Fred Newman was a playwright and theatre director as well as a social therapist (and philosopher, community organizer and political strategist). He loved creating conversation on therapy and theatre. Here's excerpts from a class he gave on The Therapeutics of Theatre—in 2002, and just as relevant (maybe more so) 15 years later. My...
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...
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 love the sentiment here (from Failure: Why Science is So Successful by Stuart Firestein) You may have noticed that I have a fondness for quotes. It's not so much that I think quoting famous people gives a statement more authority or is less open to criticism. Rather, I think that just because...
With the damp dog Curled On my lap My laptop glows An open window on the world A world I'd like to ignore For now. Because now is quiet and still Now is like a tree Singing to itself In the storm. Dan Friedman July 29, 2016 ...
What is under consideration is not the ontological state of affairs, but the ontological commitments of a discourse. What there is does not in general depend on one’s use of language, but what one says there is does. American philosopher W.V.O. Quine (1908-2000) ...
Instead of thinking that you have to put pieces together that will add up to a whole, I think you have to start with the premise that they're already together and you try to keep from destroying life by segmenting it,...
If there is something you wish to know and by meditation you cannot find it, my advice to you, my ingenious friend, is: speak about it with the first acquaintance you encounter. Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811) “On the Gradual Production of Thoughts Whilst Speaking” ...
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...
Worth remembering as we begin a new year...