Dear Saima,
Thanks for your thought provoking message; reminded me of a reference in
American Psychologist - bit out of date now... but here's the reference..
Marsella A.J. (1998) Toward a "global-community" psychology. Am Psychol
53,12,1282-1291
I like your reminder that what we benefit from with our community
psychology conferences is a precious space where we can remain open to the
different ways in which we are challenged.
Annie
--On 27 November 2005 18:11 +0000 saima Masud <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> Dear All,
>
>
> I like the idea of building on the themes that came out from the
> conference recently held. The future of psychology in a multicultural
> society is one perspective on the topics of freedom, equality, power, and
> inter-dependence and dependence between and within communities that were
> raised at the last conference. How do we make sense of multiculturalism,
> of its implications and prospects? Clinical psychologists work in a
> society which is living at an intercultural pace, but know it only
> partially. I am not clear on what we can expect from clinical
> psychology, but I feel that the bombs in London, the rioting in France,
> the question of whether Turkey (a European Muslim country) can be
> European, and the new laws on terrorism in the UK ignite anxiety about
> national identity, panic about ‘strangers’ in our communities, concerns
> of asylum and migration, rights, freedom, equality and democracy, which
> do not apply only to minority groups but extend critically to all members
> of society. I wonder if community psychology could offer a framework to
> appraise these issues critically and positively, to value
> ‘interculturalism’ as a source or activity of interpretation and
> criticism to carry forward.
>
> In mainstream psychology ‘empiricism’ is the goal to be achieved, and it
> has been argued that empiricism is a by-product of cultural
> ‘imperialism’. What is cultural imperialism? One example within the
> history of the discipline of psychology is the search for the
> ‘universal’. This search was mainly handled by cross-cultural
> psychology, which rather than viewing cultures as unique, selectively
> searched for that which could fit with Western assumptions about human
> nature. To be able to generalise across cultures was given preference
> to the qualities of the particular, which were seen as unable to define
> or determine the character of a universal human being or set of values.
> The concern in clinical psychology for articulating a common ethical
> standard that is applicable to all people at all times never in fact
> stops being relational, it is in fact quite specific to a Western
> cultural audience.
>
> An important fact of the world that clinical psychologists work in today
> is that migration, globalisation, as well as international work with
> refugees or victims of natural disasters are conditions in which persons
> are not isolatable from their communities. Therefore we cannot consider
> people in isolation from their difference. Undoubtedly we need to find
> ways to integrate Western thought with other social and cultural
> narratives. However, clinical psychology adopts an ‘objective’ view of
> human conduct, ignoring the extent to which social life is an
> interactional achievement between individuals, their culture and the ways
> in which the clinician is oriented to the situation.
>
> Culture today is mobile and liquid and so I don’t know if I agree with
> the term multiculturalism because culture is multiple by definition.
> However, the term multiculturalism is rapidly becoming a defining feature
> of current political discourse ? I think that you could define it as a
> state of mind that is restless and somewhere in the tension of freedom
> and limitation because the multiplicity and fluidity of identities and
> cultures does pose serious challenges. For-example the new DoH policy on
> ‘delivering race equality in mental health care’ and the implementation
> of 500+ community development workers working with CMHTs with minority
> communities addresses minority values and needs through the communities
> that they belong to ? however, within these groups the rights of some
> members may be restricted ? such as women. Some minority women seek
> protection of their rights as individuals within their own culture; here
> we must traverse the inequalities in both the majority and minority
> culture. Therefore, there is not only one integration there are many
> (diverse groups and diverse issues) and we need to address questions such
> as should equality be given a higher normative value than culture? (Which
> do I believe in more the equality of women or the equality of culture?)
>
> There have been at least 10 different kinds of multiculturalism
> identified (none by clinical psychology), from Levi Strauss there are two
> ways of dealing with different people ? 1) ‘eating them up’ (assimilation
> into our system) and 2) ‘vomiting them up’ (rounding them up and sending
> them back to the country of origin). In Britain, both systems are easy
> for us to implement. The contemporary issue of deporting extremists has
> the danger for undermining human rights laws for all, not just minority
> citizens. The ideal of democracy is not existing currently and as a
> psychologist I feel that I would like to voice my concerns about that.
>
> The model of multiculturalism is problematic, we have a patchwork of
> communities that are segregated, including the British White community
> and Trevor Phillips (Head of commission of Race Equality) said that we
> have ethnic and social ghettos ? surely clinical/community psychology
> could have a key role in thinking about the question of how to create
> mechanisms for sharing commonality - it does feel like we need to go
> back to finding universal principles that we do share and not the search
> for Western principles in other cultures.
>
>
> What would it mean to speak of, or practice, an intercultural psychology?
>
> Well, I just read through the above and feel apprehensive about sending
> this out to everyone because I’m not sure how doable it is as a theme for
> a conference. As the very discipline of ‘interculturalism’ is not
> widely developed in clinical psychology ? I can appreciate that it is
> often defined as the field of other disciplines ? however, my personal
> and professional aim is to travel that distinction and this proposal is
> one aspect of that enthusiasm. I am a trainee clinical psychologist who
> experienced her first engagement with community psychology at the
> Newcastle conference ? among the many things that I was challenged to
> think about, the view that scholarship should be for social change
> simultaneously made me think about the problem of how to seek out the
> balance, both to be nurtured or guided by training but also to be
> protected against conformism which training encourages upon us. I feel
> that it was not the specific theme of the last conference which enabled
> space to respond to such issues, rather it was the keenness to remain
> open to the different ways in which we feel challenged, and in a
> different themed conference, I am sure that this will be present.
>
> Best wishes
> Saima
>
>
>
>> From: "Franks, Wendy - Clinical Psychologist"
>> <[log in to unmask]>
>> Reply-To: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List
>> <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] On the subject of conferences...
>> Date: Wed, 23 Nov 2005 17:06:11 -0000
>>
>> Hello all,
>>
>> I thought I'd let the dust settle from all the activity around the
>> response to the BPS following the last conference, before starting up
>> another (hopefully) big topic!
>>
>> I wondered if we could use some space and time to reflect on the last
>> conference and to think about plans for the next one.
>>
>> Gillian Bowden and I offered at the end of the Newcastle conference that
>> we would be prepared to host the conference next year in Great Yarmouth.
>> After recovering from the shock, and on further reflection, I have been
>> feeling quite excited about the prospect...
>>
>> ...excited, and a more than just a little nervous about matching the
>> standard of UK CP Network conferences that I've attended over the last
>> few years!
>>
>> Each of the conferences had a different, local flavour, and I think that
>> this has been a wonderful part of the experience. So hopefully being
>> different is no bad thing, and there is enough that has been similar to
>> provide a framework on which to build.
>>
>> I am getting in touch with the list at this point to confirm that people
>> would like us to organise the next conference, and that there is an
>> interest
>> in coming all the way over Great Yarmouth next year. (we love to be
>> beside the seaside here, and hope you will too)
>>
>> If so, I would like to invite people from the list to talk about whatever
>> ways you'd like to be involved in planning the next conference. Clearly
>> there are practicalities regarding planning over distances, and we are
>> prepared to do the leg-work involved in getting things organised. I'd
>> like to find out how much involvement people would like to have, how
>> much you'd like to know about our thoughts and ideas and developing
>> plans, and to what extent it seems possible to organise an event such as
>> this by consensus!
>>
>> We have a number of people locally who are very excited by the prospect
>> of putting on the conference here in 2006 (including me!), and I hope
>> that we can cover most of the practical elements of organising the
>> conference. We've
>> had a few discussions already about how we'd like it to develop, and how
>> we'd like to draw on our own local flavour to make it interesting and
>> productive. In general, I think it would be great if we could involve the
>> list members to be involved in shaping the conference, from deciding on a
>> theme, to discussing the practicalities in terms of how many days, what
>> days, what activities, when, etc. I also wondered if people wanted to be
>> involved in activities such as reviewing abstracts, or at least to take
>> some
>> advice about the process from previous conference organisers.
>>
>> So, hopefully this isn't too soon after the last conference to start
>> preparing...
>>
>> Wendy
>>
>>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Wendy Franks
>> Clinical Psychologist
>> Primary Care & Psychological Services
>> Norfolk & Waveney Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust
>> Northgate Resource Centre
>> Northgate Hospital
>> Great Yarmouth
>> NR30 1BU
>>
>> Tel: (01493) 337715
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
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>>
>> ___________________________________
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>
> ___________________________________
>
> COMMUNITYPSYCHUK - The discussion list for community psychology in the UK.
> To unsubscribe or to change your details visit the website:
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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
___________________________________
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