The Love Theorist Dyann Ross

This is a reading of Chapter 6 entitled - ‘Nonviolence’ - from my new book, Broken-heartedness: Towards love in professional practice. It stands as a testimony to the power of love and shows how love and nonviolence can be drawn upon to address violence of all kinds. Nonviolence first and foremost is about not being violent, which requires a critical analysis of how power is used. As I have argued in the earlier chapter on violence, harm can be hidden in contexts where people believe they are being helpful and caring. This is one of the hardest type of harm to recognise.
Nonviolence is explored and shown to be a range of peaceful, proactive ways of being in the world that consciously resist and challenge violence.
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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thelovetheorist.substack.com

This is a reading of the second part of chapter 2 called ‘Violence’ in my new book Broken-heartedness: Towards love in professional practice. In the earlier part of the chapter, I explored the idea of dominance hierarchies (ie pecking orders) and how they can involve vertical and horizontal violence. This is where people hurt people in workplaces such as mental health facilities which are supposed to be about care of the patients. I now bring the focus onto what can happen to people who are mental patients in what Bloom calls trauma-organised systems of care. Again my commentary is informed by years of practice in mental health services and how I was complicit with many travesties of justice in the name of care. A different way of providing sanctuary to people experiencing mental health conditions is urgently needed. Advocates, royal commissions and people with lived experience have clearly articulated what is harmful, unjust in many public mental health services in Australia.
A turning point for me was finding a way to think differently about how violence such as seclusion and restraint occurs. It is a highly restrictive and known to be traumatising practice which is legally sanctioned and seen to be a valid form of care. The turning point was deeply understanding how individual failures of responsibility at all points and levels of service delivery can create system failures of care and love.
The commentary involves very distressing accounts of harm done to people. Please take care in listening to it.



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thelovetheorist.substack.com

My new book, Broken-heartedness: Towards love in professional practice, is available now. To make it as accessible as possible I am sharing chapters from it as podcasts. This offering is chapter 5, entitled “Love” and is one of 3 chapters which outline the main ethics needed to build a theory of love. These 3 interlinked ethics are: love, nonviolence and eco justice. Earlier chapters of the book have provided an account of my personal and professional life as it has involved experiencing or witnessing broken-heartedness. The root causes of broken-heartedness are lovelessness, violence and eco-injustice. The absence or denial of love for minority status people, other animals and Nature is a way of thinking about how things have come to like they are in the world.
Love is understood in different ways by us all and probably is one of the most valued ideas and experience for many of us. This chapter defines love as a political practice aimed at addressing complex wicked problems with an ethical positioning of love. From this ethical stance we can see the interconnectedness of factors and appreciate how harmful violence is, and to know what to do about it. Love as a practice involves many skills and actions, that are familiar to anyone involved in the nonviolent social and environmental movements of our times. As well as to anyone who consciously relates to others with love and not violence. It helps us connect with empathy and deep understanding to be with and stand alongside people, other animals and Nature who have broken-hearts in justice struggles.
If you are interested in purchasing a copy of the book it can be found at:
https://revoltbooks.com/
Do feel free to give me feedback about the podcast or the book on this site or by leaving a review on Goodreads.
I really appreciate your support.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thelovetheorist.substack.com

This podcast is a reading of the fourth chapter of my new book by the same name, Broken-heartedness. I outline how I came to realise that the idea of broken-heartedness encapsulated so many experiences over my career and personal life. When heart-ache occurs it can take many forms and intensities. People can die of broken hearts. Animals can die of broken hearts. Nature shows us many examples of human activity that undercuts her ability to sustain life on the planet.
Certainly it is a weighty chapter that builds upon the preceding ones which showed how lovelessness caused by violence and injustice manifests as broken-heartedness. I explain how my idea is different from pop psychology books on heart break and is more than romantic love and caring for the people in our lives.
There is an unexpected and perhaps unwelcome gift for broken-hearted people, that occurs because they know how important love is. With this hard won wisdom, when broken-hearted people pay forward their pain in the form of loving actions, they increase our belief in the power of love to transform violence power.
If interested, you can purchase a copy of the book at:
https://revoltbooks.com/
I’d be pleased to hear your feedback which can be given directly to me here or on Goodreads - search for my book to place a review.



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thelovetheorist.substack.com

This is a sharing from my new book - if interested you can purchase it on this link
https://revoltbooks.com/
The podcast is a reading of the first section of Chapter 2, entitled Violence. This term is very complex and means different things to different people. The chapter starts to unpack how I understand what violence means, starting with my childhood experience of domestic violence. I then move on to explore the issue of violence as it is expressed in dominance hierarchies such as mental health systems. This podcast focuses on the vertical and horizontal violence that I became aware of as a social worker. As Sandra Bloom writes, hurt people hurt people. This is a very concerning matter when it is mental health staff who are hurting, for what it means for how they care for people receiving mental health care.
Violence causes lovelessness. Workplaces that are loveless can become the breeding ground for more violence, that can go unchecked and not addressed.
Please take care when listening to this podcast as some of the commentary is very disturbing and can personally impact on you in unexpected ways.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thelovetheorist.substack.com

My new book is now available for purchase. If interested, please go to
https://revoltbooks.com/


You might prefer to listen to large parts of it in these episodes. I add extra commentary at times but endeavour to stay close to the original book text. In this reading, I share about my experiences as a young girl and how I now understand much of my childhood as being about broken-heartedness caused by lovelessness. I suggest that where there is violence then there is lovelessness, one is the breeding ground for the other. In this way I lay the foundations for a different meaning of love and how violence can undercut and compromise it.
Watch out for further podcasts of the subsequent chapters that build towards an articulation of what a theory of love involves and why it is so urgently needed.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thelovetheorist.substack.com