DIALOGUE

Online Etiquette Guide (Netiquette)

for Posting on the Alliance

Depth Psychology Alliance defines Depth Psychology as a set of psychological practices, ideas, and therapeutic methods designed to welcome in what has been repressed, dissociated from, or otherwise exiled from personal and collective consciousness and the prevailing culture.

We desire to provide our members an online space with a variety of opportunities to engage in conversations about what it means to thrive within the collective, while also striving to be self-reflective and committed to personal development. We are also committed to a particular kind and quality of communication that opens up topics for exploration according to tenets embraced within the broad field of depth psychology, as defined above.

We encourage members to share items and examples that are signs or symbols from the personal or collective unconscious of archetypal, hidden, or emerging material that we can all discuss and learn from. It is not surprising that in raising these issues, differing opinions, interpretations, and explanations will follow.

Whether you are posting something new on the Alliance, or responding to something another member has posted, before you post it, please ask yourself these questions around your own intentions and values:

1. Will what I am about to share be of interest within our broad and global community of individuals who are committed to depth psychological principles?
2. Is my post grounded in depth psychological tenets or perspectives? 
3. Is my post likely to elicit disagreement as regards to my opinions, interpretations, explanations, and/or suggested actions in response to the issue being discussed, and if so, is it framed in a way that can warrant a constructive or generative discussion?
4. If my post is likely to elicit differing viewpoints, am I genuinely curious to understand and explore the differences (versus pushing my agenda)?
5. If confronted by differences of opinion, am I open to shifting my position, or being persuaded, if given new information that I decide has merit?
6. If my temper flares, am I prepared to reflect on what might be emerging within my own psyche that wants to come into consciousness as part of my individuation journey?
7. Can I treat everyone who responds to my post as a “legitimate other,” someone who has spent time thinking through the topic, just as I have, and who deserves my respect, even though he or she holds a different view and/or has arrived at different conclusions?

Following is additional guidance for posting on the Alliance:

• Describe rather than prescribe. Describe to others how you understand a situation, rather than prescribe how others should think, feel, or act.
• Use ‘I’ statements. Example: "I feel… (this way)…" about this situation.
• Check your tone. Given the absence of face-to-face clues, written text is easily misinterpreted.
• Eliminate sarcasm. It doesn’t translate well in text and, from a depth point of view, indicates veiled messages.
• Own your projections. Your strong reactions are pointing to your emotional material to deal with, not the readers'.
• Stick to the point. Irrelevant tangents waste others' time.
• Read First, Write Later. Please read what others have posted before you post.
• Avoid inappropriate material. Nowhere on the Alliance is it acceptable to call people names or make aspersions to others’ character. Political pontificating, religious missionizing, product sales, violent or vulgar imagery, or other material is also unacceptable.
• Don’t try to fix the other person. We are not here to fix one another or to pass judgment on others' postings.
• Ask permission before sharing personal messages or comments within dedicated discussions outside the Alliance. Private email mail is considered copyrighted by the original author.
• Report abuse. If someone posts something that you believe violates these standards, please report it immediately to help@depthpsychologyalliance.com. We are committed to providing a safe container for the expression of reflective opinions and commentary.

Note: It is impossible to anticipate every type of inappropriate action on the Depth Psychology Alliance, and we reserve the right to eliminate any post that in our sole judgment is unacceptable. We also reserve the right to block individuals whose posts continue to be unacceptable.

Other Etiquette Sources

The Core Rules of Netiquette, excerpted from the book Netiquette, by Virginia Shea. The Rules appear at http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html.