Charles M. Johnston MD

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About Charles M. Johnston MD

Charles M. Johnston, MD is a psychiatrist, author, and futurist. His work challenges us to better understand and address the questions on which our human future most depends. Think of him as a “cultural psychiatrist.”

For twenty-five years, Dr. Johnston served as director of the Institute for Creative Development, a Seattle-based think tank and center for advanced leadership training. He is best know as the originator of Creative Systems Theory, a comprehensive framework for understanding purpose and change in human systems with particular pertinence to making sense of the times we live in. He speaks widely and has written ten books and numerous articles on the future and what will be required to effectively meet it.

Dr. Johnston’s writings address how the tasks ahead are requiring not just new ideas, but fundamentally new skills and capacities, in the end a kind of “growing up” as a species. Dr. Johnston proposes that while his new chapter in our human story makes significant demands, what it asks of us is ultimately straightforward, indeed common sense. What is different is that this is a maturity of common sense that we are only now beginning to grasp. In wearing his cultural psychiatrist’s hat, Dr. Johnston sees himself as an advocate for the future’s needed “new common sense.”

Other Resources by Charles Johnston

Author website: www.charlesjohnstonmd.com

Cultural Maturity Blog: www.culturalmaturityblog.net

Looking to the Future Podcast: www.LookingtotheFuture.net

Articles on Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/cultural-psychiatry/feed

The Institute for Creative Development: www.creativesystems.org

David Peter Stroh

David Graeber

Emily Nagoski

Amelia Nagoski DMA

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Titles By Charles M. Johnston MD

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Creative Systems Theory: A Comprehensive Theory of Purpose, Change, and Interrelationship in Human Systems (The Evolution of Creative Systems Theory and the Concept of Cultural Maturity) Apr 15, 2021

by Charles Johnston

( 17 )

$4.95

This book is the place to go for a deep dive into the forward-thinking, multi-faceted ideas of Creative Systems Theory. From the book’s back cover:

“Creative Systems Theory brings big-picture, long-term perspective to understanding who we are and why we think and act in the ways that we do. It is pertinent equally to appreciating the past, teasing apart current cultural challenges, and making sense of what a vital human future will require of us. This is the definitive work on Creative Systems Theory and its implications.

“At a practical level, Creative Systems Theory provides powerful tools for making effective choices in both our personal and our collective lives. More conceptually, it makes a major contribution to the history of ideas. It clarifies how, while modern age institutions, values, and ways of thinking have served us well, they cannot be sufficient for the tasks ahead. And it offers a comprehensive approach to understanding that reflects the more mature and encompassing kind of thinking that will become more and more essential in times ahead.

“This volume brings together fifty years of committed inquiry and practical application. It is part guidebook, part memoir, part compilation, and part an effort to extend Creative Systems Theory’s thinking just as far into the future as is possible.”

Other Formats: Kindle , Paperback

Perspective and Guidance for a Time of Deep Discord: Why We See Such Extreme Social and Political Polarization—and What We Can Do About It (The Evolution ... and the Concept of Cultural Maturity) Apr 29, 2021

by Charles Johnston

( 14 )

$2.95

Perspective and Guidance for a Time of Deep Discord confronts the very real dangers that come with today’s extreme social and political polarization. And it examines what will be needed to effectively address what we see. From the book’s back cover:

“Social and political polarization has become so extreme that conversation about the simplest of issues is today often close to impossible. And polarized thinking—from both the Right and the Left—is not just putting civil conversation in jeopardy, it is getting in the way of addressing essential questions that our future well-being will depend on.

“In Perspective and Guidance for a Time of Deep Discord, one of our times most innovative social thinkers argues that what we see is a product not just of what we think but how we think. He describes what the greater maturity of understanding needed to get beyond warring ideological purities requires of us. And he looks closely at what such understanding looks like when applied to critical concerns where divisiveness too often prevails: war and peace, climate change, health care, immigration, abortion, bigotry, the relationship of science and faith, and conflicting views on the nature of progress.”

Other Formats: Kindle , Paperback

Rethinking How We Think: Integrative Meta-Perspective and the Cognitive "Growing Up" On Which Our Future Depends Apr 14, 2020

by Charles M. Johnston

( 9 )

$2.99

Rethinking How We Think addresses the new ways of thinking and acting that legitimate hope for the future necessarily depends on.

From the books back cover:

"Look closely at any of the most critical questions ahead for the species and we find an easily unsettling shared theme. Not only do usual answers fail us, usual ways of thinking fail us. Essential challenges of every sort are requiring not just fresh insights, but whole new, more mature and systemic, ways of understanding.

In this short book, one of today's most respected and innovative social thinkers confronts what makes needed new ways of understanding new and why they are inescapably important. He also addresses ways they can be practiced and how, when we are ready for them, they can feel like common sense. Rethinking How We Think explores the conceptual underpinnings of the future's needed 'new common sense."
This latest book by psychiatrist and futurist Charles M. Johnston brings a cognitive science lens to today's critical tasks. It is written for people wanting to make sense of the times we live in and what will be required if we are to have a healthy and vital human future. Based on the thinking of Creative Systems Theory (CST) and the Creative Systems concept of Cultural Maturity, it draws on over forty years of work by Dr. Johnston and colleagues at the Institute for Creative Development.

Some provocative questions that the book addresses:

--Why today do we see such extreme social and political polarization (and what will it take to get beyond it)?

--What are the future challenges that are most likely to be our undoing as a species (and what will be required to avoid this fate)?

--Why today do we find denial in relationship to so many challenges that are obviously critical--climate change and the extinction of species, for example (and what will it take for us to see more clearly and think more responsibly)?

--What makes the new ways of understanding needed to address such challenges possible (given that they might seem like too much to hope for)?

Some of the book's essential observations:

--Effectively addressing the most important questions before us will require new human skills and capacities, in the end, an essential "growing up" as a species.

--This new chapter in our human development, what CST calls Cultural Maturity, depends not just on thinking new things, but on thinking in new ways, on a fundamental new kind of cognitive organization.

--Our historical tendency to think in "either/or", "chosen people/evil other" terms is a direct product of how we have thought in times past. That new kind cognitive organization, what the theory calls Integrative Meta-perspective, offers the possibility of thinking in more encompassing, more dynamic and systemic ways.

--We can understand today's extreme social and political polarization as a regressive response to today's immense challenges and Cultural Maturity's cognitive "growing up" as the necessary solution.

--While our times present immense challenges, in the end what is being asked of us is straightforward. You can think of it as a new "common sense." What is different is that this is a maturity of common sense that we are only now beginning to grasp and becoming able to apply.

Other Formats: Paperback

Hope and the Future: Confronting Today's Crisis of Purpose (Second Edition With Updates and a New Preface) (The Evolution of Creative Systems Theory and the Concept of Cultural Maturity) Dec 9, 2018

by Charles Johnston

( 16 )

$0.99

Hope and the Future is a guidebook for the times we live in by one of today's most respected and original social thinkers. This second edition includes a new preface and additional examples that more specifically address unsettling events of the last four years.From the book’s back cover: “Hope and the Future addresses what legitimate hope for the future necessarily depends on. It describes how we face a growing number of challenges that require that we think, act, and relate in new ways—often fundamentally new ways. And it explores how effectively addressing those challenges will require not just fresh ideas, but a critical “growing up” as a species. “This essential book also looks at ways needed changes are already happening, and how when we are ready for them, they can seem surprisingly straightforward, indeed, like common sense. Hope and the Future is an exploration of the “new common sense” on which our future depends.” Of all Dr Johnston’s books, Hope and Future is written most specifically for a general audience. It is the place to start if you are not familiar with his work.

Other Formats: Paperback

On the Evolution of Intimacy: A Brief Exploration of the Past, Present, And Future of Gender and Love Jul 30, 2019

by Charles M. Johnston

( 15 )

$2.99

An essential book by one of today's most innovative social thinkers:

From the book's back cover—
"In no aspect of life today do we confront more rapid and easily confusing change than in the worlds of gender and intimacy. Men and women equally are left without clear guideposts for their choices. In this short book, one of our time's most innovative social scientists and futurists offers big-picture perspective for making sense of why we see what we do and what lies ahead. He describes an essential new chapter in identity and love, one that takes us beyond the battle of the sexes and brings new depth and maturity to both how we understand ourselves and our capacity for closeness with another."

In On the Evolution of Intimacy, psychiatrist and futurist Charles Johnston addresses how our times are making possible a critical "growing up" in how we think about intimacy and gender. With intimacy, the changes he describes are as significant as those which brought us Romeo and Juliet–style romantic love. With gender, they take us beyond both the polarizing assumptions of traditional gender roles and the simplistic conclusions of a postmodern unisex ideal. On both fronts, the greater maturity he describes offers that we might understand with a new kind of completeness and sophistication.

The book's last paragraph summarizes where On the Evolution of Intimacy takes us: "The rewards for even just making a start with this needed new chapter in how we understand are immense. We discover the possibility of deeper and more solid identities as men and as women. We also discover the paradoxical fact that engaging identity and love in needed new ways, while more demanding than what we have known, is also in important ways simpler. We can think of it as part of a needed "new common sense."

From the author—
"This book had its origins in rich conversations sparked by the #MeToo movement and the like. In my role as a psychiatrist and futurist, I respond to potentially polarizing front-page-news issues by attempting to write about them from a more systemic vantage. When I tried to address current gender- and sexuality-related concerns in this way, I quickly realized that more than a short article would be necessary. I saw that these were questions that would require big-picture, historical perspective. This book was the result.

In the book's last chapter, I observe that efforts like the current #MeToo movement could result in two quite opposite outcomes. We could see important new levels of communication and steps toward a reconciling history's battle of the sexes. And just as easily the result could be escalating polarization and acrimony not unlike we see today in the political arena. I wrote On The Evolution of Intimacy to support the kind of maturity of perspective needed for the former to be the case."

—On the Evolution of Intimacy has it roots in the thinking of Creative Systems Theory, a comprehensive framework for addressing purpose, change, and interrelationship in human systems developed by Charles Johnston and colleagues at the Institute for Creative Development over the last forty years.

Other Formats: Audible Audiobook , Paperback

Quick and Dirty Answers to the Biggest of Questions: Creative Systems Theory Explains What It Is All About (Really) Apr 19, 2013

by Charles M. Johnston MD

( 4 )

$2.99

Quick and Dirty Answers to the Biggest of Questions addresses how the new kind of understanding we need today, besides helping us confront modern-day challenges, also brings a new creativity of perspective to more ultimate questions. It describes how many such ultimate questions have baffled us not because they are inherently difficult, but becase they require a maturity of understanding of which we are only now becoming capable. This short book uses the thinking of Creative Systems Theory to take on some of the most important and timely of such questions. Some examples:

—How do we best understand the times in which we live?
—How do we best understand the human story as a whole?
—Why, at different times in history, has human understanding taken the forms that it has?
—How do we best understand the experience of free will?
—Are the beliefs of science and religion just different or, instead, parts of a larger picture?
—What is our place in the larger scheme of things?

These questions share a common bond: they are systemic, and systemic in a particular sense we are only beginning to fully grasp. Quick and Dirty Answers describes how the needed answers to these questions are in fact straightforward, indeed rather common sense. What is new and different is that this is a sort of common sense that we are only beginning to be able to get our minds around. Quick and Dirty Answers to the Biggest of Questions is intended for people who find particular fascination with overarching, "theory of everything" reflection.

Other Formats: Paperback

The Creative Imperative: Human Growth and Planetary Evolution -- Revised Edition (The Evolution of Creative Systems Theory and the Concept of Cultural Maturity) May 13, 2020

by Charles Johnston

( 3 )

$4.69

The Creative Imperative confronts the most critical question of our time: how we must think to have a vital future. It first introduced the thinking of Creative Systems Theory over thirty years ago and remains one of the most important resources for understanding the theory and its contribution. It is also a valued reference for people interested in a deep understanding of creative process.

Creative Systems Theory is a comprehensive framework for understanding purpose, change, and interrelationship in human systems. It helps us better understand the past, tease apart current cultural dilemmas, and make sense of what a vital human future will require of us. The theory offers a overarching approach to understanding that reflects the more mature and encompassing kind of thinking that will become more and more essential in times ahead.

The Creative Imperative is significant not just for the insights it brings from Creative Systems Theory’s beginnings, but also for the particular attention it brings to many of the theory’s foundational concepts. In addition, it richly documents ideas with photographs of art and architecture through history. Much in Creative Systems Theory has not been expressed more richly or fully since.

Praise for The Creative Imperative:
“This book impresses me very much.”
Ilya Prigogine, Noble Chemist, author From Being to Becoming

Other Formats: Paperback

Cultural Maturity: A Guidebook for the Future (With an Introduction to the Ideas of Creative Systems Theory) (The Evolution of Creative Systems Theory and the Concept of Cultural Maturity) Dec 9, 2018

by Charles Johnston

( 5 )

$4.99

Cultural Maturity: A Guidebook for the Futureis the most detailed of three new future-related works by the author. It looks deeply at how the most important challenges ahead for the species will require not just better ideas, but new human capacities; in the end, an essential “growing up” as a species—a new Cultural Maturity. It is written for those inter- ested in acquiring the newly sophisticated leadership abilities that we will more and more need in all parts of our lives in times ahead.

The concept of Cultural Maturity makes understandable how institutional structures and beliefs that in modern times have served us well can’t be the ideals and end points that we have assumed them to be. It goes on to articulate a new guiding story for our time, one able to take us equally beyond denial, cynicism, and naïve wishful thinking. This book looks deeply at the changes the concept of Cultural Maturity describes—both how they make needed new capacities possible, and how we see their beginnings in many parts of our personal and collective lives.

The concept of Cultural Maturity is based on the ideas of Creative Systems Theory, a comprehensive framework for understanding change, purpose, and interrelationship in human systems. Creative Systems Theory describes how Cultural Maturity’s changes are as, or more, significant than those that brought us modern democratic governance 250 years ago. It also argues that if the concept of Cultural Maturity is not basically correct, it is hard to imagine a healthy and vital human future.

In addition to introducing the concept of Cultural Maturity, Cultural Maturity: A Guidebook for the Future presents important related ideas from Creative Systems Theory. Creative Systems Theory represents an example of culturally mature conception and offers a rich array of conceptual tools able to guide us in making the future’s increasingly complex choices.

Other Formats: Paperback

The Creative Imperative: Human Growth and Planetary Evolution -- Revised Edition Jan 31, 2019

by Charles M. Johnston

$3.99

The Creative Imperative first introduced the ideas of Creative Systems Theory and is still the place to go to find the most detailed presentations of many of the theory's concepts. (Creative Systems Theory is a comprehensive framework for understanding purpose, change, and interrelationship in human systems that makes major contributions both by bringing perspective to the history of ideas and by providing essential insights for understanding the times we live in and what they ask of us.) The Creative Imperative brings particular nuance to the theory's claim that we see parallel dynamics in the way human systems of all sorts grow and change -- individuals, relationships, organizations, and cultural systems. Because it draws so deeply on intelligence's multiplicity—not just the rational, but also the imagination, the emotional, and the intelligence of the body—for many people, it remains the definitive resource. The Creative Imperative provides a provocative starting point for anyone interested in bringing really big-picture perspective to understanding the richness and dynamism of the human endeavor.

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