O C T O B E R / N O V E M B E R 2 0 12
Association for Perspective Humanistic Psychology ahpweb.org Humanistic DSM-V Walter Kempler: Existential Pioneer & Family Therapist Tarot Conference Report
JOURNAL OF HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Reviews:
HIDDEN SPIRITUALITY OF MEN
ESSENTIAL WILLIAM JAMES
EMPATHY: FROM BENCH TO BEDSIDE
THE LIFE OF THINGS
PSYCHOMAGIC
OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2012 ahp PERSPECTIVE 1 ASSOCIATION for HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY ahpweb.org
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AHP principles include integrity in personal and professional interactions, authenticity trust in human relationships, compassion and deep listening skills, respect for the uniqueness, value, independence, interdependence, and essential oneness of all beings.
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2 ahp PERSPECTIVE OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2012 Perspective magazine COVER ART:
Family therapy artwork logo October / November 2012 Kempler Institutet Odense, Denmark C O N T E N T S http://www.kempler.dk/
AHP PERSPECTIVE NEWS & COLUMNS Editor-in-Chief: Kathleen E. Erickson [email protected]; 415/435-1604; Fax: 707/559- 5030; 151 Petaluma Blvd So. #227, Petaluma CA 94952 4 • CALENDAR OF EVENTS Associate Editors: Hiro Sasaki, Koorosh Rassekh 6 • PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Consulting Editors: Don Eulert, David Lukoff, Stan Charnofsky Copyeditor/Proofreader: Eve Blasband Beyond Self-Limiting and Addictive Cultural Scripts ATP NEWSLETTER Editor: David Lukoff . . . Carry U. “Cuf” Ferguson DEADLINES/GUIDELINES: Feb. 1, Apr. 1, June 1, Aug. 1, Oct. 1, Dec. 1 for issue two months later. Articles: up to 2,500 words; 9 • JOURNAL OF HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY Reviews: up to 1,000 words. Include brief bio and photo: TIF/ JPEG/print. Edited for brevity and clarity. JHP 52:4, Fall 2012, Contents and Editor’s Commentary ADVERTISING: For advertising rates, see page 8. . . . Kirk Schneider REPRINTS: Use and cite with attribution of Author, publisher (Association for Humanistic Psychology, ahpweb.org), issue date.
The PERSPECTIVE is published bimonthly for members of the ASSOCIATIONS FOR HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY and TRANSPERSONAL PSYCHOLOGY. The AHP ARTICLES PERSPECTIVE is free to members of both Associations. Content is contributed by members and non-members. The Association is not responsible for the accuracy of any author’s content and does not 11 • What Would a Humanistic DSM-V Look Like? endorse it. For 50 years the AHP newsletter (named Phoenix, AAHP Newsletter, AHP Newsletter, and now AHP Perspective) has been a . . . Andrew Bland forum for discussion, new and radical ideas, and sharing current work. 14 • Walter Kempler, M.D., Original Gestalt–Experiential ASSOCIATION FOR HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY Family Th erapist . . . Len Bergantino 151 Petaluma Blvd. So., Suite #227, Petaluma, CA 94952, (415) 435–1604, 15 • Conference Report—San Francisco Bay Area Tarot ahpweb.org, [email protected] Symposium: An Intuitive Art Comes of Age . . . Toni Gilbert JOINT MEMBERSHIP AHP–ATP $159 includes all benefi ts of REVIEWS Professional Membership in both
AHP Professional Member benefi ts: 18 • Th e Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors to • 6 stimulating, information-packed issues of our magazine, AHP Perspective Awaken the Sacred Masculine by Matthew Fox • Substantial discounts on AHP events, regional & Annual conferences . . . C. Norman Shealy • 4 quarterly issues of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology 18 • Empathy: From Bench to Bedside edited by Jean Decety • Continuing Education Credits for Conferences and Events • Listing in online Directory of Humanistic Professionals . . . Tracy Knight • Discounts on AHP Perspective and ahpweb.org ad rates, mailing list rentals 20 • Th e Life of Th ings: Th erapy and the Soul of the World • Eligibility for professional liability, group health, disability, and life insurance by Bernie Neville . . . David Ryback • Opportunity to link your website directly with ahpweb, as a Memberlink 21 • Th e Essential William James edited by John R. Shook • Access to ahpweb’s “Members Only” section for news and opportunities . . . Dolores Puterbaugh 22 • Psychomagic: Th e Transformative Power of Shamanic ATP Professional Membership Benefi ts: Psychotherapy by Alejandro Jodorowsky • Subscription to the semiannual Journal of Transpersonal Psychology • Access to all 35 years of Journal (JTP) articles and hundreds of audio and . . . Ivan Mancinelli-Franconi video recordings of past conference presenters • A searchable Networking List of members • ATP’s Listing of Professional Members 8 • AD RATES • Listing in the ATP Professional Members Guide, access to the listserv • Reduced rates for Newsletter classifi ed advertising • ID and Password to Members Only section of atpweb.org, with full-text archives of the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology and audio archives of the past ATP conferences from 1990 to the present
OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2012 ahp PERSPECTIVE 3 AHP CALENDAR OF EVENTS
AHP-Sponsored Events VOICE DIALOGUE AHP Fall Conference DASSIE HOFFMAN, MIND/BODY Ph.D., LCAT, ADTR, CONNECTION: & BRIDGIT DENGAL ALI MOINZADEH, MD, PHD, GASPARD, LMSW KIM COOKSON, PSYD In 2013, the New York Voice Dia- October 6, 2012 • 8 – 5, Saturday • logue Institute will present its Voice 6 CECs • Los Angeles • University of Dialogue Training Sessions. The Southern California, Salvatori Computer Science Center, SAL Room 101, Los price is $400 per weekend, but you Angeles, CA 90089 may be eligible for a pre-payment http://www.eventbrite.com/event/3671948898/
discount. For those earning CECs, BRIDGET DENGAL GASPARD & DASSIE HOFFMAN http://ahpweb.org there is an additional requirement of 2 private facilitations. These workshops earn 39 CECs from the Association for AHP Winter Conference Humanistic Psychology, 48 CECs from the National Association of Social Work- 50th AHP ANNIVERSARY: Phoenix Rising ers, and 42 CECs from the International Federation of Coaches. February 22–24, 2012 • CECs • Los Angeles LEVEL ONE–3 weekends • 39 CECs • Sat. & Sun. 10–6 Check ahpweb.org for more information as it unfolds Jan. 26–27, 2013, Feb. 23–24, 2013, Mar. 23–24, 2013 • New York City LEVEL TWO–2 weekends • 39 CECs • Fri. 6–9, Sat. & Sun. 10–6 April 19–21, 2013, May 10–12, 2013 • New York City CYNDY SHELDON, MSW New York Voice Dialogue Institute, New York City, 161 West 54th Street, CYNDY SHELDON, MSW, who trained with Fritz Suite 804, New York, New York 10019 Perls and James Simkin, co-founded the original Gestalt Contact: http://www.newyorkvoicedialogueinstitute.org; Institute of San Francisco in 1967 and taught there for [email protected]; Dassie: (212) 956-0432; Bridgit (718) 522-4009 25 years as well as in Europe for many years. Inspired to follow her bliss in search of a more spiritual orientation, she worked among the Navajos for 15 years. Now, in her 75th year, she is eager to share the integration of all of these experiences with those who are curious and inter- ested. Currently she lives in Bellingham, Washington. 15th Annual Conference of the INT’L SOCIETY FOR ETHICAL GESTALT AS A WAY OF LIFE PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY (ISEPP) Principles and Practices Alternatives to Biological Psychiatry: Treatments Th at Work ONE-DAY WORKSHOP www.psychintegrity.org This day-long program provides a beginning understanding of the practices Gestaltists teach their clients, many of which have similarities to Buddhism and Eckhart Tolle’s teachings. Also covered will be some of the theory and methods used. Mini-lectures and experiential exercises plus time for some personal work. SPONSORED BY AHP • 6 CECs • $100 • AHP & student discounts • 10 – 5 Saturday, November 4, 2012 • Seattle, Washington • Seattle Healing Arts Center Contact: Cyndy Sheldon, 360 656 6207, www.cyndysheldon.com [email protected]
EDITOR’S CORRECTION NOTE
Dr. Charlie Kivowitz’s name was misspelled in a Letter 6th Annual Conference of the to the Editor, Braer Rabbit, the Avenging Angel by Len EXISTENTIAL–HUMANISTIC INSTITUTE Bergantino, in the August/September 2012 AHP Perspec- Everyday Existentialism: Cultivating Presence, Awe, & Meaning tive. Charlie was known as the “internist to the stars” in AgeSong/EHI 624 Laguna Grove, San Francisco, CA the 1970s. http://ehinstitute.org/events.html
4 ahp PERSPECTIVE OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2012 The Center for Integrative Psychology at Alliant International University presents
Adventures in Political Psychology What Does Your Vote Mean? Join us for an evening with Stanford Professor Jon Krosnick, who for 30 years has studied the forces that drive political thinking and action in America. What leads some people to vote and others not? What leads people to select the candidates they choose? How do the news media influence people's choices? Does racism influence vote choices? What happens cognitively and behaviorally when a citizen becomes passionate about a particular issue? Jon will introduce the integrative field of Political Psychology and discuss how it helps us better understand contemporary events.
RSVP www.integrativepsychology.net Reservation, Information and Directions At Stanford, Dr. Krosnick is Frederic O. Glover Professor in Humanities and Social Sciences and Professor of Communication, Political Science, and (by courtesy) Psychology, Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, and director of the Political Psychology Research Group (PPRG). He directs the Stanford Summer Institute in Political Psychology, with world-wide participants. His publications explore the causes of decisions about voting, whether to approve of a President’s performance, whether to take action to influence government policy-making, and much more. In his spare time, Dr. Krosnick plays drums with a contemporary jazz group called Charged Particles
Professional 2 Hrs/ CE Certificate $35
This workshop meets the qualifications for 2 hours of continuing education credit. Alliant International University is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Alliant International University maintains responsibility for this program and its content. Alliant International University is also approved by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences (provider #PCE234) and the California Board of Registered Nursing (provider #CEP11235) to sponsor credit for marriage and family therapists, social workers, and registered nurses. CEUs pending.
Friday, Nov 2nd, 2012 6:30pm - 8:30pm (Green Hall) ~ Wine and Cheese reception begins at 6:00pm ~
CSPP at Alliant Intl University Scripps Ranch Campus 10455 Pomerado Road Scripps Ranch, 92131
Discovery, Conversation, Learning, Friendship and Community
OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2012 ahp PERSPECTIVE 5 President’s Message Beyond Self-Limiting and Addictive Cultural Scripts: Th e Transformative Power of Preference in the Now
— Carroy U. “Cuf” Ferguson
ulture provides us with a set of assumptions demands, they thus become self-limiting. and values about ourselves, and the world One formulation of culture is at the level of around us. Culture infl uences how we think nation or region (e.g., American culture or Oriental and feel and what we do. Each of us carries culture), and is thus general, admitting individual these assumptions and values in our mind and and group diff erences. At this level, culture acts to theyC serve as the context within which we relate to infl uence individual and general perceptions about ourselves, to others, and to the physical and spiritual ourselves and the world around us. environment. Most people are unaware of their Following are six ways that culture can have cultural assumptions, and assume that their own transformative power as a preference or be self- cultural assumptions about the nature of humanity limiting as a demand on our perceptions and evolving and the world are right and natural. While culture Consciousness: is to be appreciated and celebrated, it also can be somewhat hypnotic, with the result of internalizing • Perception of the Self— what may be unquestioned, unexamined, self- In a culture, one learns to consider the Self to be in limiting, and addictive cultural scripts. Here, I want particular relationship with one’s social environment. to briefl y discuss how culture infl uences perceptions For example, many Americans tend to see themselves and how to recognize and move beyond self-limiting as separate and distinct individuals, autonomous and addictive cultural scripts that are not serving and responsible for their own lives. An individual humanity well. in another culture may see the Self not as a separate What is culture? And what is an addictive entity, but as part of a web of relationships, which cultural script? Culture can be defi ned as a form a group such as a family or tribe. Both of these problem-solving process in response to presenting cultural scripts, enacted as cultural preferences and circumstances, created in time and space by a honoring free will, can have transformative eff ects group and therefore functional for that group in when all aspects of the Self (i.e., physical, mental, time and space. However, culture is not static; it emotional, and spiritual aspects) are recognized, has an evolving nature. Each person is born into affi rmed, and valued in the process. Enacted as a culture or cultures, and uniquely integrates that cultural demands, without taking into account all culture in her or his own way. As such, the person, aspects of the Self, both cultural scripts can have often unknowingly, accepts, rejects, or modifi es deleterious self-limiting eff ects (when not lived up to) cultural scripts to fi t her or his own unique life with respect to the person’s psyche, her/his evaluative circumstances. In turn, the person thus infl uences perception of Self, and her/his recognition of and culture to evolve, and as it evolves. In Handbook to actualization of her/his human potential. Higher Consciousness, Kenneth Keyes, with whom I agree, notes that an addiction is an emotion-backed • Perception of the World— demand, expectation, or model that makes you upset Culture teaches the person assumptions about the if it is not satisfi ed. It may be a demand on your Self, relationships that exist between humanity and on another person, or on a situation. Cultural scripts nature. Th ere are, for example, three basic views of become addictive, therefore, when they are enacted this relationship: (a) humanity is superior to nature, as demands, rather than as preferences. As cultural capable of mastering it and using it to its own ends
6 ahp PERSPECTIVE OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2012 people should act or do things. Many Americans, PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE for example, learn the value of achievement of the (a general American perception); (b) humanity is individual. Competition is viewed as a natural way equal to nature and must fi t into it; (c) humanity is of motivating people. In other cultures, ascriptive subordinate to nature and must struggle to survive qualities such as family and tribal membership may in its face. As preferred cultural scripts, the three views defi ne a person and support the value that a person may allow the person to experience transformative should strive not to do particular things, but to be fl exibility and creativity in relation to nature, as a good fulfi ller of the roles ascribed to her or him. s/he assesses particular circumstances and consciously Cultural motivation, viewed as a preference, makes chooses a preferred stance in service to the planet. As transformative room for win–win scenarios, and what demanded cultural scripts, the three views can create I call aggressive collaboration, to achieve an outcome the experience of hopelessness and helplessness when or state of being, and to assist one another along the prescribed desires of mastery, harmony, and/ the way on her/his chosen path. Cultural motivation or humility in relation to nature are not satisfi ed viewed as a demand, however, can limit what one or satisfying. And, the transformative notion of a desires and how one can be, inside and outside, in the connection to the health of the planet can get lost. process of moving toward what one desires.
• Perception of Time— • Form of Relations to Others— Culture orients the person to and in time and Culture provides norms about proper patterns space. Many Americans, for example, tend to of relationships that exist among human beings. value punctuality and govern their lives (or allow Americans are taught the ideal of equality (to themselves to be governed) by the clock. Th e belief be sure, not always practiced) and the value of is that time can be broken up into measured and relationships among equal, achieving individuals. neutral fragments by which the person can program Relationships can be tenuous and short-lived. Each her/his existence. In other cultures, time may be culture, however, has a system by which individuals internal and whole. Th at is, one acts when the time are classifi ed (e.g., socio-economic class; ethnicity; is “right,” according to an internal sense (e.g., most leadership; geographic location; race; gender; religion; island cultures), or to the nature of a scheduled event language; etc.), and these systems are held in place by like a social gathering (e.g., in India, a person may the cultural norms. When relational cultural norms arrive signifi cantly early; in African American culture are enacted as preferred cultural scripts, there can be and in Africa, a person may arrive signifi cantly transformative and creative fl uidity as individuals late). Approaching time as a preferred cultural script internalize, accept, reject, and/or modify particular can assist with developing the transformative capacity cultural norms for how best to relate to one another. to value and experience both linear and non-linear When relational cultural norms are enacted as cultural time or what I, and others, have called simultaneous demands, they can have the eff ect of stereotyping time (i.e., inner access to the past and past lives, and treating people as objects and can stifl e the the present, and probable futures) as we evolve our expression of human potential and the evolution of individual and collective Consciousness. However, Consciousness. History, past and present, is replete approaching the cultural script of time as a demand with example after example of how men have enacted can be very stressful. Th e person is constantly stifl ing relational cultural scripts in relation to the role monitoring her/his time, whether one is early, late, of women in a society, and how stereotypes related to or on time, allowing the notion of clock or other race, ethnicity, and religion have been used to socially time constructs to, in eff ect, control one’s experience construct people as objects that resulted in horrendous and existence. It is self-limiting, therefore, in that an human relational dramas (e.g., slavery; religious and exploration of the transformative relation between ethnically related wars.) and access to the multidimensionality of time and Consciousness can get overlooked. With access to • Form of Activity— simultaneous time, we can discover, for example, that Culture teaches a way of functioning within an the Present is and can be more infl uenced by the environment. Americans are taught to be action- future (our Inner Visions) than the past. oriented, seeing humanity as decision-making, doing individuals. In some cultures, a person may • Motivation— be taught that s/he should be a particular way and Culture conveys basic assumptions about why should seek to embody within her/himself certain
OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2012 ahp PERSPECTIVE 7 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE and spiritual dramas taking place on the planet as nations, religions, and various groups struggle to valued characteristics such as generosity or wisdom. move beyond self-limiting and addictive cultural In yet other cultures, a person may tend to be passive scripts related to the perception of the Self in vis-à-vis her/his environment. Here, if the form of relationship to “the Other.” Th e theme of this global activity is viewed as a cultural preference, cultural phenomenon has to do with the importance of scripts can be transformative whereby both inner recognizing and understanding the true nature of and outer actions can be valued. One unfolding interdependence, beyond our self-created and socially example of the transformative power of a cultural constructed boundaries as human beings. Th at is, as preference is how various cultures are seeking to better we seek to evolve our Consciousness, it is important understand and work with both inner and outer forms to truly understand that when something happens of Energy (e.g., Korotkov and his colleagues in Russia on one side of the planet, it has a signifi cant impact and Pearl, Tillman, and Schwartz in the U.S. are elsewhere on the planet, at individual and collective currently engaged in a transformative cross-cultural levels. When we do harm to others, we do harm to dialogue and research on the science of Reconnective ourselves. And, when we do harm to ourselves, we do Healing Frequencies). If cultural scripts demand that harm to others. “only” inner or outer actions are to be appreciated, Th erefore, to move beyond self-limiting and then such an approach would be limiting with addictive cultural scripts, the emerging globalization regard to possible transformative cross-cultural and of newer transcendent and transformative cultural multicultural interchanges that can assist in evolving scripts about the Self is required. Such transcendent our individual and collective Consciousness. and transformative cultural scripts stress our So, why do people hold on to self-limiting and interdependence as human beings on a tiny, blue addictive cultural scripts? Th e short answer is fear— planet in one of innumerable solar systems, and fear of change, fear of the new, fear of the diff erent, view the Self as a Whole Physical–Mental–Emotional– and fear of the power of one’s own projections out Spiritual Multifold and Multidimensional Being. Th ey onto “the Other.” In other words, the presumably directly and indirectly challenge us to examine the known cultural script creates the illusion of safety contents of our minds, individually and collectively. and security. Rather than viewing cross-cultural and Th ey reinforce directly and indirectly the recognition multicultural encounters as opportunities to grow that one of the major barriers to evolving our by examining and learning more about one’s own Consciousness, individually and collectively, is our and another’s internalized self-limiting and addictive demanding, self-limiting, and addictive cultural cultural scripts, the tendency then is to fear the scripts. Th ey also ask us to recognize that each of diff erent, the new, and one’s own projected power, to us has the transformative power of preference in the become defensive and to assume a righteous stance Now to accept, reject, or modify any self-limiting and against one’s own projections. Unfortunately, at addictive cultural script that is not serving us well, diff erent levels of experience, all too often the result individually and collectively. has been and is local, national, and international Th e key, then, to moving beyond self-limiting confl icts. and addictive cultural scripts is to make them into Currently, however, there is a worldwide preferences, not demands. As human beings, with phenomenon unfolding on the global stage that a desire to evolve our Consciousness, individually challenges self-limiting and addictive cultural scripts. and collectively, it is time to move beyond these It is refl ected through the economic, ethnic, tribal, internalized scripts. In my forthcoming book, Evolving Th e Human Race Game—A AHP ADVERTISING RATES Spiritual and Soul- Centered Perspective, NEW: WEB BANNER ADS – $1,500/YEAR. AHPWEB.ORG: 3 million hits/yr. I explore some of the AHP PERSPECTIVE including AHPWEB ads Contact: above ideas in more Kathleen Erickson detail, along with 1/6 PAGE: 4.75” X 2.25” $190 MEMBERS $230 NON-MEMBERS [email protected] suggesting various 1/3 PAGE: 4.75” X 4.75” $360 MEMBERS $400 NON-MEMBERS 151 Petaluma Blvd. So., #227 Petaluma CA 94952 (415) 435-1604 tools that may be 1/2 PAGE: 7.25” X 4.75” $475 MEMBERS $525 NON-MEMBERS fax (707) 559-5030 helpful. FULL PAGE: 7.25” X 9.75” $785 MEMBERS $850 NON-MEMBERS —CUF FERGUSON
8 ahp PERSPECTIVE OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2012 Journal of Humanistic Psychology Vol. 52, No. 4, Fall, 2012
Table of Contents — Kirk Schneider
An Existential–Integrative Treatment of Anxious and Depressed Adolescents . . . David Shumaker
What Makes a Good EMDR Th erapist?: Exploratory Findings from Client-Centered Inquiry . . . Jaimie Marich Should We Be Writing Essays Instead of Articles? A Psychotherapist’s Refl ection on Montaigne’s Marvelous Invention . . . Rachel Starr
Tillich and Tarkovsky: An Existential Analysis of Mirror . . . Daniel Sullivan Sixty Years Later: Th e Enduring Allure of Synchronicity . . . Dan Hocoy
Peak Experiences Among Americans at Mid-Life . . . Edward Hoff man Susan Kaneshiro William Compton
EDITOR’S COMMENTARY legacy of depth, integration, and vision—as well as have an impact on our profession at large. his, alas, is my fi nal issue as Editor of JHP. As for my part, I shall move into the role of Se- It’s been a wonderful, intense, challenging, nior Consulting Editor and do my best to give useful and revelatory journey that I shall treasure (if not always sage) input. I will also redirect much for the rest of my days, but it is also high of my time to my family, therapy clients, and writ- time, after eight years, to step aside. I feel extra- ing (which are continuing calls). I also look forward Tordinarily blessed to have wedged my tenure between to some time for teaching and helping to launch the two remarkable souls who have graced this Journal new Existential–Humanistic Institute/Saybrook Uni- in diff erent but vital ways. Th e fi rst is my predeces- versity certifi cate program in existential–humanistic sor, mentor, and dear friend Tom Greening who practice. Not a retiring life to be sure, but one with a oversaw JHP for 35 robust years and whose guidance little more psychical space! and bemused discernment have been priceless as I’ve Regarding this issue, I very much view it as a wended my way through this Editorship. Sorry I special one. Although each of the articles contained didn’t keep up with your record of service, Tom, but in this issue have serendipitously arrived, I also hand- that service seems unsurpassable, at least to mortals picked them for this particular issue. As I believe like me! you’ll see, each of these articles is vibrant in its own Th e second soul is Shawn Rubin, who has done way, and plows fresh ground with its own means of more than yeoman’s duty as Managing Editor, sup- tilling. portive colleague, and friend. Shawn is the incoming Th e issue opens with a marvelous piece by David Editor of JHP and has earned his stripes through Shumaker on existential–integrative therapy with outstanding dedication to, passion for, and insight adolescents. Part of what makes this article so dis- into the fi eld of humanistic psychology. I am very tinctive is that it lucidly depicts the fruitfulness of heartened that Shawn will now carry on the great a form of practice—existential therapy with adoles- humanistic lineage of JHP to a new generation of cents—that is rarely discussed even in the existential inquirers and seekers. I know he will continue our literature. Moreover, the article enlarges existential–
OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2012 ahp PERSPECTIVE 9 JOURNAL OF HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY In our next fascinating refl ection, Dan Hocoy commemorates sixty years since Carl Jung published integrative theory, and by so doing opens the way for his investigation of “synchronicity.” Synchronicity is many further such inquiries. Like me, I think that “a meaningful coincidence of an outer event with an many of you will be appreciative of the practicality individual’s inner state in which there is no apparent and depth of this article, showing that existential causal relationship.” In this article, Hocoy not only therapy can reach as well as inform adolescent life. provides a lucid and highly illuminating exposition In “What Makes a Good EMDR Th erapist?: of the concept of synchronicity, but also punctuates Exploratory Findings from Client-Centered Inquiry,” his article with lively case examples and an intriguing Jaimie Marich considers an equally untapped arena— peek at synchronicity’s evolving cultural impact. the human elements of EMDR treatment. While In the fi nal article of this issue, longtime editorial EMDR (or Eye Movement Desensitization Repro- board member Edward Hoff man and his co-authors cessing) therapy has become a fashionable and repu- Susan Kaneshiro and William Compton off er an table approach to addressing trauma, Marich shows insightful inquiry into the mid-life peak experiences that the relational elements of the work are founda- of 153 Americans. Th e chief insight for me was that tional to the technique. In keeping with the recent despite criticisms of peak experiences as being overly outcome literature highlighting contextual factors as individualistic, many mid-life “peakers” in this study integral to therapeutic eff ectiveness, Marich shows exhibited anything but isolated “highs.” To the con- convincingly that factors such as safety, warmth, and trary, their highs were interpersonal—focusing on genuineness appear to be key to clients’ healing. By both romantic partners and their children. Th e au- drawing on phenomenological methods, she more- thors elaborate: over provides a rare instance of qualitative insight in a Peaks involving interpersonal joy were reported signifi - fi eld dominated by the quantitative. cantly most frequently, more than all other categories We shift from unique and trailblazing therapeu- combined. Th ese were followed in frequency by those tic inquiries to unique and trailblazing literary (and comprising, respectively, external achievement and cinematic) inquiries. Rachel Starr begins her essay personal growth. with the provocative headline: “Should We Be Writ- ing Essays Instead of Articles?” Drawing from Renais- If you’re anything like me, you’ll want to know more sance writer Michel de Montaigne, Starr challenges about the implications of these fi ndings for adult de- us to reassess the question of validity in therapeutic velopment and for our culture at large—and on both inquiry with “marvelous” insights from literature. counts, the article delivers. “Montaigne’s ‘Essays,’” Starr writes, are “both . . . a Finally, as I close this issue (and my tenure), I fruitful model for writing about and refl ecting on would like to leave you, dear readers, with a refl ec- the human condition.” To see why the essay is “a tion by Rollo May on the emerging humanism (cited wonderful articulation of the reorientation of value in the January 1985 Association for Humanistic from abstract truths to bodily experience,” and “how Psychology Perspective newsletter). Quoting from the a conversation with a particular person can become great German writer Th omas Mann’s prescient es- part of the larger conversation of humankind,” read say about the “third humanism,” Rollo imparts: Th is this article. humanism will embrace Andrei Tarkovsky is one of the great fi lmmakers stout-hearted knowledge of [humanity’s] dark, de- of the 20th century. If you have not witnessed him, be monic, radically “natural” side united with reverence sure to cozy up to a DVD featuring his work in such for his[her] super-biological spiritual worth. . . . It will classics as Mirror, Solaris, and Th e Sacrifi ce. In this realize that no romantic confl ict or tragic dualism is powerful refl ection, Daniel Sullivan anatomizes Tar- inherent in the fact, but rather a fruitful and engaging kovsky’s Mirror. Drawing from the germinal works combination of determinism and free choice. Upon that of Paul Tillich, Sullivan views Mirror as an existential it will base a love for humanity in which its pessimism study of anxiety—specifi cally, the anxiety of empti- and its optimism will cancel each other. (p. 5) ness, guilt, and fate. But Sullivan does not end there. Th e “values” and the “beauty” to which Mann refers He also sees the fi lm as a vivid illustration of “the [concludes Rollo] are those in the great humanist tradi- courage to exist in spite of [these] imminent anxiet- tions. We can accept with courage both the dimensions ies. If you read this article you will have a much bet- of the demonic and the spiritual, and we can glory in ter idea of how faith is enlivened by doubt as much as them both. (p. 5) doubt by faith. —KIRK SCHNEIDER
10 ahp PERSPECTIVE OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2012 What Would a Humanistic
DSM-V Look Like? — Andrew Bland
[People’s] inner nature is in part unique to [themselves] and in part species-wide.
— Abraham Maslow
he title question was existence and their human A HUMANISTIC recently posted on a struggles. Rather, what I fi nd DIAGNOSTIC SYSTEM list-serve. Below is a troublesome about the DSM is composite summary of that its descriptions of surface Now I will provide some examples my responses. Th is is not intended conditions lend themselves of key texts that form a basis Tas the fi nal word—but rather as to confusing the map for the for describing mental disorders a collection of gut impressions territory, to limited therapeutic from a humanistic angle while and working notes intended to engagement, and therefore to maintaining the structure of the disrupt fi xed systems of thinking the potential for poor practice current diagnostic system. and to inspire dialogue about the outcomes. diagnosis and classifi cation of Second, it is necessary Axis I: Anxiety, Mood, and mental health and suff ering in a (a) to ground a humanistic Psychotic Disorders way that is both clinically practical diagnostic system in language Rollo May’s Th e Meaning of and sensitive to individuals’ that is congruent and compatible Anxiety (Norton, 1977, revised lived experience. My primary with what is familiar to most edition), Viktor Frankl’s Th e proposal is that a humanistic conventional clinicians and to Doctor and the Soul: From DSM-V already exists in raw others who regularly utilize the Psychotherapy to Logotherapy form. I have included both classic DSM (e.g., managed care) and (Vintage, 1986, third edition), and contemporary references for (b) to account both for and Kirk Schneider’s Existential– conceptualizing mental disorders conventional reality and the Integrative Psychotherapy through humanistic, existential, client’s reality without favoring (Routledge, 2008) provide and transpersonal lenses. one at the expense of the other. accounts of the succession from Th ird, oversimplifi cation more healthy (e.g., constructive REGARDING THE DSM should be avoided, and anxiety, phase of life problems, dimensionality and complexity mild adjustment disorders) to less To preface my thoughts about a embraced. (It was the desire for healthy (from anxiety to mood humanistic diagnostic system, fi rst parsimony in the development and psychotic disorders) on Axis I will identify a few assumptions. of the DSM that got us in this I. May emphasized that there First, the current DSM mess in the fi rst place!) Th e is “good” and “bad” anxiety, in is necessary but insuffi cient. detached stance of the current the same way that the physical Diagnosis and classifi cation are and previous DSMs should be body requires a balance of high not inherently problematic; replaced with more compassionate HDL and low LDL cholesterol, incorporating diagnostic I–Th ou verbiage that promotes and that the denial of anxiety descriptions into sessions can human dignity, emphasizes the and of struggle as vital and be most validating of clients’ whole person in context, and essential aspects of the human phenomenological experience, promotes clients’ freedom in and condition lends itself to dampened affi rming and normalizing their responsibility for their conditions. sensibility (i.e. depression). In
OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2012 ahp PERSPECTIVE 11 Rethinking Madness: Towards HUMANISTIC DSM-V Sufi wisdom) of personality a Paradigm Shift in Our development represented by a addition, as a guide for addressing Understanding and Treatment of symbol signifying nine character concerns about cultural bias in the Psychosis (Sky’s Edge, 2012), and orientations composed of DSM, May identifi ed numerous with emerging understandings of habitual patterns of perception, biological and cultural issues that the role of relationships in brain emotion, and behavior. Th e help diff erentiate between aspects development in Louis Cozolino’s parallels between the nine of health and pathology that arise Neuroscience of Psychotherapy enneagram orientations and the across cultures and generations (Norton, 2010, second edition). current Axis II diagnoses are the and those that may be fl agged subject of a growing body of as facets of modern American Axis I: Addictions, Autism, ADHD research (see A. Bland (2010), cultural imperialism. Gabor Mate’s In the Realm of Th e enneagram: A review of the Frankl picked up where Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters empirical and transformational May left off , describing not with Addiction (North Atlantic, literature, Journal of Humanistic only problematic anxiety as an 2010) provided alluring epigenetic Counseling, Education, and existential crisis but also the descriptions of substance abuse, Development, 49, 16–31). further deterioration of the autism, and ADHD. He utilized Arguably, the enneagram has personality from inhibition neuroscience and Buddhism as stronger construct validity; it (depression) into passivizing threads to weave attachment better accounts for both structure (psychosis). theory with Maslow’s theory and dynamics in personality and May’s and Frankl’s ideas of motivation, with Erikson’s personal growth, and it lends itself were further expanded upon in psychosocial map of development, to a more legitimate dimensional Schneider’s conceptualization of and with emerging ideas on model. See Don Riso and Russ mental disorders as imbalances moral and spiritual growth (and Hudson’s Personality Types: along a continuum between its truncation) throughout the Using the Enneagram for Self- dread of constriction to dread human lifespan. Discovery (Houghton Miffl in, of expansion of one’s energies 1996) for a discussion about the and experiences—thereby Axis I: PTSD levels of development from the accounting not only for anxiety Peter Levine’s In an Unspoken unhealthy to the healthy in the and depression but also for Voice: How the Body Releases enneagram system. mania and impulsiveness. His Trauma and Restores Goodness table of “Psychiatric Disorders (North Atlantic, 2010) provided Axis II: Cognitive Impairment and Th eir Associated Dreads” a re-conceptualization of post- Th e current DSM relies on IQ off ered a simple yet resonant traumatic stress disorder as scores as a basis for diagnoses phenomenological vocabulary post-traumatic stress injury—an of mental retardation. A more for improving the current “emotional wound amenable suitable basis for determining the DSM diagnostic criteria as I to healing attention and extent of individuals’ abilities and suggested above (e.g., obssessive– transformation” (p. 34)—via limitations might involve Robert compulsive disorder as “dread an organismic fear–immobility Sternberg’s triarchic theory of of experimentation, surprise, model. He proposed that the key successful intelligence—which confusion, and complexity,” p. to overcoming trauma paralysis holds analytical intelligence 43). and building resilience involves in balance with creative and Schneider also emphasized mending instinct–reason and practical faculties (see Successful the developmental dimensions mind–body rifts not only at the Intelligence: How Practical and of psychological suff ering as personal level but also in Western Creative Intelligence Determine the outcome of layers of acute, thinking. Success in Life, Plume, 1996). chronic, and implicit traumas and their implications for how Axis II: Personality Disorders Axes III and IV individuals engage and relate To overcome the debates over the Th e inclusion of medical and with the world. Th ese ideas were existing classifi cation system, I psychosocial concerns in a further integrated with Eastern would suggest a switch to a new diagnostic impression is essential. understandings of mind and set of categories. Th e enneagram Gabor Mate’s When the Body consciousness in Paris Williams’ is an ancient system (based on Says No: Exploring the Stress–
12 ahp PERSPECTIVE OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2012 to include areas HUMANISTIC DSM-V associated with Disease Connection (Wiley, self-actualizing 2003) provides compassionate and self- accounts of how physical diseases transcendence can provide clues to specifi c areas that Maslow of poor emotional coping. My proposed in his only suggestion would be to add later writings. categories to Axis IV that account for existential and moral/spiritual A TEMPLATE crises; for meso-level cultural concerns; and for barriers to value In this article I systems, to creativity, and to other have suggested ANDREW BLAND human potentials. that the material for a humanistic DSM-V evolution of the DSM. Axis V exists in raw form, and I have Th at said, I believe that Ken Wilber proposed an furnished some resources that a humanistic DSM-V could integral psychograph consisting could be woven into a cohesive be a great gift in that, by of fi ve developmental lines— narrative that appropriates and default, humanistic psychology cognitive, aff ective, spiritual, expands upon the existing DSM is inherently an integrative interpersonal, and moral—that structure. For a model of what a psychology. Since its emergence follow a similar pattern of holonic fi nished product could look like, as the third force in the mid-20th development (see Integral see the Psychodynamic Diag- century, it has embraced the Psychology: Consciousness, nostic Manual (Alliance of best of several orientations in Spirit, Psychology, Th erapy, Psycho-analytic Organizations, the interest of clearing a space Shambhala, 2000, p. 30). An 2006), an adaptation of the DSM- for additional areas of human accurate portrayal of individuals’ IV by psychoanalysts. existence and experience that had growth in each of these domains not been given due consideration would resemble a series of sliders CONCLUSION: by those orientations on their on a stereo equalizer to depict IN BUT NOT OF own. Moving this principle their levels of maturity in each forward to today, this could be key area, with some levels tending to Th e DSM-I and DSM-II had to overcoming the sterility of the be more evolved than others. Such a psychoanalytic bent, which current DSM without moralizing, a multidimensional system would was replaced with a cognitive problematically pressing a political provide a richer sense of context to behavioral leaning in DSM-III agenda, or reducing it to the replace the oversimplifi ed Global and DSM-III-R. DSM-IV was lowest common denominator. Assessment of Functioning scale. intended to have no underlying ANDREW BLAND earned a Master’s theory (just research). It was degree from the University of West DEFINING PSYCHOLOGICAL assumed that value-free science Georgia’s humanistic psychology program HEALTH would prevail and that clinicians in 2003. He is currently a doctoral could operate using whatever candidate in Indiana State University’s A unique contribution that hu- theoretical orientation they prefer counseling psychology program, manistic psychologists can make to address symptoms. However, completing a clinical internship to the DSM-V would be like it or not, the research that at Talbert House in Cincinnati, an intro-ductory outline of fueled this endeavor was theory- Ohio. Since 2004, he has provided characteristics of psychological driven, and the meta-analysis therapeutic services in residential, health, like Abraham Maslow studies that were favored for their partial hospitalization, community and Bela Mittelmann used to alleged ability to show patterns mental health, corrections, and student counseling programs in three states. His lead off Principles of Abnormal across time often mixed and research interests involve the practical Psychology: Th e Dynamics of matched studies from eras when application of humanistic themes in Psychic Illness (Harper, 1951, depression and other disorders the domains of love and work; and the revised edition). In a future article, had diff erent meanings at diff erent interface of creativity, spirituality, and I will propose such a list, updated moments in the historical human development.
OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2012 ahp PERSPECTIVE 13 Walter Kempler, M.D. Original Gestalt–Experiential Family Th erapist
— Len Bergantino
y major profes- each and every one could be sor at University themselves and have something of Southern of value to contribute to the California family as a whole.” So it wasn’t (USC), Dr. Bill Ofman, said, so much his technique that “Hey,M you ought to look up aff ected me for the rest of my Walter Kempler. I think he life, it was his “naturalness” in would like you.” Around his attitude toward and use of 1977 I was building a private himself in the work, and in the practice and I called him. We way we hung out together. WALTER KEMPLER, 1890–1983 met. He said “If you ever want However, in terms of technique, to see me again you will have to get the whole family mobilized, he did work smoothly like a Rolls pay me.” I thought I had written which included her husband, Royce engine. He did not see him off permanently after that their children, and their grand- each family on a regular basis. He but something tugged at me and I children—nine people in all. charged a healthy fee at the time, went to a family therapy workshop He was excellent at utilizing the $300 an hour, to provide a one-of- he gave in Phoenix in 1977. After naturalness of children as a healing a-kind service. He would work for seeing him work I understood why resource from which the family two to six straight hours until he he said what he said. He thought could build and heal itself. His gave the family something to work I did not give him enough credit book Principles of Gestalt Family with that was considered to be a for the experience and diff erences Th erapy: A Gestalt–Experiential resolution to the problem. Th at between us at our respective stages Handbook (1973) is magnifi cent. way, the family might never have of career development. So began As I matured in my work I to come back again, or if they did a nine-year training experience in developed the ability in some cases it was rarely before six months, as gestalt–experiential family therapy to evoke “an existential shift” in they had a lot to work with. as well as a friendship in which he family members in one to three Walt believed that family mem- accompanied my mandolin on his sessions. Prior to my knowing that bers—the not being able to live tenor banjo. I had any ability for this kind of with them and the not being able Walt gave me a picture of work, Kempler was always chastis- to live without them, and the himself taken in front of my ing me for not curing patients in unbearable pain all that causes— home where he was holding up one session. Before I knew that was the only true motivation for a rose and smelling it. He was a shifts in family dynamics could therapeutic change, and he did “natural” and no matter what kind happen that quickly, I thought he not want to waste his time doing of therapy I do or did his spirit is was just giving me a crazy idea as anything else but family therapy. I always with me—he was a creative one-upmanship. He was serious! was fortunate to have known him genius going outside the box and He thought of family therapy and to have been trained by him. never giving in to the projected as the therapist’s therapeutic use hopelessness of patients or for that of self, “warts and all, as giving LEN BERGANTINO, a Clinical Psycholo- matter letting them give into it. patients something to rub up gist licensed in California, Arizona, and Hawaii, and Diplomate in Family Psychol- Walt would not see individual against, and that authenticity then ogy, American Board of Professional Psychol- patients. In the Phoenix work- had a healing eff ect on the fam- ogy, is currently working with families in shop he persuaded the wife to ily by showing them that they their homes or telephonically 310/207-9397.
14 ahp PERSPECTIVE OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2012 CONFERENCE REPORT
San Francisco Bay Area Tarot Symposium: An Intuitive Art Comes of Age
— Toni Gilbert
ay Area Tarot Sym- considerably, as there are a number We can speculate that the sys- posium (BATS) in San of talented artists executing a tem of Tarot may have been used Francisco is celebrating multitude of colorful designs and as a philosophy for promoting its 21st year (www. images that delight and move us. insights and moral change much daughtersofdivination.com). Th ere are authentically reproduced like murals were used in some BEach year, its enthusiastic team historic Tarot decks and highly cathedrals. In the Renaissance, it is headed by event producer creative contemporary versions was customary for priests to tell Th alassa, a student, reader, and available in every major bookstore. illiterate peasants Biblical stories teacher of the Tarot for 45 years. Th ere are decks relating to Celtic using the symbolic art on the She brings decades of experience Shamanism, Native American mural as a visual reference for their in many other areas, such as spirituality, Shakespeare, and interpretations. For the esoteric theatrical production, stand-up abstract art. Th is creative tool can philosophers, it would make sense comedy, and improvisational be used in areas from relationship to keep their practices secret, theatre. Her talents help set issues to psychological and since the Church viewed their the stage for an extravaganza of physical health activities with workshops, presentations, panels, evaluation. suspicion. readings, plus a large display of For Tarot vendors and book publishers. centuries the historian BATS is one of a number of symbolism on and author similar conferences held around Tarot cards Mary K. the world. In the U.S., there are has intrigued Greer states scores of talented readers and occultists, on her Tarot counselors on the West coast as artists, and Blog that the well as all across the country. art historians. philosophers Some use Tarot in a divinatory Th e imagery of the day way, some see it as a self-discovery has been didn’t keep method, and others use it as a preserved and their therapeutic tool. reproduced on Kabbalistic, Starting in 1991, Th alassa Tarot decks mystical– and other tarotists have seen for more than erotic, and the Tarot market expand from 5oo years, alchemical just a few Tarot card decks to often with activities that more than 1,000 new ones, with additional Wanless James by Deck Voyager secret. Given more appearing every year. Card personal everything themes range across a spectrum artistic touches based upon the else they wrote about, it is of the human imagination and important topics, fashions, and strange that they universally its archetypes. Some decks are events of the time. Many of these failed to mention Tarot cards. spiritual in orientation, some decks are on display at leading She also notes that psychological are ego-erotic, and still others museums and libraries throughout counseling as we think of it didn’t are earthy. Th e styles vary the world. exist before the late 19th century.
OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2012 ahp PERSPECTIVE 15 tool, like other tests, serves to Tarot counselors rely upon the TAROT CONFERENCE elicit responses that can then be personal projections of the client, Additionally, there is no evidence evaluated in standard diagnostic because as they discuss what they of Tarot being used for fortune- terms or by other criteria. Athur see in the imagery the counselor telling before the 18th century; Rosengarten, a transpersonal gets a glimpse of deeply personal according to historical documents, psychologist, conducted a pilot information from which they it was known almost exclusively as study with recovering perpetrators begin forming assessments and a game (Mary K. Greer, Origins and/or victims of spousal abuse planning for future interventions of Divination in Tarot, marygreer. and family violence. Rosengarten and evolving potential outcomes. wordpress.com/2008/04/01/origins- analyzed the When the of-divination-with-playing-cards/). respective client is Some cities outlawed the game, position of fi nished free but it was extremely rare and then each card associating, or only briefl y or with constraints— and assumed telling what for example, some laws forbade that every they see in the game on workdays; there were card in the cards, if also restrictions on the amount a spread appropriate of money that could be played stood for the counselor with (Huck Meyer, Laws on Tarot something then can give Gaming, www.trionfi .com; Mary K. in the his or her Greer, History of Tarot, marygreer. individual’s interpretation wordpress.com/2011/07/03/the- psyche, of the image visconti-tarots/). although while watching Th e tradition of Tarot deserves multiple the client’s respect, for it is more than a deck levels of responses of cards with symbolic images meaning closely and applied to the faces. Tarot, as we could be intuitively
know it today, emerged from a found in Wanless James by Deck Voyager tuning in to collection of seventy-eight cards each card. subtle nuances developed in the 15th century. Th e In his book Tarot and Psychology such as facial expression, body images on each card carry a rich Rosengarten concluded that the language, and voice intonation. symbolic tapestry of psychological insights stimulated and clarifi ed A counselor can learn a great deal energies, or archetypes, inherent by Tarot are of primary value about a person in a single session. in the human species. Many of the for the individual rather than Other tarotists are readers who images in modern Tarot decks are the method itself, and that Tarot primarily read the cards to the derived from archetypal characters must be considered an instrument client. In other words, they tap and symbols that may be found in of potential psychotherapeutic into an intuitive sense and free the popular art of the late Middle value in which the counselor associate about the images and Ages and the Renaissance. Some meaningfully seams together the grouping of the cards while telling contemporary decks contain nuances that gather during a the client their interpretation symbols of the Hebrew alphabet, client’s session. of how the cards relate to the astrology, and numerology. Th ere are many ways to use client’s presented question. Many Like the Rorschach Inkblot the cards, and because it is an experienced readers check with the Test, Tarot does not easily lend intuitive art it is best to keep the client, and their perceptions, by itself to research purposes. Both rules simple about how to use frequently asking for feedback and modalities lack the psychometric it. However, there are bottom- watching for subtle body language. qualities that could be used to line codes of ethics that tarotists Tarotists skilled in the art measure psychological variables, follow such as the American of Tarot counseling or reading such as intelligence, aptitude, Tarot Association Code of Ethics may use the cards in self- behavior, and emotional reaction. (www.ata-tarot.com/index. development, client assessment, However, according to Tarot php?option=com_content&view= and as a complementary therapy scholar Stewart Kaplan, this article&id=45&Itemid=29). with wellness clients. Likewise,
16 ahp PERSPECTIVE OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2012 TAROT CONFERENCE BATS Presentations it is utilized with some mental health clients as the licensed PAMELA EAKINS, Ph.D., A Rite of Awakening: Th e Ten psychotherapist gains insights into Powers of Evolution with the New Kabalistic Tarot of the his/her client and helps them to Spirit and the Lightning Papers www.tarotofthespirit.com better understand their issues. Th is article is a call for MARY K. GREER, MA, Tarot History for Tarot Readers unconditional acceptance and www.marygreer.wordpress.com caring for the whole multi- dimensional person. One way TONI GILBERT, ASN, MA, ATC, Th e Archetypes and to do that is to examine the Developmental Psychology www.tonigilbert.com presenting disease or injury from many disciplines and perspectives. CARRIE PARIS, MA, Seeing with Diff erent Eyes: Th e Art In that way, we learn from it rather of Cultivating Accurate Vision www.carrieparis.com than just asking for the fi x. Th is ELLEN LORENZI-PRINCE, creatrix of the Tarot of the perspective postulates that everyone Crone www.croneways.com needs to explore the complexities of life, however painful they MAJOR TOM SCHICK, Th e Hanged Man, Th e Devil, may be. It is only by facing our and Th e Two of Coins as Depicted in Cards in the 18th shadows, or our darker side, that and 19th Centuries www.majortom.biz we begin to heal. Tarot in the hands of a competent counselor, GINA THEIS, AA, Courtly Love: Partnership Choices reader, or therapist does just that. and the Court Cards www.tarotadvisor.com Th e U.S. is in the process of creating a new vision of health DIANE BRANDT WILKES, MA, Tarot Astrological care. However, in order to do so Passages www.tarotpassages.com it is necessary to connect all parts JAMES WANLESS, Ph.D., Th e Sustainable Voyager of the health care system and to www.voyagertarot.com creatively integrate the similar and the dissimilar. Th ere are benefi ts from traditional medical interventions. Nevertheless, is beginning to accept the concept It demonstrates that we are moving there is a place in the whole for that there is more to us than meets toward a more transpersonal vision alternative and complementary the eye. in mental, physical, and spiritual therapies. In some areas of the Th ere are many innovative health. country, empirically proven ways to approach Tarot. When alternative modalities are being used well, the system aids us in TONI GILBERT, ASN, MA, ATC, bringing greater understanding is a transpersonal counselor with a embraced in integrated clinics. background in holistic nursing. As a Yet we still have a way to go. into our lives and is useful in professional with a formal education in In the next leg of our journey, our search for wholeness and nursing, psychology, and transpersonal the health industry needs to healing. We are learning about studies, she off ers clients an array of healing arts techniques to enhance recognize and fully integrate the our multidimensional selves and wellness and prevent illness. She is humanities’ older healing arts such beginning to use the tools that the author of Messages from the as astrology, dream work, and help raise our consciousness so Archetypes: Using Tarot for Healing Tarot interpretation. Th e tarotists that we tap into a higher vision and Spiritual Growth, White Cloud Press, and Gaining Archetypal at this year’s BATS conference for ourselves and our world. Th e Vision: A Guidebook for Using are some of the creative pioneers yearly gathering of the BATS Archetypes in Personal Growth bringing the tools of change into presenters, counselors, and and Healing, Schiff er Books. www. a changing society. Th ese talented readers highlights how much we tonigilbert.com She is founding director of the Oregon Holistic Nurses Assn. and gifted individuals are rising to have learned and applied to the www.oregonholisticnurses.org serving meet the needs of a country that practice of Tarot and to our lives. California, Oregon, and Washington.
OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2012 ahp PERSPECTIVE 17 REVIEWS the eff orts initiated by Robert Bly’s Men’s Movement remain EMPATHY: From Bench unfulfi lled. Boys and men are to Bedside THE HIDDEN SPIRITUAL- failing in increasing numbers in Edited by Jean Decety ITY OF MEN: Ten Meta- school, college, and in suicide MIT Press, 2012, 324 pp., $40, phors to Awaken the rates. Half a century after the ISBN 9780262016612 Sacred Masculine origins of Humanistic Psychology, By Matthew Fox men still represent 10% to at most Reviewed by Tracy Knight New World Library, 2009, 368 pp., 20% of those attending spiritual, $15.95, ISBN 9781577316756 growth, and humanistic programs. Th e only true voyage of discov- Fox emphasizes the need for ery, the only really rejuvenating Reviewed by C. Norman Shealy women to develop their masculine experience, would be not to visit side, just as men need to develop strange lands but to possess other In the mid-70s I fi rst began their feminine and spiritual selves. eyes, to see the universe through to understand the tremen- Th e “hidden” metaphors displayed the eyes of another, of a hundred dous harm that society has in phallic skyscrapers and obelisks others, to see the hundred uni- infl icted for 5,000 years. Th e honoring military victories are verses that each of them sees, that problems began with the mascu- I subtle reminders of each of them is. —Marcel Proust linization of God and were mul- society’s emphasis, while the tiplied with the dominant theme stadiums where men fi ght in he Proust quote above re- of original sin. Anne Schaef’s various sports not so subtly veals truths about empa- Women’s Reality represent the thy and its relationship to and Marc Fasteau’s vagina—ever the human life and culture. Th e Male Machine battle of men to First, the heralding of empathy started my search “win” women. Tand the attendant gifts of possess- for clarity. Now, Ultimately, Fox ing other eyes is not uncommon. hundreds of books argues that the Secondly, empathy’s nature has later, Matthew route to awaken remained more accessible to poetry Fox’s Th e Hidden spirituality for the and prose than to useful scientifi c Spirituality of Men Sacred Masculine quantifi cation. Although empathy, confronts the con- is through the for those who embrace a human- tinual worsening of multiple facets of istic view of life, is self-evident the male psyche. mysticism. Th e in our most precious experiences Fox states that Holy Marriage of and interactions, at this point in “Metaphors change spirit with soul and our cultural history it is too often but archetypes are body is ultimately regarded as a bit of relatively un- eternal.” In the title the journey for important decoration to our ex- he uses metaphors, but in the book both men and women. One of istences, or even a weakness since the emphasis is on the 10 arche- the most insightful aspects of this it may lead to our simply “going types (which can indeed evolve): fascinating book is Fox’s discussion along” with whomever we interact, Father Sky of “Real Men.” Th e exercises he thus representing a lack of proper Green Man provides for developing the ten self-focus. Of course, neither of Icarus and Daedalus archetypes and understanding these assumptions is true. Hunter–Gatherers “Real Men” are essential lessons Because empathy is impossible Spiritual Warriors Masculine Sexuality, Numinous for men and women creating the to accurately locate in time and Sexuality future of society. space, to some this means it is a mere background variable that has Our Cosmic and Animal Bodies C. NORMAN SHEALY, M.D., Ph.D., Blue Man is President of the Holos Institutes of no particular value. Like many Earth Father: Th e Fatherly Heart Health and Professor Emeritus of Energy clinical psychologists, I came to Grandfather Sky: Th e Medicine and President Emeritus of fully appreciate empathy’s natures Grandfatherly Heart Holos University Graduate Seminary. and power through the works of www.normshealy.com, www.medical- Despite the tremendous pro- renaissance.net, www.holosinstitutesof- Rogers, Gendlin, Bugental, and gress in the women’s movement, health.com, www.holosuniversity.org others in the humanistic tradition.
18 ahp PERSPECTIVE OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2012 REVIEWS Empathy: From Bench to Bedside us by detailing both the good and includes six sections, each of which bad results of empathic concern Still, empathy can be gainfully presents noteworthy perspectives: and its induced product, altru- perceived as something that has Philosophical and Anthropologi- ism. His fascinating discussion of a multitude of manifestations cal Perspectives on Empathy; Th e how empathic concern can lead beyond the consulting room. Yet, Contribution of Social Psychology; to a violation of personal morals undeniably, empathy cheerfully Evolutionary Roots of Empathy; reveals how perceiving empathy as has resisted our eff orts to—para- Th e Development of Empathy; a simple force for good does not phrasing Gregory Bateson—make Th e Neurosci- give proper credit it lie down fl at on paper. To many ence of Empathy to the wonder- who live empathically, the chal- and Caring; fully maddening lenge of reaching a trenchant un- and Empathy in complexities of derstanding of empathy is akin to Clinical Practice. human psychol- asking Superman how he fl ies: “I By providing this ogy, and of life. just leap and there I go,” he might impressive array Widening the say. Likewise, with empathy, we of lenses through focus further into leap and there we go. which empathy the social dimen- Of course, when science of may be viewed, sion, Echols and whatever ilk goes about its busi- the contributing Correll discuss the ness of defi ning and explaining authors provide research regard- life, there always looms the danger fascinating pixels ing the eff ect of that when a human phenomenon of understand- groups and group is placed beneath the microscope ing with which membership lens of examination, it may lead to each reader can construct a clearer upon the experience and exercise the same eff ect as pressing an in- picture of empathy. Not only that, of empathic understanding and sect between glass slides: Its edges as Decety writes, “[T]his new concern, demonstrating how are more clearly perceived, but it volume aff ords us the opportunity group processes aff ect expressions is dead. Th ankfully, Jean Decety to signifi cantly broaden the inter- of empathy. Empathic accuracy is has amply avoided this potential disciplinary score of interest on probed by Lewis and Hodges, who danger in his edited book Empa- empathy from various disciplines” explore the oft-neglected roles of thy: From Bench to Bedside. Th is (p. ix). Th e implicit and explicit imagination and stereotypes in our book, with its strikingly broad goals of this volume are more than formations of others’ experience. variety of perspectives spread adequately met; no one who reads For those readers who have across 17 chapters, represents a it will come away with less than a embraced empathy primarily for priceless poking and prodding clearer view of empathy. its philosophical and therapeutic of empathy, a joyful invitation Zahavi and Overgaard in power, the six chapters examining for it to give up its secrets. Th ese their chapter “Empathy without empathy’s evolutionary and neuro- authors not only delineate empa- Isomorphism: A Phenomenologi- scientifi c dimensions may prove to thy’s edges and contexts, but also cal Account” brilliantly express be the most surprising and en- pursue fascinating questions that the challenges of understanding lightening: How did humanity de- are too rarely posed. In addition, empathy, exploring competing velop empathy, and why? How is each author approaches the subject constructs of empathy, sympathy, empathy represented in and across with an admirable blend of exper- and emotional contagion, and ef- our brain functions? Th ese chap- tise and humility. Th rough works fectively deconstructing the em- ters examine how children natural- such as this, we can better fathom pathic response even as they clarify ly develop empathy, how disparate empathy’s natures, better perceive the centrality of phenomenology regions of the brain develop to act its ripples, better hear its echoes. in understanding empathy’s rich in concert to provide people with As Lewis and Hodges note in their tapestry. In his chapter, Batson a gestalt of empathic understand- chapter, “[R]ather than damaging explores the relationships between ing, and how the neural systems its mystique, we think uncovering empathy and altruism and, like all that undergird the emotion of fear the secrets that lead to empathic the contributions to this volume, contribute to our experiences of understanding simply makes it all not only clarifi es our understand- empathy and altruism. the more amazing” (p. 82). ing of empathy, but also enriches Even the chapters focused
OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2012 ahp PERSPECTIVE 19 REVIEWS our world, as it suff ers from “deg- THE LIFE OF THINGS: radation . . . stockpiles of deterio- upon empathy in clinical work Therapy and the Soul rating nuclear weapons waiting tread new ground. In Halpern’s of the World for terrorists . . . corruption of chapter “Clinical Empathy in By Bernie Neville political life . . . an out-of-control Medical Care,” she eff ectively chal- PCCS Books, 2012, 203 pp., €17, fi nancial system”? lenges common assumptions such ISBN 9781906254469 In his boyhood, Rogers was as that empathy and emotion can impressed with the vitality of cloud the process of diagnosis and Reviewed by David Ryback potatoes sprouting in his basement increase burnout, and supports the “in their bizarre, futile growth, a notion many of us hold, that the ur environment is sick. sort of desperate expression of the presence of empathy in a provider Global climate change is directional tendency,” a model leads to more eff ective medical a polite phrase for the he later used to characterize the care. Gleichgerrcht and Decety, fact that our world is individual’s tendency to self- however, warn that empathy at beginning to fall apart. Th is past actualization. Neville brings to our either extreme can be detrimen- Osummer was dramatically hotter attention Rupert Sheldrake, who tal to both patient and provider, than any we can recall, wherever argued that the cosmos has a simi- and argue for training that allows in the U.S. you happened to be. lar tendency; not the breakdown practitioners to develop a robust We read in newspapers how the of entropy, but rather the buildup yet moderated level of empathy. sea ice is melting faster than sci- of syntropy, “a drive in living Perhaps Figley, in his chapter on entists predicted (more than 40% matter to perfect itself,” according the empathic response in clini- since the 1970s). At the current to Nobel-Prize–winning Albert cal practice, states the case most rate, researchers fear, the Arctic Szent-Györgyi. Th en there’s James clearly: “Practitioners without the Ocean could be Lovelock’s concept empathic response fail to promote completely ice-free of Earth as Gaia, a healing” (p. 263). during the summer living organism. Th ese brief samples of this within just a few Humans are important book’s content cannot decades. So what latecomers to this adequately express the breadth and can we advocates of world, arriving depth of Empathy: From Bench the humanistic ap- about 125,000 to Bedside. After immersion in its proach do about it? years ago, their content, the reader will put down One psycholo- technology begin- this book with a remarkably en- gist has written ning about 40,000 hanced understanding and appre- a book about it. years ago—micro- ciation of empathy, even though Author Bernie seconds in the the authors properly raise as many Neville begins by lifespan of this important questions as they an- introducing us to Earth. What we swer. Indeed, Empathy: From the gods of ancient humans brought to Bench to Bedside fosters the cre- Greece—Hermes, the magical process ation of the “new eyes” that Proust the god of illusion and disguise, of evolution was to take the intri- so eloquently recommended. the facilitator, the manipulator, cate information of life hidden in whom Neville places in the role our genes and manifest it outward, TRACY KNIGHT is a clinical psy- of Rogerian “companionship” as beginning with the use of sym- chologist with 35 years of experience. therapy. “Rogers’ approach,” he bols that became language. Th en Since 2000, after 24 years in full-time writes, “is that the therapist must culture, through art, stories, and practice, he has served on the faculty go all the way into the client’s technology (tools), proceeded to of Western Illinois University, where underworld to be changed by the magnify that vital knowledge from he currently directs the graduate clini- experience.” He then introduces communities to nations to global cal program and the university’s no-fee Eros and Dionysos, who are char- outpatient clinic. He also has authored electronic communication sys- two novels, including Th e Astonished acterized by “an absolute priority tems—radio, TV, and computers. Eye, a humanistic fantasy. Tracy can of feeling over thought.” As all scientists know, most be reached at [email protected] or So how can we use this infor- microbiological species, i.e. germs, (309) 298-1919. mation to work toward healing given a fi nite environment such
20 ahp PERSPECTIVE OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2012 REVIEWS guests, by trusting Prometheus as qua James? we become responsible masters of I suspect he as a petri dish and limited nutri- our fate, by trusting Hermes who might laugh at ents, will grow and expand their “tells us to listen to the voices of the question populations until they consume all the gods—in our heads and in and defer to all the available food, and then, as our gut—and respect them all”? John R. Shook, toxins build up, fairly quickly die Can we disprove James Lovelock’s the editor of off . Is the human species, in this opinion that it is too late to save this volume, fi nite Earth, due such a destiny as Gaia? whose thought- well? In this case, it’s not the lack Th e Life of Th ings is one ful Introduc- of nutrients, but rather the carbon person’s attempt at bringing to tion opens the dioxide “toxins” inherent in global the table what Carl Rogers said book. climate change. decades ago: “We are tapping into I would We have become too smart a tendency which permeates all or- not dare speak for our own good. Our technol- ganic life.” Rogers was a therapist for James, ogy has changed the composition who saw the planet as an essential but the pieces of the air and consequently the client—with its very own soul. chosen here represent in one temperature of the fragile “shell” Dare we share that vision? volume the prodigious breadth of our Earth. As snowcaps melt and depth that James brought DAVID RYBACK, Ph.D., licensed psy- at an accelerated rate, trees, birds, to the intellectual table. Reading chologist, runs his speaking/consulting and insects migrate away from the career under the banner of EQ Associ- and re-reading these essays, one equator; and insurance companies ates International in Atlanta. His latest is struck by a number of themes raise their premiums because of work is a novel, Beethoven in Love, that are, if not essential of James, the increased frequency of natural soon to be published by Tiger Iron Press. essential for those of us laboring disasters; and we gaze around at against a growing tide of medical our less friendly environment in reductionism of the human wide-eyed disbelief. THE ESSENTIAL WILLIAM condition. Th e Earth itself, a host to us JAMES Th e stream of consciousness humans only a brief scintilla of Edited by John R. Shook of grounded theory and its time since the Big Bang, will Prometheus Books, 2011, 422 pp., phenomenological research fi nds survive, with or without humans. $18, ISBN 9781616144395 its roots in this James, not James But, when viewed in its Gaia- Joyce. While others attempted organic mode, our Earth is sick. Reviewed by Dolores Puterbaugh to break thoughts into what we Where does it go to receive aid would now call bytes, James for its toxic human “germs”? Will usic lovers of a cer- focused on the ever-fl owing stream some god, viewing the myriad tain age will recall of thought and consciousness. galaxies almost infi nite in number, the great debate af- When colleagues asserted that even detect this small planet hid- ter the vinyl album God (any god) was dead or den in the Milky Way, much less Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits (Vol. 1) irrelevant, James defended the come to its aid? wasM released with the iconic poster choice to have religious faith and Neville says we can’t wait for by Milton Glaser. True fans fret- neatly tied together theology, such aid, and can take fate into our ted aloud: Did Dylan decide these psychology, and ethics with an own hands. But how? Decades ago, were the greatest hits, or did some extra tweak of teasing toward Jung wrote, mere recording studio executive his detractors that is prescient Th rough scientifi c under- dare to make these choices? Any of Chesterton needling Shaw. standing, our world has become collection of James’ works that His argument about those who dehumanized. Man feels isolated purports to be the essence of James refuse to entertain any notion of from the cosmos. . . . Th under is begs the same question. Would religious faith simply because the no longer the voice of a god, nor James, portrayed on the cover in object of faith cannot be proven is lightning his avenging missile. good-humored twinkling, possi- to exist is diffi cult to refute. James No river contains a spirit. bly caught in the midst of a jovial doesn’t assert that faith is the only Can we save ourselves by trust- poke at his comrades-in-debates, route to a moral life, but he off ers ing Gaia to respond to its human concur that these pieces are James a pragmatic argument of
OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2012 ahp PERSPECTIVE 21 the tarot in the nude. He later recon- REVIEWS as well as being a prolifi c comic strip creator. His fi lms have been structed the original form of the Tar- its usefulness and meaning for highly controversial and relegated by ot de Marseille, which he includes the individual; he doesn’t yield American movie critics to midnight- in his therapeutic work. Jodorowsky to dismissing it entirely as many movie status. Th ese include Fando holds monthly tarot readings at the contemporaries were apt to do. and Lis (1968), El Topo (1970), Th e Librairie Les Cent Ciels. Th is collection makes manifest Holy Mountain (1973), Tusk (1980), In Paris in 1962 Jodorowsky, the importance of James as a Santa Sangre (1989), and Th e Rain- Roland Topor, and Fernando Ar- thinker and patriarch of humanistic bow Th ief (1990). rabal founded the Panic Movement, psychology. From that perspective, Psychomagic refers to a healing a movement honoring the Roman the question of whether this book technique the author developed for god Pan and infl uenced by Luis is essential James might be better treating psychological and somatic Buñuel and Antonin Artaud’s Th e- answered by Rogers, Maslow, or disorders. Th e book presents an atre of Cruelty. Th e movement was Moustakas. James, emphasizing explanation of the evolution of this a response to the absorption of the philosophy as much as medical therapeutic technique and philoso- surrealist movement by mainstream science, was instrumental in phy based on two interviews. society and found expression in diverting the fi eld from the throes Th e book is divided into three shocking, violent, surreal, and fren- of preoccupation with cavemen and parts: Part One—Psychomagic: zied performances or happenings de- classical conditioning. At any rate, Sketches of Panic Th erapy—A signed to release destructive energies it is a wonderful volume and an Portrait of the Artist in Panic Char- and transform them into peaceful excellent introduction into the work acter is from an interview by Gilles and beautiful manifestations. One of William James. Farcet, author of Th e Anti-Wisdom of his “happenings” or “ephemeras” as Jodorowsky called them, where DOLORES PUTERBAUGH, Ph.D., Manual: A Practical Guide to LMHC, LMFT, NCC, is a psychotherapist Spiritual Bankruptcy. Here we fi nd he appears dressed in leather, fea- in private practice in Largo, Florida. She Jodorowsky’s basic premise: “Th e tured “the slaughter of geese, naked is an adjunct theater is a magical force, a personal women covered in honey, a cruci- instructor for and non-transmissible experience.” fi ed chicken, the staged murder of a the graduate Part Two—Lessons for Mutants: A rabbi, a giant vagina, the throwing programs in Synthesis of Experiences is from an of live turtles into the audience, and Counseling & interview by Javier Esteban, a young canned apricots” (A. Jodorowsky, Psychology at student who originally interviewed Th e Spiritual Journey of Alejan- Troy University Jodorowsky about the use of halluci- dro Jodorowsky, Park Street Press, (Alabama) and at St. Petersburg College nogens. Part Th ree—An Accelerated 2008). Jodorowsky dissolved the (Florida), and American Th ought Editor for Panic Movement in 1973. Since USA Today magazine. Course in Creativity exposes the readers to the exercises, techniques, then, Jodorowsky has been lauded and applications of his Psychomagic for his creativity but also scorned PSYCHOMAGIC: The Trans- therapy, which enable us to develop by mainstream society for mocking formative Power of Sha- our creativity and use it to release or “good manners and moral restraint.” manic Psychotherapy liberate us from preconceived roles As a therapy, psychomagic lacks and ideas we have embraced. Th e a scientifi c foundation and recogni- By Alejandro Jodorowsky message here is that the path of the tion. Psychomagic is heavily infl u- Inner Traditions, 2010, 304 pp., spiritual seeker and the path of the enced by Freudian psychoanalysis $24.95, ISBN 9781594773365 artist are one and the same. and Jungian dream work, concepts Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky interlaced with Eastern and Native Reviewed by Ivan Mancinelli- was born in 1929 in Tocopilla, Chile, American shamanic practices, in Franconi to Jaime and Sara Felicidad, Ukraini- particular the work of the late Mexi- an Jewish immigrants. His father was can psychic surgeon–healer Doña multifaceted man, Jodor- a circus performer and later a shop- Pachita, under whom Jodorowsky owsky has been an actor, keeper. Jodorowsky had a troubled worked as an assistant, and theatrical circus clown, puppeteer, childhood and attended university in eff ects. director, producer, com- Chile for two years but dropped out Psychomagic seeks to heal the poser, mime, comic book writer, to form his own theatrical company, psychological wounds that are mani- Atarot reader, initiatic masseur, psy- which he later dissolved to move to fested in blockages preventing us chic surgeon, and psychotherapist. Paris and “save surrealism.” from achieving our life’s destiny. Psy- Jodorowsky is credited with more From childhood Jodorowsky was chomagic’s basic premises include: than 23 novels and philosophical exposed to magic and madness. He • Failure does not exist, for each treatises and several other books, was taken to see a woman who read time we fail we change our course
22 ahp PERSPECTIVE OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2012 cians poison . . . Th ere are numerous REVIEWS turned into collective cases where his “unorthodox” thera- nightmares. Jodor- • To get to who you are, you have pies have been successful, adding to owsky has been often to go through where you are not Jodorowsky’s popularity as a sort of criticized for being • To fi nally be who you are is the extravagant artistic healer, but Psy- an opportunist who greatest joy chomagic is still considered pseudo- found very early in • Th e other side of self-fulfi llment science. Jodorowsky himself says . . . life that it is easier is disease (Jodorowsky believes each Psychomagic does not pretend to be to copy from the disease has a prohibition: You are a science, but an art form that pos- original, change an forbidden to be what you are) sesses therapeutic properties. Jodor- element, and rename • Consciousness of what you are owsky believes that most of today’s it as a personal stroke • Beauty—when you lose your societal problems are due to limiting of genius. Th ere is beauty you become ill beliefs produced in this world. As nothing original in • Th e only language that increases he states: . . . Active imagination is his work—one sees the level of consciousness is the lan- the key to a broad view: allows you Carlos Castaneda guage of art and poetry—all cultures to approach life from angles that and George Gurjieff ’s teachings in share the common belief that words are not ours, imagining other levels his esoteric philosophy, Zen and themselves are actions. of consciousness, superior to ours. Tibetan Buddhism, Native Ameri- Th e Psychomagic theory of heal- Despite his desperate search for the can shamanism, and Franz Anton ing, like Freud’s, proposes that our sense of life, he does not fi nd it in Mesmer’s hypnotic applications in childhood traumas manifest them- mainstream religion, which he sees as the practice of Psychomagic. Bring selves in dysfunctions later in adult- representative of “universal poison” in Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung’s hood. Th ese traumas are passed down and sees it in the future as an “his- personality and dream theories, and from one generation to the next, torical phenomenon, a fossil,” where the placebo eff ect, adapt them to cre- but by examining our Psychogeneal- churches will become dance halls ate a framework or reference point ogy, which includes our personal- (and community centers). for psychological healing, and then ity and ancestry, we can arrive at a According to Jodoroswsky, We add to this formula a hefty dose of diagnosis and be treated by an act of become diseased because we have theatrical performances and you have Psychomagic. Th ese acts are perfor- cut off our ties with the world. Psychomagic—Jodorowsky’s Opus. mances carried out by the patient Disease is a lack of beauty, and Jodorowsky denigrates and ridi- to turn the unconscious problem beauty is the union. Disease is a cules the same practices he appropri- into a real world manifestation, in lack of awareness, and awareness ates for his modality. Additionally, a metaphorical manner. A magical, is union between oneself and the he criticizes them as “poor taste,” symbolic, ritualistic act can change universe. Yet he also attributes the while in his art and philosophical the unconscious understanding and origin of disease to books! I decided theories he displays poor taste. He behavior and thus heal the trauma. to heal, being aware that diseases seems to think he is the only one Th ese healing acts can range from the come from books. Behind each who has anything worthwhile to say mundane, such as breaking dishes, to disease there is a book, whether it and to share with humanity. When the outrageous, such as defecating on is the Qur’an, the Gospels, the Old I see movies with priests, I laugh a a family member’s tomb. For Psycho- Testament, the Buddhist Sutras; all lot: priests are like a real carnival, magic therapy to work, the psychom- books if they are interpreted from rabbis are like a parade of mad- age must be able to correctly evaluate fanaticism, produce diseases. Th ese men, the Tibetan lamas, the Hare the client’s problem. books must be reinterpreted and Krishnas, all of them are dressed up Jodorowsky claimed for a long taken for what they are: works of art. like transvestites. A religion does time that only he, his son Christo- Th is book has many elements of not need a uniform. (Jodorowsky, pher Sol, and his wife Mariana Costa a novel, a guide, a biography, and a 2008) were able to practice Psychomagic self-help book. Some will fi nd the Many people will fi nd meaning and that there was no Psychomagic in the absurd and meaning in their book rather disturbing, confusing, existence by reading some of the school that he had approved. He has contradictory, and ego-centered, theories postulated by Jodorowsky. since changed his position on the and in general it is all of that and But if Psychomagic is to be taken former exclusivity of this skill. more. Jodorowsky has always wanted seriously as a therapeutic modality, Although Jodorowsky has been to push people’s comfort zones by we have quite a long wait. seen as a charlatan, he has no prob- exposing them to shocking behaviors IVAN MANCINELLI-FRANCONI, lem with this: . . . I admire and ap- and bizarre theatrical events in the Ph.D., was also born in Chile and raised preciate the charlatans because they guise of art. But in this reviewer’s and educated in the United States where he heal. A charlatan heals more than opinion they are far from art—more is a humanistic psychotherapist and univer- a physician, because at times physi- like American B-rated horror movies sity professor living in Washington State.
OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2012 ahp PERSPECTIVE 23 A Certificate program offered by NEW STARTING LOWER SOFIA UNIVERSITY, CALIFORNIA JANUARY TUITION! (formerly Institute of Transpersonal Psychology) www.sofia.edu/ 2013!
OPEN TO BOTH EXPRESSIVE ARTS for Healing and Social Change: SOFIA A Person-Centered Approach STUDENTS AND his unique 18 Unit graduate certificate program for 2013/2014 com- NON-SOFIA bines experiential learning, theory and practice in the person-cen- tered philosophy of Carl Rogers and the expressive arts: Movement, STUDENTS < sound, visual arts, creative writing and psychodrama. The program is 6 residen- tial weeks over 2 years, with a commitment to both years. Participants come from around the globe wishing to use the expressive arts in counseling, teaching, mediation, social action and group facilitation, and/or to awaken personal growth and creativity. They attend six residential week-long Course Titles courses over two years at a lovely retreat center in Sonoma, California. Starting ■ January 4-10, 2013. Nourishing the Soul ■ Client-Centered Shellee Davis, MA, REAT was co-director and faculty with Expressive Arts for Natalie Rogers at the Person-Centered Expressive Therapy Counseling Institute for 18 years, and then at Saybrook University for 8 ■ Wisdom of the Body CEU’S years. She also teaches this Certificate (PCEAT) program in ■ Expression Arts for AND Japan, South Korea and courses at the California Institute of Social Change Integral Studies. Adjunct faculty, Sofia University. GRADUATE ■ Expressive Arts: Group Facilitation CREDIT Sue Ann Herron, Ph.D., has a Ph.D. in Psychology with a special emphasis in Person-Centered Expressive Arts Therapy For full course description and AVAILABLE (PCEAT). Dr. Herron was Director and co-facilitator of the dates go to www.nrogers.com PCEAT Certificate Programs at Saybrook University and or www.sofia.edu co-facilitated programs for South Korean therapists with Dr. Rogers and Japanese students with Shellee Davis. She We Will Explore is currently writing a biography of Natalie Rogers’ life. Dr. ■ How the creative process Herron is Faculty of Saybrook University and Sofia University. connects us to body, psyche, soul and world Natalie Rogers, Ph.D., REAT, author of The Creative ■ How the person-centered Connection: Expressive Arts as Healing,(1993), and The Cre- approach enhances ative Connection for Groups (2011) has led PCEAT trainings emotional intelligence, internationally. Dr. Rogers practiced as a psychotherapist healing, relationships and for 30 years and facilitated many workshops with her father, manifesting our potentials Carl Rogers. Natalie will be present one day at each of the 6 ■ The use of expressive arts in courses. Distinguished Consulting faculty, Saybrook University, counseling, teaching and Adjunct faculty, Sofia University. group work.
TUITION Under special arrangements with Sofia University, we can offer our same program and faculty at a significantly reduced tuition. Now instead of paying $12,500 per year tuition, you pay $8,000 per year. Room & board at lovely Westerbeke Ranch stays the same @ $998 per residential week. TO APPLY, contact: Sofia University Director of Admissions, Cheryl Hoke, Phone 650-493-4430, Ext. 237 or email: CHERYL.HOKE @SOFIA.EDU FOR INFORMATION about the content of the program please contact: Shellee Davis: [email protected], or Sue Ann Herron: [email protected]. or Natalie Rogers: [email protected]
24 ahp PERSPECTIVESEE AHP CALENDAR ON PAGE 4 FOR EVENTS/WORKSHOPSOCTOBER / NOVEMBER10/2012 2012