For Whom the Bell Tolls

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Lou Schippers PhD

You cannot avoid the reality of approaching death where we Winter. This place has many of those who are in  the ending stages of life. Reminders are everywhere.

And so I contemplate death, and teleology, whether I want to or not.

I recognize that those who take a theological approach, have an answer to the dilemma of death. It does not really exist as a finality. Life continues. They are reassured by their faith that death has lost its “victory” and “sting”. There is no loss of “self.” We live on, just in another realm.

Those without a theological conclusion are left with philosophical dilemmas and options.

Shelly Kagan, in his book “Death,” explores these dilemmas with his students at Yale. There are several alternatives which he includes, as well as others which he does not.

1. Buddhism. One must strive to exist only in the moment.

According to Buddhist philosophy, the self does not exist, therefore, it cannot die. What dies is the constructed self (ego) which must dissolve, as does everything. “There is no birth, there is no death, there is no coming, there is no going, … there is no permanent self, there is no annihilation. We only think there is.” Thich Nat Hahn. Therefore, letting go of the precious “ego self” is the solution to the dilemma of death.

2. Existentialism. The Need to Construct Meaning.

The existentialist position is the direct opposite of Buddhism. It is the awareness of the inevitability of Death which enables each individual to create the personal individualized meaning of life. Life has no meaning, other than what we bring to our experiences of it. The reality of death creates the necessity for creating meaning.

There are other alternatives as well:

3. Death as deliverance.

Those suffering from interminable pain might welcome death as the giver of peace and the ending of suffering. Therefore, it is not to be feared, but welcomed as relief.

4.  Death and Reincarnation

In Hindu philosophy, as well as Buddhism, reincarnation is understood as the continuation of life. This might initially be seen as consoling. However, the problem is that one cannot remember previous incarnations, therefore, there seems to be no real consolation in returning to existence. And, everyone has to start at the ground zero of consciousness each time. Enlightenment in one life time is a difficult task. There is suggestion that ”old souls,” who have been here many times before, can be recognized because of their outlook on life, their interests and concerns.

One does wonder about the fact that if evolution is the vehicle for development of the psychological and biological realms, why not assume that in the realms of spirit and soul, evolution is also the vehicle. Therefore, it may take many reincarnations to “mature” the soul.

5. Death as part of Life. Acceptance of the Inevitable.

Rather than raging against the coming of the night, as Dylan Thomas instructed, one must come to terms with inevitability.

Those who propose this solution range from the sublime to what me may call the science fiction extreme.  “Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force.” Yoda (Star Wars)

In the classic movie “Soylent Green,” elders are given the opportunity to enter a special place when they are prepared to die. Here they experience a final pleasurable 3D film viewing the natural world, before it became totally polluted. They slowly pass away from the drugs administered to them. It is a type of assisted suicide. The “shock” of the movie theme is that in reality their bodies then enter the food factory where they are transformed into wafers known as soylent green. These wafers are distributed to the  overpopulated starving world. A jaundiced view of the great “circle of life.”

Epicurus, the Greek philosopher utilized rational argument to console his listeners. He instructed them to not be concerned about their death, because they would have no knowledge of it once it had happened.

Those who have experienced what is termed “near death” take yet another position. Many say they have lost their fear of death because of the profound experience which they went through.

My own conclusions, from having spent my professional career exploring the realms of theology, philosophy, and integral psychology,  ends up to be fairly simple and utilitarian:

Live long enough and well enough;

love, and be loved,  long enough and well enough; to be able to say at the inevitable end:

Whatever happens next, this has been good enough.

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The Russians are Coming; The Russians are Coming

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Lou Schippers PhD

In the classic movie with the title of this article, a Russian submarine becomes grounded on a shoal close to an island off the coast of New England. This takes place during the Cold War between Russia and the United States. The tension mounts through misunderstandings between the Russian soldiers and the American patriots who rush to defend the country from a perceived invasion. Both sides operate on perceptions which are incorrect, resulting in anxious moments of confrontation which turn into humor as well. The climax of the movie occurs when a child suddenly slips from a precarious perch and begins to slide from a rooftop. A Russian soldier then risks his life to successfully rescue her. The grateful Americans then assist the submarine captain in dislodging his stranded vessel before it can be attacked by the real American Air Force.

The point of the movie was that despite cultural and political differences, despite widely different upbringings and experiences, we are all similar in the core values we hold.

I witnessed an event recently which reminded me of this movie, though the outcome was very different. I was happily eating dinner at a local resort when a very “wealthy” Russian immigrant began to complain loudly at the African American who had just served him dinner. It was not pleasant to hear or watch. The stocky Russian, with a thick accent, ended his tirade with shouts and finger shaking in the direction of the waiter, who had retreated some ten steps from the table: “Don’t touch me,” he shouted at the waiter. “Don’t ever touch me! I am not your servant!!! I pay YOU to do what I want.!”

I turned to my dinner guest who had witnessed this outburst, and said: “The Russians missed the Civil Rights Movement in the States. I don’t think Americans would speak that way, especially to an African American.” He confirmed my impressions and noted that a small group of people of Russian background had recently purchased several expensive condos in the resort, and had made themselves notorious with their beligerant style of inteacting with almost everyone with whom they came in contact.

Perhaps it was the second glass of Vodka which fueled the outburst. Or this individual may have been behaving typically according to his personality style. Or perhaps wealth changes people in unfortunate ways. I certainly know that there are “ugly Americans” who have been running about the world scene, yelling at waiters too. Bad behavior can occur in any culture.

However, I also wondered if this was a conflict created by cultural differences. There was no way to intervene, even though the thought crossed my mind, that I could go over and sit down and discuss what had just happened. It seemed that some sort of intervention was needed. After all, that was what I do professionally: walk into tension filled interpersonal struggles and try to assist those in the struggle to work things out differently. In this case, of course, I would not be invited. So I just watched the bully stride away, pulling his pet dog by its leash. I didn’t see the waiter again. 

Happy endings are possible in the movies. But in our rapidly shrinking world, I wonder how our cultural expectations and differences will ever be managed. At least the topics are open for discussion in America: Bullying is bad (no matter at what age); Racism is still present, despite all the advances we have made since the civil rights movement; and the evolution of culture toward a more egalitarian ideal, continues to be elusive.

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Soldiers From the Battlefields of Life

Posted on March 31, 2012 by Lou Schippers PhD

As I walk the streets of this southern city,
or speak to my neighbor who stops to spend
a few moments with me before he moves on in his
motorized chair,
I realize—
We are all old soldiers here.
Living in the sunlight and shadows of having lived.

Some, such as my neighbor, have more injuries than others. Some have injuries that can’t be seen.

We all have dimming eyes and more or less wrinkled faces.
We all have a touch of PTSD from having lived long enough
to be here. Life takes its toll on all of us.

We are the survivors of the battlefields.
Veterans of a variety of wars.

Some have fought on the economic battlefields, some in the biological trenches, some survived relationship and family jousts.
And the battles are not over. We understand.
Those of us whose bodies are not playing tricks,
or whose minds are not fading into shadows, or who don’t have to be so anxious about supporting ourselves in this era of life, still understand. The battle continues.

So we reflect and remember, and share and celebrate.
Old soldiers, from the battlefields of life.

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Of Human Bondage

Posted on September 6, 2011 by Lou Schippers PhD

Lou Schippers, PhD

“Psychology isn’t interested in the human condition anymore!” pronounced my colleague at the University. She was part of the new generation of psychologists who were focused on one of the many areas into which psychology had migrated in the modern era. That includes cognition; perception; animal behavior; and biological psychology.

I was aghast. I suddenly felt out of place in the department where I had taught for over twenty years. “As a clinically trained psychologist, I think understanding the human condition is the most important of all,” I responded defensively. Her distained look suggested, “Poor fellow. The Field has passed you by.”

I wanted to say more, but didn’t. Yes, the focus on the human condition is a broader view than the myopia of modern psychology. But it is essential to the work of a clinician. It forms the backdrop against which one attempts to understand an individual’s experience.

 Somerset Maugham reflected on this theme in his classic novel in which the main character when through life with a limp. He faced various conflicts and complications. His “limp” is a metaphor for the variety of handicaps which all humans possess.

That is what I have seen in my clients. Despite being handicapped by a “limp,” they went about trying to understand how to overcome and and succeed on their paths in life. There are all sorts of limps. Some are external and some are internal. They include the residue of a complicated childhood; or struggles in difficult relationships; or catastrophic changes in economic conditions; or even changes in brain chemistry which produce difficult symptoms.

What is the essential nature of being human? My clients, through the years have taught me, that human life is the hero’s journey. It is the journey described by Homer in his epic poem. Odysseus had a limp. (Was it hubris?) He confronted many circumstances on his journey. Some seemed insurmountable. Yet, through it all, he overcame with great effort, perseverance, and courage. The fundamental human condition is to be faced with struggles of one sort or another. No one seems to escape this given. The most important thing is what one does in the face of this reality.

Several clients through the years have asked me a similar question: “Don’t you get depressed listening to people’s problems every day?” My answer has always been: “You know, I don’t see that at all. I see people working hard and overcoming their circumstances despite overwhelming odds at times.” I see people with a limp, learning to run.

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O Brave New World

Posted on August 12, 2011 by Lou Schippers PhD

Louis Schippers PhD

What does one tell the grandkids in a world like this?

I grew up a poor kid in a rich person’s town. It tends to make you discouraged, or scrappy and resolute. I took that second path.

It was clear then. The enemy was poverty and circumstance.

The battle plan was also clear. Poverty and circumstance are overcome by working hard, and pursuing a good education. That was the mantra of the founding generations of America. It was also the mantra of my parents. And it worked.

Now as a grandparent, I’m not so certain what lessons to teach my grandkids. At least they are not growing up in Huxley’s Brave New World. He gloomily predicted the future would be characterized by diminished individualism; government domination of everything; bioengineering of higher and lower classes in order to facilitate a “working class” of laborers; and mass use of the drug “soma” to keep the population from revolution. (Or was Huxley correct?)

I understood that it might take generations to overcome our financial circumstances. I was prepared to be the stepping stone for my children. My immigrant father had done that. He worked at a labor intensive job his entire life, until it literally broke his heart. He had tenacity and loyalty and perseverance. Those were the qualities he told me I needed as well.

Now I read articles that college education is highly overpriced and highly overrated. My chosen fields of education and human services, like may others, are under increasing pressures. There is a great deal of uncertainty in most career paths.

So what does one tell the grandkids–about how the world works today; about how to succeed and overcome the inevitable difficulties which life brings; about how to create a career that enables them to accomplish their life dreams?

I think I do need to tell them that there are lasting truths which exist for all generations and circumstances. It is fundamental to work hard. It is important to get a good education. But I think there are other lessons to be learned. Those which my Great Depression Era parents did not understand.

Kids growing up today need something in addition to traditional values. They need a framework of thinking–an attitude–a stance.

It is this: Think like an entrepreneur. Work smart, not just harder. Get the education which will enable you to have the information and skill sets to benefit your personal goals.

You have to have tenacity, but you also have to be nimble and flexible. You have to have loyalty, but you also have to look out for your own best interests.

Strive toward the evolution of your consciousness so that you are not embedded in life’s circumstances. Be a participant- observer.

And, if you can, from time to time, just enjoy the ride.

Then perhaps Miranda’s ironic lament in Shakespeare’s “Tempest” can be turned into a celebration of hope for the next generation:”O brave new world, that has such people in it.”

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The Razor’s Edge: Delusion and Reality

Posted on July 29, 2011 by Lou Schippers PhD

by Louis Schippers, PhD

Sometimes an ability or strength can also be a potential liability. Humans walk the razor’s edge between their ability to see patterns that are meaningful and useful, and the error of jumping to false conclusions.

Humans are pattern-observers and conclusion-makers. This is most likely the result of evolutionary forces and adaptations to environmental situations. Early humans learned to recognize certain rustlings in the tall grasses as potentially dangerous situations. It was important to recognize the patterns that might be something other than the wind, and take evasive actions. Survival counted on this ability.

We are used to seeing patterns and connections. We live in a universe of patterns: snowflakes with intricate geometric sparkle; spider webs with balanced netting. Even DNA is represented as a spiraling matrix at the core of our genetic biology.

Humans are also fond of making patterns where there may be none. Clouds become lookalikes of animals and other things. Star clusters, separated by eons of space/time, and therefore not connected at all, are connected as elements of the zodiac representing beings and objects. Events following one after another are linked causally when they could be coincidental.

Sometimes the dots do need to be connected, as was the case with information prior to 9/11. The results were devastating when patterns were not recognized and actions not taken.

Sometimes, however, when we construct meaning out of patterns, and observe patterns where there are none, it creates problems in living. The most serious are called delusions. These are false conclusions or beliefs which are tenaciously held despite new information. Anxiety can also create such pattern-seeing and conclusion-drawing. Phobias are anxiety responses to false beliefs.

Less dramatic versions of this jump to false conclusions can be found in all persons. In part this is our evolutionary heritage. We always draw conclusions based on limited information. Studies in perception illustrate this clearly. Our brains are wired to jump to conclusions on the basis of emerging pattern recognitions.

The goal is to recognize this particular human skill set, with its built in limitations, and remind ourselves to remain open minded enough to allow for further information. This is actually the fundamental basis of our modern science. New information leads to new discoveries and conclusions about reality. The same should be true for our beliefs.

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The Disappearance and Return of the Unconscious

Posted on June 21, 2011 by Lou Schippers PhD

 Freud’s examination of the mind at the turn of the 20th Century resulted in his conclusions that human behavior was not under the total control of consciousness. He thought that the biological drives (Id), such as libido, coupled with early childhood experiences, were repressed. These life components did not lie dormant, however. They manifested themselves in everyday behavior, and determined much of that behavior. This was revealed in such things as slips of the tongue or consciously felt conflicts.

In the post Freudian era, the notion of the unconscious was mainly dismissed by the behavioral approach in mainstream psychology.While most clinically trained mental health professionals found the phenomenon of the unconscious to be useful in their treatment of clients, those trained in cognitive behavioral approaches, the current standard of the field, simply ignored this aspect of behavior in favor of concentrating on belief systems and accompanying emotional responses. (What they failed to recognize is that in assisting clients to identify underlying belief systems, they were in fact working with unconscious processes in order to make them conscious.)

Recent research in cognitive neuroscience has surprisingly given support to the earlier notion of Freud, that consciousness can be overcome or interfered with by cognitive processes about which we remain unaware. In this current version of the topic, the study of brain processes has replaced the assumptions which Freud developed regarding early childhood and sexual impulses.

These new findings about the unconscious are discussed in David Eagleman’s book “The Stranger Within”. Eagleman’s description of the mind likens it to a collection of special purpose devices or activities which remain largely or totally unconscious, and which can take over the function of the conscious mind given certain circumstances.  Much of what seems conscious and purposeful is actually hidden and automatic. In this way Eagleman utilizes a computer metaphor to describe the mind. Processes are running all the time. They just don’t appear on the screen.

 The conclusion reached by Eagleman is that much of human thought and behavior is actually unconscious. It is the result of how the brain manages the myriad of information and decision making episodes. We tend to operate in consciousness mode with the illusion that we have taken everything into consideration. In fact, brain processes are operating outside of this conscious state that have a great deal to do with determining our thought and actions.

These new approaches suggest that we should conclude that the unconscious is not pathological, as Freud might have thought. Nor is it the goal to replace all unconscious activity with consciousness. Rather, it is now best to say that the unconscious processes of all of us are ordinary and normal mechanisms by which we engage in our everyday activities. It is what enables the executive function, consciousness, to survive.

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