here is nathaniels… with Julie’s comments

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… and here’s Cindy’s… (more…)

Here’s my essay for the comparative psychology class… I’m not terribly happy with it, but it has some interesting aspects, you might want to scroll down towards the end where I start to speculate. Comments welcome.

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The meta-communicator is the most extreme state of all…

This was something Arnold Mindell said in the extreme states class during our school residency. I really like it as a quote, because of course total self-reflection is an impossibility. Meta-communication means agreement about meta-communication with others, rather than any kind of ultimate detached observation. “Detachment” can function in certain clear ways, and it’s a helpful concept in sorting out how to best work with people, but oh the complexities that arise when we start to draw strict boundaries… Arny’s statement makes the whole concept more lighthearted and modest.

I recently wrote my evaluation for our third school residency; the residency focused on addictions and extreme states work. The entire evaluation is just for people involved with the school, but here is the section where I start to ramble about some of my thoughts on the extreme states work in Process Work and how it can be deepened and improved… Half-digested but maybe worth a read (this is after all a blog…)

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I just finished up the residency on extreme states and addictions; here’s a great interview I did last year with clinical psychologist specializing in behavioral pharmacology Richard Degrandpre, author of Ritalin Nation and Cult of Pharmacology:

http://freedom-center.org/madnessradio-2007-06-06-richard-degrandpre-cult-pharmacology 

Hi everyone,

In what hopefully reflects a changing zeitgeist, the sunday New York Times just did a story on “Mad Pride.” The article talks about Freedom Center and The Icarus Project, two organizations that I work with, and you can read it here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/fashion/11madpride.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&ref=fashion

or

http://snipurl.com/nytmadpride

Farther off the radar (or rather sonar), I produce a weekly show on FM community radio, “Madness Radio: Voices and Visions from Outside Mental Health,” also available on the internet. Recently I interviewed Joe Goodbread of Portland Oregon on extreme states, and Bogna Szymkiewicz of Warsaw Poland on trauma.

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