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http://www.processwork.org/files/Finalprojects/Agostini_C_November_2000.pdf
INTRODUCTION
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO, twin islands that make up one Republic. They are the southern most islands in the Caribbean archipelago. I come from these islands. I have not lived there for thirty-six years but a part of my heart remains there. It is this connection that compels me to attempt to unravel some of the issues of racism that I witnessed and was part of the way I lived from 1941 to 1962 as a white ‘French Creole’. The writing of this dissertation is not only to fulfil a requirement for my training in Process Oriented Psychology, but it is also for my own benefit. The benefit will be the unravelling of mixed-up and uncomfortable feelings and memories of thoughtless, unjust, and sometimes downright inhuman behaviour that was part of my everyday life. I see this as a beginning of a journey in healing parts of myself, and hopefully a contribution to addressing racism in Trinidad. What is Process Oriented Psychology? Process Oriented Psychology (which I will refer to as Process Work from now on) is a cross-disciplinary approach to individual and collective change. Process Work is a theoretical, observational and practical approach to ongoing events around us and within us. It helps us to notice and appreciate that we are co-creators in our lives
and in the communities in which we live. How we react to ourselves and to events around us is vital to its outcome. Process Work was developed by Dr. Arnold Mindell a physicist and Jungian analyst then based in Zurich. In 1969 he realised that body experiences and symptoms
mirror dreams and are mea ningful expression of the unconscious. It is applied in the fields of psychotherapy, conflict resolution with groups, institutions and communities around social issues, in organisational development in businesses, in education, the arts, environment and spirituality. It is also a Research Society with centres and researchers in several parts of the world. I first came in to contact with Process Work through reading Arnold Mindell’s book Dreambody. Six months later I heard about a seminar that was to take place in London where Arnold Mindell and some of his colleagues would be presenting Process Work. It was an exciting few days learning many new approaches to working with dreams and body symptoms, but what really struck me was an
approach to working with the relationship between the individual and the world. “I felt that its emphasis on the political and social context of therapeutic work was crucial to the evolution of therapy and the building of a sustainable world.”
INTRODUCTION
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO, twin islands that make up one Republic. They are the southern most islands in the Caribbean archipelago. I come from these islands. I have not lived there for thirty-six years but a part of my heart remains there. It is this connection that compels me to attempt to unravel some of the issues of racism that I witnessed and was part of the way I lived from 1941 to 1962 as a white ‘French Creole’. The writing of this dissertation is not only to fulfil a requirement for my training in Process Oriented Psychology, but it is also for my own benefit. The benefit will be the unravelling of mixed-up and uncomfortable feelings and memories of thoughtless, unjust, and sometimes downright inhuman behaviour that was part of my everyday life. I see this as a beginning of a journey in healing parts of myself, and hopefully a contribution to addressing racism in Trinidad. What is Process Oriented Psychology? Process Oriented Psychology (which I will refer to as Process Work from now on) is a cross-disciplinary approach to individual and collective change. Process Work is a theoretical, observational and practical approach to ongoing events around us and within us. It helps us to notice and appreciate that we are co-creators in our lives
and in the communities in which we live. How we react to ourselves and to events around us is vital to its outcome. Process Work was developed by Dr. Arnold Mindell a physicist and Jungian analyst then based in Zurich. In 1969 he realised that body experiences and symptoms
mirror dreams and are mea ningful expression of the unconscious. It is applied in the fields of psychotherapy, conflict resolution with groups, institutions and communities around social issues, in organisational development in businesses, in education, the arts, environment and spirituality. It is also a Research Society with centres and researchers in several parts of the world. I first came in to contact with Process Work through reading Arnold Mindell’s book Dreambody. Six months later I heard about a seminar that was to take place in London where Arnold Mindell and some of his colleagues would be presenting Process Work. It was an exciting few days learning many new approaches to working with dreams and body symptoms, but what really struck me was an
approach to working with the relationship between the individual and the world. “I felt that its emphasis on the political and social context of therapeutic work was crucial to the evolution of therapy and the building of a sustainable world.”