On Using Social Analysis

        In the presence of so much pluralism even in what seems to be a worldview common to both director and directee, it is important to recognize how our personal experiences are a product not only of the interface between our unique personal histories and our immediate situations but also of both obvious and not-so-obvious-underlying structures that make us feel the way we do. Here are some examples of how our own personal feelings and experiences are products of the systems in which we live:
-- The disappointment and sadness a mother felt when she was not remembered on Mother's Day by her out-of-town daughter even though her daughter was with her a week and a half earlier;
-- Feelings and experiences behind such expressions as,
"I really have to learn to feel good about myself!" ... "I have to stop living up to other people's expectations!" .... "I did this for me!" ... "I need a safe place to worship";
-- The fatigue of the principal of a small school when she is faced with writing and sending reports and surveys to an impersonal bureaucracy;
-- The frustration of a church worker who experiences many of his initiatives frustrated by the pastor-in-charge;
-- The feelings of failure of the unemployed male in a down-sized economy;
-- The anger and guilt of the single or divorced person who is no longer invited to parties;
-- The experiences of being put down for being a right-brained person in an institution that fosters left-brained activity.

        During the process of spiritual direction, such issues as these sometimes surface. Frequently these issues are dealt with only in a psychotherapeutic/faith context in which both director and directee automatically use their psychological literacy to understand the experience and then seek further guidance within the faith context. Often directees are brought to the point of thinking that they themselves have been totally responsible for their experience. However, in many instances, it is the system with its underlying structures that influence the situation and the consequent human reaction which is brought to the spiritual direction setting. Analysis of such influencing structures may help one understand a present experience which can then be brought, through mutual reflection, into the faith context. "The truth will set you free."

        As an example of this, let us take the scenario of an organist-choir master in a large, church-related, private school. Let us call him Jim. He is filled with anger and frustration over an experience of being verbally put down, dismissed, and trivialized by the principal. In this scenario, he has just told the spiritual director of this event. They spend the major part of this session on it.

        Over the past two years, the spiritual director has become very familiar with Jim's background and now he explores the experience with Jim in the light of that knowledge. Indeed he can help Jim come to some deeper appreciation of that experience in terms of Jim's personal history. Jim was an adopted child who moved from one foster home to another. In their previous sessions together, the spiritual director helped Jim come to terms with his past, express his feelings, and develop strategies in dealing with his exaggerated need to seek approval along with his overly enthusiastic approach to belong.

        However, if this spiritual director were to help Jim analyze the value structures of the educational institution to which he belongs and its attitudes towards music and art, they might discover together that, despite the school's professed theoretical support for Jim's work, there is, in practice, no support. Jim might begin to acknowledge that his job has very little value in the system in which he works and lives. He was, indeed, put down and devalued. His reactions and perceptions were quite accurate. They are not a skewed product of his past, but they are a faithful reflection of the present social structure in which he finds himself!

What Is Social Analysis?

        Social analysis originated in the Latin American context when ordinary and disempowered people needed methods to gain power in oppressive situations. Social analysis is done as a facilitated group process to understand the social situation more completely in order to make important decisions for group action. Social analysis helps to surface and get insight into the data of the situation before decisions can be made about it.

        When doing social analysis in such a group, everyone asks questions concerning the life situation that contributes to the continuing oppression or disempowerment that the community is experiencing. One question leads to another. Every person in the group, from the simplest peasant to the more educated leader, helps to uncover the underlying causes and structures through questions such as in the following simple social-analysis format.(30)

Steps For Social Analysis

Description Of The Situation With Its Different Aspects
1. Can you describe the situation?
2. What is humanizing/dehumanizing about it?
3. Who suffers?
4. Who gains?
Explore Together Why Things Are This Way
5. What is the history of the situation?
6. Who benefit(s) from this situation? Who exercise(s) power and how is this power exercised? Who are in the in-group and who are the marginalizeded?
7. What role does money play in this situation?
8. What structure(s) support(s) the situation? What symbols or slogans make it right to keep the situation as it is?
9. What traditions and ways of thinking lie behind the particular difficulty encountered in this situation?
10. How does the wider culture with the economic system contribute to the situation?
11. What rules, roles, policies, mind-sets, and assumptions produce and reinforce the situation?
Explore Together What Can Or Should Be Done
12. Is there a gap between the situation as it is and the situation as it ought to be?
13. If this situation remains, what will be the consequences for us? For others?
14. How would the situation be affected if we were to take another stance?

        In the previous scenario with Jim, some of these same social-analysis questions could be employed by his spiritual director to help Jim deal with his situation in a Christian manner. Through the heightened awareness of the social and consequent mental structures involved in his situation, little by little Jim could be led to accept more of the truth of his situation. Later through a kind of reflection suggested below, he would be encouraged to reframe his experience in terms of its multi-dimensions and his faith. Through this approach, his own personal experience of the situation and his own anger are validated so that he can begin to deal with his situation in a Christian way. Not to acknowledge these structures is to begin with a lie which could devalue him even more.