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'Performance':
Do-it-yourself manual for a more joyful life

By Pete Smith

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There are a few times in each of our lives which bring us up short, and a light bulb flashes; other times a dim light starts at the end of a seemingly endless tunnel and grows as we move toward it. Either way – quick or slow and easy – we tend to acknowledge these as what we might call "Ah-ha moments."

That's the way it was when I picked up Dr. Fred Newman's earlier book Let's Develop in 1994. I had met him earlier and seen a play he had written performed in a community theatre. I was impressed with this large, gentle man; his professional stature and his humility almost seemed at odds – but they weren't. The play was moving, disturbing and entertaining all at once. Beyond these things, I had heard accolades about his pioneering therapy techniques, and his social and political activism. So, I'm not quite sure what I expected from his writing. Let's Develop came out of his 20 years and more of clinical practice. Newman gives his patients the benefit of empowerment to transform their lives with a developmental-clinical approach he calls social therapy. Let's Develop shares some of those people's experience and growth, and details the approach. Newman contends that the experts who tell us that a child's development and "character stamp" is done by the end of early childhood are wrong. We can reinitiate our development at any stage in our lives – no matter how impossible it seems – and make ourselves and our lives … , in a word: joyful.

In Newman's new book Performance of a Lifetime (written with Phyllis Goldberg), he tells us up-front that both psychology and philosophy are dead (or certainly dying.)

Rather than accept, by rote, that any science or system has hard and fast "facts," Newman encourages us to begin development in the same way young children do: by doing. Living, not with a philosophy which gets us stuck in its pre-shaped structure, we are to live philosophizing as we go!!

As educators and therapists are coming to recognize the truths behind Newman's approach and to teach and practice it with their own students/patients, we have the opportunity of do-it yourself transformation of our own experience of life through Fred Newman's writing. He writes simply, explaining in everyday terms anything difficult, and he writes lovingly to each reader on each page. There is no authoritarian behind the words; the reader is given, again and again, the opportunity to say, "I knew that, but look, I never thought it could fit so well."

Either book is great for solo, yet, perfect for groups whether with a leader or peers determined to experience life at its most joyous. Performance of a Lifetime is brand new, so if it isn't on your bookstore's bookshelf yet, ask them to order. Get two. One to keep and dog-ear and one to give to someone for whom you want the very best.

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