THE PROBLEM
The gap between the evidence (from
science, from nature itself) and
action
Social Identities and Cognitions
• We are ‘hard wired’ to respond to risks that
are tangible, imminent and threaten us with
immediate losses
• We understand the world according to the
interpretive communities we belong to.
• We approach ‘evidence’ using selective
attention and various ‘cognitive biases’.
What’s missing?
• Limits to human rationality are acknowledged but
the model used is still basically one of the rational
actor.
• A focus on cognitions, frames and narratives but
emotions are still largely missing from the
picture.
• Change efforts are directed at the
individual/family and institutions (governments,
corporations) but the cultural dimension is
neglected.
institutions
people
culture
The individual and society
Society has the capacity to either
bring out the best or the worst in us
PSYCHOANALYTICALLY INFORMED
PERSPECTIVES
• “Go, go, go said the bird: human kind
Cannot bear very much reality”
T.S.Eliott, Burnt Norton
A Culture of Narcissism
• We see ourselves as uniquely entitled (as
individuals, as developed countries, as a
species)
• We have an instrumental relation to others
and to nature (human and natural resources)
• The illusion of mastery/control possesses the
mind of both the individual and of the human
species
Our culture is poorly equipped to
enable us to face the facts of life –
our mortality, frailty & limits; our
vulnerability to chance and fate;
our dependency on others/nature
for what is life-affirming
We struggle against the feelings
elicited by climate change
• Loss and grief regarding the destruction
around us
• Guilt at our role in this destruction
• Anxiety when we look into the future
• Despair when we imagine that we lack the
resources to change what is happening
CLIMATE CHANGE DENIAL
DENIALISM
NEGATION
DISAVOWAL
The person and denial
Disavowal
One part of the mind sees and
knows, another part of the mind says
“this cannot be true”
The non-unitary mind
• Different parts of the mind see, desire and
experience the world in different ways
• We are always in conflict with ourselves and
manage these conflicts as best as we can
• Whilst some parts of the mind seek truth and
growth other parts oppose this
• We confront climate change through a series
of dilemmas in which we feel pulled in
different directions
“I did not say this young man was
lying. I said I am unable to believe
him. There is a difference.” Supreme
Court Judge Felix Frankfurter on hearing an
eye witness account of the clearing of the
Warsaw Ghetto
Disavowal
Just Don’t Think About It
“you know it's one of those things, the
environment, it is a bit like eating meat; if I do
it, recognising full well that, how it is produced
is often horrendous, and I just choose not to
think too much about that, even though, you
know in my head, and through reading and
understanding you know I know that it is not,
not a good scene. And maybe the environment
is a bit like that you know, I close off a little bit
of, erm, you know I am aware of that
something is going on”. (Male, teacher, 30’s)
Disavowal
Splitting Thought from Feeling
Recent psychoanalytic thinking
about denial sees it as a central
component of a more
encompassing ‘perverse state of
mind’ which provides protection
from anxiety and pain (John
Steiner (1993) Psychic Retreats.
London: Routledge)
STATE OF MIND
• An organised configuration of feeling states,
(ph)fantasies, relations between parts of the self,
defence mechanisms, etc.
• Perverse State of Mind: As if there is an
establishment in the mind with which parts of the
self ally, partly because they are seduced, partly
out of fear. Self deception, collusion and an
‘artful’ relation to the truth are the order of the
day. When change threatens this alliance the
establishment offers furious resistance.
A PERVERSE RELATION TO REALITY
• Persisting in error as in, i) a blatant or willful refusal to
accept error or responsibility or, ii) persisting in a course of
action that is clearly going to be damaging to self and others.
• ‘Artful’ engagement with the truth
• Perverse insistence upon the opposite (‘fair is
foul’, war is peace)
• To lead astray, from the true/right course (as
in ‘perverting the course of justice’)
PERVERSE INSTITUTIONS
PERVERSE INSTITUTIONS EPITOMISED
BY BANKING SECTOR
•
•
•
•
•
CULTURE OF ENTITLEMENT
ORGANISED DISAVOWAL
COLLUSION
INSTRUMENTAL RELATIONS DOMINANT
Susan Long (2008) The Perverse
Organisation and the Seven Deadly Sins.
London: Karnac
PERVERSE GOVERNANCE
• THE CREATION OF AN ‘AS IF’ REALITY, A
VIRTUAL REALITY OF TARGETS, INDICATORS,
COMPARATORS WHICH, THROUGH A
COLLECTIVE ACT OF SELF-DECEPTION, POLICY
MAKERS COME TO BELIEVE IS REALLY REAL
• THE CONSTRUCTION OF THIS VIRTUAL REALITY
THEN HAS A NUMBER OF PERVERSE
CONSEQUENCES
PERVERSE THINKING IN CLIMATE
CHANGE INSTITUTIONS
• Some things cannot be thought about
• Collusion occurs across the boundary
separating different groups of stakeholders –
eg. Scientists and policy makers
• Virtualism and International policy making
(Kyoto, Paris)
Some things cannot be thought about
• “But there is a mentality in that group that
speaks to policy makers that there are some
taboo topics . For instance… policy makers
that have said we must limit climate change to
two degrees. Well the emissions are going up
like this [gestures] so two degrees at the
moment seems completely unrealistic. But
you’re not allowed to say this. So its, kind of, if
you say it you have to be super cautious”
(Leading UK climate scientist)
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
• Climate science and policy has focused on
influencing the billions of emitters rather than
the few thousand producers.
• “A policy on climate change that ignores
production of fossil fuels is like a policy on
drugs that ignores the poppy fields, cocaine
labs, smuggling networks, and dealers and
focuses exclusively on the addicts” (George
Marshall: Don’t Even Think About It )
VIRTUALISM
• “The language of Kyoto and Copenhagen is
the language of targets, and the danger is that
it is precisely this language….that will appeal
to governments who need to look as if they
are doing something while safe in the
knowledge that they will not be in power
when it becomes clear that the targets are not
being met”
Perverse Culture
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•
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•
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A culture of entitlement
A culture of ‘uncare’
Cynicism
Deep Acting
Preoccupation with Resilience