{"id":254,"date":"2013-02-25T13:56:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-25T13:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/discursive\/2013\/02\/25\/guest-post-in-praise-of-creative-maladjustment\/"},"modified":"2015-11-11T14:24:00","modified_gmt":"2015-11-11T14:24:00","slug":"guest-post-in-praise-of-creative-maladjustment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/discursive\/guest-post-in-praise-of-creative-maladjustment\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Post: In Praise of Creative Maladjustment"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are pleased to have our first guest post. In this entry Peter Kinderman<\/a> writes about the \u00a0role of psychologists and makes a plea for social engagement.<\/i>
\n<\/p>\n

On September 1st<\/sup> 1967, the Nobel Prize-winning civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a speech<\/a> entitled \u201cThe Role of the Behavioral Scientist in the Civil Rights Movement\u201d to the American Psychological Association.\u00a0With eloquence and passion, Dr. King championed the civil rights struggle and spoke about how people like you and me could and should support the civil rights movement. \u00a0This speech is particularly relevant today.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some things in our society, some things in our world, to which we \u2026 must always be maladjusted if we are to be people of good will. We must never adjust ourselves to racial discrimination and racial segregation. We must never adjust ourselves to religious bigotry.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must never adjust ourselves to economic conditions that take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few. We must never adjust ourselves to the madness of militarism, and the self-defeating effects of physical violence. \u2026 There comes a time when one must take a stand that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular. But one must take it because it is right\u2026\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If there were a Martin Luther King for 2013, he or she would call on us to speak out, to identify and to condemn those things that should be condemned. We should refuse to tolerate the unacceptable and to act accordingly.\u00a0That modern Martin Luther King would turn to academics and psychologists and call on us to analyze \u2013 using those particular skills and perspectives that we possess \u2013 the psychological and social mechanisms that sustain and maintain those unacceptable current realities, and similarly to use our particular skills in psychological science to research social and psychological mechanisms that could support positive change.<\/p>\n

In 1967, Martin Luther King identified a number of key issues that should be the focus for behavioural scientists; urban riots, the Vietnam war, unemployment and civil disobedience. It\u2019s remarkable how these issues have persisted over two generations and how King’s speech still reasonates. We have seen urban riots on the streets of major UK cities in the very recent past, we have military adventures in Iraq, Afghanistan and Mali, we have mass unemployment and we have civil disobedience \u2013 today in the shape of the \u2018Occupy\u2019 movement. Then there are social and economic inequalities, the credit crisis, with its lethal<\/a> impact on citizens\u2019 well-being, and climate change. I would add humane care for people with disabilities and mental health problems.\u00a0Today, we may have seen significant improvements in the political status of black people in America \u2013 we have a second-term black president in Barak Obama, but Martin Luther King\u2019s words are still relevant.<\/p>\n

Some of us may have offered some gentle words on the use of torture<\/a> in the so-called \u2018war on terror\u2019,\u00a0but many clinical psychologists may well still be silent, even colluding. As a psychologist, an academic and a human being I should speak out (even though it\u2019s painful) when I observe injustice.<\/p>\n

Many of us say and do little about the social circumstances that determine \u2013 more than any biological factors and more than any therapy \u2013 the well-being and mental health of our clients.<\/p>\n

Many of us \u2013 sadly \u2013 collude with the social pressures that blame victims, atomise people from their social contexts, medicalise and diagnose what are essentially social and psychological problems and focus on the benefits we can accrue ourselves or maximize for our western, white, male, middle-class friends.<\/p>\n

I fear that the key social problems Martin Luther King described two generations ago have not been solved, and I fear that psychologists, in particular, have not really risen to his challenge. We should.<\/p>\n

Psychologists uniquely study why people behave as they do. We are uniquely placed to help understand and address some of the most pressing problems facing humankind. Since our science is purportedly the science of human behaviour \u2013 understanding why people behave as they do \u2013 we have a unique and valuable perspective on explaining why people commit crimes, are apathetic bystanders, eat, drink and consume excessively and dangerously, harm their children\u2019s future with their purchasing decisions etc.<\/p>\n

Similarly we have a unique perspective on why people might behave in more pro-social ways; offer leadership, act with optimism, possess resilience, etc \u2013 in essence, the stuff of positive psychology. And we should acknowledge and help others understand the social determinants of human behaviour \u2013 how people\u2019s behaviour is (at least in large part) shaped by social factors.<\/p>\n

In 1937, Albert Camus wrote, \u2018Psychology is action, not thinking about oneself\u201d. And these were not just words. An intellectual and philosopher, Camus also actively resisted the Nazi occupation of France, editing \u201cCombat\u201d, the clandestine newspaper of the Resistance.<\/p>\n

How much better it would be to line up with Camus and King. The point of psychology is to do something useful.<\/p>\n

Acknowledgement: The ideas in this piece were developed in collaboration with third year CCCU clinical psychology trainees during a \u2018Psychology and Society\u2019 workshop on 31st<\/sup>January 2013.<\/i><\/p>\n

A version of this piece has also appeared on the University of Liverpool<\/a> website.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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