IntraConnected: MWe (Me + We) as the Integration of Self, Identity, and Belonging: MWe (Me + We) as the Integration of Self, Identity, and Belonging

In this presentation, we’ll examine the notion of “connection” and its correlation with mental health. When we feel disconnected from our inner life, we suffer; when we are disconnected relationally—from people and nature—we can become anxious, depressed, despondent. What is this powerful “connection” actually made of, what is it, and how can we take the science of connection and inform how we live our lives and conduct our educational and clinical work? In many ways, the experience of a separate, “solo-self” may underlie the many challenges we face, from racism and social injustice to environmental destruction. The field of mental health can play a pivotal role in how we help our human family move toward a new way of living on Earth by addressing the modern cultural excessive focus on individuality in the separate sense of self. These questions and their personal, professional, and public implications will focus our discussion on the nature of both interconnection—the links between parts of a system—and intraconnection—the wholeness of the system. We are in a moment of challenge and transition that invites each of us to reflect on where humanity is going and how we might choose to support cultural evolution toward a more generative way of living together on Earth. By engaging in a conversation about seeing the self as more than just centered in the body—the solo-self—we come to see a more integrative identity and broader belonging as including both the inner Me and the inter We in the intraconnected self of MWe.