A definition of the 'Psycho-Political'
Clearing books, magazines and journals (to make space for a few new acquisitions) on a trip to Hay-on-Wye, I bought a secondhand copy of:
Weizsacker, Carl Friedrich von. (1980). The Unity of Nature.
I noticed chapters on the definition of health and illness, and information.
Models of Health and Illness, Good and Evil, Truth and Falseness
Chapter Jun 2014
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03671-7
In book: Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker: Major Texts in Philosophy (pp.74-89)
AbstractUnfortunately, I cannot find a copy of the lecture. In my softback copy the title is "Lack of Peace as Psychic Illness".
This essay is the core of our reflections on cybernetics. It is the only essay in this Part that tries to describe concretely what cybernetics can achieve. Written in the fall of 1967 but unpublished until now, it was inspired by a lecture on “Peacelessness as Mental Illness” delivered in Bethel in 1967 (published in Der ungesicherte Friede; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1969). On that occasion the question arose whether it is medically justifiable, or merely metaphoric, to call the inability to maintain peace an illness. As far as I can see, contemporary medicine lacks a sufficiently clear concept of illness to decide this question. Since I had no desire to merely skirt the issue, I was faced with the task of outlining a scientifically justifiable definition of illness. The result is presented in Sect. 6.2 of this essay; its social application is very briefly sketched in Sect. 6.4.
(My emphasis)
We don't tend to think of mental illness in the collective, but history provides many examples within and extended across communities - 'mass psychogenic illness'. More recently there is a literature on the mental health, competency of global leaders, also known as 'hubris syndrome' previously. Even the history of Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker is controversial, his World War II record and knowledge of nuclear physics.
We have a veritable storm across all the domains of Hodges' model (including the spiritual) that point to the model's ongoing relevance, consider:
- climate crisis;
- pollution (air, water ...)
- geopolitics;
- disruption of the international rules-based order;
- the status and reputation of global organisations (were they ever 'international'?);
- the record of current global political leadership;
- the need to protect Political titles (not just Professional titles, Dr, Nurse, ...)?;
- the rise of artificial intelligence.
Link:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/300477492_Models_of_Health_and_Illness_Good_and_Evil_Truth_and_Falseness?
orcid.org/0000-0002-0192-8965
