Witnessing, wonder, and hope.
This article is based on a keynote address I gave in South Africa at the Eighth International Conference of The South African Association of Marital and Family Therapy. The phenomenon of witnessing is explored in a number of contexts, and a distinction is made between witnessing with and without awareness, and from an empowered or a disempowered position. I propose that the African philosophy of ubuntu--the emphasis of which is on the self in community, in contrast to the Western emphasis on the individual--may be a better fit for my view of hope, which, I propose, is not just a feeling but, rather, something people do.
Weingarten
K
K
Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School and Family Institute of Cambridge, MA, USA. kweing@aol.com
D000739:Anecdotes as Topic; D019548:Crime Victims; D003469:Culture; D005190:Family; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D011209:Power, Psychological; D011822:Race Relations; D013019:South Africa; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology*