The Corpus Callosum

The American Prospect has an article, The Peak Shrink, about a psychologist who is blogging about the stresses of Peak Oil, and the simultaneous economic shakeup, and environmental collapse.  She documents this on Peak Oil Blues Blog.

The psychologist is Kathy McMahon, Psy.D.  Her current post is a lengthy treatment of the stressors that she anticipates as a result of the economic/energy/environment crisis.  Some of these are obvious (unemployment/eviction/homelessness), some less so (domestic violence).  She concludes:

If we remain frozen in our own economic hardship, (an understandable but deadly pre-occupation) we will lack the objectivity to move ourselves into a position that offers us maximum flexibility and options. Most of us, like in the last great economic collapse, will feel bewildered and frightened by our situation and the events that will swirl around or over us. Some, fully cognizant of their place in history, will show true innovation, mitigation, and community leadership. Knowledge is power.

I'd rephrase that slightly, to say the wisdom is power.  Knowledge by itself is only the foundation. 

From the material in her post, it follows that mental health practitioners would be well advised to familiarize themselves with the challenges that are unfolding, and to be realistic about it.  Reflexive "positive thinking" is not going to be helpful; it may even be harmful. 

In fact, this beings me to one of my pet peeves about so many of my colleagues.   Positive thinking is fine, as far as it goes.  But I vastly prefer to encourage realistic thinking.  Thinking realistically about the situation, it makes sense to have people prepare for crisis. 

As a therapist, it is important to think about how to approach this.  It often is unwise to give direct advice, particularly unsolicited advice.  This, of course, depends upon the context, and there are many exceptions.  But it is necessary to be thoughtful about which exceptions are valid, and which are pandering, and which are serving the agenda of the therapist instead of the patient.

If I were to give advice, though, I would advise people to be thoughtful about their assessment of risk.  It is easy to develop a fixed belief that catastrophe is coming.  Likewise, it is both easy and temping to develop a rigid belief that things will all be OK fairly soon.   There is no shortage of people claiming to have debunked climate change and/or peak oil, or who run around screaming about green shoots of economic recovery. 

Try to stay flexible in your thinking.  Decide, on as rational of a basis as you can, how much of you current resources should go into preparation.  Store food and water.  Make contingency plans for essential transportation bus/train/bike).  Figure out to what extent you could telecommute, or otherwise work from home.  If you need to make preparations for that, do so now.  It may be fine if you still have high-speed Internet, but don't assume that this will be the case.

Most importantly, form relationships with people in your community.  Join a CSA.  Get to know people at the farmer's market.  Start gardening. 

All of these things may turn out to be unnecessary, but none of them would hurt.  And if they turn out to be not strictly necessary, they can be helpful even in the absence of a catastrophe.