Continuing directly from part 1, Robertson extends Winnicott's concept of the 'false self' - a defensive retreat from reality and external pressure - to what he terms a collective 'False World': a cultural fantasy of separation from ecological limits, exemplified by notions of escaping to other planets rather than reckoning with life on this one. He argues that relinquishing this false world is difficult precisely because so much has been invested in maintaining it. Drawing on the bidirectional coupling between earth systems and human social systems, Robertson explores how climate science's early focus on human impacts on the planet has increasingly given way to recognising feedback effects on humans themselves - forced migration, disease, infertility, conflict - and situates eco-anxiety within this entanglement as a complex mix of care, grief and complicity that can act as a catalyst for change rather than only a source of paralysis. The essay closes by considering what psychological and cultural practices might support staying at this 'cusp' rather than retreating from it, drawing on Hillman, Baldwin, and contemporary climate psychology research on young people's climate anxiety and moral injury.
Being on the Cusp: Facing Psychological Impasse (part 2)
Continuing directly from part 1, Robertson extends Winnicott's concept of the 'false self' - a defensive retreat from reality and external pressure - to what he terms a collective 'False World': a cultural fantasy of separation from ecological limits, exemplified by notions of escaping to other planets rather than reckoning with life on this one. He argues that relinquishing this false world is difficult precisely because so much has been invested in maintaining it. Drawing on the bidirectional coupling between earth systems and human social systems, Robertson explores how climate science's early focus on human impacts on the planet has increasingly given way to recognising feedback effects on humans themselves - forced migration, disease, infertility, conflict - and situates eco-anxiety within this entanglement as a complex mix of care, grief and complicity that can act as a catalyst for change rather than only a source of paralysis. The essay closes by considering what psychological and cultural practices might support staying at this 'cusp' rather than retreating from it, drawing on Hillman, Baldwin, and contemporary climate psychology research on young people's climate anxiety and moral injury.
Chris Robertson
Psychotherapist and trainer since 1978, founding facilitator of Through the Door, ex-CPA Chair, co-founder of Re-Vision, and co-author of Climate Psychology: A Matter of Life and Death (2022).
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