The Ministry for the Future: Climate Change and the Human Psyche

“You can’t change human nature.” We psychiatrists know that thanks to the complexity of human nature, we don’t have to change it. We just have to strengthen human nature’s better aspects.

Kim Stanley Robinson’s magnificent book The Ministry for the Future begins starkly in the very near future with a catastrophic heat wave in India, leaving 20 million dead. The novel highlights the UN’s Ministry for the Future, which is dedicated to the health of future generations.

In a story that spans several decades, we are exposed to the struggles that we all must inevitably face. The process presents myriad economic, sociopolitical, environmental, and geoengineering solutions, all of which are feasible and which humanity ultimately adopts. It is ultimately an optimistic novel that unflinchingly presents unimaginable suffering and trauma, with enormous mental health implications.

The novel depicts the potential human responses to crisis and trauma: severe responses to extreme disasters; despair and disengagement in response to overwhelmingly complex challenges; and robust and resilient recovery of stability as communities and societies develop effective solutions to these crises.

The horrific opening event has the immediate response of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) associated with trauma and survivor guilt and profound rage with a desire for revenge. Robinson has his main character describe PTSD—“Mary, empathizing with others and tapping her chest, says, ‘Eight billion people, all stuffed in here. No wonder it feels so crowded. All smashed into one big mass. The everything feeling.’ ”

Robinson also has Mary experiencing Stockholm syndrome. Frank, another main character, initially kidnaps and terrorizes Mary, but eventually they become friends and mutual caretakers. He galvanizes her to act on key issues, vital for her success as director of the Ministry.

Robinson explores rage and the need for revenge as a common reaction to devastation and trauma. He notes how rage can provide energy to take corrective action to repair and restore homeostasis. Thus, India’s government acts unilaterally to cool the Earth by altering the atmosphere. This action, opposed by many other nations, is an example of what family systems pioneer Murray Bowen called “self-differentiation.” In sick family systems (whether families of individuals or our collective “family” of nations), one member of the family goes through “self-differentiation” and refuses to maintain assigned roles in the family script. When the individual makes and sustains such disruptive change, other family members eventually find the courage to change. In Robinson’s compelling tale, India maintains its stance against international opposition until other countries follow suit.

Robinson also explores deeper rage in the emergence of extremist groups that channel their rage into catalyzing constructive, transformative activities, such as repeated sabotage of persistently inefficient and harmful energy and transportation systems, ultimately leading to positive global changes in those industries.

As we are confronted with the immediacy and overwhelming challenges of the climate crisis, we risk falling into despair, demoralization, and dissociation. This derives not only from facing loss and trauma from lived experiences, but also the anticipation of such experiences, so-called pretraumatic stress disorder. Such despair appears throughout the book, especially in the conditions and experiences of the inhabitants of the many refugee camps for people from uninhabitable areas of the world. When political and other influential leaders deny or disavow the reality of climate change, usually to further their own ends, they increase the sense of hopelessness in many people.

The callousness of the powerful, a pathological narcissism, is described by Robinson: “The Götterdämmerung Syndrome, as with most violent pathologies, is more often seen in men than women. It is often interpreted as an example of narcissistic rage. Those who feel it are usually privileged and entitled, and they become extremely angry when their privileges and sense of entitlement are taken away. If their choice gets reduced to admitting they are in error or destroying the world, … the obvious choice for them is to destroy the world; for they cannot admit they have ever erred.”

The pathological narcissism of white supremacy exploded in its fury at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. This was not a new phenomenon. Heather McGhee, in her book The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs All of Us, describes self-defeating public policies targeted at Black people but led to hurting Whites as well.

Ultimately, structural racism, income inequality, and other social determinants of health are key barriers preventing meaningful action on climate change. Environmental justice factors are potent and ubiquitous, contributing greatly to the despair and disengagement of many members of our communities and nations.

It is encouraging that Robinson’s book goes on to describe in compelling detail the robust resurgence of social and mental health functioning and hope as positive solutions to the crisis are developed and implemented. These solutions emerge over time and range from the geoengineering efforts to stabilize melting glaciers, to the stabilizing economic tactic of the creation of the “carbon coin” as a way to reinforce decarbonization on a global scale, to developing humane solutions of mass migration issues.

These events occur in the context of what appears to be a cross-cultural acceptance of the Inuit philosophy of “facing up to Nartsuk,” which is laughing at whatever the world throws at you, and a conscious decision to “change everything.” In the book, as racial, social, and economic justice increase, allowing most people to feel part of their community, a sense of togetherness emerges that allows for feelings of empowerment and community action and a growing belief in the positivity of small and large steps to deal with meaninglessness, pessimism, and cynicism. The success of such collective efforts not only lifts the spirits of all involved, it also raises optimistic expectations for future efforts of this kind. Robinson deems it achieving a state of grace, the effect of being truly present.

Now is the time for us to care for and rescue future generations. My Jewish heritage instilled in me the concept of “Tikkun Olam,” or the obligation to repair the world. Robinson and now the Biden administration provide the blueprint. It is up to all of us, especially psychiatrists, to use our skills and knowledge about the human psyche to help people move from fear and inaction to hope, positive incremental decisions, corrective actions, and a sense of community that leads us all into a healthy, livable future. ■