Conference Theme
All over the world today, there are struggles around the issue of democracy – what it means, how it works, what it’s worth. Bush and Blair want to create democracy everywhere by force if necessary; they also claim that it exists in the USA and the UK. Others argue that representative democracy is a farce, a poor substitute for genuine people power (‘demo-cracy’, rule by the people); and that globalisation creates radical new opportunities for pluralistic self-government.
Psychotherapists, counsellors and other practitioners have some experience of these issues: in particular, through trying to follow and support process in groups, to facilitate every position in expressing itself fully. Can we offer useful ideas and methods to the wider world that might help in the struggles around democracy? At the same time, though, issues of democracy hit home within the world of psychopractice. The government and large professional organisations are seeking to impose regulation, with little consultation of practitioners themselves. Is this democracy? And within the therapy room itself, who decides what is ‘real’ and what is ‘illusion’?
A further interface between the political and psychological is the idea of inner democracy. Is our internal landscape ruled by a totalitarian dictatorship? Or are the different, often contradictory, elements of our plural personalities given space to express themselves? All of these issues, and many others, will be explored in this conference, which will itself be conducted along participatory and self-regulating lines.