Date: Thu, 07 May 1998 23:20:58 +0100
From: Chris Burford <cburford-AT-gn.apc.org>
Subject: M-PSY: Doing empowerment


I'm a bit baffled by this. Am a blundering around where if I were really a
marxist I should fear to tread?

Certainly "doing empowerment" sounds a pretty degraded activity, and
degrading activity, if one is the passive victim of this process. 

Is the role of the social worker even worse than the psychiatrist in late
twentieth century life?

Roland Chrisjohn seems to accept that education at least can be positive.
So what about the current of therapeutic approaches called "psychoeducative"?

Are these approaches essentially individualistic? In form yes. We are
operationalising information to enable (empower?) people as rapidly as
possible to represent themselves in the atomistic turmoil of modern
society. But much of that is about how to manage their own stress levels
with less passivity and to interact more with others. In that context
medication is an aide, a crutch, a safety net, to a wider project of
turning their life around as social beings.

In form individualistic. In content, or rather in overall result, IMHO not. 

I am not sure if my problem is with your introduction through Wittgenstein
with whom I have a communication block, or your double definition of
"power". My dictionary starts off with the etymology from the Latin "to be
able" and begins a large cluster of meanings with "ability to do something
or anything".

I think my first rule is to try to avoid telling my patients what to do.
(Probably I could be proved a hypocrite in that but I think I carry it out
at least to a large extent). The most important question in the discharge
care plan addressed to the patient is, "how can we avoid you ever coming
into hospital again?" by which I mean "how can *you* avoid ever coming into
hospital again?" and I am implying that I am prepared to make it a joint
project.

Were you and your co-author writing from outside the framework of clinical
practice? This might indeed make you acute observers of a malign process,
but it might leave you also as passive frustrated observers, *disempowered*
from being able to compare in practice different types of therapeutic
approaches. Or have I just disempowered you?

Chris Burford

London

 







At 11:24 AM 5/7/98 -0400, you wrote:
> A short response to Hugh Rodwell and Chris Burford in one post...
>
>
>There is no digital copy, and the number is for Sherri's house in
>Strathmore, Alberta.  As for a taste, I hesitate to summarize a 300+ page
>book in a paragraph or two, but here goes:
>
>We start from Wittgenstein's position about the necessity of conceptual
>clarification.  "Power" (in English, anyway) has two major senses: power as
>AUTHORITY (entitlement to perform certain actions, e.g., make arrests) and
>power as ABILITY (capacity to perform certain actions, e.g. speak Chinese).
> Similar distinctions have often been made (Wartenberg, for example). 
>"Empowerment" thus refers to a process of bestowal of authority, ability,
>or some kind of combination of both.  
>
>When we look at the activities social services workers perform when they
>say they're "doing empowerment," however, this isn't what's going on.  For
>example, pointing out to the disaffected that they can vote isn't giving
>them the vote, nor is helping them arrange for social services (such as
>they might be) bringing about (or improving) those services.  Direct
>political action by the supposed "helpers" might actually constitute
>empowerment (e.g., extending the franchise to marginalized groups), but
>"helpers" usually disqualify themselves from such activities (see Polksy's
>"The Rise of the Therapeutic State").  Or, more accurately, when they drop
>the therapeutic tone and start agitating for human rights, they cease to be
>social service workers and become activists.
>
>Of course, a great deal of empowerment does go on... we call it
>"education."  For instance, people who initially can't read who acquire,
>with help, that ability, are, properly speaking, empowered.  But then we
>ask, why do we adopt the cumbersome, elliptical terminology ("empowerment")
>for activities that are well-established and commonplace, teaching and
>learning?
>
>Our answer is that this is a blatant move into psychologism.  Rather than
>actions and processes, we are now talking about emotions, feelings, and the
>usual ephemera of psychology's methodologically individualistic world. 
>"Empowerment" is REALLY the "glow" one gets from the process to which one
>has been subjected.  Among other things, this move redefines the
>commonplace in terms hidden, underlying dynamics only psychologists are
>anointed to investigate and "really" understand (pseudomathematical studies
>of factor structure of personality questionnaires applied to "empowered"
>peoples abound, for example).  More seriously, this move eliminates the
>political and social aspects of what are overwhelmingly political and
>social questions (see Celia Kitzinger's & Rachel Perkin's brilliant book,
>"Changing Our Minds: Lesbian Feminism and Psychology," p. 72; I believe Dr.
>Kitzinger is a member of this list, so perhaps she could be approached for
>her comments).  Within this universe social services workers end up aiming
>for "that glow" rather than at doing anything substantive; they sell the
>sizzle, not the steak.  As such, Marxists, and indeed anyone interested in
>truly providing service to a clientele, would do well to tread carefully
>around places where the "e" word (much favored by George Bush, among
>others) is tossed about as having content.  Look and see.
>
>It's true I've taken more space than I wished and not as much as I should. 
>Our manuscript covers all this and more, and in such detail that we were
>told to "lighten up" if we ever thought of getting it published.  On the
>contrary, when I go back to it I see where the argument must be made even
>broader... for example, the Marxian undertones should be brought out more
>clearly.  But if you want a flavour, here it is (and bitter it may be).
>
>R. Chrisjohn
>
>
>
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>
>



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