Today we all live in a stream of heterogeneous and emotional information. In order not to be confused by what we hear, see and read, we can (and should) learn to perceive it critically. How? The psychotherapist Inna Khamitova tells.
The current state of people, who are being bombarded with diverse information, reminds me of the plot of Ray Bradbury’s story “Asleep in Armageddon.” Astronauts land on the planet, and at the moment when they fall into a dream, they are possessed by the souls of all those who once inhabited it. Everything would be fine if these aliens lived in friendship and trust, but no, they belonged to warring tribes – and a struggle begins in the heads of the sleeping ones, it breaks consciousness and makes the astronauts go crazy.
Something similar is happening to many of us today. When people receive different signals that contradict each other, this is stress, a situation of extreme instability. Of course, almost everyone has their own ways of dealing with this. Basically, they relate to the activation of psychological defenses.
Gregory Bateson (1) in Steps to an Ecology of Mind describes a situation where a child receives conflicting, mutually exclusive messages from elders that cannot be followed. At the same time, the child cannot leave the family, cannot survive without parents, and then he withdraws into himself, closes – this is how a predisposition to schizophrenia arises.
The same thing is happening to many of us now: people cannot leave the place of events and receive different information: TV says one thing, the Internet says another, and if you go abroad, you see the third. And we either, like children, withdraw into ourselves, or we choose one side and completely join it and agree with it, and ignore everything that may contradict this. But the sides are different, and other people can join the other side, and there is a picture that the world has split. The split runs through families, colleagues, friends. But the point here is not that one is right and the other is wrong, one side is good and the other is bad. This is the work of psychological defenses, our way of coping with the instability and inconsistency of our daily situation.
Read more:
- Why do we not trust our own opinion?
In addition to withdrawing into oneself, a complete exit from the situation (for example, emigration), or identification with one of the parties, there is another way out. To do this, you need to change the scale, rise to another level, try to see the chess game as a whole, and not from the point of view of white or black. Perhaps try to comprehend the global geopolitical processes. This is difficult and requires not only knowledge, but also the ability to see your states and work with them.
Strong feelings prevent us from thinking clearly. This also applies to joyful feelings: after congratulations and bouquets, problems are solved with difficulty. And when we are overwhelmed by fear and anxiety, it is not easy for us to think either. However, this is necessary if we are going to understand what is happening to us and why.
For example, we read an article on the Internet or see a report – and they awaken a strong emotional response in us …
Step 1. Understand what’s going on: “I’m having strong feelings.”
Step 2. Come to your senses, take a few deep breaths.
Step 3. Start analyzing “how it’s done” – what expressive means (words, images, techniques) the author used to evoke these feelings in us.
Step 4. Suggest what purpose this material pursues (reporting, publication) and why it was necessary to evoke these feelings in the viewer or reader.
Step 5. To see more clearly the whole picture: not only a specific message, but also its author and its purpose.
In general terms, the strategy is this: calm down, start paying attention to the emotional context and ask yourself the question “why?” – why is this written, why am I reading this and what does it all lead to.
1. Gregory Bateson – scientist, developer of the theory of communications, author of the theory of “double bind” (double bind).
Once a month, several psychologists, writers, and cultural figures gather at the oval table in the Psychologies editorial office. Each of them tells what worries or interests him today. One common topic is chosen – and each of the guests writes a short text. As a result, we get a three-dimensional picture – several opinions on one issue. The theme of our latest Oval Table is “Uncritical Attitude to Information”.