The Space of Representation in the Non Violent Revolution Psychology of New Humanism Silvia Swinden

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The Space of Representation in the Non Violent
RevolutionPsychology of New HumanismSilvia
Swinden
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Presentation based on a chapter of my book From
Monkey Sapiens to Homo Intentional, The
Phenomenology of the Non Violent Revolution

• London
• Oct-06

Introduction
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• The development of the concept of Space of
  Representation is one of the most original and
  revolutionary contributions that Silo has made in
  the field of Psychology
• It can help us understand the fallacy of trying
  to produce social changes without producing deep
  changes in ourselves (and vice versa)
• E.g. Both the French as the Bolshevik
  Revolutions tried to alter the social order but
  the scheme of power already imprinted in people
  reproduced itself in the new order. Some went as
  far as to declare such order natural (Adam
  Smith and others)
• In our days many still speak of a supposed Human
  Nature, fixed and unchangeable (aggression,
  greed, selfishness, hierarchies), denying that
  the only natural thing in the Human being is the
  capacity to choose and to change

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Description of the space of representation

• With eyes closed
• We perceive a three-dimensional space,
• we can represent our hand moving in all
  directions
• we can represent images that originate in anyone
  of the external or internal senses.

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• When we open our eyes, it looks as if this space
  disappears and that we see the real world
• but it is still possible to imagine that there is
  something behind a door, so real that it can
  produce fear

We can also see in others intentions, moods,
etc. that are just in our imagination and
although in theory this space ends where our body
ends, we can represent in it the whole universe

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The S of R is not an empty container

• Rather it is the representation of the space
  associated to the contents of our consciousness
• In our habitual state of wakefulness we perceive
  mainly the space that surrounds us
• This gives the form to the S of R
• For that reason we register different sensations
  when we are sitting inside an igloo or in a
  cathedral

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Neither is it a passive container

• It is the ambit where the consciousness carries
  out many of its operations, all those related to
  images
• Husserl (phenomenological school), had already
  stated that our consciousness, always
  consciousness of something, is not a simple
  container of psychic facts, neither is it a
  mirror that passively reflects, or deforms, the
  external reality our consciousness is
  intentional, active, and it possesses its own way
  of structuring sensations and of building
  realities (Intentionality)
• Silo Human Beings are historical beings whose
  form of social action changes their own nature
  Intentionality is seen in this way as the means
  to go from determinism towards freedom

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The Space of Representations contents

• 1. Translation of impulses from the inner-body
• Stomach acidity can appear represented in a dream
  as fire,
• and when we feel thirsty the image of a bottle of
  water appears

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• 2. Our psychological world and the times of the
  consciousness
• Memories from the past, present sensations
• and images of the future, aspirations, fears,
  values, etc.

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• 3. The physical world
• The space of representation appears illuminated
  at the top and darker at the bottom.
• When navigating in it we find images of the high,
  medium and low spaces that are translations of
  sensations,
• allegorised and positioned according to data from
  memory, that correspond to our experiences of the
  real physical world

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• 4. The social world
• The class system
• social values,
• our heroes and villains,
• the power structures, etc.

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• 5. The spiritual world
• God(s), angels, guides, the Light, above.
• Malicious spirits, devils, hell, below.

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Ancient China

• Here is a map related to the circulation of
  energy used in the Tao and Qigong
• They called it internal landscape

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The inner look in the social world

Humanise the Earth, Silo

• because all representations of the heights
  extend from eye level upward, above the normal
  line of sight.
• And the higher-ups are those who possess
  kindness, wisdom, and strength.
• There, in the heights above, we also find the
  hierarchies, the powers that be, and the flags of
  State.
• And we, ordinary mortals, must at all costs
  ascend the social ladder in order to draw
  closer to power.

• What a sorry state we are in, still governed by
  these mechanisms, which coincide with our
  internal representation
• in which our heads are in the heights and our
  feet stuck on the ground.
• What an unhappy state we are in, when we believe
  in these things, and believe in them because they
  have their own reality in our internal
  representation.
• What a sorry state we are in, when our external
  look is nothing but an un-acknowledged projection
  of the internal.

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The inhabitants of one area lend each other
attributes

• This very British game of Snakes and Ladders
  reminds us of the biblical allegory of Mans
  fall due to the snake

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Images in the S of R

• Substratum of the representation, which may come
  from anyone of the external or internal senses
• Sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell
• Coenaesthesia, kinaesthesia, etc
• Images connect the internal and external spaces
  (Perception/Representation) and transfer energy
  charges. Without images there is no action ()
• They produce tensions, relaxations and
  adjustments, both related to changes in the
  images (conversion of images), and to changes in
  their position in the space of representation
  (e.g myths and fairy tales Beauty the Beast,
  the Frog/Prince and Cinderella)
• (See Psychology of the image, Contributions to
  Thought, by Silo)

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() Without images there is no action

• Something similar happens with the social world
  
• Violence, dehumanisation, injustice, non-meaning
  
• Image of a better world (Ideals, Utopias, Dreams)
  
• The impulse of wanting to escape suffering is not
  enough, we need an image of something better to
  go towards.
• On the other hand Pragmatism goes with what is
  already given
• Working for change
• (a little slower and more and complicated than
  the thing with the sandwich)
• A Humanised world

• Hunger there is no movement
• Image sandwich in the fridge
• The body, moved by the image, goes toward the
  sandwich
• Resolved need

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Mobility of images in the S of R. E.g. Cyrano
of Bergerac

• He wrote science fiction in the XVII century
• In his trip to the moon he finds that its
  inhabitants measure their intelligence by the
  length of their noses
• They also point them to the sun and look at the
  time on their teeth
• Cyrano improves de value of his (ugly) nose by
  placing it in the high plane of his S of R and
  connecting it to the sun and intelligence

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and the conversion of images

• The students of magic are made to face the
  Boggart, a being capable of embodying their
  worst fears
• They are taught to transform those images by
  ridiculing them
• For example, a huge spider gets rolling skates
  added to all its legs so it becomes completely
  destabilised
• A threatening looking male teacher is dressed as
  a woman
• See Conversion of images, Relaxation Course,
  Self liberation, by Luis Amann

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The S of R and language

• To get to the top
• Movie stars
• The upper Class
• The gurus of the free market economy
• The rock idols
• Elevated aspirations
• The decadence
• The fallen woman
• Those base instincts
• The depths of depression
• The lowers Class
• The bottom of the mind

• All human activity
• religion and morality,
• ones career, psychology,
• politics, the social classes,
• the economy, trade unions,
• art, education, etc.
• have their correlate in the Space of
  Representation
• Change is not possible without an internal,
  intentional, change of the images that move us

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Money as the central value in the Free Market
Economy

• I know that the money can't buy me happiness but
  I like the way it manages to imitate it
• (Manolito, character of Mafalda, by Quino)
• I only ask for the opportunity to prove that
  money cannot make me happy
• (Spike Milligan, British comedian)
• According to the Neoliberal dogma wealth
  accumulates at the top concentration in the
  hands of the more capable (social Darwinism,
  zoological vision of the Human Being) and from
  there it should trickle down for everybody
  elses benefit

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In Reality

• Wealth remains at the top through speculation,
  concentration, vulture funds (), investment in
  objects that confer status and access to famous
  or important people's company
• For those waiting in vain for the trickle down
  wealth must appear as the first element capable
  of defying gravity! -)
• Vultures Funds from developed countries buy
  the debts that poor countries cannot repay, e.g.,
  to the IMF, and sue them in courts in the USA,
  the United Kingdom and France (with specialised
  lawyers that earn millions), the payments come
  out of loans for development

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Geographically up and down also correspond
approximately to the situation of the countries
of the G8 and the poor countries of the southern
hemisphere

• Mafalda turns the World upside down
• So that Argentina, in the southern hemisphere,
  does not appear down
• Which she identifies with being underdeveloped
  
• This is an interesting exercise of Mobility of
  Images for change in social and political schemes

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Religions and the S of R

• Cult of Mother Earth and Nature

• Patriarchal and Hierarchical Religions, Middle
  Ages view

God
King
Priests
Flatter hierarchies and a more friendly attitude
towards sex and the body
Man
Woman
Sex Devil
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Images and Levels of Consciousness

• Sleep
• Maximum suggestibility
• Impulses are translated to protect the level
• Eg tingling in an arm due to bad position is
  translated as an image of insects that make us
  change the position of the arm without waking up
  
• Semi-sleep
• High sugestibilidad
• Compensatory dreams
• Those without a home fantasise about palaces, and
  the hungry dream of banquets
• Ideal level for sexual activity

• Wakefulness
• Level for work or study
• Low suggestibility
• Attention to the object
• Consciousness of self
• Maximum attention and intentional level
• Attention both to the object
• and to the mechanisms of consciousness in action
  
• I realise I am observing this or that object and
  that I react in this or that way, which allows me
  to carry out intentional changes in the way I
  look

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• Advertising tries to bring us into semi-sleep
  with sexual images or what will make the
  announcement more sexy (power, pleasure,
  freedom, wealth, youth, even spiritual objects of
  consumption!) to increase its sugestibilidad
• This is now also the case for politics since
  parties hire for their campaigns advertising
  agencies and spin doctors that build an image
  of what we should believe to be reality (like in
  the film The Matrix)
• To differentiate Information from Propaganda we
  should elevate our level of consciousness

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Reality and Belief

• The brain reacts more to what it believes to be
  reality
• than to the stimuli presented to the senses.
• If, for instance, a black and white image is
  presented to the eyes
• and the subject is hypnotised, so that he/she
  believes that it is an image in colour,
• the part of the brain that is "illuminated (the
  area that perceives the sensation) in a very
  sensitive scan
• is the one related to the perception of colour

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Placebos

• The placebo effect can be very powerful, it can
  even produce side effects
• It has to do with the cultural meaning of the
  treatment (Beliefs the more information, the
  smaller the effect!).
• Four placebo pills are more effective than two to
  eradicate gastric ulcers
• The injection of a saline solution is more
  effective in treating pain than sugar pills, due
  to being a more dramatic intervention.
• The most powerful placebos are
• the tiniest pill (which suggests a very potent
  drug)
• or the biggest (suggests a large quantity of
  drug)
• The colour of the pill also changes the power of
  the placebo and the type of action, according to
  the illness

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Self Image (Believes about oneself)

• A lack of self-esteem appears consistently in
  psychological studies among the roots of violent
  behaviour
• Jane Elliot, a teacher in USA, demonstrated with
  her experiment Blue eyes and brown eyes that
  discrimination leads to a low self-esteem and
  that this affects the students' capacity and
  performance
• She destroyed in this way the racist myth of
  differences in IQ among different ethnic groups
  (she was inspired by ML King)
• And confirmed that encouragement is better than
  criticism both at schools and at home

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The belief that the oppressor's destruction
produces social change (resentment and vengeance)

• E.g. The Spanish Civil War song When will the
  day come that the omelette turns upside down,
  that poor people eat bread and the rich eat shit
  
• E.g. The French revolution (again)

generates more violence, dehumanisation
(civilians deaths referred to as collateral
damage) and the powerful becoming stronger
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The RenaissanceA revolution (almost) without
violence

• Changes in the Human Being's position in relation
  to God, Nature, the Universe, political and
  religious power, science and knowledge, etc,
• Together with changes in the relative position of
  the sun, the earth and the planets, even for
  some, the shape of the planet
• allowed a deeper renovation than anyone achieved
  through acts of violence
• The Renaissance created a "human" look, by means
  of the arts (Leonardo, Michelangelo) a new
  religiosity (Erasmus, Bruno), the study of the
  humanities (Petrarca) and sciences (Bacon,
  Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler) emerging from the
  human being's medieval concept of being-for-God.
  (Pico de la Mirandola)

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The space of representation in the non-violent
revolution

• A change in the relative location in our minds,
  in education, in TV and at home, to make the
  Human being, and not money, or power, the central
  value

Nothing above the Human being, and no Human
being above (or bellow) another. Silo
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The Other

• In Charity and NGOs work the donor is often
  positioned above the recipient
• The image of those in need can be dehumanising
  (e.g., extreme poverty, malnutrition, AIDS), and
  this also puts them in a different positioning in
  the S of R
• Recognising the Intentionality of the Other puts
  us in the same plane, in a relationship of
  co-operation and reciprocity

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The Psychology of New Humanism

• Contributes to the non-violent revolution by
  making us more aware of the register of other
  people's pain created in us by the image in our S
  of R of what is happening to them, which is
  acting on our own body
• The Human being of the future will rebel against
  violence not just as an idea but rather they
  will feel physical revulsion in front of it
• Exactly the opposite of violence as entertainment
  (dehumanisation), from the Roman Circus to the
  video game

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Reconciliation

• It doesn't require that anybody puts him/herself
  above or below another (as when we ask for
  forgiveness ()
• It contemplates the enemy as a being with hopes
  and frustrations, just like us
• It opens the future toward non-violent conflict
  resolution and toward a society for all, without
  resentment or justification of violence for the
  sake of revenge
• We have the tools effect this reconciliation by
  means of the work with images in the S of R, with
  education for Non-violence and promoting social
  justice

Reconciliation as a profound spiritual
experience, Silo, Punta de Vacas 5/5/07
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The Human being was left in a peripheral
position, minuscule in the cosmos and observed as
any other research object
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The Post-Postmodern Re-Renaissance

• What is new at this time (as new images of the
  world led to the Renaissance) that allows us to
  believe that this is the moment of the Non
  Violent Revolution, when Human Beings leave their
  violent Pre-history and enter their fully human
  History?
• The way we understand the physical world is
  changing again, and with it, our look
• New paradigms of Time and Space, Matter and
  Energy
• Relativity and Quantum Mechanics
• the structural interconnection of everything
• A new view of non lineal processes
• Chaos Theory (the end of the determinism)

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• 4. The Anthropic Principle
• This Universe is so unbelievably improbable that
  
• If it were any other way and
• if it didn't have an intention toward the
  development of consciousness,
• we would not be here to observe it
• 5. The Observer as part of the Observation
• Cezanne
• The quantum investigations
• We centre ourselves again on the Human Being

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• 6. The Women's Paradox
• The fight for equality to earn the right to
  contribute whats different
• From a male vision to a male/female one (similar
  to binocular vision, that allows to have depth)
• 7. The New Spirituality
• Open to believers and non believers, based on
  experience
• 8. Technology Internet, air travel, TV,
  telecommunications
• 9. Planetarisation different from Globalization
• convergence of diversity First planetary
  civilization
• Threats to the whole The environment and nuclear
  weapons
• 10. An Evolutionary Psychology of Non Violence
• Homo Intentional

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In Sum

• The Non-Violent Revolution, first proposed by
  Gandhi, includes social and personal changes.
  Non violence is at the same time objective and
  methodology, therefore it is of great coherence
• The necessary psycho-social work to change our
  images is not just for the specialists, we all
  have the capacity to observe ourselves and to
  make intentional changes.
• There is no before or after in social change
  in relation to the existential/spiritual one but
  rather they are both part of the same process of
  structural transformation (Like in a Moebius
  strip)