Most therapists need therapy. They have been trained to make people "happy" and content with life whatever the individual situation is. Therapists need therapy to regain touch with reality. Anger is not an acceptable emotion regardless of the situation. You have anger management problems, when there are very good reasons to be angry. Depression can be caused by life experience, or chemical imbalance in the brain but are typically treated by drugs which do not work unless caused by a chemical imbalance.
Society has been trained to "happiness" - The required and only acceptable answer to "How are you doing?" is "Everything is just wonderful!". Telling the truth", Things suck " will get get you a strange look and the person will move away from you and stop talking to you. It's a large part of the reason we are where we are politically, financially and climate change is coming to get us. Psychologists impart denial and hope, not reality. By doing so therapy is counterproductive in many if not most cases. If you don't respond properly to talking therapy there are always drugs which are guaranteed to work.
In the larger scheme of things it has been devastating. People believe that climate change, ecocide and financial collapse are 100 years away - so why worry? It's not going to effect me.
I'd love to know how much has been spent on therapy to make people happy about the upcoming mass extinction event.
Sarah, you are well read, so I will also recommend "Mans Search for Meaning " and " the Denial of Death" if you haven't read them already. Also Taoism books, but I don't have a title off hand. Psychologists probably won't help b/c " There is nothing wrong with you, it’s the world we live in." as one of my psychologist friends told me.
I think you have a fundamental problem in your methodology. The psychologist themself is not a neutral party. They are part of the society that is collapsing. If they were to take your concerns seriously and recognize the reality of impending collapse, it would impact their career, personal relations, their entire life. One cannot believe that the world will end on Friday and still make plans for a dinner date over the weekend. It is safe to assume, therefore, that the psychologist is also in denial and will assume your concern is an exaggerated response to perfectly normal phenomenon. To sum up, and to quote the mighty blue hero the Tick, "You are not going crazy, you are going sane in a crazy world."
Thank you for writing about this Sarah. You are right, mainstream psychology is not equipped to deal with collapse awareness and the mental health fall-out, but many of us are working on it. There's also the tradition of existential psychology that explores our human experience of existence that has always been beyond the medical model of MH (eg Victor Frankl's work). More recently developed therapies such as ACT are helpful as well. Gabrielle Feather is developing and evaluating an ACT based therapy program for her PhD. Check out her substack Post-Growth Psychology. The aim is to train up more psychologists with an approach that helps people to hold collapse awareness, look after their own MH, and do what matters - a delicate balance.
I felt an existential crisis even before becoming collapse-aware; a heartbreak was the cherry on top, and the whole thing easily the hardest time I’ve ever had, with severe depression the natural result.
I like the line “how do you cure reality?” But to be fair, the meaning crisis of life is nothing new. I reckon it can hit collapse-aware atheist rationalists quite hard, for they “obsess” about reality too hard to find a logical escape.
I believe the best way out is emotional intelligence and wisdom. But it’s not easy when one is already in the pits. I recently found a new therapist I hope may help me. She, too, is not collapse-aware, but I have hope she can help me with my weaknesses.
And IRL community, of course — which is tricky re collapse-awareness. Good luck to us all.
Synchronic that I read this today after an hour with my therapist (of over a year) and finally opening up to her about this...it's the first time a therapist validated and related to my reality based existential dread. She's in her 70's and has been a therapist a long time. She's got more confidence in her ability to sit with someone in their grief.
I have found Tom Murphy's comments to do with INTJs helpful (https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2015/04/programmed-to-ignore/). Most people simply do not think in the same way as the people at this blog, which is why so many educated, intelligent people don't 'get it'.
I don't see why psychologists should be an exception. Indeed, maybe they actually have less knowledge as to the predicaments we face. They are not trained in thermodynamics, systems engineering and the management of mega projects. So, if they do not understand the nature of our dilemmas, how can they help those who do understand?
Then there is the meaning of 'reality'. In spite of all the bad news, most people do not see much change in their lives. However, I have found one exception. I live in central Virginia (USA). According to the State web site the first/last frosts are around mid-October/the second week of March. This year, in our area, the dates were the last week of November and the last week of February. When I mention this to people, especially gardeners, they are interested because it is 'actionable intelligence'. On the other hand, if I talk about melting glaciers in the Antarctic or even wild fires on the other side of the continent, the response is a tolerating smile (at best).
Do you mean Myers-Briggs tests? There are quite a few ― here’s INTJ: https://www.16personalities.com/intj-personality. (These thoughtful tacticians love perfecting the details of life, applying creativity and rationality to everything they do. Their inner world is often a private, complex one.)
Here’s INTP: https://www.16personalities.com/intp-personality. (These flexible thinkers enjoy taking an unconventional approach to many aspects of life. They often seek out unlikely paths, mixing willingness to experiment with personal creativity.)
There is a practical result of these analyses. The INTs should not try to change the world. Most people will not ‘get it’.
I work with the faith community on what I call the ‘Age of Limits’. (I prefer not to use the word ‘collapse’ since it carries too much baggage and is misleading, and ‘polycrisis’ sounds wonkish.) The people in my community are generally well educated and strongly motivated. However, they generally focus on just one problem, such as climate change, which can be solved, and then life continues as before. They do not gravitate toward systems thinking, something that both INTJs and INTPs are good at.
Hence, trying to change the world is not going to work. But the INTs can provide badly-needed leadership.
There is a precedent. As the western Roman Empire was declining Augustine of Hippo (354-430) recognized that all human organizations eventually fail and die ― there are no exceptions. Therefore, he wondered, what is permanent? This train of thought led to him writing the book City of God. We need someone like him now; someone who can create a picture of an alternative, ideal world in the late 21st century.
Following Augustine came Benedict of Nursia (480-547 CE). He and others created the monastic systems that provided an organizational and economic basis for what some people call the Dark Ages. I have jotted down a few thoughts on this topic (https://faithclimate.substack.com/p/the-third-mark-of-a-new-monasticism) as to what this means in practice.
My guess is that both of these men were INTs (together they make up about 5% of the population.) They transformed ‘collapse’ into ‘transition’.
"I view the concept of god as a metaphor for the beauty and mystery of the world. "
Even the ancient people understood God and origin stories as a metaphor. How modern humans began to take these stories literally is astoundingly childish.
Most therapists need therapy. They have been trained to make people "happy" and content with life whatever the individual situation is. Therapists need therapy to regain touch with reality. Anger is not an acceptable emotion regardless of the situation. You have anger management problems, when there are very good reasons to be angry. Depression can be caused by life experience, or chemical imbalance in the brain but are typically treated by drugs which do not work unless caused by a chemical imbalance.
Society has been trained to "happiness" - The required and only acceptable answer to "How are you doing?" is "Everything is just wonderful!". Telling the truth", Things suck " will get get you a strange look and the person will move away from you and stop talking to you. It's a large part of the reason we are where we are politically, financially and climate change is coming to get us. Psychologists impart denial and hope, not reality. By doing so therapy is counterproductive in many if not most cases. If you don't respond properly to talking therapy there are always drugs which are guaranteed to work.
In the larger scheme of things it has been devastating. People believe that climate change, ecocide and financial collapse are 100 years away - so why worry? It's not going to effect me.
I'd love to know how much has been spent on therapy to make people happy about the upcoming mass extinction event.
Sarah, you are well read, so I will also recommend "Mans Search for Meaning " and " the Denial of Death" if you haven't read them already. Also Taoism books, but I don't have a title off hand. Psychologists probably won't help b/c " There is nothing wrong with you, it’s the world we live in." as one of my psychologist friends told me.
I was thinking about Man's Search for Meaning as I wrote this. Highly recommended.
I think you have a fundamental problem in your methodology. The psychologist themself is not a neutral party. They are part of the society that is collapsing. If they were to take your concerns seriously and recognize the reality of impending collapse, it would impact their career, personal relations, their entire life. One cannot believe that the world will end on Friday and still make plans for a dinner date over the weekend. It is safe to assume, therefore, that the psychologist is also in denial and will assume your concern is an exaggerated response to perfectly normal phenomenon. To sum up, and to quote the mighty blue hero the Tick, "You are not going crazy, you are going sane in a crazy world."
Thank you for writing about this Sarah. You are right, mainstream psychology is not equipped to deal with collapse awareness and the mental health fall-out, but many of us are working on it. There's also the tradition of existential psychology that explores our human experience of existence that has always been beyond the medical model of MH (eg Victor Frankl's work). More recently developed therapies such as ACT are helpful as well. Gabrielle Feather is developing and evaluating an ACT based therapy program for her PhD. Check out her substack Post-Growth Psychology. The aim is to train up more psychologists with an approach that helps people to hold collapse awareness, look after their own MH, and do what matters - a delicate balance.
Thanks for the recommendation
I felt an existential crisis even before becoming collapse-aware; a heartbreak was the cherry on top, and the whole thing easily the hardest time I’ve ever had, with severe depression the natural result.
I like the line “how do you cure reality?” But to be fair, the meaning crisis of life is nothing new. I reckon it can hit collapse-aware atheist rationalists quite hard, for they “obsess” about reality too hard to find a logical escape.
I believe the best way out is emotional intelligence and wisdom. But it’s not easy when one is already in the pits. I recently found a new therapist I hope may help me. She, too, is not collapse-aware, but I have hope she can help me with my weaknesses.
And IRL community, of course — which is tricky re collapse-awareness. Good luck to us all.
Synchronic that I read this today after an hour with my therapist (of over a year) and finally opening up to her about this...it's the first time a therapist validated and related to my reality based existential dread. She's in her 70's and has been a therapist a long time. She's got more confidence in her ability to sit with someone in their grief.
I have found Tom Murphy's comments to do with INTJs helpful (https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/2015/04/programmed-to-ignore/). Most people simply do not think in the same way as the people at this blog, which is why so many educated, intelligent people don't 'get it'.
I don't see why psychologists should be an exception. Indeed, maybe they actually have less knowledge as to the predicaments we face. They are not trained in thermodynamics, systems engineering and the management of mega projects. So, if they do not understand the nature of our dilemmas, how can they help those who do understand?
Then there is the meaning of 'reality'. In spite of all the bad news, most people do not see much change in their lives. However, I have found one exception. I live in central Virginia (USA). According to the State web site the first/last frosts are around mid-October/the second week of March. This year, in our area, the dates were the last week of November and the last week of February. When I mention this to people, especially gardeners, they are interested because it is 'actionable intelligence'. On the other hand, if I talk about melting glaciers in the Antarctic or even wild fires on the other side of the continent, the response is a tolerating smile (at best).
This is an interesting perspective i hadn't heard before. Thanks for sharing. Do you know of any good online tests for readers?
I am INTP.
Do you mean Myers-Briggs tests? There are quite a few ― here’s INTJ: https://www.16personalities.com/intj-personality. (These thoughtful tacticians love perfecting the details of life, applying creativity and rationality to everything they do. Their inner world is often a private, complex one.)
Here’s INTP: https://www.16personalities.com/intp-personality. (These flexible thinkers enjoy taking an unconventional approach to many aspects of life. They often seek out unlikely paths, mixing willingness to experiment with personal creativity.)
There is a practical result of these analyses. The INTs should not try to change the world. Most people will not ‘get it’.
I work with the faith community on what I call the ‘Age of Limits’. (I prefer not to use the word ‘collapse’ since it carries too much baggage and is misleading, and ‘polycrisis’ sounds wonkish.) The people in my community are generally well educated and strongly motivated. However, they generally focus on just one problem, such as climate change, which can be solved, and then life continues as before. They do not gravitate toward systems thinking, something that both INTJs and INTPs are good at.
Hence, trying to change the world is not going to work. But the INTs can provide badly-needed leadership.
There is a precedent. As the western Roman Empire was declining Augustine of Hippo (354-430) recognized that all human organizations eventually fail and die ― there are no exceptions. Therefore, he wondered, what is permanent? This train of thought led to him writing the book City of God. We need someone like him now; someone who can create a picture of an alternative, ideal world in the late 21st century.
Following Augustine came Benedict of Nursia (480-547 CE). He and others created the monastic systems that provided an organizational and economic basis for what some people call the Dark Ages. I have jotted down a few thoughts on this topic (https://faithclimate.substack.com/p/the-third-mark-of-a-new-monasticism) as to what this means in practice.
My guess is that both of these men were INTs (together they make up about 5% of the population.) They transformed ‘collapse’ into ‘transition’.
INTP other days...
"I view the concept of god as a metaphor for the beauty and mystery of the world. "
Even the ancient people understood God and origin stories as a metaphor. How modern humans began to take these stories literally is astoundingly childish.
Citation needed
"there is no cure for reality. " indeed.
Good book for our times. I made a mistake not suggesting it in my article.