The Far Side of Despair

by John Lawson

One of the great joys of life lies in participating in the boundless creativity of nature. Life, however, is more than creation. As humans, we are aware that the shadow of death lurks in the background of all vital processes. If the time allotted to each is brief, the shortness of the journey serves to deepen the intensity of living and leads us to share our experience with others. Unfortunately, however, in human affairs the force of life is all too often attenuated by the ravages of destructiveness wrought by humans themselves. In the words of Mark Twain: "Man’s inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn." How are we to explain such a misfortune?

As Carl Sagan and others have pointed out, the human infant is born an "unfinished" creature. After birth, the baby undergoes a period of prolonged helplessness and dependency. There is a decrease in the role of instincts that guide the young human, and there is an increase in the role of learning as a determining factor in the child’s development. Such learning, as Moshe Feldenkrais has pointed out, is not "intellectual"; rather, it is "organic." The child requires embodied love, warmth, acknowledgement, and attendance. When the needs of the young human are not satisfactorily met, the experience is one of desolation, and the result is the fostering of destructive tendencies – both toward self and others. These destructive tendencies become more or less firmly set in the character structure of the adult into whom the child grows.

If conditions are positive, the force of love in a context of security leads to creativity and a deep sense of humanity. In the absence of such a context, the organism shrinks and hardens under the influence of chronic, unresolved anxieties which may lead to despair. Paradoxically, such despair may itself be a sign of creative stirrings of life within the individual.

In his book Cosmic Superimposition, Wilhelm Reich writes: "There is good reason to assume that in such experience of the Self man somehow became frightened and for the first time in the history of his species began to armor against the inner fright and amazement." (Italics in the original.) If Reich’s supposition is correct, the predisposition to despair in human beings must be seen as part of the endowment of the species. It follows that the avoidance of the experience of despair is at the root of many human social and personal problems.

To traverse the depths of despair, arriving at the far side where authentic existence is possible, is not an easy process. The generalized social and cultural situation in which human beings find themselves today involves a world where the prevailing emphasis is on the avoidance of true feelings, on the evasion of self-examination, and on the acting-out of destructive impulses rooted in pent-up frustration. In spite of the difficulty, however, a commitment to self-examination and personal growth may bring great rewards; for life lived in a morass of passivity or in the throes of aimless avoidance is not life at all, but the absence of life.

Working through human despair is a practical, emotional task and not simply a labor of the intellect. Etymologically, the word "despair" means "to contract," while the word "hope" means "to expand." If one is to move through despair to a position of greater hope and identification with life, a good place to start is with bio-energetic factors, such as deepening one’s breathing to increase one’s energy. At the same time, one must reorganize one’s character structure so that one can accommodate enhanced vitality and give direction and stability to more authentic experience and behavior. To do this one must understand the roots of inner conflicts and the tendency in oneself to perpetuate problems by responding unthinkingly to external stresses. The interrupted process of organic learning must be reactivated. Doing so stimulates the evolution of a more positive attitude toward life.

The philosopher Nietzsche observed: "Man would rather will nothing than not will." He thus described the essence of nihilism. The essence of a healthy attitude, however, is creativity. Such an attitude, anchored deeply in the human personality, allows one to participate in the joy as well as the pain of being part of the great, unfolding continuum of life. To identify with life does not create paradise on earth. It does not eliminate all problems. It does not extinguish the reality of death. It does, however, provide a basis for a more potent and creative experience of oneself in the midst of a dehumanizing cultural and social context obsessed with destruction.

John Lawson is the author of The Affirmation of Life (Ardengrove Press). He is an instructor in Reichian Energetics, a form of personal growth work based on the bio-energetic and character analytic principles of Wilhelm Reich. He can be reached at 503-297-6686 in Portland.