What makes a healthy society?
Audio here!
Are we blank slates which can produce any sort of society we desire or do we ONLY create the kinds of societies our genetic and evolutionary heritage could allow; and if the latter is only partly true, what does our evolutionary heritage say about human nature anyway?
Are we the fallen’, seriously flawed species many religious and otherwise cynical people believe we are – whether via nature or as according to the doctrine of Original Sin – or are we a flexible species, free to build different kinds of societies.. some of which which might lead to a truly healthy society?
And what sort of society do we have now as regards health, and what may be some alternatives?
We’ve invited Dr. Bruce Levine (another guest could not make it) to speak to these questions. Dr. Levine is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Cincinnati, Ohio. He has been in practice for more than two decades. His most recent book is Surviving America’s Depression Epidemic: How to Find Morale, Energy, and Community in a World Gone Crazy (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2007), which argues that by not seriously confronting societal sources of depression, American mental health institutions have become part of the problem rather than the solution. The book provides an alternate approach that encompasses the whole of our humanity, society, and culture, and which redefines depression (as a problematic strategy to shut down pain) in a way that makes enduring transformation more likely.