Solutionism and Negative Capability

Negative capability is a practice that inhibits the dispersal of anxiety through rushing to action. This type of holding and refusal to act prematurely has been a significant learning in the evolution of the TTD workshop. At the start of offering the workshop, we (the leaders) were concerned with providing participants with tools to take back into their work. Given psychotherapists’ own anxieties about managing their clients ecological distress, we wanted to offer practices they could work with. What we learnt was that, although suitable skills for down-regulating and soothing have value, the deeper challenge is to acknowledge what we don’t know about managing ecological distress. In fact, the value of sharing failures in the consulting room generated more creative dialogue than any apparent solutions.

In a culture where performativity, goal setting and production are heavily emphasised, the capacity to be receptive and stay with the trouble by tolerating frustration and anxiety is a vital practice. Within the workshop, making the space to digest and incubate, rather than moving on with the agenda is counter-cultural. This capacity to be with anxiety, to stay in the place of uncertainty, is what permits the emergence of fresh unthought thoughts. It is the practice of keeping open relational flow and resisting the mind’s desire to bring premature closure.