Sue's comment "And
maybe people should just write in without adding their credentials after
their name? If you really thought ordinary people were the experts you
would have left that off" has really made me
think this morning.
For many of us working in academic or health settings we're expected to
include an address/information (including a title) on our emails.
In my department it's mandatory. I do accept that it may appear to
others that this could be a sign of trying to be an expert - although I
bet for most of us who do have a signature we'd never even questioned it
before.
I'd like to add a different side to this story if I may. I work on
an international health programme. Many of those I work with are
dealing with vulnerable groups, often people exploited by pharmaceutical
companies, drug trials and other unethical studies. It is important
to those groups to know who they're talking to (we've been specifically
asked to include our information as a sign of transparency and
trust).
Also people often use their signatures not to promote themselves as
experts, but to promote issues they believe in. For example one of
my colleagues always includes a link to her campaign against
pharmaceutical involvement in female sexuality on her signature, my boss
has a link to a charity she supports on hers, many of my colleagues have
links to a website that advertises a programme to enable young people
from low income backgrounds access to education, whilst other people use
links to show courses, websites or other resources that are designed to
help foster discussion, debate or education.
For those reasons I'd be loathe to remove my signature in daily use, but
if people on this list would prefer us all not to use signatures perhaps
we ought to agree on this?
I do feel there are wider issues about expertise - the issue of whether
to use an academic title for example is just one. Are we being
oppressive or setting ourselves up as experts by using a title or
signature? What if other people *want* to see our
credentials?
A final note, again from working within developing countries and usually
neglected communities I've found that when I've deliberately tried *not*
to use my title I've been asked to do so because people take me more
seriously if I do. As a woman particularly this can often make the
difference between being able to talk to a community leader, and not
being given any access. I agree this causes discomfort, but in some
countries (and communities) where heirarchy and status are important it
raises issues about how to manage this? Do we stick with titles and
feel uncomfortable/oppressive, or abandon them and risk exclusion and
mistrust. Or is there another way?
PB
At 10:28 27/04/2006, you wrote:
And
maybe people should just write in without adding their credentials after
their name? If you really thought ordinary people were the experts you
would have left that off.
Sue McPherson
- ----- Original Message -----
- From: Rachael Fox
{PG}
- To:
[log in to unmask]
- Sent: Thursday, April 27, 2006 10:14 AM
- Subject: Re: List definition
- Well you’ve all lost me.
-
- My name is Rachael and I have enjoyed reading this list serve for ages, but like lots of people I’ve never contributed. On the one hand I like how rigorous and critical discussions become and often agree. On the other hand up till now I have been too cowardly to actually post anything – partly because my humour is often misplaced and would very possibly be taken the wrong way on a sensitive list such as this! But also because I often type and send before thinking and am afraid to be misunderstood on a medium which doesn’t really lend itself to communication and interaction so well.
-
- So slightly tentatively, here are my first (hopefully of many) views on recently posted opinions and issues
-
- Experts are viewed as such in our society if they have more education than everyone else, are paid more, and/or have more power. Obviously that’s rubbish – who the expert is really depends on what they are called to be an expert on. People who have experienced distress at the hands of society (aka mental ill heath and/or poverty among other things) are clearly the experts when it comes to dealing with these issues.
-
- If you want to know exactly how to conform to the system and create an industry out of distress, so that you can be viewed in our society as an expert, then I guess most of us on this list serve would be experts in that!
-
- The real difficult bit for this list serve I think is how can we discuss things in a critical and thoughtful way whilst still retaining the principles we value such as non conventional beliefs about who is the expert, or a welcoming sense of community - especially since a lot of people who subscribe to this list (myself included) are deeply embedded in institutions and structures that negatively affect the way we think and act?
-
- Phew, glad that’s over!
-
-
- Rachael Fox
- Postgraduate Student
- Community Psychology Group
- Department of Psychology
- University of Stirling
-
- -----Original Message-----
- From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Sue McPherson
- Sent: 27 April 2006 10:03 am
- To: [log in to unmask]
- Subject: Re: List definition
-
- It isn't just people with PhDs who have power. If you have money or have had an influential career in the community you an also have power.
-
- Psychology is not a rational science and in its its common form will always be used against people, to control them, even, or especially by people - experts - who should know better - for example, in Sociology. It's ridicualous to think people can have genuine respect for other people's views. That's utter nonsense.
-
- Sue McPherson
- ----- Original Message -----
- From: MICHAEL SWINDLEHURST
- To: [log in to unmask]
- Sent: Thursday, April 27, 2006 4:01 AM
- Subject: Re: List definition
-
- Thank you for the encouragement John,
-
- I do agree with Sue about the omnipotent powers of 'experts', regardless of whether deserving highly influential titles or not, and suspect this is why many members without letters after their name are are afraid to speak up or feel it is a waste of time. As a Pensioner non-academic 'mental health client' contributor to Annie's Psychology Service User Advisory Group, our work together as a wide range of experts in living - as all people are - has already introduced practical changes toward any potential for turning psychology into a rational and positive science. The key has been genuine respect for each other's views, knowledge and experience - accepted as of equal value in our guiding concern for the prospects of all people. My first awareness of community psychology as a practical art and science was as a commercial art student. Here one is taught how to con the public into thinking, feeling and acting in ways that mostly benefit a minority at great costs to the majority and our planet. The same principle is used in most aspects of our society, not least religion and politics, so I feel that learning to live with it is very dangerous for all of us. In the meantime, we can need individual treatment to keep us going or restrained but it must not be allowed to be used as a political tool to ignore and maintain the root causes of ever-growing individual, social and global ills.
-
- Mike
-
-
- ----- Original Message -----
- From: John Cromby
- To: [log in to unmask]
- Sent: Wednesday, April 26, 2006 9:04 PM
- Subject: Re: List definition
-
- Hi Mike
- I'm sorry and surprised to hear that you had a bad response to your earlier post. I thought your characterisation of CBT as 'coercive bullying tactics' was fantastic. And I agree, the list should have more of a focus on how social and economic structures impact upon us in our daily lives.
- John
-
- ----- Original Message -----
- From: MICHAEL SWINDLEHURST
- To: [log in to unmask]
- Sent: Wednesday, April 26, 2006 5:29 PM
- Subject: List definition
-
- It does appear from recent postings that there is a need to define who and what the discussion list is for. My hope in joining was that it may be a medium for discussing practical ideas to change the social and economic structures behind most mental ill health. A recent response to one of my postings certainly made me feel like 'riff-raff' and I wonder how many other 'experts by experience' members at client and CMHT level are afraid to offer responses and ideas for fear of feeling the same. Perhaps there is need to be mindful of what 'Communiy Psychology' means?
-
- Mike
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