Positive Mental Attitude

So much has been written for so many years about the importance of having a Positive Mental Attitude. Entire sections of the libraries and bookstores are dedicated to itmuch of it called Self Help. Philosophers have philosophized and theorists have theorized and authors and motivational speakers have built entire careers recirculating the same information for years and years.

So do we get it?

How many times can we as authors, livers-of-life, speakers, teachers, writers, business people, Moms, Dads, CEOs, and all the rest keep saying the same thing? The answer is, endlesslyuntil we get it!

Aristotle, back in the forever ago, said, We become just by performing just action, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave action. (italics added for emphasis)

AND

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

Dr. Andrew Newberg said, Language shapes our behavior and each word we use is imbued with multitudes of personal meaning. The right words spoken in the right way can bring us love, money and respect, while the wrong wordsor even the right words spoken in the wrong waycan lead to a country to war. We must carefully orchestrate our speech if we want to achieve our goals and bring our dreams to fruition.

Tony Robbins often says, Where your focus goes, energy flows. If you focus on your negativity and fears, those thoughts will consume you and suck all of your energy

You get the picture. How we think, how we feel, the words we say, can affect every aspect of our lives, creating success and abundance or lack thereof.

As Associates with TruVision Health, we are in the business of helping people. The weight loss industry is a multi-billion dollar industry, because there is so much focus is on the shell that we carry around from the moment we are born until the moment we die. We are judged by the skin suit that we wear, whether it reflects who we are on the inside or not. Thats why the weight loss industry is infused with billions of dollars. People will dump thousands upon thousands of dollars into changing their outsides, with very little thought given to their insides. And by insides, we mean, THEM/YOU/METhe CORE being underneath all the fat, muscle, skeleton and organs.

We come across people every day who have tried everything, and nothing works. We come across people every day whose lives have been changed by TruVision because it finally worked. We encounter customers and friends and Associates who are thriving, successful, happy, and fulfilled. While others seem to stay stuck. What is the difference? What makes the differences so vast?

10 times out of 10, a new customer who is committed to changing their life, who is committed to taking the products consistently, who is committed to walking or exercising, who is committed to keeping a happy attitude WILL BE SUCCESSFUL. Their success comes in many formsthe scale just happens to be one of them.

10 times out of 10, a customer who refuses to make changes, who refuses to think positively about their new lifestyle, who refuses to take products consistently, who looks at all the wrong things and the bad things and the things that didnt go right, will fail in their journey. And the scale is just their indicator that they are right, that nothing works.

What does this mean in terms of science and formulas? Well I suppose it means the most magical formula on earth, is the one you believe in. And the most successful product on earth that works for millions wont work for anyone who continues to believe that nothing works. When everything is working together, including magnificent TruVision Weight Loss products as tools, success WILL occur.

Happiness depends on ourselves.

-Aristotle

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Positive Mental Attitude - The Formula For Success

The initiatives of the Foundation for Conscious Evolution offer a context and container for connecting and empowering the vast global movement arising for positive change, making the efforts of this movement visible to engender greater coherence and synergy. We work on the premise that small islands of coherence in a sea of social chaos can jump the system as a whole to a higher degree of harmony and order.By connecting and communicating whats working, positive and innovative, the Foundation for Conscious Evolution is helping to build a new patha golden bridgeto the next stage of human evolution. On that path, we look beyond the current confusion and crises to see the new capacities that are arising. We hold our unprecedented power as the means for restoring the earth, freeing ourselves from illness, hunger and war, and fulfilling the deepest aspirations of the human heart. We envision humanity arising to cocreate a future equal to our vast potential.Our VisionThe ultimate goal of the Foundation for Conscious Evolution is the awakening of the spiritual, social, and scientific potential of humanity, in harmony with nature for the highest good of all life.Our Mission To educate people in the worldview of Conscious Evolution and how to apply it in their lives, personally and socially. To network, connect and align individuals and groups, making visible the vast movement for positive change that is arising everywhere, and to further cooperate toward our common goal of a compassionate, sustainable future.

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The Rec Class Martial Arts program includes classes in 25 traditional art forms derived from Brazil, China, Japan, Korea as well as more modern hybrid arts that bring a more Western approach to the martial arts practices. There are also a number of martial arts that are competitive in nature and represent UCSD in collegiate tournaments and events, which are housed under the moniker of "Combatives Teams".

Learn the fundamentals of The Way of Harmony or increase your knowledge of this sensible model of dealing with conflict. Improve your focus of centering yourself and quick response while learning the important aspects of defending yourself.Class Policies

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Learn the fundamentals or improve upon your own abilities to effectively utilize these ground fighting and grappling methods. Increase your knowledge of self-defense by practicing chokes, arm locks, shoulder wrenches and much more!Class Policies

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Learn the basics or improve your skills in this Brazilian combination of self-defense, dance, music , and acrobatics. Increase your ability to protect yourself while also getting a full body workout.Class Policies

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Learn the fundamentals or improve your abilities in this eclectic Korean martial art. Increase your ability to kick, punch and throw while having fun in this friendly environment.Class Policies

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Learn the basics or increase your skills in this art of Japanese swordsmanship. Become skilled in wielding your sword while also learning the ways of this historic self-defense.Class Policies

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Learn the basics or increase your skills in this martial art and Olympic sport. Learn the principle of flexibility in the application of throwing, grappling, falling and submission techniques.Class Policies

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Learn the basics or improve your skills in this Japanese Way of the Sword. Improve your footwork and motions while learning the art of the Samurai.Class Policies

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Introduce aspects of this martial art or improve upon existing skills while learning the ways of this ancient method of self-defense. Increase your self-discipline and body-strength while learning grappling techniques and hand-to-hand combat.Class Policies

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Learn the basics or increase your abilities in this comprehensive Filipino martial art. Introduce concepts of power and speed while learning weapon and empty hand applications.Class Policies

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Muay Thai, the national sport of Thailand, is known for its direct applications of elbows and knees. Classes will include boxing, kicking, as well as defensive techniques. Throws and trips will be covered; conditioning will be a primary focus.Class Policies

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Learn the aspects of this stylized Chinese martial art or improve upon existing skills. Increase your ability to focus on the art and flow of energy in the body while also learning the purposeful movements of Tai chi.Class Policies

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Increase your ability to defend yourself. Learn to develop awareness of your surroundings and avoid physical confrontations.Class Policies

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Increase your knowledge of this classic martial art involving both weapons and distinctive stances. Learn the fundamental kicks, punches and jumps while becoming more balanced in all your movements.Class Policies

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Martial Arts UCSD Recreation

I am writing this article in response to the challenge made by Generation21stCentury a few weeks ago.

Improvement of self must continue up to the moment of death. So much of what has been written here is based on the driving need of young men to develop their skills in order to achieve their goals. Those goals usually include sex with many quality girls, material wealth to enjoy living, and free time to pursue a variety of interests. These are excellent choices and I encourage you to pursue them. This article will show that in most conventionally successful lives there are opportunities for improvement.

I am a 47 year old engineer and project manager. I have worked on industrial mining construction projects all over the world. I owe no money to anyone. I have been married a long time. My five children are almost grown and some are living on their own.

A few years ago I noticed that my few remaining friends in this world were getting divorced. Their reasons were utterly diverse. The end result was always bitter ex-wives, angry ex-husbands, and weeping children. I started looking for reasons and I did not find anything that made sense to me.

I am a farm boy, ex-military, march or die kind of guy. I am acknowledged in my corner of the industry for being that bastard that can turn a construction project profitable if you can stomach the methods. I can make you cry, fire your ass with a smile, and forget your name the moment you are gone. My only regret at the end of most projects is that I wasnt more of a hard-ass. In short, empirical methods that work are king. The final arbiter of success is the scoreboard. Nothing else matters.

Nothing that my conventional Catholic society had to say about divorce made any sense to me, and this filled me with concern. I like my family the way it is. What if there was something I could do to prevent what was happening to everyone I knew from happening to me?

Then, one bitterly cold day at the end of a gloomy November, one of my colleagues rigged up a helium suicide device and killed himself. He was one of the few men I could trust with fire and forget delegation. If he said, Ill handle it, I trusted him. He had worked for me for years and had a promising career. I was the last person he talked to on his cell phone, and in his note he mentioned that he was afraid he would disappoint me by quitting early.

This guy was tall, good-looking, fit, and well off. No bad habits. He vacationed in Brazil, scuba-dived wrecks in the Caribbean, travelled the world, lived alone in a nice apartment, and had everything he wanted when he wanted it. We tried to drink his booze cabinet dry during his wake and we, two dozen men from the heavy mining construction industry, failed. Why did he check out early? Was it somehow related to the other shattering changes my acquaintances were going through, such as the divorces?

His suicide got me thinking and I decided to dig into alternative resources. I broadened my search for information and discovered the corner of the web that this site is part of. Many issues started making sense to me. Why did so many other mens marriages fail when mine was staying strong? Here is why:

I understand that the legal system makes her totally independent and that she can access my income whether I will it or no. But I am the kind of man that she can never replace and thus her hypergamy is satiated. Early in our relationship (before and after we were married) there were several moments where I point-blank told her to comply with my wishes or leave my home. She complied. She is also well aware that I am a vindictive prick that will go to almost any lengths to ensure my will is done. So that makes sense.

But why did my buddy check out? God only knows. I speculate that he felt like a failure for not having a wife and children. He was so blue pill that he felt life-ending grade shame for not being able to sacrifice his life to a woman. He had told me and others several times that he wished he could find a wife and have children. He was awkward with women. Despite all of his advantages, he could not get laid in a whorehouse. So he killed himself rather than keep facing that failure.

The world is actually kind of a big place. And we are very small.

I am what you folks refer to as a blue pill man, an AFC, if you will. I have only made love to a few women when I was younger and now only to my wife. I have little desire to have sex with many different women, my material wants are satisfied, and I have the resources to enjoy my free time. So what does the red pill do for a fellow like me?

My life was not all a bed of roses. I had very few friends. I worked hard for other people. I struggled with erectile dysfunction. My wife had a pretty face I loved, but a chubby body I was not attracted to. I volunteered for churches and other organizations. I accepted these things, even though they made me quite angry, because I thought they were correct. I had been taught, and I accepted, that it was right and proper that I suffer and others benefit, and that I should suffer silently and accept my lot.

What the red pill does is make a fellow go, Well. Fuck that noise.

I thought about what I wanted. I thought about a friend who ended his life rather than face blue pill failure. I thought about missed opportunities and a wasted youth. I thought about a life of ongoing slavery ending in forgetful silence. What did I really want? And I applied my problem solving skills and intelligence to the issue of what I want:

I set out to achieve all of these things two years ago. Most of it is finished. I quit my job, started consulting, and tripled my income. I sold my house and most of my junk and we live in a smaller, cheaper, and less time-consuming apartment. I purchased an airplane and started flying to interesting places regularly again. I started running and lifting weights and am now in the best shape of my life. I moved to a more centrally located city and stopped spending time withparasites. I set my wife up with a personal trainer, go to the fitness classes with her, and now enjoy how she looks. She learned about healthy cooking, we started eating cleaner, and are reaping the benefits. I work less, have far less stress, and I travel regularly to stay in touch with old friends. My dick works much better. My wife is happy. Her eyes shine as she hesitantly caresses my arm and looks up at me with shy pride.

I took a life that was focussed on working for other people and via self-improvement aimed it at working for myself. I have no regrets whatever. Everyone is better off, not just me, but I am the purpose of my life now. I find more information every day that provides me with opportunities to improve.

You young men learn about the red pill, bang the hotties, have fun, and God bless you for doing it. I cannot and will not compete in that arena. I yield that ground. I will take my place in the stands and applaud your victories.

Im going over there now.

You older men need this. Make your life better. Reject a life of thankless servitude and focus on what you want, while you can. Your life may not be perfect, but you can always make itbetter.

Read More: Average Never Got Anyone Anywhere

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Self-Improvement Is Not Just For Young Guys Return Of Kings

The Enlightenment was crucial in determining almost every aspect of colonial America, most notably in terms of politics, government, and religion. Without the central ideas and figures of the Enlightenment, the United States would have been drastically different since these concepts shaped the country in its formative years. Both during and after the American Revolution many of the core ideas of the Enlightenment were the basis for monumental tracts such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Concepts such as freedom from oppression, natural rights, and new ways of thinking about governmental structure came straight from Enlightenment philosophers such as Locke and forged the foundations for both colonial and modern America. All aspects of life, even religion, were affected by the Enlightenment and many key figures from American history such as Thomas Jefferson were greatly influenced by the movement.

Another way that the Enlightenment helped to shape the colonies was in terms of religion. With the Great Awakening came a new understanding of Americas early relationship to God and the Church. Instead of one all-powerful church that almost required membership, Protestant ideals based on Enlightenment principles of free will and freedom from institutions allowed people to choose membership in a church rather than be forced into one. Although during the Enlightenment there was a very secular focus, in America this was not the case. The colonies were still very religious but they used the ideas of their freedom to choose that were based on the Enlightenment. Instead of being tied to one religious authority, there were many choices in the colonies and people had a right to choose how to establish and maintain their connection to God.

Key figures in the founding of the United States such as Thomas Jefferson were greatly influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment which meant that the country was as well. Jefferson was a perfect man of the Enlightenment as he was both classically educated and trained in the humanities as well as very practical and empirical. As the author of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson shaped the country by solidifying the ideas of natural rights in terms of government and religion. In addition, he understood the importance of education in making these ideals work in the new nation and founded the University of Virginia. In many ways, Jefferson represents the way Enlightenment ideals could be put into practice in the new colonies. Other men, such as Benjamin Franklin for example, were similar and since they had such a hand in formulating many of the institutions and tracts the country is based on, their Enlightenment ideas live on

Without the Enlightenment as the philosophical basis of this country, one can only imagine how different would be today. Important guarantees of human and natural rights, expressions of freedom and the rights of citizens to have free choice and practice religious freedom are all vital aspects in America still. Locke, Newton, and other Enlightenment thinkers put forth ideas about liberty and personal will that went on to be key aspects in the most important documents in America such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

Other articles in the History Archives that are related to this topic include: A Comparison of the French Revolution and American Revolution The Influence of the Renaissance on Modern American Society Marx and Locke: Comparison of Views on Government, Property and Labor Puritan Influences on Modern American Culture and Thought Common Themes in Romanticism, The Enlightenment, and the Renaissance

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The competition to produce inexpensive meat, eggs, and dairy products has led animal agribusiness to treat animals as objects and commodities. The worldwide trend is to replace small family farms with factory farmslarge warehouses where animals are confined in crowded cages or restrictive pens.

If the anti-cruelty laws that protect pets were applied to farmed animals, many of the most routine U.S. farming practices would be illegal in all 50 states.

Peter Cheeke, PhD, Oregon State University Professor of Animal Agriculture, Contemporary Issues in Animal Agriculture, 2004 textbook

According to Professor Bernard E. Rollin: [I]ndividual animals may produce, for example, gain weight, in part because they are immobile, yet suffer because of the inability to move. In the case of battery-cage egg production, Rollin explains that though each hen is less productive when crowded, the operation as a whole makes more money with a high stocking density: chickens are cheap, cages are expensive.

In an article in favor of cutting the space per pig from 8 to 6 square feet, industry journal National Hog Farmer advises that Crowding pigs pays.

The Economist, What Humans Owe to Animals, 8/19/95

In the United States, virtually all birds raised for food are factory farmed. Inside the densely populated sheds, vast amounts of waste accumulate. The resulting ammonia levels commonly cause painful burns to the birds skin, eyes, and respiratory tracts.

Peter Cheeke, PhD, Contemporary Issues in Animal Agriculture, 2004 textbook

Todays broiler reaches market weight in about one third the time it took the traditional broiler. This rapid growth rate has been accompanied by an increasingly high incidence of conditions that cause suffering, such as ascites and painful skeletal deformities. According to Professor John Webster of the University of Bristols School of Veterinary Science, Broilers are the only livestock that are in chronic pain for the last 20% of their lives. In order to avoid problems of reproduction and lameness associated with obesity, broilers used for breeding are severely feed restricted.

Bernard E. Rollin, PhD, Farm Animal Welfare, Iowa State University Press, 2003

Packed in cages (usually less than half a square foot of floor space per bird), hens can become immobilized and die of asphyxiation or dehydration. Decomposing corpses are found in cages with live birds.

To cut losses from birds pecking each other, farmers remove a third to a half of the beak from egg-laying hens, breeding chickens, and most turkeys and ducks. Without pain relief, the beak is partially amputated with a heated blade; or the end is damaged with a laser, infrared beam, or powerful electric spark and sloughs off days later. The birds suffer severe pain for weeks. Some, unable to eat afterwards, starve.

Each week, hundreds of thousands of laying hens die on U.S. farms. Most endure one to two years of battery-cage confinement before theyre disposed of as spent hens.

By the time their egg production declines, the birds skeletons are so fragile that many suffer broken bones as theyre removed from the cages. Hens who are transported to slaughter often endure long journeys and sustain further injuries. Flocks killed on-site are gassed, rendered, composted, or destroyed by other means (for example, on two California farms, workers fed 30,000 live hens into wood chippers).

Male chicks, of no economic value to the egg industry, are typically macerated (ground up alive) or gassed. In some cases, they are simply thrown into garbage bags alive, as depicted in the picture below of chicks dead and dying in a dumpster behind a hatchery.

Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

Albert Einstein, letter dated 1950, quoted in H. Eves Mathematical Circles Adieu, 1977

In the September 1976 issue of the trade journal Hog Farm Management, John Byrnes suggested, Forget the pig is an animal. Treat him just like a machine in a factory.

Over 30 years later, National Pork Producers Council spokesperson Dave Warner showed dismay at the idea that pigs should be given more space:

So our animals cant turn around for the 2.5 years that they are in the stalls producing piglets. I dont know who asked the sow if she wanted to turn around.

Theres a schizoid quality to our relationship with animals, in which sentiment and brutality exist side by side. Half the dogs in America will receive Christmas presents this year, yet few of us pause to consider the miserable life of the pigan animal easily as intelligent as a dogthat becomes the Christmas ham.

Michael Pollan, An Animals Place, The New York Times Magazine, 11/10/02

Morley Safer described on 60 Minutes:

This [movie Babe] is the way Americans want to think of pigs. Real-life Babes see no sun in their limited lives, with no hay to lie on, no mud to roll in. The sows live in tiny cages, so narrow they cant even turn around. They live over metal grates, and their waste is pushed through slats beneath them and flushed into huge pits.

On September 17, 2008, the Associated Press reported on a cruelty investigation performed by PETA at a pig farm in Iowa. The report stated in part:

The video, shot by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, shows farm workers hitting sows with metal rods, slamming piglets on a concrete floor and bragging about jamming rods into sows hindquarters

At one point in the video, workers are shown slamming piglets on the ground, a practice designed to instantly kill those baby pigs that arent healthy enough. But on the video, the piglets are not killed instantly, and in a bloodied pile, some piglets can be seen wiggling vainly. The video also shows piglets being castrated, and having their tails cut off, without anesthesia.

To visit a modern CAFO (Confined Animal Feeding Operation) is to enter a world that, for all its technological sophistication, is still designed according to Cartesian principles: animals are machines incapable of feeling pain. Since no thinking person can possibly believe this any more, industrial animal agriculture depends on a suspension of disbelief on the part of the people who operate it and a willingness to avert your eyes on the part of everyone else.

More than any other institution, the American industrial animal farm offers a nightmarish glimpse of what capitalism can look like in the absence of moral or regulatory constraint. Here in these places life itself is redefinedas protein productionand with it suffering. That venerable word becomes stress, an economic problem in search of a cost-effective solution, like tail-docking or beak-clipping or, in the industrys latest plan, by simply engineering the stress gene out of pigs and chickens. Our own worst nightmare such a place may well be; it is also real life for the billions of animals unlucky enough to have been born beneath these grim steel roofs, into the brief, pitiless life of a production unit in the days before the suffering gene was found.

Michael Pollan, An Animals Place, The New York Times Magazine, 11/10/02

For many people, dairy farming conjures up images of small herds of cows leisurely grazing on open pastures. Although scenes like this still exist in the United States, most milk is produced by cows raised in intensive production systems. Some cows are housed indoors year-round, and lactating cows are often kept restrained in tie stalls or stanchions.

From 1940 to 2016, average per-cow milk production rose from 2 to 11 tons per year; some cows have surpassed 36 tons. High milk yields often causes udder breakdown, leading to early slaughter.

Although they dont reach mature size until at least 4 years old, dairy cows first give birth at about 2 years of age and are usually bred again beginning at about 60 days after giving birth, to maintain a yearly schedule. It is unprofitable to keep dairy cows alive once their milk production declines. Each year, approximately one quarter of the cows who survive the farms are sent to slaughter, most often due to reproductive problems or mastitis. Cows can live more than 20 years, however theyre usually slaughtered and used to produce ground beef at about 5 years of age, after roughly 2.5 lactations.

On the majority of dairy farms, calves are separated from their mothers within 12 hours of birth. The males are mainly sold for veal or castrated and raised for beef. Bob veal calves are killed as soon as a few days after birth; those used to produce special-fed veal are typically kept tethered in individual stalls until slaughtered at about 16 to 20 weeks of age. The female calves are commonly subjected to tail docking, dehorning, and the removal of extra teats. Most are kept in individual hutches or pens, often outdoors or in an unheated barn, and fed colostrum, then saleable or unsaleable/waste milk or a milk replacer until weaned, typically at about 9 weeks of age. Pneumonia and digestive disorders are the most common causes of death among female calves who survive beyond 48 hours but die before weaning.

Historically, man has expanded the reach of his ethical calculations, as ignorance and want have receded, first beyond family and tribe, later beyond religion, race, and nation. To bring other species more fully into the range of these decisions may seem unthinkable to moderate opinion now. One day, decades or centuries hence, it may seem no more than civilized behavior requires.

The Economist, What Humans Owe to Animals, 8/19/95

The term downer refers to an animal who is too injured, weak, or sick to stand and walk. The exact number of downer cattle on U.S. farms or feedlots or sent to slaughter facilities is difficult to ascertain, but estimates approach 500,000 animals per year; most are dairy cows. Complications associated with calving and injuries from slipping and falling are leading causes.

Evidence revealing widespread mistreatment of downer dairy cows hit the news in January 2008, when the Humane Society of the United States released footage from its undercover investigation of a California slaughter plant that supplied beef for the nations school lunch program:

In the video, workers are seen kicking cows, ramming them with the blades of a forklift, jabbing them in the eyes, applying painful electrical shocks and even torturing them with a hose and water in attempts to force sick or injured animals to walk to slaughter.

Temple Grandin, a renowned expert on animal agriculture and professor at Colorado State University, called the images captured in the investigation one of the worst animal abuse videos I have ever viewed.

See the HSUS report and video, and this Washington Post article; also HSUSs 2009 investigation of a dairy calf slaughter plant in Vermont.

A downed dairy cow. (Photo: Farm Sanctuary)

Before animals are slaughtered, they must be transported to the slaughterhouse. In the case of cows or steers, they are typically taken to a stockyard first, where they are auctioned off.

On the trucks, birds, pigs, sheep, or cows are crammed together. Mammals must stand in a slurry of urine, feces, and vomit; those who fall and cant get up may be trampled or suffocate.

The slatted trucks expose the animals to extreme temperatures. Some may suffer dehydration or frostbite, or become frozen to the trailers or cages.

Hot weather and humidity are deadly to pigs. Approximately 200,000 pigs die on their way to slaughter every year in the United States.

Like this bull I had last yearthis bull was one of the biggest bulls Ive ever seen. It was at the very front of the trailer. And the spirit it had, he was just trying his hardest to get off the trailer. He had been prodded to death by three or four driversbut his back legs, his hips have given out. And so basically they just keep prodding it. So it took about 45 minutes to get it from the front nose of the trailer to the back ramp.

Then from there it was chained with its front legs, and it fell off the ramp, smashed onto the floor, which I dont know how many feet that would be but quite a racketI just said, Why dont you shoot the damn thing? Whats going on? What about this Code of Ethics?

This one guy said, I never shoot. Why would I shoot a cow that can come off and theres still good meat there? When I first started, I talked to another trucker about downers. He said, You may as well not get upset. Its been going on for many years. It will go on for the rest of my life and your life. So just calm down about it. It happens. Youll get kind of bitter like I did. You just dont think about the animals. You just think that they arent feeling or whatever.

interview with a Canadian livestock trucker from A Cow at My Table, 1998 documentary

At Bushway, a calf slaughtering facility in Vermont, newborn male calves are typically brought in at one to seven days old. They are often trucked from long distances away, 10 or 12 hours or more, and they often arrive injured, weak and dehydrated. As a result, calves may arrive downed and unable to get up.

I witnessed animal handlers at Bushway grab a downed calf by a hind leg and drag him down an unloading ramp. Another calf was dragged through the holding pens. Dragging any non-ambulatory animal is against regulations. During another delivery, a handler swore at a downed calf and threw him off the second tier of the hauling trailer like a football.

Calves arriving at Bushway after slaughter hours were destined to spend yet another 1218 hours without food, when already they had been deprived of sustenance for perhaps days, since they were usually removed from their mothers immediately after birth. Sometimes calves are held overnight and it always broke my heart that employees would carry the bodies of these dead baby calves out of the pen because they died of dehydration and starvation.

A deadpile of pigs. (Photo: PETA)

Animals who survive the farms and transportwhether factory-farmed or free-rangeare slaughtered.

In the slaughterhouse, the animals can typically smell, hear, and often see the slaughter of those before them. As they struggle, theyre often abused by frustrated workers, who are under constant pressure to keep the lines moving at rapid speeds.

Jeremy Bentham, An Introduction to the Principles of Morals & Legislation, 1789

The Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, a federal law, requires mammals (other than rabbits) be stunned prior to slaughter (exempting religious slaughter). Typically, electric current is used to induce a heart attack and/or seizure; or a captive bolt gun is used to deliver a blow to the skull or shoot a rod into the animals brain.

Its not uncommon for an animal to suffer one or two failed stuns. In the case of a failed electrical stun, an animal may be paralyzed without losing sensibility. Unconscious animals whose necks are not cut soon enough may regain their senses after being hung on the bleed rail.

The Washington Post reported that, Hogs, unlike cattle, are dunked in tanks of hot water after they are stunned to soften the hides for skinning. As a result, a botched slaughter condemns some hogs to being scalded and drowned. Secret videotape from an Iowa pork plant shows hogs squealing and kicking as they are being lowered into the water.

You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Fate, The Conduct of Life, 1860

During religious slaughter, such as kosher and halal, animals are usually fully conscious as their throats are cut. This is supposed to induce rapid loss of consciousness. However, in a study of cattle at five kosher slaughter plants in several different countries, the timefrom the end of the cut until the eyes rolled back and the cow started to collapseranged from 8 to 120 seconds. Some cattle may have prolonged periods of sensibility lasting up to 385 seconds.

Animals are Gods creatures, not human property, nor utilities, nor resources, nor commodities, but precious beings in Gods sight.

Rev. Andrew Linzey, Oxford University, Animal Theology, 1995

Undercover videos taken by PETA between 2004 and 2008 at two U.S. kosher slaughterhouses revealed workers ripping the tracheas and esophagi from the throats of fully conscious cattle after the ritual cut; some of the animals are shown writhing in pools of blood, struggling to stand for minutes afterwards.

In Thinking in Pictures, Dr. Temple Grandin describes the shackle and hoist method of ritual slaughter:

Prior to slaughter, live cattle were hung upside down by a chain attached to one back leg. It was so horrible I could not stand to watch it. The frantic bellows of terrified cattle could be heard in both the office and the parking lot. Sometimes an animals back leg was broken during hoisting.

The shackle and hoist procedure can be seen in PETAs December 2009 video footage of a South American plant that supplies kosher meat to the United States.

See also: If This Is Kosher video; shechita photos.

Do we, as humans, having an ability to reason and to communicate abstract ideas verbally and in writing, and to form ethical and moral judgments using the accumulated knowledge of the ages, have the right to take the lives of other sentient organisms, particularly when we are not forced to do so by hunger or dietary need, but rather do so for the somewhat frivolous reason that we like the taste of meat?

In essence, should we know better?

Peter Cheeke, PhD, Oregon State University Professor of Animal Agriculture, Contemporary Issues in Animal Agriculture, 2004 textbook

Over 95 percent of U.S. land animals killed for food are birds, yet they are exempt from the federal Humane Methods of Slaughter Act and there is no federal law requiring they be handled humanely. To facilitate automated slaughter, birds are usually immobilized via electrical stunning. Hanging in shackles, the birds heads are passed through an electrified water bath.

It is not known whether this renders them unconscious, and the potential for birds suffering severely painful pre-stun shocks is difficult to eliminate. Each year, several hundred thousand chickens and turkeys reach the scalding tanks alive.

In 2015, the Humane Society of the United States released a video documenting the scalding of live hens, forced upside down into tanks of scorching hot water in which they drown. Watch the video below.

Turkeys enter the slaughter area, hanging shackled by their legs. The pain birds suffer from shackling can be extreme and inevitably causes violent wing flapping, which may result in dislocated joints and broken bones. Due to their wingspan, turkeys are prone to intensely painful pre-stun shocks.

In January of 2007, a Mercy For Animals investigator took a job in North Carolina at one of the nations largest poultry slaughterhouses to witness the conditions firsthand: Birds with broken legs and wings, open wounds, and large tumors were shackled and hung on the slaughter line; some of the injured were left writhing on the floor for hours beforehand. Workers punched, kicked, threw, and mutilated live birds; they tore eggs from the birds cloacae to toss at coworkers, and ripped the heads off birds who were trapped inside the transport cages.

A year later, PETA released footage of two other large plants, in Tennessee and Georgia, where many conscious birds were mangled by the killing machines or had their heads yanked off by workers. PETAs 2005 investigation of an Alabama plant, also found the neck-cutting machines routinely missed, slicing open the chickens wings, faces, and other body parts; numerous birds entered the scalding tanks for feather removal while fully conscious. The three facilities were owned by Tyson, a leading supplier to KFC.

Between October 2003 and May 2004, an undercover PETA investigator captured footage at a Pilgrims Pride chicken slaughterhouse in West Virginia. Workers were filmed violently and repeatedly throwing live chickens into a wall, picking chickens up by their legs and swinging their heads into the floor, and kicking and jumping up and down on live chickens. According to a New York Times article on the investigation, this plant had previously received KFCs Supplier of the Year award.

Below are two of the many chickens whose bodies were sliced open by the killing machines at the Alabama plant investigated by PETA in 2005.

On March 4, 2010, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a hearing on the Continuing Problems in the USDAs Enforcement of the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act. Stan Painter, who served as a Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) inspector for more than 24 years and has been chairman of the National Joint Council of Food Inspection Local Unions for over 6 years, testified:

The agency claimed that there was a full complement of staffing at Hallmark/Westland when that situation came to light, yet the facility management was able to game the system and abused animals in order to squeeze every last penny for the bottom line. There are some slaughter facilities in this country that are processing cattle at 390 head per hour and hogs at 1106 head per hour. At that rate of production, we would need to increase the number of inspectors assigned to be able to enforce all of laws and regulations adequately

We are also hamstrung by our supervisors who are either not qualified to do their jobs, unwilling to let us do our jobs, or who are not committed to making animal welfare a priorityeither in FSIS-regulated facilities or in their private lives.

True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power.

Humanitys true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals.

And in this respect humankind has suffered a fundamental debacle, a debacle so fundamental that all others stem from it.

Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, 1984

Dr. Dean Wyatt, an FSIS supervisory public health veterinarian for over 18 years, provided a statement citing several examples of the violations he observedat both Bushway and Seaboard Farms, a large pig slaughterhouse in Oklahomaand the struggles he endured trying to enforce the law:

When upper-level FSIS management looks the other way as food safety or humane slaughter laws are broken, or, as has been my experience, retaliates against people who are enforcing those laws, then management is just as guilty for breaking those laws as are the establishments. The laws are there. The enforcement of those lawsin my experiencehas not been there and, in fact, has been willfully ignored by well-paid public officials.

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Lecture delivered for the course on Therapeutic Interventions at the Inter University Center, Dubrovnik, Croatia. 18 - 24 June 2006

The purpose of this lecture is to give an overview of the emerging strengths/empowerment perspective in social work. Space would not permit an in-depth analysis of this view on social work intervention, but the most distinguishing characteristics will be touched upon.

The focus on strengths and empowerment has gained considerable prominence over the last couple of decades (Cowger, 1994:262) and represents a major paradigm shift away from the problem-based approach that has been with social work for such a long time. Both approaches will have and keep its supporters for years to come, but the focus on strengths and empowerment has become too strong to be ignored. It constitutes a fascinating and refreshing way to look at clients and their circumstances and is characterized by its positive and optimistic view of people confronted by life's challenges.

Cowger and Snively (2002:106) see the purpose of social work as assisting people in their relationships to one another and with social institutions. For them, practice focuses on developing more positive and promising transactions between people and their environments. They regard the empowerment perspective as central to social work practice and see client strengths as providing the fuel and energy for that empowerment. Miley et al, (2004:91) express the relationship as follows: "strengths-oriented social work practice incorporates empowerment as both a concept and a process."

The first part of the paper will focus on the strengths perspective, while the second part will focus on empowerment as the process aspects of the strengths perspective. Its practice model components are listed below.

In order to understand and appreciate the contrasts between the strengths approach and the problem-based or deficit model, some of the assumptions of the problem-based model should be considered.

Saleebey (2001:3) makes it clear that social work and other professions have not been immune to the contagion of the disease- and disordered-based thinking. He explains that much of social work theory and practice has been developed around the supposition that clients become clients because they have deficits, problems, pathologies, and diseases; that they are in some way weak or flawed. Saleebey points out that more sophisticated terminology prevails today, and he very cynically declares that the metaphors and narratives that guide out thinking and acting which are often penpered over with more salutary language are sometimes negative constructions and fateful for those we are trying to help. Weick et al. (1989:351) agree with this by saying that attention "to people's inability to cope is a central expression of the prevailing perspectives on helping." They argue that approaches differ in the way the problem is defined, but that virtually all schools of therapeutic thought rest on the belief that people need help because they have a problem that in some way sets them aside from people who are thought not to have that problem. It is further explained (Weicks, et al. 1989: 350) that although social work has not been oblivious to the importance of recognizing individual strengths in practice encounters, "a subtle and elusive focus on individual or environmental deficits and personal or social problems remains in recent frameworks".

Cowger (1994:262) observes that much of the social work literature on practice with families "continues to use treatment, dysfunction, and therapy metaphors and ignores work on family strengths developed in other professions." DuBois and Miley (2005:26) also drive the point home stating that the "professional literature abounds with information on functional problems, maladaptation, victimization and powerlessness." They feel that it too often happens that professionals identify deficits, incompetencies, and maladaptive functioning and yet seem unable to notice clients' strengths.

Saleebey (2001:3) came to the conclusion that the words and terms associated with pathology expresses the following assumptions and consequences:

Several authors have documented their reservations about the problem-based approach. Weick et al. (2001:351) who coined the term strength perspective (Smith, 2006: 13) summarized their views about the focus on the problem and the process of defining it as follows:

Saleebey (2001:103) condenses his reservations about a focus on problems as follows:

However, Saleebey (1996: 297) introduces a balance by pointing out that practicing from a strengths perspective does not require social workers to ignore the real troubles that dog individuals and groups. He emphasizes that problems like schizophrenia, child abuse, pancreatic cancer and violence are real. He explains that in the lexicon of strengths it is as wrong to deny the possible as it is to deny the problem. The expression of the dark cloud with the silver lining is a good comparison as is the case of the glass that is half full. He further explains by pointing out that the strength perspective does not deny the grip and thrall of addictions and how they can morally and physically sink the spirit and possibility of any individual. It does, however, deny the overwhelming reign of psychopathology as civic, moral, and medical categorical imperative. It does deny that most people are victims of abuse or of their own rampant appetites. It denies that all people who face trauma and pain in their lives inevitably are wounded or incapacitated or become less than they might. A good example of this perhaps was illustrated by the hijacking experienced by one of my university's previous vice-chancellors. When it was suggested that he gets counseling sessions, he denied that it was necessary and he never needed it. His strengths have been his strong spirituality and belief in himself, and to this day he does not suffer any consequences from the event.

As a practice perspective (Sheafor, et al. 1996:51) the strengths approach takes a different look at the client, his problems and his environment, and it requires a different approach from social workers. This is also echoed when Miley et al. (2004:81) stress that practitioners need to reexamine their orientation to practice, their views of client systems and the issues clients represent if the strength perspective is to be applied. According to them(2004:81), the practice of the strengths perspective will prompt social workers to examine three transitions from problems to challenges, from pathology to strengths and from a preoccupation with the past to an orientation to the future.

The statement was made in the introduction that the strengths approach is a major paradigm shift away from the problem-based approach. Saleebey (2001:1) makes the serious charge that authors of many textbooks, educators and practitioners all regularly acknowledge the importance of the principle of building on client's strengths but that these are "...little more than professional cant." He then states his view very clearly and forcefully:

"The strengths perspective is a dramatic departure from conventional social work practice. Practicing from a strengths orientation means this - everything you do as a social worker will be predicated, in some way, on helping to discover and embellish, explore and exploit clients' strengths and resources in the service of assisting them to achieve their goals, realize their dreams, and shed the irons of their own inhibitions and misgivings, and society's domination."

Saleebet (2002:1) elaborates and explains that when social workers adopt the strength approach to practice, they can expect exciting changes in the character of their work and in the tenor of their relationships with their clients. According to him, (2002:1) practice from a strengths perspective demands a different way of seeing clients, their environments, and their current situations. It is thus a practice perspective radically different from the problem-focused approach and it will take time for social work practitioners to change their mindset - moving from the known to the unknown. He (2002:2) also points out to rapidly developing literature, inquiries and practice methods in a variety of fields that bear a striking similarity to the strengths perspective - developmental resilience, healing and wellness, solution-focused therapy, asset-based community development and narrative and story to name a view. Saleebey (2002:2) explains that these elaborations are a reaction to our culture's continued obsession and fascination with psychopathology, abnormality, and moral and interpersonal aberrations.

Saleebey (2002:xvii) in the preface of his book on this topic states that much still has to be done with respect to inquiry and the further development of concepts and principles as well as techniques.

Miley et al. (2004:81) state that to apply the strengths perspective practitioners need to reexamine their orientation to practice, their view of client systems, and the interpretations of the issues clients represent. The same authors (2004: 81) identify what they call three key transitions social workers has to examine in practicing the strengths perspective viz problems or challenges, pathology or strengths, as well as past and future. These transitions serve as important guidelines in the paradigm shifts strengths-focused social workers have to make. Viewing problems as challenges, turning points, or opportunities for growth shifts the perspective and clients. The word 'challenge' has a different meaning than problems and creates a more positive frame of mind in both the client and the social worker. The same applies to the word 'strengths' as opposed to 'pathology' and the word 'future' as opposed to 'past.'

The strengths perspective is to a large extent given its character by its principles and its language. This will be briefly discussed below.

4.1 THE PRINCIPLES OF THE STRENGTHS PERSPECTIVE

Saleebey (1999:16) points out that strengths-based approaches differ from pathology-based approaches in both their language and the principles that guide and direct practice. He (Saleebey: 2002:13) points out that the principles of the strengths perspective are still tentative and maturing and subject to revision and modulation. He lists the following principles:

4.2 THE LANGUAGE OF THE STRENGTHS PERSPECTIVE

The strengths perspective has some typical words associated with it, giving it its character and telling practitioners something about the meaning of its perspective. According to Saleebey, these words are essential and direct us to an appreciation of the assets of individuals, families and communities. Some of them are as follows:

Empowerment. It has already been stated that empowerment is regarded as incorporated in the strengths approach. According to Saleebey (2002:9), empowerment "indicates the intent to, and the process of, assisting individuals, groups, families and communities to discover and expend the resources and tools within and around them." Empowerment is thus a helping process to assist people to use their strengths to overcome their challenges.

Membership. Membership is an important experience in people's lives. Saleebey (2001:10) warns that to be without membership is to be alienated, to be at risk for marginalization and oppression. People need to be citizens, responsible and valued members of a community. The strengths orientation proceeds from the recognition that all of those whom we serve are, like ourselves, members of a species, entitled to the dignity, respect and responsibility that come with such membership. He explains that too often it happens that the people we help have either no place to be (or to be comfortable) or no sense of belonging. He elaborates by stating that the sigh of relief from those who come to be members and citizens and bask in the attendant rights, responsibilities, assurances, and securities, is the first breath of empowerment. Another meaning to membership is that people must often band together to make their voices heard, get their needs met, to redress inequities, and reach their dreams.

Resilience. Reader's Digest Universal Dictionary (1987:1303) defines resilience as "the ability to recover quickly from illness, change or misfortune." Saleebey (2001:11) reports that there is a growing body of inquiry and practice that believes that the rule in human affairs is that people do rebound from serious trouble, that individuals and communities do surmount and overcome serious and troubling adversity. He explains that it does not mean ignoring difficulties and traumatic life experiences and neither is it a discount of life's pains. Resilience is a process - the continuing growth and articulation of capacities, knowledge, insight, and virtues derived through meeting the demands and challenges of one's world, however chastening. The process he refers to is the process of interaction between the person and his environment and it can be explained by the ecosystems approach on which the strengths perspective rests.

Healing and Wholeness. According to Saleebey (2001:11) healing implies both wholeness as well as the inborn facility of the body and the mind to regenerate and resist when faced with disorder, disease and disruption. Healing also requires a beneficent relationship between the individual and the larger social and physical environment. The healing process thus requires a supportive relationship between the individual and his/her environment if healing must take place. Healing and self-regeneration are intrinsic life-support systems, always working, and, for most of us most of the time, on call. This implies that the body and psyche starts responding when faced with a threat or a challenge. In many cases the body and mind succeeds in restoring the balance, but often they need outside intervention.

Dialogue and Collaboration. In the human and social sciences it is an accepted and proven fact that humans need relationships to grow and develop. For that very reason they will always seek to connect with other people. People need these relationships for healing and recovery. As Saleebey (2001:12) expresses it "humans can only come into being through a creative and emergent relationship with others." He points out that there can be no discovery and testing of one's powers, no knowledge, no heightening of one's awareness and internal strengths without outside relationships. He (2001:12) views dialogue as an instrument of confirming the importance of others and the process through which the rifts between self, others and institution are healed. Dialogue can thus be seen as facilitating the transactions between the person and his/her environment. It creates the kind of atmosphere in which the person becomes willing to try out his or her potential and strengths. It creates a horizontal relationship establishing mutual trust and confidence between the involved people.

Saleebey (2001) differentiates dialogue from collaboration by pointing out that the latter has a more specific focus. It requires particular roles of the social worker because s/he becomes agent, consultant and stakeholder with the client in mutually-crafted projects. This also allocates a different role and status to the client, one where s/he does meaningful work to tackle his/her challenges. Miley, et al. (2004:126) stress the importance of partnership between the worker and the client if the strengths perspective is to be actualized and empowerment encouraged. This corresponds with the view of DuBois & Miley (2005:200) pointing out that empowerment "presumes active, collaborative roles for client-partners."

Suspension of Disbelief. Being constructivistic in nature, the strengths/empowerment perspective questions the belief in a concrete and objective reality (Dubois and Miley, 2005:30). This implies that the client's representation of reality cannot be regarded as invalid or inaccurate and that the perception of the worker is the correct one. The client knows his reality the best and the worker must deal with it in the way the client describes it. This means that the social worker needs to shelve his disbelief in order to explore the client's world. Saleebey (200:81) encapsulates the above by stating that we must give credence to the way clients experience and construct their social realities if we want to recognize the strengths in people and their situations. He warns against the imposition from our own versions of the world.

Critical factors and community. Saleebey also lists (1996:300) critical factors and community as part of the lexicon of strengths. By critical factors he refers to the variables that will affect how an individual or group will respond to a series of traumatic, even catastrophic situations. Critical factors include "risk factors" which enhance the likelihood of adaptive struggles and poorer developmental outcomes and "protective factors" - conditions that enhance the likelihood of rebound from trauma and stress. He adds what he calls "generative factors" which are remarkable and revelatory experiences that, taken together, dramatically increase learning, resource acquisition, and development, accentuating resilience and hardiness.

By community Saleebey means community in a positive sense - a community with qualities supporting its members, creating opportunities, having an abundance of support systems, having clear expectations for its members and providing the tools for meeting such expectations.

Just about anything assisting you in dealing with challenges in your life can be regarded as strengths, and this will vary from person to person. Because of this it will be difficult to draw up an exhaustive list of strengths but Saleebey (2001:84) observes that "some capacities, resources, and assets do commonly appear in any roster of strengths." He lists the following strengths which are mostly the results of human developmental processes:

What people have learned about themselves: This refers to life experiences through which people learn a lot during their efforts to cope and survive which is a need in all of us. People learn from their successes as well as their failures. Their behavior is strengthened by their successes and their failures prompt them to look for alternatives.

Personal qualities, traits and virtues that people possess. These may be anything - a sense of humor, caring, creativity, loyalty, insight, independence, spirituality, moral imagination, and patience. Saleebey points out that these qualities are sometimes forged in the fires of trauma and catastrophe, or they may be the products of living, the gifts of temperament, and the fruits of experience. Whatever the qualities might be, they will be the effects of developmental processes in the life of the person.

What people know about the world around them. People get to know about the world around them in different ways and the more they know, the better they will understand and the better informed they will be. So many sources of learning exist in the modern world, of which formal education and informal learning are two of the most important sources. Saleebey (2001:85) mentions the possibility that a person may have developed a skill at spotting incipient interpersonal conflict or at soothing others who are suffering. Perhaps life has given an individual the ability to care and tend for young children or elders, or it could be that a person could use an artistic medium to teach others about themselves.

The talents that people have can surprise us sometimes (as well as surprising the individual as some talents have laid dormant over the years.). At some stage in their lives, people may discover talents they thought they'd never have. Many whites in South Africa lost their jobs as the result of the application of the affirmative action policy and had to look elsewhere for something that would keep bread on the table. Many of them discovered that they were good businessmen and started very successful businesses.

Cultural personal stories and lore. Saleebey (2002: 86) points out that these are often profound sources of strengths, guidance, stability, comfort or transformation and are often overlooked, minimized, or distorted. He describes how the stories of women have been shrouded through domination, but when recounted and celebrated, how these stories are sources of profound strength and wisdom. The South African history books will recount the stories of the very important role women played after the second Anglo Boer War in the upliftment of the so-called Boerevolk when people were poor and demoralized. The first welfare organizations in South Africa were started by women groups. I think many countries' histories bear witness to the strengths that women manifested in times of trouble and hardships. Cultural stories, narratives and myths, accounts of origins, migrations, trauma and survival may provide sources of meaning and inspiration in times of difficulty or confusion. Modern South African history will give accounts of the courage and perseverance of black women in their struggle for political freedom.

The pride of people as a strength cannot be overlooked. It is however buried under an accumulation of blame, shame and labeling, but it is often there to be uncovered.

Cowger & Snively (2001:106) identify strengths-based assessments as a problem area in the strengths perspective. According to them a review of the social work literature on human behavior and the social environment reveals that the typical textbook now makes reference to the strengths perspective, although there is little theoretical or empirical content on this topic, yet to be found in the areas of social work assessment, practice and evaluation. Hepworth, et al., (2002:190) point out that changes in practice have lagged far behind the change in terms from diagnosis to assessment, for social workers persistence in formulating assessments that emphasize the pathology and dysfunction of clients - despite the time-honored social work platitude that social workers work with strengths and not with weaknesses. The authors (2002:190) then proceed by identifying the following three ramifications of the tendency of practitioners to focus on pathology:

A strengths-based assessment will be different from a problem-based assessment due to the nature of the approach. It will be an ecosystemic assessment to consider the context in which the client finds himself or herself. Saleebey (2001:108) draws attention to the growing body of social work practice literature that applies their strengths perspective to individual, family and community assessment.

Saleebey (2001:115-117) views the assessment process as unfolding in two stages or phases: a first component whereby the worker and client define the problem situation or clarify why the client has sought assistance, and the second component, which involves evaluating and giving meaning to those factors that impinge on the problem situation. The first component is a brief summary of the identified problem situation or challenge the client faces while the second component involves analyzing, evaluating and giving meaning to those factors that influence the problem situation. Saleebey (2001:113) stresses the multidimensionality of assessment by distinguishing between the internal and external strengths of the client. The internal strengths come from the client's interpersonal skills, motivation, emotional strengths, and ability to think clearly. The client's external strengths come from family networks, significant others, voluntary organizations, community groups, and public institutions all of which support and provide opportunities for clients to act on their own behalf and institutional services that have the potential to provide resources. Cowger and Snively (2001:118) also propose the use of the following diagram of Cowger as an assessment tool.

Source: Saleebey, 2001

The analysis by Hepworth, et al., (2002:193) of the above framework of Cowger made them come to the conclusion that it alerts us to the fact that a useful assessment is not limited to either deficits or strengths, and that the environmental dimension is important as well as the personal.

According to Miley, et al. (2004:242) social workers and clients assess resource systems to discover gold, not causes or reasons. They point out that resources are relative, identifiable only in context. This is a significant viewpoint which refers to the unique person-environment configuration of the particular client. Miley et al. (2004:243) with the unique realities of clients in mind draw attention to the fact that the actual ways in which clients interact with their social and physical environments determine what functions as resources to the clients. To complete an empowering assessment, the partners explore broadly for resources that may be present in the environment, in the interaction of clients with others, and even in other challenges that clients are facing. DuBois & Miley (2005) refers to competence clarification as part of assessment which means that the social worker should explore what the client is capable of doing. They (2005:209) quote Mallucio's guidelines for competence clarification that includes (1) clarifying the competence of the client system, including capabilities, strengths, resiliency , and resources; (2) clarifying the environment, including the availability of resources and supports, and the presence of barriers, risks and obstacles; and (3) clarifying the goodness-of-fit or balance between the requirements for and the actual availability of resources.

Hepworth et al. (2002:194) identified in the following list a number of strengths often manifested by clients in the first sessions.

Miley et al. (2004:250 - 258) list the following components arising from an ecosystems perspective on assessment:

Cowger & Snively (2001) propose the following guidelines for a strength assessment

Many of these guidelines apply to any assessment, but some are specifically related to a strengths assessment. What is significant is that several of these guidelines emphasize a focus on the reality of the client, and the view that there should be a dialogue and partnership between the client and the social worker.

I would now like to come back to focus on spirituality as a strength mainly as the result of neglect of this aspect by social workers and the underestimation of its value in supporting the functioning of client systems.

Articles on spirituality in social work journals have become a significant trend over the last two decades after being neglected for quite a long time. Canda (quoted in Saleebey, 2002:63) concurs by pointing out that recognition of spirituality as a source of strength for people facing serious life challenges is growing rapidly amongst social workers. Moore ( 2003: 558) observes that the absence of a discourse on the matter of spirituality is conspicuous and baffling, when it is considered how often social workers confront such issues on a practical basis, and even more so when we remember social work's historical roots in spiritually informed communities. Miley et al. (2004:256) quotes Gotterer as stating that although practitioners historically included spirituality as an important dimension of assessment, it was often considered superfluous to the secular domain of practice. It was however discovered that many clients' innermost thoughts and feelings are rooted in spiritual beliefs which, rather than being a separate issue, serve as the foundation for the seemingly mundane activities of everyday life. Canda (1988:238) also points out that despite "repeated calls for professionals to focus on spiritual issues in practice, researchers agree that this area has been neglected".

Zapf (2005:634) offers a laudable explanation for what he perceives as the reason for ignoring, neglecting and even discouraging spirituality by the mainstream professions. He suggests that as a profession seeking to improve its status as an evidence-based scientific discipline, social work may have avoided spiritual issues that could be perceived as unscientific or difficult to categorize and use in practice. He explains further and pointing out that in the Western helping professions, religious and spiritual factors have often been linked more to pathology and impediments rather than seen as strengths or resources in a client's situation. The very scope of spiritual practice and understanding can be threatening for practitioners seeking to demonstrate professional competence with intervention techniques that are under their control. To this the author wants to add that social workers who are not religious themselves may find it difficult to bring spirituality into their practice, especially if spirituality is confused with a particular religious belief system. Zapf (2005:634) then makes the observation that "in spite of these patterns from the history of social work, there is strong evidence in the recent literature of a renewed interest in spirituality and social work".

Hodge (2001: 204) states that spirituality and religion often are used interchangeably, but they are distinct, although overlapping concepts. He explains that religion flows from spirituality and expresses an internal, subjective reality, corporately, in particular institutionalized forms, rituals, beliefs and practices. Spirituality is defined by him as a relationship with God, or with whatever is held to be the Ultimate that fosters a sense of meaning, purpose and mission in life. In turn, this relationship produces fruit (such as altruism, love, or forgiveness) that has a discernable effect on an individual's relationship to self, nature, others, and the Ultimate.

Miley, et al. (2004:235) entertain the following views on spirituality: "Although specific beliefs and practices vary considerably, religious affiliation and spirituality have resources to offer. Affiliating with a community of faith provides a network of personal relationships and concrete support in times of need. Specifically, spiritual beliefs and practices strengthen the ability to withstand and transcend adversity and are virtual wellsprings for healing and resilience. Common beliefs, stories of the faith, holy days and ritual celebrations forge a sense of communal identity and purpose. Compassion, love and forgiveness - themes in most religions - contribute to personal and interpersonal healing. Commitment to a faith can initiate a sense of meaning, renewal and hope for the future. Religious commitment may encourage concerns for the welfare of others and, for some, foster a zeal for addressing injustices".

Hodge (2001:204) mentions that the most widely used spiritual assessment tools are quantitative measures but he points out that those quantitative measures have been criticized as being incongruent with social work values. The reason for this is that the "subjective, often intangible nature of human existence is not captured" (Hodges, 2001:204). He proposes the use of qualitative approaches in assessing spirituality because they "tend to be holistic, open-ended, individualistic, ideographic, and process oriented". He feels that as such they offer particular strengths in assessing clients' spirituality, where riches of information can be of particular importance. He offers an assessment framework consisting of an Initial Narrative Framework and an Interpretive Anthropological Framework, which is reproduced in full below.

Initial Narrative Framework

Interpretive Anthropological Framework

Source: Hodge, D. 2001.

As Hodge (2001:207) describes and as can be seen from the framework, the first section provides for three categories of questions incorporating increasing levels of personal revelation and allowing time for the therapist to establish trust and rapport before more intimate information is shared.

The Interpretive Anthropological Framework is a multidimensional framework for understanding the personal subjective reality of spirituality in client's lives. The questions are not sequential but are intended as guides to alert practitioners to the various components of each domain and to create an awareness of the potentiality of clients' spirituality (Hodge, 2001:208). According to Hodge (2001:209), the Interpretive Anthropological Framework is designed to evoke the following empirically-based strengths:

As far as assessment of spirituality is concerned, Hodge (2005:316) discusses five spirituality assessment methods viz spiritual histories, spiritual life maps, spiritual genograms, spiritual ecomaps and spiritual ecograms. Amongst these, only the first one is based verbally, while the others are all pictorial. representations. A spiritual history is analogous to conducting a family history. In the spiritual history approach two question sets from the framework above are used to guide the conversation. The Initial Narrative Framework is used to provide practitioners with some tools to help clients tell their stories, moving from childhood to the present. The Interpretive Anthropological Framework is designed to elicit spiritual information as clients relate their stories.

Spiritual life maps represent a diagrammatic alternative to spoken spiritual histories (Hodge, 2005:316). It is a pictorial delineation of a client's spiritual journey. Spiritual life maps are illustrated accounts of clients' relationship with God (or transcendence) over time - a map of their spiritual life. They tell us where the clients have come from, where they are now and where they are going.

Spiritual genograms provide social workers with a tangible graphic representation of spirituality across at least three generations (Hodge, 2005:319). They are blueprints of complex intergenerational spiritual interactions.

Spiritual ecomaps focus on clients' current spiritual relationships. They focus on the portion of clients' spiritual story that exists in present space (Hodge, 2005:320)

Spiritual ecograms are a combination of the assessment strengths of spiritual ecomaps and spiritual genograms. Ecograms tap information that exists in present space, much like a traditional spiritual ecomap, and they also access information that exists across time like a spiritual genogram (Hodge, 2005:321). These tools are exactly the same as the various diagrams picturing the different aspects of family life, but these are with a spiritual overlay and can be helpful in making the client aware of his spiritual world.

Although dealt with differently conceptually, strengths and empowerment cannot be separated in practice. The one without the other is impossible. Empowerment is the practice approach embedded in the strengths perspective and consists of a variety of techniques used by the social worker to stimulate strengths within the client and in his environment. Adams (2003: 8) defines empowerment as "the means by which individuals, groups and/or communities become able to take control of their circumstances and achieve their own goals , thereby being able to work towards helping themselves and others to maximize the quality of their lives."

Lee (1994: 13) uses the following definition of empowerment in his exposition of the concept:

"Empowerment is a process whereby the social worker engages in a set of activities with the client...that aim to reduce the powerlessness that has been created by negative evaluations based on membership of a stigmatized group. It involves identification of the power blocks that contribute to the problem as well as the development and implementation of specific strategies aimed at either the reduction of the effects from indirect power blocks or the reduction of the operation of direct power blocks."

Hepworth & Larsen (2002:438) define empowerment as "enabling groups or communities to gain or regain the capacity to interact with the environment in ways that enhance resources to meet their needs, contribute to their well-being and potential, give their life satisfaction, and provide control over their lives to the extent possible."

Of the three above definitions, the two latter ones seem to refer to groups and communities while the first one does not rule out the individual. Empowerment should include the individual because eventually it is the individual that is disempowered.

Miley et al. (2004:91) point out that oppression, discrimination, injustice, and experiences of powerlessness are the very circumstances that call for the application of empowerment-based social work practice. To address these issues of oppression, injustice, and powerlessness, strengths-oriented social work practice incorporates empowerment as both a concept and a process. According to Miley et al. (2004: 91) a pursuit of the goal of empowerment significantly affects the way social workers practice. It is first characterized by the application of an ecosystems perspective and a strengths orientation in practice. The fact that social workers apply the ecosystems perspective means that they consider client situations in context, search for client strengths and environmental resources, and describe needs in terms of transitionary challenges rather than fixed problems. It secondly means that social workers as generalists draw on skills for resolving many issues at many social system level, and respond to the connections between personal troubles and public issues.

Miley et al. (2004: 85) distinguishes between personal, interpersonal and socio-political dimensions of empowerment. Personal empowerment embodies a person's sense of competence, mastery, strength and ability to affect change while interpersonal empowerment refers to person's ability to influence others. According to Miley at al. interpersonal power comes from two sources. The first source of power is based on social status - for example power based on race, gender and class. The second is power achieved through learning new skills and securing new positions, which are key features of empowerment. The socio-political (structural) dimensions of empowerment involve person's relationships to social and political structures.

Empowerment is a political concept because it deals with power relationships but Adams (2003:8) explains that the political dimensions of the concept is not party political because "its activist tone transcends party politics" Cowger and Snively. Saleebey (2001:108) stresses that practice that recognizes issues of social and economic justice requires methods that explicitly deal with power and power relationships. This implies that empowerment strategies should be used to intervene in power relationships and should be effective in changing power positions.

Adams (2003:28) states that there is "no one agreed set of concepts and approaches to empowerment. The diversity of theories and models of empowerment reflects the lack of a single definition of the concept."

Lee (1994:300) regards the central processes of empowerment as developing a critical consciousness in the context of relationship through consciousness-raising and praxis: strengthening individual capacities, potentialities, and problem-solving skills; building group, collectivity and community; and taking action to change oppressive conditions. Basic helping processes and skills are divided into the following categories by Lee (1994:31):

Lee (1994) distinguishes between empowerment of individuals, groups, and communities. Lee (1994) and Miley et al. (2004:86) distinguish further between the personal, interpersonal and political layers of empowerment which will cut across the lives of individuals, groups and communities. For Miley et al. (2004:85) empowerment on the personal level refers to a subjective state of mind, feeling competent and experiencing a sense of control. They explain that people who experience personal power perceive themselves as competent. Competence is regarded as the ability of any human system to fulfill its function of taking care of itself, drawing resources from effective interaction with others, and contributing to the resource pool of the social and physical environment.

On the interpersonal level (Miley, et al., 2004:87) it refers to person's ability to influence others. Successful interventions with others and the regard others hold for us contribute to our sense of interpersonal empowerment. The social power of position, roles, communication skills, knowledge and appearance contribute to a person's feelings of interpersonal empowerment. Interpersonal power comes firstly from social status like race, gender and class, and secondly from learning new skills and securing new positions which are regarded as key features of empowerment.

The sociopolitical dimensions of empowerment (Miley, et al., 2004:88) refer to structural elements and involve person's relationships to social and political structures. It has to do with the fact that all human systems require an ongoing, expansive set of resource options to keep pace with constantly changing conditions. The more options, the more likely systems can manage their challenges. The fewer the options, the greater the vulnerability of systems.

Miley et al. (2004:311) provide one of the most comprehensive classifications of empowering strategies. They divide empowerment strategies into three categories viz the activation of resources, the creation of alliances and the expansion of opportunities. In each of these categories are a variety of techniques that could be used to achieve the goals of empowerment. Space does not allow the discussion of these strategies in detail, and only a summary of these strategies will be provided.

8.1 The activation of resources

Generalist Skills for Activating Resources

Maintaining Progress

Developing Power

Changing Perspectives

Managing Resources

Educating

Source: Miley, et al., 2004

8.2 The creation of alliances

Miley et al. (2004:343) emphasize the importance of social workers in creating and facilitating alliances for clients and themselves for the generation of resources for service delivery and the construction of supportive environments for practice. The strength of alliances is to be found in the establishing and improving of relationships and in mutual understandings between role-players in order to form a network of relationships which will empower the client systems. The following types of alliances are distinguished by them:

Client group alliances

Natural support alliances

Client-services alliances through case management

Organizational alliances

Professional support networks

The various alliances are presented by means of the diagram below.

Source: Miley, et al., 2004

Miley et al. (2004:344) stress that social work groups are vehicles for personal growth, skill development, and environmental change. Through group work, members may acquire new perspectives, be a support for one another, and also join forces for collective action.

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IUC Journal of Social Work Theory and Practice

Whos that good-looking guy? Nico examines itself and its surroundings in the mirror. (Credit: Justin Hart / Yale University )

Yale roboticists have programmedNico, a robot, to be able to recognize itself in a mirror.

Using knowledge that it has learned about itself, Nico is able to use a mirror as an instrument for spatial reasoning, allowing it to accurately determine where objects are located in space based on their reflections, rather than naively believing them to exist behind the mirror.

Nicos programmer, roboticist Justin Hart, a member of the Social Robotics Lab,focuses his thesis research primarily on robots autonomously learning about their bodies and senses, but he also explores human-robot interaction, including projects on social presence, attributions of intentionality, and peoples perception ofrobots.

Recently, the lab (along with MIT, Stanford, and USC) won a $10 million grantfrom the National Science Foundation to create socially assistive robots that can serve as companions for children withspecial needs. These robots will help with everything from cognitive skills to getting the right amount of exercise.

Harts specific goal in this program: enable Nico to interact with its environment by learning about itself, and using this self-model, to reason about tasks mainly ones for humans.

Only humans can be self-aware joins Only humans can recognize faces and other disgarded myths. Quiz: which of the posters on the wall in this 2005 cartoon (from The Singularity Is Near) should now be removed?

Previous researchers have built robots that acquire knowledge of the external world through experience, but Nico is different from those that have preceded it. Knowledge about the robot itself has generally been built in by the designer, Hart says. None of these representations offer the flexibility, robustness, and functionality that are present in people.

For example, Nico is learning the relationship of its end-effectors (grippers, for example) and sensors (stereoscopic cameras) to each other and the environment. It combines models of its perceptual and motor capabilities, to learn where its body parts exist with respect to each other and will soon learn how those body parts are able to cause changes by interacting with objects in the environment.

Nico in the looking glass

An object reflected in a mirror is a reflection of what actually exists in space, Hart says. If one were to naively reach towards these reflections, ones hand would hit the glass of the mirror, rather than the object being reached for.

By understanding this reflection, however, one is able to use the mirror as an instrument to make accurate inferences about the positions of objects in space based on their reflected appearances. When we check the rearview mirror on our car for approaching vehicles or use a bathroom mirror to aim a hairbrush, we make such instrumental use of thesemirrors.

The classic mirror test has previously been done with animals to determine whether they understand that their reflections are actually images of themselves. The subject animals are allowed to familiarize themselves with a mirror. They are then sedated and a spot of dye is put on their faces. When they awaken, if they notice the new spotof color in their reflection and then touch the place on their face where the dye was put, they pass the mirrortest.

To our knowledge, this is the first robotic system to attempt to use a mirror in this way, representing a significant step towards a cohesive architecture that allows robots to learn about their bodies and appearances through self-observation, and an important capability required in order to pass the MirrorTest, says Hart.

So far, no robot has successfully met this challenge. Jason and the Social Robotics Lab are working on it.

Reference (open access): Rajala AZ, Reininger KR, Lancaster KM, Populin LC (2010) Rhesus Monkeys (Macaca mulatta) Do Recognize Themselves in the Mirror: Implications for the Evolution of Self-Recognition. PLoS ONE 5(9): e12865. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0012865

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Robot learns self-awareness | KurzweilAI