[psych-hr] More biodata on discussion group members

Greetings again from your friendly moderator! 

The "vote" on what to do with biodata on discussion members has come in: 
3 are in favor of periodically issuing e-mails including batches of bios
as they come in, and 3 ask that we wait until the home page is up to post
the bios there. However (and this is the "clincher" that tips the
scales), it has become apparent that a number of you do NOT have access to
the Internet. 

So, what I have decided to do (in consultation with Anne Anderson) is to
cast my vote in favor of the first group and continue sending the bios to
you in batches. For those of you who have access to Internet and who
prefer to wait to review them once the web site is up, I suggest that you
"skip over" (erase, whatever) this and subsequent e-mails that provide
bios. For the rest of you, I suggest you keep them filed some place
(either electronically or in paper) for future reference. 

Below please find biodata for the following people:

-- Marilyn Safir
-- John Van Eenwyck
-- Anwar Wadi
-- Ahmed Baker
-- Matilde Ruderman

(you should already have biodata for: Anne Anderson, Elizabeth Lira,
Brinton Lykes, Dan Christie, and Joanie Connors) 

MARILYN SAFIR

1. ABOUT MARILYN

Professor Marilyn Safir , Director of Project KIDMA - for the Advancement
of Women, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the
University of Haifa. She was Academic Advisor to KIDMA from its
establishment in 1984 She is Founder and former Director (1983-1993) of
the University of Haifa Women's Studies Program and Advisor on the Status
of Women to the institution's President and Rector. She is also a founder
and First President (1998-2000) of the Israel Association for Feminist and
Gender Studies. During her graduate school years, she became active in the
Civil Rights Movement and a member of The Congress of Racial Equality
(CORE) participating in demonstrations both in Syracuse and Missisipi. She
was also an anti-Viet Nam activist.

In 1968, after completing her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and Research
Methodology at Syracuse University, Professor Safir moved to Israel. A
pioneer of the new Women's Movement which began in Haifa in 1970, she is a
Founder and served three terms as Member of the Executive Board of the
Israel Women's Network, and is active in a range of women's advocacy
organizations. She served as Director of the National Commission on the
Advancement for the Status of Women from 1986 to 1991. Safir Founded and
Chaired the First International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women:
Women's Worlds in Haifa in 1981 and has served on the Organizing Committee
of the six Congresses. Professor Safir's publications include Sexual
Equality: The Israeli Kibbutz Tests the Question (Norwood, 1983), Women's
World (Praeger, 1985) and Calling the Equality Bluff: Women in Israel
(Pergamen, 1991 and the Teachers College Press 1993). 

Prof. Safir is a member of numerous professional organizations and a
Fellow, in the American Psychological Association where A.P.A.'s Committee
on Women and Psychology honored her in 1992 with Distinguished Leadership
Citation. She was one of three awarded at the Centennial Congress of APA,
Washington, D.C. She is also a Fellow in the American Psychological
Society and The American Association for Applied and Preventive
psychology. Among her other honors she was cited in The Lexicon of 1000
Israeli Women, 1885-1985, (1990.) The Dutch Government, on an
Israeli-Netherlands exchange as a Visiting Scientist, invited Safir, to
visit Emancipation projects in April 1987. She received the Elin Wagner
Stipendia, Stockholm, Sweden, for her research on Women in the Kibbutz,
1975.

With Dafna Izraeli, Safir runs an Electronic network: The Israel Feminist
Forum List. In 1998, she was selected as one of The "100 Heroines of The
World" in recognition of her courageous acts and lifetime achievement
furthering the cause of women's right, freedom, health, and equal
opportunities. And for serving as a role model for women and girls around
the world. 

JOHN VAN EENWYCK

My career in human rights began on the playground of my grammar school,
where I started a "group of kids" (gangs were forbidden) called the
"Jetsters." We were Sabre jets, and we flew around the playground looking
for anyone who was beating up on some poor defenseless kid. We would then
beat said offender to a pulp. We were well-grounded in the United States'
tradition of championing human rights. 

I did my Bachelor's degree at Colgate University (political science), went
on to a Masters of Divinity at the Episcopal Theological School (ethics
and psychology), did my PhD at the University of Chicago Divinity School
(religion and psychological studies), and completed the analytic diploma
at the C. G. Jung Institute in Chicago. In 1986 I was among those who
started the Marjorie Kovler Center for the Treatment of Survivors of
Torture. In addition to treating torture survivors in Chicago, I
travelled to Gaza (1991, 93 (twice), 95, 97) to teach, consult with, and
do research at the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme. It was there
that I first encountered what we eventually named the "Gaza Syndrome," 
namely, intrusive thoughts and delusions in people who could not escape
the ongoing trauma of the Israeli occupation. 

In 1994, I was invited to Sri Lanka. I just completed my third trip (97,
98, 99), where I work with the Butterfly Garden in Batticaloa, and with
Survivors Associated (in Vavuniya, Mannar, Hambantota, Kalmunai,
Valaichnai, and Pottuvil). I've also done some brief work in the
Philippines. 

It's lonely out there. I travel alone, sneaking in under the radar of the
host countries, for which reason I do not publish my work (although there
is a brief section on my beliefs about the psychology of oppression in my
book "Archetypes and Strange Attractors: the chaotic world of symbols,"
and I've submitted an article to The Journal of Analytical Psychology on
treating torture survivors with Jungian methods). As a clinical
psychologist, Episcopal priest (non-stipendiary), and Jungian analyst, I
volunteer as a clinical instructor at the University of Washington School
of Medicine, where I'm slowly introducing them to this work. 

With a Sri Lankan man, S. Peter Gerard, I've started a small NGO here in
Olympia, Washington. You can check it out at my (very rudimentary) home
page at

http://faculty.washington.edu/jrv/ittp.htm

I look forward to hearing from my colleagues in the field. I know so
little about what I do that I often feel like little more than a
dog-and-pony show. So, I really need whatever input becomes available on
this list-serve. Thanks to all who are making it possible, and to all
who'll share their ideas on it. You can reach me at the above email
address, or

John R. Van Eenwyck
P. O. Box 1961
Olympia, Washington 98507
USA
tel:360-352-2974

ANWAR WADI

1. ABOUT ANWAR

I have been working at Gaza community mental health Programme (NGO) as
therapist for 8 years. My main activity has been in the field of human
rights and mental health, especially working with traumatized people and
ex-political prisoners. Also I participate in raising awareness about human
rights and mental health such as public meeting, lecturing and community
work. 

I am a Palestinian was born in Gaza, I have got my B.A in psychology and a
high diploma in social studies from Egypt. I work as group therapist with
ex- political prisoners, I have taken courses in the field of mental
health with the help of different countries such as medicine sans
frontiers (Holland) and Denmark and USA (Pennsylvania).

2. WHY ANWAR IS INTERESTED IN THE DISCUSSION GROUP

As a psychologist who has worked in human rights and mental health, I have
motivation to learn from different experiences. 

3. ANWAR's COORDINATES:

Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP)
P.O. Box: 1049 Gaza Palestine.
E-Mail : rana@gcmhp.net / pr@gcmhpnet
.
WebSite: http://www.gcmhp.Net 

AHMED BAKER

1. ABOUT AHMED

I am a professor of Psychology at Birzeit University in the West Bank
(Palestine). I was educated in the US, and my area of interest in the
past decade has been traumatized children and females. My research has
revolved around the variables that weaken or strengthen children's coping
in situations of political and armed conflict. I also conduct research on
the psycho-social variables associated with the abuse of females. 

I am a member of several professional mental health and human rights
organizations, and is quite active in that field. My academic, research
and community duties are many time prohibitive in my quest to do more. 

2. WHY AHMED WANT TO JOIN THIS DISCUSSION GROUP

I wanted to join this discussion group because I want to learn and share
with others our varied but rich experiences. I hope I will not disappoint
my colleagues if I am not able to respond to their wishes fully. 

3. AHMED's COORDINATES

P.O. Box 17227
Jerusalem, Via Israel
(+972 2) 298 2915 - office
(+972 2) 295 5247 - home, evenings, +2GMT
(+972 50) 286 475 - mobile
Fax Number: (+972 2) 281 0656
Email: ABAKER@ADMIN.BIRZEIT.EDU  

MATILDE RUDERMAN

(Translation from Spanish)

I don't have great wisdom but I do have many of years experience working
with the pain and extreme suffering that people have undergone through
state terrorism. 

For 20 years I have been providing psychotherapeutic assistance to adult
survivors of torture, to families of people who have disappeared, to
former political prisoners and people who have experienced other forms of
state violence. I have had many questions along the way, and thanks to
the fruitful interchange with colleagues, especially Elizabeth Lira since
1986 and Maria Angela Canepa since 1991, my horizon has been enriched. 

A theme that might be interesting for this discussion are the effects on
psychotherapists who hear about horror through their therapy. I suggested
this theme for the first time in 1991. I again presented it in a seminar
in Hamburg in 1992 where there was agreement among psychotherapists from
various backgrounds on the need to think about the effects of hearing
about horror on the body and psyche of therapists themselves. And I make
a distinction between terror, as an experience that can be made objective,
and horror as a singular experience. This theme causes, especially those
of us who are psychoanalysts, to ask ourselves fundamental questions about
such theories as the concept of neutrality. 

Another theme that I have questioned since I began working in this area is
that trauma theory does not permit one to fully understand the impact
generated by disappearances. While I know of various formulations that
have been done to explain this, none of them fully help me to understand
this phenomenon. Working with a historian who has developed a theory at
the happenings at Badiou, I could open myself to asking new questions. I
have thought of the impossibility of writing about something that is
outside of the focus of the discussion of a society In other words, there
are no prior frameworks that one can turn to on this topic.