It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine? (R.E.M.)

Friday night at the Tragically Hip concert 12,000 music lovers cheered collectively at the approaching lightning storm.  Enclosed by a metal fence in a field with numerous free standing aluminum light poles, and a stage drawing enough electricity to power a small town, we (I partially exclude myself as I didn’t go so far as to cheer while the lightning touched down on the adjacent hillside) marvelled at the massive atmospheric electrostatic discharge and casually spoke of how crazy it was that we were all just standing there.  Believe it or not I have a segue from this story about the power of splitting in a collective environment, into the Mnguni article.  “Anxiety and defense in sustainability” brings to mind a Tragically Hip lyric I would like to share:

                I though you beat the death of inevitability to death just a little bit

                I though you beat the inevitability of death just a little bit

 It would seem that looking at sustainability through a psychodynamic lens can bring you to some pretty dark places.  It’s hard to argue with the notion that “when attendant anxiety is insufficiently acknowledged, defensive routines are likely to undermine collective efforts.”  The result being a perpetuation of the very actions and practices sustainability workers are trying to stop.  I thought our class might have served as the case study for how collusive behaviour can manifest itself in the form of “overemphasis on operational detail and a concomitant disregard of emergent relational dynamics,” but I digress (likely another defense mechanism, but making light of defense mechanisms is likely a maladaptive behaviour stemming from infantile defenses- oh my down the rabbit hole we go!).

I am particularly interested in how “splitting in sustainability also manifests as those working in the field seek to claim and own the reparative aspects of the work.”  I have been guilty of this practice in the past, likely in this very blog, casually projecting blame on corporations and the institutions that perpetuate neo-liberal ideals, while I continue to benefit from the inequity that these systems create.  Do you think that there is also an element of self-importance in the environmental movement that holds it back?  I am not questioning the science of global warming or the degradation to the biosphere that has resulted from our continued “development,” but the presentation of these issues as “the greatest threat mankind collectively has ever faced” (Searles, 1972) is a mantra that has been taken up by a cause in every generation. 

It is certainly easier to remain in a perpetual state of “dimmed awareness,” taking issue with issues that serve your immediate needs and avoiding the harsh reality that comes with trying to move against the grain.  Obviously awareness is not enough, and perhaps some people are attracted to a realm in which they are “constantly confronted with the real possibility of the end of the world as we know it.”

Mnguni, P.P. (2010). Anxiety and Defense in Sustainability. Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society, 15(2), 117-135.

Searles, H.F. (1972). Unconscious processes in relation to the environmental crisis. The Psychoanalytic review, 59(3), 361-374.