Opinions were divided. Someone calls the TV “zombie” and prefers not to watch at all, while someone watches (listens) without stopping, from morning to evening, waiting for analytical and informational programs, believing every word. Why is the attitude towards television today so ambiguous? We find out with the Jungian analyst Tatyana Rebeko.
Psychologies: : Even
Tatiana Rebeko Tatiana Rebeko: In part, I agree with those who call the informational television stream a means of zombification. The fact is that watching TV is not an active search for information, but its passive consumption. We cannot scroll through the program, the monologue of the presenter or speaker, even if from the first minutes we understand that he is saying something with which we do not really agree. We have to watch and listen. Another thing is if a person, for example, leafs through a book, a magazine, watches news on the Internet or even a recording of TV programs. As soon as something begins that is not interesting to him, is already known or seems to be done, mounted, fake, he can quickly scroll through it, look diagonally, form his own opinion and put it aside. However, not everyone is ready to actively participate in the search, for many it is enough to passively swallow the information provided.
Psychologies: Why can’t you just turn off the TV?
T. R .: Turning it off, not watching, giving up, finding something else – it all means “being active.” But to be active requires more intellectual effort. Passive swallowing is much easier – something drips on a person like rain from the sky. He absorbs something, the rest flows down … TV programs are made with high quality and professionally, so it is very difficult to refuse them. Topics are selected topical, each plot is a separate piece, a small part of an endless performance. The viewer is hooked: he heard the beginning and wants to know the continuation. For example, a guest speaks, at the right moment and in the right place he is interrupted by the host, the plot breaks off and another one follows, which we would not watch if we were not held by the previous interest. All detective stories and fairy tales are built on this principle: the reader sits on the hook of an endless “and here” …
In advertising, by the way, these mechanisms are honed to perfection. A certain recurring plot is issued, often rhymed, which is remembered beyond our desire. In both cases, the mechanism of unconscious imprinting is triggered – priming.
Psychologies: And the concepts that are used – global evil, an external enemy – also play a role?
T. R .: Universal evil is an unconditionally acting thing. A common (or external) enemy gives value to one’s own greatness, superiority, feeds narcissism, the significance of one’s own “I”. Let it be false, but nevertheless, the shoulders straighten.
Psychologies: Where does the passivity you speak of come from?
T. R .: It’s easier to survive that way. Because, by and large, no one can do anything (and / or it’s scary), and this state of helplessness and fear gives rise to a general psychological stupor when the functioning of all systems decreases. Perception, memory, thinking, speech – all psychological mechanisms go into a basic, primitive state, thanks to which it becomes possible to survive. Primitive worms in nature are much easier than highly organized elephants.
Psychologies: Part of the fear is manifested in the fact that people do not want change, they suggest “not to rock the boat”?
T. R .: Certainly. Fear paralyzes, makes you freeze and sit quietly. Thoughts appear: “enough for our life”, “we will tighten our belts”. To be active, to go forward, to enter into competition – all this is addressed to the mature “I”. If a person does not have it, this causes fear and fear, therefore, of course, it is easier, much easier, so that there is no competition, everyone lives the same way. Like in North Korea. Everyone has the same shirts and the same pens in their pockets. And those who do very well get two ballpoint pens. And there are no problems. If someone has something else, envy arises. And the theme of envy will be very strong in the near future.
Psychologies: You are watching TV?
T. R .: Sometimes. I usually turn it on to see what’s going on with the collective unconscious. After all, everything that we see on the screen is an indicator of what is happening in the country. According to the programs, “enemies”, “friends” you can follow where we are moving. On the one hand, I am conducting this analysis as an interested person: it is important for me to know what will happen next with the country in which I live. On the other hand, my interest can be called professional, because the methods that I use are psychotherapy in its purest form: according to plots, like dreams, I can interpret what is happening with the “client”, which in this case is the whole country.
Psychologies: What are your predictions?
T. R .: Perhaps we are on the verge of major shocks. Passivity cannot last long. And in order to knock a person out of a state of passivity, according to Carl Jung, you need a lot of stress, an explosion. There will be a global catastrophe – then everyone will wake up and stop watching TV. Women will take up brooms and rags, and men will take shovels and nail pullers.