Николай Григорьев > Николай's Quotes

“In a static society, personal violence will be registered, whereas structural violence may be seen as about as natural as the air around us. Conversely, in a highly dynamic society, personal violence may be seen as wrong and harmful, but still somehow congruent with”
― Richard E. Rubenstein, Resolving Structural Conflicts: How Violent Systems Can Be Transformed

“the order of things, whereas structural violence becomes apparent because it stands out like an enormous rock in a creek, impeding the free flow, creating all kinds of eddies and turbulences.5”
― Richard E. Rubenstein, Resolving Structural Conflicts: How Violent Systems Can Be Transformed

“By the early 1980s, the view that most any conflict—domestic or international, intergroup or interpersonal—could be reframed and negotiated to a satisfying conclusion if only the right technical skills were brought to bear on it had become part of the popular imagination. Books championing such technical approaches regularly appeared on bestseller lists.”
― Kevin Avruch, Context and Pretext in Conflict Resolution: Culture, Identity, Power, and Practice

“Yet even as the possibility that all conflicts might yield to skilled application of technical knowledge assuaged the popular imagination, some scholars and analysts were sounding alarms about the dangers of a culture-free conception of conflict. And we began to push back against the received view that conflicts required only mechanically technical solutions.”
― Kevin Avruch, Context and Pretext in Conflict Resolution: Culture, Identity, Power, and Practice

“No area of understanding is more relevant and important to mediation competency than a basic understanding of how the human brain functions, perceives events, processes emotional notions, cognitive response and formulates decisions. The awareness of cognitive neuroscience and psychology are at the heart of our work in managing conflict and problem solving. — Robert Benjamin”
― Gerry O'Sullivan

“From a neurological perspective, the role of a mediator may be described as minimizing perceptions of danger enabling cognitive appreciations of emotions, dampening the amygdala and helping parties to self-regulate. — Jeremy Lack and Francois Bogacz”
― Gerry O'Sullivan

“Amygdala Hijack Our perception of our world occurs via our five senses.19 Information from these senses enters our brain stem from the spinal cord and travels along neural pathways to the limbic system. When our senses perceive a threat, our sympathetic nervous system is stimulated, resulting in a fight or flight response, also known as a stress response. When this happens, we are no longer able to think rationally. Instead, we are in reaction mode. When a threat is perceived, emotional memories stored in the midbrain’s amygdala can be evoked. When the amygdala is stimulated by a perceived threat, it signals to the hypothalamus, and this results in the release of the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline. These hormones are released into the bloodstream and transported to the brain, where they disconnect the frontal lobes and leave us at the mercy of our emotions and caught in amygdala hijack. This is a strong emotional state. The oxygen and glucose necessary for effective frontal brain high-order thinking are then diverted to the amygdala in the limbic system to process these emotions. While this takes place, the frontal brain is deprived of oxygen and glucose and unable to function effectively at a rational level. Emotional self-regulation20 activates the para-sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for the release of hormones into the bloodstream to act as antidotes to the stress hormones. These antidotes gradually slow breathing and reduce the heart rate, enabling oxygen and glucose to return to the frontal brain, which permits rational thinking to take place again.”
― Gerry O'Sullivan

“We were each trained in interest-based negotiations and have provided trainings in this approach. However, as we got more and more difficult cases, we realized that these traditional interest-based methods were failing and that high conflict disputes needed their own quite different approach.”
― Bill Eddy, Mediating High Conflict Disputes: A Breakthrough Approach with Tips and Tools and the New Ways for Mediation