The Sovereign Self

 [Waking Times]: According to Prof. Mattias Desmet, psychotherapist and Professor of Clinical Psychology at Ghent University, mental health in our modern societies has been declining for decades. This is indicated, he says, by a steady increase in the number of depression and anxiety issues and the number of suicides. One of the consequences of this, in recent years, is the ‘enormous growth in absenteeism due to psychological suffering and burnouts.’¹ This malaise, we are informed, was growing exponentially even before the pandemic outbreak of 2020.

What this suggests is that there was already a great deal of trauma being experienced within people and within many of our human cultures in the preceding years (as I explored in my book ‘Healing the Wounded Mind’ 2019). Prof. Desmet suggests that these findings indicated that ‘society was heading for a tipping point where a psychological “reorganization” of the social system was imperative.’ In other words, we were, broadly speaking, ripe for a tipping into a new direction one way or another. And the direction we were to be ‘tipped into’ would depend upon the nature of the trigger, how it would be applied, and its related features.

There was already a strong latent apprehension, nervousness and anxiety in many human populations before the ‘health crisis’ landed upon our shores. The reactions of the political establishments, the media, and related organizations that had a vested interest in steering the situation, aroused further fear and panic amongst the people rather than reassuring them (as would have been their role). When a situation is turned into a crisis, it is then only a small further step to turn a crisis into a trauma. When the trauma is related to an expanded event – such as on a global level – then the very nature of that trauma is no longer an isolated experience but a continual process. Furthermore, a continual traumatic process only needs nudges placed at varying intervals to maintain, and sustain, the traumatic experience. 

The danger in this is that such an experience can be prolonged almost indefinitely if the nudges continue to be applied. In such psychological states, it becomes very hard for a person to maintain, and act from, their sovereign self for they have become increasingly externalized and pulled into (or entangled in) a shared traumatic experience....<<<Read More>>>....