27 Aug Words to Ponder #47
I think about how exhausting the indicative becomes - the constant demand to perform progress, to show we're winning, to prove harm is decreasing. Bayo Akomolafe...
Philosophy
20 Feb Words to Ponder # 43
Posted at 15:33h
in Critical psychiatry, Philosophy, Psychology of Becoming, Words to Ponder 0 Comments
The opening paragraph of "We’re Obsessed with Labelling Suffering, But Our Power to Think about it Matters More," a post on Mad in America by Charlotte Beale The philosopher Ian Hacking described a looping effect, whereby people adjust themselves to become more like the labels foisted upon them. “Sometimes, our sciences create...
05 May Development for All
Posted at 02:15h
in Culture, Education, Human Development, Philosophy, Psychology of Becoming, What's New 0 Comments
I hope you recognize me! It's the logo for my new project—an advice column like no other! Check out The Developmentalist and, if you like it SHARE SHARE SHARE! ...
19 Feb Words to Ponder # 41
Today’s ponderings come from Winnie the Pooh, who I’m finding remarkably relevant to living/becoming/developing in this strange and scary 21st century. So philosophical! So Vygotskian! So post-postmodern! (Thank you, A.A.Milne for your creation.) “When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that...
18 Jan Revisiting “Fred Newman and the Practice of Method”
Posted at 19:30h
in Culture, Human Development, Philosophy, Politics, Postmodern Marxism, Psychology of Becoming, Social Therapeutics 2 Comments
That's the title of an invited address I gave in 2011 at the Third International Academic Conference on Contemporary Capitalism Studies in Hangzhou China, just three months after Fred Newman passed away. Today, my colleagues and I are in the early stages of designing some kind of video documentary of...
02 Jul Age and Me-ness
Posted at 01:17h
in Culture, Human Development, Philosophy, Psychology of Becoming, Social Therapy 2 Comments
Fred Newman disliked being called wise. He thought wisdom implied knowing and, he believed knowing was, at this point in history, a dead end at best, and most often destructive. (He and I did write a book entitled, The End of Knowing, after all!) And yet, I have to admit...
22 Jan Words to Ponder #36
These words, written twenty years ago by renowned social constructionist Ken Gergen, are surely worth pondering today. "In important degree, identity politics is a descendent of Western, individualist ideology. It is not the single individual who commands our interest in this case; rather individual identity is conflated with group identity. Individual...
05 Jan A Look Back at Ecological Validity
Posted at 01:31h
in Activity Theory, Learning Environments, Philosophy, Psychology, Psychology of Becoming, Publications, Vygotsky, Wittgenstein 0 Comments
While I don’t own the article I wrote for the recent journal Mind, Culture and Activity (the publisher does), I do have “permission” to share the online link to it. The first 50 people to go there can read it! (How generous publishers are.) I titled it “Musings on ecological...
29 Dec The End of Knowing as Critical Praxis (Practical-Critical Activity)
Posted at 23:25h
in Activity Theory, Critical psychiatry, Culture, Human Development, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology, Psychology of Becoming, Social Therapeutics 0 Comments
When I have an academic presentation to make or an article to write on social therapeutic methodology, it's usually an opportunity to play around with conceptions I've spoken and written about many times before. I like the challenge of creating new frames ("What do I want to say to this...
26 Dec Brains and Politics
Posted at 23:04h
in Culture, Events, Interviews, Overweight Brain, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology of Becoming 0 Comments
On Sunday, December 8th, I had the pleasure of speaking with 75 people from 17 states in the US. They called in to the monthly Politics for the People conversation hosted by Cathy Stewart, VP for National Development at indepependentvoting.org. It was a privilege to be Cathy's guest, to discuss...