Please ignore the prior announcement--it was an early, incomplete version.
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Preliminary Announcement
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UNSCIENTIFIC PSYCHOLOGY: CONVERSATIONS WITH OTHER VOICES
A two day conference on progress and possibilities in creating a cultural=
, relational, and performatory approach to understanding human life
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June 14-15, 1997
Edith Macy Conference Center
Briarcliff Manor, New York
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Sponsored by the Center for Developmental Learning =
of the East Side Institute for Short Term Psychotherapy
=
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With each passing day, psychology's inability to provide solutions to cr=
itical questions history has raised as we approach the twenty first centu=
ry becomes more apparent. Just about everyone--theoreticians, practition=
ers, policy makers, consumers and the general public--is growing more and=
more disillusioned with psychology, as it fails to understand or deal su=
ccessfully with pressing issues, such as the nature of human sociality an=
d anti-socialness, emotional pain, violence, identity, sexuality, prejud=
ice and bigotry, creativity, depression, learning and educational failure=
, memories false and true, to name just a few. =
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From the postmodern vantage point, the current crisis in psychology and =
the related fields of psychotherapy and education is rooted in misguided =
efforts to emulate the natural sciences: Human-social phenomena simply c=
annot be understood with the tools and conceptions that are used to study=
nature. =
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Subjecting psychology to postmodern deconstruction, contemporary psychol=
ogists and philosophers find it to be a complex interweaving of the moder=
n science paradigm with centuries-old philosophical presuppositions. Ps=
ychology's core conceptions--such as development, behavior, the individua=
l, the self, stages and patterns, rationality and irrationality, normalit=
y and abnormality--are themselves rooted in philosophical-scientific assu=
mptions about what it means to understand and to know. The challenge to=
psychology is equally a challenge to the modernist conception of underst=
anding and knowing and its commitment to deeply-rooted methodological-phi=
losophical biases, such as truth, objectivity, causality, duality, and li=
nearity. Understanding human life, some leading postmodern voices argue,=
demands a new epistemology. Others suggest that it means giving up epi=
stemology altogether.
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Creating a new approach to understanding human life--an unscientific psy=
chology--is the activity of making new meaning. It is an emergent conve=
rsation created by and out of diverse voices who speak more poetically, c=
ulturally, and historically than analytically and taxonomically. It is a=
conversation about persons (not minds), about relationships and relation=
ality (not environmental influences on self-contained individuals), about=
human activity (not behavior), about narratives and stories (not Truth)=
, about creating new forms of life (not adapting to forms of alienation).=
What is developing is an approach to understanding human life as emerg=
ent, activistic, relational, and performatory. =
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The invited presenters are leading voices in this conversation. The comb=
ination of rigor and creativity in their scholarship and practice is a pr=
ovocative challenge to orthodox psychology. =
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Erica Burman is Senior Lecturer in developmental and educational psychol=
ogy at the Manchester Metropolitan University in Manchester, England. He=
r recent works are Deconstructing Developmental Psychology and the forthc=
oming Deconstructing Feminist Psychology. She is also editor of Feminist=
s and Psychological Practice and co-editor (with Ian Parker) of Discourse=
Analytic Research. [Not confirmed]
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Kenneth Gergen is the Mustin Professor of Psychology at Swarthmore Colle=
ge in Swarthmore, PA. He is the author of three of the most influential =
postmodern discussions of the social sciences: Toward Transformation in =
Social Knowledge; The Saturated Self: Dilemmas of Identity in Contemporar=
y Life; and Realities and Relationships: Sounding in Social Construction.=
=
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Mary Gergen is Associate Professor of Psychology and Women's Studies at =
Pennsylvania State University. Her scholarship concerns postmodern and f=
eminist theories. She is editor of Feminist Thought and the Structure of=
Knowledge; and co-editor (with Sara Davis) of the forthcoming Conversat=
ions at the Crossroads: Social Constructionism and the Psychology of Gen=
der.
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Lois Holzman was on the faculty of Empire State College, State Universit=
y of New York for seventeen years. She is currently director of the Cent=
er for Developmental Learning and the Barbara Taylor School (a Vygotskian=
laboratory elementary school), both in New York City. She is author of =
Schooling for Development: Some Postmodern Possibilities (forthcoming), a=
nd co-author with Fred Newman of Lev Vygotsky: Revolutionary Scientist an=
d Unscientific Psychology: A Cultural-Performatory Approach to Understand=
ing Human Life.
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John R. Morss is Senior Lecturer at the University of Otago in New Zeala=
nd. A leading critical developmental psychologist, he is the author of T=
he Biologising of Childhood: Developmental Psychology and the Darwinian =
Myth; and Growing Critical: Alternatives to Developmental Psychology. =
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Fred Newman is a practicing psychotherapist, Artistic Director of the Ca=
stillo Theatre, and Director of Clinical Training at the East Side Instit=
ute for Short Term Psychotherapy in New York City where social therapy, t=
he performatory therapeutic approach he founded, is practiced. His rece=
nt books include Let's Develop! and Performance of a Lifetime: A Practic=
al-Philosophical Guide to a Joyous Life and, with Lois Holzman, Lev Vygot=
sky: Revolutionary Scientist and Unscientific Psychology: A Cultural-Perf=
ormatory Approach to Understanding Human Life.
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Ian Parker is Professor of Psychology in the Discourse Unit at Bolton In=
stitute in England. He is author of The Crisis in Modern Social Psycholo=
gy--and How to End It, co-author of Deconstructing Psychopathology, and c=
o-editor of Deconstructing Social Psychology, Psychology and Society: Rad=
ical Theory and Practice, and Discourse Analytic Research.
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John Shotter is Professor of Communication at the University of New Hamp=
shire. His most recent books--Cultural Politics of Everyday Life: Social=
Constructionism, Rhetoric and Knowing of the Third Kind; and Conversati=
onal Realities: Studies in Social Constructionism--explore the dialogic r=
ealities of the lifeworld.
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Date: Saturday and Sunday, June 14-15, 1997
Place: Edith Macy Conference Center, Briarcliff Manor, NY =
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The conference is designed to be informal and in-depth, with ample opport=
unity for participants to explore issues with the presenters. The Edith =
Macy Conference Center is located less than an hour from New York City in=
a beautiful country setting surrounded by hiking trails. There is an ou=
tdoor swimming pool on the premises.
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SATURDAY =
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Breakfast
Morning Session.
Lunch
Afternoon Session. Workshops and/or Dialogues with Individual Presenters=
Dinner
Evening Session. =
Party and Performance
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SUNDAY
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Breakfast
Morning Session. Workshops and/or Dialogues with Individual Presenters
Lunch
Afternoon Session
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Participants. The conference should be of interest to a wide range of pe=
ople, including university faculty, graduate and undergraduate students; =
clinicians, social workers, educators, health and mental health workers. =
=
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Costs. Conference Registration--$100 =
Accommodations and Meals--$200
(double occupancy Saturday night, 3 meals on Saturday, 2 meals on Sunday=
)
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For information and/or to register, contact =
Lois Holzman
East Side Institute
500 Greenwich St.
New York, NY 10013
phone (212) 941-5800
fax (212) 941-8340
email: lholzman who-is-at sescva.esc.edu
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