Layer 275 . . . Positive Psychology, Maslow, and Individual Journeys

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A few remarks on "positive psychology" - thoughts which have been fermenting and distilling  in Oxzen's spirit refinery for quite a while. It's time for a tasting.

Firstly, "positive psychology" isn't even psychology. It's bleeding common sense, as far as it goes. You don't have to be a trained psychologist in order to understand it or practice it. Millions of Buddhists, for example, have been practitioners for millenia.

Abraham Maslow, who was a psychologist by trade, is usually referred to as the "father" of positive psychology. Since Maslow wrote about a hierarchy of human needs and described what he saw as "self-actualised" or fully evolved human beings (see Layer 20), a great many of his fellow practitioners have grabbed on to what he said and made a great deal of money out of it, using the label "positive psychology". Whereas, in fact, Maslow's insights actually amount to a philosophy of human development and human behaviour, and aren't a prescription for treating psychological disturbance and disorder.

Maslow understood that once our basic needs for safety, food, shelter and human relationships have been taken care of then healthy human beings are motivated by a quest for social, emotional and spiritual development. The driving forces beyond safety, sustenance and sex are the need to have and to receive what Buddhists call lovingkindness, along with sustainable feelings of joy and pleasure which occur through giving and receiving lovingkindness. These aren't terms used by Maslow, but it's clear to me, at least, that this is a useful way of paraphrasing what he said.

Beyond the positive feelings that occur through positive human contacts there is another level of joy and wellbeing which is gained through contact with nature, and feelings of awe and wonder that enter our beings when we feel a connection with the divine, and a sense that we're in fact connected with everybody and everything that exists. In other words, when we experience an enlightened sense of understanding that we're all part of everything and we depend for our existence on our place in the universal flux - beyond our individual egos; beyond our individual striving for power or riches or status; beyond even a concern for our own self-preservation.

At this level we appreciate just how precious an individual life can be, and we feel motivated to help others to walk a path towards greater enlightenment and wellbeing. Ultimately each of us has to make that journey through our own efforts, but we can all help one another along the way. Through our connectedness in a spirit of lovingkindness we can reduce levels of loneliness, misery and sickness, and promote universal wellbeing. The answers to life's challenges are not "out there", not in a God or gods, not in material wealth, and not in individual power or status. The answers lie within each of us, and in reaching higher states of enlightened living, and in promoting those states in others. Not only do we not need power or wealth or status in order to become a fully evolved human being - those things more often than not hold people back from attaining any degree of enlightenment.

Ignorance is what holds us back, and lack of insight. Many of the richest and most famous and powerful people are unbelievably ignorant. They may also be some of the loneliest and unhappiest. The possession of comfort, popularity, safety and oppulence is no guarantee of wellbeing, let alone happiness. Time spent on pursuing wealth and status is time that's unavailable for pursuing spiritual intelligence and enlightenment. If we have no time for reflection and meditation then we are doomed to remain mired in ignorance and poor in spirit.

Education could play a massive role in overcoming ignorance and spiritual impoverishment, but unfortunately the schools and colleges in most industrialised nations have been turned into mere results factories with their managers primed to believe that their aim is to prepare pupils for the world of work.

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This little spiel, this minor rant against "positive psychology", was sparked by a recent article in the New Statesman -  by Anna Minton, called "Smile now, cry later."

http://www.newstatesman.com/health/2010/03/positive-psychology-happiness

Britain has bought in to America’s positive thinking and is heavily pushing the “science of happiness” – but does it work?

Maslow moved to Brandeis University, Massachusetts, in 1951 and three years later published Motivation and Personality, which rejected the determinism of both the psychoanalytic and the behaviourist approaches to psychology, taking dynamic and successful figures as its model, rather than those with negative pathology.

Maslow referred to humanism as a "third force" behind these two schools of thought, and became known internationally as the founding father and leader of this emergent branch of psychology.

I'd urge readers to have a look at this article, and ignore some of its superficiality to just take note of its comments on Martin Seligman, his stupid formula, and the comments on Richard Layard. We should also take note of how Layard and others are promoting the idea of "happiness lessons" in schools, which may amount to not much more than promoting "learned optimism" and a capacity to see a glass as half full instead of (or as well as) half empty.

As I was saying . . . bleeding common sense. A century of psycho-analysis, psychological quackery, ECT, etc, has done nothing for the promotion of human wellbeing. Our only hope is to show our children what the best of humanity is capable of (Layer 20), and to provide the conditions in which they can begin their individual journeys towards self-discovery, self-actualisation, wellbeing, lovingkindess, spiritual intelligence and enlightenment.

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Talking of Individual Journeys . . .

Two of the people I'm very impressed with at the moment are David Haye, the world champion boxer, and Emma Thompson, Oscar-winning actress and screenwriter.

Not since the heyday of Muhammed Ali have I heard a boxer speak with such intelligence and lucidity. Yesterday was a Haye day, with the man himself speaking on Radio 4 about his fight this evening. You rarely hear anyone speaking as well as DH does, let alone a boxer.

Emma T was this week's guest on Desert Island Discs, and was also on TV promoting her latest film, Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang. She's also a wonderfully intelligent and lucid speaker, and also has a superb, subtle sense of humour, just like her late father, the sublime Eric Thompson, who died tragically young following a stroke in his late 40's. The Magic Roundabout wasn't exactly his creation, but the words he spoke, in his incredibly listenable voice,  were entirely his own. Brian, Dougal, Dylan, Florence, Mr McHenry, Ermintrude, Mr Rusty, Zebidee - Eric did them all.-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/mar/28/emma-thompson-kenneth-branagh

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/7530122/Emma-Thompson-says-work-saved-her-from-going-under-in-her-battle-with-depression.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Thompson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfNUdhFIVHA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zCGjSoZzkY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMZ_cQYOzkQ&feature=related


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This says it all:

Only drug dealers will benefit from this absurd ban on mephedrone

Prohibition will drive supply underground, endanger users and make it tougher to wean addicts off harder drugs

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/apr/01/drug-dealers-profit-illegal-mephedrone-ban

As its last measure the present parliament will approve its silliest. It will "ban" a recently discovered party drug called mephedrone. MPs will declare next week that, while they may have been venal, spendthrift and corrupt, at least their final act will have protected thousands of young innocents from the devil. They will have well and truly banned something. They will feel much better, and go off whistling into the night.

Another government advisor has quit in protest against the government's handling of this issue:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8601315.stm

Eric Carlin said we need to get to the root causes of why young people use drugs. Indeed we do.And it's something to do with lack of a decent education, spiritual intelligence, and unbalanced human beings.

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Carly Simon was on the radio, talking about her heritage track, which turned out to be Cat Stevens'  "How Can I Tell You?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsk5MJeV5Qc

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/c/cat+stevens/how+can+i+tell+you_20028195.html

Interesting that she described the love she feels for her grandchildren as "an adrenaline rush" which occurs every time she sees them. I've never seen the words "love" and "adrenaline" linked in this way before, but it makes sense. If people feel a craving for "love" then it may well be because of the heightened sense of aliveness, wellbeing and joy they get from increased levels of adrenaline. After all, it's the drug of choice for people who are addicted to "falling in love".
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Layer 212 . . . The Way We Live Now and The Spirit Level

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I heard the other day that there are people from the Ministry of Children and Parents and Carers and Families and Schools and Things going around talking about the book I blogged about earlier in the year – The Spirit Level. Maybe some people are indeed starting to take notice, but what a pity New Labia didn't give a lot more thought to what ought to be the raison d'etre of the Left in politics – the need for a more equal society – for all our sakes – instead of just droning on for 12 years about “more equal opportunities”. Obviously this equality thing smacks too much of socialism to make it palatable to the likes of Blair and Brown.

So it's time for an update. Here's what Lynsey Hanley, Equality Correspondent (see also Layer 210) wrote about it in the Guardian some time ago:

The way we live now
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/mar/13/the-spirit-level

"We are rich enough. Economic growth has done as much as it can to improve material conditions in the developed countries, and in some cases appears to be damaging health. If Britain were instead to concentrate on making its citizens' incomes as equal as those of people in Japan and Scandinavia, we could each have seven extra weeks' holiday a year, we would be thinner, we would each live a year or so longer, and we'd trust each other more.

Epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett don't soft-soap their message. It is brave to write a book arguing that economies should stop growing when millions of jobs are being lost, though they may be pushing at an open door in public consciousness. We know there is something wrong, and this book goes a long way towards explaining what and why. 

The authors point out that the life-diminishing results of valuing growth above equality in rich societies can be seen all around us. Inequality causes shorter, unhealthier and unhappier lives; it increases the rate of teenage pregnancy, violence, obesity, imprisonment and addiction; it destroys relationships between individuals born in the same society but into different classes; and its function as a driver of consumption depletes the planet's resources.

On almost every index of quality of life, or wellness, or deprivation, there is a gradient showing a strong correlation between a country's level of economic inequality and its social outcomes. Almost always, Japan and the Scandinavian countries are at the favourable "low" end, and almost always, the UK, the US and Portugal are at the unfavourable "high" end, with Canada, Australasia and continental European countries in between.

This has nothing to do with total wealth or even the average per-capita income. America is one of the world's richest nations, with among the highest figures for income per person, but has the lowest longevity of the developed nations, and a level of violence - murder, in particular - that is off the scale. Of all crimes, those involving violence are most closely related to high levels of inequality - within a country, within states and even within cities. For some, mainly young, men with no economic or educational route to achieving the high status and earnings required for full citizenship, the experience of daily life at the bottom of a steep social hierarchy is enraging.

The graphs also reveal that it is not just the poor, but whole societies, from top to bottom, that are adversely affected by inequality. Although the UK fares badly when compared with most other OECD countries (and is the worst developed nation in which to be a child according to both Unicef and the Good Childhood Inquiry), its social problems are not as pronounced as in the US. 

Wherever you look, evidence favouring greater equality piles up. As the authors write, "the relationships between inequality and poor health and social problems are too strong to be attributable to chance".

But perhaps the most troubling aspect of reading this book is the revelation that the way we live in Britain is a serious danger to our mental health. Around a quarter of British people, and more than a quarter of Americans, experience mental problems in any given year, compared with fewer than 10 per cent in Japan, Germany, Sweden and Italy.

Wilkinson and Pickett's description of unequal societies as "dysfunctional" suggests implicit criticism of the approach taken by Britain's "happiness tsar" Richard Layard, who recommended that the poor mental health of many Britons be "fixed" or improved by making cognitive behavioural therapy more easily available. Consumerism, isolation, alienation, social estrangement and anxiety all follow from inequality, they argue, and so cannot rightly be made a matter of individual management. 

It's impossible to overstate the implications of their thesis: that the societies of Britain and the US have institutionalised economic and social inequality to the extent that, at any one time, a quarter of their respective populations are mentally ill. What kind of "growth" is that, other than a malignant one?

What Japan and Sweden show is that equality is a matter of political will. There are belated signs - shown in the recent establishment of a National Equalities Panel and in Trevor Phil lips's public pronouncements on the central place of class in the landscape of British inequality - that Labour recognises that its relaxed attitude to people "getting filthy rich" has come back to bite it on the rear. 

Twelve years in power is long enough to reverse all the trends towards greater social and economic stratification that have occurred since 1970; instead they have continued on their merry way towards segregation.

There are times when the book feels rather too overwhelmingly grim. Even if you allow for the fact that it was written before Barack Obama won the US presidency on a premise of trust and optimism, its opening pages are depressing enough to make you want to shut it fast: "We find ourselves anxiety-ridden, prone to depression, driven to consume and with little or no community life."

However, the book does end on an optimistic note, with a transformative, rather than revolutionary, programme for making sick societies more healthy. A society in which all citizens feel free to look each other in the eye can only come into being once those in the lower echelons feel more valued than at present. The authors argue that removal of economic impediments to feeling valued - such as low wages, low benefits and low public spending on education, for instance - will allow a flourishing of human potential.

There is a growing inventory of serious, compellingly argued books detailing the social destruction wrought by inequality. Wilkinson and Pickett have produced a companion to recent bestsellers such as Oliver James's Affluenza and Alain de Botton's Status Anxiety . But The Spirit Level also contributes to a longer view, sitting alongside Richard Sennett's 2003 book Respect: The Formation of Character in an Age of Inequality , and the epidemiologist Michael Marmot's Status Syndrome , from 2005.

Anyone who believes that society is the result of what we do, rather than who we are, should read these books; they should start with The Spirit Level because of its inarguable battery of evidence, and because its conclusion is simple: we do better when we're equal."
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This whole issue is really to do with spiritual intelligence. Anyone with a substantial degree of spiritual intelligence doesn't need to be convinced by masses of statistics that gross inequality is wrong and just plain idiotic - they can feel it in their souls and their bones. To turn their gaze from poverty and inequality and not give a damn about it not only means someone is greedy and callous, it means they are spiritually stupid and impoverished.

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Here's a review from the New Statesman by Roy Hattersley - http://www.newstatesman.com/books/2009/03/spirit-level-wilkinson-pickett

An interview with the authors, by John Crace, on “What might be the most important book of the year” - http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/mar/12/equality-british-society -The Theory of Everything - “These two British academics argue that almost every social problem, from crime to obesity, stems from one root cause: inequality.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y36BJoelaMc

http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9781846140396,00.html
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