Saul Alinksy and Kurt Lewin

Saul Alinksy and Kurt Lewin are both on the family tree of my preoccupation, Marx & Moreno .  My old friend Dennis mentioned he went to a workshop about them both (some time ago!)

Here is a site that mentions both figures.

Kurt Lewin Notes
https://www.psicopolis.com/kurt/klnotes.htm

Central ideas:

  • An interest in intergroup conflict, and in conflict between individual and group wishes.

  • We always exist in relation to a social context. Gestalt ideas can be applied to understanding our place in our social and environmental situation.

  •  We are culturally taught how to see, look, and act. Changing these is in a real sense changing the perceived culture within which we life.

  • Change can be carried out in ways that respects and humanizes our opponents as well as ourselves. If carried out in violent, dehumanizing ways, it is self-defeating.

And further down:

Saul Alinsky was a social psychologist, and one of the significant labor organizers of the 20th century. He used the Lewinian approach in his organizational and conflict managment skills.

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