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Psychodynamics among the qanimal spiritsq of Hundred Acre Wood?


Enrolling Winnie-the-Pooh's Companions in Climate Change Discourse (Part #9)

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Functional mappings? In the seeming absence of functional mappings in the case of the set of Winnie-the-Pooh tales, what dynamics can be understood as highlighted in each -- rendering complementary the set as a whole. The first book has the following sections (as noted by Wikipedia), raising the question as to how environmental issues might be reframed in such terms:

  1. In Which We Are Introduced to Winnie the Pooh and Some Bees and the Stories Begin: Winnie-the-Pooh is out of honey, so he and Christopher Robin attempt to trick some bees out of theirs, with disastrous results.
  2. In Which Pooh Goes Visiting and Gets into a Tight Place: Pooh visits Rabbit, but eats so much while in Rabbit's house that he gets stuck in Rabbit's door on the way out.
  3. In Which Pooh and Piglet Go Hunting and Nearly Catch a Woozle: Pooh and Piglet track increasing numbers of footsteps round and round a spinney of trees.
  4. In Which Eeyore Loses a Tail and Pooh Finds One: Pooh sets out to find Eeyore's missing tail, and notices something interesting about Owl's bell-pull.
  5. In Which Piglet Meets a Heffalump: Piglet and Pooh try to trap a Heffalump, but wind up trapping the wrong sort of creature.
  6. In Which Eeyore has a Birthday and Gets Two Presents: Pooh feels bad that no one has gotten Eeyore anything for his birthday, so he and Piglet try their best to get him presents.
  7. In Which Kanga and Baby Roo Come to the Forest and Piglet has a Bath: Rabbit convinces Pooh and Piglet to try to kidnap newcomer Baby Roo to convince newcomer Kanga to leave the forest
  8. In Which Christopher Robin Leads an Expotition to the North Pole: Christopher Robin and all of the animals in the forest go on a quest to find the North Pole in the Hundred Acre Wood.
  9. In Which Piglet is Entirely Surrounded by Water: Piglet is trapped in his home by a flood, so he sends a message out in a bottle in hope of rescue.
  10. In Which Christopher Robin Gives Pooh a Party and We Say Goodbye: Christopher Robin gives Pooh a party for helping to rescue Piglet during the flood.

Sequels formally agreed include:

Many other books have been variously inspired by the original tale. Of further relevance to the fabulous approach to environmental challenges are the fables produced by a pioneer in the field of operations research, systems thinking and management science (Russell L Ackoff.The Art of Problem Solving: accompanied by Ackoff's Fables,1978; Ackoff's Fables: Irreverent Reflections on Business and Bureaucracy, 1991).

It is appropriate to note that ten animal fables have provided the core theme of a performance art ballet by the New York-based Armitage Gone! Dance Company (Fables on Global Warming, The Charles and Joan Gross Family Foundation, 2013; Bree Davies, Karole Armitage's Fables on Global Warming uses dance to talk about climate change, Westword, 2 October 2013).

From economics to environment: Animal spirits is the term used by John Maynard Keynes to describe the instincts, proclivities and emotions that ostensibly influence and guide human behavior (The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, 1936). There is a case for exploring the relevance of that term to discourse regarding the environment.

The term has been discussed further by Robert Shiller (Animal Spirits Depend on Trust, Wall Street Journal, 27 January 2009; George A. Akerlof and Robert J. Shiller, Animal Spirits: how human psychology drives the economy, and why it matters for global capitalism, 2009).

Engaging with "Animal Spirits" in the global environment?
Conventional linear image
adapted from the cover of Animal Spirits, 2009,
by George A. Akerlof and Robert J. Shiller)		 Cyclic image using the BaGua mirror
based on a Swastika dynamic
ordering the "animal spirits" otherwise?
Animation of engaging with "Animal Spirits" in the global economy? (Linear variant) Animation of engaging with "Animal Spirits" in the global economy? (Cyclic variant)
Reproduced from discussion of Swastika as Dynamic Pattern Underlying Psychosocial Power Processes (2012)

Addendum 2024

Notable initiatives have employed Winnie-the-Pooh in relation to the issue of climate change. Unfortunately these tend to focus on making environmental degradation meaningful to children appreciative of Pooh's understanding of the world -- effectively treating the peoples of the world as children. By contrast the argument above highlights the manner in which the personalities of Pooh's world are those which characterize climate change discourse -- and their constraints in focusing on the degrading condition of Hundred Acre Wood.

Winnie-the-Pooh: The Deforested Edition: re-illustrated for your contemplation (Who Gives a Crap, 2023) offering many illustrations about the impact on Hundred Acre Wood (back cover reads: To Wipe Our Bums, the Price We Pay, is a Million Trees Every Day):

Nik Darlington: Winnie the Pooh can Teach the Government A Thing or Two About Environmental Planning (HuffPost, 5 September 2011)

From Pooh’s first Assessment Report on Climate Change (Physics Forums, 5 October 2005)

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