CRISIS? WHAT CRISIS?
(DENIAL DEFINED)
If denial is not a proper response to global warming, is it ok in other contexts? Obama's denial comment prompted NPR to bring in the shrinks. Two psychology experts defined three types of denial, but they made no mention of how it works in the cultural consciousness (or unconscious) and had no comment on how widespread it might be. They also omitted, in my opinion, several other varieties of the syndrome. Were they limited by the broadcast schedule or their own denial? This conversation is way overdue.
It's not well known or fully acknowledged that Freud, late in his career, identified self-deception as one of the most powerful psychological forces. Denial is defined non-technically as: "the failure to acknowledge or admit into consciousness an unacceptable truth or emotion; a defense mechanism." But we'll have to ask around and look deeper to get a glimpse of the power of the unconscious over the rational, conscious mind.
When consciousness enters the realm of nature, all of nature is changed including the human condition, first because nature is seen as other, but also because the individual mind is split between feeling and thinking, owning and experiencing, knowing and assuming, past and present, conscious and unconscious will.
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