Cautious ethusiasm for peace-building effort

International psychologists embrace a plan to promote peace?but offer some words of caution.

By Sara Martin
Monitor staff

At a conversation hour during the International Congress, the world?s psychologists had mostly high praise for efforts of American and Canadian psychologists to launch a program to train psychologists as experts in preventing and quelling ethnic warfare.

'This initiative could influence policy-makers and government officials who don?t recognize the role of psychologists,' said South African psychologist Hlengiwe Mkhize, PhD.

But some also voiced concerns that the effort not move too boldly into areas of ethnopolitical strife without first assessing whether the plan?s intentions are appropriate. 'When we come in from a certain platform and impose our own views, we find ourselves well-meaning, but probably doing more harm than good,' said Don Beck, PhD, of Denton, Texas.

A promising start

APA and the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) have been working together to identify ways to build psychologists? proficiency in ethnopolitical issues and enable them to apply their skills in fostering peace.

'The problems of ethnopolitical warfare are those that psychologists could ameliorate, but psychologists aren?t there,' said CPA President Peter Suedfeld, PhD, who with APA President Martin E.P. Seligman, PhD, has spearheaded the APA-CPA efforts. 'There are many professions doing good work?anthropologists, nurses, physicians?and psychologists should be too.'

'We want to determine why genocidal violence occurs in some places, yet not others,' said Seligman. 'Why Rwanda today, but not in the American South?'

Two projects are now going forward in this area. One is a two-to-three-year postdoctoral program being put together by the universities of Pennsylvania, Ulster, Sri Lanka and Capetown that will prepare psychologists to help predict, prevent and resolve conflict. The second is the APA-CPA initiative, which will publish scholarly work and hold meetings on ethnopolitical strife.

The first major phase of this latter initiative took place in July when 50 psychologists, historians, sociologists and others gathered in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, to discuss what is known about ethnopolitical conflict and how a scholarship in the area might be designed (see August Monitor).

Two more conferences are in the planning stages, Suedfeld said. At one, researchers, scholars and practitioners who have frontline experience will join together to further discuss the initiative?s scope. And at another experts will set the criteria for the training program.

Cautious optimism

Psychologists at the conversation hour lauded the idea of an initiative that promotes both world peace and the psychology field. As Edward Cairns, PhD, of Coleraine, Northern Ireland, put it, 'This is a wonderful initiative that validates the work that has already been going on. It?s got to help people all over the world.'

But along with their positive comments, psychologists expressed opinions on how the effort should be implemented:

? Di Bretherton, PhD, of Melbourne, Australia, who has worked in Vietnam, cautioned that while people go in to war-torn areas with good intentions, 'We need to know first what really does help and what we can learn from these people. We need to go in with the idea that ?I have a lot as a person to learn, not that I as a psychologist have a lot to give....Let?s not become tourists of despair.'

? Beirut psychologist Brigette Khoury, who trained in America, agreed that the postdoctoral program is a great idea, but said the initiative needs to train people in the countries where they live. 'After being trained in the United States and coming back to Lebanon, I realized that applying what I learned to Lebanese patients didn?t work. I needed to bring my own culture back to what I learned and then apply it.'

? Filipina psychologist Christina Montiel, PhD, said that people in her country will be wary if white people come in to tell them what they 'need.' 'Most of today?s ethnic conflicts are taking place in former colonies,' she said. 'It might not be good to do the training right away because then you?d be imposing your labels on us, as you have for centuries. It would reinforce a system that we have tried to overcome since foreigners first came to our land.'

Other psychologists questioned whether psychology really needs another specialization. As Harvard University psychology professor Herbert C. Kelman, PhD, said, 'Let?s not talk about disciplines and professions; let?s talk about problems. We need a multidisci-plinary approach to this. Psychology is not enough.'

Dan Chirot, PhD, a sociologist from the University of Washington who chaired the Londonderry conference, encouraged the psychologists? differing perspectives and urged their continued involvement in shaping the initiative.

'From the outset, the initiative has been interested in prevention and improving human well-being,' Chirot said. 'To do this, we need the cultural wisdom of people all over the world. We?ve started small, but it?s only a first step. Success requires the help of people like you.'