Toward a Socially Responsible Psychology for a Global Era

Love, Reason, and Faith in Human Affairs.- Emerging Possible Early Definition of Social Health.- Social Health As A Process of Unity in Diversity.- Summary and Conclusions.- Toward Cultivating Socially Responsible Global Consciousness.- Developmental Reconstructions of Self-Identity.- Consciousness as a Focal Point of Psychological Study.- Centrality of Moral Character and Choice in Development.- Further Role for Psychology and Psychologists in Promoting the Growth and Transformation of Consciousness.- Part II: Pressing Global Issues.- Toward a Psychology of Nonviolence.- Definitions.- Ontological Assumptions.- Effectiveness vs. Fruitfulness of Nonviolent Civil Resistance.- Psychology and the Military.- A Conceptual Framework.- Future Psychological Directions.- Toward Racial Justice.- The Racial Perceptual Divide.- The Racial Reality of Policing Practices.- The Criminal In-Justice System.- Contemporary Racism.- The Sociopolitical Context.- Moving Toward Equity and Justice.- Recommendations.- Overcoming Discrimination, Persecution, and Violence Against Women.- Oppression.- The Relational Self.- Challenging Silence: The Importance of Counter-Narratives to Gender Ideologies.- Conclusions and Further Recommendations.- Poor People, Poor Planet: The Psychology of How We Harm and Heal Hummanity and Earth.- The Role of Psychological Processes in Economic Justice and Socio-Environmental Sustainability.- The Centrality of Poverty in Economic Growth, Environmental Decline, and Community Suffering.- The Moral, Psychological and Environmental Dilemma of Poverty.- Changing the Structures UnderlyingPoverty and Environmental Harm.- What Psychology Can Do to Deter Our Harmful Ways.- Where There is Psychology is There Hope?.- Processes in the Development of Individual and Collective Consciousness and the Role of Religious and Spiritual Communities.- Socially Responsible Psychology and the Development of Dialectical Thinking.- Social Contexts and Dialectical Praxis.- Socially Responsible Psychology and the Role of Religious and Spiritual Communities.- Spiritual Ethic for Global Governance: Interreligious Efforts.- Toward the Integration of Materialistic and Spiritual Ontologies, Epistemologies, and Praxiologies in the Quest for a Common Foundation.

University, is a life-span developmental and clinical psychologist whose academic and professional work has been devoted to conflict resolution. He has practiced psychotherapy since 1985. He has published two books, Dialectical Thinking and Adult Development (Ablex, 1984), and (with Mascolo) Psychotherapy as a Developmental Process (Routledge, 2010). Michael has also taught on the faculties of Swarthmore College, Cornell University and Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology. Born in New York City, he is married to Angela Brandão, and has two sons, Joshua and Benjamin Basseches. He can be reached at mbasseches@gmail.com.

Julie Oxenberg, Ph.D., MALD, is a clinical psychologist with a master's degree in International Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. She is co-founder of Spiritual Psychology Associates, and serves on the Advisory Board of the Center for Psychotherapy and Spirituality at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology (MSPP). Founding member of the Psychology of Peace Initiative at MSPP, she has served on the New England and National Advisory Boards of the Tikkun Community associated with Tikkun Magazine. Julie is involved in several intercultural dialogue and conflict transformation procedures, including Beyond Words, an Israeli-Palestinian organization working with women in the Middle East, One by One, a Berlin-based organization working with dialogue processes between descendants of Holocaust survivors and descendants of Nazis, and the Public Conversations Project in Boston, MA. She can be reached at Julieoxenberg@gmail.com.

the title of this book.

TOWARD A SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE PSYCHOLOGY FOR A GLOBAL ERA ALSO presents a much-needed integration of many dimensions in the human experience, which is lacking in many contemporary approaches to psychology. Arguing against fragmented models of the individualistic self, the authors in this work seek to illumine the profound extent to which individual health and global well-being are profoundly connected.

The book essentially offers a perspective on psychology that makes sense to a person, such as myself, who is not a psychologist by training. That we live in a global era is now beyond any reasonable denial. This globalization demands an disciplinary, collaborative, and cross-cultural analysis that takes into account a variety of phenomena that have no borders. Pressing global concerns, including intergroup conflict; rapid societal transformation, urbanization, and national development; threats to the natural environment; physical and mental health needs; the status of women; and the struggles of disempowered groups have profound psychological dimensions. Yet, much of contemporary discourse and analysis either completely ignores these psychological dimensions, or approaches them without reference to the complex interplay of culture, economics, history, politics, and religion; in other words, a multidisciplinary and transnational perspective. This book offers a welcome addition to the quest to understand the real psychological complexities of globalization and to explore the roots of socially-responsible behavior in our global era."


William R. Johnson, September 25, 2013