Our Species is Messed Up & We Can Heal Ourselves
Individual psychology may offer us a model to understand our problems as a species and to solve them
(If you have received this by email, please click on the title to access the most up-to-date version. I often continue to edit and correct typos after publishing the first version)
Preamble
I include this preamble before the essay below, because it feels wrong to ‘philosophise’, whilst events are happening on the ground, and while the Palestinian people are facing extermination. As I write, Israel is doing everything possible to complete its settler-colonial project. The activities involved in carrying out settler-colonialism tick every box in the UN definition of genocide, which means Israel is carrying out a genocide. To be absolutely clear, it is not possible to carry out a settler-colonial project that is not genocidal.
As I, and many others have warned, Israel has no intention of stopping in Gaza or with Gaza. Israel’s settler-colonial project encompasses all of historic Palsetine. It aims to replace all the non-Jewish indigenous people of Palestine with Jews one way or another. Israel has already been accelerating its genocidal policies in the Colonised West bank. If no one stops it, Israel will proceed to do everything possible to expel the Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Israel is acting with impunity, and with the diplomatic, economic, and military cover and support of the very countries that have the power to stop it. Mainstream media are colluding to a lesser or greater extent. The deliberate and systematic extermination of the Palestinian people is not making significant headlines. Mainstream media outlets speak in nonsensical language and euphemisms, and continue to invite ‘experts’ and commentators who do the same. The continued use of phrases or words, such as ‘war’, ‘war between Israel and Hamas’, ‘conflict’, or ‘two-state solution’ is wicked and amounts to fraud and collusion with Israel. I am yet to see a mainstream media channel that names settler-colonialism. If people started to name Israel’s settler-colonialism openly, they would have to accept that a genocide has been unfolding for the past seventy-six years, and that it has been accelerating in the past year. As far as I am concerned anyone who refuses to use the term settler-colonialism is a collaborator with Israel’s genocidal project. There is no other way to look at it.
For more realistic analyses, and news you can tune in to channels such as, Middle East Monitor, The Electronic Intifada, Middle East Eye, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, Mondoweiss, The New Arab, The Cradle, or Al Jazeera.
If you want a reliable weekly news spread, consider joining Ali Kazak’s mailing list. Ali was the Head of the Palestinian Delegation to Australia, when I was a beginner at activism for Palestinian human rights. He was effectively the Palestinian Ambassador to Australia (You have a ‘Delegation’ when you do not have an actual state). Ali remained in Australia when his term ended, and has continued to advocate for Palestinian human rights from there. In addition sharing useful material, he is also a great, and clear-headed writer in his own right. It was Ali who set me straight on settler-colonialism when I was still something of a ‘soft lefty’ on Israel-Palestine. He (and Ilan Pappé) helped give me the last push I needed to develop a clear perspective on what Israel is, and what it has been doing. To join Ali’s mailing list, write to him at: akazak@bigpond.net.au
The Past Is Never In the Past
When I studied Gestalt Therapy, my teachers explained that there was no point ‘digging’ into clients’ past. When people sit in front of us, their entire history is right there with them.
To survive and develop in our environment, our brain must create an internal representation of our environment. Everything we experience around us is wired into our brains, and our nervous system. All mammals’ brains work this way. We cannot survive, or function if we are not well-oriented to our physical, and relational reality. From the moment of birth, our brain and nervous system are intertwined with our physical and relational environment.
The way people behave, how they relate, their perception of reality, their patterns of feeling and thinking, the way they speak, even the way they hold their bodies, were all wired into their brain in response to their environment. My Gestalt teachers were right. If you pay attention you will see that people reveal a great deal about the environments that shaped their brain, before they even say a word.
From Individual to Species
It is not so difficult to make reasonable assumptions about our species’ past. The way we conduct our affairs now, the ‘shape’ of our human world, the patterns we repeat speak volumes about what was ‘wired’ into us as a species. We never left our past behind. Our species’ past is right here with us, and it still determines how we act as collectives.
It is not straightforward to generalise from individual psychology to groups. This is why we invented the discipline of Sociology. Human groups are complex systems. (The word ‘complex’ in this context is not the same as ‘complicated’). One of the properties of complex systems is that they cannot be reduced to their individual components. In complex systems ‘the whole is bigger than the sum of its parts’.
Sociology tells us that groups are not a simple, linear addition of their members. A group ≠ Person A + Person B + Person C… + Person N. Sociology warns us that understanding individual psychology will not necessarily help us understand groups. Groups are their own ‘life form’.
While we cannot just ‘add up’ the psychology of individuals to understand group psychology, it might be possible to use the individual as a model for the ‘entity’ we call ‘group’. This makes sense because like groups, individuals are also complex systems, and human groups are ‘made of’ individual human beings.
Like individuals, human groups demonstrate a survival instinct. Once a group comes into being, it does not want to stop being. It wants to continue to exist, and under threat, it will tend will do what it can to survive.
It is a known neurological fact that when we are under threat, our limbic system shuts down our executive brain. In times of threat most people lose all the capabilities of their executive brain. Among other things, when the executive weakens or shuts down, people cannot experience empathy, they lose their capacity to think clearly and plan, to regulate their emotions and behaviour, to be inclusive, or to be present and self-aware. When the limbic brain takes over, most people feel small and frightened, lost, and confused. They can develop tunnel vision and would tend to focus on their immediate survival needs. When the limbic brain takes over most people lose the sense who they are. They lose the part of their brain that makes them adult, and that gives them their sense of identity, ethics, principles, purpose, and direction.
Perhaps there is a similar mechanism that causes groups to lose their ‘higher functions’, such as empathy, compassion, inclusiveness, and perspective when faced with a threat. In the same way that individuals regress to the most primitive version of themselves when they feel under threat, so does human society. Our history is filled with examples. If our leaders tell us that asylum seekers are a threat to our society, we create systems that treat asylum seekers like an enemy. We no longer see them as human beings like us who need our help. When leaders tell society that it is under threat, many societies would readily give up their freedoms. They would often become oppressive and capable of committing horrendous injustices, cruelty, and even mass murder.
If society had the equivalent of an individual ‘executive brain’, perhaps politicians or the media would require the Government to prove to us that asylum seekers are indeed a threat to our society. In principle, there is nothing to stop those in power from exploring completely new ways of thinking about the problems we face, or even reframing those problems in new ways (e.g., are asylum seekers really a threat?), but they do not.
As a species we are competitive, preoccupied with status, appearance, and material success. We fight amongst ourselves all the time, and we are cruel to our own kind, and to other living beings on this planet. Kindness, generosity and compassion are in short supply. We spend a huge amount of human energy and ingenuity protecting ourselves not from wild animals, but from our own kind.
A ubiquitous trend across most cultures, and throughout our history is our tendency to give power to dangerous people. Of course, bad leaders are bad. But no one can do anything without help. First, someone has to put the person in a position of power, and then enable them to carry out their fantasies. There is a lot of compliance in society, and when things change, they do not always change for the better. We frequently replace one bad regime or leader with another.
I speculate that in our distant past, groups that appointed ruthless leaders who were devoid of empathy, and that enabled these leaders to carry out their plans, did better at survival. In those groups it is likely that the majority complied with the rules imposed by the leader and enforced them, because they were perceived as necessary for group survival. On a harsh planet, if you felt sorry for an animal you were about to kill, or that was about to kill you, you would either starve, or be eaten.
Empathetic, and cooperative people also survived, which is why these qualities are also with us. But the fact that cooperation and empathy are not the dominant force in the world (and to the best of my knowledge never have been), suggests that the ruthless lot were better at survival. In nature, those who survive longer, have a better chance of reproducing. They get to pass on their genes more successfully, and to wire their ways into subsequent generations’s brains. The dominant forces in the world now and the many who support them, may well be descended from the ruthless groups and the social structures of our collective past.
Another pattern that we keep repeating has to do with the fight between ‘good and evil’. I believe what we call ‘good’ and ‘evil’, and the eternal struggle between them may reflect the tension between our need to survive, and our need to grow. The fact that we are still struggling, suggests that the tension between survival and growth is ‘hard wired’ into our species.
Mother nature may be beautiful, creative, and awe-inspiring, but it is also unforgiving and indiscriminate. Where a creature happens to be born would determine what conditions and resources would be available for their survival and growth, and their chances of surviving and thriving. In nature it is not merit that determines a creature’s fate. When life is harder for some compared with others, it is not because the former are ‘less worthy’. It is because of random circumstances, and chance.
We have done everything possible to distance ourselves from the randomness of nature, and create more stability and predictability for our species. Our ability to cooperate has enabled us to change the world around us, and remove ourselves from the unforgiving natural environment. But instead of making it better for everyone, we continue to replicate in our human affairs the randomness and inherent unfairness of nature. Where people happen to be born still has a significant impact on the quality of their life, on how much hardship they will face, on their health, and on their chances of developing to their potential. We seem unable to replace the patterns that were wired into us from our distant past with something that is better for everyone.
We still behave like we live in a ‘tooth and claw’ world, although most people would never have to face a dangerous animal in their entire life. We still focus on survival, although we do not need to. We already have more than enough knowledge and technology, as well as the intelligence needed to enable every human being not only to survive, but to grow to their potential. But this is not what we do. We keep inflicting preventable and unnecessary suffering on ourselves, mindlessly repeating destructive, hurtful patterns that are obsolete.
At the start of therapy, people often describe feeling locked into patterns of feeling, thinking, and behaving that they are powerless to change. I remember feeling this way myself. Seeing yourself react the same way, and repeat patterns you are powerless over, feels like a prison. People choose to come to therapy usually when they have had enough of feeling powerless against their own reactions and patterns. They are fed up with a life of suffering, and they worry about passing on their painful, or destructive patterns to their children. They also desire, and need to grow towards their potential.
If people have been brought up — if they have been wired — to believe that life is a struggle for survival, this is what they would expect. They might still have a deeper sense, or a hope that there is more to life. But their mammal brain would tell them that these are just pipe dreams, and that a better life is not possible. Even people who were never abused or mistreated can grow up to expect little other than survival out of life, because that is what was wired into them. Given the way the world has been, it can require a feat of the imagination to believe that life can be more than just a perpetual struggle. Therapy is often about walking into the unknown, and daring to believe that that life can be richer, more inspiring, and fulfilling, and that we are capable of so much more than just surviving. This vision is what good therapists maintain for their clients, while they facilitate the work that clients need to do to begin to grow beyond what was wired into them from the past.
How can we stop ourselves as a species from repeating our patterns and getting back on the path to growing towards our potential? What is our species’ equivalent of therapy?
Species’ ‘therapy’?
What we can, or cannot do physically, or intellectually is largely determined by the way our brain is wired. The same applies to our psychology. Without changes to the way a person’s brain is wired, there will be no significant change to their psychology. Real psychotherapy is about connectivity in the brain, and we know precisely what connections need to form or improve for people to begin to grow, and be robust and well.
Understanding alone does not change us. But when individuals realise that the patterns they feel locked into are not their fault; when they understand that these patterns were wired into them in response to the conditions in their environment, especially early life, they stop blaming themselves. Once they realise they had no choice, and no say in what their environment wired into their brain, they can get on with the task of changing it.
When individuals change in therapy, they integrate parts of their brain, and aspects of their personality that were previously separate, and often in conflict with one another. The process of integration brings separate parts together in a way that creates the sense of inner harmony, and enables people to live with ease. When people’s brains are better integrated, they lose the sense of constant inner struggle. Each part of them continues to fulfil its purpose as it was always meant to, but they now function together as a healthy and robust, self-organising system. This enables the person to become everything they are capable of becoming.
Improved integration between the limbic system and the executive brain gradually prevents the limbic brain from taking over. Even under threat, people whose brains are better integrated remain present to themselves and others. They do not lose empathy, their capacity to think clearly, to plan ahead, or any of the capabilities of their prefrontal cortex. They can maintain a broader perspective as opposed to the either/or, black/white perspective of our survival-focused limbic system. They have flexibility in their responses to situations, and can make better decisions that take into account everything and everyone, not just their own immediate survival needs.
What is the species’ equivalent of this? Does society have the equivalent of a ‘brain’? If so, what needs to be integrated in our collective ‘brain’ for our species to recover from our precarious past, and to stop repeating destructive, miserable patterns? What are the parts, or elements that we need to integrate in order for our societies to thrive, and stop mindlessly limping from one unnecessary crisis to another? What might be the equivalent of a limbic system in society, and what might be the equivalent of the executive brain/prefrontal cortex (PFC)?
Perhaps society’s limbic system is represented by groups, and organisations that believe that life is all about competition for survival, and about getting ahead of the competition. It may also include the structures and system that those groups create. Neoliberalist economy is an obvious example. Whoever invented the stock market clearly operated on ‘limbic’ principles, as do those who think that doing good should not be well remunerated. I think of Western medicine as ‘limbic’. Western medicine as a component in our culture demonstrates little interest in people’s minds, in psychological, or spiritual growth, or in our human prefrontal need for purpose and meaning. The focus in Western medicine is the survival of the body. Most of Western psychology and psychiatry are primarily interested in coping and managing symptoms — the psychological equivalent of physical survival. The dominant research that informs policy, and guides mental health practice largely ignores our need for growth and purpose. It advocates either medication, or coping/symptom-management techniques, as if this is all that is possible, or good for people. Our military-industrial complex is another element in society that may be a representation of our individual limbic instinct to be fear-based and focus on physical survival. Just like our individual limbic brain, these ‘limbic’ elements in society operate with little reflection, or self-awareness. They favour knee-jerk reactions, and short-term solutions.
At the start of therapy, when people are still in a state of inner disharmony and suffering, their limbic system is dominant in their psyche and in their brains. In our current state as a species and as societies the ‘limbic’ elements in humanity dominate our collective existence. The result is an adversarial, fear-based, harsh, short-sighted, competitive, and repetitive culture that lacks imagination and cannot see beyond its own proverbial nose.
What is the societal or species’ equivalent of our adult brain, our prefrontal cortex (PFC)? Good question. I am not sure I know how to answer this. I do know that as with individual therapy, our capacity to liberate ourselves from our collective patterns depends on having a societal equivalent of a PFC.
Individuals with an impaired prefrontal cortex are the people we think of as having a personality disorder. Unfortunately, there is no therapy that can ‘fix’ a personality disorder, because we do not yet have any technology or science to rebuild an impaired executive brain. The executive brain can be easily damaged by drugs or alcohol. In some people it may not have developed properly due to genetic variations, or a combination of genetics and poor developmental conditions in childhood. The PFC in some people might have been harmed by physical trauma to the brain1. Are we perhaps a ‘disordered’ species that does not possess the equivalent of a collective executive brain/prefrontal cortex? Is it possible that we cannot change as a species in the same way that people with an impaired PFC cannot change?
I believe that as a species, we are the equivalent of someone with trauma, not with a personality disorder. People can recover from trauma completely, provided that everything in their brain works properly. As long as people have a functional, well-developed prefrontal cortex, and good neuroplasticity — the ability to create new neural connections and neural networks — between the limbic and executive systems, they can make a full recovery from trauma. They can get on the path to optimal development, the path they would have been on if their upbringing had offered them all the ingredients they needed to develop to their potential.
Perhaps the equivalent of our species’ executive brain/PFC are the elements in society that emphasise values like cooperation, inclusiveness, compassion, and growth. In order to integrate their brain, individuals learn to access their PFC and develop a constructive, and validating inner dialogue. I believe we need to do the same as societies and as a species. We need to strengthen those elements that represent out PFC, and integrate them with the ‘limbic’ aspect of humanity. As long as we fight against our ‘limbic’ elements, nothing will change. We will remain fragmented, and will always face the risk that the ‘limbic’ elements in society will continue to be in charge, and take over completely under threat. When all the elements of society come together, and begin to cooperate and integrate, our reality will transform.
People come to therapy to get help when their psychological symptoms tells them that things are not working. Therapists can facilitate, support, encourage and guide. But therapists cannot change the brains of adult clients directly. We can only impact directly on the brains of children, and young people. Adults have to integrate their own brains. As a collective we may not have a ‘therapist’ to go to, but we have a great deal of guidance from some of our philosophies, and religious and spiritual systems. They tells us that separation is an illusion, and that we need unconditional love and presence in order to be well. They tell us that we need to speak to those we perceive as enemies, and that fighting and revenge only lead to more of the same. Fighting, or trying to eliminate what is wrong in our world — our ‘limbic’ aspects — does not work.
When individuals come to therapy their inner world is usually a mess. It is filled with inner warfare, conflict, self-loathing, fears, and anxieties, anger, confusion, and inconsistencies. Some people treat themselves badly. They do not rest when they need rest, they criticise, push, and punish themselves. They do not eat properly, or they consume poisons. They believe they have enemies inside that they pointlessly try to suppress, or eliminate. But nothing in us as individuals is an enemy. Every element in every one of us, be it physical or psychological is there to help us survive and grow. I believe the same principle applies to us as a species. We cannot cut off, destroy, or suppress the limbic elements of our societies and our species. We have to integrate them in order to liberate ourselves from the patterns that were wired to us from our past, that we did not choose, but that still dominate us.
For anyone who thinks that the executive brain/PFC elements in society sound ‘weak’, ‘fluffy’, or ‘unrealistic’ (it is your limbic brain that is likely to think this) think again. It is important to remember that the PFC is not only principled, it is also firm, and has no trouble setting boundaries. If the world was run by the PFC equivalent elements of our species, there would be no cover-ups, psychopaths would be flushed out immediately, and wrongdoing would be called out. We would be able to stand up to perpetrators, protect their victims or potential victims (any group in society that is vulnerable), and set appropriate boundaries. After we have removed people from danger and protected them, we could attempt to engage in dialogue with perpetrators and their enablers. We need the societal/species equivalent of the individual PFC to be in charge in humanity. I have no doubt that this will transform everything, just as it does in individuals psychology.
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Thank you so much for reading my work!
I think this is in fact a completely complete essay in so many ways. Most people seem to define “strength” in military terms only but real strength is much more. Numerous examples in history show this. If we make the children of our enemy our enemies we will always have enemies. Three cheers for compassion. Thanks Avigail.
Excellent article. Avigail addresses the 'human condition' clearly and with great insight, backed up by science. Begs the question, why is the field of Psychotherapy so hopelessly stuck upon failed modalities? Well done Avigail.....again!