From: "Edward Harper" <rch-AT-capecod.net>
Subject: Re: M-PSY: Re: Lables
Date: Sun, 3 Nov 1996 17:28:48 -0500


Ben and/or Marxism-Psych,
	If anyone is interested in following this line of thought a little
further, may I suggest they check out the Re-evaluation Counseling web-site
at http://www.rc.org/
----------
> From: Ben Davidson <100414.3660-AT-compuserve.com>
> To: Marx-Psych-list <MARXISM-PSYCH-AT-jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU>
> Subject: M-PSY: Re: Lables
> Date: Sunday, November 03, 1996 7:09 AM
> 
> I am quite involved in a psychiatric nursing list (I am a psychiatric
nurse as
> well as a trainee group-analytic psychotherapist).  Thought the following
might
> be of interest, especially as it relates to Reynaldo's posting.
> 
> 	----- Forwarded Message -----
> 
> Andrew,
> 
> Similar themes are emerging on two lists, which I hope all will forgive
me for
> attempting to cross-fertilise!
> 
> >Ben, I look at this issue of "expertise" similarly.  Especially if
> >one begins to consider that practically all of us grew up in families of
> >origin (FOA) in which there were varying degrees of dysfunctionality, in
>which
> to varying degrees we were taught "an unhealthy focus on the needs of
> >others and/or [to] attempt to take responsibility for or control the
> >thoughts, feelings or behavior of others...motivated by a need for
safety,
> >acceptance or self-worth" (Des Roches definition of co-dependency, as
cited
> >in Whitfield, 1991), it is a trap to consider ourselves experts at human
> >suffering.  
> >
> >Nurses are especially at hazard for the codependent danger of caring for
> >others at the expense of caring for themselves.  We must
> >heal/recover ourselves, as we care and catalyze healing and recovery in 
> >others.  
> 
> Taken to an extreme, we find very damaging ways of coercing the patient
and
> others into a view that *they* are the one with problems.  Society uses
our need
> to offer psychic healing in order to sustain the control over patients'
> behaviour and experience that is required.  Attempts to normalise the
process of
> 'healing/recovering ourselves as we care and catalyze healing and
recovery in
> others' has not met with widespread success - indeed, in Britain there is
> something of a witch-hunt within nursing to find who among nurses are
mentally
> ill, especially since the case of Beverly Allett who murdered several
children
> in her care.
> 
> I am struck, reading and thinking about messages in these threads, how
easy and
> dangerous it is to pathologise people's natural response to their life
> experience.  The following posting from the Marxism and Psychology list,
just
> received, might put the issues at stake into greater relief.  Consider
how the
> tendency of the psych-professions to pathologise is so much more
obviously
> damaging when you consider the situation of someone whose 'ills' result
from
> what are much more obviously oppressive circumstances.  And then ask, are
the
> circumstances of patients we see, and the effects of a pathologising
response on
> our part, so very different?
> 
> >     --- from list marxism-psych-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
> >
> >Filipino and Filipina Marxist psychologists, psychiatrists, medical 
> >doctors, social workers, paraprofessionals, and other health workers 
> >dealing with biomedical and psychosocial relief and rehabilitation work 
> >for victims of political repressions (torture, rape, bombing of
villages, 
> >union busting, etc.) use the group-centered approach.  The 
> >expert-centered, "clinic" approach is de-emphasized, to say the least.  
> >Political work is the point of departure in relief and rehabilitaton 
> >work.  Individuals are taken in the group context:  they talk about the 
> >trauma with which they are confronted and they themselves find common 
> >solutions. The terms "cure", "patient", "victims" ("survivor" is the 
> >preferred term), "client", etc. are used with caution.  Psychology, 
> >medicine, and political work are dealt with together.  
> >
> >A torture survivor, for instance, relates her or his conditions, 
> >recollections, post-traumatic stress syndrome, etc. to her or his 
> >comrades with whom s/he works.  The health worker is but an active 
> >facilitator in the healing process.  If the torture survivor is the sole

> >breadwinner, then alternative income-generating projects are worked out 
> >for the partner/spouse.  If the torture survivor has children, they are 
> >also part of the relief and rehabilitation work.  Oftentimes, the 
> >children hear their classmates call their parents who are political 
> >prisoners as "criminals", "bad people", etc.  So children also get 
> >traumatized and need to be part of the healing process.  As children
tend 
> >not to speak up much in the Philippine context, they undergo people's 
> >theatre and cultural workshop and express their feelings about 
> >themselves, their family, their community, and the political work of 
> >their parents in street plays or theatres.  Hence, political, medical, 
> >psychological, cultural, and income-generating (economic) work cannot be

> >separated one from the other.  Survivors of repression are not passive 
> >objects of medication or treatment but are considered active creators of

> >their lives, future, and rehabilitation work.  Rehabilitation here does 
> >not refer to re-integrating to the opppresive social system against
which 
> >the survivors have been fighting in the first place.  Rather, 
> >rehabilitation consists of understanding the traumatic experiences 
> >survivors have undergone and to reintegrate to their units of political 
> >work where possible or to seek alternative political deployment (taking 
> >into account the security risks involved).  
> >
> >Reynaldo 
> >Philippines
> 
> Ben
> 
> 
> 
>      --- from list marxism-psych-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---


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