The world, in one way, has become smaller in the age of technologies that bring global events into every home and village. Viewed from the emotional perspective of each person, it might be argued that the world has become much bigger – each person is susceptible to being overwhelmed by the amount and breadth of stimuli of “global impingement”. “Virtual” relationships abound. Actual relationships can seem more difficult to some. In Australia we see a unique combination: one of the youngest nations of the modern world and the oldest continuous culture on the planet. This is the culture of Aboriginal Australians, the culture of “The Dreaming”.
This kind of “dreaming” is much more than night dreams; it is a worldview, reflecting a dynamic interaction with the environment in the present and with the ancestors of the past. Usually we see the challenge, in Australia, as helping Indigenous Australians adapt to the modern world. Another way of looking at the situation, however, may be to consider that Aboriginal Australian culture reflects a tradition of evolutionary adaptedness for humankind. A worldview that places emotional value on connectedness to the environment and to “our mob” may have much to offer in the new millennium. In this paper the way that the land and way of life that shaped ways of being for Aboriginal Australians is considered as having relevance for the emotional life of people in the modern era. Fundamental values of immediacy, intimacy and mobility are contrasted with the values that have arisen in modern developed societies along with the emotional consequences of these changes. Traditions of shared narrative and “songlines” are seen to be of therapeutic value. Ways of adapting these forms to the modern setting are considered.
Master of Medicine and (Psychotherapy); Master of Science in Medicine (Psychotherapy)
Psychotherapy Think Tank / Grand Rounds
Mental Health Sciences Centre,
Building 112, Cumberland Hospital. NSW, Australia
Recorded: 18 March 2010
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