Sadly, domestic violence is a reality in the modern world. Thankfully, the social attitude toward spousal abuse and other forms of domestic violence has gone from openly accepting in the early decades of the 20th century to almost universally un-accepting in the modern era. Even so, instances of domestic violence continue to occur in cities all over the nation involving people of all economic and ethnic backgrounds. If you are a victim of domestic violence, here are two options that you should immediately consider.
Domestic violence prevention is the most effective way of avoiding becoming a victim. Trained professionals are waiting to help you through the important transition from being scared and abused to be comfortable and safe. The most obvious way to prevent something from occurring is to remove yourself from the environment in which it occurs. Prevention is about more than just knowing how to defend yourself during confrontations, it is also about knowing how to take preemptive steps toward eliminating the occurrence of confrontations altogether.
Domestic violence counselling is another form of treatment that is directly aimed at getting a person away from possible sources of abuse. Read the rest of this entry
Gay Pride Bands are one type of wristband that you can wear to show your true self. This type of band has the six colors of the pride rainbow that have long been associated with the LGBT community — red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple with the word “Pride” clearly ingrained in the bracelet. When you wear a Gay Pride Band you are showing that you respect and understand today’s LGBT lifestyle and that you are happy to be a part of a world where people are accepted for who they are and not for what they are. You don’t have to live a lesbian, gay, bisexual or trans-gender life to have gay pride, everyone who is welcoming of the lifestyle can wear the bands to show their support. 
Our main goal is to share with the world the profound and amazing discoveries of Paul Rosenfels. As a volunteer organization with no outside funding, we’ve always had to pay our own way since 1973, month after month. That’s why we ask members to donate $5 per month, and why we charge a nominal fee for the printed editions of the Center’s publications. But we have no financial motivation other than to pay the rent. So as long as that’s taken care of we will make Paul’s writings available here on the Internet at no charge.
I’m not the only person who thinks highly of Paul. Here are some of the things that his friends and students have had to say about the man. Clicking on each name will take you to a complete interview from which the quote was taken. (These interviews were originally published in my 1990 book, . In addition to being his friend, Edith Nash and Walter Ross are Paul’s sister and brother.) 
Although the discussion groups are our most popular activity, counseling has always been the most important service the Center offers. Our fees are minimal and always donated to the Center. We call it “peer” counseling not because all opinions are created equal but rather to emphasize that the value of an idea is independent of who’s expressing it and that we’re not going to pull rank on you.
Paul was a rising star at the University of Chicago in the 1940′s, but once he dropped out of the academic system they ignored him for the rest of his life. In 1973 he and I opened the Ninth Street Center, an all-volunteer organization devoted to helping unconventional people live creatively in a sometimes oppressive world. People in need of truth are usually happy to express deep gratitude when they find it, and so this work has been gratifying. Unfortunately for them, the number of university scholars who have sense the importance of his work has remained rather small. 
The Ninth Street Center was founded in 1973 when Paul and I decided we were ready to teach the ideas that he had developed to more people than we could reach through our private counseling practices. With the help of about a dozen of our students, I opened a basement space on 9th Street between First and Second Avenues, in the heart of New York’s East Village. Soon we were running discussion groups, doing peer counseling, and having the time of our lives The following links will bring up various articles written back then so you can see what others thought of the excitement and enthusiasm that went into this project. For a current look back at what was going on 25 years ago, read the excerpt from Bill Boushka’s new book, Do Ask, Do Tell.
Here are some of the things I find myself thinking about from time to time. Not all of them may be relevant to what concerns you at the moment. In fact some of them are purely speculative. So, dive in and tell me if anything wonderful happens to you as a result. 
Three hundred years after the Enlightenment, the idea of a science of human nature is still new to some people. But in those days, it was practically all anybody ever talked about. If there were underlying laws that explained physical phenomena, what laws explained human behavior? Time after time, attempts to agree on the foundations of such a science have collapsed under heated debates about terminology, or this camp’s refusal to accept that camp’s discoveries, or — homophobia.
I’ve always hated the term “psychotherapy” because it makes it sound as if a mind searching for wisdom is like a sore muscle needing to be rubbed. Indeed, therapists are often blamed for getting their patients to “feel better” at the expense of dulling their awareness that the world is a crazy place that needs to become more civilized — as if our caring for other people, or for the future our children will see, were no more than a “sublimation” of more genuine, “primal” desires.