The intention - Hertha Levefælleskab

REVERSE INTEGRATION

The concept of ‘reverse integration’ is the core idea of Hertha Living Community. We believe that such a community between groups operating under the common conditions of society and groups in need of care and special attention enhances the quality of life of both groups. A coexistence that benefits all. An experiment with integration as a headline.

The idea of integration, of living more closely with elderly people, mentally disabled, etc., may have arisen from an unconscious sense that society needs the qualities that these people possess. If society was less divided, and if there generally was a more friendly and welcoming attitude towards “the other”, total integration would be both real and problem-free. But to place e.g. mentally disabled in a context where they are undesirable only leads to loneliness. The first basic idea of the Hertha Living Community initiative is therefore to implement a desired and mutual integration. In Hertha Living Community, we have turned the concept ‘upside down’ and asked so-called normal people to choose to integrate with adults with intellectual disabilities.

Anyone moving to the Hertha Living Community has therefore actively said yes to living in close proximity to people with mental disabilities and sees this as a special quality. In this way, we promote positive and mutual integration. Perhaps it is also an endeavor in this direction, when society has recently begun to introduce the concept of ‘inclusion’ as a substitute for ‘integration’ in the educational field. If so, it’s a very positive move. In the Living Community we do not have a specific set of rules for our activities and the scope of our ‘integration activities’. Each individual freely chooses his or her ability based on his or her own resources and position in life. Our goal of reverse integration is an expression of human intentions, and it is fueled by positive surplus forces, not by injunctions.

ANTHROPOSOFY

Hertha Living Society derives its values from Rudolf Steiner’s educational and social impulses. Rudolf Steiner founded anthroposophy; a view of life and a view of humanity that has since inspired many people and initiatives within teaching, pedagogy, medical arts, agriculture and architecture. Within anthroposophy, it is a fundamental belief that every human being is an eternal soul-spiritual individual. The starting point is the idea of reincarnation; the view that every human being has lived before on earth and that more lives will follow. From this view, the disability of the mentally retarded must be sought exclusively in the biological-hereditary part of man, while the individual, the I, as such cannot be ill. The body can be such a weak instrument for the human ego that this cannot really connect with the organism, but must remain in the human circumference. If so, a medical-therapeutic-pedagogical work must be aimed at establishing a better connection between the hereditary body and the soul-spiritual individual. When the soul connects more strongly with the body, an incarnation process takes place, and it is this process that is sought to be supported in anthroposophically inspired work with the disabled. In Hertha Living Community, every human being is free to relate to his or her own ideals and views. We do not have a dogmatic approach to our values. Our common foundation is that all residents of the Living Community accept and respect that anthroposophy is the fundamental inspiration for our shared decision-making processes and priorities – in agriculture, research and food processing, in the form of a biodynamic approach to the earth’s resources and in health education work with the mentally retarded. In all areas, we strive to maintain a dynamic balance between ideals and common reality.

Hertha Levefællesskab

Landsbyvænget 14

8464 Galten

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