To: <s-acc@yahoogroups.com>
Cc: two psychologists
From: "Andrew Phelps" <starfish@northcoast.com>
Date: Sat, 1 Aug 2009 11:12:14 -0700
Subject: Re: [s-acc] re: classic on communication and conflict resolution
Hi
Moq wrote:
I remember the split when psychiatric survivors wanted to stand on their own and no longer join with or be dominated by "professionals." It was never about anything wrong with the professionals; it was about being able to stand on our own with the credibility of our lived experience.
But the implementation of that "crisis" related to the 1980 breakup of RT and it wasn't until 1993 that some "radical psychologists" found a political and organized response by the creation of the Radical Psychology Network. We don't work out our psychological disconnects with the social justice minded professionals quickly or easily.
I think we're at a similar existential crisis today. Should our movement (such as it is) join with professionals" or is there a strength inherent in our lived experience?
Well, I'm in the middle of existential crisis, but I wouldn't say that "join with professionals" is the crux of the matter. In 1980 it was the matter of Transactional Analysis (TA) which relates to the yuppie style philosophy "Games People Play." In 1993 Fox and Prilleltensky specifically focused on deconstructing the conventional approaches to psychology, which is what was lacking as a principle of unity for RT.
Today I'm wrestling with where "today's disconnect" is to be found. What we've seen on this list goes to the point of "feeling safe." In your terms, that's joining with professionals AND feeling safe about it. On S-ACC the professionals have safety issues, but in social justice psychology, the "client/survivor" people have unrecognized issues of that sort.
The APA meets in Toronto starting next Friday. I put forward some "organizing ideas" about how to put together a "project" for PsySR. So far nobody has "taken the existential bull by the horns" and really helped me put this in terms that would make sense to the PsySR Steering Committee while adequately representing our concern for "safety."
:-)At least here we've taken up that issue!
If you look at the PsySR hospitality suite program you will see that our "issues of safety" are not on the table there, while some programs seem to openly support what anti-torture psychologist Bryant Welch calls "gaslighting." In 1980 there were many in the RT world who did not support the TA approach to "adjustment," but they didn't "get heard" at the time. TA was not "empowerment." Where today is the psychology of "dignity?"
How long will it take us to "get on the same page" regarding "safety?" We aren't there now.
Andrew