08/21/2026
"The map is not the territory." Coined by philosopher Alfred Korzybski in 1931, it's an elegant insight that is even more critical to acknowledge nearly 100 years later.
What does it mean? Simply that our mental 'maps' of the world are not the world itself. And as we increasingly rely on digital technologies to form those maps, our conception of reality becomes all the more abstract and removed from the complexity of the "blooming, buzzing confusion" of nature–to borrow a phrase from the psychologist William James.
Where the mental maps become even more simplistic and distorted is when we engage in "self-diagnosis." As Tanya Byron and other psycho-therapists are attesting (Coincidentally there is a very similar perspective in a current New York Times piece–albeit more about young women), people are being influenced by social media to self-diagnose themselves as being traumatized, having autism, being anxious, depressed--you name it.
Everyone seems to be searching for a diagnostic label to justify...well, that life can be tough sometimes.
While Tanya Byron seems to be 'triggered' by the overuse of the word 'trigger,' (!) my pet peeve is trauma. It seems that everyone who is offering any kind of workshop about self-improvement has to organize it around the 'T word.' And in a self-fulfilling prophecy, the more attention we give to the subject, the more it becomes reified–to the point that nearly everyone begins to feel (or at least think they feel) traumatized all of the time.
As Byron points out in this interview, it's not that there aren't real mental health issues to deal with in modern life. Indeed, as we are less connected to our bodies, our emotions, other people, or the natural world–in general, more isolated–we are showing signs of less resilience. This has impact on people of all ages, but it seems to be most devastating for younger generations brought up on devices.
At Sacred Fire one of the reasons we promote sitting around the fire is precisely to get beyond the mental maps (and the digital 'ghosts' of the mental maps) to the felt experience of being with other people. We bear witness to each other as we share our joys and sorrows. As we let go of (or at least soften) our ideas of ourselves and others, we begin to experience our common humanity. It’s simple practice and yet quite profound. And it has a good track record–at least about 800,000 years!
When suffering, we should always seek help. But sometimes the help is as simple as gathering with others, and bearing witness as we share what matters. That’s ‘thinking out of the box.’ Or more aptly, getting beyond the mental boxes that are often the very source of our suffering.
See:
The clinical psychologist has had enough of people adopting mental health labels to describe normal feelings such as grief, disappointment and sadness
