Sitting in the Fire

Book Review

Sitting in the Fire: Large Group Transformation using Conflict and Diversity (1995) Mindell, Arnold, Portland: Lao Tse Press

As books on conflict go this is undoubtedly one of my favourites. This book contends that enforcing law and order and insisting on peaceful behaviour is not a sufficient strategy for resolving our world problems – most of which are caused by people who do not get on together. He offers examples and analysis of Worldwork in action in multiple settings as legitimate and constructive ways of engaging in heated conflict. The fire that burns in the midst of such contention can ruin us or transform us.
He proposes forms of Innerwork, based on the concepts and practices of Process Oriented Psychology, that can help us get over our fear of conflict, prepare us to sit in the fires of diversity and contention and enhance the chances of transformation rather than ruin. Thus we achieve the awareness and centredness that permits us to retain consciousness in the midst of the chaos of heated conflict and glimpse the emergence of enlightened order without coercion or imposed control.
Mindell makes an outstanding contribution to reframing and rehabilitating the value of hierarchy or rank in the context of social interaction. Abuse of social hierarchy and positional power has obscured different kinds of rank and alienated many from their own and others rank and excellence. Rank can blind us to the value of other people. Ignorance or denial of rank and the privileges that accompany it, leads to its abuse generating much conflict through the suppression of valid interests and needs, social marginalisation and deprivation. Conflict in turn, however, will generate awareness and, if we can live in it, with it and through it, the awareness and wisdom it generates will transform our relationships, our institutions and ourselves. He offers much guidance on how to meet this challenge in the contest of large groups and communities. It is a “must read” for anyone interested in the field.