These days, we could all use a a little Wittgenstein. Like this gem. One is often bewitched by a word. For example, by the word "know." Ludwig Wittgenstein ...
On Friday evening, June 9 I had the privilege and pleasure of creating conversation with prize-winning journalist and prominent psychiatry critic Robert Whitaker. Our topic was “Mad in America: Drugs, Diagnosis and Development” (an event sponsored by the East Side Institute). Aided by invitingly probing questions from moderator Janet Wootten...
Here's a provocative take on anger from Fred Newman (who often advises us to look in the mirror). Dialogue 52. Dealing with Anger as Activity (From Psychological Investigations: A Clinician's Guide to Social Therapy) Student 1: I understand that you believe that expressing anger is a choice. I know that if I...
"Science, Spirituality and Social Therapy" is the theme of this quote from Fred Newman (from the book Psychological Investigations: A Clinician's Guide to Social Therapy, Edited by Lois Holzman & Rafael Mendez). I think there is a powerful and important connection between spirituality and human growth. For the bulk of this...
Groups. Individuals. Decisions. Descriptions. Science. Measurement. Therapy. Fred Newman brings them all together in "Undecidable Emotions (What is Social Therapy? And How is it Revolutionary?)". Here's an excerpt from the article published in 2003 in The Journal of Constructivist Psychology (Volume 16, pp. 215-232). You can read the article in...
Hello to my blog followers and fans of The Overweight Brain. If you live in the NYC metro area I’d love for you to join me IN PERSON for a Revolutionary Conversation on psychology’s glorification of the individual—taking place the evenings of Monday March 1 and 8 at the East Side...
For the next few months I’ll be using "Words to Ponder" to share some words of Fred Newman—the public philosopher, creator of social therapy, political activist, “architect” of a new progressivism, and my friend and intellectual partner for 35 years. I hope you are moved and/or provoked by them. The...
I want to introduce you to a unique activist-scholar community that played an especially important role in my development. It's the Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition (also known as LCHC or, simply, the Lab). Housed at the University of California San Diego since 1979, the Lab is a community of...
I posted a new chapter of The Overweight Brain a few days ago and am so pleased with the great feedback I'm receiving so far. Here's a snippet: Science relies on and perpetuates the distinction (dualism) between subjective and objective—subjective being beliefs, attitudes, and other mental processes that are “inside,” and objective being...
Renowned scholar John Shotter passed away on December 8, 2016 after a long illness. John loved to talk and to listen, to create conversation about everything, most especially about conversation itself. His contributions to social constructionism, Open Dialogue and a radically humanistic psychology are acknowledged and studied the world over. I...