The rates of depression, anxiety, addiction, and suicide have all been increasing for the last hundred years, and it appears that the causes of this are related to cultural changes. In this seminar, we will explore what these cultural changes are and why Western society is becoming more toxic, despite the many gains we have made in medicine, human rights, and material wealth. Foremost among the causes are our starving social instincts which orient us toward connection and belonging. Massive cultural changes brought about by the last century, including shifts in individualism, family structure, spiritual adherence, community membership, consumerism, mass media, and disconnection from nature are all contributing factors that are leaving our Social Instincts neglected. We have built a culture of loneliness. In this seminar we will discuss ways we can change this disturbing trajectory.
Course Outline:
- Lecture 1: Starving Social Instincts and Toxic Modern Society
- Discuss the loneliness epidemic and steadily rising rates of depression, anxiety, suicide, and addictions
- Learn the bio-psycho-social model and how it applies to this epidemic
- Compare modern western society to non-western
- Lecture 2: Hyperindividualism and changes in family and spirituality
- Hyperindividualism and narcissism in modern society
- Changes in family dynamics
- Changes in spirituality
- Comparisons to non-western examples
- Lecture 3: Pseudoculture, the Achievement Based Value System, and Cultural Addictions
- Mass Media Pseudoculture
- The Achievement Based Value System
- The explosion of addictions in modern society
- Nature deficiency
- The four Social Instincts
- Lecture 4: Hope and Hard Decisions
- Addressing the four social instincts
- Challenges and tradeoffs
- The Quest for Meaning
- The transcendent function—individual and collective dreams
- The Quest for sustenance in culture and individual life
- The principles needed to fix toxic modern society