Please support the next WBI workplace bullying survey

Since 2003, the Workplace Bullying Institute’s periodic national scientific surveys on workplace bullying have been the gold standard for understanding the prevalence and nature of this form of on-the-job worker mistreatment in the U.S. Designed by WBI co-founder Dr. Gary Namie and administered in consultation with Zogby Analytics, these surveys yield invaluable data that have been used and cited by the media, academics, and other researchers.

The WBI surveys cost money to administer, and that’s why Dr. Namie has launched a modest GoFundMe campaign to help pay for it. If you are in a position to support this vital public information source about workplace bullying in America, then please join me and go here to make your contribution.

Thank you for considering this request!

Mel Brooks, the Chinese Gourmet Society, and the stoking of creativity and mutual support

One of my favorite parts of filmmaker and comedian Mel Brooks’s breezy, funny memoir, All About Me! My Remarkable Life in Show Business (2021), is a short chapter devoted to what he and his pals called the “Chinese Gourmet Society.”

For some nine years starting in the early 1950s (apparently — he gives no dates!), Brooks and a group of invited friends met for dinner every Tuesday night in New York’s Chinatown. While membership varied over the years, the group included:

• Irving “Speed” Vogel, one of Brooks’s long-time friends and a textile factory manager turned direct metal sculptor;
• Ngoot Lee, a friend of Vogel who worked for Bloomingdale’s as a calligrapher and furniture designer and knew of the best restaurants in Chinatown;
• Authors Georgie Mandel (The Wax Boom), Joseph Heller (Catch 22), and Mario Puzo (The Godfather) — all before they made it big; and,
• Julie Green, an “incredibly well read” diamond merchant.

Brooks doesn’t go into detail about what they talked about during those dinners, but he credits his friends and these dinners for providing “stability and inspiration” and getting him through some lean and difficult years. Indeed, as Brooks writes, the group had some dining rules that reflected their tight budgets and a commitment to this fellowship:

We had strict eating rules at the Chinese Gourmet Society. You were not allowed to eat two mouthfuls of fish, meat, or chicken without an intermediate mouthful of rice. Otherwise, you would be consuming only the expensive food. The check and tip, and the parking fees, if any, were equally divided among the members. It was compulsory, if you were in New York, not working nights, and in reasonable health, to be present at every Chinese Gourmet Society meeting.

We can only imagine what it must’ve been like to share a weekly dinner with this eclectic, talented crew, before many of them became prominent and very successful. How did their various conversations generate creative artistic and business ideas? How did they support each other when money was tight, success was far from assured, and assorted life challenges presented themselves? I’m quite sure that those dinners, in addition to providing an enjoyable social outlet, stoked both artistic genius and mutual support.

***

I have long been fascinated by, and sometimes envious of, these small, informal, intentional cohorts of interesting, smart, creative people who meet regularly over meals in a spirit of fellowship. I even have a small collection of books built around other examples of these groups, including, among others:

• Laura J. Snyder’s The Philosophical Breakfast Club (2011) shares how four men who first crossed paths at Cambridge University — Charles Babbage (mathematics and computing), John Herschel (astronomy and photography), William Whewell (multiple fields of science), and Richard Jones (economic science) — began meeting over Sunday morning breakfast during the 1800s to exchange ideas and plant the seeds of the modernization of science.
• Louis Menand’s The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America (2001) focuses on the lives and ideas of four remarkable members of a conversational club that met throughout 1872: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (law), Charles Sanders Pierce (philosophy), William James (philosophy and psychology), and John Dewey (education and philosophy).
• Philip Zaleski & Carol Zeleski’s The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings (2015) tells the story of how writers C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien and other intellectuals formed a literary club, the Inklings, that met weekly in various pubs and other locations around Oxford University during the 1950s, “to drink, smoke, quip, cavil, read aloud their works in progress, and endure or enjoy with as much grace as they could muster the sometimes blistering critiques that followed.”

While these groups offer their own fascinating stories, one of the great appeals of Mel Brooks’s Chinese Gourmet Society is its comparatively motley membership, untethered to a prominent university. Their work and creative aspirations were more commercial in nature, while having the power to shape our popular culture. I’m also betting that the more disparate occupations of the Chinese Gourmet Society members made for greater varieties of conversations and sharing of information and ideas.

(I readily acknowledge that these groups I’ve talked about above are noticeably lacking in gender and racial diversity. It is very likely that many similar stories remain to be told, or have been told and I am simply unaware of them.)

***

The formation of these groups and larger tribes cannot be forced or contrived; any genuine sense of fellowship has to be somewhat organic in its formation, bringing together the right mix of personalities, intellects, dispositions, and interests. Food and drink help as well!

Although I have never been part of any ongoing group like the Chinese Gourmet Society, the Philosophical Breakfast Club, the Metaphysical Club, or the Inklings, I have experienced these fellowship experiences on a short-term, in-person basis, typically through the work I’m doing on workplace bullying and employment relations generally, human dignity, and therapeutic jurisprudence. Here are several pertinent blog posts:

• “Conferences as community builders” (2015) (link here) — About the biennial Work, Stress and Health conference co-sponsored by the American Psychological Association, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and Society for Occupational Health Psychology;
• “Tribes for brewing ideas and engaging in positive change” (2015; rev. 2019) (link here) — A piece contemplating how to nurture tribes to engage in collaborative change;
• “Launched in Prague: The International Society for Therapeutic Jurisprudence” (2017) (link here) — How we launched an international learned society devoted to advancing therapeutic jurisprudence at the International Congress on Law and Mental Health, in Prague, Czech Republic.
• “A workshop as annual ritual” (2019) (link here) — A look at the annual December workshop of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies, held in New York City.
• “A veteran cohort of the workplace anti-bullying movement gathers in Boston” (2023) (link here) — Practitioners and scholars addressing workplace bullying, many of whom are associated with the Workplace Bullying Institute, gathered for an interactive workshop in Boston last year.

***

I think it remains to be determined if Zoom and other communications platforms can be the central enablers for fostering such fellowship opportunities. My basic hypothesis is that Zoom, et al., can serve as a valuable connector between in-person gatherings, but that periodic face-to-face exchanges are a necessary component for sustaining successful cohorts of this nature.

Expertise matters (but how one obtains it, much less so)

Posted to the Bring Evidence Facebook Page

The cartoon pictured above shows an airline passenger claiming that “smug pilots have lost touch with regular passengers like us,” therefore justifying his call for a show of hands from fellow passengers who think he should fly the plane.

It’s a spoof that hits home at a time when a lot of people are falling for baseless online “information” that purports to portray an alternative truth, often one that mainstream powers-that-be allegedly have been denying or concealing.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for questioning conventional wisdom, as John Kenneth Galbraith urged us to do in his 1958 classic, The Affluent Society.

Questioning conventional wisdom and suggesting new approaches can lead to positive change. For example, in U.S. health care, acupuncture was once regarded as pseudoscientific nonsense. Today, major health care institutions such as the Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, and Johns Hopkins Hospital offer acupuncture treatments.

Similarly, in mental health care, EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) was once dismissed as hocus pocus. Today, well established institutions such as the American Psychological Association, the National Center for PTSD, and the World Health Organization recognize EMDR as a valid therapeutic tool for treating trauma, anxiety, addiction, and other conditions.

If we’re going to create new things, develop new treatments, write new laws, build new institutions, and the like, it often means challenging established shibboleths. To do so, it helps to have information and evidence to back up our critique or support our call for change.

Very American traits

Alas, distrust of expertise and research, and avoidance of deep intellectual discussion and analysis, are very American traits. Historian Richard Hofstadter, in his influential 1963 book, Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, articulated a public regard of intellectuals as being “pretentious” and “snobbish,” ultimately presenting as being immoral and subversive. By contrast, the “plain sense of the common man” is regarded as “altogether adequate substitute for, if not actually much superior to, formal knowledge and expertise.”

Some 54 years later, international affairs expert Tom Nichols sounded a similar note in The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters (2017), claiming that “(n)ever have so many people had access to so much knowledge, and yet been so resistant to learning anything.” Nichols cited several factors in undermining the authority of experts in the U.S., including the internet, media outlets promoting anti-intellectual beliefs, and indulgent educational systems fueling students’ overly generous beliefs in their competencies.

It may be worth noting that in 1963, Hofstadter was coming more from the left, and in 2017, Nichols was coming more from the right. But they ultimately sounded similar concerns.

Degree or diploma not necessarily required

I believe in both respecting and challenging expertise. I also believe in creating new experts, including those who may bring very new perspectives to well-trodden areas of knowledge.

There are multiple paths toward acquiring knowledge, understanding, and insight. With the possible exceptions of highly specialized and complex subject matter areas, as well as vocations requiring some type of licensing, it’s not necessary to pursue a formal degree or credential if one is sufficiently curious, disciplined, and intelligent to engage in independent and experiential learning and continuing and adult education offerings.

Among my favorite exemplars of self-made expertise are the Wright Brothers and Jane Jacobs.

Brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright are credited with inventing and flying the first successful airplane, starting with their historic flights at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in 1903. Their expertise was self-taught. As I wrote here in 2015:

The brothers were smart and eager to learn. Wilbur, especially, demonstrated qualities of genius. Their accomplishments were especially remarkable given that, as McCullough writes, they had “no college education, no formal technical training, no experience working with anyone other than themselves, no friends in high places, no financial backers, no government subsidies, and little money of their own.

At the time Orville and Wilbur were reading the existing scientific studies about the prospects of manned flight and conducting experiments with homemade wind tunnels in their bicycle shop, other more prominent, well-funded inventors and scientists were also trying hard to become the first to achieve motorized flight. But this did not dissuade them from their goal. In fact, they largely rewrote the book on the science of flying. and in the process refuted the previous findings of many “experts” on aviation.

Jane Jacobs had no formal training as an authority on city planning and urban living, but she wrote a signature treatise, The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961), which fought back against predominant notions of city planning that emphasized access for automobiles, even at the cost of destroying neighborhoods. The Center for the Living City describes her influence this way:

Jacobs saw cities as integrated systems that had their own logic and dynamism which would change over time according to how they were used. With an eye for detail, she wrote eloquently about sidewalks, parks, retail design and self-organization. She promoted higher density in cities, short blocks, local economies and mixed uses. Jacobs helped derail the car-centered approach to urban planning in both New York and Toronto, invigorating neighborhood activism by helping stop the expansion of expressways and roads. She lived in Greenwich Village for decades, then moved to Toronto in 1968 where she continued her work and writing on urbanism, economies and social issues until her death in April 2006.

But you have to do the work

However one acquires expertise, is necessary to do the work. The world has no shortage of fakers and imposters, as well as those who exaggerate their mastery and try to claim authority status. Some fall prey to the Dunning-Kruger effect, which, as explained by The Decision Lab, “occurs when a person’s lack of knowledge and skills in a certain area cause them to overestimate their own competence.” These folks don’t even know what they don’t know.

Spoof ad on social media

Gaining genuine expertise typically requires a lot of learning, often over extended periods of time. And once someone gains a deep grounding, they usually realize that there’s even more to learn. Here, especially, is where a committed practice of lifelong, self-guided continuing education becomes part of a natural growth process.

Autobiographical reflections: Mark Satin’s “Up From Socialism”

At the start of my second year as an instructor in the Lawyering program at New York University School of Law in 1992, I looked at my new class list of first-year students and saw a familiar name: Mark Satin. I would quickly confirm that this was the very Mark Satin who had written and edited a self-styled, left leaning yet “post-liberal” political newsletter titled New Options, which I had enjoyed as a subscriber.

Mark was 46 years old when he arrived at NYU Law. He brought with him an established reputation as an anti-war and left activist during the 1960s and as a progressive political writer during the 1970s. His first book, New Age Politics: Healing Self and Society (1976 + several revised editions), had generated considerable discussion as an attempt to synthesize and make sense of the politics of the New Left during the 60s and 70s.

After many years of writing and editing New Options, Mark sought to gain a stronger understanding of, and greater impact within, the societal mainstream. He figured that law school would give him some insights on how the worlds of law, policy, and commerce operated, so he set his sights on obtaining a legal education and earning a law degree. He took the Law School Admissions Test, filed his applications, and eventually landed on my 1L class list at NYU Law.

***

During our overlapping years at NYU, Mark and I shared many conversations about law, politics, legal education, and the general state of things. He was thoroughly invested as a law student, typically on his own terms and with a genuine curiosity about the Generation Xers who comprised the heart of the law school student body. Always attentive to emerging trends, and sometimes a key player in shaping them, he wanted to write a broad-ranging paper that surveyed and analyzed the linkages between law and psychology in many different aspects of legal thought and practice. That monumental research project would lead to a published article, “Law and Psychology: A Movement Whose Time Has Come,” in the Annual Survey of American Law, one of NYU’s student-edited law reviews.

Upon graduation, Mark held true to his goal of experiencing more of the mainstream, joining a small boutique business law firm in Manhattan’s Rockefeller Center. But sooner than later, he couldn’t resist the continuing siren call of writing and publishing. As the new millennium approached, Mark’s evolving social and political outlook were leading him to a place that he called the “radical middle.” His next newsletter creation was called just that. He wrote and published Radical Middle Newsletter (1999- 2009) (articles and back issues freely available here), and authored a book, Radical Middle: The Politics We Need Now (2004).

***

Mark has brought together the chapters of a rich life in an engaging autobiography, Up From Socialism: My 60-Year Search for a Healing New Radical Politics (2023). Do not expect a political tome here. This is a life recalled and reflected upon in a first-person, journalistic style. It is very opinionated, not overly concerned with political correctness, and sometimes rather detailed about the author’s romantic connections, mostly with women of a certain political leaning.

And if I may put on my dime store amateur therapist’s hat, Up From Socialism is about the author’s search for healing as much as anything else. It flips an old progressive, feminist chestnut: The political is personal. If you doubt my assessment, then go to the last sentence of the second-to-last paragraph in Mark’s book. I don’t know if he has another book in mind, but if so, that’s its thesis statement and perhaps the starting point for shaping the rest of Mark’s life. (I won’t give it away, but has much to do with kindness.)

As for this book, I’m glad that Mark wrote it, and I’m glad that I read it. If any of this strikes your curiosity, then I’m happy to recommend it.

***

I should disclose that I am a supporting bit player in Up From Socialism, and I have supported Mark’s various endeavors with board service, editorial feedback, and modest financial contributions. Upon Mark’s invitation, I reviewed an earlier draft of the book to provide feedback and suggestions, concentrating on the law school/legal practice chapter.

In addition, as I wrote in a 2019 blog piece, “Workplace bullying, worker dignity, and therapeutic jurisprudence: Finding my center of gravity” (link here), “the overlaps between Mark Satin’s ‘radical middle’ and my back-in-the-day brand of liberalism appear to be many, at least if my other affiliations with the workplace anti-bullying movement, therapeutic jurisprudence movement, and human dignity movement are any indication.”

***

Editor’s Note: After I posted this piece, Mark Satin sent this reply by email and asked that it be added. I’m happy to do so:

COMMENT ON DAVID’S REVIEW OF MY BOOK, FROM MARK SATIN

Either David is being much too modest here, or he simply does not realize how much his perspective has contributed to my Up From Socialism book.  That book is, among other things, an exposé of the nastiness, competitiveness, ego-drivenness, and BULLYING that went on in the New Left of the 1960s, the supposedly more idealistic “transformational” movements of the 1970s-1990s, and the supposedly more buttoned-down radical-centrist activities of our day – not to mention what’s going on in the new New Left!

In Up From Socialism, I trace much of this awfulness back to many activists’ poor relationships with self, parents, and partners; that’s why there’s little separation in my book between the personal and the political.  And that’s why the explicitly stated moral of my book is, “Only by becoming kind people can we create a kind world.”  I think David has been saying the same thing in his own way, and he’s been saying it longer than I … I am a more or less Bad Guy through much of my book!

Ikigai: It’s not just for middle-aged searchers

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Ikigai, according to Wikipedia, “is a Japanese concept referring to something that gives a person a sense of purpose, a reason for living.” It is most commonly explained by invoking some version of the diagram reproduced above. The common center of all four circles is considered to be the state of ikigai.

Back in 2017, I wrote about ikigai in a post discussing personal satisfaction in one’s vocation or avocation. I’ve continued to see references to ikigai in various news features, often in the context of assessing one’s life at middle age.

Last year, I decided to add a session on ikigai to my law and psychology courses at Suffolk University Law School, which introduce students to the intersection of legal and psychological insights through the lens of therapeutic jurisprudence. “TJ,” as it is often tagged, is an interdisciplinary school of legal thought and practice that examines the therapeutic and anti-therapeutic properties of laws, legal systems, and legal institutions. 

Honestly, I wasn’t all that certain that a discussion around ikigai would resonate with a group of law students, most of whom are well short of their middle years. To my pleasant surprise, however, these discussions have been lively, thoughtful, and interactive. And, in a way that is capturing a recurring Generation Z theme, many students have folded into ikigai the importance of work-life balance. In their student evaluations, some have identified the ikigai discussion as being among their favorite parts of the course.

Sometimes an engaging, relatable concept captured in a simple diagram can yield interesting exchanges and valuable insights. I think that the ikigai diagram serves that role. My revised impression of ikigai is that it prompts important discussions and contemplations at many stages of one’s life. And, with some minor hacks and tweaking — such as taking into account vital uncompensated tasks such as parenting and caregiving, as well as meaningful avocations and hobbies — it has something to offer just about everyone.

***

Note: For an introduction to the field of therapeutic jurisprudence, see my 2021 law review article, “Teaching Therapeutic Jurisprudence,” published in the University of Baltimore Law Review; go here for a freely downloadable pdf.)

Free resource: “Political Science Internships: Towards Best Practices”

I wanted to re-share a resource that may be useful to those who are offering, arranging, and participating in internship programs in politics, public policy, international relations, and related fields. The book is Renée B. Van Vechten, Bobbi Gentry, and John C. Berg, Political Science Internships: Towards Best Practices (2021), published by the American Political Science Association (APSA).

The good news is that this super helpful resource is available for free from the APSA website (link here). Here’s a general description of the book:

Political Science Internships: Towards Best Practices builds on a robust body of evidence that demonstrates the integrative power of internships to help undergraduate students learn by doing. Targeting faculty, instructors, and administrators who deliver political science curricula, this book examines the state of internships in the discipline, scrutinizing different types of internship programs, their vital components, and the roles of key stakeholders: faculty mentors and instructors, site supervisors, and students.

I contributed a chapter, “Major Legal Considerations Pertaining to Internships” (link here). Here’s a brief description:

The burgeoning intern economy developed largely in the absence of federal guidelines or clarifying legal precedents until recently, creating significant ambiguity around interns’ rights, internship providers’ responsibilities, and institutions’ potential liabilities. During the past decade, litigation has helped clarify the relationship among students, their university or college, and their internship providers under current employment and education laws. This chapter surveys the major legal developments concerning internships, including compensation, harassment, and discrimination issues, with the core question being whether an internship is treated as an employment relationship under the law.

If you read my chapter, you’ll see that I am calling upon internship providers to compensate their interns even if they are not required to under the current, inadequate state of the law. Paying interns helps to ensure wider equality of opportunity, no small priority for internships that can eventually lead to positions of power and influence in public life.

There has been at least one welcomed, concrete change by an important federal government internship provider since the book appeared. Under the Biden Administration, the White House has turned its long-time unpaid internship program into a paid one. Last summer, I was interviewed by KCBS news radio in San Francisco about that important change. You may listen to that brief interview here.

Watch and learn: Video recordings of 2022 programs

 

Hello dear readers, I’m linking below video recordings of several programs in which I participated during 2022. I hope you’ll find something of interest!

• “Bullying and Incivility in the Academic Workplace” (March 2022) (link here) — I gave a presentation about “Bullying and Incivility in the Academic Workplace” to the Northeastern University College of Science in Boston, as part of a series on “Disrupting Academic Bullying.” I first cover bullying, mobbing, and incivility generally, then I examine these behaviors in academic workplaces.
• “Creating Healthy Workplaces Through Legislation” (April 2022) (link here) — At a conference hosted by the U.S. Department of the Navy and Howard University, I was invited to participate in a panel discussion on “Fostering Professional Climates and Cultures Through Accountability.” The conference was the 2022 “National Discussion on Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment at America’s Colleges, Universities and Service Academies.” I joined Rear Admiral Rebecca Patterson, Keetah Salazar-Thompson, and Kelley Bonner on this panel. My brief handout for the conference is posted here.
• “The WBI Story: Drs. Ruth & Gary Namie” (July 2022) (link here) — I had the privilege of interviewing Drs. Ruth and Gary Namie, co-founders of the Workplace Bullying Institute and long-time colleagues and friends, about the history of their pioneering work to address workplace bullying. This program was part of Gary’s Workplace Bullying Podcast series.
• “The Hero’s Call: Workplace Bullying” (Sept. 2022) (link here) — Suffolk Law alumnus and trial attorney Marc Diller extended an invitation to appear on his law firm’s video web series, The Hero’s Call. Marc and his colleague, Dr. John Naranja, asked me about my work around workplace bullying, the anti-bullying Healthy Workplace Bill, and associated activities in the field of therapeutic jurisprudence.
• “The Dignity of an Intellectual Life for All” (Oct. 2022) (link here) — I organized and hosted an interactive discussion featuring Zena Hitz (tutor, St. John’s College and author, Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life (2020)), followed by a responsive panel of distinguished educators, including Joseph Coulson, Hilda Demuth-Lutze, Linda Hartling, and Amy Thomas Elder. Hosted by Suffolk University Law School and co-sponsored by the Basic Program in Liberal Education for Adults at the University of Chicago, Harrison Middleton University, and the World Dignity University initiative of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies.

A case for therapeutic jurisprudence in legal education and the legal profession

University of Miami Law Review, 2021

University of Baltimore Law Review, 2021

This semester, I had one of my most enjoyable teaching experiences ever at Suffolk University Law School, via a unique course that I’ve designed called the “Law and Psychology Lab” (LPL), a four-credit, workshop-type offering that examines the intersection of law and psychology in ways that are relevant to legal practice, law reform, and the legal profession. The course explores law and psychology primarily through the lens of therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ), a multidisciplinary field of theory and practice that examines the therapeutic and anti-therapeutic properties of law and policy, legal processes, and legal institutions.

I’ve referenced TJ frequently on this blog. It has become a central framing theory for my work in drafting and advocating for legal protections against workplace bullying. It has also profoundly shaped the way in which I look at the law in general. In fact, from 2017-19, I served as the founding board chairperson of the International Society for Therapeutic Jurisprudence, a global, non-profit organization dedicated to public education about TJ.

I designed the LPL course to engage students in a variety of discussions, presentations, and projects. Ideally, it is intended to work best in an in-person format, with only occasional reliance on Zoom for specified reasons, such as guest speakers. However, after teaching the course the first three times either partially or all online due to the pandemic, this was the first offering that didn’t involve the ongoing use of Zoom to hold class.

Perhaps this is a reason why the course went so well this past fall. But the main reason is that we had a great blend of students who were eager to dig into the subject matter, engage one another in conversation, and keep an open mind toward new concepts and ideas. It was so gratifying to see the learning process unfold during the course of the semester. Among other things, it helped to underscore my belief that TJ has so much to offer in terms of reforming our laws and legal procedures and building our legal institutions. The ways in which my students discussed, applied, and even embraced TJ also illustrated its very practical utility; this is not highfalutin theory, disconnected from on-the-ground relevance.

I am now preparing to teach a very truncated version of the LPL during our one-week intersession period next week, a one-credit mini-course called “Introduction to Law and Psychology.” Although I would prefer to teach this course in an in-person format as well, I’ve opted to teach it online so that students will not have to return to campus a week earlier than their peers in order to enroll in it. Nevertheless, I hope this compact offering will provide students with some valuable insights and perspectives that will enhance their legal careers.

Law review articles

Bringing TJ into the law school classroom is partially what I had in mind when I wrote two law review articles that were published in 2021. I also wanted to provide legal educators and others with useful, accessible introductions to TJ.

The first was a lengthy, comprehensive survey of the field of therapeutic jurisprudence, titled “Therapeutic Jurisprudence: Foundations, Expansion, and Assessment,” University of Miami Law Review (2021) (free download, link here). Clocking in at over 90 pages, I use it as the primary text for the Law and Psychology Lab. The article has been very well-received with the TJ community and often is recommended to those who wish to gain an in-depth introduction to this field.

The second is a shorter piece, titled “Teaching Therapeutic Jurisprudence,” University of Baltimore Law Review (2021) (free download, link here), that offers ideas for incorporating TJ into the law school curriculum and makes bibliographic suggestions for reading assignments and research projects. This is now the primary text for the brief Introduction to Law and Psychology course mentioned above.

If you’d like to dip your toe in the world of TJ, then I recommend the University of Baltimore Law Review article. But if you’d like to jump and take a swim, then take a look at the University of Miami Law Review article.

***

Educators who would like to review the overall syllabi for the “Law and Psychology Lab” and “Introduction to Law and Psychology” courses may request copies from my staff assistant, Trish McLaughlin, at tmclaughlin@suffolk.edu. Please enter “Yamada Law and Psychology syllabi” in the subject line and provide your full name and institutional affiliation. Thank you!

Thanksgiving Week: Writing and remembrance

Hello, dear readers, I’m enjoying my traditional U.S. Thanksgiving trip to New York City right now. The 12 years I lived in this city (1982-94) were a personally and professionally formative time for me, so I always get a bit reflective when I visit.

With this morning’s publication of a piece contemplating the notion of personal libraries (see below for link) to the blog of Harrison Middleton University, where I’m doing a side gig as a 2022 Fellow in Ideas,  I thought I’d pull together variety of more recent (2018-present) writings from other sites, heavily themed on lifelong learning, books, popular culture, and personal nostalgia. I hope you find something here that strikes your fancy.

***

Contemplations on a Personal Library (2022) (link here)

Living history: The 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis as experienced by U.S. Navy officer on a destroyer (2022) (link here)

Forty summers ago, a first-ever trip to NYC (2022) (link here)

Pandemic Chronicles #26: Old postcards as time travel experiences (2021) (link here)

Embracing middlebrow culture: The Book-of-the-Month Club (2021) (link here)

Pandemic Chronicles #25: Monet, London fog, and memory at the Museum of Fine Arts (2021) (link here)

Studying the Great Books at the University of Chicago (2021) (link here)

Pandemic Chronicles #20: Witnessing “The Troubles” 40 years ago (2021) (link here)

Libraries as learning hangouts (2021) (link here)

What’s behind “More Than A Song”? (2021) (link here)

Pandemic Chronicles #8: And suddenly, our worlds became very small (2020) (link here)

Pandemic Chronicles #1: “Be careful what you wish for…” (2020) (link here)

Twenty-five years in Boston…whoa! (2019) (link here)

Music as a time machine: 1979 (2019) (link here)

What is it about cold weather that draws me to bookstores? (2018) (link here)

Two memorable semester breaks (2018) (link here)

Watch: “The Dignity of an Intellectual Life for All”

Dear readers, on October 21, I hosted a program titled “The Dignity of an Intellectual Life for All.” Focusing on Dr. Zena Hitz’s thought-provoking book, Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life (2020), the program examined the value of embracing the liberal arts and humanities for their own sake and considered how a rich intellectual life for everyone enhances human dignity. We opened with a conversation featuring Dr. Hitz, followed by a responsive panel comprised of four distinguished educators.

It turned out to be a wonderfully engaging, conversational program. A freely accessible recording has now been posted to YouTube. Go here to watch it!

Here are the program details:

Hosted by Suffolk University Law School and co-sponsored by:

• Basic Program of Liberal Education for Adults, University of Chicago, Graham School 
• Harrison Middleton University
• World Dignity University Initiative of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies 

Featured Speaker

Zena Hitz, Tutor, St. John’s College, Annapolis, MD, and author, Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life (Princeton, NJ: Princeton U. Press, 2020).

Guest Panelists

Joseph Coulson, President, Harrison Middleton University

Hilda Demuth-Lutze, English teacher (ret.), Chesterton High School, IN, and author of historical fiction

Amy Thomas Elder, Instructor, Basic Program of Liberal Education for Adults, University of Chicago, Graham School

Linda Hartling, Director, Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies

Moderator

David Yamada, Professor of Law, Suffolk University Law School, Boston, MA

This program was supported by the Faculty Initiatives Fund at Suffolk University Law School.