On the unfolding polycrisis and neurodecolonisation (Part 1)

The following are some reflections on themes rather close to my heart: social justice, the climate crisis, and of course transpersonal psychotherapy. This essay is by no means exhaustive as there is so much to be said around colonialism, the patriarchy, the role of the shadow, as well as the limitations and contradictions of the transpersonal as a model heavily rooted in traditions and cultures that are often not given enough credit within white-dominated circles.

While some of these reflections may sound familiar to those with an interest in social justice, what I will attempt to do here is to expand on the link between the system we have come to inherit and the violence of separation from nature as a predominantly western phenomenon which has fundamentally altered our worldview and shaped the current mental health crisis. More reflections on the role that transpersonal therapy may play in neurodecolonising our field and as possible antidote to our collective predicament will be published in the upcoming months.

If the following inspires you in any way, I would love to hear your thoughts, and you can reach me at: therapy@vivianaesse.co.uk

Although not exclusively, colonialism is certainly at the root of a lot of the issues we currently face - from systemic injustice to climate change, and of course the current mental health crisis which has only gotten worse since the recent pandemic.

Yet even that system, which has sought to elevate some and subjugate others, is but a symptom of a deeper illness that has completely reshaped the way we relate to the planet.

All the threads at the core of the unfolding polycrisis can trace back to a single root, which is the malaise affecting the West and by extension all the cultures and world corners touched by its colonial violence over the centuries.

This disease, which some indigenous cultures call “Wetiko” is akin to what cancer does to its host: it greedily feeds off it in pursuit of a growth that subverts all laws of balance and harmony within a system, leading to the host’s demise and inevitably to its own. Extend that to society and you will see that we live in a Wetiko system based on this false sense of separation from nature and each other, which is exactly what is allowing us to sleepwalk into what has now been labelled as the “6th mass extinction”.

That sense of fundamental interconnectedness with the land and each other that our ancestors may have held centuries ago is gone, replaced by a neurocolonial worldview where nothing is perceived as sacred anymore.

If we look at neurocolonialism through the hermetic lens of “..as within, so without”, it is not hard to see how the world around us has been shaped by this inner sense of separation, which manifests as a power-over, hierarchical relationship to the world, people and species, going as far as commodifying ourselves and the Earth under the banner of capitalistic productivity, infinite growth and resource-hoarding.

Under this system we have become hungry ghosts insatiably using and consuming the planet we should protect, in complete denial of the repercussions of our reckless behaviour. Oblivious, for the most part, to how intelligent and alive this beautiful planet is. Putting it under strain, violating planetary boundaries (we are at 6 out of 9 at current) as we - quite possibly - violate our own in the name of greed and scarcity mentality on the one hand, and of escaping that pain on the other.

It is hard to stay sane under an intrinsically violent system where we have been isolated and are constantly being pushed to the edge of our resilience, with an ecocide in progress and no real tools to regulate and soothe our overstimulated nervous systems. The copying mechanisms we use to numb ourselves, however, are uncanny - like drowning ourselves in social media; streaming series after series on various platforms; consuming alcohol, drugs, porn, food; shopping online as if there was no tomorrow. Even the rise of medications that are prescribed to treat the inevitable symptoms one would experience at the insanity of it all, is an expression of this malaise.

How do we even begin to stay present to our heartbreak with very little or no community around, forced to produce more to “earn a living”, tricked into believing that to fill that unfillable void all we ought to do is buy, be successful, keep busy…[you fill in the gap]?

It is no wonder that we are witnessing the highest numbers of depression, anxiety and suicidality in the history of humankind. Trauma runs strong in our collective experience - but all violence goes back to that original separation from the greater web of life.

We sit like flowers in a vase, obsessed by our own beauty and narcissistic vainglory while feeding off the wrong nourishment, cut off from our roots. When life eventually presents us with a crisis, are clinical therapy or even medications enough to get to the root of our unease? Or is that only reinforcing the paradigm of disconnection?

If we were to relate to pain the same way nature does - as precious feedback to carefully attune to and to tend to in a responsive and creative way rather than something to be diagnosed and medicated for.. what would the implications be on a personal level? How about societal? And on the mental health system at large?

Can you begin to envision how different society would look like if people were not looked at as a walking bag of symptoms now carrying labels like “depressed”, “anxious”, “bipolar”, “borderline”, their only hope for coping being CBT and meds? 

What thought-forms and beliefs would we need to let go of? Might neurodecolonising be just what our field needs, and what might the role of the transpersonal be in facilitating that?

You can read more in the upcoming Part 2. Stay tuned.