Community Psychology Case studies of texts in practice Morten Nissen soejle/Ssoejle04e.htm

Program September 21st Intro Group discussion: Bateson and the AA General discussion Coffee Break A note by Morten. Is this really Community Psychology? Group discussion: AA as community and as text (- as distinct from… General discussion Planning of next session(s)

”Community Psychology” Kurt Lewin: B = f (P; E) Reinventing the wheel? Social psychology Cultural psychology …even socio-cultural psychology Critical psychology …etc. – and, by the way: why psychology? Psy and community medicine

Community – 3 aspects 1. Critical / progressivist movement Empowerment Everyday life Resources, social support 2. Theorizing an entity in / of social life What is a community? How does it work? How is one community distinguished from another? What is the character of ”participation”? 3. Discursive / practical element What are the effects of ”community”? How are ”communities” recruited, aligned?

Community in practice Therapeutic communities Prior, L. (1993) The Social Organization of Mental Illness. London: Sage Outside the walls: The ”three decentralizations” (A. Prahl) Street level: from hard asphalt to benevolent community Intervention and spontaneity Castel, Castel & Lovell (1993) The psychiatric Society

The third sector community ”The community of the third sector, the third space, the third way of governing, is not primarily a geographical space, a social space, a sociological space or a space of services, allthough it may attach itself to any or all such spatializations. It is a moral field binding persons into durable relations. It is a space of emotional relationships through which individual identities are constructed through their bonds to micro-cultures of values and meanings (…) And it is through the political objectification and instrumentalization of this community and its ’culture’ that government is to be re-invented” Rose, N. (1999). Powers of Freedom, p. 172f.

The conscience collectif of the AA ”The total system is a Durkheimian religion in the sense that the relationship between man and his community parallels the relationship between man and God. ”AA is a power greater than us”.” Bateson, G. (1972). Steps to an Ecology of Mind, p. 333