toward a civil society:
anger management using gs
and
the techniques of the professional actor

Katherine Liepe-Levinson, PhD

Thursday, March 18, 7:00 PM
(After 6:30 Business Meeting)

Albert Ellis Institute
45 East 65th Street
NYSGS Members Free
Non-members $5

If we are to understand and productively manage the manage the conflicts of nations, first we must be able to better understand and manage how we act and react in the world as individuals. 

One of the challenges in both teaching and attempting to practice anger management skills in everyday life is dealing with the fear that if we attempt to manage our anger - we will be taken advantage of - we will end up as foils or "door mats" for the strong emotions or whims of others.  On the other hand sometimes in our aggressive attempts to "stand up for ourselves," our knee jerk or "signal reactions" to stressful, frustrating, disappointing, or even unfair situations ultimately cause us more harm than the initial situation without changing or defusing the problem.

From Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet, to the films, The War of the Roses (with Kathleen Turner, Michael Douglas, and Danny Devito) and Changing Lanes (with Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson), to the complex issues that create such serious conflicts between nations, the "one wrong turn deserves another" mentality delivers neither a constructive nor a lasting solution for ether individual or world woes.

This anger management workshop - Toward a Civil Society - uses General Semantics formulations, traditional rational-emotive behavior modification methods devised by Albert Ellis, and techniques employed by professional actors to be able to manage their emotions on stage at the drop of a hat.

Such anger management techniques can help us enhance our communication kills and better cope with life's challenges, frustrations, and disappointments - so that we can make the most beneficial and rational choices for ourselves while still respecting the rights of others.

Dr. Katherine Liepe-Levinson has worked in the fields of education and staff development for more than two decades.  Her background in education and prevention, and twenty-five years in the performing arts has produced a series of workshops )including Stress Management, Cultural Diversity Training, Anger Management, and Motivating Students to Learn) that explore important topical issues through traditional, science-based therapeutic models and the techniques of the professional actor.  She previously presented a NYSGS "Author Meets the Public" session discussing her book Strip Show:  Performances of Gender and Desire. 

Members of the New York Society for General Semantics are urged to attend the Annual Business and Election Meeting.  The Nominating Commitee has recommended the following persons to the Board for three year terms:

Martin Levinson
Katherine Liepe-Levinson
Juliet Neirenberg
Sophie Oakes
Roben Torosyan

Any other member may be nominated to serve on the Board.  any motion may be proposed by a member.  Such nominations and proposals must be requested by phoning the Society at 212-532-1467.

Roben Torosyan, PhD

Wednesday, April 21, 6:00 PM

Source of Life Center
352 Seventh Ave., 16th Floor
(between 29th & 30th Streets, just south of Penn Station)
NYSGS Members Free
Non-members $5

In our daily lives, how many times do we assume that to succeed we must compete.  How often does seeking cooperation, with a co-worker or a spouse, seem more like a naive ideal than a realistic possibility?  Countless workplaces, families, groups of all kinds operate on the belief for any one party (family member or co-worker) to do well another must lose or pay the price.  while "win/win" ideals are cliché in many circles, few people know well how to help others get beyond assumptions of competition. 

Participants in this workshop will play roles in a game theory simulation of interpersonal conflict.  Then we'll experiment with ways to adapt what was learned to particular contexts (relationships, classrooms, workplace teams, or otherwise). 

Learning objectives include:

• Discover pros and cons of win/lose, lose/lose, and win/win thinking.

• See the value of interdependence vs. simply dependence or independence.

• Practice finding a balance between courage and consideration.

• Grasp difference between scarcity and abundance mentality.

• Carry out methods for building synergistic relationships.

• Experiment with ways to arrive at mutually agreeable solutions.

• See how to align systems and structures toward collaboration.

• Perform and put proactive processes gradually into action.

Roben Torosyan has since 2001 been Founding Director of the University Writing Center and Lecturer at New School University, NYC, where he teaches critical thinking and writing, and runs faculty development workshops on teaching and communicating.  Previously he taught leadership, critical thinking, and decision making for five years at Pace University, where he was Acting Director of the Straus Thinking & Learning Center. 

Gerard Nierenberg, Board member and former President of NYSGS, and nationally known expert in body language and negotiating, was interviewed on TV and quoted in the New York Daily News regarding his interpretation of the body language shown in the January 22 debate between Kerry, Clark, Lieberman and Edwards.  "Dean didn't do badly in the debate after a shaky start," Nierenberg said, "and the interview with his wife overall was an asset.  They came across well as a couple, but it may have been a mistake to say their relationship was more important than the presidency.  Kerry wouldn't have said that.  Were they being honest?  I detected no signs of evasion from either Dean or his wife.  She started out with her hands on each other ib a defensive position, but that was understandable since it was her first interview.  Later she opened up."

President Bush was interviewed on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, February 8.  Nierenberg was quoted in the Daily News that "he started out with his hands folded in his lap, indicating he was a little nervous, but as the interview continued, he raised his hands to his chest several times, showing that he wanted to be honest.  My feeling is he sincerely believed what he was saying."

NYSGS
144 East 36^th St, #6C
New York, NY 10016.

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