LITTLE BOOK OF WISDOM: 52 MEDITATIONS
Psychologies, April/May 2009

Psychologies magazine has published a collection of 52 quotes with commentaries by four South African philosophers: Samantha Vice, Andrea Hurst, Tobie Louw and Helen Douglas. From the editor's note: "For this Little Book of Wisdom, we look to quotes from modern and ancient philosophers to guide you through each week of the year. We believe their wise words will inspire, challenge and help you approach life in a fresh, positive way..."

"STRANGER NEIGHBOURS"
Radical Psychology Vol 7.2 Spring 2009

"This special issue of Radical Psychology is comprised of texts based on presentations given at the Madness, Citizenship & Social Justice: A Human Rights Conference held at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver from June 12-15, 2008. This conference brought together a lively group of over 200 academics, survivors/service users, activists, artists, researchers and mental health professionals. Participants came from as far as New Zealand, Australia, the UK, South Africa and the USA to join Canadian participants in addressing the issues of civil liberties, recovery, ‘sanism’, discrimination and oppression, amongst others. This original conference, organised by Robert Menzies, included an inspired four days of not only paper presentations but also art exhibitions, theatre and film presentations. The conference website can be viewed at http://www.sfu.ca/madcitizenship-conference.

"In "Stranger Neighbours”, Helen Douglas highlights three stories of madness and resistance during the era of South African apartheid. The interplay of the concepts of citizenship, social justice, inclusion\exclusion and identity are considered within these three narratives, along with an analysis of Levinas’ ethics of justice for the Other. This context and analysis forms the backdrop for an important application to the current ‘treatment’ of the ‘mad neighbour’ in society." DOWNLOAD

"LEVINAS IN PRACTICE: FACE TO FACE AND SIDE BY SIDE"
Philosophical Practice: Journal of the American Philosophical Practitioners Association, March 2008, Vol 3.1

Various versions of this paper were presented to the Philosophical Society of Southern Africa (Stellenbosch University, 17-19 January 2007); the American Society for Philosophy, Counseling, and Psychotherapy (Purdue University Calumet, Hammond IN, 18-20 May, 2007); the North American Levinas Society (Purdue University, Lafayette IN, 10-12 June 2007); and at a seminar hosted by the philosophy department of Stellenbosch University, 25 September 2007.

ABSTRACT: Emmanuel Levinas once wrote, "How can a being enter into relation with the other without allowing its very self to be crushed by the other?"

In a Levinasian philosophical counselling practice, the work of the counsellor or therapist is two-fold, both face-to-face in proximity with the other and side-by-side, engaged together with the other in the work of dialogue. These roles, or phases, are interdependent; each in turn gives rise to and interrupts the other. The counsellor or therapist primarily bears responsibility for maintaining the relationship face-to-face, while the guest (patient or client) leads the work side-by-side. DOWNLOAD

JANUS HEAD: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature, Continental Philosophy, Phenomenological Psychology, and the Arts
Volume 8.2 (Winter 2005/6)

Special Issue on Philosophical Practice
Guest Edited by Helen Douglas

The issue features, among other things, an essay by Alphonso Lingis and an interview with film director Alejandro Jodorowsky. http://www.janushead.org

EDITORIAL "It Begins with Desire: Questions of Philosophical Practice"

"Philosophy begins with a vulnerability and a problem. It begins with an itch. It begins with doubt. It begins with longing, with a desire that can be neither denied nor satisfied. There is a restlessness. This state or condition or experience can be thought of as having a question." DOWNLOAD

"THE IDEA OF A POSSIBILITY"
European Journal of Psychotherapy, Counselling and Health, March-June 2005; 7(1-2): 89-95

ABSTRACT: This essay reviews others which apply Levinas' work to the fields of psychotherapy and psychology. Our ways of knowing, interpreting and relating, particularly in their more dogmatic, commodified and professionalised forms, have been challenged and found wanting as ethical practices. A Levinasian perspective offers a radical reconception, where ethics, the fundamental relation of oneself with an Other, calls for responsibility and - therefore and consequently - investigation, knowledge and interpretation. This turn to Levinas of course leads us to rethink our epistemologies and knowledge claims, but we should not be too quick to think we have found the solution to our problems. We may share 'the idea of a possibility', but patience and attention are still called for.

KEYWORDS: Levinas, psychotherapy, philosophical counselling, ethics, critical psychology DOWNLOAD

This is a preprint of an article whose final and definitive form has been published in the European Journal of Psychotherapy © 2005 Copyright Taylor & Francis; European Journal of Psychotherapy

"The Tao of Drunkenness and Sobriety"
Janus Head (2003) 6(2) pp.320-328. DOWNLOAD
"This essay considers the meanings and relatedness of sobriety and drunkenness with reference to Levinas, Taoism, Sufism, the Bible, and the Beatles."

"Philosophy is back in vogue"
Cape Times. 05.06.03

"We owe TRC witnesses our homage"
Cape Times. 31.07.02

"Redeeming the Wages of Sin: The Workings of Reparation"
Perspectives on Evil and Human Wickedness. Vol. 1, No. 3 (2003), 47-58. DOWNLOAD

"Acts of violence and injustice by their nature call for a response. Where neither retribution nor unconditional forgiveness is good enough, a third possibility - of a redemptive justice - which satisfies the desire for both peace and justice - may take place in the work of reparation. This paper considers the conditions and inner logic of four different scenes of reparation (atonement, "good sports", healing/moral witness, and legal), and concludes with a brief application of this framework to the proceedings of the South African TRC."

"Bumpy Ride: Step-by-step guide to turning your literary instincts into published works"
New Therapist. No. 23, January/February 2003

Love and Arms: On Violence and Justification After Levinas
Master's thesis, University of Stellenbosch. Unpublished.

"What does it mean that the violence of aggression could justify the violence of resistance? What does such justification accomplish, and when, and how? What underlies the conditions and limitations of justified violence, as, for example, these have been formulated in western doctrines of "just war"? Most critically, how could one think about the possibility of a resistance to evil that would be effective without itself instituting further violence?"