It’s good to be in a community. It gives you a sense of belonging. Human beings have always formed communities. A community supports its children, its adults, its families and those from outside who have come to live in it. When young people leave the family home it is to the community they will look for occupation and support. A healthy community is one which welcomes the stimulus of new experience and culture which newcomers brings. All may not be sweetness and light all of the time but a good community can tolerate differences of view until it resolves them peacefully without resort to violence or exploitation.
Of course young people have to leave their communities to become members of other communities when they move for educational, occupational and personal reasons. It is important then that different communities get along with each other because they can offer mutual support as part of a bigger community. Even nations can join together in a community to help each other out.
Historically we find that when communities break up there is disharmony. Anger, hatred of the stranger, selfishness, discrimination against minorities, and the abuse of power ensues.
The Scottish philosopher, John Macmurray believed that it is in community that human beings are capable of altruism. We see it in the way so many people in Europe have found a place for the children, women and men who have been fleeing from the violent devastation in their own countries.
Macmurray proposed that in a good community each person cares for all the others and no one cares for herself. There is no need for the latter. This he argues is true freedom. It is the kind of inclusive community in which helping relationships are the custom and it is one in which children, young people and their parents flourish.
All the articles in this issue are in one way or another about striving towards a good community, good relationships, and the sharing of resources. We hope you enjoy reading them. Cynthia Cross writes about looked after children attending their case reviews, Michael J. Marlowe Maurice Fenton reflects upon Yeats, Jung and the vicissitudes of adolescence, John Stein considers the nature and quality of feedback as he has experienced it over many years in care and education settings for young people, Noel Howard recounts the history of the Irish social care Journal Curam which published its 50th issue one this year and gives a context to developments in social care in recent decades, Justin Frost reviews The War Zone, a film about a socially isolated London family who move to the south-west of England, Lesley Morrison gives her thoughts about residential child care, Charles Sharpe makes some notes about Ian D. Suttie’s concept, ‘a simple attachment-to-mother’, and George Eliot writes about family life in the 1820
Link : Ode to Joy from Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 In D Minor, Op. 125
Reference
Macmurray, J.(1961) Persons in Relation London, Faber & Faber
© 2016 goodenoughcaring.com
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Comment
June 20th, 2016, Donna Hugh writes : the goodenoughcaring Journal is a wonderful accomplishment.
June 17th, 2016 John Molloy writes: sorry to hear the next edition will be the last. I have used the Journal well over the years, particularly in supervision. When I found someone who was stuck in some area or other I could usually find something in the back issues I could dip into for them to get them going again.
June 17th, 2016, Joel Kanter writes: sad to learn that the goodenoughcaring Journal is ending in its current state in December. I am also sad to read the news about Bob Holman who I spent a day with in 1996 as I began the Clare Winnicott project.
June 17th, 2016, David Lane writes: congratulations on yet another issue, which promises to be an interesting read. You have done sterling work in producing so many good issues. You deserve a medal.
June 16th, 2016, Charles Sharpe writes : on November 8th, 2016, a week before this editorial was published Bob Holman died. He was a man of the community and a man of community. Read his obituary here.
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