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Academic freedom, meditation and spring blue skies….

“Critical thinking is essential to make sense of our world, especially with advertisers and politicians all telling us loudly that they know best. We need to be able to look at the evidence and work out whether we agree with them.” Helen Czerski

This post today has come about as a result of my long time belief in the importance of freedom of expression, my own experiences, as well as, a short course I have participated in on academic freedom and other core values, which has probably brought these topics to the forefront of my awareness more recently.

Multiple forms of oppression and injustice occur in societies across the globe, and although these conditions are more intense and widespread in some countries and historical contexts they occur everywhere. They intimidate and traumatize and they inflict short and long term losses and other negative consequences for those bearing the oppression and injustice, but also for those bearing witness. Oppression, discrimination and other forms of injustice come in different forms and levels of severity and they occur in both the public and private sector, and we can potentially encounter them in every context we find ourselves in. And although as individuals we often may not be able to prevent incidents or change systems or always stand up to oppressive forces, the acquisition of information and knowledge related to rights and processes for the protection of these rights can help us navigate difficult waters, protect ourselves and others, decrease risks, deal with incidents once they have taken place, and contribute to change. Only recently I was listening to something on the many ways that digital abuse occurs nowadays and the speaker referred to its insidious and long terms effects and how people feel helpless, but also that there are resources and things in place and authorities that we can turn to. Beyond acquisition of knowledge our being mindfully present and grounded in reality increases our discernment and choice, safeguards us and can empower us to deal with breaches of rights when they do occur. Bertrand Russell said: “If we spent half an hour every day in silent immobility, I am convinced that we should conduct all our affairs, personal, national, and international, far more sanely than we do at present”.

Personally, meditation has been an important practice in increasing this capacity, and in broadening my knowing of a bigger picture of reality and helping me integrate the societal with the personal at a much deeper level. Having said this for people who have experienced significant trauma, mindfulness meditation can initially exacerbate symptoms of traumatic stress because as  David A. Treleaven, PhD, says when asked to pay focused, sustained attention to their internal experience, trauma survivors can find themselves overwhelmed by flashbacks or /and heightened emotional arousal. This happens because “The power of meditation thrusts survivors directly into the heart of wounds that often require more than mindful awareness to heal” (David Treleaven). And yet mindfulness is a valuable asset for trauma survivors because it enhances present-moment awareness, increases self-compassion, and strengthens one’s ability to self-regulate.  That is why a trauma-informed approach to mindfulness meditation is important for anyone who has undergone trauma or is in the process of treating wounds. Treleaven says that “Mindfulness doesn’t cause trauma—rather, it may uncover it—but the practice by which mindfulness is pursued can land trauma survivors in difficulty.” This points to the need for a trauma sensitive approach.  According to Treleaven “To be “trauma-sensitive” means having a basic understanding of trauma in the context of one’s work. With trauma-informed mindfulness, we apply this concept to mindfulness instruction. We can give people options about how they practice mindfulness, encouraging breaks and utilizing various anchors of attention. We can ensure we’re trained in recognizing trauma symptoms, responding to them skillfully, and taking preemptive steps to ensure that people aren’t re-traumatizing themselves under our guidance.”

I intend to write more about this topic in a future post once I finish reading Treleaven’s book: Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness: Practices for Safe and Transformative Healing. However, because for most people there are many beneficial reasons to meditate, I will briefly mention a few things in this post based on my own daily experience over the last seven or maybe more years, and also, ideas discussed in a recent episode of Rick and Forrest Hanson’s Wellbeing podcast series, where they discuss the different forms of meditation, the diverse reasons people meditate and common misconceptions about meditation.  So, I have personally found that meditative practices enable us to step out of the daily drama to one extent or another; learn more about our own mind; to observe habitual patterns and the deeper layers of our experiences, so that we gradually wake down to our core being, which is a deeper calmer place deep inside- an inner sanctuary; to observe the nature of our mental processes, including our thoughts and emotions; to regulate our emotional experiences: to integrate and cultivate compassion, gratitude, kindness, calm and a sense of spaciousness; to be compassionate without getting swept away by others’ pain; to develop wisdom, to shed experiences and stories and release grief; to become less reactive and more patient; to learn to abide in what is and to access a basic okayness in the moment even amidst difficulties; to increase our insight and power of concentration, which are interdependent

Now to come back to academic freedom, both private and public educational contexts, from kindergarten to university campuses, are not exempt from violations of all sorts, whether we are talking about bullying or threats to academic freedom.  Fortunately, for many people it is obvious that healthy education communities matter enormously since they shape us and determine so much from very early on, but in order for education contexts to be healthy they must be grounded in certain core values, which might include values such as academic freedom, equitable access, accountability and social responsibility. When these core values are undermined or are not in place then both the socio- political and cultural functions of higher education narrow. Since the course I mentioned above is about higher education communities it is suggested that where these values are respected, higher education communities not only contribute necessary skills and services to society, but also maximize the capacity of individuals to think critically and make informed and creative contributions to their own lives, as well as, to the lives of others. In her book, Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life, physicist and oceanographer Helen Czerski writes: “Critical thinking is essential to make sense of our world, especially with advertisers and politicians all telling us loudly that they know best. We need to be able to look at the evidence and work out whether we agree with them.”

Briefly, academic freedom is important because it protects people asking, writing, exploring or researching sensitive or “dangerous” questions, and it is one of five core interrelated values necessary for healthy and vibrant education communities, which include academic freedom, accountability, equitable access, institutional autonomy and social responsibility. Academic freedom could generally be viewed as the freedom of teaching and discussion, freedom in carrying out research and disseminating the results, freedom to express opinions about the academic institution/system and freedom from censorship. Briefly, the core value of accountability refers to transparent structures or mechanisms by which the state, higher education professionals, staff, students and the wider society may evaluate, with due respect for academic freedom and institutional autonomy, the quality and performance of higher education communities. The value of equitable access and participation in higher education either as a professional or a student should be based on merit and without discrimination on grounds of race, gender, ethnicity, religion, socio-economic or cultural distinctions, physical disabilities, and so on. Social responsibility refers to the duty to use the freedoms and opportunities in a manner consistent with the obligation to seek and impart truth, according to ethical and professional standards, and to respond to contemporary problems and needs of all members of society.

These broad core values categories are interrelated and two values may often overlap. Consider how academic freedom and institutional autonomy or equitable access may overlap and be interdependent. Also, overt or more subtle attacks on academic freedom can take place alongside violations of other human rights.  For instance, in more severe situations a professor might be arrested and then mistreated in custody because of a lecture she/ he delivered.  Threats to academic freedoms can be severe or covert and less obvious and they can come from interference from states or private actors, who can limit an individual’s exercise of rights or access. One example provided in the course was that of an education institution affiliated with a religious denomination, which conditions academic employment or access to education on adherence to a code of beliefs that limits expression or groups of people, even if such prohibitions limit academic freedom or other rights.

Threats to academic freedom and the right to freedom of speech can vary depending on the levels of democracy or lack of it in various countries and can unfortunately include extreme violence, disappearances and wrongful imprisonment or wrongful prosecution, or more common and less obvious forms like loss of position or expulsion from study, bullying, restrictions and other types of harassment. States may also limit research or publication on sensitive research topics like global warming, pollution, violence against women or children, human sexuality, and discrimination against ethnic or religious minorities, etc.. Threats and attacks on academic freedom do not only affect those directly targeted and their families, but can intimidate and have a ripple effect on a wider collective. This witnessing effect can limit the exercise of academic freedom by others.

As mentioned, threats to academic freedom can originate from States and civil society, but also, from within the higher education contexts, even when laws and structures are in place, and they illustrate the tension between inquiry and power. Academics and students may undermine academic freedom if they act aggressively, either overtly or covertly against academics or students, who they might view as raising sensitive questions with efforts to block the employment of academics, to boycott, silence or expel faculty staff and students from the university, based on various factors and not on academic merit. At times exercising academic freedom even in minor ways can still trigger negative consequences; therefore, it becomes obvious that being informed and having an increased awareness around the things discussed above is important when choosing an education context, but also while working within one. Being informed and grounded in reality increases one’s agency and capacity to be aware of questions like: Who decides where the line around academic freedom is, if any?; What topics or ideas might be considered sensitive within this particular context? What happens if one crosses the line? Understanding the types of pressures and threats one might experience when they ask or discuss certain questions is important. Reflecting on what one might expect in a particular setting can increase one’s agency and choice significantly and prevent losses that could have been avoided.

At a group level proactive implementation of core values decreases the risk of undermining academic freedom in practice, even when core value statements are typically in place. In this course one suggestion of implementing core values is by ritualizing dialogue on values questions as a regular part of campus life before values-related incidents arise. Ritualizing values means creating and repeating regular, visible, and meaningful opportunities for all stakeholders to discuss values questions, which allows the development of a common understanding and culture around values, as well as, constructive patterns of communication that can help to build acceptance and trust. Also, putting transparent processes in place before any incident arises is important.

Becoming familiar with the statement of core values of a (higher) education context in advance and researching an educational provider’s value system around equitable access, academic freedom, accountability and so forth can reveal the culture of the organization and prove a proactive step in decreasing threat and violation risks. Being aware of the bigger reality and taking into account one’s own group identity and past educational experiences, as well as, the compatibility of one’s world view with the culture of the educational context, especially, if it is private, can to some extent and in certain contexts provide protection. Ultimately, one has to choose whether to take the risks of speaking up and out or discussing sensitive questions. Being mindful and informed rather than taking certain liberties and rights for granted just because there are laws protecting them or naively assuming a priori that academic freedom and integrity are in place can protect us, increase our agency and lead to more empowering choices.

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Patriarchy and collective trauma  (Edited)

“Each man is a bridge, spanning in his lifetime all of the images and traditions about masculinity inherited from past generations and bestowing— or inflicting— his own retelling of the tale on those who ensue.” Terry Real

“Just as for many depressed women recovery is inextricably linked to shedding the traces of oppression and finding empowerment, for many depressed men, recovery is linked to opposing the force of disconnection, and reentering the world of relationship…. to themselves, & to others.” Terry Real

Some of the more important ideas that Terry Real discusses in the book: I Don’t Want to Talk About It: Overcoming the Secret Legacy of Male Depression, are around the trauma inherent in boys’ socialization, which he calls the loss of the relational and how this more or less collective wound in boys’ lives sets up their vulnerability to depression and issues like difficulties with intimacy, violence and addiction in adulthood. He suggests that these traumas can be grouped in three domains: diminished connection to aspects of the self, to others and to the mother. He claims that the idea that boys must rupture their connection to mother is one of the oldest and most deeply rooted myths of patriarchy. The attenuation of closeness to their mother is for many boys the earliest and prototypical loss. In the book through references to theory, literature, films and many study cases, he sheds light on the dynamics that take place inside the modern family in accordance with the prevailing myth that suggests that boys must be helped to gain distance from their mothers. The tragic irony is that fathers end up causing great harm in the very act of trying to live up to traditional patriarchal notions about what makes a good father and the ways to socialize boys.

Real refers to psychologist William Pollock who suspects that beneath the undeniable “father wound,” which is the emotional toll taken on boys by “absent fathers,” there may be an even earlier “mother wound.” Real says that according to Pollock “This is not the wound of the stereotypical mother who will not let go, but the wound of the mother who, in compliance to society’s fears and rules, lets go too early……..In such moments of passive trauma, these mothers have allowed themselves to be silenced by the conventions of patriarchy.”  He further adds that unfortunately diminished connection to the mother does not involve only the connection through nurture, but the mother’s diminished authority, which is as damaging as diminished nurture to boys. Real claims that the traditional idea that only men know how to raise sons undermines both the mother’s instinct to care and her capacity to guide and set limits. He writes that “As devastating as the taboo of mothers’ tenderness is for boys in our society, the under-cutting of mothers’ power is at least as destructive. When a boy rejects his mother’s authority because she is “only a woman,” when a mother shrinks from the full exercise of her parental rights and responsibilities both play out the values of patriarchy. The mother’s higher authority as a parent is counterbalanced by the son’s higher status as a male.”

Individuation and our misunderstandings around this important and necessary developmental experience for both girls and boys is also discussed in the book. Real claims that individuation does not have to be severance and separation through disconnection, but a process of maturation and healthy autonomy through healthy connectedness. Maturity and connection should not be set up as choices that exclude one another. He writes: “the true meaning of psychological “separation” is maturity, and we humans stand a better chance of maturing when we do not disconnect from one another. Such literal thinking misses the point that boys must work out “separation” with the people they are “separating” from. There is no way they can work it out on their own. And the current notion that mentors—“male mothers” as Bly calls them— must help the boy “leave” begs the question of why he must “leave” at all. Traditional visions of masculinity, even in the very language of “separation,” equate growing up with severance. But what maturity truly requires is the replacement of childish forms of closeness with more adult forms of closeness, not with dislocation.”

A great part of the book as the title suggests is dedicated to analyzing the link between disconnection from emotions and male depression and addiction in adulthood. He quotes research findings that indicate that in this society most males have difficulty both in expressing and identifying their feelings.  Real writes that the term for this impairment is alexithymia and that psychologist Ron Levant estimates that close to 80% of men in our society have a mild to severe form of it. However, emotional numbing and lack of feeling is part of the criteria for a diagnosis of overt depression. Also, alexithymia is connected to an array of addictive defenses used in covert depression. He refers to Bessel Van der Kolk’s research that points to an understanding of the physiological basis for some of the defenses used in covert depression that rely on behaviors rather than substances. Real writes: “A connection between masculine socialization, alexithymia, covert depression, and substance abuse seems obvious. [However] the intensification of muted feelings can be achieved not just by using drugs but also by using action, by throwing oneself into crisis situations. Risk taking, gambling, infatuation, and rage all trigger our bodies’ “fight or flight” response, releasing both endorphins, the body’s opioids, and adrenal secretions, the body’s natural stimulants.”

Real believes that the emotional numbing common in both overt and covert depression may be an extreme form of the way in which society truncates the capacity of many men and boys to feel their emotions because within patriarchal cultures traditional masculinity views the strong expression of emotion as unmanly and prohibits most expressions of vulnerability. However, unacknowledged vulnerabilities seldom stay buried; instead they tend to rise up to exact their own toll. For instance, studies indicate that from boyhood to manhood, traumatized males display a distinct proclivity toward “externalizing” distress by inflicting it. Furthermore, the shame and taboo attached to vulnerability is one of the reasons why so many depressed men neither talk about it nor seek help, which both blocks men from resolving depression and impedes their capacity to heal from the traumas that have contributed to their depression. Real cites research that shows that whether a person is struggling with the effects of combat, various forms of abuse or childhood injury, the best predictor of trauma resolution is good social support.  By internalizing the value of invulnerability and the devaluation of dependency, boys learn to fear intimacy and to reject connection in an ongoing manner. He concludes that since males become unwilling to acknowledge and face the vulnerability of their own hidden pains, and are unable to be intimate with their own emotions,  they cannot face intimacy with others either.

There is a lot of information in the book worth pondering on, but I will focus on his last chapter to end this post today. Real begins the last chapter with a question: Why would a depressed man choose the hard work of reassessing the very longings, skills, and responsibilities of mature relationship that were actively discouraged throughout his socialization?

He suggests that practicing full relational responsibility both transforms the dynamics of depression and shifts to a more mature stage of psychological development. He terms this shift as a move into fathering, which he writes “can, but need not, involve the biological begetting of children.…… Fathering occurs when the essential question a man lives by changes.” This practically means that there’s a shift in the questions asked from What will I get? to What can I offer? Real writes: “recovery demands a move into generativity” and as men heal and mature they can potentially enter into a fathering relationship to children,  partners, family, an art, a cause or to the planet, but as long as men fear subjugation they remain arrested in earlier developmental stages and they have limited repertoires of service. He points out that service is the appropriate central organizing force of mature manhood because after a certain point in a man’s life, if he is to remain truly vital, he needs to be devoted and actively engaged with something more than his own success and happiness.

Finally, Real reminds us that most human cultures throughout the globe have as a central tenet that it is a source of one’s own growth to care for the context one lives within. He writes: “It is becoming increasingly apparent that the old paradigm of worth through dominance, of valor, is atavistic. It no longer fits our complex, interdependent world….. Our interconnectedness to nature, and to one another, can no longer be denied. We live in a global economy. We share global resources. We face global threats. The paradigm of dominance must yield to an ethic of caretaking, or we simply will not survive……. The dynamic of dominance and submission, which has been at the heart of traditional masculinity, can play itself out inside the psyche of a man as depression, in his interpersonal relationships as irresponsibility and abuse,,,,,, or in humanity’s relationship to the earth itself. We have abused the environment we live in as if it were an all-giving and all-forgiving mother, an endless resource”.  Speaking of caring for the contexts we live in and our bigger home, the planet, in order to preserve it for future generations, I think Paul Salopek’s** quote sums it up beautifully: “11,000 miles into my trek, I can only pass on what I’ve seen: Tread lightly upon the Earth. Share what little you have with strangers. Scan the horizons for rain.”

**  Paul Salopek is a writer and National Geographic contributor, who eight years ago embarked on a trek across the world in the footsteps of our human forebears. When he wrote the article he had roughly walked 11,000 miles from Africa through the Middle East, Central Asia, and South Asia. You can read the whole article at: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/8-years-ago-began-walking-earth-stumbled-into-era-change

I’d also like to provide a link to Rick Hanson’s newsletter this week, which has to do with social anxiety, which I only very briefly mentioned in the previous post on anxiety: https://www.rickhanson.net/relax-needless-fear-around-others/, and share a few morning photos of Benjamin (Βενιαμίν), which in Greek means the youngest, our most recent male addition to the garden fauna.

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On Anxiety

This post is about anxiety and fear. The idea to write about fear and anxiety in today’s post came to me after listening to Rick Hanson’s weekly meditation and talk series (April 1st, 2021 at: https://www.rickhanson.net/meditation-talk-letting-go-of-fear-and-resting-in-peaceful-confidence/). He touches upon different and often compounding and intersecting reasons why we might be experiencing anxiety and suggests five different things we might do to move through it.

Fear is hard wired in us as a species in order to help us protect ourselves and others and to ultimately survive. Bruce Perry writes: “Babies are born with the core elements of the stress response already intact and centered in the lower, most primitive parts of their developing brains. When the infant’s brain gets signals from inside the body— or from her external senses— that something is not right, these register as distress. This distress can be “hunger” if she needs calories, “thirst” if she is dehydrated, or “anxiety” if she perceives external threat. When this distress is relieved, the infant feels pleasure. This is because our stress-response neurobiology is interconnected with the “pleasure/ reward” areas in the brain, and with other areas that represent pain, discomfort and anxiety. Experiences that decrease distress and enhance our survival tend to give us pleasure; experiences that increase our risk usually give us a sensation of distress” (cited in Bruce Perry and Maia Szalavitz, 2007). It is in some sense like an alarm bell, but as Rick Hanson mentions we can end up fearing of not being afraid, which can feel like living in an invisible cage even though the threats of the past might not be there today, but when we feel threatened and anxious we can sabotage our own well being. Moreover, when we feel threatened we can become threatening to others through our behaviours or acting out and through projecting our emotions on others.

When fear and anxiety are projected onto others they can become carried feelings. According to Terry Real* projective identification is a term that describes the phenomenon of carried feeling.  Because his book focuses primarily on male covert depression he mostly provides examples of the emotions of shame and anger  to explain the term carried feelings, but fear and anxiety can also be carried feelings. Real writes: “because male depression is so often a carried feeling, recovery frequently involves, or at least invokes, several generations of men…… through the mechanism of carried shame and carried feelings, the unresolved pain of previous generations operates in families like an emotional debt…..” He describes this process of projection of emotions on others in many vignettes. For instance, he writes that the partner of a covertly depressed man “may offer herself up as a scapegoat, expressing his projected vulnerabilities for him. This is a phenomenon called adult-to-adult carried feelings.”

Rick Hanson says anxiety could be viewed as either a trait or a state and over time states can culminate into traits. State anxiety is caused by circumstances, and so, decreasing the frequency of experiences of anxiety and replacing them with experiences of well being can lead to a positive impact on trait anxiety. Terry Real differentiates between states and feelings. He believes that in contrast to states, feelings are specific and anchored in the body of one’s experience. So, within this framework depression is a state, whereas, sadness and anger are feelings. Anxiety is a state, whereas, fear is a feeling. He writes: “The cure for states is feelings. As I discovered that day in the shower, unlike states, which tend to congeal, feelings will run their own course in due time.” In other words if we can let our feelings to be felt they will gradually dissipate.

Rick Hanson suggests five ways to move through anxiety and fear

Accept the emotion and focus on what is basically okay right now. Take in the bigger picture. Be open to the experience, connect to the feelings in the body and rest in a place of empowerment and basic okayness in the moment, separate the emotions from the thoughts, and nurture the self or the old part of the self that is bringing up the emotion. The fear could be about current stressors, but it could also be the implicit memory of past experiences that are being felt in the present. Rick Hanson provides an example from his own childhood, of being afraid of the dark, which is a common childhood experience. It reminded me of my own childhood fear of the dark and two children’s book by illustrators Ingrid and Dieter Schubert**, which rest on our bookshelves. One is about a little girl who is afraid of the dark because she thinks there’s a crocodile under her bed and the other is about a little boy who is afraid of goblins lurking in the dark. In both cases the adults help the children diffuse their fears through engaging with them artistically, painting them and making a crocodile out of egg cartons. To use a psychoanalytic term the children sublimate their fears and through art they diffuse the emotions and associated stories. When my son was young our book reading experiences often evolved into art projects. Ingrid and Dieter Schubert’s illustrations had inspired him to make a similar crocodile out of egg cartons and other scrap material and a big crayon drawing. Part of this drawing has survived intact with the exception of some colours fading and so I’m posting it here today.

Connect with the heart, which could include feeling gratitude and recognising support that is there, touching the heart area and connecting to self compassion, tapping into our loving feelings for ourselves, another or others and practising wishing others well, and finally, tapping into our courage and strengths.  Speaking of tapping we can also use Emotional Freedom Technique (tapping) to process emotions, thoughts or situations that overwhelm us. Connecting with our heart helps us come home to ourself and find a place to stand both within and without.

Take effective action, which could be making a plan or a decision, creating a list of small activities to engage with, re–appraising threats and reaching out for help. Taking action is important because feeling trapped in helpless anxiety exacerbates any situation. Being agentic is empowering and it mobilizes us. Meanwhile, it is wise to recognize the limits of our influence both in relation to personal and societal / systemic circumstances.

Surrender to whatever causes our anxiety whether that is frailty as we age or become sick, the ending of relationships, death of a loved one and losses of any kind and magnitude, fear of flying or the universal and often unarticulated or unconscious fear of dying. Also, surrender to the limits of what we can do or change. This is even more challenging because it creates a sense of helplessness and being out of control, but resting in a place of surrender can bring us in touch with our fears and resistance and in doing so help us release emotions. During the talk Rick Hanson mentions the Rorschach test, which is a tool that involves recording people’s perceptions of inkblots and then analyzing the data using interpretation, algorithms, or both. This reference brought up memories of a psychometric course where the professor had brought in a Rorschach type test for us to explore and maybe get an idea of how we could go about using a projective test. The images were not abstract inkblots and it might have been the Thematic Apperception Test or something of that sort. What was surprising was that several colleagues came up with themes to do with existential fears and fear of death, in particular, even though the pictures they were exploring were not all obviously linked to death or old age, which might mean that this type of anxiety often lurks undetected and we may not be aware of it. So getting in touch with it and accepting it can dissipate underlying anxiety.

Finally, some of us may also be temperamentally tilted towards anxiety. Anxiety can also be the result of lifestyle choices, physical ailments or imbalances in the body. Some people are less extroverted and might experience social anxiety. One way to approach this type of stress could be by being more of our authentic self during interactions with others and by holding others and ourself in an unconditional positive regard. Another idea discussed on the podcast is that sometimes we need to finally get in touch with our being fed up with people who want to make us worry constantly and people or forces that are invested in controlling and intimidating us intentionally.

*Terry Real: I Don’t Want to Talk About It: Overcoming the Secret Legacy of Male Depression (1999)

**Ingrid and Dieter Schubert are married and they work together to produce their lovely books. Their first title: There’s a Crocodile Under My Bed! was an immediate success. In 1987 they were awarded the Golden Paintbrush for Where’s My Monkey?