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- Title
'Peak Oil'.
- Authors
Haus, Manuel; Biermann, Christoph
- Abstract
Scientific prognoses augur the advent of 'Peak Oil', or maximum possible global oil production, in our time. After this maximum, production rates will begin to drop due to increasing capillary pressure in rock deposits, and new discoveries will be unable to compensate for the additive drop in production rates. At the same time, a global increase in energy consumption is also predicted. It is to be expected that the discrepancy between production and demand (heat, mobility, oil-based chemicals) will lead to political destabilisation not only between the 'industrial' and 'developing' nations, but also in democratic systems. Like the biblical 'mene tekel', 'Peak Oil' may be interpreted psychoanalytically as another ecological omen which should arouse civilization to ward off coming disaster. Up to now, psychoanalysts have dealt only sparingly with this perspective. The wake-up call of scientists and publicists in the media has prompted little reaction among consumers and decision-makers. Instead, utopian and/or apocalyptic visions of the future are the order of the day. In correspondence with the Airbus motto: 'We must use the air to preserve the earth', a project of the Max Planck Society is working on 'flying automobiles'. In view of these phenomena, our paper presents for discussion the hypothesis of a collective manic denial with splitting of the ego. We try here to limit psychoanalytic speculations with a clinical vignette. It may be asked to what extent the psychoanalytic method - in matters of ecological reality - runs the risk today of entering into collusion with the above-mentioned collective denial, instead of working through it lege artis on the basis of the reality principle.
- Subjects
HUBBERT peak theory; PETROLEUM production; PETROLEUM industry; PRODUCTION (Economic theory); PETROLEUM export &; import trade; PETROLEUM conservation
- Publication
Forum der Psychoanalyse: Zeitschrift für Psychodynamische Theorie und Praxis, 2013, Vol 29, Issue 1, p43
- ISSN
0178-7667
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s00451-012-0126-8