Our contribution examines the construction and the functions of complex and multi-dimensional scientist characters in contemporary fiction. Our analysis of three very different novels from different branches of Anglophone literature – Ian McEwan’s

A formal approach to the history of the novel is illuminative when form itself becomes a marker of virtue, a term at the heart of the so-called “Pamela controversy,” whose respondents doubt the virtue of Pamela's accounts. Analyzing the ways in which Samuel Richardson uses the formal components of the account in Pamela helps us to understand just what is at stake in the Pamela controversy. The changes Richardson makes in Clarissa, including proliferating points of view in order to help the reader to trust Clarissa's account and also showing by external means that Clarissa holds herself accountable to her account, reveal a necessary fictional supplement to accounting. This technique resembles strategies that the Bank of England uses, such as its architectural layout, to help the public trust the soundness of its own accounting mechanisms. In this way, formal analysis of Pamela and Clarissa reveals an important link between the rise of public credit and the rise of the novel.

The last 20 years have seen the development of a new form of therapy, compassion focused therapy (CFT). Although CFT has a growing evidence base, there have been few studies of CFT outside of an Anglo-European cultural context. In this paper, we ask: Might a CFT-based approach be of value for Indigenous Australians? If so, what kind of cultural adaptations might be needed? We report the findings from a pilot study of an arts-based compassion skills training (ABCST) group, in which usual CFT group processes were significantly adapted to meet the needs of Indigenous Australians. At face value, CFT appeared to be a promising approach to enhancing the social and emotional wellbeing of Australia’s Indigenous peoples. However, despite initial consultations with Indigenous health professionals, the first attempts to offer a more conventional group-based CFT to Indigenous clients were largely unsuccessful. Following a review and advice from two Indigenous clients, we combined elements of CFT with visual arts to develop a new approach, “arts-based compassion skills training” (ABCST). This paper reports an evaluation of this pilot ABCST group. The group had 6 × 4 h sessions of ABCST, facilitated by two psychologists (1 Indigenous, 1 non-Indigenous) and two artists (1 Indigenous, 1 non-Indigenous). There were 10 participants, who attended between 2 and 6 sessions: five were clients, five were health professionals. Between 1 and 3 months later, six of the participants (2 clients, 4 health professionals) were interviewed. Qualitative analysis of interview data identified that two key processes—creating a positive group atmosphere and channeling compassion skills training through the medium of visual arts—led to four positive outcomes for participants: planting the seeds of new understandings, embodying the skills of compassion, strengthening relationships with others, and evolving a more self-compassionate relationship. We suggest that the preliminary results are sufficiently encouraging to warrant further development of ABCST in Indigenous communities.

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