FOUR COURSES IN THEORY & PRACTICE
The Four Courses in Theory & Practice introduce participants to ideas about consciousness that emerged from PW practice. These courses are open to any practitioner interested in evolving consciousness through a deeper engagement with Proprioceptive Writing®.
How the Mind Knows Itself, A Theory of Mental Proprioception
By analogy to the body’s sense of proprioception, the course proposes that the mind is also proprioceptive; It has the innate capacity to communicate with and learn from itself. This course is designed to give participants a firm grasp of the theory of mental proprioception and related concepts. The writings of William James and Walter Ong, among others, are referenced.
“Getting a hold of this new model for consciousness has radically altered my relationship to my mind. It has affected the way I think and feel about myself and others.”
— Bill H., PW practitioner
The Sense of Self and the Mother Dance
This course asks: why is our relationship to our mother (or mother-figure) central to our experience of ourselves? Every school of psychology has an answer to this question. This course takes as its premise D.W. Winnicott’s theory that a communication system between infant and good-enough mother-figure awakens in the infant’s mind its sense of self. We’ll explore the implications of this premise and its relevance to the model of mental proprioception.
“This course gave me a whole new way to think about my mother and myself.”
— Grace K., writer, PW practitioner
Social Factors Shaping Consciousness
The more awareness we develop of social and cultural forces influencing consciousness, such as sex/gender, racial designation, economic status, class affiliation, the greater our understanding of ourselves. Using sex/gender as our example, this course introduces participants to a study of social conditioning. Various feminist texts help us question basic assumptions of sex/gender and their impact on the subjective sense of self.
“Our social conditioning is so strong in us, and yet we’re largely unaware of it because it has always been there - like the water we’re swimming in. It’s restorative to begin to recognize that conditioning…the more you recognize it, the less power it has over you.”
— Maggie F., Digital Media Specialist
Hearing Writes Proprioceptively
This course is for anyone interested in hearing Writes (your own or others) proprioceptively, that is, from within an internal communication system which brings the listener into harmony with the Write.
Participants study sample Writes through Writes of their own, choosing one for discussion during the weekly conference call with PWC faculty.
“I took the course because I wanted to learn more about how to hear my own Writes proprioceptively. I learned so much. The course propelled me to another level of hearing myself, and consequently changed how I hear others.”
— Jake C., Episcopal Priest