This chapter focuses on the tension between domination systems and partnership systems as two ends of a continuum along which human societies can be organized, regardless of whether they are Eastern or Western, Northern or Southern, religious or secular, rightist or leftist, and so on. It describes the core components of each system, how these interact, and how growing up in societies that orient to one or the other differently affects neurological development and hence our perceptions, cognitions, emotions, and behaviors—which in turn affect human health, happiness, well-being, and the types of societies we create. The chapter provides examples of how domination systems produce high levels of stress—from the artificial creation of economic scarcity to stressful early family experiences—and how this plays out in the neurochemistry of the brain, tending to keep people at a less advanced level of overall human development that interferes with the full flourishing of those very qualities that make people happiest: security, empathy, consciousness, creativity, and love. On the other hand, partnership environments—as illustrated by descriptions of conditions in Nordic nations—enhance the expression of human capacities for health, happiness, well-being, consciousness, and creativity.
