Showing posts with label Charles Darwin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Charles Darwin. Show all posts

Thursday, July 19, 2012

The Emotional Cost of the Struggle for Existence

Charles Darwin famously linked the biological fact of diversity in characteristics (we now know recognize as genetic diversity) with the pressures he collectively called, following the nomenclature of his time, as the "struggle for existence." The latter acted like a wedging device, shoving out from the world stage those characteristics of organisms that were less likely to reproduce and therefore hand down their own particular variants to the next generation.

His cousin, Francis Galton, popularized all this with the term "survival of the fittest."We know the theory by the name Darwin gave it: Natural Selection.

In his book On the Origin of Species, Darwin wrote that these biological facts would have great impact upon the burgeoning science of psychology, and indeed it did. Today, behaviorists, evolutionary psychologists, psychoanalysts, and others have claimed the mantle of Darwin's evolutionary thinking for their own particular field of academic or clinical endeavor.

But while the fact of evolution is scientifically accepted, and Darwin's own selectivist theories are fine-tuned and assimilated to the world of modern genetics, overlooked is his emphasis on the "struggle for existence." It is my contention here that this struggle for existence is in fact an omnipresent influence on our patients and on ourselves, and recognition of this fact is important in treating numerous mental ailments, including stress, anxiety, depression, hyposexual desire, and PTSD, among others.

The "struggle for existence" takes on many forms. For Darwin, it was primarily the competition between organisms for supremacy. It could take on many forms, from the classic predator-prey relationship, to the existence of parasitic forms of life, and even, counter-intuitively, the altruistic forms of cooperation, in which helping others becomes a form of helping oneself.

In fact, in his book The Descent of Man, Darwin explicitly rooted the sociability of human beings in the sociability of earlier forms of anthropoid and mammalian life. In doing so, he rejected the ideas of "social Darwinism," and believed that helping others was a key evolutionarily-derived part of human nature.

Nevertheless, it was also clear to Darwin that the struggle for existence in it more cruel aspects took a great toll on humanity. Microscopic organisms caused disease, whose fatal victims were drawn from the weaker parts of human society: the physically debilitated, the old, the very young. (He lost a very loved daughter himself when she succumbed to illness at age ten.)

Today, the struggle for existence takes many forms, including the competition for livelihoods, the warring of ethnic clans and groups in various societies, as well as the classic ongoing struggle against bacteria, viruses, and environmental disasters (earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, etc.).

As a working psychologist, I am aware of how the ever-existing pressure of these forces, collectively, the struggle for existence, affects my patients. This is true even when I work with couples, as it is a given that one very important aspect of the relationship, most often unstated, is how one's partner is helping one with what perceives are the pains and difficulties of life. Often it is a perceived failure of the other partner to alleviate one's own suffering, or satisfy basic needs that causes trouble in the relationship (usually because the couple hasn't found a neutral, non-blaming way of discussing such problems).

For the individual, fear of being found to be "weak," or a "failure" is a haunting constant in one's life, powerfully affecting self-esteem, and through that, one's sense of general well-being and health. Indeed, often the pressures of life are first felt somatically, with the body finely attuned to stress, and breaking down or showing symptoms in relation to such stress.

The emotional cost of the struggle for existence is too hard to bear for some, and for them suicide can seem like a way out. Tragically, that is a choice thousands in our society make every year. We cannot deny this social fact.

What we can do is be there to help our fellows. As therapists, we often provide the sole, or nearly the sole source of emotional support for the struggling patient. We provide through our respect for the struggle of our clients the necessary therapeutic environment for them to heal, to grow, to find new sources of support, and to find their own creative way to copy with their own unique blend of conflicts, struggles, victories and defeats.

It's a noble and rewarding task to take on the very struggle that is existence and the human condition, and in my practice over the years I have learned a great deal about the dignity of such struggle, whose value lies not in success or failure, but in a mutual recognition of what all human beings, indeed all living beings endure, and how in spirit they prevail

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Retreat into Ignorance: Darwin Picture Effectively Banned in America



Lisa Derrick has a rundown over at La Figa on the recent news that domestic distributors are balking at bringing the Darwin biopic, Creation, to the United States. The film is said to depict the loss of faith in Christianity by Darwin, following upon the death of his 10-year-old daughter, Annie. As the trailer for the film shows up above (H/T Derrick), the film appears to portray many of the conflicts, personal and professional, that Darwin faced as he struggled with the idea of bringing his theory to the public. In the end he did... 20 years after he had first formed it.

Lisa notes that poll after poll shows that a majority of the American people do not believe in the theory of evolution. Darwin's theory is evolution through natural selection, but there are other theories of evolution. His theory became the core of the modern scientific understanding of evolution, which rests on many more facts than even Darwin had available to him at the time he wrote (genetic understandings and researches, radioactive dating processes, etc.). American ignorance and/or hostility to evolution is a reflection of the horrendous education system foisted upon the bulk of the population, and a turning away from truth and scientific curiosity, with a population addicted to trivia and mindless game playing -- all of which is promoted by a ruling elite that wants nothing more than a nation of sheep so their government can pursue unmolested an imperialistic foreign policy. To think in America is becoming a crime. Independent thought becomes labeled as deviancy.

An article in the UK Telegraph notes the failure of the film to find a U.S. distributor, which has not been a problem in the rest of the world. Right-wing, evangelical and fundamentalist Christian hostility is seen as the main obstacle.
Movieguide.org, an influential site which reviews films from a Christian perspective, described Darwin as the father of eugenics and denounced him as "a racist, a bigot and an 1800s naturalist whose legacy is mass murder". His "half-baked theory" directly influenced Adolf Hitler and led to "atrocities, crimes against humanity, cloning and genetic engineering", the site stated.

The film has sparked fierce debate on US Christian websites, with a typical comment dismissing evolution as "a silly theory with a serious lack of evidence to support it despite over a century of trying"....

Creation was developed by BBC Films and the UK Film Council, and stars Bettany's real-life wife Jennifer Connelly as Darwin's deeply religious wife, Emma.
Where is the courage of the U.S. film community? Steven Spielberg, Harvey Weinstein, David Geffen, where are you on this? Big-name U.S. actor/director/producers, Sean Penn, Woody Allen, Robert DeNiro, etc., are you calling in your chips on this issue? What do you stand for? The failure to distribute this film amounts to a de facto banning of the film. It is an indictment of the entire U.S. film community, and the fault should not be laid at the feet of the distributors only (though they deserve the immediate blame).

I wrote a comment at the La Figa post, replying to a commenter who thought too much emphasis was being placed on Darwin himself: "he’s not some saint of science, he just figured out evolution. Let’s talk about Evolution, not Darwin."
Oddly enough, Darwin would agree with you. He hated the idea of biography, and was himself a shy, retiring man. Still, he knew he had become an icon by the end of his life. He also knew that the battle to win over adherents to his views would take a long time. He urged patience on his followers who wanted to to build a militant Athiest league (though he’d have them over for dinner).

The story of Annie is a heart-breaking one. Darwin nursed his daughter through a horrifying fatal illness, his wife, Emma, being laid up in the final stages of pregnancy. His daughter is buried in the Malvern Hills, a rare outcrop in western England from which one can look out over the flat countryside, towards the Cotswolds and beyond.

For years, Darwin and his wife could not bring themselves to visit the grave. When they finally did, during a particularly terrible health and emotional crisis fifteen years later, it helped the man break through his stifled grief, and give him strength to return to his work and writings post-Origin, as he was worn down with the defense of himself and his views.

No one knows for sure when Darwin lost his faith in the Anglican Church. It’s not clear how far he ever moved past agnosticism. The theory that he lost his faith after the death of his daughter comes from a book by Darwin scholar, Randal Keynes. Surely there were many contributory factors. When Darwin left on the Beagle journey at age 24, he believed he would become a clergyman. By the end of his voyage, where he saw not only geological and biological phenomena that helped shape him into an evolutionist, but also slavery, coups, and close-up the wars of extermination against native South American populations, he had decided in a career as a scientist (actually, a geologist, at that point).

The suppression of this movie is an outrage. It would certainly help humanize Darwin, whom the religious right want to demonize and make pariah. You cannot at this point in time separate Darwin from the issue of evolution. Years after his death he remains a symbol not only of the fact of evolution, but of courage and truth-telling, or belief in the powers of reason to subdue those of superstition and destructive passions.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

PBS Documentary Exposes "Intelligent Design" Fraud

PBS has aired an important documentary in its NOVA series, "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial". The program, NOVA describes the controversy that emerged from the 2004 decision by the Dover, Pennsylvania school board indicating science teachers must tell their students that "intelligent design" was an alternative to Darwin's theory of evolution (or natural selection). This led to a teacher revolt, and parent's filing a lawsuit alleging violation of the separation of church and state.

Featuring trial reenactments based on court transcripts and interviews with key participants, including expert scientists and Dover parents, teachers, and town officials, "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial" follows the celebrated federal case of Kitzmiller v. Dover School District. This two-hour special was coproduced with Paul G. Allen's Vulcan Productions, Inc....

"There was a blow-up like you couldn't believe," Bill Buckingham, head of the school board's curriculum committee, tells NOVA. Buckingham helped formulate the intelligent-design policy when he noticed that the biology textbook chosen by teachers for classroom use was, in his words, "laced with Darwinism."

NOVA presents the arguments by lawyers and expert witnesses in riveting detail and provides an eye-opening crash course on questions such as "What is evolution?" and "Is intelligent design a scientifically valid alternative?" Kitzmiller v. Dover was the first legal test of intelligent design as a scientific theory, with the plaintiffs arguing that it is a thinly veiled form of creationism, the view that a literal interpretation of the Bible accounts for all observed facts about nature....

During the trial, lawyers for the plaintiffs showed that evolution is one of the best-tested and most thoroughly confirmed theories in the history of science, and that its unresolved questions are normal research problems—the type that arise in any flourishing scientific field.

U.S. District Court Judge John E. Jones III ultimately decided for the plaintiffs, writing in his decision that intelligent design "cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents." As part of his decision, Judge Jones ordered the Dover school board to pay legal fees and damages, which were eventually set at $1 million.

"Judgment Day captures on film a landmark court case with a powerful scientific message at its core," says Paula Apsell, NOVA's Senior Executive Producer. "Evolution is one of the most essential yet, for many people, least understood of all scientific theories, the foundation of biological science. We felt it was important for NOVA to do this program to heighten the public understanding of what constitutes science and what does not, and therefore, what is acceptable for inclusion in the science curriculum in our public schools."

The NOVA website should be visited, not just to check your local broadcast times (though do that, too!), but because it also has a lot of interactive features related to the documentary, including audio of the judge and various scientific experts, an interview with Philip Johnson (the "father of intelligent design"), and an interactive documentary on Darwin's theories. (And a tip of the hat to U.J. for forwarding me information about the show.)

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