CNMHC Forum 2009

 

From: Andrew Phelps <no-action@CWNET.COM>

To: SOCIALJUSTICE@LISTS.APA.ORG

Sent: Sat Feb 28 2009 2:59 PST

Subject: Re: [SOCIAL] DSJ Organization - moving forward by reviewing our past

 

Hi

On Fri Feb 27 2009 9:34, Fdb sent:

RE: [SOCIAL] DSJ Organization - moving forward by reviewing our past

Part of this confusion relates to incomplete info re. the organizational work Hfd led some time ago, including procedures,

Also there's an "underground question" related to dialogical change, to networking with "client/survivor activists" in a manner based on mutual respect and on contribution to "social justice psychology." At the 12th IVAT 2006, Hfd had Jacki McKinney (a "client survivor activist") as keynote speaker. That relates to Div. 56, but interest has arisen in others too. For instance Div. 35/AWP with the work of Lisa Cosgrove and Paula Caplan. And also Div. 48/PsySR as Fdb and others know.

Both "stigma/discrimination" and the "role of imagination" have social justice implications. Martin Luther King, Jr. told the APA in 1967 that 'behavioral science' had to be redesigned in the light of social justice and his insight regarding "creative maladjustment" based on the values of "freedom and dignity" has not been followed up on sufficiently since then.

Recommend we all review the by-laws and that a subcommittee focus on this and make recommendations. We need to be organized now ..

Yeah, that San Francisco meeting was an exemplar of disorganization. 

Our work group did a street-corner skit at the S.F. APA

But your point is well taken. If we want to take DSJ to another organizational level, some subcommittee will have to be formed to start thinking about these issues and start drafting by-laws. I think that group will really have to work in a participatory fashion to gain buy-in from all current DSJ divisions

Again, I think the Div. 56 organizing experience bears reflection. Is the ultimate Vision of social justice psychology based upon tokenizing those of us whose "credentials" lean on direct experience, or upon redefinition of the humanist content of psychology so that the voice of social justice in the "madness arena" will have increased resonance?

Andrew Phelps

Ph.D. mathematics

"For I am just what you see, the true dispenser of divine gifts whom the Romans call 'stultitia' and the Greeks 'moria'." - Erasmus, 1511