To: psysr-disc@yahoogroups.com

From: feb7th71 <target@batstar.net>

Date: Sat, 17 Oct 2009 12:23:23 -0700

Subject: [psysr-disc] Re: Celebrating and Hoping!

Thanks Xyz, you are inspirational.

When I joined PsySR Spring 2003 the hope of "critical psychology" was in the air. I and three other "client/survivors" did a workshop at UDC, two blocks from where my family had had their home when I was renditioned to DC and forcibly hospitalized by the psychoanalyst from my alma mater Sidwell Friends School. During the conference, I walked across the street and [!] ran into my sister on the Connecticut Ave. sidewalk opposite, my sister from whom I'm alienated and whom I hadn't seen in years.

In working towards an Action Committee I found eventually (by 2005 it became clear) that "learned helplessness" was OK and "treatment is good." That didn't [really] fly, but PsySR was stuck. "Treatment" is sometimes good, and sometimes it can become torture. PsySR went the direction of the APA's involvement in "interrogation torture." Pres. Kimmel became a remarkable leader in that regard.

By 2007 with the development of Ethical APA the energy shifted. In 2008 five persons (including yourself) published "Torture after Dark" and put the finger on the /torture implications/ of the "learned helplessness" paradigm. You did not attack Seligman personally, but you highlighted a problem which he had not addressed to satisfaction.

Now we face the "Obama Peace Prize" and the political circumstances of today are enraging. As you might say, "peace does not seem to be in the 'drivers seat'." Where I differ with you is where the action of the Nobel Peace Committee is helping push Obama into the driver's seat. Focusing too much on rage is dangerous. Rage can lead to blame, but here that is IMHO injudicious. Rather we should as psychologists look at the "next resistance" of APA, which of course reflects the "next resistance" of "torture denial" in the U.S.

The national security system has been chastened by the election of Barack Obama. Now the last 7 CIA Directors have asked Holder to stop investigating the torturers, even in the narrow capacity now in process. Behind the "resistance" indicated by the neocon "anti-terrorism" torture engagement system is the backup system, the one that prevailed before 9-11 and the one that Obama and Panetta fall back upon. That's the national security culture which has organized the CIA since OSS days, under the project of "build a culture of national security" organized by Mead, Bateson, Benedict, and others. Where is our Kimmel now?

The "previous resistance" found that "learned helplessness" was the logic of a "best practice" torture system (McCoy). The present resistance has to be analyzed and understood, so that it may be broken. I don't know that Krishna would advise Arjuna thus, but I'd look for his thinking there. I do think the "psychology of terrorism" agenda presented by Larry James presents some of the logic for how the U.S. is to maintain its ongoing cultural aggression. I don't have Kimmel helping me here, but I would maintain that the depth of implication of the Stanford Prison Experiment is not sufficiently engaged by creating anti-terrorist hero(ine)s, any more than the dog torture was sufficiently engaged by "positive psychology."

In any case "rage" is not a sufficient psychological solution. By analyzing the resistance, we can come to deal rationally with the problem. Maybe if we "celebrate this Diwali night" we may come closer to realizing the insight we require. I would enjoin you to consider

Best regards

Xyz wrote: