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  •  November 20, 2022
     4:00 pm - 5:30 pm

Anti-Machinalization (a.k.a. Burn-out) Global Summit Part II ~Three Years Later~

with Sumie Ishikawa (Kitakyushu-city, Japan) & Amy Druker (Toronto, Canada)

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Have you seen anyone spending extraordinary hours working super-hard in isolation, being fueled by expectations or a sense of obligation/responsibility even though the initial fuel was un-mistakably passion, caring-ness, curiosity, creativity and/or social justice at too-precious a cost to relationships, health, sparkles in the eyes? We have a suspicion that such machinalization of human beings today is never a personal problem but a globally witnessed/experienced/encouraged phenomenon which could potentially have life-suffocating, or even life-threatening effects. In our first Anti-Machinalization Global Summit 2019, we invited the very problem ‘Machinalization’ as our guest speaker who proudly presented its techniques for machinalizing Sumie and so many other humans around the world. (Machinalization proudly donated its favorite 12 min animated presentation to honour its own brilliant accomplishment (see below).

During the last three years, Machinalization seems to have grown even more powerful, developing cruelly-sophisticated tactics for orchestrating its global influences. Anti-Machinalization Global Summit 2022 will again invite Machinalization as our controversial and provocative guest speaker and have Sumie Ishikawa (with rich ‘insider’ experience) interviewed by her dear narrative sister, Amy Druker. Participants will be invited to join in a group discussion, where taken-for-granted Machinalizing discourses and practices that are woven into the capitalistic structure of modern society can be called into question. Let’s imagine together small acts of co-resistance and more humanizing ways to survive and thrive in this ever-Machinalizing time we live in today!

Learning Objectives

The program supported me to:

  1. Identify the taken-for-granted discourses and practices that are woven into the capitalistic structure of modern society and could possibly threaten the wellbeing of ourselves, our loved ones, our ‘clients’ and colleagues.
  2. Describe the effects of the above discourses and practices on our professional and personal lives, and call them into question if necessary.
  3. Reflect on our own preferred ways of positioning ourselves and responding to particular socio-political discourses that play a significant role in constructing the problem as a “personal problem” and perpetuating the problem itself.
  4. Join in the narrative practice of co-researching in which co-researchers around the world collect and share the findings about the ‘externalized’ problem and continue in our effort to co-invent new ways of responding to the worldwide problem of machinalization that is too deeply-rooted in the collective culture to be solved by one individual.

In Preparation

Three years ago, Sumie introduced us through a brief video to “Machinalisation,” as he makes appearances in her life. In preparation for Part 2:

  • Please review the video again (now with English captions and Japanese subtitles).

If you have time, please review

Please join our Anti-Machinalisation League (see below)

Presenters

Amy Druker, Peggy Sax, & Sumie Ishkawa

Sumie Ishikawa (Kitakyushu, Japan) was born and grew up in Japan. Desiring for more freedom and adventures, she moved to Canada on her own and spent twelve beautiful years where she got to learn life-shiftingly-stimulating post-modern social work, questioned taken-for-granted ways of living/being through supporting women in an extremely marginalized community, fell in love with narrative therapy along the way, and came to reclaim my cultural and family heritage, piece by piece, that was becoming obscured by my longstanding efforts to assimilate and adapt to Euro-American society and culture with best intention. All these eventually led to my decision to move back to Japan in 2016.

Sumie is now practicing narrative therapy in Kitakyushu city in Japan at a mental health clinic as well as her private practice. Sumie is especially interested in collective problems/phenomena or particular way of living/being in response to the pressures by modern power and surveilling “gaze”, which she found distinctively visible in Japan, such as hikikomori* problem, panic attack, anorexia, and many more phenomena. Sumie’s passion is to co-research these collective problems/phenomena in order to create a social movement in small ways by putting a microphone to insider knowledges that are under-valued or ignored by the majority of society so that they and their living knowledges don’t disappear into silence or into pathologizing/blaming discourses, and that other people can get to learn from their expertise and condensed wisdom.

(*Hikikomori is alarmingly-growing social phenomenon in Japan where people don’t leave their home/room for years/decades without social interactions.)

Lodovica Guidarelli, Mona Klausing, Sumie Ishikawa & Amy Druker

Narrative ideas came to Amy Druker when she was seeking a way of working that did not insist on the de-politicizing of people’s suffering. She was particularly drawn to the idea of shining a light on the narratives that had been rendered invisible by dominant or ‘official’ narratives told (and often circulated) about the people she worked alongside as a harm reduction worker. She was conscious of the harms caused by the circulation of these ‘official’ narratives — and by being ‘storied’ in particular ways by persons in positions of power/authority. Amy was captivated by the task of seeking out the subordinated stories about a person’s resistance, hopes, values, commitments, purposes in life (the stories that could not have been predicted if we only knew the dominant story), and by the idea that people always resist injustices. Amy’s practice (and life) is guided by a commitment to social justice and the questioning of taken-for-granted ways of thinking about things (including the ‘doing’ of therapy, and the imposition of expert knowledge).

Until very recently, Amy worked in a public youth mental health agency in their walk-in and appointment-based counselling services for 7.5 years. Amy provides clinical ‘supervision’ and consultation at Breakaway Addiction Services. In her individual practice, she engages in individual, couple and family therapy and individual and group clinical ‘supervision’/co-learning conversations. Amy has taught on various narrative therapy topics for the Narrative Therapy Centre of Toronto, as a guest lecturer at the University of Toronto, and at various community agencies. For more information about her approach to therapy and/or clinical ‘supervision’ co/learning, please see her website: www.amydruker

Join our Anti-Machinalization League!

  • Witnesses Wanted From Around the World!

    It has been reported that Machinalization (M) and M’s family, relatives and associates are up to world-wide devious scheming that target humans quite indiscriminately, and pressure them into never-ending labour to the point of exhaustion, suffocation or disorientation. People have reported that these disorienting effects have interfered with their preferred way of being/living and of caring for relationships. M and M’s associates use only friendly and covert forces in an extremely cautious and socially-sophisticated manner. Many of those being targeted are convinced that they are to be blamed for their suffering, and do not recognize their experiences as the result of immoral crimes on M’s part that need reporting. As a result, it has been extremely difficult for the World-wide Anti-Machinalization League to comprehend the actual state of this crime, its targets, tactics, and the extent of social/cultural/political effects on the wellbeing of our world-wide community. Please add any witness to the following list. Anyone’s experience is welcome to be added! Anyone is welcome to share the list to alert people in our local community!
  • MM slash DD slash YYYY
  • For example: M, M’s cousin The Daily Grind. etc.
  • Any and all details are welcome!
  • Geographically, where exactly were you? What time of day or night did you see him? Was he in plain view or in the shadows? Have you seen him before in this or similar places, or is this a new sighting? Any other clues?
  • How do you think M chose this target? Was there anything that made this target especially vulnerable to M's influence? Any other clues?
  • What have we forgotten to ask that might help us further investigate this suspect?
  • We need your help to catch this suspect!
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Venue:  

Address:
https://zoom.us/j/8024720481

Description:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8024720481?omn=86396700408

International numbers available