We’ve got the future in our hands: Are we up to it? There is mounting evidence that the demands of everyday life in these complex and uncertain times is presenting humanity with both a threat to survival and also an opportunity for evolutionary transformation. Is humanity being pushed beyond our limits to cope or are we instead on the cusp of a breakthrough in consciousness on a global scale? Is the rising tide of mental anguish - anxiety, depression, suicide, addiction and violence - a sign that we are being overtaken by our powerful times? Or is the newly enlivened participatory impulse that swept a young African American man into the White House an indication that we are growing up and developing expanded psychological capacities, new forms of thinking and social innovation. In this lecture psychologist Maureen O'Hara will take a fresh look at the challenges of the globalising 21st century. She will suggest that if we understand what is happening from an evolutionary perspective, we may be able to learn our way into a more humane future.

Ours is an age of complexity, uncertainty and rapid change. Our response to these conditions has also made ours an age of anxiety, the effects of which are to be found everywhere - deteriorating mental health, increasing crime, a global environment under strain, the persistence and deepening of unequal patterns of distribution in income, wealth and well-being. In this lecture Maureen O'Hara presented a fresh look at these challenges and suggested that, if we can come to understand them in a different light, they offer the hope of transformation.