Human Givens...a breakthrough in therapy...
The Human Givens approach is a breakthrough in our
understanding of human beings. Pioneered
by psychologist Joe Griffin and psychotherapist Ivan Tyrrell, it's a whole new way of looking at
people, their problems, and the human mind.
Grounded in the needs we all have as human beings, and the tools we all have for
getting those needs met, Human Givens pulls together:
- cutting-edge brain research
- the latest psychological findings
- insights from evolutionary psychology
- traditional wisdom
- common sense
The Way We Are
Human
Givens is based on human beings as they are. Enormously skilled and adaptable animals, the ultimate flowering of
a multi-million year evolutionary history which has honed our minds to
their present peak of efficiency and creativity.
We’re
very, very complex, but for a very, very simple purpose. The brain may
have over 200 neurotransmitters and more interconnections
than there are particles in the universe. But the point of all this
complexity is just to keep us alive and functioning.
Functioning
properly, to our fullest potential, means fulfilling our human needs
... for control, achievement, attention, friendship. love, intimacy,
pleasure, challenge, privacy, security, contributing, being recognised and
needed, feeling part of a group, feeling part of something larger than
ourselves.
"Revolutionary"
Here’s what The Washington Times (9 October 2003) had to say about the radical new Human Givens approach to the mind:
"The
bad news is that much of what we thought we knew about mental and
emotional disorders is wrong. The good news is that Joe Griffin and
Ivan Tyrrell are offering revolutionary insights into human psychology...
"Real
breakthroughs in the behavioral sciences are rare, and it's smart to
beware of hype. But not all scientific progress is incremental.
Sometimes, as in the germ theory of disease, it's exponential.
Psychiatrist
Farouk Okhai, in his foreword to Griffin and Tyrrell's new synthesis,
"Human Givens," suggests that their contribution advances psychology as
much as the introduction of the Arabic numeric system with its zero
digit advanced mathematics. Over the top? This skeptic is convinced..."
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The Human Givens pioneers - what the press says:
From the Financial Times Magazine, 20 March 2004
"GURU OF THE WEEK: Big thoughts in brief"
By Jerome Burne
Like
the ancient priest kings, most gurus have to slay their predecessor and
Joe Griffin is no exception. He has in his sights the rather battered
Big Daddy of psychotherapy – Freud. Or, more specifically, Freud’s
hugely influential notion that dreams are the royal road to the
unconscious and only by deciphering their rapidly fading and elliptical
images can we hope to understand the hidden forces that drive our
conscious actions.
In his book, "Human Givens: a new approach to
emotional health and clear thinking", Griffin dismisses not only the
Freudian account of dreaming but also the far more prosaic ones
currently favoured by neuroscientists – that they are for consolidating
memories and/or solving problems. His big idea is that the function of
dreams, or rather rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, is to inscribe
genetic information about our basic psychological patterns – the
‘givens’ - into the neural circuits in our brains.
Griffin’s
key insight followed a big row with his wife about his obsessive dream
recording. Thinking that such emotionally arousing events triggered
dreams, he expected one about the row. But it never came, provoking his
eureka moment – it is unresolved events that trigger dreams. They had
kissed and made up, so no dream. Rather than providing a glimpse into a
maelstrom of repressed drives, dreaming is a way of discharging
emotions so that the dreamer can deal with the challenges of tomorrow.
Dreaming is not a glimpse into the cesspit but a way of flushing the
toilet.
Weekly excavation of your painful
past in an attempt to understand your present depression has never
seemed so foolish. There is a new king in the sacred grove."
Copyright © 2004 FT Magazine
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Human Givens 
