The Reptilian Tale of the Holist and the Hummer

The Reptilian tale of the Holist and

The French psychologist involved in the design of the Hummer said he was aiming at something that appeals to the ‘lizard’ part of the human brain. The Hummer turned out to be a fortress on wheels: ‘The world’s most serious SUV’ – Sport Utility Vehicle. The 1999 Hummer H1 looks very like its military predecessor. It is a monster with kerb weight 8114 lbs and 6.6L engine. (Mitsubishi Shogun 4399 lbs and 3.2L). More dinosaur than lizard! General Motors quickly saw their dinosaur was a winner and the 2002 H2 model (a mere 6400lbs and 6L) almost caused riots in California as buyers fought for their place on the waiting list.

What is this about? General motors’ website tells us what they think the Hummer is about: strong, street smart, sexy, bold, uncompromising (www.hummer.com). One of their TV commercials entitled Monsters features a dinosaur and a robot (both gigantic) trashing a city – until the moment they meet one another, fall in love under a moonlit sky and the dinosaur becomes pregnant and gives birth to the Hummer H3 (only 4700 lbs and 3.7L). (actually, dinosaurs, like lizards, were egg-layers – film maker’s artistic licence!) These reptilian images resonate with the most primitive parts of our brain and we feel our kinship with these creatures at the deepest level – it’s where we go when we feel threatened. The lizard darts for his rock crevice and we hide in our Hummer – when someone gets too close.

In her talk ‘How bodies speak to one another’ at the December BHMA conference, psychotherapist Roz Carroll described human behaviour according to evolutionary sets: primordial (shared by all animals including humans and reptiles) and social (mammals only). Taking the primordial set of animal instincts: seeking, fear and rage, together with the most primitive of the social set: lust, we come close to the Hummer marketing material. Californian sociologist, Jeremy Schultz, found that Hummer owners (consciously at least) were most attracted to the Hummer’s safety. Is California more than usually primordial and reptilian and scary?

What does this have to do with holism? A lot. Psychotherapist and Buddhist, John Welwood, writes that by hiding our vulnerability we become impervious to the deep satisfaction and healing potential of sharing our common vulnerability with others. Whether we shut ourselves away inside a Hummer, behind a computer interface, a scientific theory, a job title, a chain of office, a large desk or a disease management protocol, the effects are similar: a restless and anxious loneliness.

Watching flawed celebs on TV or characters in a play allows us to feel some of our own vulnerability by identifying with them. In his conference dramatherapy workshop, Roger Grainger showed how we can gain insight in relative safety by being a character in a story, but even this vicarious vulnerability doesn’t fill the void. Neither does buying things – especially a Hummer (which creates a void in our wallets!). A shut-away society is (in Ivan Illich’s words) an ‘anaesthetized society’. This was the point Rosy Daniel was making in the conference when she gave us feathers to stroke our neighbours: less can become more. If it doesn’t, we need ever more stimulation to wake us up. Inside our blindly powerful Hummer, most of life passes us by.

If the BHMA wants to spread holism, it must help us to show our vulnerability: to feel safe enough to live with the uncertainty of this baffling world without reaching for simplistic solutions; to admit we don’t understand; to show our feelings at times, maybe to cry with our patients. Or to laugh at the absurdity of it all. Emerald Jayne Turner said in her conference talk: ‘Humour is the key to the Underground’ – a good laugh can crack the hardest lizard skin!

By permission of the Journal of Holistic Healthcare; published February 2007