In the Public Interest: Contemplating Seymour, Sin, and a Center

Autor/in	Cook, Sarah L.
Titel	In the Public Interest: Contemplating Seymour, Sin, and a Center
Quelle	In: Journal of Community Psychology, 40 (2012) 2, S.223-226 (4 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0090-4392
DOI	10.1002/jcop.20494
Schlagwörter	Stellungnahme; Altruism; Psychology; Social Problems; Social Psychology; Hermeneutics; Review (Reexamination); Reader Response; Social Theories; Community Study + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Altruistic behavior; Altruismus; Psychologie; Social problem; Soziales Problem; Sozialpsychologie; Hermeneutik; Wiederholungsprüfung; Leserbrief; Gesellschaftstheorie
Abstract	In this article, the author will focus on Seymour's article titled, "And What is the Public Interest?" (Sarason, 1986). To the author, the core of the article is as follows: "And what is the public interest? At its phenomenological root it is a picture of a triad: the individual, the society, and the bases on which they give meaning to each other. It's that all familiar three-legged stool problem" (p. 905). Seymour recounts the Baby Doe case as illustrative of " ... what happens when the individual experiences himself or herself apart from any overarching sense of meaning and purpose, apart from the secure sense that he or she is part of ... is largely defined by, a larger collectivity, apart from the sense that the obligation to the self is and should be discharged consistent with the obligation to some overarching purpose" (Sarason, 1986, p. 902). Sin prohibits relationships within the triad Sarason speaks of: The individual cannot connect to society, and thus, cannot connect to God. In Sarason's terms, the individual cannot then connect to meaning or create meaning. People are still searching for the basis on which meaning is given to individual and society. Through compassion, one may begin to understand social problems not as problems that affect just others, but as everybody's problems, as Sarason suggests. Compassion will allow people to lose their selves, their presumptions, and their preconceived notions and allow them to see the interconnections between each other and social problems, so that headway can be made in advancing the public interest. Perhaps be the study of compassion at all levels of analysis is the center for community psychology. (ERIC).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10