Sidewalk Talk - How to Break our Addiction To Othering with Dawn Menken

Mar 23 2023 46 mins 1

Dawn Menken, PhD. has been working in the field of psychology and facilitator development for over 35 years. She is an internationally respected educator, therapist, leadership coach, and conflict resolution specialist. She co-founded the Process Work Institute, a not-for-profit graduate school dedicated to the training of facilitators, where she co-created its Masters's programs and served as academic dean for more than a decade. She is the author of Facilitating a More Union: A Guide for Politicians and Leaders, which offers a radical and innovative approach to political discourse. She is also the author of the award-winning book Raising Parents Raising Kids: Hands-on Wisdom for the Next Generation. In all of her endeavors, she is moved to improve social discourse and inspire more meaningful civic engagement.

Join Traci and Dawn as they explore the foundations of process work and how it can help us shift out of polarization. Dawn reads the most beautiful speech she would give to the Charlottesville rioters. In this speech she overcomes her terror as a Jewish woman and models how we all can confront our addiction to “other” by speaking both ferociously and compassionately.

Episode Timeline

[00:09] Intro
[0:58] Meet Dawn
[4:19] Professor Ben Thompson introduces Dawn to Arnold Mindell’s work during a class on the books of Carlos Castaneda about the Yaqui Mexican Indian Sorcerer, Don Juan Matus
[9:29] What is the Dreambody?
[11:47] Working On Body Symptoms
[17:25] Norms or how we “should” be and busting out of stereotypes
[21:11] The embodied unconscious
[25:14] Otherizing and polarizing as a global human tendency
[31:56] Dawn’s speech to the white nationalists in Charlottesville
[36:09] Breaking our own addiction to othering people
[43:32] Outro

Resources Mentioned

Facilitating a More Perfect Union (Book)

Raising Parents Raising Kids (Book)

The Process Work Institute

Standout Quotes

“...it's more about trying to explore what is emergent and trying to happen in you.” (Dawn)
“I want to add the idea that we don't just have a platform and advocate for our one-sided views, but the facilitator or the leader must position herself also as a facilitator because you're not just leading one section of the world. We have to find a way to get along and to facilitate dialog.” (Dawn)
“It's about the human tendency to otherize someone.” (Dawn)
“This whole idea of otherizing is about how we also, as individuals, marginalize different parts of ourselves. Wholeness is really about connecting and getting on with that with which we marginalize internally, in our relationships, and in the world at large. (Dawn)
“With all my years on this planet Earth, I am more interested in my larger goals of democracy and people getting along.” (Dawn)
“...how to reach out to a side that you feel is so repulsive to you, and at the same time, take a stand. How to do both at the same time.” (Dawn)
“I want to tell those protesters that deep down you have more in common with those whom you battle. You're looking for your place, that precious feeling of belonging and pride. (Dawn)
It is the deepest human longing for all people who risk everything and flee violent circumstances to reside in these United States of America. There is room enough for all of us. (Dawn)
We all need to feel our pride and sense of home without denigrating others. It is the only way forward. Feel pride in your vision to live in a country that insists on freedom and belonging for all people. (Dawn)
Being one-sided is very addictive.
If you have a humanistic view, if you have a view of people and community, the deepest religions talk about that. If you want to connect, if you want to understand and get along, then you have to go beyond your one-sided position. (Dawn)