The social dimensions to therapy 

I read a very profound quote by way of Andrew Ramseys book English Grounds originally from Aldous Huxley book Heaven and Hell.

“….the perception of the infinite in the finite particular, is a revelation of the divine immanence”

I guess that what I was taking from this was something not religious, as in the divine imminence, but that from the very small blossoms into the very large. This small personal event, attitude, or response ripples out through ourselves into the society and culture that we are all forming. Individual events may seem to be unconnected, but they are all a part of our ongoing meta-story. Our individual relationships, including the relationship we have with ourselves, are entangled with the world we live in.

It’s a lot to think about because we often are very familiar with the specific self, although Johari window (https://www.selfawareness.org.uk/2022/09/25/understanding-the-johari-window-model) might beg to differ; there is some level that we understand ourselves. I think that when people come to therapy it is a part of this realisation and its ‘stuck-ness’ that brings them. I also think that often people just don’t have the ‘language’ to be able to express what is going on. 

It is also that the internal world view of the individual today is so often shaped by what we hear read and see, particularly via social media, that we both are shaped and shape the world. Like so much of the things happening at an individual level it reaches beyond us and involves the ‘other’.

As a film fan I tend to think of the Matrix, possibly the second film, but the one where Neo meets the Architect and is revealed as the anomaly. The Architect recognises Neo who finally comes to “balance the equation” but who has not created the broad attachment to the general, but to the particular. In this case his love for not humanity as a whole, but one individual (Trinity) within humanity. Perhaps there is something of ‘The One’ in us all, because often culture and society successfully push us towards pair bonding but not towards a wider love of all humanity. 

As with so many things this only describes a binary either /or and life is actually much more entangled than this. I think that the political dimension over time has trended towards the individual, ownership and consumerism, to often at the expense of the two thirds world and indeed the world itself.

Why then do I think that this has anything to do with personal therapy? Well, because whilst the big issues are tackled by large scale change, (politics, social psychology, and policy) it is how we chose to treat others and importantly ourselves that matters.  These are where the change can occur. When I have the ability to love myself, to be kind and self-caring then I can extrapolate this into a wider view of the world and the creation. If I am not able to resolve issues and are struggling with self-doubt and shame caused by trauma, then there is nothing left for a wider world view. If I believe that ‘its’ all there for me and if I don’t get my share then some other person will, then I will happily gather all that I can regardless of others particularly when this is encouraged by advertising telling me that I need it. Why would I care about others they are just competition anyway?

Even very simple self-change, an act of daily gratitude, a random act of kindness, reflection on the positives of the day by writing a couple of things in a notebook or reviewing the day before sleep, these are the things that will start to create a more positive personal outlook and perhaps lead better world. They are things that have been found to not only be of benefit to society but that they actually benefit the individual and can make them happier.