More Thoughts on Empowerment

Abstract

invitation to write this response to Emener's paper on came as something of a surprise. haven't written anything on says I, Why me? After a quick review of my publication list I realized that I've not written on much of anything else; I just hadn't used the word empowerment very often. Obviously, others were paying more attention than I was. Burnt-out Administrator (1980) ended with a section headed Reassessing Power. It differentiated push power from pull power, and power over others from power over oneself. following year, Psychology of Disability (1981) began a chapter titled Legislating: Long Arm of the Law with these words. The last chapter... 'Transcending: Disability as Growth Experience' suggested that benefits accrue when individuals can let go of personal power strivings. This chapter emphasizes the psychological benefits of belonging to a group with a solid, political power base. apparent conflict is resolved only by apprehending the developmental and multifaceted nature of the coping process. Law-making is a basic power approach designed to give freedom and equity to groups of people. Transcendence of power needs and approaches, as discussed in the previous chapter, is an individual's step toward liberation of a different kind. It becomes more attainable, it seems, after individuals have experienced the sense of being powerful in ways meaningful to them. Thus, while the previous chapter pointed out that excessive preoccupation with power may interfere with reaching the highest levels of self-actualization, this chapter unabashedly recounts the psychological values of having sufficient political influence to protect one's fundamental, self-evident, inalienable rights. Dream's Not Enough (1981), a film, and Women and Employment (1982), a monograph, were about empowering women with disabilities to chew their way out of a trap with two locks-- stereotypical careers for women that were also stereotypical careers for people with disabilities. This territory of empowering women to move into non-traditional employment has been so well worked by others during the eighties that no further word of explanation is needed. In Psychological Aspects of Rehabilitation Engineering (1983a) I tried to clarify why people with disabilities sometimes reject assistive devices ordered by professionals, in the hope of increasing providers' respect for consumers' choices. pivotal issue is the degree to which a device promotes accomplishment of life tasks which the consumer sees as important. To illustrate: If the client lives, s/he is motivated. When professionals declare clients, patients, students, etc. 'unmotivated,' what they mean is They're not motivated to play my game my way.When I rejected hand rims on my first wheelchair, many professionals would have taken that as evidence that I was Nothing could have been further from the truth. I had thought it all out and reached what seemed the best decision in view of my specific life goal at that time--getting a goodman: no hand rims because a) they would add to the distracting clutter of the wheelchair and I wanted people, especially men, to see me, and b) they would suggest that I could propel my own chair, which would interfere with the serene, helpless, graceful image I intended to project. Like a fox is crazy was I unmotivated. That may sound neurotic as hell now, but it was highly adaptive in 1951. And it was my decision, based on my perception of the important tasks in my life. My family and the professionals who served us bit their tongues, let me learn by my own mistakes if that was how it had to be, and did not disempower me by over-riding my judgement in order to protect me. Their faith and patience were rewarded. Once I accomplished the task of getting a good man, and my chosen life task became get a good JOB, I was instantly motivated to go for any devices that might help reach it, regardless of their effects on my appearance. …