Hi all
Thanks David F for the timely reminder that "history" is often very much
constrcuted, with agendas or motives in mind. From your message, I take
the point that defining what is the CPUK movement is as hard as
ascertaining the shared history of community psychology approaches in
the UK - as there are different narratives, a point which Mark also
raised.
I don't know enough about the restrictions on the pedagogy of critical
thinking in higher education settings, but I am finding plenty of
thought provoking material here on the list! Thanks to all for the
continuing inspiration.
I'm still interested in the proposals to follow up Lord Layard's
suggestions re employing more clinical psychologists (with money drawn
from the welfare state?). I first thought that was a matter for
'clinical psychology' to think about and grapple with the likely
ramifications of pursuing (or being pushed) into providing one to one
(or group) 'therapies' for people who are quite possibly long term
unemployed, not actively seeking work, and perhaps living in
deprivation. ... but the more I ponder it I guess there is a wider
community perspective here?
I'm trying to pull my thoughts on this together into a more coherent
stream of thougt, or perhaps article. One thing I do know, and believe
that I can witness daily, as a resident of a fairly moderately deprived
council housing estate in the East midlands, UK, is that there are a
number of people who for whatever reason, are unlikely to engage in 'CBT
for unemployment', without a degree of co-ercion from the state/wider
community. It prety well frightens me to find that there are allready a
number of 'therapists' (CBT trained therapists?) employed in job centres
to help and encourage (co-erce?) people back to work, (and thereby 'off'
state benefits).
It seems to me that Lord Layard's suggestions are potentially far
reaching, for 1) proffesional psychology, 2) individuals who would be
targeted by this newly evolving aspect of psychology as weapon in the
arsenal of social control, and 3) the communities from which those
individuals would be drawn. I think that Lord Layard's proposals would
quite possibly have a strong (and I speculate a mixture of helpful and
uhelpful) impact on our most deprived communities. As list members here
are probably persons interested in the social causation of distress,
such as members of housing estates, community groups, activists,
psychologists (critical, clinical or community), marxists, or just plain
old fashioned citizens, I think this topic is not something to loose
sight of?
If fellow list members are still formulating some sort of response to
the publicity that Layard's suggestions have generated, or Clinical
Psychology's (DCP) and the DoH's professional position on the
suggestions I would be keen to hear more.
Best wishes, Matt.
-----Original Message-----
From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of David Fryer
Sent: 02 December 2005 17:34
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] past conferences & history of the CPUK
movement.
Dear Matt,
Regarding your posting "I would be particularly keen to find out more
about the history of the CPUK movement. Has anyone documented the
origins, the ups and downs, the successes and perhaps failures of our UK
movement. Could anyone point me in the right direction for such
information?"
It is an interesting request because it allows us to remind ourselves
just how essential critical thinking is in relation to so-called
'history'. In my view, any account (see my last posting) but especially
historical accounts require critical reflection about whose interests
are being served by what is thought and written, what the ideological
implications of positions taken are and on where there is default to
reproduction of problematic assumptions.
What would constitute a movement? Should we include the founding of
journals and Chairs (institutional history) or everyday practice?
Should we include community psychology done by those who don't call
themselves and have never heard of community psychology? Should we write
histories which privilege the sort of community psychology with which we
identify and from which we benefit and which portray the sort of
community psychology we do as the inevitable endpoint of historical
processes?
In my own accounts I trace European community psychology as far as the
work of Marie Jahoda in the 1930s in Austria, Wales and England and
contest the domination of community psychology history writing by
colleagues in the USA, who usually trace community psychology back to
Swampscott and domestic US events in the 1960s, particularly
problematic.
Ian Parker, in the book I recommended last posting, writes that
(Foucault) "argued, for example, that historical accounts are always
produced from the standpoint of present-day practices, usually with the
function of legitimating the way we have come to do things or think
about ourselves" (Parker, 2005: 3).
David
David Fryer
Community Psychology Group
University of Stirling
FK9 4LA
Scotland
+44 (0) 1786 467650 (tel)
+44 (0) 1786 467641 (fax)
[log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mark Burton
Sent: 02 December 2005 2:41 pm
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] past conferences & history of the CPUK
movement.
You can read a history at
http://www.compsy.org.uk/Community_Psychology_in_Britain_History_version
%202_MB,CK.pdf
This is a chapter by Stephanie Boyle, Carl Harris, Carolyn Kagan and
myself - written for the forthcoming book editied by S Reich, M Reimer,
I prilleltenskky and M Montero on international community psy. It is of
course one of a number of possible histories, but it was based on
interviews and contributions / correspondence with a variety of people
in the field, many of whom are on the list. We have also tried to
analyse the relative lack of CP development in UK in a paper cited
within the book, and also avaialble on the www.compsy.org.uk site. Mark
Mark Burton
> Hi all,
> I have been reading with great interest the postings concerning the
> liberated clinical psychology / community psychology debate, and the
> explicit addressing of the notion of criticality. These discussions
> are the reason that I subscribed to the CPUK list. Thanks to all for
> the continuing richness of the food for thought.
> I was sorry not to have been at the recent conference and I hope that
> I will be able to come along to the next one! Yarmouth sounds good to
> me. Sliding scales of fees sounds very useful and facilitative.
> It feels to me that this is a particularly challenging period for
> 'psychology', and (perhaps naively?) I think that there is scope to
> counter some of the harm that is often done in the name of helping, as
> I sense a growing awareness of the actual roots and influences inherit
in institutionalised psychology ( health or university) settings.
> I would be particularly keen to find out more about the history of the
> CPUK movement. Has anyone documented the origins, the ups and downs,
> the successess and perhaps failures of our UK movement. Could anyone
> point me in the right direction for such information?
> Regards, Matt.
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