Freda Cruse Atwell

Freda Cruse Atwell (born Freda Gail Cruse on October 21, 1957) is a leading social psychological theorist, political advisor, and author. In 1984, she was named one of America's Outstanding Young Women, an honor presented her by then Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton.

Biography

Freda Cruse Atwell was born in Mountain View, Arkansas, to a prominent bootlegger and "politician" Lonnie Edward "Senator" "Ed" Cruse. She is the youngest of three children. Weaned on politics, she left Arkansas at the age of seventeen and began studies at the University of California, San Diego, located in La Jolla, California. Jack D. Douglas, a sociology professor, became her mentor and friend when she found herself alone as a divorced mother at the age of twenty. Her work into the arena of deviant human behavior, especially sexual deviance, has led to a number of research projects and publications with Douglas.

She returned home to Arkansas in 1987 due to her father's failing health, taking over his political role in Northeast Arkansas and beginning a seventeen-year career in social work with the Arkansas Department of Human Services. She is the founder of HELP UP, Helping Educators Leaders Professionals/Parents Understand Parenting, which provides seminars and training to social workers, teachers and other professionals nationwide. A "FOB" (Friend of Bill Clinton), she worked on both his Arkansas gubernatorial campaign and his campaign for the Presidency. Her daughter Connie "Annie" Phillips serves as an intern in the Hillary 08 Campaign. Freda's initiation into politics began with the Presidential campaign of Colorado Senator Gary Hart. Her expertise in sexual deviance both personal, politically and professionally has led her in the direction of her current work, a novel based on the facts of her life, fictionalized, centering around the political back room dealings of the "good-ol-boy system". As her father said, "It's not who you know, but what you know on who."

Cruse Atwell first worked as a lifeguard and model upon her arrival from Arkansas to San Diego. She met fashion photographer Richard Avedon with whom she spent short stints working with from 1977 to 1985, during which time he shot "In The American West". More comfortable behind the lens of the camera, she has worked in photography for over thirty years maintaining her studio in Mountain View, Arkansas the last twenty years. Atwell completes her photography work under the name of Freda Cruse Phillips. She currently has two major projects in progress. "The American South" and "South of the Border", both photojournalistic sociological looks at the human condition and the strength of people to overcome and endure.

Personal life

Atwell has been married three times. She was married to real estate developer, Ivan C Gayler, from 1976 to 1980; they separated only two years into the marriage. They have one daughter, Mariah Gayler, born in 1976. While enrolled as a student at the University of California, San Diego, she met Jack D. Douglas, professor of sociology who became her mentor and lifelong friend in her search to deal with the divorce. Her understanding of deviant human behavior comes from a lifetime of both study and experience, clearly reflected in her success and work in the area. Her second marriage was to nuclear scientist Thomas L. Atwell, from 1981 to 1987. They have one daughter, Nikki Lee Atwell, born in 1982 (deceased 2002; see [http://www.nlaf.org Nikki Lee Atwell Foundation] ). Her third marriage was to, Charles R. Phillips, Jr. from 1988 to 2004. They have one daughter, Connie "Annie" Phillips, born in 1989.

Publications

"Love, Intimacy and Sex"

According to Douglas and Atwell, the greatest value of social science comes from providing a general model which systematically reveals how the discernible truths of a given object of study interact. After first determining these basic assumptions and identifying a suitable methodology, social scientists can then concentrate on building upon this paradigm. In "Love, Intimacy and Sex", the authors aim to provide just such a systematic scientific model of love, intimacy and sex—a necessary beginning for any successful attempt to understand the vastly complex particulars of sex in modern society.

They contend that modern sexual views—influenced by relativism and pop-Freudianism—have grossly distorted contemporary views of love. Their provocative work is a creative reformulisation of past research with extensive examples of case studies from life and literature which extend our knowledge of bonding, unbonding, and rebonding in relationships. A fascinating reappraisal of love, it is a thought-provoking commentary for both professionals and advanced students in the area of interpersonal relations.

Love, Intimacy, and Sex by Jack Douglas, Freda Cruse Atwell Journal of Marriage and the Family, Vol. 50, No. 4 (Nov., 1988), p. 1078doi:10.2307/352122

HELPUP: Helping Educators, Leaders, Professionals and Parents Understand Parenting

Atwell served as a research assistant and co author with Jack D Douglas from 1976 through 1988. Among the publications on which she has worked include Creative Interviewing and Social Deviance. Her work with Dr. Douglas has led her to develop the HELPUP program, a nationally recognized parenting program, directed to both professionals and parents. She has been sought out in a number of high profile situations including the school shootings at Jonesboro, Arkansas and Paducah, Kentucky to facilitate an overview of the crisis as it unfolds helping community providers better serve and address the needs of the victims, offenders, families and public. Understanding deviant human behavior is the first step in finding solutions when crisis occur that are outside the scope of normal human conduct.