From: Andrew Phelps <phelps@cwnet.com>
To: RadPsyNet-Members@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sun Nov 30 7:49 PST
Subject: Re: [RadPsyNet-Members] Re: Debate Over DSM 5 and Expansion of Mental Illnesses /Wrangling Over Psychiatry's Bible
Lmn:
On Sun Nov 30 11:43 GMT, you sent:
Breaking down the them/us is much easier said than done in so far as there has been a tendency amongst some survivor groups to define themselves as NOT professional and some professionals to define themselves as NOT service users. Part of this can be attributed to ?(rightful) anger that people feel when they receive insensitive treatment (something similar is happening at the moment in the emergence of the careers movement).
In the "client/survivor" movement I regard this as analogous to what feminists would term a "first wave" v. "second wave" problem. For better than a decade now I've been working on a
social accountability project (the term is from John Shotter) - which is aimed at bringing our movement over towards the "second wave." The attitudes you describe regarding professionals are a commonplace of "first wave" culture and are an obstacle to meaningful "coalition."More work on the parallel issue among professionals is indicated. The first step was the construction of the Radical Psychology Network in 1993 which "picked up the pieces" from a previous attitude which tended to lean on neo-Freudian "transactional analysis" instead of concerns regarding paradigm shift in social science. Much has been done since and I'm especially encouraged by the
Ethical APA struggle which is bringing the issue of "torture" to the surface in psychology.I work on the assumption that most people that go into the caring professions do so because they want to help but this desire can get lost or squashed under the enormity of problems that look outside the capacity of workers to change. It is understandable that some professionals will respond in denial of the problems themselves.
Which is why the "Ethical APA" struggle is so important; it involves struggle with that "denial."
However, part of it can also be attributed to desire for The Truth and the related tendency to construct other perspectives as false in relation to it. This tendency isn't helpful whoever expresses it and simply mirrors that which it opposes.
The psychology of "dominance" amounts IMHO to a "resistance structure" which blocks attention to truth.
How do you see such a coalition emerging? The US has a very different set up to the UK but there may be useful parallels.
Well I've learned a lot from John Shotter and Efg speaks highly of Ian Parker's mentoring.
Some here and elsewhere find the
Democratic Psychiatry movement in Italy encouraging in that regard, also.Obviously this is a matter that bears conversation.
Andrew Phelps