One
of the major points that has been brought up repeatedly in this column since
its inception is that modern technological living environments create
configurations of stimuli that are difficult for humans to absorb. These configurations of stimuli can have
elements that are both understimulating and overstimulating. They are the foundation for vacuum and
tension-pocket living environments. These
environments are the major sources of sensory distortion for humans in today’s
world. They are environments that don’t
produce the organic stimuli that humans normally need to survive and thrive.
Yet
obviously humans have found some ways to somehow adjust to this sensory
distortion. Adjust but not totally
adapt. How does a mammalian human being
totally adapt to the tension –pocket noises and fumes of a modern factory or
the experiential vacuum created by all the different devices involved with
screen reality. The only way of totally
adapting would be to become a machine oneself.
A robot or an android or a cyborg.
Then one could more fully interact with the other machines and the
computers, and the Internet of Things and the 3-D printers and the augmented
and virtual realities and all the other available manifestations of modern
technology. It would be like immersed
with like.
But
humans are too mammalian to be able to fully absorb mechanical and digital
stimuli. They feel the presence of these
mechanical and digital stimuli without fully absorbing them. These mechanical and digital stimuli –
defined discrete stimuli – leave impersonal marks on people’s minds rather than
leaving organic imprints. As a result
they can create either non-enduring memories or overwhelming traumas but no
easily absorbable coherent memories that can be useful for creating personal
surrogate immortalities in preparation for death.
So it
is practically impossible for humans to fully adapt to the sensory distortion
created by the mechanical and digital stimuli that come from modern
technological living environments. The
key problem here is the lack of capacity to absorb and assimilate these
technologically-based stimuli. To absorb
something is to introject it but with an implication of doing it in a more
intimate tactile way. Yet, as has been
discussed before, touch is one of the senses the importance of which is
diminished in the configurations of stimuli created in modern technological
fields of experience. Which is why
absorption as a metaphor for touch is such a difficult process to carry out
today.
And
with a dearth of organic experience to be able to absorb, it becomes very
difficult to construct meaningful life narratives that carry a person from the
beginning to the end of his life.
Because a person is not simply where he is at a given point in time but
rather the whole flow of experiences he has absorbed from his birth to his
present day. And this includes both the
organic imprints of experiences he has received from others as well as the organic
imprints that he himself has created.
Without the flow of these organic imprints, a person becomes, to a great
extent, the sum of a series of disconnected isolated impersonal events. And so the person becomes a series of
chopped-up life situations to which he has adjusted, not fully adapted, on his
life path. But without an organic
temporal flow, there is no coherence in his sense of self. And a person without a coherent sense of self
is a person who is well on his way to becoming a robot. And to avoid this outcome, this is why it is
important for a person to be able to properly absorb the life situations to
which he is exposed. Which is why it is
important that a person be able to literally and metaphorically touch that with
which he comes into contact.
To
simply adjust to sensory distortion is not enough if one wants to be able to
lead a healthy functional life. Adjust
in this case means giving up so much of that which makes a person essentially
human. Granted that we all,
nevertheless, have to deal with modern technological environments to some
extent in order to survive today. It is
the world in which we live. But, at
least, in those moments of time we can call our own, we don’t have to
voluntarily always utilize modern technology for recreation. During Covid, we will use Zoom to communicate
with others. But we can also have
primary experiences with people with whom we choose to form a bubble. We can engage in hobbies and avocations. We can do exercise, take walks in parks. We don’t have to sit glued to a screen
reality. In other words, we can find
experiences that we can fully absorb as humans, rather than simply adjust
to. We can try to find those life situations
to which we can fully adapt to.
Now
it is important to realize that many of us have spent so much time adjusting to
modern technology that we have paradoxically lost our capacity to fully absorb
the organic stimuli that our mammalian natures were meant to absorb. The best metaphor I can think of for dealing
with this situation is to think of how scuba divers have to come to the surface
slowly so as not to create any major medical problems like the bends. People who have been very separated from
organic stimuli for a long time have to reintroduce it into their lives
gradually so as not to be overwhelmed by it.
It took a period of time for these people to become separated from their
mammalian natures; it will take time to reconnect with them.
But eventually, it is very important that we can find life situations where we can fully absorb what we encounter, if we want to stay psychologically healthy. Humans aren’t meant to be robots or cyborgs or androids or even avatars. And trying to adjust to life situations where they have to behave like technologically-based non-humans creates psychopathology that is detrimental not only to individuals, but within the larger picture of things, to groups, communities, nations and all of humanity as well.
(c) 2020 Laurence Mesirow
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