Social Captivity

sedentary living in temporary homes circa 1975, USA

It was the renowned psychoanalyst R.D. Laing who famously pronounced the condition of man to be one of captivity.  For him, the concept of captivity was bound up in notion of being-for-others.  In this sense, people were bound in relationships and where these were too rigid or where disturbed patterns of communication or where perceptions of others were skewed, the human image got distorted or lost.

For me, captivity as a concept applied to humans also reveals a historical problem.  Most of us on this planet live sedentary lives, which means we reside in one place or location. This means that we are forced to adapt to the situation in which we find ourselves, even if it is one we are less than happy with.  How many times do people say or think to themselves, 'If he wasn't my boss I would tell him to shove his job'?  Or, how often do people bite their tongues with their neighbours or colleagues?  They have to do this because they know that they must face those same people day in, day out for the long term.

In human history, when we lived nomadic lives, the stresses and strains of our environment were no less problematic but with one significant difference.  When groups felt oppressed or misgoverned by others they were free to go their own way, to separate off and walk a new course.  Sometimes this splitting off from the group was a reflection of group size and the need to remain in smaller bands so that living off the land did not become too pressurised by higher population density. 

Over time, as humans spread around the planet, the option for finding new pastures became less as population density increased and space to roam was no more.  As humans became more sedentary, class systems emerged whereby a new social order emerged to distribute the wealth from the land and society's labours.  The people at the top were fewer in number but proportionally attracted a greater share of wealth as they came to co-ordinate the work and lives of those under them.

This is the point at which politics emerges and having to live under a regime or order constructed by someone else.  This is my notion of captivity: being part of a social system not necessarily being operated with your interests in mind, and yet not being able to leave or move away.  Studies have shown that people living in societies where the gap between rich and poor is greatest suffer from greater stress and mortality rates are higher.  Is it any wonder that England with its rigid class structure produced waves of immigrants ready to settle new worlds and escape the oppressive social order at home?  The irony, of course, is that they re-established those orders elsewhere but raised their own relative positions within them by gaining access to greater resources than possible at home.

The problem of being stuck in a single situation that is causing stress and which one cannot simply walk away from is how to find ways of coping.  One way is to have an extended family so that aunts, uncles, grand-parents and cousins can all assist you if you have problems.  Alternatively, you may have a great network of trusty friends.  But many people do not and in this captive void may turn to self-directed behaviours to achieve a sense of comfort, relief and release.  Where these actions produce unwanted consequences, such as hair pulling, people may recognise the obvious symptoms and aim to treate these.  But the underlying socially related aspects must be acknowledged too.