Worldwork themes

World Work on YouTube

See Arny talking introducing worldwork on You Tube. Thanks to Amy for having created the video, and Stanya Studentova, Arlene and Jean Claude Audergon, Anup Karia and all the staff and participants for their contribution to that work. See also the News update.

To learn more about the 2008 worldwork conference in London, please go to www.worldwork.org

BRINGING DEEP DEMOCRACY TO LIFE: An Awareness Paradigm For Deepening Political Dialogue, Personal Relationships, And Community Interactions

This article by Amy Mindell will be published in the October issue of the Psychotherapy and Politics International Journal (link goes to Volume 6, Issue 3). She was inspired to write this article by listening to the US presidential primary debates.

ABSTRACT
Democracy in its traditional form is exercised in part through voting, majority rule, laws protecting minority viewpoints, and the freedom to listen to all voices. However, democracy is rarely something that we consciously manifest in daily life -- whether during political debates, community meetings, personal relationships, or in our internal lives.

In this article I describe a few communication methods that make it possible to bring an even deeper form of democracy to life in our moment-to-moment interactions. This new form of democracy, based on basic awareness principles and methods, can be used by leaders, group and community facilitators, and anyone who wants to become a ”participant-facilitator.” The framework I describe is derived from process-oriented psychology, its group process application, called worldwork, and Arny’s philosophy of deep democracy.

I show that without awareness of our moment-to-moment overt yet subtle, dreamlike signals, democracy is a dream that has not quite happened.

With greater awareness political debate as well as community and personal dialogue can transform into more co-creative and deeply democratic interactions. I also speak about a new kind of leader who can be ordinary and one-sided as well as bring awareness and openness to the various people and levels of any interaction. To make my point, I use examples from large group work, the recent presidential race in the United States, as well as personal interactions.

World Work and the Politics of Dreaming, or Why Dreaming: is Crucial for World Process

Nov 2007, by Amy Mindell.

Download article (PDF format; download Adobe Acrobat Reader here)

World Work and Corporate America

Thanks to the American Group Psychotherapy Association for releasing for public view, the article “From Individual to World Work” published in 2002 in their “Group Circle” magazine. Amy and Arny were consultants to “AGPA”, and then “Conference Opening speakers” at their 58th Annual conference. In this easy-to-read interview, the Mindells speak about the spontaneous group process that took place on 9-11-01 about “911”.

Download AGPA Interview (PDF format; download Adobe Acrobat Reader here)

Holistic World Work Model

See the late Wilma Jean Tucker’s Review in Whole Earth Magazine of Arny’s “Leader as Martial Artist” and her plea for new a more holistic model of the world and understandings of conflict.

Download Wilma Jean Tucker’s Review in Whole Earth Magazine (PDF format; download Adobe Acrobat Reader here)

World Work and International Corporations

One of USB-ED’s new Change Leadership & Management division’s members, Patricia Bastani wrote a profile draft (assisted by Keith R. Schlesinger) a few years back about process work and organisational education at the University of Stellenbosch Business School in near Cape Town, South Africa.
“One of CLM’s (Change and Leadership Management’s) foundational methodologies is “Process Work,” a mode of facilitated conflict resolution and change dynamics developed over the past two decades by Arnold and Amy Mindell. USB-ED and Dr. Mindell’s Process Work Institute in the USA are currently negotiating to establish the Arnold Mindell Process Work Institute in South Africa, as part of the consultancy’s strategy to develop strategic partnerships and associations with institutions worldwide.

A key premise of Process Work is that, “Most organisational and world leaders … have little training in understanding people or helping groups to change”. (All quotes by Mindell are from The Deep Democracy of Open Forums [2002]). Habits, traditions, and even some so-called best practises “unwittingly marginalize ‘irregular’ people, feelings and emotions while supporting the communication style of one culture over others. … [N]onmajority feelings … [are] simply ruled ‘out of order’”. The most capable people often create the most serious obstacles to progress. “[T]yrannical leaders still flourish everywhere, and most go unseen in every corner of even the ‘nicest’ organisations. … Any one of us can unwittingly hurt others simply by being unaware of the powers we have and how we use them. If we are not careful, the very attempt to ‘raise consciousness’ can simply recycle the very abusive behaviour we hope to correct”.

The path to effective organisational change lies in the Deep Democracy of Open Forums. Process Work transcends the limits of procedural governance and bureaucracy. “The Open Forum shows how to stop abuse taking place in a given moment on a person-to-person level”. CLM supports and extends the benefits of Open Forums with a variety of state-of-the-art learning and consulting interventions, including Governance Assessment”.

Community and Hope: Haida Gwaii, Canadian First Nations Worldwork 1999

We decided to post this heartwarming and hopeful community-worldwork report only now because of the world’s difficult times. The worldwork scene reported here was created by the Haida Community, under the direction of Patty Daniels from the Gowgaia Institute at Haida Gwaii, (the Queen Charlotte Islands off the west coast of Canada). The community meeting reported on here took place in 1999. We are so very thankful to all the Haida people for what we learned and experienced there. Their report is the attached Haida pdf.

Download the article... (PDF format; download Adobe Acrobat Reader here)

Mr. President and Citizen Diplomacy

The President (or the political leader) of any country is a real woman or man, and at the same time a role in every culture worldwide. Whether we like her or him or not, much power is associated with, projected upon, or unconsciously transferred to such figures. By realizing they are roles in our thoughts, our conversations and our actions, we can retrieve “their” power, and notice our own capacity to be citizen- diplomats wherever we are.

Amy’s “Mr President” is meant to represent the multidimensionality of such figures. She created her puppet version of this “role” using foam, children’s clothes and other materials. Look, experience, imagine, interact with and re-create your own new diplomacy, the leadership we need.

On Site Training

In answer to questions about training for individual organizations; Yes; Individuals can and do train in worldwork. Now, whole organizations can train in processing their own issues. There are two basic ideas that can be useful to organizations here. The first is that the organization itself is a ghost role; that means that the “spirit”of the organization is a role that needs to be represented and speak for itself. And the second basic idea is that on-site training supports everyone learning inner, relationship and organizational group process methods.

Process oriented politics

Politics, by definition (Wikipedia) “…is a process by which collective decisions are made within groups.” Thus, every time we explore what aspects of ourselves are making decisions, we are doing politics. Politics means becoming aware of inner processes, and the decision making aspects of friendships, groups and worlds. Process work, and all psychologies and deeply democratic procedures are ultimately political. In a way, Process work almost by definition, is a political movement, and sees each individual and group as forwards a certain kinds of “politics.

Cool spots

Hotspots are moments in-group processes where something emotional or touching pops up and requires additional focus. Likewise, “cool spots” occur when things cool down, that is when people become less involved or something is temporarily resolved. Other things are yet to come, but the cool spot itself must be recognized; it can be a moment to change levels and work with other dimensions of groups or communities.

Safety as a psychological and political process

I mention safety in my books from a variety of perspectives because it is a complex issue and not just a program that can be instituted and insisted upon as it is around the world.

Safety is an experience that interests everyone. We are all living human beings, and sensitive to life and death. Vulnerability makes us all interested in safety, fear for our well being and the well being of others. We know from Worldwork experience that safety is a perception that depends upon the person's individuality, age, health, gender, sexual orientation, culture, dreams, nationality, and so forth. For example, if something is marginalized or rejected by your conscious mind, you are constantly afraid and "in danger" of a reaction from that "something" within yourself, often projected onto the outside world.

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WorldWork and Jungian Psychology : the patient who is too big for private practice

We are thankful to Ursula Hohler who gave an exciting class integrating worldwork into Jung’s Psychology – here is an abstract of her classes given at the C.G. Jung-Institut in Zürich, February 2004.

Link to the abstract ...

Kinship with animals

Kinship with animals - Unlearning Species-ism," by Lee Spark Jones (Adapted from a social awareness presentation at the Worldwork seminar: Alternatives to War: Modeling the World We Dream Of, Newport, Oregon, March 2-9th, 2004).

Download the article...

Discovering the world in the individual: the world channel in psychotherapy

Many therapists today are raising questions about psychotherapy’s contribution to politics, its responsibility, view, and influence on the world. This article addresses one aspect by elucidating the reciprocal relationship between the world and the individual as this relationship appears in individual therapy. It offers a process-oriented theory in which the individual’s relationship to the world appears in what is called the “world channel.”

Download the full article ... (79kb .rtf file)

Discourse and process theories: Seyla Benhabib and Arnold Mindell

By Professor J.J. Hendricks,
California State University,
Stanislaus Department of Politics and Public Administration

Introduction

This paper examines the points of agreement and difference between two theorists who address similar themes in very different milieus, coming from different perspectives and disciplines. One of the theorists, Arnold Mindell would call this a bootstrap paper discussing two bootstrap theories. Seyla Benhabib's stated philosophical project is "to situate reason and the moral self in contexts of gender and community , while insisting of the discursive power of individuals to challenge such situatedness in the name of future identities and communities, and universalistic principles."

1 A critical theorist, Benhabib extends Habermas' discourse theory by reconstituting it phenomenologically though insights gleaned from Hannah Arendt and Carol Gilligan. She intends to capture a pragmatic, yet utopian vision of reflexivity and radical egalitarianism through the moral conversation, and further, she extends the options for the marginalized in challenging their situatedness as mentioned above. She situates discourse theory, "between liberalism and communitarianism, Kantian universalism and Hegelian Sittlihkeit."

2 Arnold Mindell's is a theory of emergence.

3 His stated psychological goal is "to develop skills and methods for working with the emerging world situation: a planet with five thousand different languages and religions whose inhabitants know more about launching spaceships than about getting
along with each other. This form of process psychology is world work - an interdisciplinary method that helps small and large groups of people to live, work and grow together within their environment. The challenge is to develop organizational and conflict resolution so that they reflect democratic principles and are widely applicable.

4 Mindell draws on modern psychology - "the Jungian method of following the unconscious, the Gestalt focus on process, Carl Rogers unconditional support for the individual, the transpersonal focus on the divine, and the systems principles from economics, politics and physics."

5 His primary influences are Jung, physics and the Tao. He too, is interested in extending options for expression of voices left out of the discussion.