Twenty-five years have passed since my friend, mentor and intellectual partner Fred Newman made what I think is one of the most significant statements about community I’ve ever heard. It was a cold November evening in 1990 and Fred was speaking to a hundred or so New Yorkers gathered in...
The Castillo Theatre, housed in the NYC headquarters of the All Stars Project on 42nd St, is a special place. It's my favorite theatre. In my inbox today was an email from Castillo's artistic director Dan Friedman. It personally and eloquently gives expression to Castillo's values and aesthetics.—and I share...
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...
Can We Perform Our Way to Power? 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 it spreads becomes more conflicted....
“What we need is more facilities where people can walk in and say 'Hey, I'm feeling really down today. Can I just be here for a while and see what could be a contribution to me and make me feel better?' I think this is true for most people but...
Thanks to APA symposium (“Beyond the DSM: Current Trends in Devising New Diagnostic Alternatives”) discussant Sarah Kamens for bringing to our attention a chilling essay reviewing the DSM-5. Author Sam Kriss “reviews” the book as if it were a dystopian novel like 1984 and Brave New World. The essay appeared...
I've been rereading my Psychology Today columns since I began writing them over two years ago. It's something I'm doing while I'm finishing up writing a chapter on psychology for my online book, The Overweight Brain: How our obsession with knowing keeps us from getting smart enough to make a better...
I haven’t attended the American Psychological Association convention in about ten years. But I couldn’t turn down an invitation to speak on a symposium on alternatives to diagnosis. And so, I’ll be traveling to Toronto in a few weeks for this year’s convention. The session, organized by SUNY New Paltz psychology...
It's been about a month since Nobel prize winning biochemist Tim Hunt's comments on "girls" in science, and the furor hasn't stopped yet. But along with his sexism is dangerous scientism—“Science is about nothing but getting at the truth and anything that gets in the way of that diminishes, in...
Each June, I spend 2 weeks or so with an international group of innovators/activists/scholars/community organizers. They are the Institute's International Class, in NYC for the third and final residency of their 10 month program. It's a unique kind of time together—intensely active, intellectually and emotionally challenging and growthful for all, and...