10 Oct What is the Practice of Method?
I’m looking for people interested in exploring the politics, ethics and activity of a relational psychology of becoming.
Social Therapeutics and the Practice of Method:
An Advanced Online Course
with Lois Holzman and Faculty
February — May 2016
Social therapeutics is a “practice of method” for human and community development. What Lois Holzman and Fred Newman mean by the term (first used by them in 1979) is that their approach is not a practice derived from a theory or an application of a method but rather it is a theory/method that is a practice.
This course explores what characterizes this unique theory/method/practice and the ways in which it is a practical-critical alternative to the individualism, dualism, reductionism and scientism of the dominant psychology and its stifling impact on people and communities worldwide.
Key topics include: human development and group creativity; the enhancement of sociality and engagement of alienation; tool-and-result methodology; the unique creativity and power of the group; performance as a new ontology; and the dialectic between learning and development. The contributions to social therapeutics of Marx, Vygotsky and Wittgenstein, as well as social constructionism, will be studied.
Throughout the course Holzman and other faculty will guide students in an intensive inquiry into the emergence, politics, philosophy and community-based manifestations of the approach in psychotherapy, education, youth and community development, and more.
Online Seminars. Course material is divided into seminars (with short breaks in between). Students develop short projects for each seminar.
Conferencing and Live Chats. The course includes monthly Skype conference calls and online chat sessions with faculty.
Online discussions are asynchronous. It doesn’t matter what time zone you’re in. Participants can read, complete assignments, comment and add to the discussion at any time.
For more information and application, contact Melissa Meyer mmeyer@eastsideinstitute.org or go to East Side Institute
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