Richard
Bryant-Jefferies
We need to start to reject
the short-term, materialistic and consumer-centred values that have crept
across the world like a cancer. We need to reject violence as the major element
within our entertainment. We need to see the cult of celebrity for what it
really is, a diversion from the real issues: Why is cancer and disease on the
increase? Why is our society becoming more violent and intolerant? Why are we
(in
We need to ask
serious questions of the societies that we live in. We need to ask what it is
that ails our societies and our world. What is the purpose of life? What is it
all about? Where do we find meaning? We need to seek out the co-operative and
collaborative values that must lie at the heart of any possibility of a
peaceful future. We must remember that peace is an effect, and not a cause. We
have to create the right climate of human relationship and interaction in order
for peace to exist, and this is true not only at an international level, but at
national, community and familial levels too. And it starts with ouselves, with our attitudes and our choices.
We need more
community. We need more compassion. We need more empathy for others. We need to
place human relationship, good, constructive human relationship, as the goal of
our endeavours. And we need to be better informed, to have more freedom to
think for ourselves and not to be constantly fed by a media that simply wants
headlines and greater circulation or viewing figures.
In the autumn of 2008 I am publishing my second novel entitled Alive and Cutting'.
Alive and Cutting takes you into the psychological world of self-injuring or
self-harming behaviour. A young woman aged 19 refers herself to counselling.
She is binge-drinking, depressed and knows she needs to talk to someone. A well
as the therapeutic dialogues there are scenes at Katie’s home where she cuts
herself, and scenes at the hospital where she is taken after one particularly
serious episode of cutting. Katie recovers memories and experiences parts of
her fragmented structure of self expressing themselves within the therapeutic
process. Memories of being a victim of sexual abuse emerge. As her journey into
her self deepens, her cutting becomes more damaging. The book casts a light
both on how childhood trauma can drive a person to self-harm later in life and
explores, within a therapeutic context, the emotional and psychological
landscape of self-harming behaviour.
In early 2008 my The Jigsaw of
Life' was published. It explores issues from cosmic evolution to what it is
to be a human being, including a strong focus on the person-centred approach in
a spiritual/transpersonal context. It also challenges the separative
and consumerist values that run contrary to the Soul-centred or spiritual
values that must become established within humanity if there is to be a
sustainable human future on planet Earth. This may sound grandiose, but the
reality is that the world is in a mess, and it has been caused by human beings,
and it is human beings that must sort it out. For this to happen we need new values
and a fresh vision of what we want the world to look like. If Life is like a
vast cosmic jigsaw within which we are all pieces, what final picture do we
want to find our place in, and will the Onlooker who created it 'see that it is
Good?' You can order your copy direct from me, or through all internet and High
Street Bookstores. It is time for a change, and we must all be that change.
Take a look at the cover, it's an awesome
image of the Earth as an incomplete jigsaw..
My first novel, Binge!, addresses the human and relational tragedy that is problem
drinking or alcohol abuse. It explores how childhood trauma can lead to
adults turning to alcohol with the potential for violence and self-harm that
can then arise. It is to be published by iUniverse in
the summer of 2007.
Enter my
website and read more about my thoughts and my books from the Living Therapy
series and other titles (including my inspirational ‘A Little Book of
Therapy’ and first novel Binge!),
the workshops that I offer, my Declaration of
Human Responsibilities, and the view of the world that I have. And finally,
check out information about Brandon Astor
Jones, a man writing from his death row cell in Georgia USA; a man with
only months, possibly only weeks left before his life is taken from him, and
who, after many years of incarceration, is still trying to make a positive
difference in the world.
Take care and take
heart. Have a good life and please try and make a positive and constructive
difference in our world.