Date: Wed, 06 May 1998 23:45:39 +0100 From: Chris Burford <cburford-AT-gn.apc.org> Subject: Re: M-PSY: Radical libertarian mental health activism At 10:18 AM 5/6/98 -0400, you wrote: >Arguments why Marxists (and everybody else, for that matter) should be >suspicious about "empowerment" are developed in our unpublished manuscript >"Here Be Dragons: The Myth of Psychological Empowerment," Sherri Young and >Roland Chrisjohn, 1993. Were we to try and get it published again we would >of course have to update our exposition, but the basic objections hold >regardless of specific misapplications. Interested parties can request a >copy (or a precis) from Sherri Young, 403-934-1922. She doesn't have >e-mail as far as I know. > >R. Chrisjohn Can you, or anyone give a flavour? Like Hugh, I would be very interested. I think Russell has put his finger on a major issue in modern mental health care. Who knows, we might kindle some flame which would indeed lead to publication. Empowerment BTW is to some extent against "care" management which leaves the victim as recipient of condescending saviours, who, unfortunately can never get enough resources to meet his/her "needs". A reformist expression of charity towards a crippled member of the reserve army of labour wracked by need while surrounded by plenty. A particularly cruel individual expression of the contradiction between the private ownership of the means of production and the limited purchasing power of the masses, which is everywhere a limiting factor in capitalist society. The mentally ill by definition have to be in that very marginal part of the reserve army of labour, but "cared for". The nightmare returns monthly to haunt capitalist society in the form of headlines about psycho-killers which show "the failure of community care". I still think empowerment is a preferable buzz-word. Including the empowerment of learning how to handle angry feelings. Why not? Chris Burford --- from list marxism-psych-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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