Chris Brogan, Convenor & Squiggle Trustee

The Climate Crisis is undoubtedly the biggest existential threat of all time. The enormity of it overwhelms us. It brings to the foreground all the more undesirable elements of being human – greed, consumerism, exceptionalism, apparent unconcern, huge inequality and injustice. We have to confront and question our values and our participation in so called ‘neoliberal capitalist’ societies. The very meaning of life and what makes life worth living is at stake.

 When I read the lead psychoanalytic thinker, Sally Weintrobe’s book on climate change, or attended webinars where she was speaking, I came away feeling very despondent and hopeless. It almost felt that our man-made Climate Crisis was a manifestation of our original fall from grace into sin and that attempts at reparation and mourning were likely to be completely inadequate. Only a few would be able to confront their own exceptionalism, bear reality and not turn a blind eye or employ disavowal. Might there be other discourses informed by different developmental and analytic models?

Winnicott did not shy away from setting out his ideas on social and political issues of the day, as diverse as the Pill, Moon landings, Democracy and the Monarchy. We will never know what he would have made of the Climate Crisis, but given that many of his seminal ideas and discoveries had far reaching implications beyond clinical psychoanalysis, might it be profitable to hold a series of workshops around key papers? The Squiggle Foundation supported this idea and the Director, Adrian Sutton, and two other Trustees, Mike Tait and Craig Fees joined me in facilitating the workshops, backed up by Di Sutton the Squiggle Administrator.   The zoom platform gave opportunities for contributors from countries outside the West as far afield as Brazil, Greece, Iran, Japan and China.  From the outset, the facilitators’ role was just that, not to assume any greater knowledge or expertise.  A brief 15 minute summary of the paper was read out at the beginning of each workshop to orientate the participants, although the ensuing discussion usually went far beyond the ideas in the paper. The whole series took place over an academic year with nine meetings, three per term, lasting one and a half hours on a weekday evening. The sequence of papers attempted to follow human development from absolute dependency to adolescence (1).  There was no charge. 

Generally, the group discussions were extremely rich. Sometimes it felt very dark. sometimes very confusing, other times very creative and imaginative. Winnicott allows a way into thinking about very disturbing primitive mental states which does not pathologise the individual. Healing is facilitated by the ordinary reliable presence of another human not doing anything clever.  The overall tendency of humans to integrate developmentally, and a belief in the innate potential of every individual, encourages hope for humanity.  The undesirable sides of humanity which have come to the fore in the Climate Crisis, could be viewed as ways of coping with emotional and spiritual deprivation or emptiness, rather than some innate flaw. Hope seemed to arise in the group often after a period of despondency. Several times it was commented that thinking in a group is much more productive than thinking alone, especially when it becomes unbearable like contemplating the level of destruction humans have wreaked.  It is at these times that a third space opened up and something creative emerged or an energy appeared in the group.  I have picked out a number of themes which participants repeatedly returned to. They could have arisen in any psychologically orientated discussion on the Climate Crisis, but I think what I have tried to illustrate in the subsequent account of some of the discussions, is the group finding Winnicottian ideas enriching and sometimes affording a different perspective.

One of the themes that repeatedly appeared was the sense of personal responsibility that arises from concern for each other and the planet in the face of an impending catastrophe. An example was given of a group of disturbed adolescents who were reluctantly led into the mountains, cursing and swearing at the weather and the terrain, and probably the leaders, but who afterwards felt such a sense of achievement and camaraderie where they helped each other over difficulties, that they subsequently took charge of the stores and the next expedition.  Hatred had been acknowledged and discharged onto mountains which can take a bit of hatred without retaliation and the group had discovered their ability to work together and be constructive and feel of value. The discussion turned to what prevents the development of concern. We know that developmentally, trauma breaks up “going on being” and this subsequently affects the emergence of any concern. One example came from Iran where the trauma of war and revolution and sanctions, has led to a state described as ‘the short-term society’, where values such as conscience and honour have been overtaken by self-indulgence and a narrowing of any concern. Environmental concern comes and goes. The capacity for concern has to be rediscovered time and time again. True concern arises out of a connection, a relationship whether human or non-human. It involves acknowledging hatred which is either hidden or projected onto organisations, sounding the refrain, “It’s their fault”. Can true concern arise out of behaviour that is at first more of a social response, like picking up litter, through social pressure? Concern does not flourish in societies where there are gross inequalities and lack of opportunities. Neither can concern for the environment flourish in societies where individuals are cut off from nature, only seeing it on a screen. One participant recalled the experience of growing up in a farm in rural India where life was rooted in nature and the land and there was maybe more acceptance of mortality and death. Perhaps by destroying nature we outlive it. An example was given of a venerable strong Mulberry tree which was owned by another participant’s grandfather but was an object of envy so that even some family members wanted it cut down. Was that as a result of oedipal rivalry? Did it had a totemic significance? Or was it because there was something about the mulberry tree which reminded people of their own mortality? It would outlive them. Could this tree also command respect for its longevity and evoke feelings of humility? The relationship with the mulberry tree could be seen from a consumerist viewpoint. It could be cut down as it was not a ‘valuable’ commodity.

The capacity for concern is based on the achievement of unit status, closely linked with the ability to be depressed. This capacity does not seem to be shared by corporate bodies, government and big businesses, which appear to operate at a much more primitive level redolent of borderline or psychotic functioning.  The rub is that we in the West at least benefit from such policies and so are entangled, collectively bearing responsibility. To put it another way, we live in a mad world ultimately of our own making and yet try to make sense of things using mature neurotic thinking. Winnicott’s papers The Use of the Object and Fear of breakdown helped the group to think about this conundrum.  The group read Fear of Breakdown just after Putin invaded Ukraine. The group thought that Putin’s war against Ukraine could be viewed as a psychotic response to manage a fear of the break-up of the Soviet Union even though it (the breakdown) had already happened. Could the Climate Crisis be seen in the same light? Are we living in an environment which is not only breaking down around us but has already broken down?  Perhaps the environment may never have provided those things that we attribute to it. Maybe there never has been a beneficent all-giving world of endless resource, just the illusion. Everything that we have become used to is changing. The givens over the last few decades, which most of us hardly were aware of, are all being questioned, leading to discombobulation and disorientation. We are now so much more conscious of how we behave in everyday life; the effects of what we purchase to eat, wear, and dispose of, and how we heat our homes and travel. Sometimes the personal responsibility can be almost paralysing. Sane Leadership is needed but is in short supply in a world where order has been turned over and everything is unpredictable. The theme of a world order shifting continued in the group, with mention of the rise of China, and a sense of uncertainty, falling for ever, with nobody to pick up the pieces. In order to continue living in this unbearable state, we use disavowal, holding two or more contradictory states of mind. A good example of this was given in a Radio 4 interview where some inhabitants of Russia were asked what they believed about the invasion of Ukraine. It was pointed out that the sense of falling forever, mentioned in Fear of Breakdown, precedes object relating. In that situation there are no others around us, giving a frightening glimpse into an unbearable world.   Do we feel we have to pretend it is not happening to get on with life? One idea emerged that it is like living with a tantalising mother, a damaging early environment most likely to drive the infant mad.  The tantalising message on the one hand promotes excess wilful consumerism where you can have anything and on the other hand the  you will be deprived and have nothing. Could the rise of fundamentalism be a search for the illusion of lost certainties?

This theme of breakdown and primitive agonies resurfaced again in the discussion of the Davis and Wallbridge paper in Boundary and Space bringing in the importance of a sense of Continuity over time, and of finite time – a beginning, a middle, and an end. This starts with the infant being held, with no awareness of time, in a merged state: time being held by the mother. The infant builds up this sense of continuity over time and of finite time through a benign sequence of impulsive action, concern and reparation. The continuity of being is fractured in psychosis and in delinquents, who may not be able to connect the effects of the present with the past and on the future. Time gives form and meaning to life. This continuity of being – linked to the capacity ‘to be’ – is handed down through generations, and together with the capacity ‘to do’, creatively forms the cultural heritage which an individual contributes to and is part of. Through such cultural experiences, each individual forms a bridge between the past and future. Nuclear holocaust and Climate catastrophe threaten an end to this continuity over time and generations, with the threat of annihilation. Annihilation is different to death.  Death doesn’t interrupt the continuity of being. Annihilation does.  The Climate Crisis portends an annihilation beyond the ultimate genocide. Perhaps this is why it is so unthinkable. Beyond boundaries, and outside space; beyond being, and beyond time. Closely related to the idea of a breakdown that has already happened but was not experienced as such (due to immaturity of the ego), is the idea of après coup. Unassimilated memory traces and unprocessed past traumatic experiences are reinvested and given fresh meaning in the light of new experiences. Perhaps we are only just beginning to realise what we have done to the planet.  

Perhaps another response to the Climate Crisis is withdrawal into a schizoid state where connections are broken. The group felt that Winnicott tries to put into words what is not very easy to put into words because it does not havet word representations. Being together is very important and being present with unbearable feelings.  Although it is hard to feel that an individual  can make a difference, perhaps as clinicians we can.  We could turn attention to what is and is not coming into the clinical setting. Many adult patients have been talking about the war but almost no one mentions climate change. The non-human environment is such a ‘given’ that we do not consider it. Perhaps we need to explore more how oure patients relate to the natural world.  The experience of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapists may be different, with children more likely to express anxiety about the climate.  Thinking of how we change is not easy or comfortable but what is demanded of us is a radical change in the way we all live. “It’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism” (Quoted from Frederik Jameson). During the Covid lockdown, with quieter roads & less pollution, the stars, birds and animals appeared, and it was if we had been given a glimpse of a possible alternative world.  A participant from Brazil reminded us that it might feel overwhelming in Europe but the anxiety is not new in  South America  where there has been a massive  environmental failure for a long time and time is running out. What happens ultimately if we render the environment incapable of facilitating our development? In several groups there was a call to rethink the dominant neoliberal consumerist economic and political model, a call for revolution.  Climate justice is linked with social justice.  In a powerful contribution from Japan, an analyst reported struggles with patients who are anorexic and are near death and related this to the profound change in emotional climate in homes in Japan after the war as the economy took off in the direction of becoming increasingly westernised & performance focussed, resulting in a rapid increase of consumerism, technology and individualisation rather than collectivism. Something went wrong in “the way we live”. Too much emphasis is placed on the verbal and intellect. Not enough attention is being given to the emotional life and the non-verbal. Babies are born trusting that they will be protected as they were in the womb. We are not doing justice to the babies that come into the world ‘expecting’ care and concern. We should listen to their nonverbal voices. Closely linked to this theme are Winnicott’s views on dependency.  Collaboration, interdependency between humans and between humans and the non-human world does not sit comfortably with the dominant Western individualist culture which has also permeated non-western countries.  Indeed, the fear of dependency and its associated fear of infantile helplessness has been exacerbated by the Climate Crisis and the realisation that the bounteous beautiful world is finite.  Acknowledging our interdependency, working collaboratively not competitively, listening to each other’s fears and concerns was something I hope the group participants experienced.

Another theme was that of destructiveness.  Winnicott’s unique idea outlined in The Use of the Object and Identifications is that the infant has to destroy its subjective world, the subjectively merged mother, inaugurating the reality of a ‘not-me’ world, of relating to objectively perceived objects, thereby liberating itself and its mother and taking responsibility through the capacity for concern. Opportunities for contributing and reparation mitigate guilt and usher in true gratitude, both to our fellow humans and to the non-human world with all its fragility and beauty. The capacity to use an object enables the subject to identify with the other in family, social and wider contexts. On the other hand, fantasies of omnipotent destructiveness where the other is destroyed are terrifying, especially when we read about the renewed threat of deploying nuclear weapons by Russia. The discussion turned from destructiveness to how we dispose of waste.  Could we physically carry a weeks’ worth around with us? By altering our relationship with waste or plastic and becoming more aware of it and the fate of it, we are moving from a position of relating to it as a subjective object to according it a separate existence. This felt an overwhelming idea and threatened to silence the group until one of the overseas participants brought up the disgraceful management of exporting and dumping (‘not me’) waste by western countries and how many countries do not have facilities to dispose of or collect waste.  After a heavy silence another participant talked hesitantly at first of discovering by chance a talent for furniture restoration and how she uses waste bits of furniture which she then lovingly recrafts into objects of beauty.  This felt more hopeful and constructive even when the global situation is dire. I also thought it was an example of an intermediate space appearing, which helped the group to bear the full blast of reality and to recover an ability to think creatively.   It is a challenge to find words and images that can resonate and stir people to think and act on climate change. Individually this is difficult but maybe more achievable in groups, for instance the many small local groups globally who develop sustainable action programmes or Grannies Groups in Australia where a person is delegated each week to give the others in the group something sustainable which could be homegrown vegetables, a piece of craftwork. This is the antithesis of a consumerist individualistic economy and lifestyle, giving joy and a sense of connection.  One participant felt that this group was a symbol of hope where we can play with imaginative possibilities.

The importance of play and the intermediate space was reiterated in the discussion of the paper The Location of Cultural Experience where Winnicott extends his original idea of transitional phenomena to a much broader field of culture, creativity and the meaning of life and what makes life worth living. The group wondered if the rise in ADHD in students overtaking anxiety and depression, was a response to a feeling that too much is going on, that all of our psychic apparatuses are overloaded? This makes it imperative to ensure that a space for play is preserved or prioritised.  Yet by frantically doing, being swept along by a consumerist culture, we restrict and perhaps even censor opportunities for creative play in the third space. Play evokes a freedom and is also ultimately transgressive. The discussion turned to the purposefulness or purposelessness of play.  Winnicott challenged the previous analytic view that the importance of play lay in the latent content. In playing we are in that third space between inner and outer reality which is not goal-orientated but is boundaried by time and space. Survival anxiety destroys play. Also, there is an urgency about the Climate Crisis. We have not got time to play, but we also must. As Greta Thunberg says it is not a game.  Ben Okri’s call for an imaginative response to the Climate Crisis (in the Guardian) through art and literature and stories seems hopeful.

Lastly, Winnicott’s writings on adolescence, The Antisocial Tendency and Democracy brought ideas about protests across the world and the notion of freedom. The discussion started with adolescents eschewing false solutions and not being inclined to compromise. Whereas the various summits have been full of compromise, the Climate Crisis itself brooks no compromise. A parallel was drawn between the imperatives of a small hungry infant who brooks no substitute for food where the need has to be met.  Covid is an interesting example where the threat of illness and death made compromises and shortcuts, immoral and irresponsible. How many climate catastrophes will it take to drive legislation or change public behaviour? The discussion turned to activism and the Friday School Strike, and concern that even young children in the latency period are affected by climate anxiety. Some are talking about not having children when they are adults.  Adolescents may not want to be understood but they want to be met. Meeting and matching the moment of hope with genuine solutions is a huge challenge. Many of the climate protesters are women in their 60s and 70s who are not frightened by the consequences of protesting as their children have left home. They are independent and want to assert a genuine sane response in an insane delusional world. They are only delinquent by virtue of breaking the rules like the Stop Oil campaigners throwing tomato soup onto a framed picture by Van Gogh. The establishment were outraged, viewing these people as delinquents or toddlers having a tantrum: in sharp contrast, the activists explained in very mature terms that their damage was easily reparable as it only affected the frame. How much more delinquent is fracking or further fossil fuel extraction? Antisocial acts draw attention in a hopeful way to something that is wrong, to need unmet, prodding families and society to respond. But the term delinquent is very pejorative and the language of the outraged was very attacking. These young people are risking ruining their future with criminal records to draw our attention to the crisis. What is a work of art compared with destruction of humanity?

A theme appeared around the limiting membrane delineating a boundary originally between ‘me’ and ‘not me’. Was it thin and fragile, easily punctured or thick and rigid? Women In Iran casting off their headscarves often in front of police, are bravely demonstrating a freedom to choose and something which could not be talked about, was foreclosed, is now in the public eye. The membrane between the police and the women seems very thick and polarised. And tragically the membrane is punctured with the many killings.   Some men have come out in support of the women.  It is as if the women have cast off an oppressive subjugating boundary that the state/ religious organisation imposed in order to help men control their predatory sexual proclivity. But it also might invoke the fear of WOMAN that Winnicott talks about. At one level the police are made to feel helpless in the face of the women breaking the law in front of them.  What if the law is not the accepted law anymore? Note it is not the men restraining themselves, it is the women’s’ responsibility not to provoke the men by unveiling, just as the onus of responsibility in the Climate Crisis is put on the climate activists who are accused of spreading ‘Project Fear’. Returning to the oppressive boundary in Iran, there is an ugly, horrible, persecutory side of the membrane which censors any reporting, silences opposition and curtails basic freedoms. The authorities try to erase any visual evidence of protests. 

A hardening of authority is happening in the UK to a lesser extent, but protests are not being reported on, and climate protesters incur increasingly punitive custodial measures: the right to protest is being eroded. Socially, certain topics are likely to be met with silence such as air travel. If you decide you are going to let your friends know you are never going to travel by air again, no matter how tactfully you put it, it is likely to break an unspoken social rule which protects those who do fly from too much guilt, with the consequence of social death. The group at this point considered the question “What is freedom?” It is not the superficial freedom to be hedonistic and selfish. It is an inner sense of feeling free to make choices and to create and use symbols. And that takes place in the potential space.  “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance” (Tutu).  What would Greta Thunberg say at this point if she joined us? Lastly an interesting question arose moving away from the individual response to the Climate Crisis. How might Winnicottian theories of human development be used to change social policy? I think it was the Curtis report (1946), to which Winnicott and Bowlby were major contributors which changed the treatment of child evacuees.  

The original aim of this series was to examine whether Winnicott’s ideas might have anything useful to contribute to the huge topic of the Climate Crisis. Might it help with the struggle to articulate or live out a personal response? How should we respond as a member of a social group or wider society or as a global citizen? How might we prepare for the consequences of a Climate Crisis, depleting resources near home and incurring mass global migrations which will affect our own societies? What qualities and skills do we need to live in such a changing world and how do we help our children and grandchidren to prepare? What are the defences which prevent us from confronting reality and prevent us from acting in a sane way? What are the assumptions that have underpinned our relationship with the nonhuman world, leading to the extinction of so many species? How did we get here and what needs to change to avert a catastrophe?  I think the group touched on all these questions, stimulating much imaginative thinking and creativity.  We started with promises and hope following COP 26 and a year later COP27 has come and gone. Meanwhile the Greenland ice shelf is disappearing, there have been catastrophic floods in Pakistan, droughts in Africa, terrifying fires in Australia. It would be easy to sink into cynicism or apathy, but this was not my experience of the group.  The feedback in the plenary session was encouraging and generous, although attendance dropped off particularly in the last term. Overseas participants would like further shorter series of workshops on different current themes.  Two participants experienced a lack of continuity with monthly sessions spread out over a year.  In retrospect it might have been better if the workshops were held more frequently and limited to a total of four or five. Papers that were thought to be particularly relevant were Fear of Breakdown, with the ideas of annihilation anxiety, Use of the object with the idea of liberation and ability to identify with the other, the family, group and the wider world. Boundary and Space might be substituted for the Democracy paper.

Program of papers:

The Theory Of The Parent Infant Relationship (1960) in Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment

Fear of Breakdown (1963) in Psychoanalytic Explorations (1989) eds Winnicott, C. & Shepherd, R.

Ego Distortion in Terms of True and False Self (1960) in Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment

The Development of the Capacity for Concern (1963) in Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment

The Use of an Object and Relating through Identifications (1968) in Playing and Reality (1971)

The Location of Cultural Experience in Playing and Reality (1971)

Adolescence. Struggling through the Doldrums in The Family and Individual Development (1965)

Boundary and Space: Part 111 of Boundary and Space (1981) eds Davis, M. and Wallbridge, D. pp143-174