Due to advances in the medical sciences; health care ; etc we get older and older. But that rocks our very fundamental cultural/ social basics_ social costs, pensions and assistance upset the productive rhythm of our modern society and unprepared as we are to changes, we find ourselves caught up in the mids of a uneasy class- war. Not between rich and poor, but between an older generation which can 't_ and will not_ quit and a younger one which simply doesn't know where to start. In that respect the biological picture tells an alarming story.
But can 't psychology gives an answer !? Yes, it can as long as it enlarges its ground of expertise according to James Hillman. Instead of being concerned only with the problems of individuals, psychology should begin with the healing ( recovering !?) of ' sick ideas '. Ideas where with individuals see themselves as human and create an identity with. The problems where with individuals cope all during the days are not subjective, not inner ones but are created within the environement, the cities, the economy, the racism. They come from architecture, school systems, capitalism, exploitation. The problems one individual has are not just inside the man but are also due to the system, the society he lives in. So somewhere in this mess we should open the door for the theory of memetics and begin to explain that ideas have a life, are born and eventually die.
We should begin to explain that ideas have some of the properties of organisms_ tend thus to perpetuate their structure ( copying- fidelity), breed ( fecundity), fuse, evolve, recombine, live young and die old ( longevity). Ideas have spreading power and some of them make us _ indeed_ sick, they jump from one brain to another, competing for survival. So given the right conditions, ideas/ memes will cluster together to create fast systems/ machines/ vehicles and in some cases the effects of such a bounding force can be positive powerful or just totally destructive. So instead of asking the question why neurosis, phychosis and depressions emerge in the world of Healthy Plenty we should lift our ideas. Lets find out that all those conventional/ conservative ideas we have about beauty, youth, sexuality and bodily perfection are really there to hide from us the quality of our own inner personal life, one surely we pay no attention to !!
And that, just because, they teached us a long time ago that pretext, show, appearances and resemblances are far more important than the real stuff !! The result is that we will die as strangers to ourselves and to all others. Idea- therapy_ Hillman calls it_ we must cultivate, recover our ideas, not by running after them like they were true, but to point them out as better, thin them out , seperate them from the bullshit we see everyday on TV... We must prevent that some ideas simply die out or are prevented to come out of the closet; form an obstacle for change; were to be seen as a hindrance to ground / force/ base other ones. Instead of letting them wear out, wear away, sell them as they were retail, becoming petrified into conventions and platitudes we should love them, cherish them,...embrace them.