Peter Gabel, Harvard Law grad, PhD in Psychology, Associate Editor of Tikkun Magazine, professor of contracts, organizer of Network of Spiritual Progressives, co-founder of Project for Integrating Law, Politics, and Spirituality speaks on alienation of the self from other.

In Part 1 of 3: Peter discusses how the ideas birthed during the 1960’s political and social movement shifted from anger and analyzing injustices as ways shaping the world and our thinking about law. He talks about how many came to see law as a kind of important set of social institutions that encoded separation of self and others. He begins to discuss and critique our perception that the world is as the way it is encoded in the legal institutions.

In Part 2 of 3: Peter Gabel continues, talking about the Project for Integrating Law, Politics, and Spirituality, PISLAP, explaining that one of the purposes of the PISLAP is developing a new understanding of law that emphasizes what connects us rather than what separates us. Projects are not only related to legal doctrine and also to reasoning.The goal is the transformation of legal thinking so that it is not separated from feeling, but is grounded in an awareness of human longings. He talks about the public nature of court and the role of spectators to gladiator type combat vs. courthouses as a public place to heal conflicts.The work will not be without conflict and it isn’t good for the movement to just be open-hearted and loving. There will be resistance to overcome, including cynicism, and we will need courage to be vulnerable.

In Part 3 of 3: Peter Gabel ties the critical legal studies movement to the current PISLAP work. Social change should focus on a world based upon love and connection. What new models promote that connection?