> On Sep 7, 6:43 am, "Sean"
now.com.au> wrote:>> What is self-DDD?
>> When we deceive, delude or deny to our self, we mislead our self, we
>> misrepresent or disown what we know to be true, we lie to our self, we
>> refuse to acknowledge that which we know. In Vital Lies, Simple Truths,
>> Daniel Goleman notes that we do not see what it is that we do not see,
>> because:
>>
>> The mind can protect itself against anxiety by diminishing awareness.
>> This
>> mechanism produces a blind spot: a zone of blocked attention and
>> self-deception. Such blind spots occur at each major level of behaviour
>> from
>> the psychological to the social. (p. 22)
>>
>> Psychological blind spots create a not-knowing about something. However,
>> in
>> order for a system to recognise what to avoid, deny or mislead, it has to
>> maintain knowledge of what it knows to be true. In other words, deceiving
>> our self requires that we both know and not-know something. This apparent
>> paradox is one of the keys to understanding how self-DDD operates.
>>
>> The delightfully ambiguous title of Stanley Cohen's book highlights that
>> States of Denial are equally as evident with nations as with individuals:
>>
>> People, organizations, governments or whole societies are presented
>> with
>> information that is too disturbing, threatening or anomalous to be fully
>> absorbed or openly acknowledged. The information is therefore somehow
>> repressed, disavowed, pushed aside or reinterpreted. Or else the
>> information
>> 'registers' well enough, but its implications -- cognitive, emotional or
>> moral -- are evaded, neutralized or rationalized away. (p. 1)
>>
>> Cohen goes on to explain how the ability to repress, disavow, push aside
>> or
>> reinterpret is often helpful, even necessary, in the development of our
>> species and of civilisation. For example:
>>
>> The inhabitants of Beirut, Bogota or Belfast cannot live in a permanent
>> state of heightened awareness that a car bomb may go off at any minute.
>> Some
>> switching off is necessary to get through the round of everyday life. (p.
>> 15)
>>
>> Some people develop the capacity to switch off, turn a blind eye or fool
>> themselves to such an extent that it limits their well-being and further
>> growth. Like any natural pattern, self-DDD operates within the dynamic
>> balance of a larger whole. Gregory Bateson was fond of saying, "There is
>> always an optimal value beyond which anything is toxic." (Goleman, p.
>> 245).
>> This is why an overdeveloped ability to self-DDD is a feature of many
>> conditions such as anorexia, body dysmorphia, Munchhausen's disease,
>> physically abusive relationships, compulsions, self-harm and addiction.
>>
>> In less dramatic ways self-DDD features in everyones' life. Being able to
>> deceive and delude ourselves is both natural and something that to some
>> extent we all engage in. The following is a small sample of hundreds of
>> commonly used metaphors and expressions that point to an apparently
>> universal pattern of human behaviour:
>>
>> I don't want to know.
>> I couldn't take in the news.
>> It's got nothing to do with me.
>> Don't make waves.
>> I looked the other way.
>> There's nothing I can do about it.
>> I can't believe this is happening to me.
>> Ignorance is bliss.
>> Let sleeping dogs lie.
>> Brush it under the carpet.
>> I'm just hoping it isn't going to happen.
>> Why didn't I listen to my intuition again?
>> I'll just pop in for a quick pint.
>>
>> With a typical conflict or dilemma, we acknowledge both sides and that we
>> don't know how to resolve it -- we do not deny there is a conflict.
>>
>> The good news is, the paradoxical and contradictory nature of self-DDD
>> patterns can be a doorway to the next level of personal development.
>>
>> --
>> "Fear not the path of truth for the lack of people walking on it." RFK
>> 1968
>
> Interesting but do you think this ability is learned, instinctual, or
> a bit of both?
Both. Like eating. Keep it in balance and it works well. In all things
extremes of experience tend to create extremes of naturally balanced inner
activity.
> Could such denial have been selected for and how would
> that make the ideas of many pop psychologies attempts to eliminate all
> states of denial.
I think that's an exageration Imm. to say "all". It's about self-awareness,
the pop psychologists as you call them may simply be suggesting to "be
aware" of potential extremes in your own life. Only you can decide what's
functional and working for you. Some, most don't care, and therefore such
suggestions are moot. Others ... well for whatever reason such things are
important to them. That's their choice, and they happen to have the same
brain biology as everyone else, basically.
> Maybe in emergency situations the brain has a way to
> force us to focus on what is necessary to survive in the midst of over-
> powering activities in other parts of the brain.
Sure . and all brains work that way. and as i said before, one's own
experiences affects them to different degrees. But the answers won't be
found in the brain itself, it;s just a tool. No different than a kidney, but
has a different role to play.
> I was reading
> McCrones, Going inside, about 500 pages of everything going on in the
> brain during one or to moments, and the researchers with scanners have
> fount the parts that cut off vase areas of the brain in the forward
> cone of activities, I think in the front of the Amygdala; Temporal
> Tip, Nucleus Accumbens; the Intersection of Intentions & Interruptions
>
> Chapter 10 - Of Sub-cortical Bottlenecks
> - The Thalamus as Sensory Input Bottleneck & It's Top Down Controls
> - Basal Ganglia as Output Bottleneck & Control of Unthinking Habits
> - Basal Ganglia as Center of the Web of Crosstraffic
> - Hormones, Neurtransmitters, Dopamine & The Sprinkler Systems
> - As the Recorder of Trials & Errors & The Most Active Circuitry
> - As Player Piano Robotically Produces Same Run of Notes, Sought For &
> Surprising
>
> Chapter 11 - The Brain's Forking Pathway
> - Orientation Response, Sought For & Surprise; Mismatch & Off
> Orientation
> - Interruption Handling Pathways, Brain Stem
> - Amygdala; Temporal Tip, Motor-Planning of Feelings, Salience, Inputs
> - Nucleus Accumbens; Crossroads for Brains Planning & Acting
> - Nucleus Accumbens; Intersection & Snapshot of Intentions &
> Interruptions
> - Cingulate Cortex; Bottleneck of High/Low Areas, Awareness Focusing
> - Frontal Cortex Holds Ideas & Cingulate Shapes Up & Adjusts Interrupt
> - Hippocampus; Catching Core of Moment, Cingulate Loads, Directing
> Anticipations
> - Systems View of Consciousness & Evolution of Focused State of
> Response
>
>
> Going Inside - A Tour Round a Single Moment of Consciousness
> John McCrone - 1999
>
http://www.btinternet.com/~neuronaut/webtwo_articles.html
>
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0880642629/qid=1085586459/
Sure, lots of info .... and how can anyone be conscious of all this
activity? They can't. That's why there is a concious mind and a sub-concious
mind. But in the area of volitional behaviours, the sub-conscious can over
power the concious. Look up "engrams" , look up OCD and so on.
Look, we are all "self-delusional" in some form or other. It's real, the
question is how self-delusional are you prepared to accept for yourself?
That's where the power is, that's where the free will is, that's where the
awareness comes into it. Up to you ...... and the brain will adapt
accordingly. The brain is affected after , it isn't the cause. YOU are the
cause, you choose your behaviour to survive in your culture, family and
society. Sometimes this learned beahviour gets to a poiunt where it no
longer works for the individual. But that's a value judgement ... and so
one's deeper values comes into play here. Those that don;t give a shit, well
they don't really care if they are self-deluded because they cannot see that
they are, and will therefore not bother to look.
Catch 22
--- but a non self-deluded and self aware person can see it a mile
away and recognise it for what it is. How the brain functions has zip to do
with it, imho. Cheers sean
ps good questions though, that's for sure.
