The World Transformation Movement offers a Compelling Answer
On Capitol Hill and in statehouses across the country, debates rage over crime, poverty, education and mental health. Lawmakers often assume that people who harm others are simply “bad actors” – or that human nature itself is fundamentally flawed. But what if that assumption is wrong? What if much of our destructive behavior is actually the product of an ancient psychological conflict, not an immutable fault?
That’s the claim of Jeremy Griffith, an Australian biologist whose groundbreaking theory of the ‘human condition’ underpins the mission of the World Transformation Movement and has been lauded by esteemed scientists around the world, including a past president of the Canadian Psychiatric Association.
In short, Griffith argues that humans aren’t born broken or inherently violent – we’re caught in a long developmental struggle between instinct and intellect. And if we understand that struggle, he says, we can finally heal rather than have to appease, transcend or punish.
The Origins of the Human Condition
Griffith – who grew up in the Australian countryside and was educated at Geelong Grammar, one of the nation’s most prestigious schools (attended for a time by King Charles III) – traces humanity’s struggles back about two million years, when our ancestors first became self-aware. Until then, he explains, behavior was largely instinctive, shaped by evolutionary programming. With the emergence of consciousness came curiosity, experimentation, and learning – but also guilt and defensiveness, as those instincts resisted these new, unpredictable, and therefore unwelcome behaviors.
The core problem, Griffith suggests, lies in the instincts themselves: they guide and orient but do not provide understanding. Unable to grasp the conscious mind’s drive to explore, the instincts effectively condemned its efforts.
To illustrate this clash, Griffith offers the image of a migratory bird suddenly gaining self-awareness. For generations it has followed the same path, but now, conscious of choice, it decides to wander – perhaps veering toward an island it notices along the way. The instincts immediately push back, rebuking the deviation. The conscious mind, feeling unfairly accused, grows defensive. In trying to prove the instincts wrong, it blocks out or denies their “criticism”, becoming angry, egocentric, and alienated.
For Griffith, this metaphor mirrors the human experience. The search for knowledge brought freedom of thought, but it also unleashed the profound psychological conflict that, he argues, defines the human situation.
Why Griffith’s Theory Could Upend How We Govern Ourselves
Seen through Griffith’s lens, many policies – from zero-tolerance schooling to tough-on-crime sentencing – are addressing the symptoms, not the cause. If our seemingly ‘darker’ impulses are part of a universal defense mechanism rather than hard-wired and irreversible, punishment may very well just reinforce feelings of insecurity, anger and alienation instead of reducing them, perpetuating the cycle.
Imagine criminal justice armed with understanding to repair rather than deter, or social services aimed at easing shame and alienation rather than tackling them as character flaws. Importantly, Griffith says this understanding of why we became upset does not condone or sanction our destructive behavior, rather, through bringing understanding to it, it gives us the power to ameliorate and thus subside and ultimately eliminate it.
Even public-health strategies could shift, framing addiction or violence as signs of an unresolved universal psychological conflict rather than individual failure.
From Psychiatry to Biology, the Applause Grows
Griffith’s ideas have earned praise from high-profile figures across mental health and the biological sciences, amongst other fields.
Professor Harry Prosen, a former president of the Canadian Psychiatric Association, calls Griffith’s central work, FREEDOM: The End Of The Human Condition, “the book that saves the world.”
Professor Scott D. Churchill, a former chair of the psychology department at the University of Dallas, says Griffith brings “razor-sharp clarifications” to scholarship on human development.
And Dr. Stuart A. Hurlbert, Professor Emeritus of Biology at San Diego State University, has dubbed Griffith “Darwin II.”
The Bold Vision Driving the World Transformation Movement
The non-profit World Transformation Movement promotes Griffith’s work globally, offering its online resources free of charge and inspiring the establishment of more than 80 volunteer-run centers worldwide.
Its core message is an optimistic one: humans are not destined to live in an interminable cycle of shame and conflict. As the Movement puts it, “Griffith explains that since our condition is a psychosis and psychoses can be healed with understanding, human nature is not unchangeable or immutable. What has been needed is the psychosis-addressing-and-solving, real biological explanation of the human condition, because that will heal humans, rehabilitate and transform our lives.”
A New Narrative for Troubled Times
At a moment of rising political polarisation, mental-health crises and ecological stress, the appeal of a unifying and rehabilitating explanation for human behavior is obvious. Even if Griffith’s insights never achieve scientific consensus, they challenge a deeply rooted assumption – that our darker impulses are permanent.
For policymakers, that challenge may be the point. Reframing human behavior as the product of a long developmental transition invites a different kind of politics: one that focuses on healing and understanding rather than shame and blame. And for citizens, it offers hope that government policies can evolve alongside our understanding of ourselves.
Whether or not the World Transformation Movement succeeds, its theory hints at a future in which our institutions – from classrooms to courtrooms – are built not on mistrust and punishment but on evidence and empathy.
