Journal 16.1 - Understanding and Managing the Impact of Climate Changes on Anxiety (Harrison)

Volume 16.1: Understanding and Managing the Impact of Climate Changes on Anxiety - Victoria Harrison, MA (PDF)

This paper is an expanded version of a presentation for “Creating a Climate for Change,” the Bowen Center 2020 Spring Conference and part of a book underway titled The Dance of Life in Nature and the Family. It examines the functions of anxiety, defined in Bowen theory as “emotional reactiveness to a real or imagined threat,” in adaptation to climate over the human phylogenetic lineage as a backdrop for understanding the impact of climate changes in human evolution. Relationship patterns synchronize survival and reproduction with the environment and regulate the biology and behavior of individuals. Climate changes disrupt those relationships and stir threat reactions within the social group and family. The capacity of individuals to function and think somewhat independently in the face of anxiety is an additional resource in adaptation for the human. Responsibility for the impact of climate change is based in part on understanding anxiety as the capacity to recognize and adapt to real threats. This paper will include ways to take advantage of anxiety for thoughtful adaptation and conclude with directions for further study.