Develop a Feeling for Humanity
Economic health is a reflection of societal health. The World Goetheanum Association (WGA) sees the associative approach as key. But working collaboratively first requires an ability to connect. What are the current trends and challenges for this approach? Friederike Mainz of the WGA spoke with Karin Michael, a specialist in pediatrics and adolescent medicine and co-director of the Medical Section at the Goetheanum.
Friederike Mainz: Can you apply the social threefolding of economy, rights, and culture/human development to the human physical body?
Karin Michael: The bodily pole that perceives and thinks is primarily the nerve-sense system. It must be allowed to remain uninfluenced and free. The metabolic-limb system represents the sphere that supplies everything and keeps it in motion—that is, the economy. Love, community, and the truly social aspect is what connects the two poles; this is the cardiovascular system—it supplies and connects everything. Justice must also prevail within it.
I’m speaking here from a medical perspective, which Rudolf Steiner described in his lecture of February 5, 1919 [GA 328] as a “mere game of analogies.” With regard to the social organism, he recommends—if we are to use an analogy at all—looking at it exactly the other way around: “The social organism must be considered entirely on its own terms if anything fruitful is to happen for its flourishing and its healing.” [ibid.]
You place the heart—that is, love—in the social sphere. The social sphere is also the sphere of rights. These are not necessarily equated with love. Is love a heightened form of relationships based on rights?
We tend to relate feelings to ourselves. This initial egoism starts us off with a focus on our own well-being. The next step becomes clear in the beautiful image of mother and child wherein this feeling of self-centeredness expands into the relationship between them. It becomes even more beautiful as we allow this circle to grow ever larger so that we eventually develop a feeling for all humanity, akin to what a mother feels for her child. Steiner described how our egoism can be transformed and developed by expanding it to include all humankind and, ideally, even the Earth—our home. This feeling of care then makes us one with everything that surrounds us. We begin with our own feelings. This way our feelings become authentic and truly permeate our consciousness. From there, we must develop the ability to rise ever further above ourselves.
What has been your experience with children and adolescents—your area of expertise?
For healthy development, a child needs this egoistic tendency, this claiming of everything for oneself. When you become a parent for the first time, the love that pours out over a child is simply wonderful. You truly give everything: sleep, nourishment—and the mother literally gives her own physical substance. You physiologically expand yourself to include another human being. This is an archetype of how one can grow into social competence through love. The family is the archetype of the social realm itself. What we receive there as a kind of imprint forms the foundation for all subsequent attachment and social behavior. The family is a nucleus for social competence. The significance of what this care entails becomes tangible in medical care. As doctors, we are faced with a unity: parents and child. Care is most effective when parents are involved in medical processes, even just with very simple things like an external application for earaches or a foot massage to help the child fall asleep. It always works better and more deeply when the parents are included.
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