13/03/2025
I’m writing my next book, and I’ve been spending hours studying indigenous cultures and how they looked at “mental illness.”
Before we had a modern psychology industrial complex, people looked at symptoms as imbalances. In mind, body, and soul. No one was sent away or institutionalized into isolation, like today. And if they ever were sent away, it was for brief periods with a shaman who would guide them through the integration of their trauma. Someone who would hold up a mirror and believe in their ability that we all have to self heal.
Imbalances in the brain and body begin with attachment. Even the way our brain develops comes from the first attachment we have to human beings. If that attachment is unsafe, full of stress, or is emotionally neglectful— we have an overactive amygdala (or fear center of the brain.) And, and an underdeveloped frontal lobe.
This means issues with executive dysfunction, impulse control, and relational connection.
This means more than anything we need: safe connection, emotional regulation, and co-regulation to heal.
Indigenous cultures knew this. They knew nature itself could heal. They knew community could heal. They knew food could heal. They knew people were resilient, and never victims.
Maybe we’re the primitive ones
