>=====Hi Penny,
Yes - I enjoyed the trial issue of the journal when I followed up Craig's
appeal about the journal and I intend to take out a subscription - thanks for
the reminder.
Annie
Original Message From The UK Community Psychology Discussion List
<[log in to unmask]> =====
>Hello Annie
>I for one like the idea that literature is often a better source of
inspiration (and explanation perhaps) than psychology, which reminded me of
David Nightingale and John Cromby, among others: '...great novelists have far
more to say about the human condition than any psychologist'.
>From Nightingale & Cromby (2001) Critical Psychology and the Ideaology of
Individualism. Journal of Critical Psychology, Counselling and Psychotherapy,
1 (2), 117 - 127. This journal, by the way, just to remind you, is the one
Craig was asking people to think about helping to
>save a few months ago.
>Penny
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Annie Mitchell" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Friday, December 02, 2005 5:20 PM
>Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] on being critical
>
>
>> Hi Mark and Penny,
>>
>> I too find Mark's 4 questions ( and others' comments) very helpful - and in
>> the spirit of Penny's queries here about what is the relationship between
>> people underpinning some of the cyberspace debate - I'd add to the fourth
>> question - am i doing this in a comradely way, and is it being received in
>> a comradely way? The dictionary definition of comrade that I liked in
>> Chambers is: a friend or companion: an associate, fellow worker, etc.
>>
>> I am still wondering what we can do to expand our experiences of who is a
>> comrade ( and how if at all we can draw on psychology to help us). Maybe
>> literature is a better source of inspiration on this than psychology. the
>> author Caryl Philips answered as follows when members of my book club
>> wrote to ask him where was the hope in his novel A Distant Shore: "
>> ...Recognising, and being unafraid of "the other", is the beginning of
>> change..."
>>
>> Annie
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --On 01 December 2005 22:45 +0000 Penny Priest <[log in to unmask]>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Hello Mark
>>> This was really helpful for me - I've never actually heard anyone say
>>> what being critical is, although I do remember David Fryer at the
>>> Birmingham conference asking, 'what has been critical about today?' I
>>> applaud David for always actively taking the position of being critical,
>>> in the way that you ask in your four questions. I sometimes don't
>>> experience David's critical questioning as being comradely, but I don't
>>> think he intends to be uncomradely, either, just critical (David?). Maybe
>>> it's just how it comes across in cyberspace.
>>> I must say that the way this discussion has been moving has been quite
>>> interesting - watching how different people have been responding to the
>>> conflicts that are around, and whether people seem to be avoiding these,
>>> or embracing these, or reacting in other ways, and how what I might see
>>> as attacking might not be attacking because it might be an exchange
>>> between two people who know each other well and are used to having
>>> conversations in that sort of way. Sorry, I'm hopelessly rambling but
>>> thanks anyway. I think you should make it into a paper for Clinical
>>> Psychology, as a call to reinstate the importance of being critical (and
>>> questioning why we are doing what we are doing - your first three
>>> questions that you need convincing about). Your questions could even be a
>>> good point of reference for any of us who find ourselves squeezed,
>>> squashed, annexed, shepherded, retreating into the consulting room where
>>> one-to-one therapy happens:
>>> What have I stepped into, and is there any way I can step outside of this
>>> that might be more helpful?
>>> In whose interests am I doing this (mine - I'm getting paid, the person
>>> who has come to see me - what do they get from this?)
>>> What exactly I am doing and what am I expected to do?
>>> Am I doing this in a comradely way?
>>> Penny
>>>
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: Mark Burton
>>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>> Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2005 9:43 PM
>>> Subject: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] on being critical
>>>
>>>
>>> Being critical?
>>>
>>>
>>> The term 'critical' as currently used to prefix various disciplines
>>> (including community psychology!) has multiple origins, but perhaps the
>>> most significant one is from its use in 'critical theory'. This itself
>>> refers to several things - in some contexts it was used as code for
>>> Marxism, or rather for historical materialist analysis. It became best
>>> known in referring to the Frankfurt School of Marxist intellectuals
>>> concerned with questions of culture and its relation to society - e.g.
>>> Adorno, Horkheimer, Fromm, Habermas. What is being meant by the term
>>> 'critical' is an approach that tries to understand a social reality
>>> through introduction of another, more penetrating frame of reference, one
>>> that has to do with a general theory of human society (or at least late
>>> capitalist society) understood in terms of contradictions between
>>> different social interests and economic processes of exploitation,
>>> capital accumulation, and so on. So these critical theorists apply a
>>> powerful set of practical-theoretical tools to social phenomena to try
>>> and get a more thorough understanding that can help foment progressive
>>> social change. Not very post-modern, and there are some rules implied.
>>>
>>>
>>> Another use of 'critical', however, seems to come from the lay notion of
>>> the 'critic'. At its worst (and most post- modern) that can mean 'say
>>> what you like', and 'pose around as the most critical voice of all'.
>>> There is no method, just individual opinion. The process is destructive
>>> not constructive. It is part of the 'society of the spectacle', of
>>> consumerism, of capitalism itself.
>>>
>>>
>>> Here I've set up two ideal types, with a clear bias as to the one that
>>> I'm more comfortable with, and why. The idea is to use the two models to
>>> evaluate contributions that march under the critical banner.
>>>
>>>
>>> So if you want to convince me that you are being critical in the best
>>> sense, I'll be asking
>>> "Is your analysis one that requires stepping outside the hegemonic frame
>>> of reference of this society and its dominant psychology?"
>>> "Where is your argument taking us and in whose interests are you doing it
>>> in?"
>>> "What's the action - and what's your action?"
>>> and
>>> "Are you doing this in a comradely way?"
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> 37 Chandos Rd South
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>>
>>
>>
>> Annie Mitchell
>> Lecturer in Psychology,
>> Clinical Director, Doctorate in Clinical and Community Psychology,
>>
>> School of Psychology,
>> Washington Singer Building,
>> University of Exeter,
>> Exeter,
>> EX4 4QG
>>
>> Phone 01392 264621 or
>> Liz Mears, Programme Administrator 01392 403184
>>
>> ___________________________________
>>
>> COMMUNITYPSYCHUK - The discussion list for community psychology in the UK.
>> To unsubscribe or to change your details visit the website:
>> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/COMMUNITYPSYCHUK.HTML
>> For any problems or queries, contact the list moderator at
[log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask]
>
>___________________________________
>
>COMMUNITYPSYCHUK - The discussion list for community psychology in the UK.
>To unsubscribe or to change your details visit the website:
>http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/COMMUNITYPSYCHUK.HTML
>For any problems or queries, contact the list moderator at
[log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask]
Annie Mitchell
Clinical Director and Acting Programme Director,
Doctorate in Clinical and Community Psychology,
University of Exeter
01392264621
___________________________________
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