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Advance Course Information


Winter 2004

This information effective for Winter 2004. Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.

Merrill College

[MERR-120]

120. Personal Empowerment

MWF, 3:30–5:00, Charles Merrill Lounge, Merrill College
Instructor: Frank Andrews
Office: 317 Thimann, 459-2776
E-mail: andrews@chemistry.ucsc.edu

Course Description:

This is an interdisciplinary course on Personal Empowerment, General Problem-Solving, Psychological Unblocking, Creativity, Goals, Wisdom, and Meaning and Richness in Life.

Much of this course is devoted to gaining skills at reaching our own goals, or what is sometimes called problem solving. How people identify, take on, and solve their problems will be considered through intensive personal scrutiny, exercises, and reading, both in class and outside of class. The purpose of the course is for the participants to experience control over their lives and to choose and solve problems that lead to their own long-term satisfaction and to the enrichment of their society. The course is of professional value for people who plan to be counselors, teachers, administrators, problem-solvers, or who wish to cultivate their creativity.

The following topics will receive special focus: problems, purposes, and goals; meaning in life; the origin and cultivation of emotions; languages, model-building, and reality; thinking and creativity; the steps of solving problems; common blocks and techniques of unblocking; what's it all for, and how do you experience appreciation, caring, concern, delight, enthusiasm, joy, sensitivity, surrender, and wonder in the process of it all.

Readings:

  • Writing Down the Bones, by Natalie Goldberg
  • The Art and Practice of Loving, by Frank Andrews
  • Meetings at the Edge, by Stephen Levine
  • Handouts

Notice: This course is intended for people of all majors who are doing well and want to do better. It is not a course in psychotherapy and is not designed for people who want psychotherapy.

Enrollment is limited. Admission is by permission of the instructor on interview and written application from the student. Copies of the syllabus are available on the notice board outside 317 Thimann. Get a copy, read it, tear off the last sheet, and use that to write an application letter. Bring the letter to me during my office hours, and we can talk in person.