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 13 Jun 2007 @ 17:47, by jhs. Social System Design
Using Skywork, we mapped out these days in Milan, Italy, Europe, Earth, Solar System... a scale of confront which appears applicable for various areas beyond interpersonal and group relationships. We verified the results later with another group without any prior information. The results could fill a book, especially if one would gather still more details.
As a side product appeared the mechanism of pole swapping. Example: the attacker assumes the identity of the overwhelmed after being sucked into the new identity like into a black hole.
Once a polarization exists, the 'vanishing' of the other pole (subjectively into darkness!) causes the still existing pole to enter a confusion and shortly thereafter assuming the presumably LOST identity of the other pole (which apparently vanished).
Although much of this is already known for those studying the dynamics of polar structures, it was inspiring to witness the details of the pole swapping, especially the fundamental differences between overcharging a pole and zeroing out one of the poles.
Another surprise were the precise points at which marked differences in behaviour/emotions manifested. These points, apparently in logarithmic distances from each other, follow parabolic lines. In other words, not only distance but also 'angle of confront' determine the emotional attitudes during 'approach' of a terminal.
Further, the behaviour of negative and positive pole is not simply a mirrored function. In other words, there is a clear difference between a positive pole approaching a negative pole versus a negative pole approaching a positive one.
As just one of many examples, a revision of 'traditional' scales of emotions seem to be in order, adding another dimension, or directional extension of progression, depending on the 'item' approaching or being approached, abandoned or being abandoned.
We also saw the boundaries of a 'comfort zone' and a boundary from which communication occured optimally for both terminals. Interestingly, this boundary appears very similar to the 'zero' line of virtual mutual non-existence and both are very stable.
So much for now... More >
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11 Jun 2007 @ 15:57, by bkezer. Peace
“Playing Our Part” addresses how the average person can best participate in the effort toward a non-violent world. The fundamental constructs of fear and love are examined, as well as why we choose either base from which to make our decisions. Relating today’s violence to ancient ways of viewing God, a more refined image of Deity is offered. People are challenged to accept responsibility for their own growth, and are given hope humanity can evolve to where peace has its first true chance. More >
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 10 Jun 2007 @ 13:10, by ming. Communication
So, since last week I'm hooked on microblogging. I don't know if "microblogging" is the best word for the phonomenon, but it will do, I guess. It is sort of a mix between chat, instant messaging, blogging, and widgets for showing one's current status or location in one's sidebar. I'm in jaiku and twitter, accessing both through twitku.
One posts maybe a couple or a handful of one-liners per day. Doesn't really take any time. Although it is a bit addictive to glance at the page often, to see what people are saying. But not that much different from glancing out the window once in a while to see what weather it is. It is sort of a peripheral thing. You notice that somebody's waiting for their luggage in an airport somewhere, somebody else is preparing a gourmet meal, a third is thinking about some important question, and a fourth got a sunburn from being outside. Nothing necessarily important, certainly mostly not anything that would warrant an e-mail or a phonecall or a blog post. But it keeps people on your radar screen. You don't have to respond, but you can, if something somehow rings a bell. It doesn't have to be your close friends either. It is surprisingly meaningful, even if it is people you've never met, but you have some kind of interest in what they're up to.
It occurs to me that it is a bit like Dialogue according to David Bohm. Oh, it is more casual, but there are some interesting correlations.
In this context "dialogue" is used about a particular type of group interaction. A group of people sit down in a circle. Initially they might be quiet. When somebody feels like speaking, they speak, and everybody listens. Nobody needs to answer it, and nobody would argue. But if you're inspired to say something else, you do so. It might have been inspired by what somebody else said, or it might not. Everybody's sort of speaking to the space in the middle of the circle. We might have different ideas about what the subject is, but we're speaking into the same space. And a dialogue develops. It will be about something, and it might not be clear in advance what exactly it will be about. It will not be about one thing, and different people go off in different directions, but there will also be a certain coherence and evolution in it.
In a microblogging space, some of these things happen too. I watch a screen where a few dozen people say something once in a while, and I can say something too. Interestingly, they aren't all watching the same screen, as they have different groups of friends than I do, although they overlap. They aren't all there at the same time either, and they aren't all paying attention. But once in a while somebody feels like saying something. That will be something that relates to what's going on for them at the moment, and it will also be something they feel like saying into that fuzzy kind of space, usually without saying it to anybody in particular. They typically don't expect a response either. Other people do the same. Whether you directly comment on anything else or not, what you say will necessarily be colored a bit by what you see already on the screen.
I have tried in the past to deliberately create dialogue spaces online, usually in the form of a chat room, where I carefully would try to explain the rules. You speak into the common space, you say your truth, you don't argue or defend your opinions. It isn't a discussion, not an argument to win, rather a shared inquiry. No rules, really, other than that you shouldn't screw it up. People can say whatever they feel like saying, as long as it is what they perceive and what they feel needs to be said, and not just an attempt of making somebody else wrong. And I've found that it was very difficult to do online. Easier to do in person, where one has non-verbal cues, etc, and one knows whether one is on the same page or not. But a chat room easily develops into something else.
So, ironically, this kind of microblogging flow is a good deal more like a dialogue than what one would tend to get if one tried to create a good dialogue space online. Even though it isn't at all trying to be any space for deep inquiry or anything like that. It is not very profound that somebody is on their way to the market, or they're playing with some new website or something. But the atmosphere created is a shared space, where people say what they experience, in little soundbites, without fluff, without much need to be posturing or defending anything, and sometimes one perceives things together. And there's some kind of intangible thread that goes through that.
Although it isn't clear where that might take us, it is entirely possible that this might be fertile ground for some kind of collective intelligence to emerge in. More >
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 6 Jun 2007 @ 07:05, by redstar. Environment, Ecology
About two years ago, I had the idea of setting up a project that could help the environment by planting fruit trees in the villages that would also provide various benefits to the people of the area and improve water catchment and precipitation patterns.
Despite my efforts, actually implementing something like this on a big scale proved fruitless (possibly too far ahead of its time)and the project has evolved into voluntary tree planting and husbandry, at local orphanges, charity places like the Samaritans and any other places where we feel that they will be cared for and appreciated.
Two years ago, I met a friend from Ireland, Yamikani Alan, who was working at a local orphanage called Yamikani Orphanage, which also has a plot of land that is used as a small farm, and we decided to contribute together to plant some fruit trees on the land.
I have taken pic's of some of the trees with my new digital camera phone which I only recently was given as a gift and has become an invaluable tool for this blog. More >
 
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5 Jun 2007 @ 21:40, by vaxen. Government, Public Sector
Guidelines for Ethical OSINT Contracting
Recent experience has shown us that unethical practices on the part of vendors, and inattention on the part of government, are leading to a corruption of the emerging OSINT contracting environment. Here are a few guidelines intended to help the government get the best possible OSINT services as the lowest possible cost. Resurfaced for the benefit of those who are evidently not paying attention to the ethics of OSINT contracting (nor proper price to localized access ratios).
1. Government should not meet vendors privately for lunch, nor accept any offered capabilities briefing, without first doing a Request for Comments via FedBiz, and affording the same courtesy to all respondents. The same applies to White Pqpers. If the government chooses to accept a proferred White Paper, it should immediately do a Request for Comments inviting others to submit White Papers on the desired topic.
2. Government should consider hosting two industry days, one now, to provide a broad outline of its planned direction, a second one in 90 days after its plans take firmer shape.
3. Government should not use Statements of Work, especially complex Statements of Work, provided by the vendor. These will contain buried "hooks" (for example, a specific mix of web engineers, or a specific mix of Ambassadors and PhDs) that the unethical vendor can use to protest an award to a better company offering a better deal. In the worst case, the government will end up paying both the unethical company for a settlement, and the winning company for the desired service.
4. Government should write its own Statements of Work, and keep them simple. They should focus on desired outputs, not inputs. They should define the generic results desired, not how to solve the problem. In general the government is spending too much on cleared US citizens with poor language and knowledge skills, too much on proprietary information technologies, and not enough on indigenous foreign access and generic web-based access. Proprietary solutions should be avoided--the era of application-oriented network systems is here to stay. Open source software, open source information, open spectrum, and Open Access copyright approaches will yield the greatest long-term value and also the best inter-agency collaboration and information sharing results.
5. Government can and should consider expanding its existing contracts with beltway bandits that it has a close working relationship with, but it should demand that they employ qualified sub-contractors and specified key personnel and methods, rather than redirecting poorly qualified in-house personnel. In a worst case example, we have seen a major beltway bandit send unqualified people to the Library of Congress, with the direction "get what you can, don't spend any money." More >
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5 Jun 2007 @ 20:31, by swanny. Communities
June 5, 2007
Tuesday
Canada
Biocities
I was just thinking about the need for diversity in order to foster sustainablility
and it struck me that while there is much talk of cultural diversity in the human
community, cities tend to be very sterile, mechanical and undiverse or unbiodiverse places. Nature is reduced to mere ornament and show and the city itself is a place of most human and automobile narcissim. Right now in Alberta for instance we have a economic boom which is reducing the quality of life but fostering growth based not on anything sustainable but on the panacea of growth itself.
What we need though is a biocity design. A city or village that incorporates the farm garden and nature into the city as economic isolation has necessitated in cuba for instance.
This biocity thus would be more sustainalbe not by virtue of cultural diversity but of biodiversity and harmony with nature and the climate.
Trees and plants are much more than ornament afterall they clean purify and humidfy the air in a way mechanical systems can not do with the same effect and efficiency.
Why throw thus good time energy and money after the ill concieved or underconceived notion of the modern city. It is just a selfglorification of human narcissim and excess and convience.
ed More >
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 5 Jun 2007 @ 10:03, by jazzolog. Medicine, Healthcare
In a single cry
the pheasant has swallowed
the fields of spring.
---Yamei
The real miracle is not to walk on water or thin air but to walk on the earth!
---Thich Nhat Hanh
Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out your horn.
---Charlie Parker
The family that protests together...: Richard, Dana, Ilona demonstrating against a nuclear dump they want to build down the road apiece. (Photo by Loraine McCosker)
I went to my dentist for the semi-annual checkup yesterday, and noticed a new product in the little bag of stuff they give you afterwards. I wisecracked to the receptionist that Listerine must be sending my doctor and his family on a cruise somewhere. She was quick to reply he never takes anything from companies except the free samples. I was happy to hear that.
Whereupon I gave her an earful about my family doctor's office. I said I hadn't been in there even once in the past 2 years (and I go maybe 3 times a year---they want to get all they can out of my insurance company) when there wasn't a drug salesperson pushing pills. These people are particularly sickening, as they try to get from the reception window into the back area to unload their suitcases full of drugs and bribe the doctors. The payoffs are free dinners, trips, and various toys to be strewn all over the place with big long names of pills on them. Undoubtedly they hope some patients will steal the toys to take home and spread the word. Free advertising. The dinners are gigantic feasts, and receptionists are encouraged to have to doctor invite all their friends if they want to. This is done in brazen broad daylight in front of a room of patients, waiting hour after hour to get that prescription.
I was in there last week, for a sprained foot I wanted X-rayed, and the drug lady was suggesting perhaps the doctors would like a new restaurant this time. Maybe one in Columbus or Parkersburg, a finer one, a richer one. The receptionist said she'd ask. "And oh!" the pusher said, "did you notice my new outfit?" She did a little swirl in front of the window. "It's color coordinated with our featured capsule!" I couldn't believe my ears. "See? The same colors as (she named the drug). Even the waistband is the color of the little separating line." I felt nauseated, and nearly stood up and let her have it. This is our health system in action, and I'm about to go in an office for treatment that will pay for this woman's salary, costume, and a doctor's free vacation courtesy of pharmaceuticals.
Maybe 20 years ago or more doctors started giving us free samples of drugs they were prescribing. I appreciated that because sometimes I was sick with flu or something, and just felt like going back to bed rather than a drug store to get medication. But since then, the practice has become obscene. Is this the free market the people in power tell us is a new religion solving the world's problems? If so, I want out! I'll gather roots and herbs in the woods before I'll take any more of this horror show. Have a look at TruthOut's article on the mess from yesterday afternoon~~~ More >
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 5 Jun 2007 @ 00:13, by ming. Education
In a presentations about Boosting Collective Intelligence, George Pór and Martin Ludwigsen had a short segment where one would divide up into small groups and ask each other questions, in order to deepen one's understanding of a given question. Which was an excellent exercise. My group picked the question "How can I silence my ego to experience collective intelligence more often?" out of the three choices. So, instead of trying to answer it, one asks more questions. Like, we questioned whether one really needs to silence one's ego, or anything at all, in order for collective intelligence to happen. Which was a useful thing to look at, I think. And quite a productive thing to do for 5 minutes, compared with many other types of inquiry one could do.
They called it a simplified version of Action Learning, and since I couldn't remember what that is, I had to go and look it up. See Wikipedia, or look in Google, and you'll see that a lot has been said about Action Learning and Action Research. See here for a more clear introduction.
Now, on one hand I think it is great that people have studied learning that is based on action, rather than on just theory, and on the other hand it seems a little bit ridiculous in a the-emperor-has-no-clothes kind of way that people have spent their life developing a model, and writing dozens and dozens of books about something that basically ads up to:
- Go out and do something
- Have a meeting and evaluate how well it went, and what you have learned, and what you can do better
- Go out and do it some more, but hopefully better
Don't get me wrong, that's a great approach. Particularly when one compares with traditional education which goes something like:
- Listen for years to people who know better than you giving you a lot of theory
- Spend the rest of your life doing what they told you to do, if you remember it
The Action Learning idea is that there are alternating cycles of action and reflection. You do it, you reflect on it, and learn from it, and you go back to action. So, like this:
action --> reflection --> action
Or, you can make it sound more business-like and say it is:
action --> review --> planning --> action
One could say that this is very obvious, of course, but unless one makes something explicit, it might not happen. Companies and individuals and governments will happily keep doing the same thing forever, even if it isn't working, just because they never have a phase where they ask themselves whether it is working or not, and why and why not, and how one possibly could do it differently. A phase where one actually can reflect and inquire, and even question the basis of the whole thing. The feedback cycle is often missing, or real feedback is not allowed. Let alone real inquiry.
It is kind of tragic that it is news that there is a type of learning that is directed towards being able to take action in the most effective way possible. I mean, that all learning isn't based on being able to do something. And kind of bizarre that people need to invent a whole new subject and write loads of books about it, in order to make the case for such an idea. But aside from that, I'm all for it.
I'm sure there's much more to action learning, and any proper expert will be horrified by my casual treatment of the subject. I do believe in keeping simple things simple, and complex things too. And then again, maybe I'm jealous that it wasn't me who came up with a simple, obvious two-step process that I could write books about and lecture about for years.
Oh, a few more meta observations... There's a lot of power in simply naming stuff, and in the way one frames it. So, simply saying that there are two phases of doing stuff, action and reflection - that automatically re-arranges the world, and sets up a quite different framework than if one hadn't mentioned it. Likewise, the simple hint that it is a series of cycles - that changes everything too. More >
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 4 Jun 2007 @ 13:46, by ming. Education
Learning is an interesting subject. How do we know we're learning something? How do we know what to learn? How do know when we've learned it? But, maybe more basic, how do we even manage to pay attention to what is there to learn? How do we notice what we're presented with?
Say you're reading a book, or you're listening to a presentation, or you have a conversation. How good are you at actually remembering even a small fraction of what was said? I know I'm pretty bad at it. Even if I've read a book and enjoyed it, can I say more than a handful of sentences about what it said?"I took a speed-reading course and read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It involves Russia." --Woody Allen Even if you took 3 weeks to read "War and Peace", how much more can you really say?
Part of the problem is that books and talks are just a lot of words. They're strung together into sentences, and we might think we understand them, but what are we taking with us?
I've been listening to various memory improvement courses recently. I didn't really mean to, but I just happened to run into them, as I was downloading some other stuff. And another subject I'm interested in is metaphor - how meaning sometimes is transferred much more effectively with a story or a metaphor than with a lot of words that try to teach or persuade.
As to memory, one good piece of advice is that to remember stuff we need to have a framework to put it in. The more you already have a grid of things you know, the better you can put new things into it. An average student in history class might just hear a bunch of seemingly random dates and names and places. But a historian would have a grid in their mind that already connects a lot of dates and names and places together in a coherent framework, and the new information would be many times more meaningful, and he'd be much more likely to remember it, because he has hooks to attach it to. Learning is a lot less likely if there's nothing to relate it to.
As to stories and metaphors, they're very compact ways of storing information. We have an instinctive way of understanding and remembering things that fit together as a story. We know how stories roughly are supposed to work. Like a fairy tale. There might be a protagonist who has some kind of objective, and he runs into various obstacles, and he overcomes them, just barely. We understand that deeply and non-verbally. If we watch a movie, we somehow know if it is satisfying, if the story evolves right, or if something is missing. And we'd be able to re-tell that story without too much trouble, if it is coherent. And even if we didn't remember it all right away, we could piece it together.
That "a picture is worth a thousand words" is a related phenomenon. If we can see how something fits together, we can store it in a much more compact and transportable form in our minds than if we had to remember lists of otherwise disjointed words and sentences.
We have a lot of different kinds of perceptions. We see, we hear, we feel stuff. The very best types of learning connect several or all of these together. We've heard something, and we can talk about it, but we also see it, and we can show it. We've experienced it, and we feel it, and we can make somebody else experience it. And the words are really only a small portion of this, and possibly the least coherent. And yet we often mistakenly assume that if the words have been transferred, the speech delivered, the book read, that this constitutes communication and learning.
So, if you don't control the mode of presentation, what can you at least do to better receive and organize what you were presented with?
- you can take notes
- you can draw a mind map
- you can try to summarize it
- you can discuss the subject
- you can go over it several times
- you can experience it in several different formats, if available: text, audio, video, slides, etc.
An old piece of advice for speakers is: "First you tell them what you're going to tell them, then you tell it to them, and then you tell them what you just told them". Another angle on that is that a really good presentation will tell you the same thing in various formats, and various chunk sizes. There will be a summary, a conclusion, an exploration of the details. There will be visual aids. There will be the presenter's non-verbal queues, like tone of voice and body language. There will maybe be some kind of personal experience, like an exercise. And if it works out really well, all of those are saying the same thing, and supporting each other. They form a self-consistent whole. That's coherence, or congruence. Most presenters don't succeed perfectly in all of that. But even if they don't, you might be able to fill in some of the missing pieces yourself.
- before reading a book, you could look through the table of contents, and page through it, getting an idea of what it is about.
- while reading it, you can make your own notes or drawings of what you're picking up.
- you can find your own examples or counter-examples
- you can find analogies or metaphors. "That is just like ..."
- you can translate it into another medium.
- you can try if you can summarize what the point is.
Any kind of presentation or text will have some kind of structure to it. It might or might not be a good structure, and it might or might not be helpful, but normally there's something there. And there will always be different types of elements. Are we presented with facts, beliefs, opinions, examples, intentions, attempts to persuade, filler material, etc., and which is which? It might be easy to miss if one doesn't somehow evaluate and organize the materials along the way. There might have been just 3 crucial points that the speaker or writer wanted to convey, but if you didn't notice which they were in between all the other stuff, somebody might be wasting their time a little bit.
I'm certainly no master in this. Rather, I notice that way too many things I potentially am very interested in are passing right through my head without sticking to anything, and that's a bit of a waste. More >
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 3 Jun 2007 @ 21:56, by jerryvest. Medicine, Healthcare
Serious Probems Continue in MH -
"Simply understanding 'reasons' for our fears in an attempt to control them only strikes at the symptoms, not the cause. The real source of fear lies in our minds--adding more thoughts and concepts only supports the pattern of fear. We need a different approach. (Tarthang Tulku, Openness Mind, (p. 22)
I don't know how many of you notice that almost daily we have some serious reports in the news media about mental health treatment: over-diagnosing; drug research is flawed; psychiatrists and researchers taking money from the pharmaceutical industry; "stressed out moms receiving poor MH treatment;" failing to provide early MH care;" persons diagnosed with bipolar disease improperly treated and misdiagnosed;" colleges struggle with mental health crisis; and, the list goes on.
If you wish to visit these articles and read them, they are available on my forum. [link] I will post some links and headlines here so that you can quickly review the articles:
Psychotropic Drug Prescriptions For Teens Surge 250% Over 7 Year Period
Science Daily — "Psychotropic drug prescriptions for teenagers skyrocketed 250 percent between 1994 and 2001, rising particularly sharply after 1999, when the federal government allowed direct-to-consumer advertising and looser promotion of off-label use of prescription drugs, according to a new Brandeis University study in the journal Psychiatric Services."
A Battle With Depression and Suicidal Tendencies
"A decade ago the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice accused Dr. Faruk Abuzzahab of a reckless, if not willful, disregard for the welfare of 46 patients, 5 of whom died in his care or shortly afterward. The board suspended his license for seven months and restricted it for two years after that."
[link]
UC struggles with mental health crisis
29 students killed themselves in 2000-05, panel says; officials strive to find money to hire more counselors. By Richard C. Paddock
LOS ANGELES TIMES Article Launched: 05/31/2007 03:04:41 AM PDT" [link]
The mental health crisis that isn't
Statistics don't support fears of a psychological emergency on our college campuses.
By Mike Males, MIKE MALES, former sociology instructor at UC Santa Cruz, is senior researcher for the online information site YouthFacts.org. [link]
US: Bipolar Spectrum Disorder May Be Underrecognized and Improperly Treated
[link]
Older Patients with Major Depression Live Longer with Appropriate Treatment
Older patients with major depression whose primary care physicians team with depression care managers are 45% less likely to die within a 5-year time period than older adults with major depression who receive their care in primary care practices where there are no depression care managers. This study, conducted by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, appears in a recent issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.
[link]
US: New Details in Schizophrenia Treatment Trial Emerge
Posted by Gary Holden at April 3, 2007 11:43 AM [link]
My personal experiences with mental health programs have shaped my feelings and interest in change.
I have many fond memories of working with my colleagues in designing, developing and administering a comprehensive MH/MR Program in Pittsburgh, Pa during the early 70's. I also have some pretty strong feelings about the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM) that serves as the classification system for Psychiatry and Psychology, primarily because these labels stick with most patients for a life time; there is no serious effort to change or expunge them when conditions change; and, our core values as a profession (and for medicine) is to support our clients with dignity and respect by offering "best practices & scientific research," including followup.
Some questions we might ask our colleagues to review and for psychiatry and psychology to repond to: Why do you accept money and samples from pharmaceutical companies? Why do you continue to define, categorize, and label your patients with a system that can not stand the test of reliability or validity? Why do you prescribe drugs that are not thoroughly tested by outside resources and without vested interests? Why won't you protest the practice of pharmaceutical companies doing their own research on their drugs? Why won't you explore and incorporate integrative health practices from many traditions that have demonstrated success over many centuries?
Furthermore, why have our health professionals accepted the concept of "Mental Health" as their focus, when, in fact, what affects the body affects the mind, emotions and spirit? Mind-body-spirit are integral and every thought or physical action represents a movement and change in relationships with our whole being. Thus, "mental health," is a misnomer--our whole being, its relationships and interactions are engaged in the process of change, health and well-being.
Unfortunately, many social workers have also jumped on the 'band wagon' and have wrapped themselves around this labeling system without fully understanding or appreciating the dangers and lack of validity and reliability of the entire system. It is particularly evident to me that MSW Licensing Exams & Licensing Boards for social workers have embraced labeling and the disease model with their tests and have accepted this system as their best source of understanding of our clients' problems. Medicine and social work have always maintained that their motto is--"Cause no Harm!" We consider ourselves scientists while offering little scientific evidence of the efficacy for diagnosis and treatment for mental health concerns. Yet, there is growing evidence that much of what they offer their patients is a scam. These reports that I am posting clearly show that "humpty dumpty-mental health is about to have a big fall."
Surely, after reading my earlier log on the DSM and with the inclusion of these recent articles showing the dangers of the MH System it appears to me that this system should be bulldozed and everyone working in the mental health industry should roll up their shirt sleeves and get to work cleaning up their ACT. I have many friends and colleagues in this industry and I know that many of them would like to see some radical changes; however, they also may not recognize the dangers, are fearful about speaking out, and are not encouraged or supported to present their views. Our universities throughout the country are also very timid about raising the Red Flag in regard to the MH system as many journals, accredited courses, grants, scholarships, and many sources of funding could be endangered should they speak the truth.
This log is really just an addendum to my earlier log showing how dysfunctional the MH System of America really is. It is very hard for me to have to put such a negative slant or picture on a whole network of mental health programs and activities. But, as long as social workers and allied mental health professionals adopt the psychiatric/psychological model of sick care, we will continue to enable a failed system and be a major part of the problem.
I encourage those of us who have the strength, courage and willingness to improve health services for individuals, couples, families, groups and communities, to begin adopting ecological, holistic or integrative health practices; applying, teaching and empowering our clients to maintain balance with daily health practices or routines that include our whole being--physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually; and, focus our efforts on primary prevention, improvement of schools, living conditions and on parenting skills. When basic human needs are ignored in our society, for the most part, the deprivation, abuse and neglect are the leading cause of mental illness.
Finally, I hope, the mental health movement and professionals will move out of their private offices and into the wider community, promote whole health, and get over their fear of physical interaction (touch) Perhaps the MH movement is failing, in part, because they have failed to recognize that every human being - therapists included, "...needs to touch and to be touched." See, Montagu, A. (1986). Touching - The human significance of the skin. NY: Harper & Row.
Also, do read this important contribution to medicine, psychiatry, psychology, social work, nursing and to others who fear touch. The following is an unsolicited website by Dr. Ofer Zur offering free articles that make more sense than much of our current mental health practices, theories and dogma. [link] More >
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