From: Andrew Phelps <no-action@cwnet.com>

To: s-acc@yahoogroups.com

Subject: [s-acc] "counter-transference"

Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2010 09:54:35 -0700

 

Hi

We "did our job" at the Boston PsySR Conference and will talk about our "lived experience" there more in days ahead. Myself, Lynne, Naomi, Delphine, Allison Torres from SJCC, Frank Kashner, Jancis Long, were among listmembers there.

Of the workshop that Frank, Lynne, and I had yesterday, there was much to say. My own "angle," or conversation starter, was on the notion of "counter-transference." We've been dealing for quite some time with building a good networking and potential coalition with PsySR, with negotiating the essential values involved. Now the place - I note - where it seems to me we are at, is that client/survivor "first wave" dynamics are touching some of the leadership, while the questions of social accountability that have led many of us more towards a "second wave" dynamic are not yet transparent widely enough. I said the above virtually verbatim when it was my turn to talk.

Example:  It was originally requested that I set up a workshop on "abuse in the mental health system," which I declined in favor of "new social roles."

Example:  "Wellness and recovery" advocacy gets confounded with "Alinsky organizing" and other respect-deficient organizational paradigms: We know things about grassroots community organizing that are not yet fully appreciated widely here.

That conversation aside, the next step in developing the project is to be this month, a small call involving me, Frank, Lynne, Jancis, an OpCom person, and - I insist - somebody less invested, from the Social Accountability Work Group, to "iron out" details and engage PsySR OpCom sensibilities.

And my thanks to Frank and to a number of PsySR psychologists/clinicians who insisted at the plenary that this matter be worked through without undue delay and in the frame of values-based coalition.

Special thanks to Allison, due to whom our advocacy had the "last word" at the Conference. That final event was a Polynesian Dance He Mele No Lilo which Allison performed, to great effect.

 

Andrew