Traps of magical thinking: how to avoid them?

Magical thinking is part of many cultures. Even the most rational among us, no, no, and some idea related to this area will flash through our heads. The hand will automatically reach out to knock three times on the tree, a coin will fall into the boot on the eve of an important meeting. Or maybe there is an amulet on the shelf, a figurine with a zodiac sign, or religious paraphernalia. But are we always aware of the influence of this kind of thinking on our decisions?

Shadows of the past

The roots of magical thinking go deep into the past. Our ancestors survived in rather difficult conditions and they needed to rely on something, to trust something.

If the hunt fails and there is nothing to feed the children, the drought burned out the edible vegetation, and the neighboring tribe goes to war against you, there is nothing left but to hope and believe. And wait for a miracle. And for this, obviously, you need to do at least something that depends on you. For example, make a sacrifice to the forest spirits, pray for rain, or draw “protective” magic circles around the settlement.

Beliefs and rituals were gradually born, priests appeared, objects of worship, superstitions and signs arose. Yesterday you performed a ritual dance, and today the long-awaited rain came? Undoubtedly, your dance helped!

Some scientists are inclined to believe that the rock art, which depicts hunting scenes, does not illustrate the events that took place, but plays the role of a prayer, a spell. Depicting a happy scenario, our ancestors lured good luck.

But how do we use the legacy of the past now, in the age of the development of science, when spaceships plow the expanses of the universe?

“In the scientific worldview there is no longer room for the power of man, he confessed his weakness and in self-denial submitted to death, as well as to all other natural necessities. In trust in the power of the human spirit, which takes into account the laws of reality, some part of the primitive faith in this omnipotence* is still alive, ”wrote the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, at the beginning of the XNUMXth century, noting that magical thinking still plays a certain role in people’s lives.

Am I strong, am I powerful?

Magical thinking is also connected with the formation of personality. Heinz Kohut, the founder of self-psychology, believed that it was his fantasies of omnipotence that were of great importance in the development of a healthy narcissism in a child. However, they must change as they grow up.

Own “omnipotence” and even the omnipotence of parental figures go away. Instead, a more realistic picture of the world and the complex image of the “I” and other people arises in the human mind. But quite often, adults themselves prevent this.

“Parents and teachers teach children to think magically,” writes psychologist Anastasia Dolganova. – For example, while eating we are told: you can’t leave the last spoon, it has all the power. These are simply manipulations that shape our eating habits. And then we struggle with excess weight, because we cannot afford not to finish what we put ourselves, or what they put us. We are sure that this will lead to catastrophic consequences. And we are sure precisely because we were told about it in childhood.

Is it time for us to grow up?

Describing one of the patients, Sigmund Freud said that he believed in the power of his own thoughts.

“As soon as he thought of someone, he already met this face, as if he had summoned him with a spell; as soon as he suddenly inquired about how some acquaintance was doing, whom he had not seen for a long time, how he had to hear that he had died, so that he had an assumption that the dead man had made itself felt by telepathy … “

How many people do you know who are sure that they are able to influence the world in some metaphysical way? Not all of them have mental problems. It’s just that magical thinking is really deeply rooted in our minds. And we should recognize it, “separate the flies from the cutlets” and take real action in order to change something in our lives.

For example, in a furniture shopping mall, on the manager’s desk is a book with a title like “How to attract money” and a note hangs: “Luck loves me.” It is difficult to say how much a woman is motivated by these slogans. But perhaps if she wanted to succeed, she could have spent the money on a book on the art of negotiation and sales skills.

Escape from anxiety and unwanted feelings

In one of the publishing houses there was a “magic chair” – two employees who had previously sat on it went on maternity leave. Jokes about it were built into someone’s penchant for magical thinking. A woman from another department, who really wanted to have a baby, came every day and sat in this chair.

At the same time, neither she nor her husband went to reproductologists and other specialists to solve the problem. After all, then, perhaps, one would have to face unpleasant and unwanted experiences or even conflicts: it would suddenly turn out that one of them is not able to have children.

Magical thinking allows us to avoid anxiety associated, for example, with our own unconscious forbidden feelings, Anastasia Dolganova believes. It also maintains the illusion that we can control something in a world that is unpredictable and full of problems.

In an era of change and upheaval, a person is especially acutely experiencing his own vulnerability. And if a large group of people survive cataclysms, then the “business” of all kinds of fortune-tellers, psychics and magicians flourishes.

“When we are anxious, when we are not confident in ourselves, when we have nothing to rely on, we are looking for a kind of“ crutches. It can be anything. For example, prayer, faith and religion can be such “crutches”. Some object, a charm, a pyramid that stands at home, a feng shui tree or a refrigerator located in the right place.

But magical thinking is a crutch that does not help, but only hinders you from truly adjusting your life. This is not a reliable enough support to use it constantly, ”the psychologist writes.

Is there any benefit to magical thinking?

Sometimes magical thinking becomes a way of adapting the traumatized psyche.

Anastasia Dolganova writes about such situations: “For example, we feel pain due to loss, so strong that it is impossible to live, and our breath returns to us only after talking about the other world and that our loved ones are still in some kind of sense alive.

Or a teenager feels such powerlessness in front of an alcoholic dad that only the replacement of this powerlessness with control in the form of energy practices, affirmations, amulets, signs and anything else helps him. When reality is unbearable, what difference does it make, how to help yourself, as long as it works.

It happens that we need magical thinking in order to find the resources in ourselves to survive difficult times. It is important that it does not replace our personal responsibility for our decisions and actions.

^* Totem and taboo. Psychology of primitive culture and religion. Sigmund Freud.

^** Kohut H. The two analyses of Mr. Z., International Journal of Psychoanalysis. 60:3-27, 1979.