I don’t think that your description of Radical Honesty matches the ideals of the people I meet at Radical Honesty workshops and seems to me like a strawman.
As far as misconceptions go, the Esquire article and also the represenation here suggest that there’s the idea that “You should tell the truth”. Brad Blandan comes from Gestalt Therapy and isn’t into should.
On his website he writes:
Q: Is there one central point that you would like people to know about Radical Honesty?
A: I think the focus of what I have to say is not so much some moral taboo against lying as it is that I am in favor of people having fun in their lives, and having joyful, playful lives, serving each other. I’m not morally condoning telling the truth or saying that it’s immoral to lie. I’m just talking about a pragmatic thing. If you go out and tell each other the truth you’ll be happier. You’re better nurtured in a world in which you’re telling the truth than you are in a world in which you’re cowering, hiding and lying.
This idea that the person who proclaims Radical Honesty doesn’t consider it immoral to lie is strange enough that it can’t be easily written about in a mainstream newspaper article who’s audience doesn’t really care about the Radical Honesty community but that does care about a Judeochristian idea that one shouldn’t lie.
Radical Honesty workshops frequently end with the Gestalt Prayer.
There’s a lot of relating games. In contrast to Circling that doesn’t have theory, Radical Honesty has it’s theory.
If somebody is angry at the workshop they are encouraged to actually say “I’m angry. I resent you for X”.
Clearly expressing bodily sensations and emotions is an important part and as a result there’s a lot of physical sensation at the workshops (and I’m not expecting that most people reading this, will be able to follow that thought).
In general if you take a mainstream media article for as an explanation for what a community is like you are at best going to get a view of the most superficial aspects of a community.
Then a newspaper article has to serve the culture of it’s audience and has to make a good story.
I don’t think that your description of Radical Honesty matches the ideals of the people I meet at Radical Honesty workshops and seems to me like a strawman.
I would be really curious to learn about what happens at Radical Honesty workshops! Can you share?
As far as misconceptions go, the Esquire article and also the represenation here suggest that there’s the idea that “You should tell the truth”. Brad Blandan comes from Gestalt Therapy and isn’t into should.
On his website he writes:
This idea that the person who proclaims Radical Honesty doesn’t consider it immoral to lie is strange enough that it can’t be easily written about in a mainstream newspaper article who’s audience doesn’t really care about the Radical Honesty community but that does care about a Judeochristian idea that one shouldn’t lie.
Radical Honesty workshops frequently end with the Gestalt Prayer.
There’s a lot of relating games. In contrast to Circling that doesn’t have theory, Radical Honesty has it’s theory.
If somebody is angry at the workshop they are encouraged to actually say “I’m angry. I resent you for X”.
Clearly expressing bodily sensations and emotions is an important part and as a result there’s a lot of physical sensation at the workshops (and I’m not expecting that most people reading this, will be able to follow that thought).
The radical honesty quickly escalates to physical fighting? (Just kidding.)
Thank you for pointing this out! I was working off articles like this one, but I certainly don’t want to misrepresent the community.
In general if you take a mainstream media article for as an explanation for what a community is like you are at best going to get a view of the most superficial aspects of a community.
Then a newspaper article has to serve the culture of it’s audience and has to make a good story.