The application of a model of psychotherapy to world problems

This editorial uses a model of psychotherapy to respond to the question of why conservative attitudes seem to be gaining ground in our world. We assume that a patient who desires change also has a great need to resist it because he or she cannot tolerate uncertainty. The rapid changes in the world provide all of us with an increasing number of choices and consequently with existential anxiety. The return to yesterday's certainty, however, has significant dangers for the survival of the individual as well as mankind. Survival is a viable question when we consider that we play our war-games still by the rules of yesterday and thereby deny the fact that we are given the realistic choice of self-destruction. Such attitudes are very reminiscent of suicidal patients, who typically show a great deficit in information-gathering in the vulnerable areas of their lives. Resistance to change is at least one base to the understanding of a fundamentalist philosophy. Resistance can be defined as a wish to stay with the problems one knows rather than the ones dictated by existential demands: A reluctance to accept uncertainty. While the traditional values may in fact be "better" than new ones, the need on the part of either patient or society to act as though the traditional values were still intact denies reality. (The parent who does not want to see his offspring sexually active before marriage has to deal with the fact that presently available technology enhances sexual stimulation, lack of supervision, and privacy and opportunity).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)