Psychoanalytic reflections on global warming and its relation to human omnipotence and ethical responsibility

Abstract

Global warming – reality or fantasy? Certainly, global warming is a dystopia linked to other catastrophes in human history, such as the Flood and Noah's Ark. Noah's belief in God saved his life and the life of his family. In our time, we need to sustain our belief in the human capacity to cooperate and survive. This is a necessary background when thinking of the future and analysing the border between fantasy and reality, between fear and paranoia, and in the process in which a new worldview takes form.

Keywords:

• global warming
• background theories
• omnipotence
• subjectivity
• violence
• indifference
• commercialism
• ethical responsibility

Notes

¹This paper was presented in 2008 in Santiago de Chile at the XVth Forum of the International Federation of Psychoanalytical Societies. A German version of this paper has been accepted for publication in Forum der Psychoanalyse.

²As a group of people from different disciplines, we discussed global warming and presented our work in 2007 in Stockholm at a public meeting with the title “Freud's ark.” The group consisted of Astri Kleppe (physicist and author), Ingrid Elam (professor of literature), and Kenneth Hermele (economist)