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I partly agree with you - that can do culture is quite appealing when you go to the states, but it hardly makes for an empathetic culture or one that allows people to explore all sides of their feelings and thoughts without fear... I think most disabled people i've met don't take on a victim mentality - that remains one of those prejudices in the general population and in popular culture played many times over in films about disability were a an able-bodied person encourages the disabled person into positive thinking - scent of a woman comes to mind as just one of those annoying movies. And the social model has freed many people from the overwhelming pressures of society that frustrated them in attempting to lead their life. Most disabled people I've found are optimistic and more balanced than their able-bodied peers who love nothing better than watching self-indulgent negativity on tap such as Ally McBeal and reading Bridget Jones's diary etc which revelsin the victim mentality about the world and life in general. I think my general argument is that a balance needs to be found - those feelings deemed negative can ironically, sometimes be more of a creative force then simply thinking postively - the famous psychotherpist anthony storr was quite keen on epxloring these areas. Furthermore, I was arguing that people should be allowed to feel things without them being forced into thinking positively - or acan do if you want to culturewhich often leads to feelings of self-hatred and competitive amongst disabled people who either fail or win. Itis often the same old story heard in counselling - things get buried only to come up later because they were ignored, seen as negative and ultimately denied causing the anger,resentment and defeated feelingsthat you talk about when the can do attitude does not deliver or people cannot live up to it. Glenn Dr Glenn Smith, Research Fellow, London. -----Original Message----- From: T W Shakespeare [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: 23 January 2003 10:41 To: Smith, Glenn; [log in to unmask] Subject: RE: Something Positive? Interesting thread... "Sometimes thinking negatively allows us to 'mentally' rest and work through issues slowly without being pushed in trying to find a false positive. In time most people will feel more positive - a positivety that will last, having worked through their negative feelings more thoroughly and individually." That may well be right. People need to process grief and anger and mourning and loss and all the other dimensions of both impairment and disability. But isn't there something generally pretty negative about the British psyche - perhaps connected to our weather - which contrasts with the more can-do attitude which I find when I am in USA or Australia, to take two examples. In UK, people often react along the lines of 'what do you expect?' or 'can't be bothered' or 'it's bound to fail' or 'it's more than my job's worth'. In terms of disability, I do think we should be more positive and proactive and take risks and make the best of things. Sometimes people are quick to adopt a 'victim mentality'. Blaming social barriers or attitudes may locate the problem differently from blaming bodies or minds that work differently, but it still justifies failure, or not trying, or expecting the worst. I think we should try and enable disabled people to have high expectations, high aspirations, a positive approach to the world, a welcoming attitude to other people, rather than negativity, hostility, anger, defeatism, suspicion, rejection etc. I can see the ways in which oppression makes it difficult to take a creative and constructive approach to the world. But Che Guevara says somewhere "the true revolutionary is guided by a strong feeling of love. It is impossible to think of an authentic revolutionary who does not have this quality". ________________End of message______________________ Archives and tools for the Disability-Research Discussion List are now located at: www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/disability-research.html You can JOIN or LEAVE the list from this web page.