This Jungian Life Podcast Jung and the End of the World: Can Depth Psychology Save Us?
May 7, 2026
A conversation about humanity’s self-inflicted threats like climate collapse, nuclear risk, and widening inequality. They probe AI as a new existential danger and recent alignment failures. Jungian and psychoanalytic frames appear, exploring shadow, drives, and how inner work relates to collective action. Practical paths discussed include grassroots organizing, dialogue across divides, and confronting denial.
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Longterm View Links Aggression To Global Risks
- Jon Mills traces his book project over 25 years from studying human aggression to linking climate change, nuclear risk, AI, and economic forces as interconnected existential threats.
- He aimed to find a common thread across literature and concluded awareness helps but found no simple global solution, arriving at a more pessimistic integration.
Denial Is A Mechanism Driving Self-Destruction
- Mills defines the central problem as humanity creating conditions for its own demise through denial, dissociation, and minimizing scientific evidence like climate change.
- He cites political dismantling of protections and cavalier public attitudes as mechanisms that ensure consequences will 'come back to bite us.'
AI Raises A Control Problem If It Gains Autonomy
- Mills treats AI as a potential autonomous agent posing a control problem if it attains agency or self-consciousness, recommending shutdown if autonomy appears.
- He questions whether machines could develop inner subjectivity, emotions, or desires and stresses caution on control and alignment.
