From: Andrew Phelps <math_anxiety@yahoo.com>
To: withholdapadues@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [withholdapadues] Re: Regarding 1.02 and delay tactics
Date: Thursday, August 20, 2009, 3:20 PM
Hi
On Wed, 8/19/09, Pqr wrote:
That's exactly it Suw. If I may praise us all .. the reason this has been such an amazing effort on our part, and it clearly has, is that we have fallen into their, excuse the phrase, learned helplessness formula.
Like Onm, I've been moved to respond to these insightful and sensible comments. My hit was, "try the 'treatment' experience" - the APA's response has basically the same structure, the same dynamic. The wall of "torture denial" comes down, and .. helplessness is taught.
If there is anything for them to learn it is that they are so far from wearing us down. And yet that is so unusual, they just don't know how to understand it and deal with it.
Except that they are also in denial of "mass psychology" or of the community organizing approach of breaking down the 'resistances' one by one. Whereas the Torture After Dark crowd here has refused the gaslighting experience and, like Pqr says, they've persisted at breaking down that "torture denial" resistance. IMHO that's admirable.
The other thing is that the "next 'resistance'" according to the "mass psychology" model is the complacency around treatment, is the "taught helplessness" pattern of the clinical social relation. Foucault is "coming up to meet us" and new modalities of "taking responsibility" are going to have to be installed into our helping practice. First it's "take responsibility" for the "Nuremburg defense" and then it's "take responsibility" for the "clinical gaze."
The concern of this "Ethical APA" project should be that this "'resistance' work" be done as safely as possible, both for the providers and for the recipients of 'service'. I am in pain and fear because of the difficulty of this struggle.
Andrew Phelps