Web Features
The author recounts his personal history with the “mentally ill”—social misfits who can show us the way to a better world, if they are allowed to make the journey.
Both healthy ideas and unhealthy ideas can take hold and spread like viruses. Suicidal tendencies and eating disorders provide invaluable lessons to one communitarian.
For 12 years, a once-proud career woman struggled with manic depression, becoming a “bag lady” and experiencing more than a dozen hospitalizations, before entering recovery.
With loving help from others, the old emotional distresses that can sabotage both our mental health and our relationships in community can be cleared and permanently resolved.
To make best use of nonviolent communication and co-counseling, avoid these traps.
Ex-members of the Emissaries of Divine Light reflect on their shared past and discover more holistic approaches to inner wellness as they reunite online.
How can we best support mental health? Caring attention—even from amateurs—can promote healing unattainable through impersonal approaches or drugs.
Living in community can provide all the elements necessary for promoting mental well-being, from kinship and useful work to recreation and beauty.
Ten European ecovillages show the way to a brighter future.
Also in This Issue (Print Version Only)
· NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: CRAZY ABOUT COMMUNITY
If the editor is off his rocker, can community furnish the solution?
· WALKING WOUNDED
Gigi Wahba
Born into a society pervaded by mental stress, the author reflects on approaches to mental wellness in her family, her former spiritual community, and her current group.
· THE INFLUENCE OF COMMUNITY ON MENTAL HEALTH
Cindy Baranco & Ilana Firestone & Judy St. John & Marilyn Moohr
The best way of supporting those with mental health issues is to keep them involved in community life, relating to them as whole people rather than marginalizing them.
· HEALTHY COMMUNITY; HEALTHY PEOPLE
Burl Hall
A mental health counselor learns that, even in his own field, the dominant culture creates mental dis-ease, whereas true community supports mental health.
· A MENTAL HEALTH PATIENT SEEKS (BUT DOES NOT FIND) RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY
John Wachter
A disillusioning series of visits to intentional religious communities leaves a mental health patient with more questions than answers.
· THERAPEUTIC COMMUNITY: A Century at Gould Farm
Steven K. Smith
A venerable institution continues to change, grow, and help its guests to become functional members of society.
· CAMPHILL: Working with Special People
Diedra Heitzman & Jan Martin Bang
· CAMPHILL: Glimpses of Community Life
Wanda Root
· CAMPHILL: The Way of My Brother
Bill Prensky
Dedicated to holism, ecology, and service, Camphill Villages incorporate people with so-called handicaps as valued community members, teachers, and guides.
Voices
· PUBLISHER'S NOTE: BEING VIGILANT ABOUT VIGILANTE DYNAMICS
Let’s not use mental health labels to stigmatize and categorize those we find difficult.
· COMMUNITY LIVING WORLDWIDE: INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ABOUT INTENTIONAL COMMUNITIES
Bill Metcalf
A tour of Israeli kibbutzim caps off a lively meeting of communal scholars and activists.
