Here's a sneak peek at the next chapter of The Overweight Brain. I'm giving it the working title — "The Cult(ure) of Science" Chapter 7. The Cult(ure) of Science My beef with science isn't that it’s a scam. Sciences like chemistry, anatomy, biology and physics—unlike psychology—don’t purposely distort what they’re studying to make it...
On January 25, 2016 I’ll be interviewing Ananta Kumar Giri, associate professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies in Tamil Nadu, India, as part of the Side Institute’s “Making a Conceptual Revolution” series. Professor Giri is a fascinating person whose interests include social movements and cultural change, creativity and...
Today’s Words to Ponder are spoken by Sir Malcolm Muckerex, the pompous and erudite narrator in Fred Newman’s play, “Life Upon the Wicked Stage.” The play was first performed live at the American Psychological Association Convention in 1997; you can watch a video performance of it here. The world is a wicked...
ANNOUNCEMENT & CALL FOR PROPOSALS September 23-25, 2016 Deadline for Proposals: February 21, 2016 The ninth Performing the World (PTW) conference will be held in New York City, Friday, September 23 through Sunday, September 25, 2016. As the practice, understanding and appreciation for performance and play continue to grow, the world context in which...
You might enjoy this conversation between Fred Newman and me from 18 years ago! We're looking at the various Vygotskian inspired projects we and our community created and if and how they're "Vygotskian." It was fascinating seeing them in their earlier years (once I got over the shock of seeing a much...
This week's words are from Fred Newman's and my book, Lev Vygotsky: Revolutionary Scientist—restructured from text* to poem. To reshape our emotional practice— to decide for ourselves what it is we want to do with anger, joy, humiliation and the rest of our incredibly complex subjectivity (which is nameless) and with the emotions newly created through/in the activity of building community that redefines...
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...
This week's words are from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass—a very playful practical-philosopical book containing hundreds of thinking/speaking muddles. Here's two of them. I. White Queen: Let's consider your age to begin with—how old are you? Alice: I'm seven and a half exactly. White Queen: You needn't say "exactually: I can believe it without that....
The assumption of an internal or mental world invites alienation, loneliness, distrust, hierarchy, competition, and self-doubt; favored is a society in which people become commodities and relationships are devalued. This concept of bounded being finds its origins not within the interior of individual minds, but within co-action. It is from...
We’ve revamped the popular in-depth online course in social therapeutics: SOCIAL THERAPEUTICS & THE PRACTICE OF METHOD January 2016 begins the 7th year I’ve been leading the East Side Institute’s online certificate program in social therapeutics. In recognition of the 20th anniversary of the publication of Unscientific Psychology: A Cultural-Performatory Approach to...