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Dan L. Edmunds Ed.D., B.C.S.A.
Dan L. Edmunds Ed.D., B.C.S.A.
Creativity

Society and Distress

We must find recovery and relationship and address oppression.

I have found that rather than addressing social concerns and the things that cause distress, there is instead the direction of feigned caring and profiting off the suffering of others. This is accomplished by disempowering, convincing a person that they are broken and indoctrinating them into an elaborate mythology of hopelessness and perpetual illness. Some are so entrenched into their chaotic situations that they cannot fathom that the distress their children endure may result from the distressing conditions placed around them. It is easier to blame and subdue the child than to address their needs and change the dynamics. To embrace the diversity of experience, to uplift the oppressed and distressed, to neither judge or label, to place persons before profit, to be there for the downtrodden, to unite our souls together. This is my vision. This is what we must do. Some are more adventurous, some more explorative, less boring, willing to use creativity, and not afraid to be different. And some say they are a bit mad or strange, but these are the ones who in their difference will make a difference. To the establishment the idea of ‘recovery’ is reduced to the idea of being a lifelong consumer of psychiatric drugs. There was once a time where no one dare speak to the ‘schizophrenic’. But in my journeying with these persons, I always started with the premise that their experience has meaning, and as we created that safe common healing place of sanctuary, and I learned their language I discovered that I was simply dealing with a fellow human being albeit a very hurt one and I realized that recovery lies in relationship.

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About the Author
Dan L. Edmunds Ed.D., B.C.S.A.

Dan Edmunds, Ed.D., D.D., B.C.S.A., is affiliated with the International Center for Humane Psychiatry and the European-American University.

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