Fred Newman (philosopher): Difference between revisions

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	'''Fred Newman''' is a controversial philosopher, psychotherapist, playwright and political activist. He received his Ph.D. in analytic philosophy and foundations of mathematics from ] in ]. For over 30 years he has had a private psychotherapy practice in ], although lacking conventional credentials and licensing in the field. Along with developmental psychologist ], who has written a number of books with and about Newman, he is the creator of ], a type of group therapy involving theatre, improvisation, and political ], which he advocates as helping clients learn how to develop beyond their self- and societally-imposed limitations and live more creative and growthful lives.] Critics argue that Social Therapy merges political activism, therapy, and personal relationships in ways that cross standard ethical boundaries.<ref>Chip Berlet, 1987, ''Clouds Blur the Rainbow: The Other Side of the New Alliance Party'' (Cambridge, MA: Political Research Associates) </ref>		'''Fred Newman''' is a controversial philosopher, psychotherapist, playwright and political activist. He received his Ph.D. in analytic philosophy and foundations of mathematics from ] in ]. For over 30 years he has had a private psychotherapy practice in ], although lacking conventional credentials and licensing in the field. Along with developmental psychologist ], who has written a number of books with and about Newman, he is the creator of ], a type of group therapy involving theatre, improvisation, and political ], which he advocates as helping clients learn how to develop beyond their self- and societally-imposed limitations and live more creative and growthful lives.]
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	==Early years: Marxist psychology and politics==		==Early years: Marxist psychology and politics==

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	Newman taught at several colleges and universities in the 1960s around the country and was fired from a number of them, which he attributed to his policy of giving all students an "A" grade to avoid their chances of flunking out and possibly be drafted during the ]. He has been influenced over the years by ], ], and ]n ] ], who wrote on the ] (ZPD). Vygotsky describes the ZPD as the zone in which learning and development take place, i.e., the range between a child's abilities without assistance, and the child's abilities with assistance. Newman worked with his colleague ], a Vygotsky scholar and developmental psychologist, to to incorporate this idea into ] as a way of understanding the mechanism of emotional growth and development in a group context. In ] Newman and Holzman co-authored ''Lev Vygotsky: Revolutionary Scientist''.		Newman taught at several colleges and universities in the 1960s around the country and was fired from a number of them, which he attributed to his policy of giving all students an "A" grade to avoid their chances of flunking out and possibly be drafted during the ]. He has been influenced over the years by ], ], and ]n ] ], who wrote on the ] (ZPD). Vygotsky describes the ZPD as the zone in which learning and development take place, i.e., the range between a child's abilities without assistance, and the child's abilities with assistance. Newman worked with his colleague ], a Vygotsky scholar and developmental psychologist, to to incorporate this idea into ] as a way of understanding the mechanism of emotional growth and development in a group context. In ] Newman and Holzman co-authored ''Lev Vygotsky: Revolutionary Scientist''.

	Although Newman and Holzman describe their theory and practice of social therapy as Vygotskian influenced, Vygotsky himself was a harsh critic of the psychological and therapeutic approaches of his day, including psychoanalysis, which he described as limiting mental life "to primitive, primordial, essentially prehistorical, prehuman roots, leaving no room for history."] Vygotsky devoted the bulk of his efforts to experimental work in the underdeveloped far reaches of the Soviet Union, doing extensive experimental work in literacy and learning development among young children. His work was suppressed under Stalin, and wasn't widely disseminated until the early 1960s. His research and theoretical work on early childhood development and language formation has been embraced by mainstream psychologists and educators at Harvard and other leading universities independently of the work of Newman and Holzman, and a growing "Vygotskian" movement has taken foot internationally.] This trend has included the establishment of experimental schools employing Vygotsky's approach; Holzman has written that she, Newman and their supporters introduced this approach at the former Barbara Taylor School.] Holzman and Newman's publication of their work has had an influence especially on the way in which some ] view Vygotsky's theories and research. In the mid-2000s, Holzman and Newman began to also emphasize ], an approach founded by Soviet era psychologists ] and ] which was based on Vygotsky's work but took it in very original directions.		Although Newman and Holzman describe their theory and practice of social therapy as Vygotskian influenced, Vygotsky himself was a harsh critic of the psychological and therapeutic approaches of his day, including psychoanalysis, which he described as limiting mental life "to primitive, primordial, essentially prehistorical, prehuman roots, leaving no room for history."] Vygotsky devoted the bulk of his efforts to experimental work in the underdeveloped far reaches of the Soviet Union, doing extensive experimental work in literacy and learning development among young children. His work was suppressed under Stalin, and wasn't widely disseminated until the early 1960s. His research and theoretical work on early childhood development and language formation has been embraced by mainstream psychologists and educators at Harvard and other leading universities independently of the work of Newman and Holzman, and a growing "Vygotskian" movement has taken foot internationally.] This trend has included the establishment of experimental schools employing Vygotsky's approach; Holzman has written that she, Newman and their supporters introduced this approach at the former Barbara Taylor School.] Holzman and Newman's publication of their work has had an influence especially on the way in which some ] view Vygotsky's theories and research. In the mid-2000s, Holzman and Newman began to also emphasize ], an approach founded by Soviet era psychologists ] and ] which was based on Vygotsky's work but took it in very original directions. Some critics have argued that Social Therapy merges political activism, therapy, and personal relationships in ways that cross standard ethical boundaries.{{fact}}


	==Social and political activism==		==Social and political activism==

Revision as of 23:19, 28 September 2006

For other uses see Fred Newman (disambiguation)

Fred Newman is a controversial philosopher, psychotherapist, playwright and political activist. He received his Ph.D. in analytic philosophy and foundations of mathematics from Stanford University in 1962. For over 30 years he has had a private psychotherapy practice in New York City, although lacking conventional credentials and licensing in the field. Along with developmental psychologist Lois Holzman, who has written a number of books with and about Newman, he is the creator of Social Therapy, a type of group therapy involving theatre, improvisation, and political activism, which he advocates as helping clients learn how to develop beyond their self- and societally-imposed limitations and live more creative and growthful lives.]

Early years: Marxist psychology and politics

Newman considers himself a Marxist,] and has utilized a mixture of Marxist, logical positivist and post-modernist ideas to critique the effects of the capitalist system on human personality development. In his earliest statement of his attempt to develop a Marxist approach to emotional problems, Newman writes

Proletarian or revolutionary psychotherapy is a journey which begins with the rejection of our inadequacy and ends in the acceptance of our smallness; it is the overthrow of the rulers of the mind. (Preface to Newman's Power and Authority: the Inside View of the Class Struggle (1974)).

Newman taught at several colleges and universities in the 1960s around the country and was fired from a number of them, which he attributed to his policy of giving all students an "A" grade to avoid their chances of flunking out and possibly be drafted during the Viet Nam War. He has been influenced over the years by Karl Marx, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky, who wrote on the zone of proximal development (ZPD). Vygotsky describes the ZPD as the zone in which learning and development take place, i.e., the range between a child's abilities without assistance, and the child's abilities with assistance. Newman worked with his colleague Lois Holzman, a Vygotsky scholar and developmental psychologist, to to incorporate this idea into Social Therapy as a way of understanding the mechanism of emotional growth and development in a group context. In 1993 Newman and Holzman co-authored Lev Vygotsky: Revolutionary Scientist.

Although Newman and Holzman describe their theory and practice of social therapy as Vygotskian influenced, Vygotsky himself was a harsh critic of the psychological and therapeutic approaches of his day, including psychoanalysis, which he described as limiting mental life "to primitive, primordial, essentially prehistorical, prehuman roots, leaving no room for history."] Vygotsky devoted the bulk of his efforts to experimental work in the underdeveloped far reaches of the Soviet Union, doing extensive experimental work in literacy and learning development among young children. His work was suppressed under Stalin, and wasn't widely disseminated until the early 1960s. His research and theoretical work on early childhood development and language formation has been embraced by mainstream psychologists and educators at Harvard and other leading universities independently of the work of Newman and Holzman, and a growing "Vygotskian" movement has taken foot internationally.] This trend has included the establishment of experimental schools employing Vygotsky's approach; Holzman has written that she, Newman and their supporters introduced this approach at the former Barbara Taylor School.] Holzman and Newman's publication of their work has had an influence especially on the way in which some postmodern psychologists view Vygotsky's theories and research. In the mid-2000s, Holzman and Newman began to also emphasize activity theory, an approach founded by Soviet era psychologists Aleksey Leontyev and Sergei Rubinshtein which was based on Vygotsky's work but took it in very original directions. Some critics have argued that Social Therapy merges political activism, therapy, and personal relationships in ways that cross standard ethical boundaries.

Social and political activism

Newman founded a collective called Centers for Change (CFC) in the late 1960s after the student strikes at Columbia University. CFC was dedicated to left wing community organizing and the practice of an evolving form of psychotherapy which Newman would refer to circa 1974 as "proletarian" therapy, subsequently adopting the name Social Therapy. CFC set up clinics and briefly ran a small alternative high school. Under Newman's leadership, CFC merged with Lyndon LaRouche's National Caucus of Labor Committees (NCLC) in 1973-74. During this time, the NCLC was one of a number of left-wing organizations heatedly, and occasionally violently, vying for control of the remnants of post- campus radicalism. LaRouche was also using psychotherapeutic concepts in his political theories] and had attempted to destroy other leftist groups via Operation Mop Up, a series of violent attacks in 1973 directed primarily at the Communist Party and the Socialist Workers Party. The alliance between CFC and the NCLC began after Mop Up ended, and Newman and his organization are not known to have participated in subsequent NCLC violence. After this brief and ultimately disastrous attempt at merger with the NCLC, Newman left to found the International Workers Party. At the time of its founding, Newman penned an extensive polemic in which he described the then-Marxist LaRouche as an important contributor to Marxist theory, but lashed out against what he described as LaRouche's increasingly "paranoid" and "authoritarian" direction.] Newman's IWP attempted to maintain fraternal relations with LaRouche's NCLC, even while lashing out at the NCLC's "capacity to produce psychosis and to opportunistically manipulate it in the name of socialist politics."] Soon afterward, the NCLC began its gradual drift into the far end of the right-wing political spectrum

In 1979 Newman became one of the founders of the independent New Alliance Party (NAP). The New Alliance Party, whose first chairperson was then New York City Councilman , advocated positions less radical than those of the IWP, which continued to operate as a non-public cadre organization. The NAP brought Newman's ideas to a much broader audience and ran election campaigns all over the country. By the mid-1980s, African American psychologist and activist Lenora Fulani had become the NAP's chief public spokesperson, while Newman served primarily as the party's tactician, campaign manager, and sometimes candidate.

In 1985, Newman ran for Mayor of New York. In 1986 he ran for United States Senator from New York and in 1990 for New York State Attorney General.

The New Alliance Party was dissolved in 1994, and many of its members and supporters, including Newman and Fulani, immersed themselves in the national, and more centrist independent political movement that had arisen in the wake of Ross Perot's 1992 Presidential bid on the Reform Party. Newman, Fulani and a number of former NAP activists eventually became leaders in the Independence Party of New York (IPNY), and local offshoot of the Perot movement, and were frequently at the center of factional quarrels that have characterized the party from the time of its founding, and which continue. In September 2005, the New York State Executive Committee of the Independence Party--under the leadership of IPNY State Chairman Frank MacKay, a one-time Newman and Fulani ally, cited the earlier charges as the basis for a vote to remove several Newman associates, including Fulani, from the party's Excecutive Committee. Notably, the majority of the Newman-affiliated Executive Committee members who were targeted were themselves either African American or Jewish.

In the following months, MacKay initiated proceedings to have close to 200 Independence Party members in New York City whom he identified as being sympathetic to Fulani disenrolled from the party. This attempt was dismissed in each effort MacKay brought before the New York State Supreme Court. Despite the claims of MacKay that charges of anti-Semitism underlied his attempts at mass disenrollment of party members he claimed were affiliated with Newman, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Emily Jane Goodman in dismissing the case wrote that the charges were "more political than philosophical."] Albany Times-Union reporter Elizabeth Benjamin noted that the failed attempt by MacKay likely had the "at least tacit support" of Senator Clinton and New York State Attorney General Elliot Spitzer, who had both accepted nomination to the IPNY ballot line. ]

Playwriting and theatre

Newman was also the Artistic Director of the Castillo Theatre, which since the mid 1980s has produced over 100 plays written by him and other "postmodern" dramatists. Some of Newman's plays -- those with an alleged anti-Jewish slant -- have been sharply criticized by the media and by groups such as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). In his play "No Room for Zion" (1989), Newman recounts the transition in his own Bronx Jewish community from a primarily working class one that is increasingly middle-classized and upwardly mobile and rapidly losing its identity of an immigrant community tied to traditional ideals (represented by the Rabbi Zion of the play's title). In the play, Newman goes on to present his view of the post-war shifts in Jewish political alignments, both domestically and internationally:

From the West Bank to the West Side of Manhattan, international Jewry was being forced to face its written-in-blood deal with the capitalist devil. In exchange for an unstable assimilation, Jews under the leadership of Zionism would "do-unto-others-what-others-had-done-unto-them." The others to be done unto? People of color. The doing? Ghettoization and genocide. The Jew, the dirty Jew, once the ultimate victim of capitalism's soul, fascism, would become a victimizer on behalf of capitalism, a self-righteous dehumanizer and murderer of people of color, a racist bigot whom in the language of Zionism changed the meaning of "Never Again" from "Never Again for anyone" to "Never again for us--and let the devil take everyone else."

Newman's Castillo Theatre plays on other topics have also received positive reviews. His musical "Sally and Tom: The American Way" about the slave-master relationship of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson (with music by Grammy Award nominee Annie Roboff)was described in 1999 as "a diamond in the off-off-Broadway rough" by Christian Science Monitor critic Ward Moorehouse III. Several of his plays, including "The Myth of Psychology" (also the title of a book of Newman essays), have been performed at American Psychological Association conventions.

On December 6, 2005 Newman announced his retirment as Castillo's Artistic Director in the wake of a controversy over a six-part investigative series the previous month on NY1 News (a cable TV news channel). The programs contained segments of an interview with Newman whom the interviewer characterized as defending the right of psychotherapists to have sex with their patients. Castillo and its parent charity, the All Stars Project, Inc., incorporate Newman's therapeutic approach in their work. While Castillo produces mainly plays geared towards an older audience, the various youth programs work with young people from ages 5-25.]

The All Stars Project, which in addition to the Castillo Theatre includes a host of performance-based youth development programs, continues to be run by its current President, Newman's longtime partner Gabrielle Kurlander. It's board and staff includes long-time associates of Newman, some of whom live with Newman and Kurlander in a communal townhouse in Manhattan and supporters from the corporate and entertainment world who have donated financially and committed time and expertise to serve as mentors to the predominantly inner-city youth who participate in the programs. ]

Evaluations and investigations of the All Stars Project: the ongoing record

All Stars has been the subject of a number of evaluations and investigations over the years as well as due diligence examinations.

In 1994, All Stars (then the Community Literacy Research Project, Inc.) was listed as one of several entities in a complaint to the Federal Election Commission regarding the finances of the 1992 Lenora Fulani Presidential campaign. It was alleged that CLRP and other Newman-related organizations had received money improperly from the Fulani campaign and that Newman was guilty of "embezzlement." After a lengthy FEC investigation, Fulani was ordered to repay a portion of her matching funds to the U.S. Treasury. No wrongdoing was found on the part of the CLRP, which by the time of the final decision had changed its name to the All Stars Project.

In 2000-2002, due diligence was performed by the NYC Industrial Development Agency regarding an application by All Stars for a municipal bond. As revealed by the record of this process (see http://ex-iwp.org) it was mostly concerned with whether or not All Stars could meet its financial obligations pursuant to the bond. No financial reason was uncovered for not approving the bond.

Beginning in 2002, All Stars's finances were probed by the New York State Attorney General's Charities Bureau but no cause for action was found.

In 2003, the Institute for Minority Education of Columbia University's Teachers College undertook an evaluation of All Stars programs. The 124-page report was based on extensive on-site observation of two of the the All Stars programs, which were described as "as an exemplary effort in a field that is bursting with creative activity."] The report made a single brief reference to controversies regarding All Stars staff and volunteers being "involved in various political movements, most centrally Independent Party politics," noting that "while sometimes used as a point of attack by unfriendly media, the political networking has given the All Stars Project access to some halls of power that would have otherwise been closed."

The Columbia researchers noted the political character of the All Stars program: "Although political activism is not an explicit part of the All Stars and the DSY curriculum, it is an outcome of the programs. Young people who are empowered to get what they want are also likely to fight for what they think is right." The report further added "The participants and staff of the ASTSN/DSY have developed policy approaches to working with youth that are practical, efficient, and successful. That they have also worked to develop some influence in the halls of power is a tremendous asset to the development of the programs—as well as to the political process, which needs all the direction it can get in developing and implementing policy." The report also extensively discussed the employment of social therapy and other approaches in the programs, noting "The guiding theories, which include social therapy, activity theory, identity play, and performance theory, are palpably present in the strategies and goals of the project. The All Stars Project benefits greatly from the compass provided by the strong theoretical and philosophical grounding, both explicit in the vocabulary and implicit in the personalities, of the organization’s founders and directors. Its rich and fertile environment provides the stage on which new organizational ideas can be tested."

After the report was issued, one of it's co-authors, Dr. Edmond Gordon, the Institute's chair, joined with Lenora Fulani and Lois Holzman to found "The Research Center at All Stars." ]

In 2004-2005, complaints were reportedly filed with city, state and federal authorities regarding a health clinic in Los Angeles headed by a member of the All Stars board which had entered into contracts with All Stars and two social therapy clinics to operate All Stars programs. The complaints were brought by a former All Stars employee, Los Angeles-based theatre producer Molly Hardy, whose employment with the All Stars had recently been terminated. Hardy charged that the clinic had improperly diverted government funds to the All Stars. ] No disposition of these complaints has been reported.

In 2005, the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development's legal office undertook inquiries into All Stars after it applied (at the invitation of a top aide to Newman's ally Mayor Bloomberg) for a contract to run an after-school program for middle-school and high-school students. According to Tom Robbins of the Village Voice, the probe was briefly halted by the Mayor's office but started up again after a NY1 News series on All Stars and Newman raised further questions. All Stars withdrew its bid for the contract, with All Stars President Gabrielle Kurlander citing what she decribed as the McCarthyistic and intrusive nature of the DYCD's questions, which included probing All Stars staff members private and personal therapeutic lives.

Also in 2005, the New York State Attorney General's Office launched a second probe of All Stars, based on a complaint of emotional abuse of All Stars youth brought once again by fired All Stars employee Molly Hardy. The probe was undertaken over one year after the visting young people had returned to Oakland. In February 2006, NY1 News reported that "a spokesperson for Attorney General Eliot Spitzer says the complaint brought by former All Stars employee Molly Hardy 'does not raise any issues that warrant actions by our office.'"]

In 2006, the IDA again performed due diligence regarding All Stars, this time pursuant to an All Stars application for a second bond. Again, the due diligence focused on finances. The IDA took the official position Newman and Fulani were not appropriate subjects of due diligence because they no longer served in any official capacity with the program. Critics of the IDA bond, including New York State Comptroller Alan Hevesi, disputed the IDA's position that Newman and Fulani no longer ran All Stars. However, the IDA staffers in charge of due diligence reported that All Stars was financially qualified to receive a second bond, and the IDA board voted 6 to 4 in favor, with all those in favor being mayoral appointees or representatives of ex officio members who were mayoral appointees, and those opposed all representatives of local Democratic Party officials.

In subsequent news coverage, Mayor Michael Bloomberg defended the Agency's vote to approve the bonds, noting "“I don't think I heard one argument made that there was something wrong with the All Stars Project and that's what we look at.” ]

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