Reproduced from Detroit Metro Times
(To read the article on the Detroit Metro Times website, either click on the above image or go to www.metrotimes.com/contributor-news-2/jeremy-griffith-has-a-biologist-finally-solved-the-human-condition/.)
Detroit Metro Time’s 26 November 2025 article ‘Jeremy Griffith: Has biologist Jeremy Griffith finally solved the ‘human condition’?’:
From academics to online communities, Jeremy Griffith’s theory of the human condition is sparking discussion about what drives human behavior.
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The Challenge of Explaining the Human Condition
When Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson described the human condition as ‘the most important frontier of the natural sciences’, he was pointing to what many consider the real barrier to human progress: our failure to explain why a species so intelligent has remained trapped in cycles of anger, conflict and self-doubt. If that impasse has been broken, it would mark a profound turning point. Australian biologist Jeremy Griffith believes he has done just that—and his claim is attracting growing attention from scientists and laypeople alike.
Griffith’s Claim and the Growing Support Behind It
At the core of Jeremy Griffith’s theory is a reframing of familiar struggles. Feelings of anxiety, anger, or insecurity, he argues, may not be signs of personal weakness but part of a larger conflict embedded in the human journey to find knowledge.
Among those who have praised Griffith’s writings is Professor Harry Prosen, a former President of the Canadian Psychiatric Association. He said: ‘The depths they enable us to reach in understanding ourselves and our world is bottomless. The great impasse to a full understanding of our existence has finally been breached.’
The attention is not confined to academia. Supporters from outside scientific circles say Griffith’s ideas have offered them a different perspective on their own experiences and on broader questions about human behavior.
Jeremy Griffith’s Theory: A Clash Between Instinct and Intellect
Jeremy Griffith argues that our anger, egocentricity, and alienation stem from an internal conflict that began when our distant ancestors became fully conscious around two million years ago. Prior to that, behavior was guided by instincts—fixed strategies shaped by natural selection – but as our brain developed the ability to understand cause and effect, we began managing life through conscious reasoning. However, in trying to make sense of the world through experimentation and choice, we unwittingly set ourselves on a collision course with our hardwired instincts.
This clash arose because our instincts—which are not insightful but simply orienting—were unable to comprehend the need for such experimentation and so effectively condemned these deviations, leaving our conscious minds feeling unfairly criticized.
Griffith’s Analogy of the Migrating Bird and the Human Condition
To illustrate this clash, Griffith asks his readers to imagine a migrating bird that suddenly becomes fully conscious:
‘The bird is following the instinctive flight path its species had acquired over thousands of generations of natural selection, but it now has a conscious mind that needs to understand how to behave, and the only way it can acquire that understanding is by experimenting in understanding – for example, thinking, ‘I’ll fly down and explore that island.’ But such a deviation from the migratory flight path would naturally result in the instincts resisting the deviation, leaving the intellect no choice but to defensively retaliate against the instincts, try to prove the instincts’ unjust criticism wrong, and try to deny or block from its mind the instincts’ unjust criticism.’
Since it was humans who developed this instinct-defying, knowledge-finding conscious mind, it was humans who became sufferers of this psychologically upset angry, egocentric and alienated human condition.
Jeremy Griffith: Scientific Self-Understanding
What’s unique about Griffith’s explanation is that it doesn’t ask us to manage or transcend our behavior—it explains it. This is a scientific account that provides the biological good reason for our defensive angry, egocentric and alienated behavior. And having that reason, he argues, changes everything.
While humans lacked the real explanation for why we defied our instincts, we needed the artificial defenses of anger, egocentricity and alienation. But with that real defense now in hand – that genes can orient a species, but nerves need to understand—those artificial defenses are no longer needed. They are, as Griffith puts it, ‘obsoleted and can end’.
With understanding, the need to be angry, egocentric and alienated simply falls away—not through willpower, but because the inner battle is finally resolved.
Reception and Impact: Academic Responses
In addition to Professor Harry Prosen’s remarks earlier, Griffith’s work, set out in his book FREEDOM: The End of the Human Condition, has received commendations from a number of other academics.
Professor Stuart Hurlbert, a long-time Professor of Biology at San Diego State University, described himself as ‘stunned and honored to have lived to see the coming of ‘Darwin II’.’
Professor David Chivers, primatologist and former President of the Primate Society of Great Britain, called the sequence of discussion in FREEDOM ‘logical and sensible, providing the necessary breakthrough in the critical issue of needing to understand ourselves.’
Professor Scott Churchill, past Chair of Psychology at the University of Dallas, has written that ‘FREEDOM is the book all humans need to read for our collective wellbeing.’
Other prominent figures have also expressed interest in related projects. Psychologist Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and author of the famous ‘Flow’ concept, said the work ‘might bring about a paradigm shift in the self-image of humanity’, while acclaimed author Ian Frazier remarked that ‘the questions you raise stagger me into silence; most admirable’, underscoring just how disarming and far-reaching he found the insights to be.
Reports also suggest that the late Professor Stephen Hawking was intrigued by Griffith’s proposal.
Growing Global Following
Beyond academia, Griffith’s ideas form the basis of the World Transformation Movement (WTM), a not-for-profit network promoting his work. According to the organization, more than 80 Centers have been established worldwide, alongside an online community of over 80,000 Facebook members who share personal accounts of how the theory has shaped their outlook.
While these claims are difficult to independently verify, it is clear that Griffith’s message about understanding the human condition has resonated with individuals in diverse countries, including the United States, where WTM Centers are active. Supporters often describe feelings of greater self-awareness or relief after encountering his explanation.
Why It Matters: Jeremy Griffith’s Legacy
In an era marked by social conflict and personal unease, the search for clarity about human behavior remains pressing. Griffith’s theory offers one attempt to resolve that puzzle, positioning the ‘human condition’ not as a flaw in individuals, but as a long-running clash within our species.
Whether or not it achieves mainstream acceptance, the attention it has received – from academics, media figures, and ordinary people alike—suggests that the appetite for explanations of human behavior is as strong as ever.
