From Poverty To Dignity

This book describes a 10 point psychology of empowerment, or alternatively, psychological crucifixion, as applied to the poor, especially African Americans, and to social institutions, especially community development corporations. The ten part theory was originally developed in his Harvard dissertation, "Towards a Humanistic Psychology," and his subsequent book, Radical Man: The Process of Psychosocial Development. The chapters cover empowerment, crucifixion, science, community development, CDCs, social marketing, social movements, and an overall vision of the results (now very dated). The poor are crucified by society. Empowerment through their own institutions is an effective antidote. On "the crucifixion dilemma," compare Robert Jay Lifton's Home from the War, on the crucifying victim/executioner dilemma. This dilemma is further extended in his Maps of the Mind, where Martin Luther King is seen as a healer of such crucifixions. "Dilemma theory" was key to his later work as a corporate consultant. Compare his Charting the Corporate Mind and his Creating Corporate Culture.