Creative Maladjustment and Learned Helplessness by Andrew Phelps and Lynne Stewart (August 2008)
Martin Luther King, Jr., in his address to the American Psychological Association in 1967, urged "Creative Maladjustment" as the appropriate behavioral response to life in an unjust society.
Compliance with the norm of social injustice is problematic, Dr. King noted. But one can abide in a wholesome and justifiable position in the face of injustice through creative maladjustment, by which he meant a commitment to upholding the values of freedom and dignity for all. He called for fundamental changes in behavioral science so that behavioral research and "treatment" embrace the values of freedom and dignity (see http://www.apa.org/monitor/jan99/king.html).
As mental health client/survivors, we are familiar with creative maladjustment. It is how we cope with corrupt and abusive portions of the mental health system. Some of us have experienced a very real form of psychological torture while "behaviorally managed" in that system. Following our best values, we now creatively maladjust by speaking out publicly (and privately) about the injustices, by staying away from this system, and/or by becoming experts at theory, methodologies and techniques of practitioners in order to glean what is useful.
"Learned helplessness" is a behavioral methodology that is often used as a tool for control. We learn from Jane Mayer in her new book, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals, that it is a core component of today's practices of torture in interrogations. The results of learned helplessness consequent on involvement with the behavioral health treatment paradigm also can be seen in the client/survivor population. Some of us live in hideous and dangerous environments, many seek help from a system "in shambles" (as described by the report of the New Freedom Commission), and generally we eke out an existence with inadequate resources. Read More »
Gaslighting in the APA? by Bryant Welch (August 2008)
We are definitely not in Kansas anymore.
For psychologists committed to social justice, this is a very surreal time.
With the rise of the neo-conservative movement, concerns over Iraq and our eroding civil liberties were added to the longstanding issues that have united psychologists for decades, concerns based on respect and compassion for subjective human experience.
But for those of us concerned with such issues, there has been an astonishing, jaw-dropping chain of events taking place in our very own national organization that simply blows the lid off even the most basic veneer of decency we have always attributed to those with whom we have entrusted the stewardship of our own field.
Despite APA's efforts to treat the torture matter as a complex nuanced issue, the bottom line is that APA, unlike the other major health care organizations, has repeatedly refused to condemn participation by its members in the Bush Administration's detention centers. Grasping for a fig leaf of rationalization, APA has argued that psychologists would never support torture and that it is actually necessary to have psychologists engaged in the interrogation process to prevent torture. Kurt Salzinger is reported to have concluded the APA Council deliberation on the matter with an emotional plea "We must be there to bear witness."Read More »
When U.S. Humanitarian Aid Becomes “Irregular Warfare” by Anne Anderson (August 2008)
Psychologists for Social Responsibility has traditionally supported U.S. government policies that focus on the use of diplomacy, development aid, and psychosocially appropriate humanitarian assistance to support communities striving to sustain themselves. However, these days, it is difficult for the U.S. to pursue those kinds of policies even when we want to. The U.S. government over the years has dismantled its capacity to deliver such services through any civilian agency and is left, by default or by design, with using military forces to provide them.
Currently, the State Department is in charge of coordinating stabilization and reconstruction activities. The Defense Department (DoD) is supposed to support civilian activities (U.S. agencies, NGOs, and international agencies) with stability operations. But the resources the military has available for these operations far exceeds those allotted to the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development. Indeed, between 2002 and 2005, the Pentagon's share of U.S. official development assistance grew from 5.6% to 21.7%. And Directive 3000.05, under which the DoD is currently operating, calls for the military to carry out any tasks that the civilians are unable to do. Read More »
Open Letter to Candidates by Neil Wollman and Abigail Fuller (July 2008)
Thus far, your debate on the war in Iraq--like the public and media debate--has focused mainly on the questions of progress in security and political reconciliation, with some limited discussion on the war's effects on the U.S. economy and on our military preparedness elsewhere. The consensus seems to be that, yes, there has been progress in Iraq on security and in the political realm, with debate centering on how much. You seem to agree there have been some negative effects on the United States, with debate on whether the benefits of the war outweigh the costs.
But you seem blind to other criteria that should be as important in judging this war and guiding our future foreign policy. We speak of criteria that might generally be termed "quality of life" concerns: poverty, inflation, unemployment, the rebuilding of infrastructure (including schools and hospitals), the quality of the educational and health systems (including monitoring of childhood malnutrition and deaths from public health problems), ransom kidnappings and other crimes, and the brain drain of professionals, to give some wide-ranging examples. Unfortunately, such humanitarian concerns are treated mainly as peripheral issues worthy only of occasional mention, not major debate.Read More »
Disability and Human Rights by Daniel Holland (July 2008)
Disability issues represent one of the most urgent human rights concerns of our time. There are currently about 600 million people with disabilities on the globe, with a disproportionate number of these people living in poverty and in developing regions. Unlike many other minority conditions such as ethnicity, race, or sexual orientation, disability constitutes an experience that any individual can begin having at any point in life, though it is an experience that is statistically more likely as one gets older. In fact, people with disabilities will be one of the most rapidly growing minority groups on the planet in the coming decades as the global population ages. The growth of disability as a human rights issue, therefore, stands to benefit every citizen of every nation.
To date, psychologists have not been highly visible on the forefront of this human rights movement. There are likely a number of reasons for this. Psychologists (particularly clinical and counseling psychologists) are often educated and trained within a clinical and pathology-oriented paradigm. Such clinical perspectives on disability often place the burden of improvement on the individual: the person with the disability is expected to work to transcend the condition in order to rejoin the non-disabled majority. The mythic narrative accompanying such perspectives involves the determined and stoic person with a disability who, through force of will and effort, learns to walk again, or returns from the presumed abyss of mental illness, or recovers from a brain injury, leaving the uncomely sidelines of “the disabled” to mix with “the normal people” in the main. Read More »
How Many Small Donors Does it Take to End a War? by Marc Pilisuk (June 2008)
With record amounts of campaign funds from small donations, Howard Dean has taken the Democrats off the list for contributions from lobbyists and PACs. He asks instead for continuing support from small donors. Republicans, also distancing themselves from lobbyists with shady pasts, have been reaching for more small contributions as well. Like the military contractors and other special interests, however, we want something in return for our contributions: for many of us this is an end to the war and occupation that the U.S. started in Iraq. But we are unlikely to get this unless we use our newly-found financial power and call upon our leaders to act.
According to Patrick Cockburn of The Independent, "A secret deal being negotiated in Baghdad would perpetuate the American military occupation of Iraq indefinitely, regardless of the outcome of the US presidential election in November. The terms of the impending deal, details of which have been leaked to The Independent, are likely to have an explosive political effect in Iraq. Iraqi officials fear that the accord, under which US troops would occupy permanent bases, conduct military operations, arrest Iraqis and enjoy immunity from Iraqi law, will destabilize Iraq's position in the Middle East and lay the basis for unending conflict in their country." Read More »
The Racial Truth Inside Popular Fiction’s Lie by Mikhail Lyubansky (June 2008)
“Fiction,” said Stephen King, “is the truth inside the lie.” What he didn’t mention is that, for many American young people, it may be the only truth they get, at least about some issues. It’s no secret that popular fiction exerts a strong influence on how kids, adolescents, and the rest of us think about controversial topics. It is therefore noteworthy that recent books and films such as the X-Men (Harry Potter too) have explicitly taken on racial issues with a clear and unmistakable anti-racist stance. As a result, important issues such as blood purity, group prejudice, and even eugenics have become part of the dialogue – both online and at the kitchen table. Moreover, with several more Harry Potter and X-Men films currently in production, these themes are likely to remain in our cultural dialogue for the foreseeable future.
Good stuff, dialogue. But what exactly does a popular franchise like the X-Men teach about race and racism? As just one example, what precisely does it mean when Magneto, the principle villain in the X-Men comics/films, tells Xavier, the leader of the X-Men, that he will fight for the liberation of his people (mutants) “by any means necessary”? Despite what are probably noble intentions on the part of the creative teams, for this generation of filmgoers it likely means a distorted view of Malcolm X and the Civil Rights Movement, an unrealistic understanding of contemporary race relations, and an unintended promotion of the racial status quo.Read More »
From Science to Solutions: How Psychology Research Can Help Build Sustainable Communities by Bill McConochie (May 2008)
Sustainable communities are those that can go on forever, without excess population pressure on resources. Beyond this basic requirement, desirable sustainable communities must provide satisfactory educational, vocational, health care, and recreational opportunities for all citizens, while being free of aggressive warring. To create and maintain such a community requires the skills and services of persons in many disciplines, from government to psychology.
My research in political psychology has included studies of public attitudes toward many issues related to sustainable communities, with many interesting findings. Perhaps the most important and encouraging: 90% of adults want government that serves them not as members of special interest groups (endorsed by only 20%), but as members of the community overall--"public democracy" on behalf of the common good, if you will.Read More »
Psychological Anchors and Social Justice by Roy Eidelson (May 2008)
Imagine people randomly divided into two groups for a simple psychology experiment. Those assigned to one group are asked two questions. First, "Did Gandhi die before or after he reached the age of 140?" And then, "How old was Gandhi when he died?" Meanwhile, those in the other group are asked the same followup question, but their first question is "Did Gandhi die before or after he reached the age of 9?"
The results of actual studies just like this one are quite consistent and robust, and they may surprise you. Participants given "140 years" as their initial comparison point think that Gandhi lived much longer than those who were given "9 years" instead.
Findings like these demonstrate what psychologists call the "anchoring effect": our strong tendency to make judgments that are biased toward arbitrary standards of comparison. The plausibility of these comparison “anchors” makes no difference to us--we rely on them regardless. As another example, research subjects asked whether Einstein’s first visit to the United States occurred before or after 1992 give a much more recent estimate of when he arrived than those asked whether he visited before or after the year 1215. Read More »
We welcome contributions of new material and recommendations of new links from PsySR members. Please send an email to info@psysr.org and clearly identify the issue being addressed. Contributions received may be edited for space or combined in summary form with other contributions on the same topic.