcum, a white doctoral candidate at the Boston University School of Theology had this to say: “I can give you a concrete example of why Black History Month is vitally important: … This extremely bright young woman—a freshman at MIT—who graduated from one of the best high schools in Massachusetts upon finding out about Coretta Scott King’s death asked, ‘Was she Martin Luther King’s sister?’ Are we content that this young woman (and so many others) has been taught something about Dr. King, yet she understands so little of his context that she learned nothing at all of his life? Of course, our education system should be integrating Black history into the broader curricula, but when it has not happened even in the best public-school systems, I think we need to recognize the critical importance of continued attention to Black History Month.”
The fundamental nature of Black History Month based on these spectrum perspectives is to celebrate variety and inclusiveness of all people, build on the prophetic and heroic legacies of our ancestors who fought for our freedoms today, recognize that Black History Month is essentially American history despite racial diversity, acknowledge an honor the contributions of African-Americans to this country, advocate for change in our public school systems to include more Black history in their curricula. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter” and that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Black history is not separate from American history. As Americans, we are all one blended entity. We need to bridge the interpersonal and inter-racial gap in a highly mechanized society so… “TAKE OFF YOUR HEAD PHONES AND CARE!!!”
The memory of history is often picky. BHM serves as a reminder of its often-colorless state of existence. So, do we still need Black History Month? The answer is a resounding “Yes!” As long as Blacks are portrayed as stereotypes in the movies, as long as Black contributions to the bastion that is America are marginalized or altogether ignored, as long as Black leaders like former President Barrack Obama are seen as “acceptable” by Whites simply because he is light-skinned and speak without Negro dialect, Black History Month will continue to be necessary and indispensable.
Jacques Fleury
Jacques Fleury is a Boston Globe featured Haitian American Poet, Educator, Author of four books and literary arts student at Harvard University online. His latest publication “You Are Enough: The Journey to Accepting Your Authentic Self” & other titles are available at all Boston Public Libraries, the University of Massachusetts Healey Library, University of Wyoming, Askews and Holts Library Services in the United Kingdom, The Harvard Book Store, The Grolier Poetry Bookshop, Amazon etc… He has been published in prestigious publications such as Spirit of Change Magazine, Wilderness House Literary Review, Muddy River Poetry Review, Litterateur Redefining World anthologies out of India, Poets Reading the News, the Cornell University Press anthology Class Lives: Stories from Our Economic Divide, Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene among others…Visit him at: http://www.authorsden.com/jacquesfleury.–
Jacques Fleury’s book You Are Enough: The Journey Towards Understanding Your Authentic Self
The Role of Schools, Local Communities, and Psychological Services
Termez State University
Field of Study: Psychology
Second-Year Student
Eshmatova Marjona Kamol qizi
Abstract
This article examines the factors affecting child development in dysfunctional families and highlights the collaborative role of schools, local community institutions, and psychological services in supporting such families. The effectiveness of existing systems in early identification, prevention, and rehabilitation processes is analyzed, and the advantages of an integrated approach are emphasized.
Keywords: dysfunctional family, support system, school, local community, psychological services, prevention, rehabilitation, child development.
Introduction
The family is the most important social institution in society, within which an individual’s emotional, social, and moral development is formed. Therefore, the stability of the psychological climate within the family is one of the fundamental criteria of a child’s well-being. However, practice shows that in some families, dysfunctional conditions arise as a result of conflicts, violence, neglect, economic hardship, mental illness, or negative parental behaviors. Children raised in such families often face emotional instability, academic difficulties, high levels of anxiety, aggressive behavior, and low self-esteem.
The phenomenon of dysfunctional families has been widely studied in various scientific studies. In particular, American psychologist Murray Bowen, in his Family Systems Theory, views the family as a unified system and emphasizes that any disruption within it affects the entire system. Similarly, Salvador Minuchin, the founder of Structural Family Therapy, notes that dysfunctional families are characterized by blurred role boundaries, unhealthy communication patterns, and authoritarian or neglectful parenting styles, which lead to numerous psychological problems.
In the context of Uzbekistan, the family is closely interconnected with the local community, which increases the importance of social support mechanisms. From this perspective, this article provides an in-depth analysis of the role of schools, local communities, and psychological services in identifying dysfunctional families, providing assistance, and implementing preventive measures.
Psychological Characteristics of Dysfunctional Families
In studying dysfunctional families, socio-psychological factors play a crucial role. According to Attachment Theory developed by John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth, children who do not feel secure within their families tend to develop insecure or ambivalent attachment styles. This leads to distrust, anxiety, and difficulties in social adaptation in later relationships.
Dysfunctional families are typically characterized by the following features:
1. Emotional Instability
Frequent parental conflicts, aggression, violence, or emotional coldness increase anxiety and fear in children.
2. Communication Disorders
According to Minuchin, such families exhibit “blurred boundaries,” which manifest either as excessive parental intrusion or complete neglect of the child.
3. Parental Dysfunction
Alcohol and substance abuse
Mental health disorders
Excessive punishment
Strict control or absolute neglect
4. Economic and Social Stress
Research by James Garbarino indicates that economic hardship intensifies family stress and negatively affects the quality of parenting.
Many scholars emphasize that identifying and addressing these factors requires a systematic approach.
The Role of Schools in the Support System
Schools are one of the most important institutions requiring focused attention within the support system. As places where children spend most of their time and where their psychological state can be continuously observed, schools are often the earliest institutions to identify children from dysfunctional families.
1. Observation and Diagnosis
School psychologists regularly assess factors such as temperament, emotional stability, academic motivation, social adaptation, behavioral disorders.
2. The Role of Teachers
Teachers are often the first to notice changes in a child’s daily behavior, including: lack of attention in class, social withdrawal, aggression, excessive irritability.
3. School Psychological Services
Family counseling based on Bowen’s and Minuchin’s theories, individual sessions with children, and group training programs produce positive outcomes.
4. Working with Parents
One of the school’s most important tasks is providing psychological support to parents through pedagogical training, counseling, and seminars. The more attention parents give to their children, the more effective the child’s upbringing becomes.
The Importance of the Local Community Institution
In Uzbekistan’s social system, the local community serves as one of the most influential institutions for identifying and resolving family-related problems.
1. Monitoring the Family’s Social Condition
Community leaders, women’s activists, and prevention inspectors thoroughly assess economic conditions, parenting environment, social relationships.
2. Early Intervention
Many social problems can be prevented from escalating into dysfunction if identified early at the community level.
3. Support Mechanisms include financial assistance, psychological guidance, social support services, awareness-raising activities during community meetings.
4. School–Community Cooperation
Joint monitoring of a child’s condition by both systems enhances the effectiveness of support.
The Role of Psychological Services
Psychological services represent the core professional component in addressing family problems. The works of psychologists such as Nathan Ackerman, Virginia Satir, and Carl Rogers serve as foundational resources in family therapy.
1. Individual Psychotherapy
Working with children focuses on emotional regulation, stress reduction, restoring self-esteem, developing social skills.
2. Family Therapy
Based on Minuchin’s model, regulating roles and boundaries within the family significantly reduces problems.
3. Working with Parents
Training programs include anger management, effective communication, non-violent parenting, understanding children’s needs.
4. Rehabilitation and Counseling Centers
Psychological centers provide ongoing monitoring and offer comprehensive rehabilitation programs for dysfunctional families.
Conclusion
Children growing up in dysfunctional families constitute one of the most vulnerable groups in society. Their emotional, social, and psychological development is seriously threatened due to instability in the family environment. Therefore, providing support to such families should not be the responsibility of a single institution but should require coordinated cooperation among schools, local communities, and psychological services.
Scholars such as Bowen, Minuchin, Satir, and Bowlby emphasize that the stability of the family system is a decisive factor in a child’s personal development. Thus, in the context of Uzbekistan, implementing a systematic approach, early identification, prevention, and continuous psychological support remains a critical task.
Through an integrated support model, it is possible to reduce family dysfunction, ensure children’s safe and healthy development, and strengthen social stability within society.
References
Bowen, M. Family Therapy in Clinical Practice. New York: Jason Aronson, 1978.
Minuchin, S. Families and Family Therapy. Harvard University Press, 1974.
Minuchin, S., & Fishman, C. Family Therapy Techniques. Harvard University Press, 1981.
Satir, V. Conjoint Family Therapy. Palo Alto, CA: Science and Behavior Books, 1964.
Yuldoshev, J. Family Psychology. Tashkent: National Publishing House of Uzbekistan, 2019.
Sobirova, N. Child Upbringing and Psychology in the Family. Tashkent, 2020.
Abduqodirov, A. Educational Psychology. Tashkent: Fan Publishing House, 2018.
Jabborov, R. Foundations of Social Pedagogy. Tashkent: TDPU Publishing House, 2017.
Qoshoqov, M. Culture of Communication in the Family. Tashkent: Yangi Asr Avlodi, 2015.
Materials and methodological manuals of the Research Institute “Mahalla and Family” (various years).
THE CLOSING VOW
