You might think I don't have anything to do

I'm having one of those days where everything seems to connect to everything else.

We have another great week of events here with Brooke Harrington on Pop Finance and my old line manager Jonathan Powell on making peace in Northern Ireland.

But the event I am looking forward to most of all is Stan Cohen on Wednesday.  Stan's book States of Denial is a scholarly and compelling exploration of how it is people deny their responsibility for terrible things happening in the society around them.

Stan's analysis is based on a library of sociological and psychological research but also his own experiences as someone who was brought up in apartheid South Africa and lived for many years in Israel.

Stan sees denial as a necessary human capacity to enable us to cope with suffering in the world. The question is less why deny, but what shakes us out of this state: 'Why people don't shut out is more interesting than why they shut out' he says.      

Re my earlier posting, Stan described four ways in which we deny responsibility; obedience to superiors, conformity with society, necessity and - here's the link to Rita Carter - splitting of the personality. 

Stan's session has a brilliant chair - yes, alright it is my father - so I'm hoping we can explore what light his concept of denial sheds on the challenge of persuading people and nations to tackle climate change.

There are some still some places left for the event (which you can book on the web site) so do join us here on Wednesday.

No comments yet.

Please sign in below if you already have an account (your username will be your email address).

Don't have an account?

If you are a Fellow, please sign up for an account now to gain access to Fellows-only areas of our website.

Problems logging in? Forgot your password?

If you cannot login, or have forgotten your password, please go to our Password Reset page to change your password.

If this doesn't work, or you have any other queries regarding your account, just give us a call on +44 (0)20 7451 6927. Alternatively you can also email the Fellowship team.