The Odyssey of Don Eulert

This is an event that San Diego Integral is supporting. Our own Paul Pinegar is organizing this event to honor the life and work of local elder mental health care professional and mentor Don Eulert. Paul's description of the event follows:
To: San Diego Psychological Association​
From: Paul W. Pinegar, Ph.D., on behalf of the Men’s Committee, SDPA​
Subject: The Odyssey Series​​ I brought the idea of an Odyssey series to the men’s committee 20 years ago with the following vision and focus in mind. I have my entire career specialized in working with men. A major hunger I saw among men was for mentors, special people that brought life to a bigger level. But more than offering a particular gift in a given area, such as writing, or research, these identified people would be those who had special character, who represented bigness in all areas of life.
Two other forces combined in my vision to expand and refine it. One, as we on the committee discussed this, was that women had the same hunger, the same need. Secondly in our field of psychology forces were increasing to pressure our field and practitioners into smallness: managed care, a continued diminution of what we did and the differences we made in people’s lives, the pressure to “measure” everything and take out the artistry, or life blood of our work, and the on going time pressures in the culture to reinforce superficial answers to deep problems, and last but not least an increasing emphasis on youth and the resultant flatlining of the culture. In short, depth and honoring of elders were being sacrificed on the alter of speed and smoothness. The result was the committee’s emergent vision for the Odyssey series. We would select as we were so moved (not necessarily annually so we didn’t get sterile and ritualize the honor) men and/or women (we have selected couples in psychology) who carried this sense of multifaceted character in their lives and work. They helped all of us see the bigness of what we do as a profession. We would create an evening of mutual admiration, bringing to life and paraphrasing Robert Bly’s wonderful statement, “If you haven’t admired an older person, or been admired by an older person in two years you are wounded.” In that spirit we have put increasing emphasis on supporting student engagement with help and scholarships. It is a truly unique opportunity to set a high bar for them as they enter our field.
Equally important was creating a vessel for this bigness, this celebratory evening. We have used the ballroom at the Sheraton La Jolla, dressed up and shared a wonderful meal together. All of this combines to celebrate our bigness as a profession and remind us of what is possible and the elegance of what we do. The honorees are free to tell their autobiography, their stories from the heart, in any way they choose. We then follow that with audience interaction, completing the cycle of mutual admiration Robert Bly calls us out to remember with our elders. We have honored Erv and Miriam Polster, Tom McGhee, Jim Chipps, Beverly Kilman, Julian and Antonia Meltzoff, Jon Nachison, Hugh Pates, and in 2014 Don Eulert. It has been a wonderfully successful and expansive event, touching all participants in ways I didn’t anticipate. Thank you for your ongoing support and interest.