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...
As many readers of this site and the writings of the East Side Institute are aware, Fred Newman and I are among the vocal critics of psychology’s obsession with and glorification of the individual. We agree with our colleagues that psychology developed alongside and played a central role in the...
This summer I drafted an article for a special issue on diagnostic alternatives of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology. Having learned that it will be at least a year before publication (which is ridiculous), I am making it available here. Feedback welcome! Diagnosis: A Thousand Ordinary People Speak Out Lois Holzman and Elisabeth...
I'm immersed this week in final preparations for the 9th Performing the World event, PTW '16: Can We Perform Our Way to Power? (September 23-25) and in working on the science chapter for my online book The Overweight Brain. One thing led to another, as they always do. I was beginning to...
The Ethics of Diagnosis and Alternatives to It—An Invitation for Inquiry This week the American Psychological Association holds its annual convention in Denver. I had been planning to attend and present as part of a symposium, “The Future of Diagnosis: Ethics, Social Justice, and Alternative Paradigms.” The topic I planned to...
Performing the World (PTW) is a cross-disciplinary gathering of practitioners and scholars from every continent. Participants include performers and performance scholars, psychologists and social workers, physicians and nurses, educators and youth workers, community organizers and activists, and all others for whom performance, play and the creative/expressive arts offer a new...
“If you construct a classroom in which children must keep their seats, you are assuring that there will be a hyperactivity syndrome.” Jerome Bruner 1916-2016 [caption id="attachment_3083" align="aligncenter" width="768"] Jerome Bruner & Gita Vygodskaya at East Side Institute Reception in her Honor[/caption]...
“Disorder” is an inappropriate term to attach as a fundamental part of the name of a neurological condition. Whether it’s order or disorder is a matter of how it works in relation to other people and settings. Unless this basic idea becomes better understood, too many people will go...
Eric Maisel interviewed me on social therapy for his The Future of Mental Health Series at Psychology Today...
If I were an historian I'd want to be as creative, eloquent, passionate and rigorous as Kurt Danziger (Professor Emeritus at York University in Toronto). A few times a year, I return to his wonderful books, Constructing the Subject: Historical Origins of Psychological Research and Naming the Mind: How Psychology...