Another Inconvenient Truth and the Developmental Role for Psychology in a Threatened World*

There is a reciprocal relationship between the external lifeworlds that human individuals and communities inhabit (psychospheres) and the inner psychological landscape of conceptual coherence, cognitive strategies, identity, and meaning. In times of cultural turbulence, when basic assumptions about reality are challenged, there is often a corresponding challenge to psychological coherence on a cultural scale. The 21st century global context is increasingly incoherent, disrupting previously coherent psychospheres and provoking a global conceptual emergency with widespread mental distress. At the same time, climate change, the most dangerous of a cluster of global threats, requires urgent and coordinated action. It is likely that a more mature psychology will be required for this than is currently the global norm. The key to making the changes to necessary avoid global catastrophe humanely and effectively will be more psychological than technical. In the mid-20th century, humanistic psychology founders hoped humanistic psychology would provide theory and praxis for an emancipatory social movement that would avoid the catastrophe of nuclear holocaust. In the face of today's threats, the need for such a project is now more urgent than ever. In light of this, the author proposes the best and highest goals of psychological practice and training should be to address the challenge of creating a new culture or psychosphere that both cultivates and sustains a psychologically healthy humanity long enough to address the potential planetary catastrophe that looms at the same time that it addresses the pain of the inevitable psychological disruptions and the opportunity for transformative growth.