A selection of articles from Self & Society and others
Here are some taster articles from Self & Society.
Self & Society – Spring 2013
There are some excellent articles in the Spring 2013 issue of Self & Society. Subscribe now and get full access to Self & Society, The International Journal for Humanistic Psychology.
Making Sense of the ‘Digital Generation’: Growing Up with Digital Media by David Buckingham
Young people today are often characterised as a ‘digital generation’ – a group whose identities are being formed in new ways as a result of the impact of new media technologies. For some, this is cause for a gloomy pessimism about the superficiality and lack of authenticity of modern life; while for others, it prompts a celebration of the apparently empowering possibilities of new media. In this article, I challenge the technological determinism of these kinds of assertions, and argue for a more socially, historically and culturally grounded analysis. I discuss some of the broader issues at stake in understanding young people’s relationships with digital media, and then present an overview of current debates, organised around ten key themes. I do not seek either to celebrate or to lament: rather, I hope to provide a more cautious and balanced approach, which recognises the complexity and difficulty – but also the potential opportunities – of growing up in a ‘digital world’.
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The Humanistic Scientist: An Appreciation of the Work of Daniel N. Stern by Patti Owens
I never met Daniel Stern, personally. Even so, his research and writing have meant a great deal to me over the years, both personally and professionally. In this appreciation of his life’s work I aim to identify those features which seem to be of most relevance to humanistic therapy. In doing so, I celebrate his wonderful contribution to our understanding of the way human beings necessarily develop in relationship. This underpins the central importance of the relationship between client and therapist, rather than the supposed efficacy of a particular style or approach.
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Appreciating Cyberculture and the Virtual Self Within by Kate Anthony and DeeAnna Nagel
Relentless connection to social networks, blogs, forums, email, chatrooms, virtual environments and videoconferencing has resulted for many people in what Rosen (2012) has termed an iDisorder. Drawing on the term iDisorder and examining the psychological underpinnings of Disinhibition (Suler, 2004), this article examines disordered facets of the self when in online communication, such as dissociative anonymity (You Don’t Know Me); invisibility (You Can’t See Me); asynchronicity (See You Later); solipsistic introjection or egoistic self-absorption (It’s All In My Head); dissociative imagination (It’s Just a Game); and minimising authority (We’re Equals).
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Self & Society – Winter 2013
Back to the Future: From Behaviourism and Cognitive Psychology to Motivation and Emotion by Manu Bazzano
After 50 years of the predominance of behaviourism and cognitive psychology, the tide is turning back to motivation and emotion. Contemporary interdisciplinary studies in developmental psychology, child psychiatry and developmental neuroscience are reframing John Bowlby’s attachment theory in its truer context, insisting that crucial aspects of motivation, emotion and self-regulation, present in Bowlby’s original formulation, had been ignored by the mainstream at the time of its inception because of a cultural climate dominated by behaviourism and cognitive psychology.
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The Future of Humanistic Psychology by Dr Dina Glouberman
In the psychotherapy/personal development world of the late 1960s and early 1970s, Humanistic Psychology inspired us and encouraged us to begin a lifetime of development and expansion without ever having to label ourselves as ill or lacking. Its future, hopefully, is to keep reminding us that the personal, the spiritual and the political are all part of the same human yearning to move beyond the old boundaries, boxes and diagnoses to new understandings and new realities. I mind less where it goes, than that it continue to peep through everything we create, and be our inspiration.
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A Tribute to James Hillman by Tree Staunton
I don’t know what life will be like now without James Hillman in it, but I know that he left us a rich treasury of writing that needs to be read, understood and appreciated.
Thomas Moore, Remembering James Hillman in the Huffington Post, 31 October 2011
He leaves behind a used pair of tap shoes, a yard full of exotic chickens, mornings in Thompson, nighttimes in New York, friends from all over the world….
Published in the New York Times, 30 October 2011
Sadly I never met James Hillman, nor heard him speak, though he felt close by when I experienced the work of his colleagues – Robert Bly, for instance, and Thomas Moore. During my ten years with a US Jungian analyst, I was told a few whisky-in-the-bar stories about the man ‘Jim’. The stories were often used to illustrate that therapy – like life – was full of uncontrollable twists and turns, and that what thwarts us forms us.
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Self & Society – Autumn 2012, 40th anniversary edition
The Future of Humanistic Psychology by Nick Totton
In this short article, I am describing my four current interests in psychology/spirituality. These are forgiveness, the effects of shock, the future of the planet, and non-duality, or questioning the existence of a separate “I”. Obviously these are huge topics and I do no more than touch on them, but I think each can have a place in the future of Humanistic Psychology.
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The Past and Future of Humanistic Psychology by Colin Feltham
In this article I declare my personal sympathy with aspects of Humanistic Psychology and state what I consider its strengths to be. I critique what I regard as its weaknesses – its lack of realism, lack of engagement with contemporary, harsh socio-economic realities, and some of its failures to live up to its promise. Humanistic Psychology may become a barely significant set of nostalgic theories and practices or yet find ways to bring its focus on birth, education, feelings and patriarchal civilisation to a new readership and public.
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Beyond the Need for Defensive Practice: Combining Creativity and Accountability with the Best Interests of Clients by Arthur Musgrave
This article welcomes pluralistic experiment in respect of counsellor and psychotherapist accountability. It examines some significant negative consequences for public protection resulting from a case taken out by the Health Professions Council against a Registered Arts Therapist that was appealed to the High Court. It then outlines an example of civic accountability, a creative option that promises benefits for therapists, their clients and the public. A scheme of this kind would be compatible with existing regulatory frameworks and, in the longer term and after testing, may even emerge as a resilient alternative to them.
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