Close to sick and also sinister for any far-right party anywhere to be using the word “Democracy” in its title. With due respect to thought provoking article still don’t get something: are we saying that fear and “disgust” (?) are causing normal people to turn awful and believe baseless lies? Why does not fear turn a human into an intelligently thinking wise person that gets exactly what is happening and sees the humane ways out? What do u think?
It's such an interesting thing you bring up regarding what behaviors and motivations are triggered by fear and disgust. The way I read Illouz arguments about "populist emotions", she's not saying that fear in itself turn people into populists or to believe lies, but rather that's the combination of the four emotions whilst also existing in a context where populist (and extreme-right) politicians are present.
Fear definitely also play an important role in climate related emotions, and from that research (and from clinical experience) I'd say that fear can be a motivator to take climate action, but fear can also lead to avoidance. It's not just the presence of fear, but also the intensity and frequency of the emotion + not the least what skills, sources of help and surrounding context we exist in, that will determine our actions. In general I would say that's its an oversimplification to say that a certain emotion will lead to a certain outcome or action - emotions are always in interplay with the person feeling them and that person's surrounding context.
This is also why strategies for emotion regulation and increasing people's tolerance of unpleasant emotions are an important (but usually neglected) part of climate work.
In my opinion there are two mental health branches around, not only the issue of climate change but also of all environmental destruction.
One is the mental health issues both individually and societally that have caused and are continuing to lead us towards this suicidal path we are on
Two is the mental health challenges that are the result of having to survive as a sane person in a world where, even though we all know what we are doing to our futures, we keep doing that.
I think that both of those paths are in need of study and exploration for ways to address them.
Close to sick and also sinister for any far-right party anywhere to be using the word “Democracy” in its title. With due respect to thought provoking article still don’t get something: are we saying that fear and “disgust” (?) are causing normal people to turn awful and believe baseless lies? Why does not fear turn a human into an intelligently thinking wise person that gets exactly what is happening and sees the humane ways out? What do u think?
Thanks for reading and for your comment!
It's such an interesting thing you bring up regarding what behaviors and motivations are triggered by fear and disgust. The way I read Illouz arguments about "populist emotions", she's not saying that fear in itself turn people into populists or to believe lies, but rather that's the combination of the four emotions whilst also existing in a context where populist (and extreme-right) politicians are present.
Fear definitely also play an important role in climate related emotions, and from that research (and from clinical experience) I'd say that fear can be a motivator to take climate action, but fear can also lead to avoidance. It's not just the presence of fear, but also the intensity and frequency of the emotion + not the least what skills, sources of help and surrounding context we exist in, that will determine our actions. In general I would say that's its an oversimplification to say that a certain emotion will lead to a certain outcome or action - emotions are always in interplay with the person feeling them and that person's surrounding context.
This is also why strategies for emotion regulation and increasing people's tolerance of unpleasant emotions are an important (but usually neglected) part of climate work.
In my opinion there are two mental health branches around, not only the issue of climate change but also of all environmental destruction.
One is the mental health issues both individually and societally that have caused and are continuing to lead us towards this suicidal path we are on
Two is the mental health challenges that are the result of having to survive as a sane person in a world where, even though we all know what we are doing to our futures, we keep doing that.
I think that both of those paths are in need of study and exploration for ways to address them.
In my opinion
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Tack, Åse!