Personal or Collective: Mental Health in a Period of Unprecedented Change
Twice this week, I've woken to words ringing in my ears related to mental health, physical health, and the state of the world. The words I woke up to were to the effect of "You're trying to maintain your sanity in a world that is completely insane", and days later I heard, "To address personal health, they must shift their focus to the health of the world". So I thought I would unpack both these dreams a little; for your benefit and my own.
The truth is, it doesn't take much to witness the insanity of our world. Or to acknowledge that our world is gravely sick and akin to a body that is dying. And I do not mean the Earth, but specifically 'Our World'; the human-designed, co-created, fast vanishing, puddle of melted ice-cream that we call a society.
Day by day more of us awaken to the inherent injustice of our human systems, and the issues of social, environmental and economic justice that beg to be resolved. The failings of our human society are becoming ever more apparent by the minute, as the repercussions of our collective actions and corrupt systems play out before our eyes.
Like cancers spreading through the body, hatred, fear, envy, pride, prejudice, self-importance and self-preservation, have affected the fibres of society, and rotted its very structures; regular everyday people right up through to the heads of our corporations and our leaders of state. And to imagine that we each are not atoms of a larger body that is reflecting our ills back to us on a systemic scale is at the root of why we are suffering in the first place.
A couple of decades ago it took a little more effort to convince people of the injustice, the absurdity of it all, and the imminent collapse of the old and unjust, systems and structures that no longer serve us; that never did. Systems that have led to the impoverishment of all countries, chiselled into the planet lines of disunity, blinded us with the poison of prejudice and caused unimaginable horrors to befall innocent people and populations across the planet.
But now as we look around, we can so easily witness the confusion that grips the people and the corruption that motivates them, the injustice of systems we have been forced to live within and the absurdity of once highly regarded and respected ideals of national pride, competition and rivalry, accumulation of wealth and playing the game of capitalism. It is becoming easier to acknowledge that the entire house is termite-ridden, as entire walls fall off and load-bearing beams collapse.
And with each passing day, the convulsions of this society in its death throes, become more frequent and traumatic. Our world IS, absolutely insane, and our society IS most definitely dying.
To try to maintain one's mental or physical health in this context is futile, without an understanding of this process we are in.
And to try to 'heal' our physical, mental or spiritual self, without awareness of, or engagement with, the health, wealth and wellbeing of the world at large is an impotent action and a fruitless effort.
A single organ or limb or cell within the body cannot heal itself without working with the body of which it is a part.
A leaf on a dying tree cannot save itself if it cares not for all of the leaves, on all the limbs of that tree.
A single animal of an endangered species will not survive if it isolates itself away from danger and from the rest of its kind.
These each offer a basic and very limited analogy of the idea that your health, mental or physical, is inextricably interconnected with the rest of your body. And humanity is that body. We each are nothing if we cut ourselves off from our world at large and concern ourselves with our own immediate and needs and surroundings.
Yes, in a sense we can still live and draw breath, and we can eat, sleep and shit, if we don't care for others, and we are only concerned for our personal wellbeing and that of our immediate family. But our lives will become like the life of the leaf that disassociates itself from the rest of the tree; meaningless, empty, and short-lived.
The field of ecopsychology sheds further light on why this might be. The underlying premise of ecopsychology suggests that the current ecological crisis is actually a result of an imagined disconnection between humans and their environment and the resulting dysfunctional relationship. Imagined being the emphasised word here.
Ecopsychology proposes the human consciousness cannot be separated from its host environment and that this relationship can only be functional or dysfunctional. Much the same way as our relationships with siblings or parents even when we are estranged for years, the tie is there, and the pain is still felt. This inseverable connection we have to the womb within which we are growing leaves the human being in a constant state of flux between knowing and not knowing of the current ecological crisis we face (Fisher, 2002).
While psychology looks to understand the barriers between awareness of an issue and action (McKenzie-Mohr, 2000) or the gap between rhetoric and behaviour (Booth, 2009), ecopsychology looks to unravel the complex internal contradictions that are activated by conversations on climate change due to an inextricably interconnected relationship between nature and man (Fisher, 2002).
Though ecopsychology has roots as far back as the work of Carl Jung, Aldo Leopard and Harold Searles, it has only truly begun to take come of age as a unique field of research in the last two decades (Fisher, 2002).
Fisher suggests that ecopsychology is the natural progression of the practice of psychology extending from a historical preoccupation with the intrapsychic and broader sociological factors, to now include an understanding of the inextricably interwoven nature of the relationship between humans and the natural environment from which we have sprung.
From an ecopsychology perspective, we could see the current global crises as physical manifestations of unconscious dysfunctions, resulting in the toxic relationship between various parts of a single organism (Kidner, 1994; Fisher, 2002).
Paul Shepard (1973) suggested that the environmental crisis represents as much a crippled state of our collective consciousness as it does an ecological catastrophe.
In this sense, ecopsychology rejects the myth of apathy and rather than giving credence to suggestions of an ill-informed, unconcerned or unmotivated public, instead recognises the complex emotional management that is activated in suppressing the unresolved feelings of shame, fear, grief, guilt and loss (Lertzman, 2009).
Where psychology had traditionally generalised these feelings as anxiety, internalised the problem, and failed to connect the symptoms to the actual external causes (Knapp & Ireland, 2013), ecopsychology proposes that human beings experience feelings of fear, grief and shame from witnessing the destruction of nature and knowing they are complicit in the degradation of the natural world.
Whether it is the degradation of the natural world or the impoverishment of countries due to the looting of mining companies, whether it is the prevalence of domestic violence in our communities, the loneliness of the elderly left to their own devices, the rising rates of suicide, the widening gap of economic inequality or the suffering of animals, we can try to ignore these issues, but we cannot completely disassociate from the state of our world without acting to the detriment of our physical, mental and spiritual health.
Not only that, but the most effective action one can take to benefit their mental health, their spiritual growth and even to address their physical health, is to engage fully with the world at large, and concern ourselves deeply with the wellbeing of ours. And not in an antagonistic, conspiracy theorist, looking for injustice to be offended by, kind of way, but in a loving, meaningfully engaged and positively contributing way; a way which brings light into the world and actually makes a positive impression upon society.
This is what your soul craves more than anything, this is the underlying purpose of all life in the world; to receive the good graces of God, and energy and light and warmth of the sun, and to offer up fruits and flowers in beauteous celebration for the blessing of having been included and brought into being to join the rest of life. This sensation that comes from this heartfelt and sincere action is not something a company can sell you, nor is it something a charity can do on your behalf with your monthly donation.
Just as no one else can eat your food for you, and no one can exercise on your behalf, so too can nobody fulfil the very purpose of your existence. To receive and return; to turn your capacity for compassion into genuine love, and that love to be alloyed with determination and focus to create effective action for the betterment of the world.
Your whole being, your very soul, will come alive as you commit yourself further and further to the service of the whole. Not only in a spiritual sense, but in a very physical and practical sense your health will return to you, your immune systems will regain its strength as you regain your purpose. The limbs of your body will come alive as you reconnect and reengage on a heart level, not just on a mind level, with the rest of your earthly compatriots.
You exist for more than to just pay your rent, colour within the lines, and be a good tax-paying citizen. You are here to contribute to the betterment of life on Earth, the improvement of economic opportunity for others, or the provision of basic health needs to the disenfranchised, the elimination of prejudice and racism, the care of the elderly, the regeneration of decimated lands, and educational outcomes of the disadvantaged; these are the fruits you can offer this world, and within each of these fruits, there will be seeds, and these seeds will give life to further trees, and therein lies your pathway to happiness and the fulfilment of your destiny.
- Erfan Daliri
About the Author
Erfan Daliri is an author, poet, social change trainer and consultant with a Masters in Communication for Social Change. He has over 15 years of experience working with NGOs, community groups and government agencies in a diverse range of areas, including participatory development, cross-cultural communication, youth empowerment, education, mental health, settlement services, and social justice advocacy.
Erfan is the founding director of Newkind Social Justice Conference and programme coordinator of the National Unity in Diversity Conference. He consults and advises on communication and project design for organisations such as Amnesty International and the Australian Red Cross.
He is particularly passionate about empowering organisations and communities to address issues of social, environmental and economic justice and to help them build a more inclusive, cohesive, sustainable and equitable society. His most recent book Raising Humanity discusses the underlying causes of socio-economic injustice and covers the themes of ecology and economy, resilience, resistance and what it takes to be an effective changemaker.