Psychology and Spirit Workgroup

In more secure moments, the vast majority of human beings want to live in a world rooted in an ethos of love, care, compassion, and justice. Most of us want our fellow global citizens to be fed and sheltered, yet we live in and perpetuate a world in which vast numbers still go to bed hungry and mass murder of innocent life is still commonplace. Why?

What prevents the better angles of our nature from having more influence on the shape of our collective life? How do our individual and collective histories continue to shape, as well as to haunt, our public consciousness? The answer to these questions requires an examination that probes beneath the surface of rational analysis.

The Tikkun Institute is assembling a group of social scientists who will explore psychological dynamics associated with issues of public import as well as ongoing inter-group conflicts. This group will work to understand the fears, humiliations, and wounds that lie beneath destructive public behavior in an effort to envision more effective and healing collective responses. Our group will also examine how leaders often use and manipulate public fear and how to expose this manipulation when it occurs. Ultimately, our Psychology and Spirit group will work to promote a wiser, more compassionate, and more insightful public policy.