A Species In Denial—Introduction
The benefit of an indirect approach
It was explained that an initial foothold of appreciation of the existence of the human condition and a trust that the human condition can now be overcome is required in order to consider description and analysis of the human condition. Once that foothold was gained, patience and perseverance was then needed to further overcome the deaf effect and more fully access the information being presented about the human condition. What we have also learnt from experience is that it helps the reader if the analysis of the human condition is not presented too directly.
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Print Edition Our experience at the WTM has taught us that the direct, concise explanation of the human condition that is presented in Free and Beyond is, to use the comment included earlier, ‘so head on as to cripple some people.’ Considering denial of the issue of the human condition occurred because humans were not able to understand why they have not been able to be ideally behaved, it was reasonable to assume that what was needed to assist people to break their denial was to give them the explanation of the human condition. What has been learnt since the first two books were published is that people first had to be reconnected with the issue of the human condition and then given a less ‘head on’ presentation of the subject matter. After being reconnected with the subject the reader needed to be able to become gradually familiar with the whole subject of the human condition before delving into the specific explanation of it.
Direct explanation of the human condition is too overwhelming a step for most people, they are defeated by the deaf effect. We have learnt that the best way to gradually introduce people to the topic is by choosing interesting aspects of the human condition—such as religion or mythology or politics or the relationship between men and women or the stages of psychological maturation that humans go through—and explain these aspects in terms of what we are now able to understand about the human condition.
This book, A Species In Denial, is designed to provide this indirect, gradual approach to the subject of the human condition. Four highly relevant and, in most cases, extremely topical subjects have been selected for explanation. The subjects and their explanation are presented in essays.