Climate health costs: bug-borne ills, killer heat

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Tree-munching beetles, malaria-carrying mosquitoes and deer ticks that spread Lyme disease are three living signs that climate change is likely to exact a heavy toll on human health.

These pests and others are expanding their ranges in a warming world, which means people who never had to worry about them will have to start. And they are hardly the only health threats from global warming.

The Lancet medical journal declared in a May 16 commentary: "Climate change is the biggest global health threat of the 21st century."

Individual threats range from the simple to the very complex, the Lancet said, reporting on a year-long study conducted with University College London.

As the global mean temperature rises, expect more heat waves. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projects 25 percent more heat waves in Chicago by the year 2100; Los Angeles will likely have a four-to-eightfold increase in the number of heat-wave days by century's end.

These "direct temperature effects" will hit the most vulnerable people hardest, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, especially those with heart problems and asthma, the elderly, the very young and the homeless.

The EPA has declared that carbon dioxide, a powerful greenhouse gas. is a danger to human health and welfare, clearing the way for possible regulation of emissions.

At the same time, the U.S. Congress is working on a bill that would cap emissions and issue permits that could be traded between companies that spew more than the limit and those that emit less.

RISING SEAS, SULTRY AIR

People who live within 60 miles of a shoreline, or about one-third of the world's population, could be affected if sea levels rise as expected over the coming decades, possibly more than 3 feet (1 meter) by 2100. Flooded homes and crops could make environmental refugees of a billion people.

As it becomes hotter, the air can hold more moisture, helping certain disease-carriers, such as the ticks that spread Lyme disease, thrive, the EPA said.

A changing climate could increase the risk of mosquito-borne diseases like malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever and various viral causes of encephalitis. Algae blooms in water could be more frequent, increasing the risk of diseases like cholera. Respiratory problems may be aggravated by warming-induced increases in smog.

Other less obvious dangers are also potentially devastating.

Pine bark beetles, which devour trees in western North America will be able to produce more generations each year, instead of subsiding during winter months.

They leave standing dead timber, ideal fuel for wildfires from Arizona to Alaska, said Paul Epstein of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard University.

"TREMENDOUS" HEALTH COSTS

Other insects are spreading in the United States, and while immediate protection is possible, the only real solution is to curb climate change, Epstein said in a telephone interview.

"You can tuck your pants into your socks and be very vigilant, but ultimately, if we don't stabilize the climate, it's going to continue to increase ... infectious diseases," Epstein said.

Carbon dioxide emissions, from coal-fired power plants, steel mills and petroleum-fueled cars, trucks and boats, among other sources, do more than modify climate, Epstein said. They also stimulate ragweed, some pollen-bearing trees and fungi, extending the spring and fall allergy and asthma seasons.

It is hard to quantify the potential financial cost of U.S. climate-change-related health problems, said Dr. Chris Portier of the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Some costs might actually decline if programs are put in place to cut greenhouse emissions from fossil fuels, which would also reduce some types of toxic air and water pollution.

Without cuts in carbon dioxide emissions, that pollution will remain, and the other unhealthy effects of climate change will continue, including more severe floods, droughts, heat waves and storms.

"You'll get more extreme weather events that will occur more frequently ... and so it just piles on in terms of the human health effects," Portier said. "And the cost will be tremendous, there's little doubt of that."

Lecture Notes On Erich Fromm

Disclaimer: In these lecture notes, posted online for the benefit of my students, I have quoted more than the usually allowable 350-450 words from The Sane Society. If any copyright holder objects, please let me know and I will stop.

OVERVIEW: Erich Fromm was one of the two twentieth-century psychologists, along with the Gestalt psychologist Kurt Lewin, who most explcitly applied their psychological ideas to an analysis of society. Others who did so, but not in such a thoroughgoing manner, included Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, and Paolo Freire. I think it reasonable to say that in a real sense, all these figures were not only psychologists but also social philosophers. The scope and compass of Fromm's own thinking and investigations is nothing short of astonishing. "Neo-Freudian." Fromm was given this label along with Alfred Adler, Karen Horney, & Harry Stack Sullivan. All four members of this group were far more concerned with social relationships than the orthodox psychoanaolysts. A bridge theorist. Like Adler and Horney, Fromm ccan be regarded as a "bridge theorist" between psychoanalysis and humanistic psychology. At the same time, he undertook a far more thorough psychological analysis of society than any humanistic psychologist., A basic theme in Fromm's thought: We feel lonely and isolated because we have become separated from nature and from other human beings.

MINI- BIOGRAPHICAL Fromm was born in 1900 in Frankfurt. Doctorate from University of Heidelberg. Psychoanalytic training at Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute. Also studied at the University o. Munich. He held a doctorate in sociology as well as being a trained psychoanalyst. Came to U.S. in 1933, first at Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute, then moved to New York City. Started a private practice. Began to recognize that what was going on in the culture and the society affects people in dramatic ways. His first wife was the noted psychoanalyst Frieda Fromm-Reichmann.After her death he married Karen Horney. Both these women were around 15 years older than Fromm and were a real sense mentors. Eventually he and Horney came to a parting of the ways. The two had a strong and noticeable influence on each other. Horney's personality typology can be seen within Fromm's later, more fully developed typology, as can her stress on awareness. Fromm spent a considerable share of his latter career in Mexico. Profoundly influenced Mexican psychology. When I did a tour of Mexican psychology departments in 1976, there were three principal schools: Psychoanalytic, especially at the Universidad Nacional; behaviorist, especially at the Universidad de Jalapa; and Frommian, especially at the Universidad de Puebla. (There was also a humanistic emphasis, both in the Universidad de Yucatan and the Jesuit Universidad Iberoamericana, which is sort of the Harvard of Mexico.) Fromm moved to Switzerland in 1976,and died in 1980, 6 days before his 80th birthday. (Karen Horney had died in 1952). For much more information about his life, see the three items at the top of the Erich Fromm Links page.

EARLY INFLUENCES. Early influences on Fromm included Freud's instinct theory. The part of it that most influenced Fromm was the idea that the person was driven from within and without, and Freud's emphasis on aggressive drives. Socialist thought also influenced Fromm. For a time he was a member of the "Frankfurt School" of "Marxist-Freudians," called Critical Theory in Sociology, but eventually lost popularity there because they considered him too humanistic and not sufficiently committed to the idea of economic determinism. He was influenced by Marx's analysis of the kind of capitalism that makes people into objects. Indeed, Fromm held that the full spiritual development of the human being and society were the central items to consider, and that economics should serve that end. He also provides, in The Sane Society, the best mini-history of socialist thought that I have seen, an incisive critique of how its spiritual essence was lost both in Soviet Communism and also in Western European materialistic socialism, and an analysis of how Marx's own writings paved the way for their misinterpretation and misuse by Lenin and Stalin. If you're interested in spending an hour actually finding a little out for yourself about socialist thought, this is a penetrating and fascinating historical analysis.

AN "EXISTENTIAL DICHOTOMY." This is like an existential dilemma with an additional dimension. It refers to a problem that has no solution because none of the alternatives it presents is fully satisfactory. We desire immortanity, but face death. We desire a certain kind of world, but find the world into which we were born unsatisfactory. Existential dichotomies are an inescapable part of life. Gregory Bateson's concept of the "double bind" is very close. The difference is that with the double bind, both options lead to some kind of painful or punishing experience. It is akin to Kurt Lewin's "avoidance-avoidance conflict."

FREEDOM IN MEDIEVAL AND MODERN SOCIETY.(Primary reference: Escape from Freedom.)Freedom was another central interest for Fromm, both from internal drives and also from external compulsions. Fromm did not take freedom lightly "What characterizes medieval society...is its lack of individual freedom. Everyone is chained to his role in the social order. Had to stay where born. Personal, economic, and social life are dominated by rules and obligations. But although the person was not free, neither was he alone and isolated. Was rooted in a socialized whole. Life had a meaning which left no place for doubt. A person was identical with his role. Roles. Today we like to say we're a person first, and the role comes second. In the old day's one's place was given. In medieval times the knight was as locked into a role as the peasant. He was a vassal of the kingdom. He couldn't change his role, make a choice. By contrast, in modern society we're not sure what our role is. In a sense, freedom is scary. We are isolated, alone, and afraid. Capitalism and freedom. Capitalism contributed to the growth of freedom, to a critical, responsible self. It also made people more alone. Put the individual entirely on his own feet. Furthered the process of individualization. The more man gains freedom, the more he becomes an individual. Escape from making choices. Much of Fromm's work had to do with how a person tries to escape from having to choose. We try to get the other person, or the institution, to take action for us. But this alienates us from our own power and responsiveness. (Erik Erikson talks about choice a little differently, linking it to his central interest, identity. One of his stages has to do with purpose. We have to struggle with what our purpose is. What am I going to do with this? What's my purpose?) MECHANISMS OF ESCAPE FROM FREEDOM Authoritarianism. Submission or domination. In masochistic form, we allow others to dominate us. In sadistic form, we try to dominate and control the behavior of others. A common feature of authoritarianism is the belief that one's life is determined by forces outside oneself, one's interests, or one's wishes, and the only way to be happy is to submit to those forces. The authoritarian submits to those who are higher up and steps on those who are below. Destructiveness. "The destruction of the world is the last, almost desperate attempts to save myself from being crushed by it." Destructiveness is often rationalized as love, duty, conscience, or patriotism. Automaton Conformity. . People cease to be themselves and adopt the type of personality proffered by their culture. Fromm notes a similarity between his mechanisms of escape and Horney's neurotic trends, but her emphasis was on anxiety and his was on isolation.

IDOLATRY. In idolatry we bow down and submit to the projection of one partial quality in ourselves. We do not experience ourselves "as the center from whcih living acts of love and reason radiate. We and our neighbors become things. Many contemporary religions have basically regressed into idolatry. "Man projects his power of love and of reason unto God; he does not feel them any more as his own powers, and then he prays to God to give hom back some of what he has projected onto God." The same phenomenon occurs "in the worshipping submission to a political leader, or to the state.. . . It makes little difference by what names this idol is known: state, class, collective, or what else."

ALIENATION. We can be alienated from society, from each other, or from ourselves. The alienated personality loses much of his or her sense of self, since this sense of self comes from experiencing myself as the subject of my experiences, my thoughts, my emotions, my decisions, and my actions. We can fully fathom the nature of alienation only by considering the routinization of modern life and our repression of awareness of the basic problems of human existence. We can fulfill ourself only if we stay in touch with the basic facts of existence, from love and solidarity to our aloneness and the fragmentary character of our lives.

AUTHORITY. Much of the authority in the mid-20th century has changed its character from overt authority to anonymous, invisible, alienated authority. "Who can attack the invisible? Who can rebel against Nobody?" "Parents do not give commands any more; they suggest that the child 'will want to do this.'" With overt authority there was conflict. and rebellion against irrational authority. "But if I am not aware of submitting or rebelling, if I am ruled by an anonymous authority, I lose the sense of self, I become a "one," a part of the "It." Anonymous authority operates through the mechanism of conformity. I must not be different, not "stick out." I must be ready to change when the pattern changes. I don't ask whether I'm right or wrong, but whether I'm "adjusted." "Nobody has power over me, except the herd of which I am a part, yet to which I am subjected."

CHARACTER (In Wilhelm Reich's sense--not in the sense of someone who is honest and trustworthy.) Difficult to change. Character is not just how we make a decision in the moment about what we do or don't do. It's not will. Something stronger is at work which is much stronger than will or resolve. a. We are creatures of habit. We can put ourselves on autopilot so we self-correct in accord with our accustomed programs. Character includes what's passed on by previous generations, both through learning and genetics. There is an interplay between the genetic factor and the society in which we find ourselves growing up. Character is the whole of all that. It is something shaped quite early by what takes pplace in a family, community, society, and genetic factors, moved in the direction in which the culture pushes. c. Character takes different turns: PRODUCTIVE ORIENTATIONS and UNPRODUCTIVE ORIENTATIONS. THE PRODUCTIVE CHARACTER -- central for Fromm. Character is so ingrained that it's very difficult to change, but if we understand what's happening, there is some room for movement. (There is some similarity between Fromm's types and Adler's "style of life." As a person does things, he or she has a certain way of going about it.) Most of the people with whom we are involved in social relationships don't want us to change, because we're predictable and they know how to relate to us. The productive orientation is "the active and creative relatedness of man to his fellow man, to himself, and to nature." Love is an aspect of this. This is an obvious historical progression from Alfred Adler's "socially interested person."

THE FOUR NONPRODUCTIVE PERSONALITY ORIENTATIONS.(Primary reference: Man for Himself). All these nonproductive orientations are an escape from freedom --an attempt to avoid taking responsibility for ourselves. Yet we all have some degree of each of these orientations. They can be positive or negative, depending on their nature and extremity. The receptive orientation. When extreme, the receptive orientation is the victim personified. The done-to who is not a doer. But in a subtle way they may manipulate. [In medieval times, Fromm points out, we wouldn't worry about this, but would just be whatever our social class said we would be.] The hopeful aspect is that all these types can be transformed into something more positive. For example, passivity can become acceptance. An overly submissive person may move into devotion, commitment. This can be different from the submissive quality of just taking in what the authority says without chewing on it. It may become a realistic loyalty. The person with unrealistic perceptions may become more realistic. Can develop ideals that can move them toward action in the world. The exploitive orientation. Sometimes referred to as narcissistic. Expects to take, to grab, to snatch away from others. I'm gonna go out and get mine despite you. The world is not a safe place, I want to keep from the wolf from the door. This person feels they have to steal what they get. Pretty aggressive. One woman was an incest victim. The mother was cold and frightened. The father turned to his daughter and had an incestuous sexual relationship for about 8 years, until at age 16 she found the strength to say, "No more." This experience had such a destructive effect on her that the only way she could have a relationship with another man was to take him away from another woman. Somehow she took it on that she had taken her father away from her mother. The exploiter does not creat ideas but steals, plagiarizes them. Tends to be aggressive, egocentric, arrogant, seducing, conceited. The hoarding orientation. Strives to accumulate possessions, power, love, and avoid disposing of any of these. Tight, constipated, squinty. Demands order, neatness. Resembles Freud's anal-retentive character type. Likes to have something, not necessarily use it. Likes to have people in their back pocket, like politicians. Many people who lived through the Great Depression developed this character orientation. Similarly, rats that are severely deprived of food at one point will, later in their lives, engage in hoarding of large amounts of food. The marketing orientation. The In the 1950s and 1960s Sociologist David Riesman wrote about the "other directed person." This was pretty close to what Fromm meant with the receptive individual. We need receptivity. We need to take in, to be loved, but a person may not know much about how to love. The receptive type feels that his or her central task is to be loved-- "I am the center of the universe."The marketing economy says we have to sell ourselve, make ourselves into an object, commodity.There is an bsession with "packaging," with our facade.The person with the marketing orientation aims to sell himself or herself successfully on the market. This person does not experience hismself or herself as an active agent, and to a great degree is alienated from his or her human powers. The sense of self stems from the socioeconomic role one plays. "Huiman qualities like friendliness, courtesy, kindness are transformed into commodities, into assets of the "personality package" that can bring a higher price on the personality market." A person's sense of his or her own value always depends on extraneous factors, on the fickle judgment of the market about the person's value. Blends. In real life we always deal with blends, for a person is never exclusively one of the nonproductive orientations or the productive orientation. From negative to positive. The nonproductive orientations can be considered to be distortions of orientations that are normal and necessary.Where you put the emphasis is important. All the negative tendencies come from an impoverished view of self and world, but a person can move towar expressing them positively. Every person must be able to accept, to take to save, and to exchange. Every person must also be able to follow authority, guide others, and assert himself. Growth is possible from a starting point of any of the orientations. You don't have to become something radically different--you can change within the context of where you begin. So movement from a negative to a positive, productive stance is possible within the context of each orientation.So every "nonproductive orientation" has both a positive and negative aspect, depending on the degree of productiveness in the overall personality. Receptive Orientation (Accepting) POSITIVE ASPECT accepting responsive devoted charming adaptable polite optimistic trusting NEGATIVE ASPECT passive opinionless submissive parasitical unprincipled spineless wishful thinking gullible Exploitative Orientation (Taking) POSITIVE ASPECT active takes the initiative makes claims (and heasr those of others) proud self-confident impulsive captivating NEGATIVE ASPECT exploitive aggressive Egocentric Conceited Arrogant rash seducing Hoarding Orientation (Preserving) POSITIVE ASPECT practical economical careful reserved patient cautious steadfast, tenacious methodical loyal NEGATIVE ASPEDCT unimaginative stingy suspicious cold lethargic anxious stubborn obsessional possessive Marketing Orientation (Exchanging) POSITIVE ASPECT purposeful able to change youthful openminded experimenting efficient curious adaptable tolerant generous NEGATIVE ASPECT opportunistic inconsistent childish unprincipled aimless overactive tactless undiscriminating indifferent wasteful A positive expression of the marketing orientation: Organization Development consultants packaging their transformational work in different language so CEOs won't be turned off. The problem comes when you can't separate out who you are. Willy Loman IN Death of a Salesman--a classical example. Went out each day with a smile and a shoeshine. His world was what the world wanted him to be. He never said, "I have the right to be me." When he was fired, he had no self. He had been totally identified with his role. He committed suicide. The productive orientation. For Fromm, the highest good was the person's productive contribution to the community.Like Adler's social interest.This orientation involves working, loving, and reasoning from your center, in a way that respects both your needs and those of the other person.

Jung and Fromm: Compare Fromm's approach to personality with Jung's statement that we carry both the feminine and masculine within us, but too often pick someone to act out the other side and suppress it within ourselves. Fromm: in oneself we need to develop both the accepting and the asserting side, which is similar to Jung's ideas about developing both Anima and Animus. Fromm moved toward the humanistic model when he said that we can all move toward being who we truly are and can redefine who we think ourselves to be. We are all susceptible to the marketing ploy. But if we can get in touch with what we stand on, and for, and who we indeed are, then we might be a little less susceptible to the seduction of the marketing economy. FROMM SAID WORK INSIDE. IF YOU WANT SOMETHING, SEE WHAT IT'S A SYMBOL FOR, WHAT THE SYMBOL MEANS. THEN MAYBE YOU DON'T GET A NEW BOAT--YOU CAN WORK ON THE SYMBOL INSTEAD. Moving toward a goal outside also needs to be worked with inside. Otherwise we may end up trading in our partner or apartment for another, but then repeat the same dynmamic with the new one.

DESTRUCTIVENESS (primary ref: The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness) Fromm identified three types of aggression Benign Aggression (of a beneficial nature, promoting well-being) Defensive Aggression Animals--in here-and-now immediate threat. Man can forsee threat and plan for future threats based on past experience. This has both advantages and disadvantages, as in military threat buildup. Man has greater neurological capacity for creating an aggressive impulse. Malignant Aggression. The thought behind the act is important. An intent to do harm to another. Like benign and malignant cancer, malignant aggression has a tendency to grow and get out of hand. He also identified 3 kinds of pseudo-aggression Accidental aggression. One might hurt another without the intention to do this. Controversy around this idea in murder cases. May be unconscious motives. But we cannot necessarily assume this. Accidental aggression may or may not be due to our motives. Playful aggression. . Aim: to exercise skill. Archery, swordfighting, etc. Aggression may come out in competitiveness. Self-assertive aggression. Typifies meaning of aggression in moving toward a goal without undue hesitation, doubt, or fear. (Perls, in Gestalt therapy, emphasized this.) Freud apparently believed such aggression to be based in sexual roots. There were studies of animals injected with hormones, etc., but this didn't convince Fromm. He was more interested in society's influence.This type of aggression is necessary for a hunter to obtain prey.A person with an unimpeded sense of self-assertion is capable in avoiding threat and confronting it. A person lacking in this is likely to be shy, etc. In dealing with a lack of self-assertive aggression, it is necessary to: Help the person become more aware of their impediment Understand how it developed. Understand what other parts of the person's character impede this energy, try to dissolve them, etc. AGGRESSION & NARCISSISM: Narcissim involves people's great concern about how they look, etc. Wounding narcissism--a big source of aggression.

LOVE. Key line: " In the experiencee of love lies sanity." In infancy--primary narcissism. The positive situation of warmth and food, etc. In adulthood--secondary narcissism. Movie stars and politicians depend on public and the media to give them their sense of power and self-esteem. INFANTILE LOVE: I am loved becaus I am loved. MATURE LOVE: I am loved because I love. IMMATURE LOVE: I love you because I need you. MATURE LOVE: I need you because I love you. FATHERLY LOVE: Conditional. It must be deserved. You must work for it. Fatherly conscience is built on his capacity to reason. MOTHERLY LOVE. Unconditional. Mother conscience is built on her own capacity to love. Love is union with someone or something while retaining the separateness and integrity of one's own self. It is "an experience of sharing and communion which permits the full unfolding of one's own inner activity. It is the experience of solidarity with our fellow creatures. What matters is the quality of loving, not the object. The polarity of separateness and union: Out of this polarity, love is born and reborn. In loving I am one with All, and also my uniques, separate, limited self. If I can love only one person and no one else, if my love for this person alienates and distances me from others, this is not love in its full flowering. Productive love always includes care, responsibility, respect, and knowledge. Care: I am actively concerned with the other's growth and happiness. I am not a spectator. Responsibility: I respond to the other's needs, both those he can express and those he cannot or does not. Respect: I relate to the other as s/he is, not distorted by my wishes and fears. Knowledge: I know this person. I have penetrated through the surface of his being and related from my center. For a deeper look at Fromm's ideas on love, click on the following blue link to look at the excerpts from The Art of Loving

CRAFTSMANSHIP. In Medieval and Renaissance times, especially the 13th and 14th centuries, craftsmanship reached one of the peaks in the evolution of creative work. In such craftsmanship the process of creating the product being made is the center of interest. The worker controls his own working action and can use and develop his sills and capacities. "The craftsman's way of livelihood determines and infuses his entire mode of living." After the industrial revolution began, "work, instead of being an activity satisfying in itself and pleasurable, became a duty and obsession. The more it was possible to gain riches by worka, the more iut became a pure means to the aim of wealth and success." For most ordinary people, work became "nothing but forced labor." Fromm quotes from Thoreau's Life without Principle (1861). "Let us consider the way in which we spend our lives. This world is a place of business. What an infinite bustle! . . . I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself, than this incessant business.. . . If a man walk in the woods for love of them for half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer; but if he spends his whole day as a sopeculator, shearing off thos3e woods and making earth bald before her time, he is esteemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.. . . If the laborer gets more than the wages which his employer pays him, he is cheated. ...The aim of the laborer should be not to get his living...but to perform well a certain work.... Even if we grant that the American has frfeed himself from a political tyrant, he is still the slave of an economical and moral tyrant." Nineteenth-century critics of society, like Burckhardt, Proudhon, Tolstoy, Baudelaire, Marx and Kropotkin had an essentially religious-humanistic-moral concept of man. "Man is the end, and must never be used as a means; material production is for man, not man for meterial production; the aim of life is the unfolding of man's creative powers; the aim of history is a transformation of society into one governed by justice and truth---these are the principles on which, explicitly and implicitly, all criticism of modern Capitalism was based. Charles Fourier believes that a healthy society must help us realize our basic passion, brotherly love. He emphasizes the "need for change," which "corresponds to the many and diverse potentialities present in every human being. Work should be a pleasure."

THE BEING MODE AND HAVING MODE. (Largely from Fromm's last book, To Have and To Be, Harper, 1976). Neurosis and society. Another important idea: Neurotic conflicts arise from needs and desires created by society We are facing destruction of our world and humanity. For the first time in history, humanity's survival depends on a radical change of th3e human heart. This is possible only insofar as "drastic economic and social changes occur that give the human heart the chance for change and tghe vision to achieve it."Why this passivity? The selfishness our present system generates "makes leaders value personal success more highly than social responsibility." We are no longer shocked when political leaders and business executives make decisions that benefit them "but at the same time are harmful and dangerous to the community. Indeed, if selfishness is one of the pillars of contemporary practical ethics, why should they act otherwise?" "At the same time, the general public is also so selfishly concerned with their private affairs that they pay little attention to all that transcends the personal realm." The changes that will be require for our survival are drastic, and it is uncomfortable to contemplate such a major change. "Little effort has been made to study the feasibility of entirely new social models and experiment with them." The being and having modes. Two modes are competing for the spirit of humanity. The having mode relies on the possessions that a person has. It is the source of the lust for power and leads to isolation and fear. The being mode, which dpends solely on the fact of existence, is the source of productive love and activity and leads to solidarity and joy. Responding spontaneously and productively and having the courage to let go in order to give birth to new ideas. We are all capable of both these modes, but society determines which will dominate. Fromm points out that both Jesus and Buddha taught that we should not crave possessions. He quotes Jesus, "For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?" Our real goal should be to be much rather than to have much. "Anthropological and psychoanalytic data tend to demonstrate that having and being are two fundamental modes of experience, the respective strengths of which determine the differences between the characters and various types of social character." War, peace, and the having mode. The idea that we can build peace while encouraging the striving for possession and profit is mistaken. Commitment to the having mode inevitably leads to perpetual war. "This is indeed an old alternative," he writes. "The leaders have chosen war and the people followed them." Class war. "What holds true for international wars is equally true for class war. The war between classes, essentially the exploiting and the exploited, has always existed in societies that were based on the principle of greed." "Industrial religion." Matriarchal societies are centered on the figure of the loving mother, whose principle is that of unconditional love. Motherly love is mercy and compassion. By contrast, fatherly love (expressed in patriarchal societies) is conditional; it depends on the achievements and good behavior of the child. Father's love can be lost, but regained by repentance and renewed submission. These two sides, the need for mercy and justice, coexist in every person. "The deepest yearning of human beings seeems to be a constellation in which these two poles...are united in a synthesis." Fromm sees the Roman church as including both these elements--the Virgin and the church as all loving mother, pope and priest as fatherly. element. The relation with nature corresponded to thesee elements: the work of peasant and artisan cooperated with nature, not raping but transforming nature. In the Protestant revolution, Martin Luther established a purely patriarchal form of Christianity, with total submission to patriarchal authority and work as the only way to get love and approval. "Behind the Christian facade arose a new secret religion, 'industrial religion,' that is rooted in the character structure of modern society but not recognized as religion. I t" is completely incompatible with genuine Christianity. It reduceds people to servants of the economy and of the machinery that their own hands build." Elements of industrial religion: Fear and submission to powerful male authorities A sense of guilt for disobedience Dissolution of bonds of human solidarity Supremacy of self-interest and mutual antagonism "Sacred elements" of industrial religion are work, property, profit and power. Positive elements of it: furrthering individualism and freedom, within limits. My critique of Fromm's analysis of religion and patriarchy: By transforming Christianity into a strictly patriarchal religion it was still possible to express the industrial religion in Christian terminology," writes Fromm. I think he was fundamentally correct about the religion-economics connections of the industrial revolution. Protestantism was positive in breaking the Catholic control over almost everything, and allowing people to read the Bible themselves rather than be dependent on priests' interpretations. I think he is far too generous to the medieval and renaissance Catholic church, however, in overlooking one of history's most extreme expressions of patriarchal power as the Church carried out the inquisition and burned half a million women at stake, ALIVE, allegedly for being "witches." A "witch" was actually anyone who challenged the Roman church's power, most specifically women who worshipped the mother-goddess that was the tradition of old Europe. But like Hitler and the Jews, Stalin and anyone who opposed him, and in a milder fashion, the red-baiting in the U.S. during the 1950s, anyone the priests took a dislike to was labeled a "witch." So were many women who were loyal Catholics but whose husbands had died and left them land or other property that the Church coveted. So while Fromm's critique of the Protestant revolution is fundamentally correct, in a very real sense the Catholic Church was just as patriarchal, and carried out a progom of terror and cruelty never approached by the Protestant churches. Commentary on Albert Schweitzer and his examination of the contemporary decline of freedom of thought. Fromm quotes Albert Schweitzer, the Protestant theologian who was best known for his concept of "reverence for life" as the basis for ethics, on this subject. Schweitzer wrote: "We are in a process of cultural self-destruction," Schweitzer writes. "...By a general act of will freedom of thought has been put out of function, because many give up thinking as free individuals, and are guided by the collective to which they belong. ...With the sacrifice of independence of thought we have--and how could it be otherwise--lost faith in truth." Schweitzer was a radical critic of industrial society. He debunked its myth of progress and general happiness and noted the degree of misery in which many people live. The only meaningful activity, he maintained, is activity of giving and caring for fellow creatures. Schweitzer insists that our task is "not to retire into an atmosphere of spiritual egotism, remote from the affairs of the world, but to lead an active life in which one tries to contribute to the spiritual perfection of society. He concludes that our present cultural and social structure is driving us toward a catastrophe from which only a new Renaissance "much greater than the old one will arise." He emphasizes that we must, each of us, become thinking human beings. Commentary on E.F. Schumacher. In Small is Beautiful Schumacher shows "that our failures are the result of our successes." Infinite growth does not fit into a finite world. All great spiritual teachers have said that economy should not be the content of life. If a people neglects their inner spirit," then selfishness is the dominating power in man and a system of selfishness, like capitalism, fits this orientation better than a system of live for one's fellow human beings

THE PERSON AND SOCIETY. Fromm is convince of these propositions: Human have an essential, inborn nature. We create society in order to fulfill this essential nature No society yet devised meets the basic needs of human existence. Therefore our lives are usually a compromise between inner needs and outer demands. It is possible to devise such a society. We can assess an entire society as insane in certain ways. Normative humanism is based on the idea that there are satisfactoryh and unsatisfactoryd solutions to the problem of human existence. The basic human needs are the needs for: Relatedness Transcendence Rootedness Identity A frame of orientation Fromm does not hesitate to characterize a whole society as sick when it fails to satisfy the basic human needs. Mental health occurs when people develop into full maturity. Mental illness consists of athe failure of such development. The criterion of mental health is a universeal one, valid for all, of giving a satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence. "Consensual validation" naively assumes that the fact that most people share certain ideas of feelings proves their validity. Not true. Consensual validation has no bearing on mental health. That millions share a vice does not make it a virtue, that they share many errors does not make these trueh, and that they share the same forms of mental pathology does not make them sane. If freedom and spontaneity are not attained by the majority of people in a given society, we are dealing with a socially patterned defect.

INNER AND OUTER CHANGE IN RELIGION AND ECONOMICS." Christianity has preached spiritual renewal, neglecting the changes in the social order without which spritual renewan must remain ineffective" for most people. Socialism, especially Marxism, has stressed the need for social and economic change and neglected the inner change in people "without which economic change can never lead to the 'good society.'

A HOPEFUL OUTLOOK--FROMM'S IDEAL: Fromm saw destructive forces, but also offered hope Believed that people could cooperate and work together. Envisioned a society... "in which man relates to man lovingly, in which he is rooted in bonds of brotherliness and solidarity...; a society which gives him the possibility of transcending nature by creating rather than by destroying, in which everyone gains a sense of self by experiencing himself as the subject of his powers rather than by conformity, in which a system of orientation and devotion exists without man's needing to distort reality and to worship idols." There would be no loneliness, no feelings of isolation, no despair. Everyone would have an equal chance to become fully human .

ROADS TO A SANE SOCIETY Conditions for curing individual pathology are largely these: There has been a development contrary to psychological health. The fact of suffering which results causes us to with to overcome it, to change in the direction of health. The first step along the path to health of the psyche is the "awareness of the suffering and of that which is shut out and dissociated from our conscious personality." Greater self-awareness can have its full potential effect only if we then proceed to change a practice of life which causes us suffering and which constantly re-enacts our neurotic behavior. Fromm offers the example of a person whose neurotic character makes him want to submit to authority. He usually constructs a life in which he chooses dominating or sadistic father images as bosses, teachers, and so on. (Here we hear a close echo of Karen Horney's extension of Wilhelm Reich's "charactor armor" into the realm of social relations and life-patterns.) The person can move toward health only by changing the life-situation so that it no longer calls out the submissive tendencies he wants to leave behind. He may also need to change values, norms, and ideals so that they no longer block his striving toward health and maturity. These three conditions must also be met to cure social pathology. The mentally healthy person: Is productive and unalienated Relates to the world lovingly Uses reason to grasp reality objectivity Feels himself or herself to be a unique individual Feels one with his or her fellow human beings Does not respond to irrational authority Willingly accepts the rational authority of conscience and reason Is in the process of being born as long as he or she is alive. In a sane society, No one is a means to another's ends, but always an end in himself No one uses himself or another for ends that contradict the unfolding of his or her own human powers Acting according to one's conscience is viewed as basic and necessary Opportunism and lack of principles is frowned on rather than rewarded The person's relationships to others in the social sphere are similar in their qualities to relationships in the private sphere. All economic and political activities encourage the growth of the people Each person is an active and responsible participant in the life of society, as well as master of his or her own life People are stimulated to relate to eachother lovingly Everyone's productive activity in his or her work is furthered The unfolding of people's reason is encouraged People have a chance to express their inner needs in collective art and rituals Qualities like greed, exploitiveness, possessiveness, and narcissism cannot easily be used to enhance one's prestige or bring material gaiN.

SEARCHING FOR A SANE SOCIETY: "COMMUNITIES OF WORK" AS AN EXAMPLE When Fromm wrote The Sane Society, there were about a hundred Communities of Work in Europe, mostly in France but also in Belgium, Switzerland, and Holland. Some were industrial, some agricultural, but "the basic principles are sufficiently similar so that the description of one gives an adequate picture of the essential features of all." Boimondau's beginnings. Boimondau was a watch case factory. Marcel Barbu worked hard and saved enough to have a factory, where he introduced a factory council and profit sharing. But this was only a start. He recruited men who had varied trades "and found a barber, a sausagemaker, a waiter--practically anyone except specialized industrial workers all under thirty. He offered to teach them watch case making if they would search with him for a setup in which the 'distinction between employer and employee would be abolished. The point was the search." A common ethics. They wanted not just a better economic setup but a new way of living together. This was not easy, because their number included Catholics, Protestants, materialists, Humanists, athiests, Communists. They resolved to find a common ethical basis as a point to start from together. They "all examined their own individual ethics...not what they had been taught by rote or what was conventionally accepted, but what they, out of their own experiences and thoughts, found necessary." They found that their individual ethics had points in common. They took those and made them the common minimum on what they agreed unanimously. They declared: "All our moral principles have been tried in real life, everyday life." They pledged to do their best to practice their common ethical minimum. They agreed not to infringe on others; liberties or to laugh or make jokes about anyone's convictions or lack of them. Education. The group discovered that they wanted to educate themselves. They figured out that they could use time that they saved on production for education. Within three months their productivity grew so much that they saved 9 hours in a 48 hour week. They used these 9 hours for education and were paid as if for ordinary work. They hired teachers of music, French grammar, accounting, engineering, physics, literature, Marxism, Christianity, dancing, singing, and basketball. The basic idea. They aimed not at acquiring together, but on working together for collective and personalfulfillment. The aim was not increased productivity or higher wages, but a new style of life. Central principles: "One has to enjoy the whole fruit of one's labor. "One has to be able to educate oneself. "One has to pursue a common endeavor within a professional group"...of reasonable size (100 families max). "One has to be actively related to the whole world" Thes principles led to a shift in the center of the problem of living from making and acquiring 'things' to discovering, fostering, and developing human relationships. From a civilization of objects to one of persons. Farm. Boimondau "acqauired a farm of 235 acres on which everyone, including wives, worked three periods of ten days per year. Since everyone also had a month's vacation, people worked only ten months a year at the factory." They believed that no one should be entirely divorced from the soil. Decisionmaking. The General Assembly, which meets twice a year, has ultimate power. Decisions are by consense. Only unanimous decisions bind the Companions (members). This Assembly elects a Chief of Community by unanimous vote. The Chief is most qualified technically and also one who "is an example, who educates, who loves, who is selfless, who serves." After a three year term the Chief may find himself back at the machine. The Chief can veto the General Assembly. If the General Assembly will not yield, there is a vote of confidence. If confidence is not unanimous, the Chief may either accept the General Assembly's opinion or resign. The Assembly also elects a General Council of seven members plus the Heads of Departments for one year terms to advise the Chief of Community. Its decisions must be unanimous. Neighbor Groups are five or six families that live fairly close to each other. They get together in the evening after supper at one worker's house under the guidence of a Chief of Neighbor groups. Minutes of their meetings are sent to the Chief of Community. Answers to their questions or suggestions are given by those who are in charge of different departments. In the neighbor groups "people come to know each other best and help each other." All responsible positions, including section managers and formen, are chosen through "double trust" appointment. The person is proposed by one level and unanimously accepted by the other. Usually but not always, candidates are proposed by the higher level and accepted or rejected by the lower. Members say this prevents both demagogy and authoritarianism. Question: Can conditions similar to Boimondau be created for a whole society, so that people's lives have meaning for them, they influence what is being done, and feel united with rather than separated fronm their fellows? This requires methods of blending centralization and decentralization which permit active perticipation and responsibility for everyone, and at the same time a unified leadership exists so far as necessary. How can this be done? A worker should have a wide knowledge of all the technical problems involved in producing the whole product, not just of his own specific work. "The worker can be an active, interested, and responsible participant only if he [can influence] decisions which bear upon his individual work situation and the whole enterprise." Alienation can be overcome "only if he is not employed by capital...but...becomes a respsonsible subject who employs capital." Main point here: not ownership of the means of production, but "participation in managemeent and decision making." A principle: the primary purpose of any work is to serve people rather than to make a profit. Owner or owners are entitled to a reasonable return on their capital investment but would have to share their command over those whom their capital can hire with those who work in the enterprise. CULTURAL TRANSFORMATION. "We do not need new ideals or new spiritual goals. The great teachers of the human race have postulated the norms for sane living. . . . The fact that the great religions and ethical systems have so often fought against each other, and emphasized their mutual differences rather than their basic similarities, was due to the influence of those who built churches, hierarchies, political organizaations upon the simple foundations of truth laid down by the men of spirit." Today "we are in bitter need of taking seriously what we believe, what we preach and teach. The revolution ofour hearts does not require new wisdom--but new seriousness and dedication.

BOOKS BY ERICH FROMM: Escape from Freedom (1941) Man for Himself (1947) The Forgotten Language (1951) The Sane Society (1955) Man May Prevail (1961) The Art of Loving (1966) The Heart of Man (1964) Revolution of Hope (1968) Anatomy of Human Destructiveness (1975) To Have or To Be (1976)

Cutting the Ties that Bind

Cutting the Ties that Bind is an accepted form of therapy based on deep meditation, regression and healing the "Inner Child". It was introduced by Phyllis Krystal of the U.S.A. who wrote three books on the subject.

In a personal session the therapist guides you into a deeply relaxed meditative state in which it is possible to mentally relive important events from your childhood. This might include your birth and other incidents from your early formative years. You are then helped to reassess these traumatic events and encouraged to release associated negative emotions and forgive. This forgiveness is very important and involves letting go any desire to "hit back" at parents, siblings, teachers or anyone who hurt you in your youth. This has a liberating effect and allows you to grow emotionally.

Our early experiences of life are linked to our parents. They may have done their best for us, but being human, could not help but pass on their "hang-ups", weaknesses and faults to us. We needed unconditional love and bonding with mother at birth and acceptance and support from father. Failure on their part to provide these qualities can leave us emotionally disadvantaged and less able to cope with life. If they were repressed or inhibited we, by using them as role models may have copied these negative traits. Cutting the Ties enables you to identify the way you were affected by your parents and empowers you to free yourself and find your own identity. Moreover, physical problems arising from these mental / emotional backgrounds can also be cured or prevented by the therapy.

Cutting the Ties with Dad increases self confidence and assertiveness and helps your career. For females it changes and improves all personal relationships with men. The therapy, when applied to Mother, has a profound effect on how you react to life itself. You can develop a more positive and happy philosophy of life by separating yourself from the negative aspects of her personality. This would be especially relevant if she was distressed or emotionally out of harmony at your birth. Remember, you formulated your self image and view of life under these conditions. For males, Cutting the Ties with Mother has a healing effect on personal relationships with females.

In addition to the personal sessions the therapy involves listening to meditation tapes, dream analysis and researching in a deep and intuitive manner into your relationship with parents, teachers, siblings, etc..

THE METHOD

Cutting the Ties that Bind gets its power through use of symbols of the subconscious mind. The technique itself is very simple but extremely effective. To do it on your own follow these steps.

1. Get into a comfortable sitting or lying position. Close your eyes and relax your body by taking a few slow deep breaths. Count slowly backwards from 20 to 1 and mentally tell yourself that your body and mind are relaxing with each number. If you have already developed a technique for relaxing use that instead.
2. Now imagine yourself somewhere quiet, standing in the center of a circle of golden light (refer to the diagram). This circle is on the ground. A common mistake made is for people to imagine the circle at waist height so be careful not to do that. The circle is a subconscious symbol of love and protection.
3. Imagine another circle of the same size infant of you just touching your circle so that they have a single point of contact.
4. Place the parent or object you are cutting the ties with in the center of the other circle.
5. Now imagine a blue neon light at the point where the two circles meet.
6. Slowly move the neon light anti-clockwise around your circle (to your left and behind you). When the light reaches the place where it started move it around the other circle in a clockwise direction as indicated by the arrows in the diagram. When the light returns to the center of the circles move it again anti-clockwise around your circle and so on.
7. Keep the light moving for two minutes. While it is moving realize that the light has special healing properties. Feel it strengthening you and removing anything negative that you picked up from the person / object in the second circle. When in the other circle it gathers the power that the person has taken from you and returns it to you. Let yourself feel this happen. After two minutes let the scene fade and wake yourself up.
8. Do this for two minutes once per day and only two minutes After about 4 days you will begin to feel the effects. If you are cutting the ties with your mother you may feel chest pains. This is your heart chakra opening. The pains will only last two or three days. You may also feel periods of depression. Keep working through these as this is what the therapy is clearing. If you have a heart condition it is best to undergo the therapy with a qualified therapist. If you are cutting the ties with your father you may feel back pains or pains in your legs. Again you don't need to worry about this but take it as a sign that the therapy is working.

On the day you start the therapy get a writing pad and mark a line down the middle of the page. Title the left side of the page Negative and the right side Positive. Starting from birth write down any negative incidents involving you and the person you are cutting the ties with or traits displayed by them. Although it is not important to get these in chronological order it helps you cast your mind back by doing it this way. Under the positive column write down any positive incidents or traits. Each day you do the therapy pick up the same pad and try to add to the lists. You may find in the beginning that only negative things come to mind. Allow this to happen. You will find your reaction to these events changes as you progress.

The therapy can take up to six weeks and most people drop out when they feel the depression starting. Promise yourself at the start that you will work through this as your resolve will help you later. When the time is right you need to complete the process. You will know the appropriate time as your attitude towards the person and feelings about life will have changed.

Praise of the Escape - Henri Laborit

The infancy (extracts)

When it is born, his/her child doesn't know to exist, he will know only it very later, after you/he/she will have constituted his/her " bodily scheme ". In the meantime, it is satisfied with to be that that some psychiatrists call the " I-all "., that he doesn't differentiate from the world that it surrounds him/it. To differentiate him, has need to act, and it is probably this the reason for which the pup of the man, that acts on the surrounding environment so late, slowly constitutes his/her bodily scheme: you/he/she cannot succeed us, without first the touch allows him to delimit him in the space. Feeling with the point of the fingers the contact of a part of the body that will feel in turn the contact of the fingers, he will have the perception of a closed circuit on himself, while the feeling will be open when the body will come into contact with the surrounding world. It needs that, acting on the objects, he gathers in the nervous system the sensory influences that come you through different channels (touch, approves, heard, smelled, etc), but originating from a same object thing that can discover through the action on such object. It deals with first degree conditioned reflexes since they associate in the system nervous childish signals of different sensory origin. Nevertheless, this nervous system, for how much still immature, it already possesses a structure pulsionale that corresponds to the fundamental needs and a structure that it allows the learning of the automatisms imposed by the environment (in other words, that it is able day long-term memory). The cortical associative zones certainly, are not able he/she anchors a lot of servir to the newborn, because not having him anchors almost memorized nothing, it doesn't almost have anything to associate. The structures pulsionalis warn him/it some state of comfort or suffering of the organism: it will for example react screaming to the lack of feeding. Its screams will come soon tacitati from the promptness of his/her mother or the person that will satisfy its alimentary necessities. Not knowing to exist in a different environment from itself yet, it memorizes, with the return of the comfort, the other in partnership sensory stimulations to the appeasement of the hunger: his/her mother's odor, his/her mother's voice, the heat, his/her mother's face. You probably treats in this case of a trial analogous to that of the imprinting " described by K. Lorenz in his/her geese. In few words, some conditioned reflexes establish the relationship among a reward, the ap-payment of a fundamental need and the sensory stimuli of external origin that accompany him. When, toward the eighth or the tenth month, its progressive action on the environment will make him prender conscience to exist as something of distinguished by the environment that it surrounds him/it, it will discover his/her mother, source, up to that moment, of every reward. When then, later, it will discover that that gratifying object doesn't belong only to him, but also to his/her/their father, to his/her brothers and his/her sisters, then it will understand to a line that can lose a part of its gratification and it will discover the Oedipus, the jealousy and the unhappy love. It will discover very soon also whether to submit himself/herself/themselves to the simple automatisms that the other ones try to introduce in his/her nervous system, respect to the feeding to the control of the sphincters, it is object of reward from his/her/their parents. The people will encourage him/it and they will praise if it submits you, they will punish him/it in contrary case. He will use therefore the not conformism as of a mean of punishment towards his/her/their parents and it immediately will be formed among the environment and he that a complex net of interactions surrounds him/it. We have said that to the birth its brain is immature. This means particularly that all the connections are not formed among still the neurons, the connections " sinattiche ". The nervous system has a plasticity that allows him to suit himself/herself/themselves for the wealth of information of the surrounding environment. You/he/she is shown that of the closed kitten since the birth in a closed shop with the lines black vertical walls, are not able anymore, after some weeks, to " see " horizontal lines, and vice versa. The animals envoys since the birth in an environment for so to say " enriched", that is occupied by varied objects, they will be able from adults of more complex performances of the kept subjects in an environment banalizzato. Numerous and varied experiments show the whole importance of the native environment in the formation of the nervous system. Any biologist can establish exactly today the limit among what you/he/she is innate and what is acquired in the human behavior. But if we admit that the nervous system as all the biological characteristics, are probably subscribed in a curve of Gauss, this means that the most greater part of its native structures they are very similar and that in it, since the intrauterine life, the influence of the environment is with every preponderant probability. But then it needs to specify well what he intends for formation of the nervous system, that is, in substance, for educational system. The social environments can be of-versissimi and among a child been born in a bidonville of Nanterre and one been born in a bourgeois family of the 16" area in Paris there are in common few points. The influence of the environment, in the one case and in the other one it will almost always create automatisms of behavior, of judgment, of thought and so street, but only automatisms. Those acquired in the bourgeois environment will generally be propitious to a hierarchical ascent that almost always passes through the university. To those people to which are inculcated, they will furnish a language, an attitude, habits, judgments conforming to the hierarchical structure of dominance, which however it doesn't usually favor the creativeness the originality of thought. It is certainly this conformism, vaguely perceived as uniformante, that pushes toward another conformism, the snobbery, held to less levelling blame, more individualizzantes. His/her child is also almost always the complete expression of his/her environment when you/he/she has an attitude of revolt, because then you/he/she represents the other face of it, that count-statrice. In every case it behaves according to the automatisms that have been him imposed. How is it able after all to behave him a whatever social group that you want to survive, if not maintaining his/her own structure or trying to appropriate of that that seems him more advantageous? How can a certain social " group raise " his/her children if not in the conformism or in the conformism-anti? Sennonché, movendo from the human experience of an epoch, cannot something be done of better whether to reproduce antecedent schemes? But as ago the adult to free him of it, if everybody the education has aimed to feed its nervous system of marvelous certainties not leaving any independence of operation to the zones assocìative of the brain? The education to the creativeness first of all demands the admission that there are no certainties or at least that they is always temporary, effective to a datum instant of the evolution, but that they are continually had to rediscover with the solo purpose to abandon her as soon as is been able to show their operational value. The education that I have called " relativista " seems me the only one worthy of the man's pup. It certainly is not " profitable " on the plan of the social promotion but Rimbaud, Van Gogh or Einstein, to quote only some that you/they today are recognized genial, have you/they ever contemplated to the social promotion? This education would favor the development of the individuality, and this would go to everything advantage of the collectivity that would be so formed from individuals without uniform. I also think that only this education could bring to the tolerance, because intolerance and sectarianism are always due to the ignorance and the unconditional subjugation to the most primitive automatisms, elevated to the rank of ethics, of eternal and indisputable values. The notion of relativity of the judgments handed to the anguish, is true. Possession is simpler to our disposition, when it is had to act, an already ready strategy or the instructions for the use. Our societies that often exalt so much, at least to words, the responsibility, him industriano not to leave at all to the individual of it, for fear that acts not in way conforming to the hierarchical structure of dominance. And his/her child, to escape the anguish, to be reassured himself/herself/themselves, looks for the authority of the rules imposed by his/her/their parents. From adult it will do the same with the authority imposed by the sociocultura in which is inserted. It will grab on in the opinions of value of a social group, as a castaway grabs on hopelessly to the lifesaving bun. An education relativista would not try to elude the sociocultura, but its correct dimension would return her: that of a defective way, temporary, to live in society. He/she would leave the possibility to find other ways to the imagination, and in the combinational conceptual that could result the evolution of the social structures of it you/he/she could perhaps accelerate him, as the combinational genetics makes the evolution of a kind possible. But this social evolution is note the terror of the conservatism, because it is the ferment able to put again in discussion the vans acquired taggi. It is then better to first of all give a " good " able education to his/her/their child to allow him a respectable " professional career ". They teach him " to serve ", in other terms they teach his servitude towards the hierarchical structures of dominance. They make him believe that it acts for the good of the community, a community hierarchically institutionalized that it compensates him/it of every finished effort toward the servitude to the institution. Servitude becomes then gratifying. The individual is convinced of his/her own devotion, of his/her own altruism while you/he/she is acting only for his/her own appeasement, an appa-gamento however deformed by the fact to have assimilated the laws of the sociocultura. With to spend some years, with what I have learned from the life, with the experience that I have of people and of things, but above all thanks to my work that able has put me to know the main point than today we know on the biology of the behaviors, I am frightened from the automatisms that it is possible to inculcate in the nervous system of a child. It will have to have, in the adult life, an exceptional fortune to escape from this jail, and who knows if he/she will succeed us... And if subsequently its judgments will bring him/it to reject with violence such automatisms, very often this will happen because another logical discourse will correspond better to its pulsionis and will offer a more favorable context to its gratification. His/her judgments, although antithetical to those that have been inculcated him in origin, they will remain their direct consequence. They will be still judgments of value. He had politely warned that if we wanted to access his/her kingdom, we had to be as children. Its words have become a syrupy broth in which you/they splash about an infantilism rinfrollito, a childish paternalism, a mawkish art, a grotesque language, a caricature of affectivity. Because its kingdom was not of this mon I give, it was of the world of the imagination of the world of his/her/their children. It was the immaculate page on which the graffiti esprimenti the social prejudices and the places had not been lined common of still an epoch. It was the world of the desire and not that of the automatisms, the world of the creativeness and not that of the job or of the lesson learned to memory. What could be the world of the Men and the lilies of the fields. We have preferred him to us that of Caesar and of the money, that of the dominance and of the mercy. We have preferred him the world of the " culture " because it is not, after all, that the whole the prejudices and the places common of a human group and of an epoch. His/her child is uncultivated, and this is his/her fortune. It is potential energy and not kinetics, homogenized. Since his/her entry in the life his/her potentialities as they are realized, they settle in conforming behaviors, invaded by the conceptual entropy, incapable to go up again to the origins to go up again the course of the time and the learning. And while the terrestrial virgin of the infancy could make to sprout a beautiful landscape in which flora and fauna are spontaneously harmonized in an ecological system of mutual adaptations, the adult worries above all him about " to cultivate him/it ", rather to make object of it of a " monocultura " with well traced furrows, where the wheat never mixes him with the rhubarb, the colza with the beet, but where tractors and cement mixers of the conceive-already dominant (or of his contrary) fixes, once and for all, the inside space.

The death (extracts)

The death of what? Of a " wrap of meat ", as it is said, of which know that the specific characteristics, those that do him/it belong to the group " homo sapiens ", I am only the result of a long series of evolutionary events in whose determinisms don't participate. The bit of meat that each of us it is, it represents, from two or three million years, the result of the evolution of the kind in the biosphere. In more recent epoch it is the result, from the beginning of the evolution of the human history, of a combinational genetics that, through the generations, you/he/she has brought the kind up to us. Today as today we don't have the opportunity of influencing the combination between the genetic patrimony of the sperm and that of the ovulo, whose union has given life to the individual that we are yet. Rather, wax virgin with all the characteristics and the requisite to be engraved, if you/he/she immediately is abandoned after the birth, it will harden him to the point that after a few years it won't be more possible to engrave us nothing. This biological matrix will remain to the stadium to which the has brought the kinds that have preceded us. It will use in his/her behavior the brain of the reptile, that of the ancient mammals, even that of the most recent mammals, but you/he/she cannot effectively use never the associative zones of the bark prefrontale. It is that that it happens in the so-called " wild boys ": I am not mini uo because you/they have not been able to benefit him some language and, through the language, of the experience of the adults. In other words, the biological matrix owes interiorizzare prestissimo, in its improved nervous system, some functional activities coming from the others. And the others are not only the human beings that populate his/her " present niche ", but, through of them and in virtue of the language, also all the " others " that, from the beginning of the human ages up to our modern societies, you/they have transmitted, of generation in generation, their accumulated experience. This way the death, together with the biological matrix that alone cannot guarantee the creation of a personality, it will make to disappear " the others ". But then he can perhaps say that " we am what we are " only because the other ones are introduced in a certain order, storm, varying, each according to certain characteristics, varying essentially with the environment, with the niche that a casual birth has imposed us? Can you perhaps say that we exist as you individualize when nothing, does of what constitute us as you individualize, does it belong us? When the individual represents only a confluence, a particular point of meeting " of the others "? Our death perhaps is not, in conclusion, the death of the others? This idea is perfectly expressed by the pain that we try for the loss of a dear person. We have introduced, during the years, this dear person in our nervous system, it belongs to our niche. The innumerable relationships settled himself/herself/themselves between us and she, and from us interiorizzates, make her/it integral part of ourselves. We hear the pain for his/her loss as an amputation of our self, that is as the brutal and definitive suppression of the nervous activity (of a part, you/he/she can be said, of our nervous system, since its activity is sustained by the biological subject) that we had received from her. Her but ourselves we don't cry. We cry that part of her that it was us and that it was necessary to the harmonic operation of our nervous system. Moral " pain " is the pain of an amputation without anesthesia. This way we essentially bring in the grave what the others you/they have given us. And what have we made him? There are almost always limited to transmit, from a generation to the other, the accumulated experience. For this it doesn't serve to be teachers to win contests. All it takes is living and to speak. In this sense every man teaches, you/he/she transmits to the others what you/he/she has learned. It transmits to the others the vision of his/her niche, as the others have prepared him for him, as the others have described him to him, as he has accepted her. For this it doesn't even need to be reproduced himself/herself/themselves to transmit the genetic acquisition. The oral tradition was for a long time the only part, and for the majority of the men the only one remains, to interpret in the brief passage on the planet. And enough to be demanding, has to wait as from the others given us? Do we almost always limit there to transmit a technical message as, an experience, can we demand from the others something more of the transmission of a technical message that they has been transmitted? That that we can demand it is that the message is integrally transmitted us without being amputated some essential signs to its understanding by the social determinism of our birth. We can also demand that they don't force us to learn to memory a message to transmit equal peer without changing an only word of it. If you/he/she had been so for all from the dawn of the humanity we would still be to work the flint to the entry of dark caverns. The man's knowledges through the centuries have become wealthy up to flow in our modern world, really because the message has become more and more complex from the origins in then. You owes this to some men that have added to how much you/they had received from the others, something that sprang from themselves, that the message first didn't contain. The other ones are dead, stramortì, while they still lives in us, often unknown but present... They still live in us because their contribution to the human world continues its career in our nervous system. It is a new construction that they has made to rise from the associations it made possible from the associative zones of the orbit-frontal bark. They perhaps are not the solos in reality to which the name of " Men is up to "fully? To that serves to preserve a corpse all wound in bandages or absorbed in the liquid nitrogen, if that biological matrix during the life has received only, without never giving nothing? If it is alone done limit to transmit, often altering him/it, the message that had been submitted him and that whoever other would have transmitted to his/her place? After all, for the simple fact what the number of the men is in increase, the message takes less and less the risk to lose himself/herself/themselves. But | the main point would be that, really because of the greater number always of men, the message could constantly become wealthy with the original contribution of everybody. This will be possible solo the day when we will have found the way of not paralysing since the infancy the operation of the associative zones. The day when we will have learned not to force every individual in his/her niche. The day when we will have taught him the way of becoming wealthy with new acquisitions that you/he/she can transmit around him and after him. The only inheritance that counts is not the family inheritance of material good or traditions and of mutable and debatable values but the human inheritance of the knowledge. As the farmer of once tried in his/her brief life to enrich the family patrimony of a bit of earth in more, every man of tomorrow you/he/she will have to be able of to enrich the field of the human knowledge with his/her unique and irreplaceable contribution. This way you/he/she can really be won the death. Till now our death has been only the death of those people that I/you/they are us. But from that moment every man will leave his/her indelible trace in the nervous system of those people whose biological matrixes the sopravviverannos and they will transmit through the centuries that small particle of incorruptible novelty that is every original contribution to the human knowledge. But that is simple even more, every man's assignment? Has you/he/she perhaps consisted, since the origin of the History, in the way of living, because so making the man penetrates in the niche of those people that you/they surround him/it and this niche, really for his/her presence, won't it be anymore neither entirely the same one neither entirely different? In such case, however, is he able he/she anchors to speak of individuals without smiling? In our organism some cells, every day, they are born, they live and they die without for this the organism stops living. Every day, in the human kind, they are born, individuals live and they die, without for this the kind interrupts its destiny. Every cell, during his/her brief life, it acquits the function that competes her integrating himself/herself/itself in the finality of the kind. If we don't sadden there for the fate of these momentary cells, because we should sadden us for that of the individuals that have already contributed to the long evolution of the human kind? Such analogy is to show that the isolated individual doesn't mean anything. On the biological plan, as on the cultural plan, it represents only a cellular subset the isolated element of an everything. It doesn't have an own autonomous existence. Only the ignorance of what we are you/he/she has been able it stuffed to believe possible the existence of the isolated individual in a non human environment of culture and able to preserve despite everything of his/her personal characteristics, while they is only the consequence of the action practiced on him by the human environment. Elsewhere we have said what it represents the " infor - But from that moment every man will leave his/her indelible trace in the nervous system of those people whose biological matrixes the sopravviverannos and they will transmit through the centuries that small particle of incorruptible novelty that is every original contribution to the human knowledge. But that is simple even more, every man's assignment? Has you/he/she perhaps consisted, since the origin of the History, in the way of living, because so making the man penetrates in the niche of those people that you/they surround him/it and this niche, really for his/her presence, won't it be anymore neither entirely the same one neither entirely different? In such case, however, is he able he/she anchors to speak of individuals without smiling? In our organism some cells, every day, they are born, they live and they die without for this the organism stops living. Every day, in the human kind, they are born, individuals live and they die, without for this the kind interrupts its destiny. Every cell, during his/her brief life, it acquits the function that competes her integrating himself/herself/itself in the finality of the kind. If we don't sadden there for the fate of these momentary cells, because we should sadden us for that of the individuals that have already contributed to the long evolution of the human kind? Such analogy is to show that the isolated individual doesn't mean anything. On the biological plan, as on the cultural plan, it represents only a cellular subset the isolated element of an everything. It doesn't have an own autonomous existence. Only the ignorance of what we are you/he/she has been able it stuffed to believe possible the existence of the isolated individual in a non human environment of culture and able to preserve despite everything of his/her personal characteristics, while they is only the consequence of the action practiced on him by the human environment. Elsewhere we have said what it represents the it " information-structures ", as we have defined her, the " mass in form " of the subject in the living organisms. We have remembered that it was not neither mass, neither energy, as you/he/she has underlined Wiener speaking in general of the information. But also that it had need of mass and energy as support. This " mass in form " of the human organism, particularly of his/her nervous system, it becomes wealthy, as, probably since the conception, of the acquired experience in the contact with the surrounding environment. It will overlap so to the form of base, a new form modeled by the environment. But the brain of our kind typically has the human possibility to give origin, through an associative job of the memorized facts, to a third level of structure that goes to add him to the innate structures, then you acquire. They are the imaginary structures. The man adds information to the subject. It is also able, in virtue of the language, to express her/it to make to participate you the others. To make to participate them, that is to inform them, to structure their nervous system, departing from the structure that you/he/she is formed in his. This new structure, this information, circulating, you/he/she is not tied to the deadly biological form from which you/he/she was born anymore. The innate form and the acquired form can die, it will live in the nervous systems of the others. You/he/she can grow even you and moltiplicarvisi, impossible thing to a transplanted organ, even if the transplantation succeeds well. Because the transplanted organ will continue its ineluctable walk I pour the death, in which the organism has preceded him/it from which has been withdrawn. The only way to survive, not to die is, clearly, to become encrusted himself/herself/themselves in the others, as for the others, the only way of surviving is to become encrusted in us. It is not the incrostazione of the image it truncates that an individual has been able to give of himself, always momentary and transient, but that of the concepts that you/he/she has been able to produce. The true family of the man I am his/her ideas and the subject and the energy that sustain her and they transport her, they are the nervous systems of all the men that I cross the centuries you/they will be informed " by them. Our meat dies, also the information remains, transported by the meat of those people that l 'you/they have welcomed, and they transmit her/it, enriching her/it, of generation in generation.