Corporation rather than CommunityThe Demise of the U.S. Therapeutic Community

Warning : Exclusion rather than Inclusion

Competition rather than Collaboration=Community Destruction

Naya Arbiter/Amity Foundation Teaching and Therapeutic Communities

WFTC 2018

The Therapeutic Community

A microcosm that serves as a mirror reflecting the problems of our time as they are manifested in individuals. Within the inclusive sanctuary of community people engage in “ Therapia” – the work of the whole. Teaching and learning from each other in community accelerates learning in the emotional, intellectual, cultural and spiritual realms. COMMUNITY AS METHOD

TC Intention 1958

To engage in research and investigation into the causes of personal alienation including but not limited to criminality, delinquency, addiction……no person shall be excluded based on race, religion, gender.. (included gamblers, alcoholics, those blacklisted during McCarthy, Vets, Mafia, scientists etc. )

Therapeutic Community Attributes

• Creation of social capitol• Revolution of inclusion• Collateral benefits family /community• Created “ conspiracy of goodness”• Addressed attendant societal issues• Teaching and Learning Community• Membership feedback• Many roles to play- role development

Therapeutic Community Attributes

• Conditions for Moral Development• Importance of contribution i.e. being needed• In the Circle no one is secondary• Circles ( groups) as a self actualizing process• New person, new experience, new culture, the

most important• Character/authenticity was prime not titles• Awareness of larger social context

Bowling Alone: the Collapse and Revival of American Community

• Written by Robert D. Putnam, 2001• Meta-Analysis of Social Capital:

– connections among individuals and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise

• Decline in social capital evidenced by:– Political participation– Civic participation– Religious participation– Workplace networks– Mutual trust– Altruism

Social Capital Examples

Bridging Inclusive

Civil Rights Movement

Bonding Exclusive

Country Clubs/Gangs

• Can exist simultaneously , i.e. church that includes all socio-economic backgrounds

Objectification and Misanthropy

• Millions incarcerated/Guantanamo• Pornography Industry• ‘War porn’ – ‘collateral damage’• Violent video games-cell phones• Government debates over what constitutes torture• MST: Military Sexual Abuse• Holocaust and Civil War revisionists• Sex and Human Trafficking• Textbooks in Texas eliminating role models• Hate Crimes/mass shootings• No integration slavery or genocide of first nations

Elie Wiesel Nobel Peace Prize1986

When language fails violence becomes the language…….

Social Capital in TC deterioratesrather than increases

• Moved from marginalization to mainstream TC’s adopted mainstream corporate language and structure at the expense of inclusion and community

• Less and less role development and community participation by “ executives”

• Group Circles introduced “ facilitators” rather than “hosts” increasing structure in Circles aimed at fixing rather than self-actualizing and exploring

Basic Assumptions Reversal

• Money more important than Mission• Contract Compliance became the end goal

rather than the base for creativity• Increasing WE- THEY dichotomy with faculty

and students• More spectator activities and less

participation• Fewer authentic relationships/mono cultural

Basic Assumption Reversal

• Emphasis on structure and less on internalization, form over essence

• Learning Experiences, pull-ups and viable teaching tools weaponized and used for retaliation /standardized not individual

• Significant reductions in community membership particularly amongst leadership

• Comfort of faculty rather than relevance to students

March of the Acronymsclassification objectification

• LTOP, CCWF, RJD, WAR, ARMS, STOP, MCRP, AB109, NCWF,OTP,PC,PD,PHA, PIVOTS,POC, OMCP, ORAS-CST, PAR….(one TC over 200)

• “ I was at CCWF and the LTOPs were angry because they weren’t eligible for the MCRP”

• Executives identifying people by funding source• Students identifying self by funding source• Acronyms promote stigmatization

ACRONYMSBut the real problem is acronyms have almost magical power, making those who use them seem like influential insiders with status and knowledge; all the while promoting one prejudice over another

John Gamble

Kill the Messenger

• Marginalize /reduce number of witnesses to process of whole person education

• Board of Directors and senior executives increasingly anglo, fewer people of color in position, fewer women

• “ The National Search” for succession rather than internal development. Lack of training for corporate executives/remote workers hired on

Being MORE LIKE A BUSINESS

• We must reject the idea—well intentioned but dead wrong that the primary path to greatness in the social sector is to become “more like a business”…. Many widely practiced business norms correlate with mediocrity, not greatness… Why import mediocrity into the social sectors?

Jim Collins/ Author Good to Great

What is our responsibility?

•

Corporate structure exists to serveSocial Progress and Community

OR

Helen Luke

The world is not moved along so much by the battles it has won and lost, rather by the stories that it has loved and believed in……

The importance of re-claiming story

Re-member

• Latin root Recordari– To pass again through the heart

• Opposite of dismember• To bring back together the

separated pieces– As in ‘to remember the heart’

HeartExperience

Thought Belief

Action

Listen and learn from your studentsDon’t call yourself my counselor, or my officer when you take me to enroll me in school…Bad kids have counselors– say you are my

teacher, and then they will think I am special because my teacher came….

–Juanito, 15 years old, 1992

• What mechanisms are you developing for faculty advocacy and community engagement both in the TC community and larger community?

• Do you have reciprocity partnerships with faculty?

• Do you have focus groups with faculty and students?

Teach and participate in community

• Re-institute membership for all faculty and students ( yes even the accounting department)

• Learn from the students• Add more mechanisms for membership feedback• Understand the “why” of forms• Language of dignity and inclusion• Circles and Ceremony Quality Circles, Talking

Circles, Teaching Circles

Head and Heart Communication

HEAD HEADHEADHEAD

Heart HeartHeart

Head to Heart discussion: using all of our human faculties to communicate and share experience within ourselves and with our

fellows.

Heart

Sanctuary: Initial Interview• Only one chance to make a first impression• Reflection

– writing, movies, place to sit• Introduction of faculty/staff first• Information

– Hope, basics of safety• Traditions and norms vs. rules• Interaction

– Questions and conversation• Follow up

– Direction, sponsor, a place to be ‘attached’

Conditions for Moral Developmentfor all community members

• Credible role models• Many roles to play • Sustained responsibility• Teachers who teach one level above• Conflict ( healthy )• Catalytic relationships - authentic

» Kolberg/Gilligan

Address Issues of our Time

• Sustainability• Sex and human traffic• HIV/AIDS• Poverty• Hate Crimes• Mass Incarceration• Marginalized populations: immigrants, first

nations ,gang members

Freedom from theIndustrial Complex

• Prison Industrial Complex• Food Industrial Complex• Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex

Returning to Inclusion

SOCIAL SERVICE+

SOCIAL JUSTICE=

SOCIAL PROGRESS

Sir Laurens Van Der Post reflecting on World War II

Judgment and justice has brought us far but that far is not far enough. …..This alone could be the beginning of real change in life …. Only by example of patiently living out the change in ourselves can we hope to change for the better the societies to which we belong.

It has become axiomatic for me that we can take nobody and no people further than we have taken ourselves.