WHAT IS THE PHILADELPHIA ASSOCIATION?

A statement

by Philadelphia Association

Suppose we, any of us, come to the end of our tether, can no longer cope, break down, go to pieces. To whom do we turn? Where do we go? A mental hosipital is sledom a safe place to be, to live things through.

When a persons suffering becomes insupportable, to himself, and to others , and yet persists, despite all, we may fairly say that such a person is in extreme distress. THE

PHILDELPHIA ASSOCIATION provides households, which, we hope, are places of refuge where people in distress can, if they choose, live through what they must, without jeopardy.

THE PHILDELPHIA ASSOCIATION is a network of people, whose distinctive concern is both to cultivate skilful means of helping people whose relations with themselves and others have become an occaision of wretchedness, and to contribute to a theory of personal life that is adequate to experience. In the course of this enterprise we hope to come to a better understanding of how we occaision our sufferings and joy, of the ways we may lose ourselves and each other, and find ourselves and each other again.

The treatment we offer is attention to each other, our attentiveness is therapy.

”philadelphia“ means brotherly, or sisterly love. Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it.

(to the church at Philadelphia, Revelations, II, 8)