Dr Andrew Reiner
I have created this website as a vehicle to publicize some of my unpublished writings, in particular, my Ph.D thesis, originally submitted to the School of Behavioural Sciences, Macquarie University in October 1983. Entitled "History of an alternative school: An attempt to demodernize", the thesis tells the story of an alternative, or progressive school called Yinbilliko. The school opened at the beginning of 1971 and closed at the end of 1984, some 15 months after my thesis was submitted and three months after I was awarded a Ph.D in Psychology by Macquarie University.
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The thesis is based on seven and a half years fulltime research between the beginning of 1976 and April 1983. I was a parent at the school. Although the thesis was completed in April 1983, I added several footnotes and two brief epilogues in May and August 1983.
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At the time -1983 - I was urged to rewrite the thesis in order to publish it as a book. Sadly I could not muster up the energy to do this over the next 36 years. However, I believe the study is as relevant today as it was in the 1970s and 1980s, hence this online publication almost four decades later. I believe it is a genuine contribution to the fields of Education, Developmental and Social Psychology and Sociology.
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The thesis published here is a revised version of the original. I have made the following changes:
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1. I have added a half dozen references that were inadvertently omitted in 1983.
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2. I have corrected dozens of typographical errors.
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3. In several places I have tightened up the English expression. Occasionally I have added a phrase, or even a sentence, to make the intended meaning crystal clear.
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In all other respects the thesis published here is identical with the one that was submitted in 1983.
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Please note that this work is copyright.
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I welcome feedback, positive or negative and I will attempt to answer all communications requiring a response.
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Please write to me at: PO Box 9009, Port Macquarie, NSW, 2444, Australia. Email: reinerkaur@gmail.com
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(2) "Kempsey: A study of conflict", originally published on 27 November 1986. Second, revised edition, with extensive notes, Volume 1: June 2020. It may seem strange to bother with a report that is almost 35 years old. It should be outdated and irrelevant. The problem is that it is not. Indeed, all the issues highlighted in 1986 are still relevant and, as difficult as it will be for readers to believe this, the dispossession of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries continues, as does the systemic, or institutional racism of the past. The Aboriginal families of Old Burnt Bridge, whose ties to the land can be documented to 1893 but actually go back much further, have been dispossessed once more, in this, the 21st century. To understand Aboriginal affairs today, readers may find this report, revised and updated, a useful place to begin. I argue for a complete re-think of Aboriginal policy, one which will benefit not only the indigenous people of Australia, but tax payers (both indigenous and non-indigenous) as well.
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(3). "Aboriginal mental health and community development", March 1988. In July 1987, while working in the Central Office of the Commonwealth Department of Aboriginal Affairs (DAA), I was asked to write a paper on Aboriginal mental health by Ken Wanganeen, who was then the Head of the Branch I was working in. It was to be delivered by him to a group of Psychiatrists, in September 1987. After two months of research I completed the paper on 17 September 1987 and he delivered it shortly after, with some amendments. Then, at the beginning of 1988, I was asked for comment on a proposal by Professor John Cawte, a Psychiatrist, to establish and train a a group of Aboriginal Health Workers (AHWs) to work in Aboriginal mental health. I decided to make use of the research I had conducted six months earlier and to combine it with ideas first discussed in "Kempsey: A study of conflict" (Reiner, 1986), to arrive at a radical reconceptualization of Aboriginal affairs. The result was this paper which, sad to say, has not only not become out of date but is even more relevant than it was thirty years ago.
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I welcome your feedback.
(4). The concept of mind
This is my BA Honours Thesis, completed in October 1974. While I suspect that very few people would consider it relevant, recent research in neuroscience suggests otherwise. I may have dismissed what I call epiphenomenalism too readily.
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