RE: [xmca] RE: mental health

Cathrene,

Yes, very important. I'm interested in Vygotsky's theory of art.
I must organize me and study his dissertation carefully...
In Portuguese I find: "a idéia central da psicologia da arte é (...)
o reconhecimento da arte como técnica social do sentimento"
(Vygotsky, 2000, Psicologia da Arte, São Paulo, Martins Fontes)
maybe something like = "the central idea of the psycholgoy of art
is (...) the ackonwlegement of art as social technique of feeling"

But in English the translation is something different:

"The central idea of the psychology of art is (...) the
acknowledgement in art of the social
techniques of emotions".
http://www.marxists.org/archive/vygotsky/works/1925/preface.htm

"social techniques of emotions" IN art...
or
Art AS "social technique of feeling"...

I don´t see the Russian...

I'm realy interested in these "social techiniques"...
But I don't know yet what precisely means "technique",
because Greek "Tekhné" was "art" too... perhaps like
a "know-how" or "savoir-faire", not necessarily like
mechanical or unmediated skills, I supose.

What do you think about this
"central idea of the psychology of art"?

Achilles,
Umuarama, July 12, 2008

> Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2008 22:55:02 -0400
> From: cconnery@ithaca.edu
> Subject: RE: [xmca] RE: mental health
> To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
>
> Hi Achilles, Mike, and others,
> You might be interested in playing around with Vygotsky's theory of art as
> a means of individual and collective catharsis in from his dissertation
> The Psychology of Art. I agree with Mike that the use of multiple
> mediational means can enhance and enrich people's consiousness and health.
> Best,
> Cathrene
>
>
> Achilles asks:
> > Can we really creat semiotical means to produce better mental health to
> > people? Or this kind of a goal is a mistake like possible Vygotsky´s or
> > perhaps some Vygotsky's followers' mistakes about 'social engeneering'?
> >
> > I would say YES to the first question. I'll take a shortcut and paste
> > something in below from a book I've coauthored about The Discourse of
> > Character Education (Erlbaum, 2005, with Joel Taxel). It draws on the
> > dissertation of Leslie Cook, who looked at young women with depressive
> > disorders and the mediational means they use to make sense of their lives.
> > My apologies for the length of the following excerpt.
> >
> >
> > Mental Health and Character Education
> > We have briefly expressed our concern that the issue of mental health is
> > virtually absent from discussions about character education. Yet many
> > students who come to school with a mental health problems are treated as
> > discipline problems of the sort measured as indexes of low character in
> > the proposals we have studied. We believe that it is important for any
> > character education initiative to recognize and account for mental health
> > in its conception of good character, both for those with nonnormative
> > makeups and those with whom they interact.
> > Mental health is the elephant in the character education closet. The
> > World Health Organization (2001) reports that about 7.5 million children
> > in the U. S.—12% of all children under 18—have mental disorders,
> > nearly half of which lead to serious disability. Jamison (1997) found
> > that 20% of high school students had seriously considered committing
> > suicide during the year prior to his study, with most having drawn up a
> > suicide plan; suicide is the #3 cause of death of teenagers between 15
> > and 19 years of age, often following from a depressive disorder. Yet
> > most parents and teachers feel that mental health issues are poorly
> > addressed in schools (Dowling & Pound, 1994; Rappaport & Carolla, 1999),
> > many teachers have little understanding of how to recognize or respond to
> > students with mental health problems (Madison, 1996), and only recently
> > has mental health been identified as a reason to develop an Individual
> > Education Plan (IEP) for students.
> > These widespread misunderstandings have resulted in many such students
> > being regarded as troublesome or lacking character in schools. Yet, as
> > reporter Anne Imse (1999) wrote following the Columbine school shooting
> > tragedy,
> > Even teens as dangerously troubled as Eric Harris stand a good chance of
> > slipping through the cracks in Jefferson County and across Colorado,
> > failing to get badly needed mental health care. There are serious
> > roadblocks to getting treatment for sick kids [including]
> > • State prohibitions against law enforcement agencies telling schools
> > about a problem kid unless there's a conviction;
> > • Schools worrying about being saddled with psychiatric bills if they
> > recommend treatment, or even being sued;
> > • Not enough money earmarked for counselors and counseling for the
> > state's youth.
> > So, even though Jefferson County school officials have become more
> > sensitive to kids' mental states . . . they remain hamstrung about
> > arranging treatment. "We have no place to go with them," said Clark
> > Bencomo, a counselor at Green Mountain High School. "All we can do is
> > suspend or expel." "We are oftentimes reduced to putting a kid in a place
> > where they're safe, but it's not the right program," added Kay Cessna,
> > intervention services director for Jefferson County schools. "There are
> > not enough places." [One parent of a child with disabilities complained],
> > "They don't have the time, the manpower, and they don't get it."
> > (http://denver.rockymountainnews.com/shooting/0516ment2.shtml)
> > Cook (2004) finds this problem occurring in other states as well,
> > reporting that students with mental health problems are often put in
> > special education programs or disciplined when they act out, either as a
> > consequence of their makeup (e.g., a child with Tourette’s syndrome’s
> > involuntary profanity) or in response to the taunting they face from their
> > peers.
> > Yet a mental health professional would surely argue that the problem is
> > not a lack of character and the solution is not to punish students with
> > mental health problems. Rather, a broader understanding of mental health
> > among students and faculty—the sort of attention to climate we found in
> > the states from the Upper Midwest—would contribute to a more
> > sympathetic and less punitive environment for such students in school.
> > Indeed, Damasio (1994) argues in his somatic-marker theory against the
> > classic Cartesian mind/body binary, instead positing that brain and body
> > are integrally related not just to one another but to the environment. A
> > change in the environment, he finds, may contribute to changes in how a
> > person processes new information (cf. Luria, 1979; Pert, 1997); that is,
> > in response to developments in the surroundings, the brain will encode
> > perceptions in new kinds of ways.
> > Conceivably, then, changes in school climate can contribute to the
> > emotional well-being of students whose mental makeup falls outside the
> > normal range. The therapy for such students is still widely debated.
> > While medication and counseling have benefited many with nonnormative
> > makeups in their relationships with others, the medical model has been
> > criticized because it assumes that a normative mental state is best for
> > all. This criticism frequently comes up in debates about whether
> > medications for Attention Deficit Disorder are prescribed too often for
> > any students who have difficulty focusing in school. Some argue that
> > prescribing such medications is designed more to increase the comfort
> > levels of those around such students than to help those students
> > themselves.
> > The jury is still out concerning the question of whether people with such
> > diagnoses are sick and in need of medicine. Cook (2004) argues that
> > relying simply on medication and counseling is inadequate; that a broader
> > environmental change that enables an understanding and tolerance of
> > difference, and gives young people tools for managing their difference, is
> > essential to helping young people construct positive lives for themselves
> > and in turn contribute to a more humane society. Taking a punitive
> > approach to difference, she argues, is regressive and only makes life more
> > fragile for those characterized as different and more emotionally and
> > cognitively unhealthy for those who surround them.
> >
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>
>
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Received on Fri Jul 11 21:19 PDT 2008