A bright future is being planned for the journal we all love, say newly appointed editors Richard House, David Kalisch and Jennifer Maidman

The following article by the new editors appears in the next issue of S&S.  You can read it here now, and it will be of interest especially if you would like to contribute to the development of our journal.

We are delighted to announce that as from next Summer 2012, Self and Society will be taken into the next phase of its existence by a newly appointed editorial collective – namely, ourselves. We see this as an exciting opportunity to develop this much-loved journal in a number of innovative and stimulating ways, and in this brief article we wish to introduce ourselves briefly, and perhaps more importantly, to ask you, the readers and subscribers, to tell us how you would like to see the journal develop. More on this later.

We’ll begin by setting out some provisional ideas that we’ve already developed. Please note that none of these are by any means set in stone, and are open to development and organic emergence. As the new editorial collective, we are as open as we can be to considering any suggestions for productive ways in which Self and Society can develop. Notice, first, that we are already calling Self and Society a ‘journal’, and not a magazine. We’d like to adopt a new sub-title for the journal – viz. ‘International Journal for Humanistic Psychology’. This is by no means a grandiose delusion: our vision, along with the AHPB board, is that Self and Society become a prominent international forum for humanistic psychology and associated practices, covering developments right across the globe. We agree with one of the AHPB board, who recently wrote that ‘we all have to work towards managing the tension between remaining humanistic and modernising, and that is not easy!… We could be in danger of getting too caught up in the business end of things and I think we need to be very mindful that whatever actions we take, we must act in accordance with our humanistic principles.’

This seems to us to be crucial. As the new editors, we are the very last people to be mechanistic ‘professionalisers’ – for over the years, we have each, in our different ways, been very critical of over-professionalisation that sacrifices the ‘soul’ and core values of humanistic work on the altar of respectability, fashion, one-sided academicism, political correctness or professionalised self-interest. In terms of the future of Self and Society, our overriding aim is to make absolutely sure that we stay true to core humanistic values – yet within that, to present humanistic practice and theory to the world in such a way that conveys our gravity and central (‘third-force’) importance to the therapy and wider community. After all, humanism was founded back in the 1950s, at least in part, to reign in the excesses and imbalances of both psychoanalysis and behaviourism, and to reclaim the human values that both first and second ‘force’ were in danger of forgetting or jettisoning – and the new editors share the view that this is still an historic task of humanistic psychology, that’s just as relevant today as it ever was.

So if we can find a way that fully honours both Heart and Head in the new Self and Society (if that’s not too Cartesian a metaphor), we can – and are determined to – end up with the best of all worlds, and show the wider ‘psy’ world just why there is such a need to continue the perennial ‘post-professional’ attitude and sensibilities that Carl Rogers, Ivan Illich and others so brilliantly proclaimed back in the 1970s. We are currently working on a detailed proposal for the form that a renewed Self and Society could take, and we wish to invite your contributions to this emerging process, because only by initiating such a listening process will we have at least a sporting chance of creating a journal which responds to the wishes of the readers, as well as satisfying our own editorial vision.

Now to list briefly some of the ideas for new sections that we’ve had in our discussions to date. First, we envisage an extended editorial structure to the journal which will include

Associate Editors, Special Honorary Editors, a new Editorial Board, a Book Reviews Editor, and an Ethical Dilemmas Editor.

Next, we envisage a journal with perhaps 3–4 more ‘popular’ articles per issue, and a similar number of substantial peer-reviewed (academic) papers per issue. In this way, our aim will be to preserve the alive, engaging aspect of the current Self and Society that we all love, and also introduce a more formal academic section in the journal, which will enhance the status and gravity of humanistic psychology and the humanistic therapies in wider professional world. Far from seeing this as selling out to professionalisation, we see this as an acknowledgement of the realities of many humanistic practitioners, especially those working in the NHS who would benefit from their orientation having a far more prominent status and legitimacy in the professional and academic literature and community. We cannot emphasise sufficiently strongly that this new departure will be one that complements the existing journal, and will not in any way replace, side-line or extinguish the ethos of the Self and Society that has existed successfully over a number of decades.

We will also be looking closely at the journal’s design – we think it needs to be bigger in size, more like a ‘normal’ academic journal size, but perhaps being slightly smaller than this norm. A good analogy might be the Guardian newspaper’s current size in relation to its broadsheet competitors.

It seems very likely that subscription rates will need to be overhauled; but we trust that an expanded circulation will in time finance at least some of the expansion of the journal, meaning that the subscription rates hopefully won’t require a substantial hike – and we’ll certainly do all we can, along with the AHPB board, to avoid this.

Finally, we’ve also had a number of ideas for new regular sections in the new Self and Society – namely:

• A ‘Topical Debate’ section
• An ‘Opinion’ section
• Special Guest Interviews
• Ethical Dilemmas section
• A ‘Client Voice’ section
• A Psy-Society section: politics, society, culture and humanistic psychology
• Conference/Workshops reports
• The Humorously Humanistic Corner
• Trainer’s page
• AHPP news section
• Notice Board and Classifieds
• Humanistic Retro Classics – book review essay
• A Regular Cartoon
• ‘Humanistic TV’ – links to an online presence, e.g. the letters page could continue online in a readers’ forum, links to blogs, downloadable talks, Youtube etc.
• New literature listing: listing of latest books relevant to humanistic psychology

Read more about the editors in S&S, or on the S&S page soon.

“It was a most excellent meeting and well worth travelling up from Cornwall to attend” emailed one participant. Our warmest thanks go to Profs Ernesto Spinelli and Andrew Samuels for donating their time and energy to give us a splendid day on 1st October.

Other comments included:

“I thought it was a great day. For me it was very rich and affirming.”

“I found it a thought-provoking day.”

“What a great day … I enjoyed it enormously, thank you all for organising it.”

Greetings to all those who chose to join AHP in attending the event – we look forward to your membership and participation!

Check in again to read more on what happened.

Come and enjoy this workshop day on The Individual and Identity with Professors Ernesto Spinelli and Andrew Samuels, and moderated by Dr John Rowan. It is sure to be of value to any humanistic practitioner.

You can book online CLICK HERE – please act soon, it’s only ten days away!

Ensure you book for our Conference on 1st October in London. The day will be moderated by Dr John Rowan, doyen of Humanistic Psychology in  Britain and our Co-Chair. Here is an extract from his piece in the forthcoming issue of Self & Society:

So what now?  Now we want to give up our narrowness.  We want to reach out to others who have different names, different histories, but similar values, similar ways of seeing the world, a similar impatience with second-best and low horizons.  People in the transpersonal field are an obvious step in this endeavour, and the AHP in the United States (who have been going through similar difficulties) actually in 2007 went through a form of ‘marriage’ with the Association for Transpersonal Psychology, whereby they shared facilities and some publications.

But beyond that we have reached out to less obvious candidates.   One of our finds was Windy Dryden, for example, who kindly came along and helped us out on one occasion.  And now we have found two people who have agreed to come to our aid by speaking for nothing, and they are appearing for us on October 1^st this year.  They are Andrew Samuels and Ernesto Spinelli.  We would like a hundred people to rise to the occasion and turn up and fill our coffers.  If this works out well we shall be able to restore Self & Society to six issues a year, and mount a Festival next Summer.

Ernesto Spinelli represents existentialism.  We think our humanistic outlook is very close to the existential, and people like Rollo May, James Bugental, Fritz Perls and Kirk Schneider have said so too.  As a matter of fact, Ernesto does not agree with this, which makes it all the more impressive that he has agreed to speak on October 1^st.  Ernesto will be exploring the question of the relationship in therapy.  Existentialism in recent years has been moving away from the stark position of Sartre, who used phrases like “free and alone, without assistance and without excuse”, and moving toward a more relational position, where we are with the other and for the other at all times, inseparable.

Andrew Samuels represents the Jungian tradition.  Again, we think there a strong connection with Jungian thinking, as opposed to the narrowness of some of the other heirs of Freud.  And we like his undoubted connection with the transpersonal.  He pioneered a lot of the connections we now see with the whole realm of dreams, of symbols and images, of an acceptance of the whole spiritual realm as open to study and open to experience.  Andrew himself has adopted some of the humanistic reliance on experiential methods in his teaching and his presentations.  Andrew will be exploring the limits of the relational.  If we are part of a relational field, does that mean that there is no individual any more?  If that were the case, what would happen to the Jungian idea of individuation?  Somehow we have to hold both in suspension, if we are to do justice to the whole situation.  Andrew is a great performer, and would well repay your interest on October 1^st.

I would like to see you all on that date.  If you can’t come, please send some money instead to our Administrator, Julian Nangle at:  AHPB, BM Box 3582, London WC1N 3XX

Diary Date: our 2011 AGM is on Sat 3 Sep, Minster Centre, 20 Lonsdale Road, Queen’s Park, London NW6 6RD

If you are an AHP member, do come along. You might want to see what volunteering for AHP can be about – whether for an hour per week, for a particular project, or by joining us on the Board – come and find out!

10.45 – 11.30     Meet, Greet & Coffee/Tea

11.30 – 12.30     Meet Your Animal  A Guided Visualisation to meet your Inner Animal with Julian Nangle

This workshop will involve an invitation to be deeply relaxed before being taken on a short journey with the help of creative imagination to locate, meet and dialogue with your Inner Animal.  We all have one – we all are one. It has been Julian’s experience that we are not different animals at different times but are consistently the same animal.  To meet this creature and to own it can be a powerful experience. There will be time for discussion in pairs following the visualisation.

12.30 – 1.30     Shared Lunch

1.30 – 2.30       AGM

2.30                  Farewell from the newly elected Board.

Sue Orton and Neill Thew are the guest editors of the current issue of S&S on education. Read this extract from their editorial:

“Because the traditional territory of humanistic psychology is in areas of mental health, clinical practice and the broad range of therapeutic interventions working to heal distress, and to restore and revive our holistic selves, education has therefore perhaps taken a bit of a back seat. There are reasons for this. The regulatory framework of UKCP accreditation which provides a professional framework and recognition for therapists and practitioners has led to much more visibility and income potential for therapeutic work than any other.

There is much less recognition of the benefit of using humanistic and person centred education practices and interventions to inspire and encourage learning. In fact it is a very hard road to follow. The context and policy frameworks for UK state education continue to be confined and repressed by traditional quantitative and regulated approaches; holistic student centred approaches are squeezed out in the pursuit of cognitive evaluative practice and research. Both of us have experienced the stress and depression that results from working in highly toxic education environments which have only valued our brains, neglecting and disregarding our spirits, emotions, bodies and souls. It is therefore with joy and delight that we have brought together these examples of work in the field of education.”

Articles in this issue include:

• Learning to teach – teaching to learn – Neill Thew
• A Learning Group: A view from the inside – Rich Harvey & Tom Tattersall
• Exploring action methods for personal and professional  development – Sue Orton
• Helping students discover their own creativity through performance – Elliot May
• Exploring the role of music workshops and their use within a prison environment – Kristian Booth
• Transformative education: Bridging the gap between college and career – Meleri Thornton

If you are an AHP member, do come along. You might want to see what volunteering for AHP can be about – whether for an hour per week, for a particular project, or by joining us on the Board – come and find out!

Minster Centre, 20 Lonsdale Road, Queen’s Park, London NW6 6RD

10.45 – 11.30     Meet, Greet & Coffee/Tea

11.30 – 12.30     Meet Your Animal  A Guided Visualisation to meet your Inner Animal with Julian Nangle

This workshop will involve an invitation to be deeply relaxed before being taken on a short journey with the help of creative imagination to locate, meet and dialogue with your Inner Animal.  We all have one – we all are one. It has been Julian’s experience that we are not different animals at different times but are consistently the same animal.  To meet this creature and to own it can be a powerful experience. There will be time for discussion in pairs following the visualisation.

12.30 – 1.30     Shared Lunch

1.30 – 2.30       AGM

2.30                  Closing plenary

The Individual and Identity-AHP Conference ’11

We are delighted to announce that our annual conference, The Individual and Identity, will be held on Saturday 1 October 2011.

This exciting day will be keynoted by two eminent practitioners in the field:

• Professor Andrew Samuels
• Professor Ernesto Spinelli

And the day will be moderated by the doyen of Humanistic Psychology in Britain, our Co-Chair Dr John Rowan. Further information can be downloaded to the right of the screen.

To book online click here

Date and Venue

Our conference will be held on Saturday 1 October 2011 at The Resource Centre, 356 Holloway Road, London, N7 6PA.

Prices

• £65  – AHP member
• £79 – Non AHP member
• £98 – One years membership to AHP, including the above conference and all member benefits

Conference Bookings:

Ways you can register:

1. Download booking form, print it out and send with a cheque to the address above.
2. Register and pay through our website (see below).

How to pay

Please pay online via paypal or download the pdf booking form and post/fax it to us.

Terms and Conditions

If you are unable to attend, we are happy to transfer your place to someone you name, although we cannot refund fees.  AHP reserves the right to change the programme or venue arrangements.

To book online click here

The new issue of Self & Society is available to AHP members. Read a wide range of articles, representative of the diverse appeal of humanistic psychology. Here are the contents:

• Unpacking the congruence box by Clive Perraton Mountford
• Toward a Humanistic Positive Psychology:  Why Can’t We Just Get Along? by Kirk Schneider, Ph.D.
• BULLSHIT by Jochen Encke
• Reducing Re-Offending through Empathy by Philip Archard and Roger Hayton
• A Journey continued by Victoria Smillie

Here is what our editors say about this issue in their editorial:

“In this issue we also have a wider range of articles representative of the diverse appeal of humanistic psychology. Kirk Schneider has kindly given us permission to print an article he wrote a couple of years ago on the topic of positive psychology and humanistic psychology.

As Kirk is the current editor of the (American) Journal of Humanistic Psychology it is great he has agreed to write something for us again soon. We also have an article from Victoria Smillie which came about purely by chance. Victoria wrote an article for S&S some fifteen years ago that focused on the loss of her parents. Victoria recently contacted us to ask if we had a copy of her article – we sent one through the post that day and our conversations ended in Victoria decided to write another article for S&S – this is a moving narrative that tells her story, and that of one of her daughters, about the things they have faced in the interim years.

In addition to these great pieces we have a great piece on congruence from Clive Perraton-Mountford and Jochen Encke ‘straight talks’ about his feelings of having worked in the field for 30 years.

Our now regular poetry section, regular columns and co-chairs page together with book reviews and  announcement from the UKAHPP New Membership Ethos group makes this yet another packed edition of Self & Society.”

Become a member of AHP to receive regular copies of Self & Society.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FETlXZiggE