Struggling to Survive

In Peak Psychotherapy, Abundant Human Connection, Carolyn Baker explores the emotional repercussions of collapse. Examining the mental health infrastructure for treating illness associated with industrial civilization, Baker observes that many are turning to indigenous traditions that resonate more fully with their deeper humanity. “As health care disappears,” says Baker, “humans will be forced to heal differently.”

As health care is privatized and made more exclusive, immersion in nature, creation of beauty, and human interconnectedness, argues Ms. Baker, will supplant much of professional mental health care in the future. Whether sitting in rural natural surroundings, or in urban rubble, healers as counselors will often as not be found there as well, bartering with their neighbors struggling to survive the trauma of social panic and despair.