Why institutions get sick

Year by year the rates of mental illness in the United Kingdom are rising. [1] In parallel with this, people are increasingly disillusioned with the institutions that run our society: the organisations responsible for mental or physical health, education, policing, the legal system, governance, foreign policy, the armed forces, the utilities, farming and fishing. Trust in these institutions has fallen away dramatically.[2] When politicians obtain and maintain power by encouraging raised emotions in the people around them, and promote 'feelings' and 'belief' above thought, tyrannical government is not far behind, and some people sense this. Furthermore, large numbers of people are unsettled by what they see as corruption in politics, financial institutions, industry and business, the hypocrisy within traditional religious institutions of all faiths and a corrosively cynical media, the output from some sections of which often seems devoid of moral sensitivities and appears to be fuelling a perverse breakdown in civil behaviour between strangers (manners).[3] At any one moment the inhumane way all of the above institutions often work is causing massive distress to individuals, families, or sometimes even whole regions.

The Human Givens Charter is a vision of how this situation could be changed for the better in just a couple of generations by practical people inspired by a larger organising idea than those currently in fashion.[4] An organising idea is one large enough to explain confusion caused by a variety of existing, often conflicting, disparate ideas or practices, and thus able actively to shape perception and thinking. The organising idea of the human givens arose out of a lengthy research programme into psychology and behaviour that was primarily devoted to improving the mental health care system.[5] The findings were that suffering always follows if innate needs are ignored. When basic physical needs are not met, poverty, disease and early death is the result. Of course, physical needs are paramount. The human story, for the majority, has always been one of continual struggle to eat and survive the elements, but people also wither if their emotional needs are not met. When people don't feel secure, have no autonomy, no status, do not have attention needs met in an appropriate way, are not stretched and lack intimate or social connections with others, they commonly become stressed, angry, anxious or depressed. This can easily spill out into violence against themselves or others.

Almost all the institutions and services that come in for criticism from the people they are meant to serve are operated by individuals who want to do their work well and take pride in it. Unfortunately, too many too often feel frustrated by the lack of freedom and responsibility they are given to do a good job. Research shows that similar levels of disillusion about the institutions of power are found in all countries around the world.

It is clear that the problems we are facing are primarily psychological and behavioural in origin, coupled with a lack of knowledge. Ideology, belief and passion are no substitute for knowledge of what needs to be done in any given situation. That is why this project, which derives from the first holistic school of psychology in modern times, was set up. Each year thousands of professionals attend seminars and workshops throughout the UK to study the implications of this work for relieving psychological distress and improving the way we educate children and perform social work.[6] A common reaction to the human givens approach that they express is that it ought to be more widely known about in all fields and that it should influence politics and management at the highest levels, not just the people working at the proverbial 'coal face' of the caring professions. New insights, however, take time to overcome entrenched habits of thought and behaviour — and time is short. So it is with some urgency that The Human Givens Charter has been produced.

The following pages explain our understanding of how the current situation has come about, the psychological basis of it, and our suggestions for initiating a systematic process for improving our lot.

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