My name is Daryl Taylor and I’m hosting a major open public forum:
‘Environ-Mental Health’ on Saturday 23 February 2019, from 1:00 to 6:30pm
Click here for booking
featuring special guest Nora Bateson
Nora Bateson , based in Sweden and the USA, is an award-winning filmmaker, social justice-oriented systems thinker, writer and educator.
Her work asks the question:
“How we can improve our perception of the complexity we live within, so we may improve our interaction with the world?”
Nora wrote, directed and produced the award-winning documentary,
An Ecology of Mind, a portrait of her father, Gregory Bateson. Her work brings the fields of biology, cognition, art, anthropology, psychology
and
information
technology
together
in
a
study
of
the
patterns
in
ecology
of
living
systems.
Her book, Small Arcs of Larger Circles released by Triarchy Press, UK, 2016, a revolutionary personal approach to the study of systems and complexity is the core text of the Harvard University LILA program 2017-18. Her new book, Warm Data, will be released in 2019 by Triarchy Press.
A big shout out to VMIAC – https://www.vmiac.org.au/ – The Victorian Mental Illness Awareness Council – who have generously provided their spacious event venue for this
independent ‘not-for-profit’ public forum.
The event is ticketed – to book please go to
Trybooking – https://www.trybooking.com/BARTZ
Any proceeds will go to the International Bateson Institute –
http://internationalbatesoninstitute.org/
Nora Bateson’s father, Gregory, the subject of her award-winning film, ‘An Ecology of Mind’ –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnL0ZB1SzZY and
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/bateson
critiqued the biomedical
model of mental illness (genetic determinants and chemical changes) and
proposed a much broader, more integrated socio-ecological epistemology
of mental health.
He developed the notion of the double-bind
and contributed enormously to the growth of family therapy, and
community and ecological systems approaches to communicative and
relational health and our understanding of mental illness.
“Rigor alone is paralytic death, but imagination alone is insanity.”
― Gregory Bateson, Mind
and Nature
“We are most of us governed by epistemologies that we know to be wrong”
― Gregory Bateson, Steps to an Ecology of Mind
Gregory Bateson’s first wife was the anthropologist Margaret Mead, who went on to become president of the
World Federation for Mental Health.
“Never depend upon institutions or government to solve any problem. All social movements
are founded by, guided by, motivated and seen through by the passion of individuals.”
― Margaret Mead
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed,
it is the only thing that ever has.”
― Margaret Mead
Environ-Mental Health will be conducted over four sessions from 1:00 to 6:30pm:
- a ‘scene-setting’ Warm Data and Mental Illness short presentation from Nora Bateson
-
a dialogue on resistance to and transcendence of the status quo
hegemonic model with VMIAC Human Rights Adviser and mental health
advocate and consultant, Indigo Daya -
a dialogue on attachment, love and biological, psychological,
socio-cultural diversity with systems family therapist, educator and
author of ‘Rethinking Love’, Claire Miran-Khan - a dialogue on climate/environmental/relational threats/opportunities – mutual self-help, media ecology open dialogue and peer support with MemeFest founder Oliver Vodeb and Laceweb curator Les Spencer.
Intention: The
purpose of the event is to engage with and explore the full range of
situations, contexts and relationships and determinants and dynamics
that influence mental health and mental illness in the 21st Century.
What to expect: to
participate in a lively, thought provoking exploration of our current
global and local social, cultural, political, economic, ecological and
cosmological challenges and opportunities
and how they impact our individual and collective emotional,
psychological and mental health.
Anticipate: the
offering up of many solutions to currently intractable mental health
system crises, a broadening and deepening of the context and
relationships relevant to mental health and mental illness
and much ‘food for thought’ for the forthcoming Victorian Royal
Commission into Mental Health.
Consumers:
Consumer/survivors of institutional psychiatric services are encouraged
to attend; as are mental health professionals; carers, family and
community members; as well as human rights and social, cultural,
democratic,
ecological and climate justice advocates and activists.
Here’s the ticket booking link again: https://www.trybooking.com/BARTZ
Inclusion: If cost is a barrier for you, please contact Daryl Taylor on
0497 097 047 to discuss how you can secure a place.
Nora Bateson’s social media sites and links are listed below:
Engaging Emergence: https://vimeo.com/258433882
Twitter https://twitter.com/NoraBateson?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
WordPress: https://norabateson.wordpress.com/
Medium: https://medium.com/@norabateson
Linked in: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nora-bateson-b4a2456/detail/recent-activity/posts/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/norabateson
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/norabateson/
Website: https://batesoninstitute.org/
Film: http://www.anecologyofmind.com/
Reviews: http://www.anecologyofmind.com/reviews.html
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/bateson
In 2019 the Victorian Royal Commission into Mental Health will begin deliberations.
‘The royal commission is going to give us the answers we need. It is going to change lives. It is going to save lives.
Only a royal commission will help us build the mental health system our community deserves.’
― Daniel Andrews, Premier of Victoria
“VMIAC
welcomes the Labor Party’s promise of a Royal Commission if re-elected.
We believe that an inquiry into mental health services in our state is
long overdue and urgently needed.
As a peak organisation representing Victorian people with an experience
of mental distress or emotional issues, VMIAC hear hourly from people
who are hurt and distressed by their lack of
access to support, or their treatment within Victoria’s mental health
system. The impact of treatment is often worse than the problem people
presented with.
VMIAC
believes that the terms of reference to this Royal Commission must be
wide ranging and led by the people experiencing these traumas.
We
need the Royal Commission to have the same focus as any royal
commission: the people who’ve been hurt, not the people with the power
to harm.”
― Maggie Toko, VMIAC CEO
https://youtu.be/cC0txyEaRQ0 and:
https://www.vmiac.org.au/royal-commission-into-mental-health/
“Mental
illness remains a serious
health issue in Victoria and throughout the
country, with one in five Australians experiencing a mental health
illness or disorder, and almost half experiencing a mental health
condition at some point in their lives. In addition, the
national suicide rate has spiked to its highest rate in the past
decade, more than 3000
Australians, and more than 600
Victorians, taking their own lives in a year.
In the face of these challenges, however, Victoria also has the lowest
funding per head of population of all the states and territories for mental health – despite significant funding
boosts from the State Government.
This has led to what many refer to as a ‘broken’ mental
health system, which is what Premier Andrews has said he hopes to fix with the results of the royal commission.”
― Amanda Lyons, Journalist,
RACGP
Source:
https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/professional/will-the-promised-victorian-royal-commission-into
“The
dominant model of progress and development reflects one particular
worldview: modernity. Modernisation is a pervasive, complex,
multidimensional
process which characterises our era. Industrialisation, globalisation,
urbanisation, democratisation, scientific and technological advance,
capitalism, secularism, rationalism, individualism and consumerism, all
part of the processes of cultural Westernisation
and material progress (measured as economic growth) …. In contrast,
psycho-social dynamics are all about relationships: between us,
separately and together, and with other things or entities, both
physical and metaphysical. They describe the ways in which social
conditions
affect individual psychology and behaviour and vice versa, and how
perceptions, expectations and values influence the intrinsic meanings of
life events and social situations, and so affect our emotional
responses. These interactions can bring satisfaction,
happiness, contentment and fulfilment – or cause stress, depression,
anxiety, isolation, insecurity and hostility. They frame how we see the
world and our place in it, and so what we do in the world, shaping our
personal lives and, collectively, the societies
in which we live.”
― Richard Eckersley, Is the West Really the Best?
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