Utilizing Psychobiography to Mitigate Symptoms of SAD
DOI: DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.26023399
Abstract: Putting practical application to theory, this paper illustrates how the research techniques of psychobiography are incorporated into a comprehensive recovery program for social anxiety disorder.
Keywords:character-motivation, childhood disturbance, emotional disorders, Maslow, recovery, self-esteem, social anxiety
Psychobiography can be a most helpful treatment method in alleviating the impact of social anxiety disorder (SAD). Which is one of the most common mental disorders, negatively impacting the emotional and mental well-being of millions of U.S. adults and adolescents who find themselves caught up in a densely interconnected network of fear and avoidance of social situations.
SAD is culturally identifiable by the persistent fear of social and performance situations in which we claim to be misunderstood, judged, criticized, and ridiculed. The irony is that we have far more to fear from our distorted perceptions than the opinions of others. Our imagination takes us to dark and lonely places.
SAD makes us feel helpless and hopeless. Trapped in a vicious cycle of fear and anxiety, and restricted from living a “normal” life. We feel alienated and disconnected—loners full of uncertainty, hesitation, and trepidation. Our fear of disapproval and rejection is so severe that we avoid the life experiences that interconnect us with others and the world.
Fearing the unknown and unexplored, we obsess about upcoming situations and how we will reveal our shortcomings. Experiencing anticipatory anxiety for weeks before an event and expecting the worst.
We feel like we are living under a microscope, and everyone is judging us negatively. Making us worry about what we say, how we look, and how we express ourselves. We are obsessed with how others perceive us; we feel undesirable and worthless.
“It is one of the best investments I have made in myself, and I will continue to improve and benefit from it for the rest of my life.” – Nick P.
As a SAD survivor, researcher, and workshop facilitator, I have found that the investigative methods utilized in psychobiography offer a unique understanding of how our motivation to succeed is seriously impaired by the symptoms of SAD. Until my psychology graduate study, I was convinced my emotional dysfunctions were the consequence of poor behavior rather than SAD-symptomatic. It was then I realized the immeasurable value of the in-depth case study that forms the crux of psychobiography.
Recovery can be encapsulated by the phrase: “We are not defined by our social anxiety; we are defined by our character strengths, virtues, and achievements.”
SAD is a product of our negative core and intermediate beliefs induced by childhood disturbance. Cumulative evidence that a toxic childhood is a primary causal factor in lifetime emotional instability has been well-established. Emotional disorders sense the child’s vulnerability and onset during adolescence. (In the later-life onset of narcissistic personality disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD], the susceptibility originates in childhood.)
The disruption of emotional development subverts the child’s natural physiological and emotional evolution, denying the satisfaction of self-esteem. This does not signify a deficit, but both latency and dormancy are expressed by our undervaluation or regression of our positive self-qualities.
“Dr. Mullen is doing impressive work helping the world. He is the pioneer of proactive neuroplasticity utilizing DRNI – deliberate, repetitive, neural information.” – WeVoice (Madrid Málaga)
In a recent article, I stated the case that the psychobiographic emphasis on the eminent extraordinary limits its potential to understand the character motivations of the “ordinary” extraordinary who has achieved a significant personal milestone. To the average individual living with SAD, a noteworthy milestone is recovery-remission from emotional dysfunction. Putting practical application to theory, I have incorporated research methods of psychobiography into our comprehensive recovery programs.
The role of psychobiography is to generate a more in-depth understanding of the qualities and characteristics that motivate us to achieve and overcome adversity. A primary function of recovery is to galvanize the SAD person to reclaim mindfulness of their character strengths, virtues, and achievements. Recognizing and accepting our inherent and developed personal values encourages us to embrace the extraordinariness of our lives. Confirming we are consequential and valuable.
The lifetime-consistent influx of negative self-beliefs and images generated by SAD negatively impacts the natural development of self-esteem. Defined as the realization of one’s significance to self and community. Self-esteem is the complex interrelationship between how we think about ourselves, how we think others perceive us, and how we process and express that information.
The roots of this lacuna are illustrated by Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of developmental needs. Childhood physical, emotional, or sexual disturbance disrupts our emotional and physiological development. Our sense of safety and security as well as feelings of belongingness and being loved are subverted, denying the satisfaction of self-esteem. While access to Maslow’s hierarchal levels is nonlinear, when coupled with our negative core and intermediate beliefs, the impact on our self-esteem becomes a certainty.
Maslow and Psychobiography: Realizing Our Potential
The collaboration of psychobiography and positive psychology traces its origins to themes addressed by Maslow that stress the importance of focusing on our positive qualities to realize our potential—to become the most that we can be.
A function of psychobiography is to generate an understanding of the individual to learn what motivates our thoughts and behaviors. SAD functions by compelling irrational and self-destructive thoughts and behaviors due to its life-consistent negative self-beliefs and images. Psychobiography lays the groundwork for rational response.
The foundation of positive psychology is a human’s ability, development, and potential. The SAD symptomatic, life-consistent neural input of toxic information subverts our recognition and appreciation of our inherent and developed character strengths, virtues, and achievements—a trajectory initiated by our negative core and intermediate beliefs. It is the role of psychobiography to study the character attributes that generate the motivation to achieve and apply these understandings toward optimal functioning and improved life satisfaction.
The Influence of Core Beliefs in SAD
Core beliefs are determined by our childhood physiology, heredity, environment, information input, experience, learning, and relationships. Negative core beliefs are generated by any childhood disturbance that interferes with our optimal physical, cognitive, emotional, and social development. Perhaps we were subject to dysfunctional parenting, a lack of emotional validation, gender bullying, or a broken home. The disturbance can be intentional or accidental, real, or perceptual. A toddler whose parental quality time is interrupted by a phone call can sense abandonment, which can generate core beliefs of unworthiness or insignificance.
Core beliefs remain our belief system throughout life and govern our perceptions. They are more rigid in SAD persons because we tend to store information consistent with negative self-beliefs, ignoring evidence that contradicts. A recent Japanese study on emotional neuroticism found that core beliefs about the negative self-generate cognitive vulnerabilities in achievement, dependency, and self-control. SAD generates cognitive distortions and maladaptive behaviors counterproductive to logical reasoning, negatively impacting the rationality and accuracy of our perspectives and decisions.
Aaron Beck is the undisputed pioneer of cognitive-behavioral therapy for social anxiety and depression. He assigned negative core beliefs to two categories: self-oriented (“I am undesirable”) and other-oriented (“You are undesirable”). Individuals with self-oriented negative core beliefs view themselves in four ways: we feel helpless, hopeless, undesirable, and/or worthless.
These beliefs can lead to fears of intimacy and commitment, an inability to trust, debilitating anxiety, codependence, aggression, feelings of insecurity, isolation, a lack of control over life, and resistance to new experiences. People with other-oriented negative core beliefs view people as demeaning, dismissive, malicious, or manipulative. By blaming others, we avoid personal accountability for our behaviors.
Intermediate Beliefs: Establishing Attitudes, Rules, and Assumptions
The accumulated negative core beliefs due to childhood disturbance and other early-life experiences heavily influence our intermediate beliefs that develop our adolescence. As with core beliefs, they support our natural negative bias, neurobiologically inputting toxic information that reinforces our negative self-valuations.
Intermediate beliefs establish our attitudes, rules, and assumptions. Attitude refers to our emotions, convictions, and behaviors. Rules are the principles or regulations that influence our behaviors. Our assumptions are what we believe to be true or real. A SAD person’s attitude is one of self-denigration, assumptions illogical and cognitively distorted, and rules interacted by destructive behaviors,
A comprehensive recovery workshop must consider the needs of the individual within the group. One-size-fits-all approaches are anathema to recovery. Just as there is no one right way to do or experience recovery and transformation, so also what benefits one individual may not be helpful to another.
The insularity of cognitive-behavioral therapy, positive psychologies, and other approaches cannot comprehensively address the complexity of the personality. Our environment, heritage, background, and associations reflect our wants, choices, and aspirations. If they are not given appropriate consideration, then we are not valued.
Devising a targeted recovery approach requires multiple perspectives from different psychological and scientific schools of thought developed through client trust, cultural assimilation, and therapeutic innovation.
A collaboration of science and East-West psychologies is essential to capture the diversity of human thought and experience. Science gives us proactive neuroplasticity: cognitive-behavioral modification, positive psychology, and psychobiography are western-oriented; and eastern practices provide the therapeutic benefits of Buddhist psychology. As well as a sense of self that embraces the positive qualities of the individual.
The qualitative and quantitative research elements of psychobiography, including the case study, hermeneutics, interpretations and explanations, personal data and evidence, and the narrative are useful tools for understanding the impact of SAD on our self-beliefs and images.
Quantitative and Qualitative Research
Quantitative research involves the empirical investigation of observable and measurable variables. It is used for testing theory, predicting and illustrating outcomes, and considering clinically-supported techniques. Quantitative research generates hypotheses and helps determine research and recovery strategies. It can include data-driven research, scales, personal inventories, and comparative or correlational studies. Although conceived as focusing on data articulated numerically, quantitative analysis is also used to study feared situations and the severity of anxiety.
Qualitative research provides a close-up look at the human side of SAD relative to behaviors, beliefs, emotions, and relationships, supported by such intangible factors as social norms, ethnicity, socio-economic status, philosophy, and religion. A comprehensive study of the status and motivations of a SAD person is partially compiled through interviews, open-ended questions, and opinion research to gain insight into perceptions and belief systems.
In-Depth Case-Study
The psychobiographic in-depth case study is a reconstructive clinical and systematic analysis of the life and productivity of an individual. The key is the availability of evidence. Accessing therapeutic notes and conclusions is legally impermissible. The workshop facilitator must lean heavily on experience and innovative methods of discovery.
A case study of a recovering SAD person relies heavily on personal interviews– testimony that is conditional and truthful to the extent that the individual believes it or needs the facilitator to believe it. Clinically-supported scales and inventories are useful, and statistical research and studies are abundant. Comparative and correlational evidence supports conclusions.
Interpretations and Explanations
Psychobiography is an interpretation of the life of individuals, extraordinary or otherwise. Interpretations and explanations compensate for the physiological and psychological resistance to personal revelation. Recollections are highly subject to inaccuracies.
We must ask ourselves, to what extent are memories of subjective experiences and events accurate portrayals of what happened, wistful recollections, or biased reconstructions? Whether correctly recalled or not, memories and recollections must be valued as authentic perceptions of the reality of the individual. In the case of Michael Z., his recollections of childhood physical and emotional abuse helped him understand and mitigate his avoidance of trust and intimacy.
Interpretation permeates all investigations from data to statistics, the case study, and hermeneutics. Psychobiography is an intuitive, interpretive method of comprehension based upon the synthesis of evidence culled from all available, relevant sources. Therapists must partially base their diagnosis on the interpretation of observable behaviors.
A facilitator must consider the multiplicities of truth. Which means different things to different people and is contingent upon the validity of the information provided by the subject. We must be willing to risk and value our interpretations, instincts, and even speculations while remaining cognizant that we are susceptible to incorporating personal sensibilities and subject to imperfect conclusions, due to the vagaries and ambiguities of the subject.
Hermeneutics
Hermeneutics is essential to recovery due to the core beliefs of the child impacted by a dysfunction-provoking disturbance. The disruption in emotional development coupled with unjustifiable shame and guilt generates negative and often hostile perspectives in early learning which leans heavily on morality and religion. The unjustifiable shame and guilt expressed by Matty S. was a reliable indicator of his sense of undesirability and worthlessness. Recognizing his non-accountability for onset allowed him to realize the irrationality of his adverse moral emotions.
The negative belief system of the susceptible child cognitively distorts their understanding of self. And their relationship with others and the world. A major function of recovery is alleviating these irrational beliefs. This entails identifying and examining our disruptive thoughts and behaviors and generating rational responses, while proactively repatterning our neural network.
Narrative
The narrative aspect of psychobiography favors the “ordinary” extraordinary because of their ability to access experiences. While the narrative of the average individual may lack spectacularism it does not impede creativity. Every SAD individual’s life is distinctive, consisting of unique experiences, beliefs, and sensibilities. How we express that information is subject to our self-beliefs and images. Through the interview and narrative process, Liz D. could rationally comprehend and mitigate her intense situational fear of constructive confrontation. Its complex origins stemmed from her adolescent intermediate self-beliefs. The role of the personal narrative in addressing negative self-perceptions is significant.
Concluding Thoughts
This article illustrates the value of psychobiography in constructing an individually targeted approach to recovery from social anxiety disorder. A psychobiography generates hypotheses and helps determine recovery strategies. While offering a close-up look at the human side of SAD relative to behaviors, beliefs, emotions, and relationships. It provides support in evaluating and treating the individual within the workshop gestalt.
The investigative methods utilized in psychobiography, including the case study, hermeneutics, interview, narrative, and the relevant social sciences, are valuable to understanding the trajectory of and methods to alleviate life-consistent negative self-beliefs and images. Less reliable is the availability of an informed case study and personal data and evidence. This lacuna is compensated by the experienced facilitator’s interpretation of common threads in SAD recovery. Supported by statistical research and comparative and correlational evidence.
Clio’s Psyche is a peer-reviewed, scholarly journal, founded in 1994, and published by the Psychohistory Forum, holding regular scholarly meetings in Manhattan and at international conventions. Clio’s Psyche is unique in that it prefers experiential testimony over extensive citation.
WHY IS YOUR SUPPORT SO NECESSARY AND ESSENTIAL? ReChanneling develops and implements programs to (1) mitigate symptoms of social anxiety and related conditions and (2) pursue personal goals and objectives – harnessing our intrinsic aptitude for extraordinary living. Our paradigmatic approach targets the personality through empathy, collaboration, and program integration utilizing neuroscience and psychology, including proactive neuroplasticity, cognitive-behavioral modification, positive psychology, and techniques designed to regenerate self-esteem. All donations support scholarships for groups and workshops.
INDIVIDUAL RECOVERY. The symptoms of social anxiety make it challenging for some to participate in a collective workshop. Dr. Mullen works one-on-one with a select group of individuals uneasy in a group setting. ReChanneling offers scholarships to accommodate the costs. What is absent in group activities is provided in our monthly, no-cost Graduate Recovery Group. In this supportive community, graduates interact with others who have completed the program. Contact ‘rmullenphd@gmail.com’.
Committing to recovery is one of the hardest things you will ever do. It takes enormous courage and the realization that you are of value, consequential, and deserving of happiness.
Today, I wanted to share my Blogger Interview with Robert F. Mullen, the latest episode of my podcast. I’ve known him for a really long time thanks to blogging and I have really admired the work he does. As you will notice if you decide to visit his site, he has a doctorate and his area of expertise is social anxiety.
In this interview, we talk about so many things but in particular we focused on mental health and social anxiety. These topics are actually quite personal to me because I’ve been suffering from both depression and social anxiety since I was a teenager. And as he mentions in the interview, these two disorders often go hand in hand.
Robert F. Mullen’s approach is quite different from what I have seen, read and heard about social anxiety. And since he was someone who once suffered from social anxiety himself, I think he has a really accurate idea of what it’s like. He views recovery from social anxiety as “a collaboration of science, philosophy, and psychology” and believes that therefore its remedy must be thought of in the same way.
And from my own experiences with social anxiety, I can’t help but agree. When it comes to research about mental health, I find that it’s always from a specific lens. It focuses on science or psychology or other aspects. But the truth is, for a lot of people at least, it’s a combination of everything that causes the disorder.
If this sort of content sounds interesting to you, check out our interview below. And don’t forget to check out his site. It’s truly a mine of information.
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Lifesfinewhine, a pioneering international website from Kenya, offers invaluable insights into mental health issues. The site’s producer, Pooja G, was diagnosed with depression and social anxiety as a teenager. Her journey, marked by rigorous research and deep self-reflection, has given her a profound understanding of mental health illnesses and the stigma that often surrounds them.
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Comments
“Another very interesting and informative interview. I was particularly uplifted, by the fact that he went through so many transitions in life, before finding his true calling. I admire his approach to his practice. His clients… his life.” – byngnigel
“Another great interview. I love how he is for the underdog.” – Joseph Glidden
“That was a wonderful interview! I am also someone who suffers from social anxiety, thanks for all the work you do Robert!” – Carol anne
”Great interview with Robert Mullen… I love his approach coming from his own background and passing it on to support others.” – Cindy Georgakas
What is your truth? What is your secret? What secrets are you keeping from the world that you hope one day you will be brave enough to tell? When will you tell your heart? All The Words I Kept Inside allows you this moment.
This collection of poetry urges you to look deeply inside and confront your darkest thoughts. It takes that inner dread, disappointment, and heartache to reveal the words of the heart. This book will show you that you are not alone. That you are understood. That you don’t have to go through these dark moments on your own because so many of us experience them too. The words found inside will reach out a hand and guide you. Amazon Books
WHY IS YOUR SUPPORT SO NECESSARY AND ESSENTIAL?ReChanneling develops and conducts programs to alleviate the symptoms of social anxiety and help individuals tap into their innate potential for extraordinary living. Our unique approach focuses on understanding personality through empathy and collaboration, integrating neuroscience and psychology. This includes proactive neuroplasticity, cognitive-behavioral modification, positive psychology, and techniques designed to reclaim and rebuild self-esteem. Every contribution, no matter the size, supports individuals striving to make a positive change in their own lives and the lives of others. All donations go towards scholarships for groups and workshops.
Committing to recovery is one of the hardest things you will ever do. It takes enormous courage and the realization that you are of value, consequential, and deserving of happiness.
“Dr. Mullen is doing impressive work helping the world. He is the pioneer of proactive neuroplasticity utilizing DRNI—deliberate, repetitive, neural information.” — WeVoice (Madrid, Málaga)
This series of videos explains how, through proactive neuroplasticity, we compel our neural network to repattern its neural circuitry, generating a correlated change in behavior and perspective. The deliberate, repetitive neural input (DRNI) of information dramatically accelerates and consolidates learning through synaptic neurotransmission.
The series further describes how we replace or overwhelm our negative thoughts and behaviors through CBT, proactive and active neuroplasticity, positive psychology, psychoeducation, roleplay, gradual exposure, and other individually targeted approaches.
This 8th video in our series discusses recovery from social anxiety and related conditions by establishing coping mechanisms.
Coping Mechanisms, Part 1
Social anxiety is culturally identifiable by the persistent fear and avoidance of social interaction and performance situations. Which causes us to miss the life experiences that connect us with the world. Adaptive coping mechanisms help us cope with stress, anxiety, and their provoking triggers.
Our primary recovery goal is the dramatic alleviation of our irrational fears, anxieties, and their triggers. We achieve this through a three-pronged approach where we:
Replace or overwhelm our negative thoughts and behaviors with healthy, productive ones.
Produce rapid, concentrated positive stimulation to offset the abundance of negative information in our brain’s metabolism.
Regenerate our self-esteem through positive reinforcement and mindfulness of our assets, utilizing methods targeted toward our individuality.
Coping Strategies versus Coping Mechanisms
Coping strategies are the methods or approaches that best execute our three objectives. In recovery workshops, we emphasize response-focused and solution-focused strategies. But multiple complementary strategies are utilized. Including problem and emotion-focused coping strategies that help us manage our response to feared situations.
Coping mechanisms are tools and techniques that implement our strategies. Tools and techniques that help us cope with stress, anxiety, and their corresponding triggers. They range from practiced skills in recovery to everyday stress reduction, like gardening, journaling, and listening to music. Coping Mechanisms, Part 1 focuses on the psychological benefits of coping methods and the three primary mechanisms: grounding, reframing, and rational response.
Coping mechanisms are adaptive – they can be tailored to our individual needs and circumstances, positively contributing to our emotional well-being. These empower us to manage our reactions and response to feared situations, giving us control over our recovery journey.
Video Series #8: Coping Mechanisms, Part 1
Coping mechanisms are tools and techniques that help us manage and alleviate our situational anxieties and stress triggers. Part 1 focuses on the psychological benefits of coping methods and the three primary mechanisms – grounding, reframing, and rational response. In Part 2, or video #9, we’ll delve into secondary coping mechanisms and their appropriate utilization, providing a comprehensive understanding of the most effective coping strategies for mitigating our situational fears and anxieties. LINK
Video Series #7: Constructing Our Neural Information
Neural information is constructed by establishing our goal, identifying the objectives or steps we take to implement that goal, and determining the Information – the self-affirming or motivating statement we deliberately and repetitively input into our neural network. We want our information to be authentic and of sound construction to engage the full capacity of positive neural response. The integrity of our goal, objectives, and information correlates to the durability and efficacy of the neural response. LINK
Video Series #6: Affirmative Visualization
By visualizing a positive outcome prior to a feared situation, we experience behaving a certain way in a realistic scenario and, through repetition, attain an authentic shift in our behavior and perspective. It is a form of proactive neuroplasticity, and all the neural benefits of that science are accrued. Just as our neural network cannot distinguish between toxic and healthy information, it also does not distinguish whether we are physically experiencing something or imagining it. LINK
Video Series #5: Challenging Our Self-Destructive Thoughts
In this video, we focus on the trajectory of our self-destructive thoughts that impact our emotional wellbeing and quality of life. They originate with our negative core beliefs generated by our disorder which influence our intermediate beliefs from life experiences and form our ANTs or automatic negative thoughts that underscore our situational fears and anxieties. LINK
Video Series #4: The Power of Positive Personal Affirmations
We drastically underestimate the significance and effectiveness of PPAs because we do not understand the science behind them. PPAs are brief, individually focused statements that we repeat to ourselves to describe what and who we want to be. PPAs help us focus on goals, challenge negative, self-defeating beliefs, and reprogram our subconscious minds. Practicing positive personal affirmations is an extremely effective form of DRNI or the deliberate, repetitive input of neural information that supports proactive neuroplasticity. LINK
Video Series #3: Tools and Techniques
Proactive neuroplasticity is the process of deliberately and repetitively inputting positive information into our neural network to consolidate learning and unlearning. What is that information? How is it constructed? The objective is to ensure the information is of the highest quality to effect change. What are the best tools and techniques? What methodologies and psychological support systems are best suited to support proactive neuroplasticity – to help us unlearn the toxicity of negative self-beliefs, replacing them with healthy, positive ones. LINK
Video Series #2: Three Forms of Neuroplasticity
Reactive neuroplasticity is our brain’s natural adaptation to sensory information. Active neuroplasticity is neural information acquired through conscious activity, which includes all forms of deliberate learning. Proactive neuroplasticity is the conscious, intentional repatterning of our neural network utilizing tools and techniques that facilitate the process. The deliberate, repetitive, input of neural information empowers us to proactively transform our thoughts and behaviors, creating healthy new mindsets, skills, and abilities. LINK
Video Series #1: Introduction
Research has established that our neural network is a dynamic organism, constantly adapting and rebuilding to each new input of information. Scientists refer to the process of neuroplasticity as the structural remodeling of the brain. By deliberately enhancing the process, we can proactively transform our thoughts, behaviors, and perspectives, creating healthy new mindsets, skills, and abilities. All information notifies our neural pathways to restructure, generating a correlated change in behavior and perspective. LINK
The video series describes the evolution of the science of neuroplasticity, differentiating reactive and active from proactive neural input. Videos diagram the trajectory of neural information. And how it impacts the various lobes of the human brain responsible for cognitive learning. The neural input of data, coded into electrical energy, causes a receptive neuron to fire that energy onto a sensory neuron. Which forwards the information to millions of participating neurons.
Benefits of Neural Restructuring
The videos demonstrate how this cellular chain reaction reciprocates that initial electrical energy in abundance due to the amplified neural response. Positive information input, positive energy multiplied millions of times, positive energy reciprocated in abundance. Each neural input of information impacts millions of neurons as they restructure our neural network to a form conducive to a positive self-image.
Subsequently, the natural hormonal neurotransmissions reward our activity with GABA for relaxation, dopamine for pleasure, endorphins for euphoria, serotonin for a sense of well-being, and hormones that support our motivation, enhance our memory, and improve concentration.
However, since our brain doesn’t distinguish healthy from toxic information, the neurotransmission of pleasurable and motivational hormones happens whether we feed it self-destructive or constructive information. That’s one of the reasons breaking a habit, keeping to a resolution, or achieving our desired goal is challenging. And why positive informational input is crucial for recovery and self-transformation.
“It is one of the best investments I have made in myself, and I will continue to improve and benefit from it for the rest of my life.” – Nick P.
Contemporary wisdom disputes the effectiveness of one-size-fits-all approaches to behavioral modification. So these videos evidence how integrating science and east-west psychologies is best suited to positively modifying our thoughts and behaviors. Science gives us proactive neuroplasticity, cognitive-behavioral modification, and positive psychology’s optimal functioning, which are Western approaches. Eastern practices give us Abhidharma psychology and the overarching truths of ethical behavior.
Our core and intermediate beliefs condition our neural system. Childhood disturbance and emotional malfunction negatively impact these beliefs, generating negative self-appraisal that affects our emotional well-being and quality of life.
The mechanics of Hebbian Learning define how the repeated proactive input of information correlates to more robust and practical learning. Hebb’s rule states the more repetitions, the quicker and stronger the connections. Harmful behaviors are unlearned, and healthy ones are adopted through deliberate and calculated activity. Negative core and intermediate beliefs are challenged and replaced by healthy and life-affirming ones. Videos demonstrate how deliberate, repetitive neural information alleviates emotional malfunction and empowers us to achieve our goals and objectives.
Proactive neuroplasticity is theoretically simple but challenging due to the commitment and endurance required for the long-term, repetitive process. We advance to Wimbledon with decades of practice on the courts. Philharmonics cater to pianists who have spent years at the keyboard. Proactive neuroplasticity requires a calculated regimen of deliberate, repetitive neural information that is tedious and fails to deliver immediate tangible results. Causing us to readily concede defeat and abandon hope in this era of instant gratification.
The positive impact of proactive neuroplasticity is exponential due to the abundant reciprocation of positive electrical energy and the neurotransmission of hormones that generate motivation, persistence, and perseverance. Proactive neuroplasticity dramatically mitigates symptoms of emotional dysfunction and advances our pursuit of goals and objectives.
WHY IS YOUR SUPPORT SO NECESSARY AND ESSENTIAL? ReChanneling develops and implements programs to (1) mitigate symptoms of social anxiety and related conditions and (2) pursue personal goals and objectives – harnessing our intrinsic aptitude for extraordinary living. Our paradigmatic approach targets the personality through empathy, collaboration, and program integration utilizing neuroscience and psychology, including proactive neuroplasticity, cognitive-behavioral modification, positive psychology, and techniques designed to regenerate self-esteem. All donations support scholarships for groups and workshops.
Committing to recovery is one of the hardest things you will ever do. It takes enormous courage and the realization that you are of value consequential, and deserving of happiness.
This is not a typical posting on recovery from SAD and related conditions but a published chapter on a psychological method called psychobiography. While admittedly pedantic, it explains how psychobiography, a form of character study, assists in knowing the individual in recovery. More on psychobiography is available on this website at Broadening the Parameters of the Psychobiography and Utilizing Psychobiography to Moderate Symptoms of SAD.
Abstractions of Intent: How a Psychobiography Grapples with the Fluidity of Truth
in C-H. Mayer and Z. Kovary (eds.) (2019). New Trends in Psychobiography, Springer; 1st ed, pp. 539. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-16953-4
Robert F Mullen, PhD
Abstract: A psychobiography is a well-researched, comprehensive, multi-method presentation of a series of occasions through the documentation of events and the explication of the causes, motivations, and consequences thereof. In the fashion of Whitehead, occasions are dynamic and ongoing activities unfolding or producing themselves through time. The creative events that precipitate―originating, anchoring, and turning points―are fixed in time as opposed to the unfixed spatial-temporal reality of an occasion. The psychobiography uses both qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis because of their interactive objective and subjective contributions. The psychological aspect of the qualitative system allows for the in-depth case study, which presupposes that the issues under investigation are best understood from a perspective inclusive of the subject’s personal, subjective and phenomenological world. The quantitative study utilizes verifiable occurrences and statistics to determine the validity of interpretation.
An accompanying facet of a carefully crafted psychobiography is the hermeneutic circle, another component susceptible to error due to the varying definitions and understandings that accompany all manner of texts. These potentials for misinformation are aggravated by the researcher who is susceptible to (1) incorporating personal sensibilities, (2) bias and misinterpretation due to the nature of the investigation, (3) the suggestiveness of the subject and (4) the researchers own condition. A psychobiographical study is also subject to misinformation revealed by the subject, sources, and contemporaries. Awareness of these potential impediments to veracity is essential; however, the researcher cannot allow the search for truth to overwhelm the authenticity of the product.
Adopting multiple strategies can provide a more comprehensive overview of a subject, whose diverse aspirations and plentiful activities warrant a broader exploration. A consequence of the mixed methodology, however, are the opportunities for misrepresentation that result from the adoption of vulnerable systems, especially in the psychological realm which solicits speculation, inference, and other subjective calculations.
In May 1886, Georges Seurat unveiled his 70 square foot Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand. The painting depicts fashionable Parisians enjoying a Sunday afternoon on an idyllic island in the River Seine between Neuilly and Levallois-Perret. The canvas is replete with some forty stereotypical Parisian figures―women of fashion, men in bowler hats, prostitutes, children, umbrellas, dogs, soldiers, boats, a rowing team, a monkey, and a musician.
Individually, the rigid and somewhat indistinguishable images are ill-designed to be the focus of singular attraction but are integral and essential to the panorama. The technique Seurat adopted, Pointillism, involved the use of small touches of pure color intricately placed side-by-side on the canvas. When viewed from a certain distance, these colored spots blend into figures of aesthetic clarity. Move closer, and the portraits dissipate, rendering the composition unintelligible. Move away, and each part asserts its relevance to the whole, but the whole is not its parts, and the parts do not constitute the whole.
The painting, viewed from afar as intended, is a gestalt: the whole is other than the sum of its parts, albeit dependent upon their participation. The individual figures and the finished work resonate in codependence with one another, manifesting a masterpiece abstractly detached from the components that constitute the work. The truth of Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand is in the exactness of the colored spots, their placement on the canvas, and the changeless final masterpiece which the artist deemed worthy of display.
In an abstract sense, the similarities between this artistic masterpiece and a psychobiography are appealing. The methodology incorporates seemingly inconspicuous elements of a life history that, when placed side-by-side on an academic canvas, blend into events and occasions that are, by themselves, imperceptible to the final product. Step back to observe the multiple entities rendered by this method. And one begins to sense their integral relationship to the cohesive whole of the presentation. One only needs canvas, the painted background (the subject’s ethos), and figures, pronounced and ambiguous (entities and occasions), assembled by numerous points of color (causes and consequences) that coalesce into an integral and homeostatic final product.
Understanding Events and Occasions
Every evolution―ethos, philosophy, activity, and so on―is an occasion. Occasions are akin to Alfred North Whitehead’s actual entities. Defined as dynamic and ongoing activities unfolding or producing themselves through time (Hosinski 1993). The events that participate in the creative unfolding of an occasion are fixed in time as opposed to the unfixed spatio-temporal process of an occasion. A psychobiography is a well-researched, comprehensive, multi-method presentation of a series of occasions through the documentation of events and the explication of the causes, motivations, and consequences thereof.
Pillemer (1998) suggests three significant or seminal episodes central to a psychobiography. Originating events are the momentous events that are responsive to the genesis of a subject’s enduring beliefs or attitudes. Anchoring events represent the milestones that perpetuate these values, as evidenced by the subject’s life-story. The third episodes, turning points, mark specific series of events and occasions that augment the subject’s passion. This triumvirate of causal relationships is not a one-off. But is integral in the evolution of all substantial beliefs and activities.
Throughout this chapter, a published study developed and produced employing a psychobiographic methodology is exampled. The overarching focus of the study is a contemporary theorist with diverse aspirations and activities. Convinced that the sheer volume of life occasions merited multiple avenues of investigation, a mixed-message methodology of both quantitative and qualitative research was adopted. Personal philosophy bore significantly on the relevance of abundance. A scholar grasping a singular view denies the creative capacity that flourishes in the enlightened awareness of human ingenuity.
The errant belief that there is only one truth and that any one individual is in possession of it is the root of all malevolence that plagues the world. A theorist of any mettle studies systems and embraces a collective. Any theory or philosophy is based, intentionally or unwittingly, on an amalgam of grounding belief systems. In any theory, the tenets that form its ground are particular, relative, and essential constituents; their axiomatic completeness equal to (or other than) the sum of values and beliefs. One cannot be a rationalist without experientialism, logic, and discursive reasoning. Utilitarianism needs the participation of reductionism and forms of naturalism.
Michael Murphy is co-founder and Director Emeritus of Esalen, nestled in California’s Big Sur. The progressive Institute is the acknowledged birthplace of the human potential movement (Tompkins 1976), inspired by Abraham Maslow’s psychology of peak experiences, which underscores humanity’s potential for the metanormal expansion of consciousness.
Murphy’s search for meaning―and his exploration of wide-ranging and diverse fields to validate that search―underscores multifaceted constituents that support his philosophy and productivity much like pointillism colors its canvas. At least four philosophical components undergird Murphy’s world vision and activities: existentialism, experientialism, humanism, and universal integrality. Murphy’s research into and conviction of deliberate human advancement― heralding a higher complexity of human consciousness―is underscored by these fundamental philosophical concepts, which required extensive study rendered by multiple available means. A mixed-methodology of quantitative and qualitative research proved optimal.
However, the permissiveness afforded by a psychobiography―its hermeneutics, its in-depth case study, narrative, etcetera―lends itself to error and misinformation. The relevance of this theme reveals itself throughout this chapter.
A psychobiography differs from a simple mixed-methodology in scope and magnitude. The use of multivalent systems in the Murphy study ensured an integrally comprehensive presentation. The end-product was not without its faults, however. Upon publication, the validity of certain conclusions became questionable to the researcher.
Was the result true to the subject’s values and contributions? Was the justification of his belief system well defined? And was his integrity underscored in the conclusions? How are truth and authenticity best served and what impediments require accommodation? How does the truth factor in a psychobiography as opposed to other methods of inquiry? Does the broad scope of a psychobiography deliver more forthright conclusions than other, less inclusive methods?
The attractiveness of the broad and inclusive multivalent methodology is due to the number of available options, tolerance of structural fluidity, and the contemporary inclination to adopt and adapt to the latest, cutting-edge methodology. Abundance, however, is a distraction that demands judicious evaluation and editing to avoid superfluous corroboration and unnecessary explication in a study already comprehensively substantive. A psychobiography is not an all-you-can-eat-buffet but a system that offers multiple options which necessitate good choice, careful determination of value and moderation: attributes of most established writers but difficult to grasp for the novice academic.
“It is one of the best investments I have made in myself, and I will continue to improve and benefit from it for the rest of my life.” – Nick P.
What is a Psychobiography?
Simply defined, a biography is an account of someone’s life written by someone other than the subject. According to William McKinley Runyan (1984, 36), a biography is “a portrait painted by a specific author from a particular perspective, using a range of conceptual tools and available data.” Barclay Erickson (203, 35) quotes historian R. G. Collingwood (1946) from The Idea of History, who defines biography as “the discerning of the thought which is the inner side of an event.” Biographical narratives foster a keen understanding of characteristic adaptations, a concept coined by Northwestern psychologist Dan McAdams (2001, 126), to include:
such personal goals and motives, defense mechanisms and coping strategies, mental representations of self and others, values and beliefs … domain-specific skills and interests, and other personal characteristics contextualized in the time, place, or social role.
The psychology in a psychobiographic study inserts itself through aggregate-level social sciences such as social structure and personality interpretation, history, sociology, psychological anthropology, and political psychology. The study maintains its flexibility by drawing upon the knowledge of many schools of thought while devising new concepts as they become necessary for evaluation. Extensive and often exhaustive research is required to remain faithful to the subject’s intersubjectivity.
Runyan (1988, 285) advocated for the use of psychology in psychobiography, “mediated through the aggregate-level social sciences, including such scientific ‘substratum’ as social structure and personality, historical sociology, psychological anthropology, and political psychology.” George Atwood and Robert Stolorow (1993, 9) also campaigned for the use of multiple perspectives, promoting “a psychobiographical method capable of flexibly drawing upon the knowledge of all the different schools of thought, and also of devising new concepts as it goes along.”
In the published study exampled throughout, this correlated well with the data-driven research of extraordinary events and occasions which, as Murphy points out in The Future of the Body: Explorations Into the Further Evolution of Human Nature (1992, 2) demands “a synoptic acquisition of soundly verifiable data that draws at once upon the natural and human sciences, psychical research, religious studies, and other fields.”
The methodology of Erik H. Erikson’s (1958) Young Man Luther: A Study in Psychoanalysis and History is the genesis of modern psychobiography and its foundation of psychological analysis. To Atwood and Stolorow (1993, 13), Erikson was the first pure psychobiographer because he was able to synthesize aspects of the psychology of knowledge (personal-subject relativity) and the sociology of knowledge (historical-cultural relativity). “Although each field [psychology of knowledge and sociology of knowledge] can make a certain degree of independent progress, their analyses are allied and complementary.” What evolves from these cooperations are syntheses of material that coalesce into a verifiable, historic narrative. These sciences include sociology, biology, psychology, religion, phenomenology, history, and so on.
Psychoanalytic histories bridge the gulf between the concrete particularity of individual life and the experience of being human in universal terms … providing the initial basis of comparison for describing the pattern of the individual’s life as the realization of shared human possibilities (Atwood & Stolorow 1984, 7).
Murphy’s theoretical constructs emerge from both Eastern and Western spiritual philosophy. He is a barometer of humanity’s temperament, including its mental, physical, and spiritual aspects. The events and occasions of his life are integral to his ethos, worldview, and subsequent activities. These include: (1) research and analysis of philosophical and scientific apperceptions of advanced metanormal potential, 2) data-driven evidence of advanced human potential, (3) efforts to bridge the gaps among science, religion, and mysticism, while identifying the comparability of religious teloi, and (4) humanitarian efforts in education, health, politics, and religion to address the disenfranchised through international diplomacy (Mullen 2014, 175).
The plenitude of Murphy’s contributions made it expedient to employ many investigative approaches; a more restrictive methodology would have failed to adequately accommodate the magnitude. Combining qualitative and quantitative inquiry made it easier to research and document the scope of Murphy’s life, ethos, goals, productivity, and so on. The construction of the whole, the final product, was achieved through a thoughtful and scholastic synthesis into a final gestalt. In hindsight, success was only partial, and conclusions flawed, a complication arising from the ambiguities of truth and the freedom accorded by the use of multiple methodologies.
Quantitative research involves the empirical investigation of observable and measurable variables. It is used for testing theory, predicting and illustrating outcomes, and determining integral relationships. Quantitative research takes a particular approach: answering research questions, generating hypotheses, setting up research strategies, offering conclusions, and so forth. Analysis of data-driven research is quantitative, as are surveys, and comparative or correlational studies. Although generally conceived as focusing on data articulated numerically, Quantitative analysis is also used to study events or magnitudes of occurrence.
Qualitative research focuses on examining topics via cultural phenomena, human behavior, and belief systems. A comprehensive study of the life and productivity of an individual can make use of interviews, open-ended questions, opinion research, and so on to gain insight into certain beliefs, concepts, and systems. It provides an overview of the human side of an issue concerning behaviors, beliefs, opinions, emotions, and relationships, supported by such intangible factors as social norms, esoteric beliefs, ethnicity, socio-economic status, philosophy, religion, ethics, etcetera.
A psychobiography is constructed by engaging qualitative and quantitative methodologies and their subsidiaries―the empirical and non-empirical, ontological and epistemological, narrative, interview, in-depth case study, hermeneutics, the social sciences, and so on. Even so, while this mixed-method study meets the criteria of an adequate psychobiography it, by no means, promises the most comprehensive, which demands a more robust and radical adoption of multivalent ingredients and methods to subsidize the gestalt. The components of a good psychobiography are more fluid, fragmented, and decentralized in its pursuit of authenticity.
The good psychobiography will not shy away from seemingly disparate components but will embrace than as means to provide a more thorough investigation. Resoluteness and flexibility, concreteness and fluidity, proof and conjecture, reason and intuition, exclusion and inclusion―all become academically acceptable grist for the mill. A quantitative approach creates a blueprint that establishes the parameters of the study, a logical order that provides the foundation for the various components necessary to the evolution of the product. The qualitative element, more reflexive and evolving, adds texture and nuance to the structure. The quantitative architecture strategizes the product; the qualitative animates it.
Picture a fan in the stands at a baseball game, seated in one of multiple sections offering an angular and myopic view. To fully appreciate the game, the fan listens to the statistician and color-commentator on the radio, one actor providing hits, runs, and innings, the latter, personality profiles and stories. Awash with the sticky smell of beer and hotdogs, inclement weather, ear-shattering insults and enthusiastic roars, and the mingled sweat of thousands, full appreciation of the game is experienced though the combined components that contribute to the festive totality of the event. Remove a singular sensation―the sound, the smell―and the experience is different. The game is a more dynamic and thorough experience because of the multivalent stimuli―coalescing conflicting forces that converge to narrate nine or more innings.
The Case Study
A psychobiography is an in-depth case study, according to Atwood and Stolorow (1993, 27-28), an integral and comprehensive presentation of a personalistic, phenomenological, historical, clinical, and interpretive investigation. Its methodology allows the gathering of as much information as possible, using multiple disciplines. Three general characteristics distinguish an in-depth psychobiographical case study from other methodological orientations and approaches. First, the in-depth case study is “inherently personalistic and phenomenological because it presupposes that the issues under investigation can are best understood from a perspective inclusive of the subject’s personal, subjective and phenomenological world.” Second, psychobiography is historical, albeit the fluidity of occasions mitigates the opportunity for a purely linear presentation.
Third, the in-depth case study is both “clinical and interpretive.” This overarching requisite for interpretation is a double-edged sword as the researcher is highly susceptible to (1) incorporating his or her sensibilities, (2) bias and misinterpretation due to the vicariousness of biography, (3) the suggestiveness of the subject, and (4) the researchers own condition. Condition is one’s current state-of-being as consequence of reaction and adaptation to experience and circumstance. The study is also subject to bias and misinformation supplied by the subject, sources, and contemporaries. Awareness of these potential impediments is essential; however, the psychobiographer cannot allow the search for truth to overwhelm the authenticity of the work, which implies being genuine or as real as possible.
Case study research allows the exploration and understanding of the motivations, events, and occasions that impact the subject’s life history. This holistic, in-depth investigation specializes in analysis of the subject’s social, moral, ethical, and behavioral underpinnings: schooling, faith instruction, socio-economic status, family structure, and other influencers which motivate sociological concerns. This method was particularly relevant to Murphy’s focus on education, health, religion and other humanitarian efforts.
A good psychobiography is “committed to a narrative mode of truth arrived at through [the] in-depth, case study approach to biographical and psychological knowledge” (Erikson 1958, 39). The case study nourishes itself through intersubjective methodology, which aids in clarifying relationships and motivations. Intersubjectivity is the psychological relationship between people―how common-sense, shared values are used to interpret mutual compliance within social and cultural life. It is the trademark of systems and institutions which share a particular ideology. It also highlights how unilateral groups alienate disagreeable groups through self-preservation, which incurs bias, prejudice, truth-distortion, and other extensions of inherent territorial emphasis. Intersubjective investigation addresses these temperaments, as well as those of others who offer significant support or opposition as evidence of motivation.
Interviews and Review of Materials
Among the sources of data the psychologist is likely to turn to when carrying out a case study are interviews with the subject and contemporaries, diaries, personal notes, letters, documents, and so on. In psychology, case studies often confine themselves to the examination of a particular individual; a psychobiographic researcher is inclined to extend this research to contemporaries and other influencers.
Murphy’s firm conviction of the inherent human potential to access the metanormal required the theoretical study of phenomenon to describe the subjective reality of events, and philosophical research and analysis, which involved clarification of definitions, prevailing wisdom, and norms. The perusal of the books, essays, and articles written about the subject was necessary. Esalen’s (2013, 2014) extensive website was an excellent source of corroboration. Multiple sources about issues and values addressed by Murphy had to be analyzed, as did his published fiction, nonfiction, and works-in-progress.
The interviews were of inestimable value, first to set the boundaries of a good working relationship and then as a forum to address topics that required further explication. These one-on-one interviews, structured by specific lines of questioning, were generously enriched by Murphy’s extemporaneous flow of vision and thought. On average, these meetings lasted approximately two hours. Some issues were explored in person, others via phone and email. Recordings of interviews were professionally transcribed, results reviewed, and submitted to Murphy for approval. The rich material from these interviews informed multiple aspects of the study.
About halfway through the process, however, findings antithetical to the researcher’s secular sensibilities began to manifest. An Actual Man (2010) is a series of essays in honor of Murphy’s 80th birthday. Among the stories and anecdotes were short biographies describing Murphy’s humanitarian works in Russia, and Esalen’s part in Yeltsin’s 1991 ascension to the presidency. Tompkins’ (1976) extensive profile in The New Yorker was a highlight, as was evidence of the metanormal in everyday experience, a tribute by Huston Smith, and Ken Wilber’s encomium to an exemplary human being.
In the midst of these and other profound contributions was a story about Murphy’s paranormal escapades with the San Francisco 49ers. The essay asserted that the ritualistic burying of football gear and Murphy’s ability to manipulate Universal order was instrumental in the 1981 success of the fledgling upstarts that led to their first Superbowl. Numerous texts supporting research into paranormal were analyzed, including Frederic Myer’s (1907, 1918) early 20th-century evidence of levitation and life-after-death and Thurston’s (1951) descriptions of stigmata, luminous phenomena, and bilocation.
Murphy’s penchant for metaphysics and other esoteric practices cornered the psychobiographer into a self-created abyss of intellectual superstition, confirmation of how a researcher is subject to personal bias and singular perception. The football story was omitted from the study for fear it would unduly prejudice readers against the merit of Murphy’s contributions to natural science. The paranormal corroborations of Myers and others of his ilk were minimized for the same reason,
Was that the right choice? In hindsight, these arbitrary exclusions may have slightly repudiated Murphy’s authenticity. Later introspection revealed the story of the 49ers as a tongue-in-cheek, piece of smart fiction or, at the most, an illustration of over-inflated egos. In his forward of Cosmos and the Psyche, Richard Tarnas (2006, xiii) writes:
Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect … The mind that seeks the deepest intellectual fulfillment does not give itself up to every passing idea … Only with that discernment and inward opening can the full participatory engagement unfold that which brings forth new realities and new knowledge.
Murphy has authored and collaborated on numerous novels and works of nonfiction. Incorporated into the study was an assessment of his fiction as evidence of his predilection for mystic spiritualism, Eastern and Western collaborative thought, and metanormal human capacity. Elements of his appreciation for the interrelationship of science, mysticism, and esotericism began in novel form then neatly transcribed themselves to his most crucial nonfiction work: the data-driven research on transformative human capacity, The Future of the Body: Explorations Into the Further Evolution of Human Nature (1992).
A subject’s worldview is both implicit and definitive exposition of philosophical and religious lineage. It was essential to look at the significant contributions influencing Murphy’s evolution of thought―paranormal research, Catholic miracles, esoteric documentation, the evolution of psychology, Huxley, Maslow, and Teilhard de Chardin,cross-cultural religion and metaphysics, process and evolutionary philosophy, science, and so on.
This abundance of research material provided a more formidable and daunting diversity of interests that served as the foundation for study and informed the substratum of Murphy’s ontological development. Mainstream academic research was enlisted to solidify, confirm, or offer alternative viewpoints for the subject’s theories. Murphy (1992, 15) defines this method of data-driven research, analysis, and interpretive documentation as “synoptic, multidisciplinary, or integral empiricism (remembering, of course, that empiricism usually refers to data acquisition and verification limited to sensory experience).”
The Narrative
Embracing individuality within a history of events and occasions is, of course, a key component to any study of a person. The primary method for doing so is through narrative. As personality psychologists begin to turn attention to the subjective nature of peoples’ life histories, the story becomes more valid in “conveying the coherence and the meaning of lives” (McAdams 2001, 102). In a psychobiography, the narration is the method of presentation incorporating the elements relative to the construction of the final product into a stimulating and understandable rendition of the subject’s evolution of thought, and activity.
Storytelling is a method of making the study readable, comprehensive, and appealing. Pillemer (2008) defines narrative truth as the criterion used to decide when a particular experience is captured satisfactorily; it depends on continuity and closure and the extent to which the fit of the pieces takes on an aesthetic finality. It is left to the researcher to determine, through judgment and scholasticism, the primary experiences that factor into decision-making and lend themselves to the subject’s worldview.
In The Rise of Hermeneutics (1972), Dilthey and Jameson caution that ascertaining truth through narrative biography will incite debate, a desirable component of any presentation. To them, narrative truth is a razor’s edge because of the many factors that instigate misinformation. Since narration is a composite of many differing and supporting collegial contributions, this unpredictability is even more prevalent.
One of the more unique qualities of Murphy’s body of written work is the transposition of his fictional accounts of metaphysics, science, the spiritual, the magical, and the mystical to his later nonfiction that complements and enhances the actuality of many conclusions, the plausibility of more, and possibility of the remaining. This evolution originates with his fantastical creations of the metanormal in his best-selling Golf in the Kingdom (1972), continues throughout his other novels, and culminates in his data-driven, natural science exploration The Future of the Body: Explorations Into the Further Evolution of Human Nature (1992).
In other words, Murphy’s concentration in the natural history of metanormal accession and evidence thereof does not diminish in the transition from novel to nonfiction but expands and substantiates itself. It is a textbook example of how, in the words of Cyril “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life, and I feel sure that if you think seriously about it, you will find that it is true” (Wilde, (1909, 10).
Michael Murphy has written or contributed with significant impact to more than half-a-dozen additional works of nonfiction, which address the codification of transformative capacities, the evolution of humanity’s potential, extraordinary capacities within sports, studies of yogis and Zen masters, cardiovascular and metabolic changes, and psychological, physiological, and spiritual transformation.
These are illustrated to corroborate the vast diversity of materials that were considered, and as evidence of how Murphy’s forays into fiction implemented his later works. In an article in The American Society for Aesthetics, F. E. Sparshott (1967, 3) argues against those who contend that works of fiction cannot be considered the embodiment of claims to tell any truth about the real world. Truth in fiction is “the explicit content of the fiction, and a background consisting of either of the facts about our world … or of the beliefs overt in the community of origin.”
The Historical
A singular substance cannot exist without its interrelationship with other substances. Everything, every entity is a creation―intertwined, interconnected, and interdependent with and within other creations. It is therefore prudent to engage Pillemer’s (1998) three significant or seminal events as central to the evolution of occasions. To iterate, it is impossible to provide a purely linear exposition of a subject’s history because of the non-temporal fluidity of occasions.
History is primarily concerned with the knowledge of the mind and the thoughts it generates, which motivate an individual’s philosophy and action. “The task of the historian is penetrating to the thought of the agents whose acts they are studying” Collingwood (1946, 25). The evolution of Murphy’s occasions is paramount to this study, as is his place in contemporary studies of a natural history that combines science with religion and metaphysics. William McKinley Runyan’s (1984) Life Histories: A Field of Inquiry and a Framework for Intervention served as a support vehicle for inquiry into the role of Murphy’s life-history.
Particularly germane were the investigations into: 1) the philosophical growth and conclusions resulting from Murphy’s intensive study, and experiential activities, (2) his ethos and set of mental characteristics, (3) analysis and insight into the psychological motivations of his ethos and activities, and (4) the practical implementation of these motivations and activities in interactions with others. The study provided special consideration to Murphy’s research into human transformative capacity―his conviction of the potential for metanormal functioning as evidenced by his participation in, and investigations into events, occasions, practices, and phenomena affected by and affecting the human person. Dilthey and Jameson (1972, 227) write:
There can indeed be no history worthy of the name that does not breathe something like his spiritual enthusiasm for the traces that life has left behind it, something of the visionary instinct for all the forms of living activity preserved and still instinct within the monuments of the past.
Murphy’s fundamental philosophies staunchly lend themselves to the theory of advanced innate human potential. His existentialism underscores the human faculty to determine its motivation and development, especially essential to its inherent ability to deliberately evolve by way of metanormal events and occasions. His experientialism is manifest by his actual experiments to affect extraordinary events and occasions. Humanism is evident by his belief in involution and evolution, a doctrine that asserts the self-creativity, and self-reliance of each person, imbued by divine allowance and participation.
Finally, universal integrality posits that all entities are creatively bound to all other entities, intertwined, interconnected, and interdependent. It is these systems that motivate the events paramount to Murphy’s occasions. As the theory maintains, occasions are not only evolutionary but interdependent upon all that precedes and proceeds them. One cannot fathom their causes without understanding the relevant factors of the creative process; it is the task of the researcher to make best efforts to investigate and comprehend this process through abundant research and thoughtful explication.
Hermeneutics
The interest in psychobiography slowed between the great wars of the Twentieth Century to witness a resurgence in Dilthey’s (1961) adoption of hermeneutics. The hermeneutic circle is similar to gestalt in that the parts are “accessed in relation to a totality while knowledge of the whole is constituted by study of the parts” (Atwood and Stolorow 1984, 3). The ultimate goal of the hermeneutic process is to discover how the subject’s philosophic, spiritual, and religious subjects of inquiry facilitated his or her ethos and subsequent activities. In Methodology for the Human Sciences: Systems of Inquiry (1983, 221), David Polkinghorne advocates for the use of hermeneutics to better understand what canon and tradition mean to a specific element of philosophy.
Hermeneutics is possible here because … there is here the relation of the parts to the whole in which the parts receive meaning from the whole, and the whole receives meaning from the parts: these categories of interpretation have their correlate in the structural coherence of the organization [and subject], by which it realizes its goal teleologically.
Hermeneutics is a system of rules, “a whole whose parts were held together by the aim of giving an interpretation of general validity” (Dilthey and Jameson 1972, 240). One’s spiritual and philosophical evaluations are products of interconnected parts, which are in turn constituents of the whole; again, the parts without the whole—as well as the whole without its parts—inadequate to conclusive evaluation. Scholars later expanded the system of hermeneutics to apply to any literary text, which broadened the scope of influence on a particular ethos or philosophy while maintaining the integrality of hermeneutic tenets. Polkinghorne (1983, 221) warns that one of the considerations of hermeneutic knowledge is that it is difficult “to attain a degree of intersubjective agreement and certainty that one has understood an expression accurately,” additional evidence of how bias and misinterpretation factor in a multi-discipline psychobiography.
The researcher’s cognizance of hermeneutic compatibility to the ethos and philosophy of the subject is highly susceptible to error due, much in part, to the varying definitions and understandings that accompany all manner of texts. A psychobiographer is compelled to identify the extent of the hermeneutic contribution to the subject’s worldview but is, likewise, influenced by those sources relied upon for evidence and affirmation. To Esalen biographer, Jeffrey J. Kripal (2007, 61), hermeneutics is “a model that recognizes a truly profound engagement with a text [that] can alter both the received meaning of the text and one’s own meaning and being.”
Murphy’s broad expanse of interests is served well by the hermeneutic circle as his belief system compliments his concept of advanced human potential. AHP is closely tied to the theory of involution-evolution which posits that the energy and capacity of divinity are thrust into the basest of evolutionary particles, expanding in sympathy with human consciousness. Hermeneutic evaluations were essential to Murphy’s theme of religious, spiritual, metaphysical, and scientific comparability. Aurobindo Ghose’s (2006) cultivation of a multi-runged ladder to Supermind corroborates the evolution of human consciousness which supports advanced human potential.
Exegetical scrutiny evidences the symbiotic relationship of Teilhard de Chardin’s (1974) Omega Point to Ghose’s Supermind, and Murphy’s (2012) Supernature. A review of relevant religious, spiritual, and philosophical commentaries grounded the study’s construct and allowed comparison with Murphy’s ethos and activities. Cooper (2006) was particularly helpful in understanding various interpretations of evolutionary panentheism; and Myers (1907, 1918) and Thurston (1951) assisted in the information and documentation of metanormal human potential.
Interpretations and Intuitions
The psychobiographic, in-depth, case study is a reconstructive, intuitive, interpretive method based upon the synthesis of all available evidence culled from all available sciences providing systematic analyses of information on the life and life’s works of a single individual (Erickson (2003, 40).
This conclusion is supported by other theorists (Runyan 1984, McAdams 2001) and by the methods of personality comprehension enabled by the psychological in-depth case study. It is within this context that things get rocky as the constituents of misinformation (speculation, intuition, interpretation, inference, and so on) are subject to bias, error, and misinformation. Runyan (1984, 47) offers the following benchmarks to mitigate explicit misinformation:
Explanations and interpretations can be evaluated in light of criteria such as (1) their logical soundness, (2) their comprehensiveness in accounting for a number of puzzling aspects of the events in question, (3) their survival of tests of attempted falsification, such as tests of derived predictions or retrodictions, (4) their consistency with the full range of available relevant evidence, (5) their support from above, or their consistency with more general knowledge about human functioning or about the person in question, and (6) their creditability relative to other explanatory hypothesis.
It is evident that much misinformation results from poor choice and poor judgment, a lack of thoroughness, and/or ignorance. Hubris and bias also factor in misleading and erroneous conclusions. McAdams (2001, 114) asks: “To what extent are memories for personal events accurate renditions of what happened or biased reconstructions of the past?” Occasions maturate as events happen and vice-versa. It is nigh on impossible to maintain a firm grasp on their evolutions. Individuals rarely retain accurate recollections of the day, time, circumstance, or other exacting details of Pillemer’s triune events in the creation of an occasion. However, memories and their interpretations, whether correctly recollected or not, should not be taken as false or intentionally inaccurate. In the best-case scenario, one creates the best and most honorable recollection of which one is capable.
For we can always make mistakes about the motivation and the principal actors in a study; they can indeed spread misconceptions about their motives. However, the work of a great poet or innovator, religious genius or philosopher can never be anything but the pure expression of the individual’s spiritual life; in that human community delivered from all falsehood, such a work is ever real and unlike every other type of expression registered in signs; it is susceptible to complete and objective interpretation; indeed, it is only in the light of such works that we begin to understand the other contemporary artistic monuments and historical actions (Dilthey and Jameson 1972, 233).
How close to the firemust a researcher’s feet be held? Many insist that academic sources used in support of an argument ease the propensity for misinformation but that is not the case. Any decent researcher can glean sources that support any conclusion one chooses to deliver. A standard academic practice requires the grad-student render a coherent paper, which conclusions are in opposition to the student’s ethos and convictions.
A researcher must always consider the multiplicities of truth. Truth means different things to different people. It is contingent upon the validity of recollection and information provided by the subject, sources, and contemporaries. The researcher is highly susceptible to incorporating personal sensibilities and is subject to misinterpretation due to the vicariousness elements of investigation, the suggestiveness of the subject, and the researchers own condition. As beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so also does truth evidence its ambiguity.
Conclusion
The psychobiography employs many methodologies, its conclusions subject to researcher’s ability to locate fact within abundance. Qualitative research focuses on examining a topic via cultural phenomena, human behavior, and belief systems. A comprehensive study of the life and productivity of an individual can make use of interviews, open-ended questions, opinion research, and so on to gain insight into certain beliefs, concepts, and systems. It offers a close-up look at the human side of an issue concerning behaviors, beliefs, opinions, emotions, and relationships, supported by such intangible factors as social norms, esoteric beliefs, ethnicity, socio-economic status, philosophy, religion, etcetera.
The inherently personalistic aspect of the in-depth case study opens up avenues of misinterpretation as does the study of the phenomenological which is inherently subjective. Add to this the interpretative nature of a psychological inquiry, which is formulated by instinct, speculation, and inference. These overarching requisites for interpretation provide ample room for misinformation. The tenets within any hermeneutic are extremely difficult to fathom. Many texts subject to evaluation are products of another age and civilization, originating in a language open to interpretation.
Take, for example, Buddha’s Noble Truth. The word “dukkha” or suffering that underscores the Four Nobel Truths is translated in multiple ways including anxiety, constraint, distress, and so on. Suffering connotes a purgatorial existence of physical torture, which is counterproductive in its gravity of message. The more reasonable condition of humanity is a state of disillusionment. For the record, this view is a perfectly valid and reasonable consideration. It’s a rational and intelligent revision and is theoretically correct. Many will disagree, some may call it cavalier.
So, do these predilections to misinformation and misinterpretation render a study obsolete? The contrary is true. A subject, researcher, or source is not without fault; it is this susceptibility to error, mistake, bias, motivation, and so on that establishes the humanness and authenticity of the participants. A multivalent psychobiography does not diminish the final product but enhances it through its complexities of comprehension. It is always fortuitous that a good psychobiography not end-up in the academic wasteland of the unforgettable but rise into forums of debate and commentary.
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Atwood, G. E. and Stolorow, R. D. (1984). Structures of Subjectivity: Explorations in Psychoanalytic Phenomenology. Hillsdale, NJ: Analytic Press.
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13 Cognitive Distortions Germane to Social Anxiety
Defense Mechanisms
Defense mechanisms are temporary safeguards against emotionally challenging situations that our minds struggle to manage. They are mostly unconscious and automatic psychological responses designed to protect us from our fears and anxieties. We deny, avoid, and compensate rather than confront our problems. We rationalize ourbehaviors, project them onto others, or displace them by kicking the dog..
The defense mechanisms called cognitive distortions are exaggerated or irrational thought patterns that perpetuate our anxiety and depression. In recovery, we identify these self-destructive processes and, over time, eliminate them from our thoughts and behaviors.
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COGNITIVE DISTORTIONS
Understanding how we use cognitive distortions as subconscious strategies to avoid facing certain truths is crucial to recovery. Our social anxiety drives illogical thought patterns. Every instinct perpetrated by social anxiety is counterproductive. That’s how it subsists.
By cognitively distorting our reactions and responses to situations, we twist reality to reinforce or justify our toxic behaviors and validate our irrational attitudes, rules, and assumptions. Our attitudes refer to our emotions, convictions, and behaviors. Rules are the principles or regulations that influence our behaviors, and our assumptions are what we believe to be accurate or authentic. Social anxiety, depression, and related conditions compel us to create inaccurate self-perceptions.
Our compulsion to twist the truth to validate our negative self-appraisal is indeed powerful. However, understanding how these distortions sustain our social anxiety is a vital step towards taking back control.
Be Mindful of Distorted Thinking
For those experiencing social anxiety, the susceptibility to cognitive distortions is high. However, cultivating awareness, which involves recognition, comprehension, and acceptance, is a crucial guide in understanding and addressing the self-destructive nature of these distortions.
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Similarities
One concern in working with cognitive distortions is recognizing their overlapping characteristics and parallels. Multiple names for the same cognitive distortions are common, and distinguishing one from the others can be challenging.
For instance, when we catastrophize, wepredict the worst-case scenario, often blowing things out of proportion. Polarized thinking compels us to view life as either uncompromisingly good or bad, with no middle ground. When we filter, we usually focus on the negative aspects of a situation, ignoring the positive. These are all examples of cognitive distortions that perpetuate our social anxiety.
Control fallacies lead to blaming and vice versa. We often jump to conclusions when we label someone based on a single characteristic. Emotional reasoning begets personalization, filtering, polarized thinking, andthe fallacy of fairness. The distinctions are often obtuse and blurred, but as long as we remain mindful of their self-destructive nature, we can learn to recognize and even anticipate them, devising rational responses.
We are highly susceptible to cognitive distortions when under stress. Social anxiety and related conditions paint an inaccurate picture of the self in the world with others.
We are highly susceptible to cognitive distortions when under stress. They are emotional IEDs, capable of destroying our confidence and composure. Cognitive distortions are rarely cut and dried, but they tend to share common traits and characteristics. That’s what makes it difficult to distinguish clearly. Still, as long as we remain mindful of their self-destructive nature, we can learn to recognize and even anticipate them, devising rational responses. After time and with practice, our reactions become automatic and spontaneous.
The number of cognitive distortions listed by experts ranges substantially. There are thirteen that are particularly relevant to social anxiety.
A dogmatist believes that their principles and opinions are incontrovertibly accurate, despite the convictions of others. Due to our worries over criticisms and ridicule, we tend to be dogmatists, disputing and dismissing those who disagree with us.
The constant need to be right is a heavy burden we carry, always striving to prove ourselves correct, dismissing any conflicting opinions as false. We refuse to acknowledge our mistakes, insisting that our way is the only way.
This irrational thinking pattern helps to compensate for our symptomatic expectation of being challenged. We will go to any length to prove we’re right, notwithstanding evidence to the contrary, reflecting our inability or unwillingness to accept our fallibility. Hence, we dismiss opposing or correcting beliefs as misinformed or mistaken. We go to great lengths to defend our opinion while demonstrating the inaccuracy of the opposition. Our desire to be right becomes more important than the beliefs, opinions, or feelings of others.
The Lure of Perfectionism
Living with constant negative self-evaluation is emotionally destabilizing, leading us to overcompensate by striving for perfection. This is a significant and understandable characteristic of social anxiety. We adopt perfectionism as an unhealthy coping mechanism for our feelings of incompetence and inadequacy, but it only exacerbates our emotional instability.
As perfectionists, we perceive anything short of excellence as failure. The compulsion to always be right is a common thought pattern typical of our condition. We see things as black or white. There is no middle ground, no compromise. We are either brilliant or abject failures. Our friends are for us or against us. We are winners or losers. Anything less than flawless is emotionally untenable.
Unfortunately, our drive for perfectionism causes us to set unreasonable expectations for ourselves.
Wanting to be the best we can be is a wholesome function of human behavior, motivating us to learn and make sensible decisions. However, our need to alwaysbe right, even in the face of evidence to the contrary, can lead us to disregard the feelings of others and push them away. This insistence that only we know the answer alienates relationships, leaving us feeling isolated.
Rigid Core Beliefs
The unhealthy need to always be right reflects our low implicit and explicit self-esteem. Unfortunately, even when our belief system is self-destructive, it defines how we see ourselves. When we decline to question our beliefs, we act upon them as though they are infallible, ignoring contrary evidence. Our insecurity can be so severe that our maladjusted perceptions run roughshod over facts and the feelings of others.
Cognitive Bias
Remember, we store information consistent with our negative core and intermediate beliefs, which generates a cognitive bias – a subconscious error in thinking that leads us to misinterpret information, impacting the accuracy of our perspectives and decisions.
Yet, we tend to ignore what others say because we need to be right, notwithstanding logical alternatives. We avoid anything that might lead us to accept that we are mistaken. Even when we know we are wrong, we find it challenging to admit it.
When our opinions clash with those of authority figures, we grudgingly bow to their point of view, covertly convinced of our superiority. This servility strips us of our power, generating anger and resentment. We cater to their authority but envy their power, irritated and bitter.
Always being right does not bode well for healthy relationships. Our unwillingness to consider the feelings and opinions of others is dismissive and demeaning. Friendships thrive on mutual respect and understanding, not on one person’s need to always be right. Few want to deal with someone unwilling or unable to value their opinions, insight, or belief system.
Our need for others to see us as clever and erudite protects our fragile self-image. Many of us compensate for our fears of criticism and rejection by emphasizing our intellectual proficiency, even when our ‘knowledge’ is unsupported by evidence.
The tendency on social media to attack someone’s conflicting beliefs and the pundits who deny, obfuscate, and shout down the opposition are excellent examples of the always-being-right syndrome.
It reminds us of the cognitively immature teenager who upends the board game when they sense defeat, preferring to throw in the towel rather than suffer the indignity of losing.
As with most cognitive distortions, the key objective is to think before reacting, asking ourselves the obvious questions. This self-reflection empowers us to take control of our cognitive biases and make more informed decisions:
Could I be wrong? The probability is high if we get our facts from the Internet.
Have I considered the opposition’s opinions objectively? Perhaps their argument has merit. Being open to different perspectives can broaden our understanding and lead to more balanced decisions.
Even if I’m right, is it necessary to demean the other’s position? What do I gain by winning the argument other than selfish satisfaction? It’s not like we’re on a debate stage. Is my need to be right more important than someone else’s feelings? This line of questioning encourages us to be more empathetic and considerate in our interactions.
BLAMING
What do many of us do when we refuse to take responsibility for failing to live up to expectations? Blaming is a negative thinking pattern in which we mistakenly assign responsibility for a negative outcome. That blame can be external when we hold someone or something else accountable, or internal when we blame ourselves.
External Blaming
External blaming occurs when we hold others accountable for situations that are of our own making. Years of self-reproach for experiencing social anxiety can feel overwhelming, leading us to unconsciously assign blame to others for what we are unable or unwilling to manage emotionally.
We convince ourselves that others are responsible for our defects because it is more emotionally manageable than accepting responsibility. For instance, if we fail an exam, we might blame the instructor for a perceived bias instead of acknowledging our lack of preparation. If we’re for work, it is more convenient to blame traffic, rather than our lackluster morning preparations due to a hangover.
InternalBlaming
We generally have significantly lower implicit and explicit self-esteem compared to those without social anxiety. Our sense of inadequacy and inferiority can compel us to blame ourselves for situations or circumstances that are not our fault. For example, if a dinner guest appears less than enthusiastic, we may blame our cooking or hosting skills rather than considering other reasonable explanations. Similarly, if our roommate is fraught with personal issues, we might attribute it to something we said or did, even when we have nothing to do with their circumstances.
Blame for Our Social Anxiety
Blaming ourselves or others for the origins of our condition is misguided. Early childhood does not provide the cognitive development to assign blame, even if we could identify the source(s). Scientists have linked the serotonin transporter gene “SLC6A4” with social anxiety disorder, but anxiety is produced by polygenic traits controlled by multiple genes, supported by numerous other factors.
One client would always return to his childhood when discussing the reasons for his social ineptness. A physically abusive father and emotionally denigrating mother can probably be held responsible for his negative core beliefs, but they are a catalyst for multiple disorders other than or comorbid with social anxiety. Steven found solace in assigning his parents some responsibility for the origins of his condition, but did not allow that to interfere significantly with his healing.
Notwithstanding, recovery focuses on the here and now and how it reflects on the future. The past is not negligible, but it pales in importance.
Our adolescent/adult thoughts and behaviors indeed aggravate our condition, but to attribute them to perceived character deficiencies and shortcomings rather than recognizing them as symptoms of our condition is problematic. This blame irrationally fails to acknowledge the true nature of our disorder and hinders our progress toward recovery, for which we are responsible. So again, the blame is not the onset and experience of social anxiety, but for our willingness or inability to remedy the situation.
Blaming Mistreatment by Others
Justifiable blame can be a healthy response to harm, but we often cling to anger and resentment, thinking it will negatively affect those who have wronged us. However, the responsible party is usually (a) unaware of their actions, (b) has forgotten their transgression, or (c) refuses to take responsibility for it. The only person damaged in this scenario is the injured party, and we can reclaim our power through forgiveness.
Forgiveness helps us resolve our animosity and restore balance by eliminating the influence of the past and the actions of others. Our innate desire for vengeance can be substantial; our basic instinct may seek retribution. With its profound healing power, forgiveness frees us from the desire for retaliation and helps us move beyond victimization and vindictiveness. This underscores the importance of self-forgiveness in our healing journey.
Blame for Our Mistreatment of Others
Feeling shame for harming another is a natural and necessary part of our emotional landscape. Accepting blame is crucial but carrying that emotional baggage is illogical. The past is over. We learn from it and move on. Our guilt and self-blame can be resolved by making direct or symbolic amends and forgiving ourselves. Remember, self-forgiveness is not just a necessary tool but a powerful act of self-empowerment in our healing journey.
CONTROL FALLACIES
Do you sometimes fell that everything that happens is your fault, or are do you feel impotent and unable to change anything?
A fallacy is like a mirage in the desert of our minds, a false oasis we believe in without proof. We accept these assumptions as true, but they are merely speculations.
In short, a fallacy is a belief based on unreliable evidence and unsound arguments.
A control fallacy is when webelieve we have complete control over everything that happens to us. On the flip side, we might think that fate or other people are in control because we feel incapable. We either think things are beyond our control or we take responsibility for things we have little to no power over.
These feelings cause negative thoughts and behaviors, leading to an unending cycle of distress and irrational thought patterns. Both aspects of this cognitive distortion can generate guilt and shame, compelling us to blame ourselves or someone else.
External Control Fallacy
When we feel externally controlled, we perceive ourselves as weak and powerless. We blame outside forces (fate, weather, authority figures) rather than assume responsibility for our actions. A delinquent blames her parents, the philanderer blames his wife, and our failing grade is because our instructor dislikes us.
We believe external forces control us because our condition is unmanageable and makes us feel impotent. This is a valid assumption because, in essence, until we seek recovery, social anxiety is in control of our emotional stability.
Perhaps we’ve convinced ourselves that we are stuck in an uncomfortable job or relationship, unable to take control of our self-worth or happiness. We believe we can’t fix anything and become casualties of the ‘why bother’ syndrome of helplessness, where we feel that no matter what we do, the outcome will be the same, so why bother trying at all?
Internal Control Fallacy
The fallacy of internal or hyper-control occurs when we assume responsibility for the conduct of others. We feel that we are so in control of everything that if anything goes wrong, it is our fault. This is a form of personalization, where we believe everything is somehow related to us. Often, we compensate for our inability to manage our lives by falsely assuming control of others.
Our illogical mindset makes us feel responsible for what others experience and guilty for their adversities and unhappiness. Our symptomatic apprehension of judgment and criticism drives us to assume responsibility for other people’s thoughts and behaviors, which makes us mind-readers and fortune-tellers.
Assuming responsibility for someone else’s behavior often leads to self-blaming. “It’s my fault my wife is unhappy.” “He drinks because I don’t appreciate him.” The notion that we have failed them invites self-guilt and wreaks havoc on our self-esteem.
One egregious internal control fallacy is our tendency to blame ourselves for our condition, forgetting or disputing the real cause of childhood disturbance and the negative trajectory it sets in motion. We must remain aware that we are not responsible for experiencing social anxiety. We did not ask for it. It happened to us.
Control fallacies are inaccurate assignations. Logic dictates that we assume responsibility for our actions and stop taking it for problems we do not create. Social anxiety does not thrive on logic, so we must recognize when we fall into either aspect of this cognitive distortion. For instance, when we find ourselves blaming external factors for our situation, we can pause and consider our own role in it. Similarly, when we start feeling responsible for others’ actions, we can remind ourselves that we are not in control of everything.
Recognizing control fallacies can be a liberating experience. It’s a step towards understanding and managing our social anxiety. It’s important to remember that control fallacies are not unique to us. Many people struggle with these distortions. Understanding this can help us feel less isolated and moreconnected, helping us recognize that we inherently control our mental health.
EMOTIONAL REASONING
Cognitive distortions, with their exaggerated and irrational thought patterns, wield significant power in sustaining our anxiety and depression. They distort reality to reinforce or justify our toxic thoughts and behaviors, particularly our negative self-appraisal.
Recognizing how we use cognitive distortions as strategies to avoid facing certain truths is a significant step toward awareness and recovery.
Cognitive distortions are rarely clear-cut; they often overlap, making them challenging to define precisely. However, because they disrupt our emotional well-being, we learn to recognize their individual impact, anticipate them, and work to eliminate them from our thoughts and behaviors. While the number of cognitive distortions can vary, thirteen are particularly relevant to social anxiety.
We will begin our exploration of the thirteen cognitive distortions most relevant to social anxiety with emotional reasoning. This distortion involves making judgments and decisions based solely on our feelings.
The term ‘emotional reasoning’ is misleading as a cognitive distortion because it implies a coalescence of emotions and reasoning when its true meaning is that our reasoning is emotionally induced. We rely on our feelings to make decisions rather than on objective evidence. The phrase my gut tells me encapsulates this irrational thinking.
In essence, we believe that our feelings must be true. For instance, if we feel like a failure, we conclude that we are a failure. If we feel incompetent, we assume we are incapable. If we make a mistake, we think we must be stupid. We convince ourselves that all our negative beliefs about ourselves, others, and the world are valid because they feel genuine. Understanding this compulsion equips us with the knowledge we need to combat it.
What are some examples of how emotional reasoning can affect our lives? Our core beliefs and symptoms make us feel helpless, hopeless, undesirable, and worthless. Feeling hopeless disincentivizes us from trying anything new. Our helplessness makes it challenging to make healthy decisions. Feeling undesirable will prevent us from social activities and disrupt any attempt to make friends and establish close relationships. And if we feel worthless, then why bother with anything?
If we are solely guided by our feelings, opposing facts, and positive experiences will not change our perspective. How we feel influences our emotions, impacting us unconsciously and automatically. For example, if we fear public speaking, our emotions will convince us of our inability, even if we have evidence to the contrary. Our distorted thoughts and beliefs manifest in our emotions, causing us to misinterpret reality.
When we feel guilty about something, our emotional reasoning decides we must be guilty even when there is no evidence that we have done anything wrong.
We may have excellent grades in high school, but if we feel stupid, we are convinced we are dumb and unworthy of higher aspirations. If we feel unattractive, no outfit, no matter how appealing, will make us feel otherwise, and we avoid social situations because our chances of having healthy interactions are hopeless. We will be alone forever, we tell ourselves.
Let me provide a vivid example from my social anxiety days. On an infrequent hiatus from alcohol and pharmaceuticals, I was lucky to be cast in a small part in a major film, Report to the Commissioner. They rewrote my mediocre page of dialogue minutes before filming. I managed to fluster myself through the dialogue and exited the scene by running into the camera. The producer, John Frankenheimer, grumbled that my work was passable and necessary to the script. Months later, I attended the premiere at the Cinerama Dome and waited excitedly for my big break, which, unbeknownst to me, had landed on the cutting room floor. It had no place in the film because the plot line of my disappearing sister had been edited out of the film. Nonetheless, my emotional reasoning convinced me they rewrote around me because of my pathetic performance. I gave no thought to the rational explanations, i.e., the insignificance of my character or the fact that being edited from a film was commonplace.
My SAD-induced insecurity, coupled with core beliefs of undesirability and incompetence, dominated my self-appraisal. It was an excellent excuse to pop a Quaalude, get drunk, and ignore my agent for several months.
Staying in touch with our feelings and trusting our instincts is healthy when supported by experience and evidence. SAD, however, fuels irrational thoughts and feelings, compelling us to make poor decisions. A balanced perspective requires a coalescence of right and left brain thinking. The right hemisphere supports our emotions, while the left is analytical and logical.
Our doctor recommends a healthy diet to lower our cholesterol. For the past two weeks, we have been eating oatmeal and berries for breakfast, and lunches have consisted of kale and spinach salads. We’ve avoided saturated fats and added fish to our diet twice weekly. Then our date takes us Outback Steakhouse, where you splurge on a 13-ounce ribeye and a bowl of bloomin’ onions. Rather than recognizing the positive benefits of fourteen days of healthy eating, our emotional reasoning (and hunger) convince us it was all for naught, and we pick up a six-pack of Guinness stout and a bag of Doritos Nacho Cheese on the way home.
Emotional intelligence (EQ) is perceiving, managing, controlling, or communicating emotions. Those of us experiencing social anxiety ostensibly have a low EQ because it requires rational thinking, a faculty anathema to our condition. We compensate for emotional reasoning this lacuna by enhancing our left brain’s intellectual attributes to balance our right brain’s creative pursuits.
Understanding and mitigating our tendency for emotional reasoning is necessary for personal growth. Recovery requires a strategy based on rational coping statements to achieve psychological balance. We need to examine and analyze our emotions rationally without self-indulgence. This self-analysis counteracts our tendency to allow our feelings to guide our behaviors.
In other words, we enhance our ability to perceive, manage, and communicate by balancing our emotions with rational thought. Through cognitive processes, including Socratic questioning, we aggressively and consciously learn to utilize both brain hemispheres—a harmony crucial to recovery from social anxiety and related conditions. This alleviation of emotional reasoning helps us achieve optimal coherence, producing a well-balanced, rationally creative symmetry.
FALLACY OF FAIRNESS & HEAVEN’S REWARD
A fallacy is a belief based on unreliable evidence and unsound arguments, as in control fallacy, where we either believe something or someone has power and control over things that happen to us, or (2) we hold that type of power over someone else. The fallacy of fairness is a common and relatable cognitive distortion. It’s the unrealistic assumption that life should be fair, a notion many of us grapple with frequently. It’s the most immature cognitive distortion used by children to justify their selfish notion that the world revolves around them.
Due to our Irrational perception, we are the centerpiece of everyone’s attention; we tend to exploit the fallacy of fairness, albeit unconsciously, to compensate for our comparison envy and any disappointment that may arise.
It is human nature to equate fairness with how well our personal preferences are met. We know how we want to be treated, and anything that conflicts with that seems unreasonable and emotionally suspect.
Fairness is subjective, however. Two people seldom agree on its application. The concept is irrational, and our compulsion is childish and evasive. As Grandpa remarks in The Princess Bride, “Who says life is fair? Where is that written?”
Fairness is subjective, based on personal beliefs and experiences. It is our biased assessment of how well others, institutions, and nature meet our wants and expectations. When reality conflicts with our perceptions of fairness, it generates distressing emotions such as anger, frustration, and resentment.
The belief that everything should be based on fairness and equality is a noble but unrealistic philosophy. We can strive for such things, but life is inequitable. People are self-oriented, and institutions are singularly focused. Only nature is impartial.
Wanting things to work in our favor is rational and normal. Expecting them to do so unfailingly is unreasonable to the extreme.
We often base our concept of fairness on conditional assumptions, which allows us to shun personal accountability. “If my teacher knew how hard I studied, she’d give me a passing grade.” However, studying does not guarantee comprehension, and grades are usually based on test results. And the effort of studying is subjective.
A common misconception is expressed in the phrase,” If my parents had treated me better, I wouldn’t have social anxiety disorder.” Notwithstanding our desire to source our discontent, a direct cause of emotional malfunction is indeterminate, and blaming is irrational, given the evidence or lack thereof. Blaming is another excuse for not taking personal responsibility.
The fallacy of fairness is the unrealistic assumption that life should be subjectively fair. Coupled with the fallacy of heaven’s reward, where we expect to be equitably rewarded for performing kindness, an endless cycle of disappointment and unjustified resentment is predictable. Disappointment is an inevitable part of life, and understanding these fallacies can help us prepare for it.
Heaven’s Reward Fallacy
The fallacy of fairness is commonly associated with heaven’s reward fallacy, which is the unreasonable assumption that we will be justly rewarded for our hard work and sacrifice. Heaven’s reward fallacy, as Aaron Beck explains it, is the belief that someone is keeping track of all our sacrifices and self-denial, for which we will be rewarded someday. Although destined for the afterlife, unlike Job, we expect some assurances in this life. When tangible rewards don’t materialize, it can lead to a profound sense of disappointment and even bitterness.
This anticipation of reward drives us to do things for others with the expectation that some higher power will recognize and reward our efforts. While a return on our investment may be appreciated and reciprocated in this lifetime, it is unreasonable to presume it will happen. If these expectations are unmet, the resultant disappointment aggravates our social anxiety and leads to depression, animosity, and self-recrimination.
Unhealthy Motivations
Anticipating rewards for services rendered makes our expectations real and visceral. This often leads to overcompensation, where we do more than is necessary or reasonable to please others. We become codependent, relying on them for our sense of self-worth and identity, often sacrificing our own needs in the process.
We become consummate enablers, justifying, encouraging, or contributing to someone else’s harmful behaviors to gain their favor and friendship. Rather than standing by our boundaries, we allow ourselves to be bullied and taken advantage of, seeking affirmation and appreciation.
Set Reasonable Expectations
These fallacies are rooted in our innate desire for fairness and reciprocity. We know how we want to be treated, and anything that conflicts with that is emotionally untenable—even if our expectations are immoderate and implausible. Unfortunately, the naïve belief that all our positive support will be recognized and reciprocated epitomizes unreasonable expectations that will inevitably be unmet.
In reality, not all effort or hard work is rewarded. Altruism for the sake of a reward is a misinterpretation because the practice represents unselfishness. Not all good works entitle you to a reward, and not all kindnesses are redeemed by the universe. If we give without expecting some quid pro quo, we convince ourselves our actions are selfless, but they are often motivated by our need for connection and appreciation.
Let’s consider our relationships. It is naïve to assume that our contributions to a relationship are always returned. Making sacrifices for the sake of reciprocation is selfish. Unfortunately, our fear of rejection often compels overzealousness, which can be off-putting. Even if our giving is appreciated, expecting a satisfying and equitable return can lead to resentment, anger, and disappointment, which projects an unsustainable relationship.
In the workplace, expecting notice and reciprocation for services above and beyond what is required is common. Our core and intermediate beliefs of undesirability and worthlessness play a crucial role in our desire to be recognized. Many of us who distort reality by believing that life is fair and that we will be justly rewarded tend to value ourselves based on our work performance and how our cohorts and superiors perceive us.
However, because life is not always fair and expectations are rarely met, we can become frustrated and resentful, which can negatively impact our relationships and productivity.
It is human nature to expect equity or reciprocation for our efforts. However, nature’s algorithms do not support the concepts of fairness and equal treatment. Life is a crapshoot. By letting go of unrealistic expectations, we can experience logical resolutions and reasonable solutions, knowing that our emotional well-being is internally driven and not determined by external factors.
FILTERING
When under stress, we are particularly vulnerable to cognitive distortions. Like emotional IEDs, they wreak havoc on our confidence and composure.
One concern in working with cognitive distortions is recognizing their overlapping characteristics and parallels. Multiple names for the same cognitive distortions are common, and distinguishing one from the others can be challenging.
When we filter, we selectively ignore the positive aspects of a situation. This unbalanced perspective leads to polarized thinking, where we perceive things only in black or white. Because of our negative self-appraisal, we assume everything that happens is our fault, and anything said derogatorily reflects on us. This distortion is called personalization, which usually leads to internal blaming.
While some of these distortions share traits and characteristics, making them difficult to distinguish, we learn to recognize their idiosyncrasies – the thoughts and behaviors specific to your experiences and personality.
Filtering is a cognitive distortion in which we selectively focus on the negative aspects of a situation. While familiar to all of us, this is especially prevalent among those of us experiencing social anxiety. When we filter, we ignore the positive perspectives and embrace those that support our negative self-appraisal. Our learned tunnel vision gravitates toward the adversity of a situation, excluding the recognition of the positive aspects. This habit also affects our mood, memories, and possibilities as we dwell on the unfortunate aspects of past events rather than the broader picture of multiple experiences.
Our compulsion to focus on the negative is additionally challenging because all humans possess that inherent negativity bias, where we are more receptive to adverse events than positive ones. Imagine you are on a plane, and the pilot alerts you to the wonders of the Grand Canyon on your left side and the landscape decimated by the forest fire on your right. Which one gets your undivided attention?
A person who consistently filters out negative information probably has an excessively cheerful or optimistic personality. Conversely, a person who emphasizes gloom and doom might be considered unhappy or defeatist. Those of us living with SAD tend to mirror the latter. We filter out the positive aspects of our lives, creating an emotional imbalance due to our emphasis on adverse thoughts and experiences. We view ourselves, the world, and our future through an unforgiving lens.
A dozen people in our office celebrate our promotion; one ignores us. We obsess over the lone individual and disregard the goodwill of the rest. By dwelling on the one individual’s indifference, we reinforce our feelings of undesirability and alienation. It’s a common pattern fostered by our condition.
Negative Filtering
Negative filtering is one of our more common cognitive distortions. It’s a habit that many of us share, sustaining our toxic core and intermediate beliefs, which are deeply ingrained negative beliefs about ourselves and the world. Our pessimistic outlook exacerbates our feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. We accentuate the negative. We anticipate the worst-case scenario, expect criticism, ridicule, and rejection, worry about embarrassing or humiliating ourselves, and project unpleasant outcomes that become self-fulfilling prophecies. Unsurprisingly, we readily turn to filtering to justify our irrational thought patterns.
I wrote the book and directed an original theatrical production in my twenties. The songs were great, the dancing commendable, and the direction sufficient to garner a few good reviews. One of the trades, however, gave us a vicious review. Any rational person would have basked in the good notices. My social anxiety, of course, zeroed in on the negative one, prompting me to smash my guitar and a pair of glasses.
I did this in public, to boot, which reinfiorced my reputation as a drama queen.
To effectively counter filtering, we need to analyze the unsoundness of our one-sided perspective and consider the broader picture. As we become aware (identify, comprehend, and accept) of filtering’s self-sabotaging nature and characteristics, we can start to mitigate its power. With time and practice, rational and authentic responses to its duplicity become automatic and spontaneous. We learn to consider the glass half full rather than half empty.
SAD is an emotional virus that metastasizes throughout our lives until we moderate its symptoms through recovery. A pathogen brings disease to its host. Another name for a pathogen is an infectious agent, as they cause infections. As with any organism, pathogens prioritize survival and reproduction.
There’s another irritating trait called the comfortable misery syndrome. We’ve lived in the SAD prison for so long that we’ve gotten used to the gruel.
We view ourselves through myopic lenses. SAD sustains itself by making us inadequate and inferior. It controls us by convincing us we are weak, stupid, and incapable of surviving without it.
LABELING
When we label individuals or groups, we reduce them to a single, usually hostile or dismissive characteristic or descriptor, often based on an isolated event or behavior. As a result, we view them (or ourselves) through the label and filter out information that contradicts it.
Labeling leads to false assumptions, ostracizing, and prejudice, fueling painful personal emotions and generating hostility. Obvious examples of labeling are, “Because he can’t fix the dishwasher, he is useless.” “Because she won’t talk to me, I am undesirable.”
Labeling is emotionally demoralizing when those of us experiencing social anxiety are labeled by our symptoms, especially if we do the labeling.
Labeling is a form of overgeneralization, a cognitive distortion in whichwe draw broad conclusions or make statements based on one or two incidents or behaviors and ignore contradicting evidence. Polarized thinking, filtering, emotional reasoning, and jumping to conclusionscan also instigate labeling.
OtherLabeling
Because we fear criticism and ridicule, we often label others out of anger and resentment for our perceived inadequacies. We also tend to retaliate to compensate for our insecurity. For example, if we feel alienated at a party, we might label the other guests rude or hostile.
If our companions seem unsupportive, we might label them disloyal and our intimate partner indifferent.
Personal Labeling
Personal labeling (self-labeling) is when we create negative labels based on our self-appraisal. We know how distressing it can be when someone adversely labels us. When we engage in personal labeling, we sustain our self-loathing and disappointment. “No one talked to me at the event. I must be undesirable.” This self-labeling can be particularly damaging, as it perpetuates our negative self-perceptions and undermines our self-esteem.
Branding ourselves with a negative epithet is self-defeating, sustaining our anxiety and depression. This practice leads to thoughts and behaviors reinforcing our label, triggering a cascade of negative self-perceptions. The self-perpetuating cycle of adverse self-labeling deepens our sense of hopelessness, and our subsequent actions support our despondency. It’s crucial to recognize this self-defeating cycle and take steps to break it.
Labels are unreasonable because they are subjective interpretations. Arbitrarily evaluating someone based on distinct incidents or behaviors does not define their entire character and is hurtful and harmful.
Rather than focusing on the specific element or prejudice that generated the label, it is essential to value the positive contributions of the person or group. We should appraise everyone with compassionate insight. For instance, instead of labeling someone as ‘aloof’ or ‘arrogant,’ perhaps we can consider their shyness or anxiety. Rather than an arbitrary label, attempting to understand the reasons for their behavior or our discomfort is a kinder and more rational approach.
Our preconceived notions often stem from experience, bias, disinformation, or unconscious projections. When we label someone based on their appearance or behavior, it’s crucial to question our assumptions. Why do we feel this way? What motivates our need to characterize someone by a particular attribute? By questioning our assumptions, we can gain a deeper understanding and avoid the pitfalls of labeling.
We are so much more than a label. We are unique individuals with diverse backgrounds, beliefs, and concerns. This awareness should broaden our perspectives.
Consider why someone might act the way they do. Think about how harmful and closed-minded a label is and how it might affect them. How does being labeled affect you? We abhor our fears of being judged or criticized. Why would we do that to someone else? Why would we do that to ourselves? Questioning our assumptions is crucial for rational thought, perception, and behavior.
Overgeneralization, Jumping to Conclusions & Catastrophizing
Three closely aligned cognitive distortions appear moderately indistinguishable because they are all derived from our compulsion to dramatize their conclusions. Overgeneralization, jumping to conclusions. and catastrophizing arethe engine, car, and caboose of our exaggerated reactions to common situations.
Let’s take an example from our social anxiety. We overgeneralize that a failed relationship means every other effort will generate the same negative response. We then promptly conclude that we will never experience a healthy relationship. The catastrophic belief is that we will become isolated and friendless, with multiple cats to keep us company. These three closely related cognitive distortions are broad, unsubstantiated, and ostensibly inaccurate subjective projections. Here’s how we tell them apart.
Overgeneralization
We overgeneralizewhen we drawconclusions that exceed what could be logically explained, usually applying statistics from a small sample size to a larger population.
The neighbor’s teenage son is a delinquent because most teenagers in this neighborhood are delinquents.
Overgeneralizing happens when we make exaggerated claims about something or someone without evidence. We make false conclusions based on limited or inaccurate information, convinced that a negative experience or behavior applies to similar situations, whether or not the circumstances are comparable.
We assume an isolated behavior represents an entire group, which leads to stereotyping. We view a one-time incident as a never-ending pattern of regularity, disputing the potential for behavioral change. Moreover, we disregard evidence that disputes our findings.
Like filtering, where we ignore the positive and dwell on the negative, overgeneralization supports our SAD-induced tendency to assume the worst of an incident or behavior, usually due to prior experience. So ‘once’ becomes ‘many,’ ‘sometimes becomes always,’ and ‘possibly’ becomes ‘probably.’ For example, the last time we went swimming, we almost drowned. Therefore, all pools and lakes are dangerous and should be avoided. Because the sushi made us ill, all East Asian restaurants are unhealthy.
These irrational conclusions prevent us from placing ourselves in similar situations where we assume a bad experience will repeat itself. Our automatic negative thoughts (ANTs) are usually overgeneralizations. For example, if we feel rejected at a social gathering, we may conclude, “I am undesirable.’ No one will ever like me,’ which supports the likelihood that we will avoid or suspect future social situations
We overgeneralize when we claim that all politicians are corrupt or all priests are pedophiles based on small representations. Outlaw gangs often ride motorcycles. Therefore, the couple on the Harley-Davidson must be members of an outlaw gang. These are all instances of overgeneralization that we encounter in our daily lives.
Overgeneralization can make it difficult to establish and maintain relationships. Our condition makes establishing and maintaining relationships difficult, and they often fail, making us consider all potential relationships too risky. A mistake at work might repeat itself and lead to overgeneralizing our ineffectiveness, hindering our professional growth. This cycle of negative self-appraisal further damages our already fragile self-esteem.
Jumping to Conclusions
Jumping to conclusionsinvolves makingbroad and inaccurate conjectures that are unsubstantiated by evidence. T
he neighbor’s teenage son is a delinquent because he enjoys heavy metal.
When we overgeneralize, we infer that a single behavior or incident indicates a pattern. Jumping to conclusions occurs when we make a broad assumption based on a particular behavior or incident despite having evidence to the contrary.
Most of the symptoms of our condition are examples of jumping to conclusions. Our negative core beliefs and self-appraisal compel us to jump to conclusions. We assume that we will embarrass or humiliate ourselves during a situation because we feel stupid. We jump to the conclusion that no one will talk to us because the shame of our condition makes us want to hide. We avoid companionship and intimacy because we jump to the conclusion that we are undesirable.
Jumping to conclusions implies we are telepathic and clairvoyant. Our projection of adverse outcomes makes us fortune tellers and mind readers. Fortune telling is a type of cognitive distortion where we predict adverse outcomes. We symptomatically focus on the worst-case scenario and the probability of disaster. We become faux mind-readers when we conclude we are subject to criticism and ridicule. Both distortions can lead to a warped perception of reality.
Catastrophizing
When we catastrophize, weassume the worst by imagining a situation potentially more disastrous than logic dictates.
The neighbor’s teenage son will probably do us harm because he is a neighborhood delinquent who enjoys heavy metal.
Chicken Little was plucking worms in the henyard when an acorn dropped from a tree onto her head. She immediately assumed the worst. The sky is falling, the sky is falling, she clucked hysterically.
Catastrophizingcompels us to conclude that the worst-case scenario has occurred when things happen to us rather than considering plausible explanations. It is the irrational assumption that something is or will be far worse than reasonably probable. We prophesize the worst and twist reality to support our projection.
For instance, if our significant other has a bad week, we might conclude that the relationship is in jeopardy (external control), leading to behaviors that could instigate such an outcome. We catastrophize by convincing ourselves that divorce is imminent and we will never find love again.
If we receive a disappointing grade on a test, we may conclude that we will fail the course or catastrophize that we will never graduate. If our manager isn’t happy with how we performed a task, we might jump to the conclusion that we will not be promoted or convince ourselves that we will lose our jobs and will never work again.
If we experiencemigraines or abdominal pain, we might decide to rest up or see a physician if the pain continues. Convincing ourselves that we have a brain tumor or a ruptured appendix is catastrophizing.
Catastrophizing is not just a cognitive distortion; it’s paralyzing. It limits our interactivity and social engagement because we are on the cusp of disaster. Catastrophizing prevents us from trying new things and experiencing life to the fullest. It shuts out possibilities. It limits our ability to establish, develop, and maintain healthy relationships.
Understanding the paralyzing effect of catastrophizing is the first step towards overcoming it and living a more fulfilling life.
One of the four central core beliefs associated with social anxiety and depression is our sense of helplessness. This perceived impotence, if left unchecked, can become a learned behavior developed through repetition and experience. We express learned helplessness when we convince ourselves that if we lack control over some experience in the past, we will never have control over it.
It’s crucial to recognize and address the self-destructive nature of our perceived impotence to regain control over our lives.
To Encapsulate
Overgeneralization: The neighbor’s teenage son is a delinquent because most teenagers in this neighborhood are delinquents.
Jumping to Conclusions: The neighbor’s teenage son is a delinquent because he listens to heavy metal.
Catastrophizing: The neighbor’s teenage son will probably do us harm because he is a delinquent who listens to heavy metal.
Solutions
The obvious suggestion is to stop blowing things out of proportion. That’s easier said than done, but given our condition, it’s prudent to repeatedly instruct our neural network to focus on common-sense thinking. Recognizing the irrationality of these assumptions is the first step to challenging and changing them.When we overgeneralize, jump to conclusions, and catastrophize, we prophesize potential adverse outcomes and shape our behaviors to ensure they happen.
By devising rational explanations, we can break this cycle
Our desire for stability causes us to seek certainty and predictability. Our anxiety flourishes in fearful or unfamiliar situations. This is because our ‘fight-or-flight response,’ a natural reaction to stress, compels us to make rash and careless assumptions without considering other possibilities and perspectives.
It is essential to remain vigilant that cognitive distortions may support our twisted interpretations, such as believing ‘I’m a failure’ after a minor setback, and validate our irrational thoughts and behaviors, like avoiding social situations due to fear of judgment.
Still, their inaccuracies perpetuate our anxiety and depression. By considering other possibilities and perspectives, such as ‘I may have made a mistake, but it doesn’t define me’ or ‘Others may not be judging me as harshly as I think’, we can challenge these distortions.
There are simple and obvious steps we can take to eliminate these distortions.
Justify our conclusions with evidence. What research and data support them? Do we truly know anything about the subject? What fears, experiences, and prejudices initiated these conclusions? Perhaps our obsession with others criticizing, ridiculing, and rejecting us compels us to attack first as a form of self-defense. This critical thinking is crucial in combating these distortions.
Put ourselves in the shoes of those we subject to inaccurate and derogatory accusations. How do we feel when the tables are turned, as they invariably are when we succumb to our SAD-induced fears of criticism, rejection, and ridicule?
Assess the situation and consider plausible explanations and other perspectives. Respond rationally rather than emotionally.We have the power to stop these negative thought patterns. We identify them, write them down, analyze their irrationality, and produce common-sense solutions.
Practice basic self-care: These irrational conclusions are more likely to materialize during periods of fatigue or stress. Basic self-care practices, such as getting enough sleep and eating properly, exercising regularly, connecting with nature, and taking time to reflect with gratitude on the positive aspects of our lives, can help us feel more emotionally balanced.
By prioritizing self-care, we show ourselves the care and attention we deserve, which can help manage unproductive thoughts.
Stop overthinking. When we overthink, we obsess, engaging in repetitive and unproductive thoughts. We make mountains out of molehills. Overthinking is a hindrance to personal development because it entails ruminating about our past habits and failures, whereas recovery is a here-and-now solution that will positively impact the future.
Thoughts are just thoughts. They are not facts or reality unless we make them so.
Compassion can help us see situations through the other’s perspective, reducing our tendency to distort the accuracy of the situation. Critical thinking will challenge our assumptions to avoid distorting our conclusions.
As we progress, we become acutely aware (identify, comprehend, and accept) our perverse idiosyncrasies. We recognize them in our behaviors and notice them in others. We identify them when we make unthinking and unfounded statements and observations.
PERSONALIZATION
Did you ever walk into a room and the conversation suddenly stop? It is because we irrationally assume we are the immediate center of attention and are under evaluation when we are nothing more than a momentary distraction.
Personalization, often called the mother of all guilt, is a common human tendency. It’s the belief that everything is somehow directed at us, even without a logical connection. This perception stems from our emotional assumption that we’re always the center of attention, and our suspicion that we’re constantly under negative appraisal, criticism, and ridicule.
When we personalize, we tell ourselves that what others are doing or saying must relate to us personally. We assume random comments are directed toward us. For instance, we are convinced that a teacher’s general criticism of the class is because of something we did. Similarly, if a friend cancels plans, we might conclude it’s because they don’t want to spend time with us, rather than considering other possible reasons.
Understanding personalization can be a game-changer. When someone advises us, “Don’t take it personally,” we might be engaging in personalization. This concept helps us realize that we’re not always the cause of things happening around us. It’s a relief to know that not everything is a reaction to us, and that random comments are often not personally relevant. This understanding can empower us to navigate social situations with a clearer perspective, reducing the burden of unnecessary guilt and anxiety.
Personalization can manifest in various forms, from the belief that our whispering colleagues are critiquing us to the conviction that a friend’s foul mood is a reaction to something we did. This distortion leads to a cascade of negative emotions, including guilt, anxiety, and a pervasive sense of inadequacy. It also gives us a sense of control over other people’s motivations. For example, if we believe a friend’s foul mood is because of us, we might feel we have the power to ‘fix’ their mood, even if we are entirely unrelated to the real cause. This perceived control can be a heavy burden, as it often leads to misplaced responsibility and unnecessary stress.
Personalization causes a misplaced sense of personal responsibility that does not account for external factors or circumstances. We blame ourselves for things that have nothing to do with us. A disappointing event or relationship is our fault, even when we are uninvolved.
Much of this is due to our symptomatic self-centeredness, a term that refers to our tendency to focus on ourselves and our own feelings, often to the exclusion of others. We worry about embarrassing or humiliating ourselves, and our intense anxiety during social situations. Of course, the reality is that everyone is the center of their little world with their busy lives and unique interests. The chances that they are thinking and talking about us are doubtful. As children, we believe the world revolves around us. We are emotionally and cognitively incapable of considering other probabilities. We assume our parents fight because we did something wrong. Reasonable people grow out of this self-obsession.
Two types of personalization disrupt our emotional well-being. The first is when wetake our disappointments and struggles personally due to some perceived character deficit. If we are criticized at work for a report, we assume it’s because our productivity is inadequate. We don’t consider alternative explanations. Perhaps our supervisor has been raked over the coals by their boss, and they are merely displacing their frustration. Or the report may be acceptable, but the supervisor is nauseous from a bad lunch. Or the report has a simple typo. But instead of considering viable options, our immediate recourse is to jump to the conclusion (another cognitive distortion) that we aren’t good enough.
The other form of personalization is when we assume responsibility for the trials and tribulations of others.We believe we are responsible for the welfare of others and convince ourselves we are accountable for their happiness or depression. If our relationship fails, we assume we are to blame. When we are ghosted, it’s because we are unlikable.
I’ll provide a personal example. At any level in the entertainment industry, an actor is subjected to the inhumane process of casting, a journey that leads to an inordinate number of rejections. As someone who personalized the indifference of my cat, I lived in a sad cycle of self-criticism. Like many artists, I craved the recognition and occasional moments of audience adulation to compensate for my lack of self-worth. When Report to the Commissioner premiered at the Cinerama Dome on Sunset Blvd., I put on my finest threads and anxiously awaited my small moment on the giant screen. It never appeared, of course. The fact that I was so nervous I couldn’t remember my lines might have been a factor, although my original scene was incongruous to the final product. Numerous actors have survived the indignity of the cutting room floor, including Kevin Costner, Mickey Rourke, George Clooney, Kevin Spacey, and Christopher Plummer, but they were made of sterner stuff.
Here are some coping techniques to help us recognize and mitigate our tendency toward personalization.
One powerful tool in our arsenal is the ability to devise immediate situational affirmations to counter triggers that lead to personalization. Situational affirmations are positive statements to remind ourselves of our worth and capabilities. For instance, if we feel inadequate at work, we can remind ourselves of past successes and unique skills. By doing so, we can regain control over our reactions and prevent negative personalization.
It’s sensible to consider the source of criticism. We are not responsible for other people’s ignorance, prejudice, and temperament, but we control our responses and reactions to their opinions. This allows us to resist the urge to dwell on the clumsy criticisms of witless individuals. We must stop overthinking the criticism and retain our power.
Identifying our triggers in advance is not just advisable, it’s crucial. This proactive approach ensures we will not be piqued when someone tries to inflame them. Is it a particular memory, emotion, or sensation? Pay attention to the sources of your triggers, and take control of your emotional responses.
There is a vast difference between taking things personally and being personally invested. When we take things personally, we are affected by others’ actions or words, but it doesn’t mean we have to let them antagonize or define us. Convincing ourselves that other people’s beliefs and opinions don’t matter can lead to dehumanization and moral disengagement. Personal investment means we invite criticism but don’t let it influence our self-worth.
Standard techniques help mitigate our discomfort when we assume we are the center of attention. For instance, we can remind ourselves that our belief is irrational. Everyone is too busy thinking about themselves to focus on us. Or we can challenge our beliefs. We can use the ‘Look Around Technique’ to observe what’s happening, not what our self-consciousness tells us is happening. Are people specifically talking about us or judging us? Are they even looking at us?
On the other hand, what if a stranger is staring at us, and evaluating or criticizing us? So what? That’s their issue. They don’t know us. They’re just making an uninformed evaluation. Why should we care what they think? We do not need someone else’s approval to be who we are.
Here’s what we can do when we feel self-conscious in public. We take a deep breath, relax our muscles, and gradually look around the room or environment. We’re not staring people down or trying to attract their attention. We are casually looking around to gauge what’s happening around us. The Look Around Technique will reveal that hardly anyone is looking at us, and if they are, they have an ulterior motive, which means they are likely cognitively distorting.
What you observe will reassure and surprise you.
POLARIZED THINKING
One of the most unfortunate battles we face is our constant self-criticism. We endlessly dissect every move and conversation, berating ourselves for perceived ignorance and incompetence. This self-imposed pressure to be perfect can be overwhelming, as we convince ourselves that anything less than perfection is a failure.
In polarized or all-or-nothing thinking, we view things in extremes – black or white. There is no middle ground, no room for compromise. We are either exceptional or complete dullards. Our friends are with us or against us. It’s important to remember that this type of thinking is more common than we might think, and understanding its prevalence can help us feel less isolated and more understood.
We deny the possibility of balanced perspectives or positive outcomes. We hesitate to give people the benefit of the doubt and apply the same skepticism to our behaviors.
Worse than our anxiety about criticism is our self-judgment. Our self-judgment is even harsher than our fear of outside criticism. We must be broken and inept if we are not flawless and masterful. We have little tolerance for mistakes or mediocrity, leading to self-deprecating conclusions like, “I failed my last exam; I fail at everything I try. I’m a loser.” It’s important to note that change is possible. Tending to polarized thinking doesn’t mean we’re broken or flawed. It’s a common human trait that can cause problems when taken to extremes.
All-or-nothing conclusions damage self-esteem and self-perception. We face constant disappointment and demoralization when we judge ourselves or others by impossibly high standards.
Concluding Remarks
Individuals grappling with social anxiety often find themselves entangled in cognitive distortions and defense mechanisms. However, the journey to recovery begins with the empowering act of recognizing, comprehending, and accepting these self-destructive patterns. This process not only fosters recovery but also cultivates attentive listening skills, enabling us to engage in active communication where we truly value what others have to say. In empathic interaction, our goal is to understand, and then to be understood.
As we nurture our self-esteem, we embark on a journey of self-discovery, learning to identify the root causes of our irrational thinking patterns. By overcoming our fears of judgment and criticism through the regeneration of self-esteem, we open ourselves to accepting and appreciating the value of others. Positive psychology serves as our guide, leading us to embrace our unique character strengths, attributes, and shortfalls. This journey of self-appreciation not only fills us with confidence and joy but also inspires us to pay it forward, spreading positivity and understanding.
It’s vital to approach life’s events with a holistic view, considering multiple perspectives. We need to steer clear of the narrow focus of filtering, the inflexibility of polarized thinking, and the half measure of emotional reasoning. Instead, we should embrace the diverse kaleidoscope of viewpoints, interpretations, and possibilities that life offers.
WHY IS YOUR SUPPORT SO NECESSARY AND ESSENTIAL? ReChanneling develops and implements programs to (1) mitigate symptoms of social anxiety and related conditions and (2) pursue personal goals and objectives – harnessing our intrinsic aptitude for extraordinary living. Our paradigmatic approach targets the personality through empathy, collaboration, and program integration utilizing neuroscience and psychology including proactive neuroplasticity, cognitive-behavioral modification, positive psychology, and techniques designed to regenerate self-esteem. All donations support scholarships for groups and workshops.
INDIVIDUAL RECOVERY. The symptoms of social anxiety make it challenging for some to participate in a collective workshop. Dr. Mullen works one-on-one with a select group of individuals uneasy in a group setting. ReChanneling offers scholarships to accommodate the costs. What is missed in group activities is provided in our monthly, no-cost Graduate Recovery Group. In this supportive community, graduates interact with others who have completed the program. Contact ‘rmullenphd@gmail.com’.
Committing to recovery is one of the hardest things you will ever do. It takes enormous courage and the realization that you are of value, consequential, and deserving of happiness.
Coping mechanisms help us cope with stress, anxiety, and other negative emotions. They range from practiced skills in recovery (e.g., grounding, reframing, and rational coping statements) to everyday stress reducers like gardening, journaling, and listening to music.
Social anxiety is culturally identifiable by the persistent fear and avoidance of social interaction and performance situations, which causes us to miss the life experiences that connect us with the world.
Our primary recovery goal is the dramatic moderation of these symptoms. To achieve this, we identify three objectives: To
Replace or overwhelm our negative thoughts and behaviors with healthy, productive ones.
Produce rapid, concentrated positive stimulation to offset the abundance of negative information in our brain’s metabolism.
Regenerate our self-esteem and reintegrate into society through mindfulness and reinforcement of our character strengths, virtues, attributes, and achievements.
Coping Strategies and Coping Mechanisms
Coping strategies are the methods or approaches that best execute our three objectives. On the other hand, coping mechanisms are tools and techniques that implement our coping strategies. The distinctions are important.
For example, to support a response-based strategy, we would utilize cognitive coping mechanisms that focus on our automatic negative thoughts and reduce the influx of our fear and anxiety-provoked chemical hormones.
A comprehensive recovery program employs multiple strategies sustained by cooperative coping mechanisms. These applications are not rigidly distinct solutions but complementary. One-size-fits-all approaches cannot address the underrated complexity of social anxiety.
Coping mechanisms alleviate our situational fears and anxieties, allowing us to step outside the bullseye and objectively analyze our irrational thoughts and behaviors to respond rationally and productively.
In general terms, coping mechanisms help us cope with stress, anxiety, and other negative emotions. They range from practiced skills in recovery (e.g., grounding, reframing, and rational response) to everyday stress reducers like gardening, journaling, and listening to music. Healthy coping mechanisms are situationally adaptive.
“Dr. Mullen is doing impressive work helping the world. He is the pioneer of proactive neuroplasticity utilizing DRNI – deliberate, repetitive, neural information.” – WeVoice (Madrid, Málaga)
Decompensation
Without coping mechanisms, healthy or otherwise, we can experiencedecompensation – the inability or unwillingness to generate effective psychological stress response, resulting in personality disturbance or disintegration.
Defense Mechanisms
Defense mechanisms are temporary safeguards against situations that challenge our conscious minds. They are ostensibly automatic psychological responses designed to protect us from our fears and anxieties.
Cognitive distortions are exaggerated or irrational thought patterns that perpetuate our anxiety and depression. They are defense mechanisms that reinforce or justify our toxic behaviors. And validate our irrational attitudes, rules, and assumptions. They twist reality, painting an inaccurate picture of the self in the world with others. They interpret experiences through a glass darkly.
Any process that protects us from our fears, anxieties, and threats to our emotional well-being is a defense mechanism. Some, like avoidance, humor, and isolation, require no explanation. Others, such as compensation and dissociation, have positive applications in recovery.
Situations
A situation is a set of circumstances – the facts, conditions, and incidents affecting us at a particular time in a specific place. A feared situation provokes anxieties and apprehensions that negatively impact our activities and relationships.
Two Types of Situations
Two types of situations concern us: the anticipated situation and the unexpected one.
Anticipated situationsare those that we know, in advance, trigger our fears and anxieties. They can be one-off situations like a job interview or social event. They can be recurring situations like the classroom or our daily work environment.
Knowing our feared situation in advance gives us ample opportunity to devise a structured plan to counter our fears and anxieties. We develop it utilizing situationally focused coping mechanisms in a workshop environment. We practice our plan in non-threatening simulations. This method is called graded exposure or systematic desensitization.
Exposing ourselves to a feared situation without a strategy and functional coping mechanisms is jumping out of an airplane without a parachute. In the words of a master of moderation, Benjamin Franklin, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.”
Unexpected situationsare those that catch us by surprise – stress-provoking chance encounters such as faulty plumbing, an unexpected guest, or losing a wallet.
Knowing how to respond effectively to unexpected situations is like playing bridge. We know what’s in our hand (our coping mechanisms) but don’t know which card to play until we see the others on the table. Accordingly, we assemble our emergency preparedness kit – a variety of practiced coping mechanisms proven subjectively effective.
“It is one of the best investments I have made in myself, and I will continue to improve and benefit from it for the rest of my life.” – Nick P.
Associated Fears and Corresponding ANTs
Automatic negative thoughts are immediate, involuntary expressions of our fears and anxieties. These thoughts can occur in advance of, during, or after a feared situation. ANTs are terse emotional responses, unbased upon reason or deliberation. They are the unpleasant expressions of our negative self-beliefs that define who we are, who we think we are, and who we think others think we are.
Alleviating Our Symptoms
Coping mechanisms are valuable tools in the recovery process. Their role is to offset the negative stimuli within the situation, allowing us to de-stress and reframe our responses.
We develop and practice detailed coping mechanisms in a workshop environment. Introspection, collective activities, and graded exposure are helpful to the client in determining the mechanisms that are most individually effective and adaptable.
Know the Enemy
Did you ever try to talk to someone about your social anxiety? It’s hard. Like it’s some alien disease or something. Nobody gets it. That is why we are reluctant to disclose it. Many of us deliberately choose to remain ignorant of SAD’s destructive capabilities. Others pretend it doesn’t exist or ignore it, hoping it will disappear or no one will notice. Our resistance is a significant impediment to our recovery.
It is disconcerting how many affected clients are unfamiliar with SAD’s causes, symptoms, and impact. The information is readily available. When we have the sniffles, we dash to the internet and familiarize ourselves with every snake oil remedy known to civilization. Nevertheless, despite experiencing social anxiety for decades, it remains as mysterious to some as the mating habits of the Loch Ness Monster.
It is essential to know the symptoms of our condition and how they impact us. To paraphrase Sun Tzu, our chances of recovery are negligible if we neither know the enemy nor ourself. It is pointless to assemble a puzzle if the pieces are missing.
There are multiple ways to mitigate the anxiety of negative triggers. Three of the more effective are grounding, positive reframing, and rational response.
Grounding
Grounding is turning attention away from anxiety-provoking thoughts, memories, or worries and refocusing on the present moment. It refers to any technique that brings our attention to the present physical moment. Whenever we feel anxious or stressed, we can use grounding techniques to distract ourselves from the emotional situation.
This research-based strategy helps us moderate our situational fears and automatic negative thoughts. If we find ourselves in moments of stress or panic, grounding techniques can help our body relax and return to the present moment.
One of the most common grounding techniques is the 5-4-3-2-1 technique, which grounds us to the moment by reconnecting us to one or more of our five senses. We deliberately focus on objects, sounds, smells, tastes, and our bodies. Doing so moderates our emotional distress by distracting our anxiety.
Rational Response
Our automatic response to everything is emotional. To moderate negative emotions, we address them rationally. A rational response is a logical, self-affirming counter to our fears, issues of self-esteem, and automatic negative thoughts.
How do we respond to these triggers? First, we identify the situation where it happens: Where are we, what are we doing, who and what is involved, etc.? Then, we unpack our associated fears and corresponding ANTs.
Remember, fears are irrational, as is predicting what will happen. Knowing what others are thinking is also irrational unless we’re mind readers. It is all subjective projection.
So, we rationally respond to our fears to moderate them. Example: speaking in front of a group. What are our fears? (Again, they are subjective.) Let us go with our fear of criticism. What might our automatic negative thoughts FIX consist of? “They’ll think I’m stupid.” “They’ll make fun of me.” “I’ll make a fool of myself.”
Rational responses might be: “I am entitled to be here as much as anyone.” “I am valuable and significant.” “I am equal to anyone here.” These are accurate responses to unreasonable, self-defeating thoughts.
Positive Reframing
Our neural network is overwhelmed with negativity. Humans are hard-wired with a negativity bias, meaning we respond to negative things over positive ones.
Social anxiety and low self-esteem sustain themselves through our negative self-appraisal.
Positive reframing is turning a negative perspective into a positive one. By reframing, we identify our triggers and self-esteem issues and change how we react and respond to them. Any situation always offers multiple perspectives. While we cannot control everything that happens, we can control how we react and respond.
One example of reframing is viewing a problem or issue as a challenge or opportunity. We reframe an argument by looking at it from the other’s perspective. In a snowstorm, we can either be housebound and despondent or take the sleds and ice skates out of the closet and enjoy the day. Experts agree that positive reframing is critical for emotional well-being.
As we progress in recovery, grounding, positive reframing, and rational response become habitual and automatic.
Seek Progress, Not Perfection
SAD persons worry about their performance before and during a situation and obsess about the outcome long after. We fear criticism and negative appraisal. We set unreasonable expectations to compensate for our perceptions of incompetence and inadequacy, and then we beat ourselves up when our expectations are unmet. Perfectionism is not the desire to do well but the need to be faultless. Anything less is unsatisfactory. Perfectionism and social anxiety have a parallel relationship.
Recovery, however, is a life’s work in progress. There is no absolute cure for social anxiety, but with work and over time, we experience a dramatic and exponential alleviation of our symptoms. The key is progress over perfection.
Set Reasonable Expectations
An expectation, by definition, is afirm belief that something will take place in the future. When we set an expectation, we invest a fervid interest in its outcome. What happens in the likelihood that our expectations are unmet? Because we have a vested interest, we are psychologically attached to the outcome. Fixed In our minds, we see it as a reality. When it does not go our way, the general response is one of disappointment.
Experts describe the reaction to disappointment as a form of sadness – an expression of desperation or grief due to loss. While it is true that we cannot lose what we have not acquired, fixing the expectation in our mind makes it real and visceral. Loss leads to depression, self-loathing, and other traits associated with perfectionism and social anxiety.
Engender Joy and Laughter
The endorphins and chemical hormones transmitted by positive emotions dramatically enhance our psychological well-being. Joy and laughter counteract anxiety and defuse anger, resentment, and shame. Theystrengthen our immune system,boost energy levels, and enhance memory and concentration. When we smile and laugh, the influx of our fear and anxiety-provoking hormones decreases. Finding humor in stressful situations reframes our perspective and takes the edge off our anxiety. It provides a sense of shared comradery and community, which helps counter our fear and avoidance of intimacy and social events, improving our physiological and psychological health.
Remember, You Are Not Alone
Roughly 124 million U.S. adults and adolescents experience anxiety disorders. 60% of those have depression, and many resort to substance abuse. Persons experiencing SAD are too preoccupied with their center of attention to seek us out for judgment or criticism. Roughly two of five people in any situation are experiencing anxiety. So, when we worry and stress during a social event, we are in good company. Social anxiety is common, universal, and indiscriminate. We are never alone.
GENERAL COPING STRATEGIES
Controlled Breathing
Controlled breathing reduces stress, increases our mental awareness, and boosts our immune system, Scientific studies show that this simple grounding technique dramatically mitigates symptoms associated with anxiety, depression, and other stress-related conditions. Grounding distracts from negative stimuli by focusing on the present through our body and senses. It helps us manage our negative thoughts and reactions.
Our vagus nerve controls our heart rate and nervous system and manages our fight or flight (freeze, fawn, flop) response. Science tells us that the simplest way to manipulate our vagus nerve is to practice controlled breathing, which decreases the flow of cortisol, adrenaline, and norepinephrine while releasing mood—and memory-enhancing chemical hormones like GABA and serotonin.
Positive Personal Affirmations
Positive personal affirmations are self-motivating and empowering statements that help us focus on goals, challenge negative, self-defeating beliefs, and reprogram our subconscious minds. We drastically underestimate the significance and effectiveness of PPAs because we don’t appreciate the neuroscience behind them.
Providing all the neural benefits of positive reinforcement, our PPAs self-describe who and what we aspire to be in our emotional development. PPAs are rational, reasonable, possible, positive, unconditional, problem-focused, brief, and in first-person present or future time. Think of PPA’s as aspirations or self-fulfilling prophecies that, through deliberate repetition, help replace our abundance of negative neural information with healthy, productive input.
Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR)
PMR is another grounding technique. We progressively relax our muscle groups, beginning with the lower extremities and extending to the forehead. Like controlled breathing, there are long and short applications. Abbreviated PMR takes less than a minute and can be executed surreptitiously during a situation. This coping mechanism relieves the discomforting muscle tension aggravated by stress. It also reduces the influx of our fear and anxiety-provoking hormones while momentarily distracting us from our negative thoughts and reactions.
Slow Talk
Our anxiety often compels us to mumble or rush our words under pressure. Slow talk is deliberately speaking slowly and calmly. It slows our physiological responses, alleviates rapid heartbeat, and lowers our blood pressure. It is also helpful to incorporate the 5-second rule, i.e., pause any response for five thoughtful seconds. Not only does this coping mechanism moderate the flow of cortisol, adrenaline, and other stress-provoking hormones, but it also presents the appearance of someone considerate and confident.
Affirmative Visualization
An affirmative visualization isa positive outcome scenario we mentally create by imagining or visualizing it. All information passes through our brain’s thalamus, which makes no distinction between inner and outer realities. Whether we visualize doing something or actually do it, we stimulate the same regions of our neural network. Visualizing raising our left hand is, to our brain, the same thing as physically raising our left hand.
Affirmative visualization activates our dopaminergic-reward system, decreasing the neurotransmissions of anxiety and fear-provoking hormones and accelerating and consolidating the beneficial ones. When we visualize, our brain generates alpha waves, which can reduce the symptoms of anxiety and depression.
Research shows that visualizing a situation in advance improves our mental and physical aptitude. We consciously source information that will enhance our performance outcomes, dramatically improving the likelihood of success in the actual situation. IT also produces the same neural benefits as any other form of proactive neuroplasticity, i.e., the deliberate, repetitive neural input of positive information.
Character Focus
Focusing on our character strengths, virtues, attributes, and achievements channels our emotional angst to mental deliberation, mitigating our fears, anxieties and corresponding ANTs. It supports the regeneration of our self-esteem as we rebuild our latent self-qualities. By manifesting our character strengths and achievements, we reframe our perspective, empowering our asset awareness and generating renewed self-confidence.
Distractions/Diversions
Distractions are mental grounding techniques that engage our focus when confronted by anxiety. Also called directed attention, we focus our attention on a sensory target (i.e. sight, tactile, sound, smell, and taste) to supersede moments of stress and discomfort in our feared situation. Snapping a rubber band on our wrist to momentarily ground our attention is a prime example of a tactile distraction.
Diversions are activities that fulfill the same function (e.g., initiating small talk or humming a song to yourself.) A diversion rechannels the stress of a situational fear or anxiety into a diversionary tactic. These physical diversions and mental distractions temporarily alleviate our fears and anxieties and help manage our negative thoughts and reactions.
Persona
Our body language represents roughly sixty percent of communication. Ten percent is words, and thirty percent is sounds (sighing, laughing, moaning). Persona is the social face we present to our exposure situation, designed to make a positive impression while concealing the nature of our social anxiety. Developing personas is vital to preparing for and adapting to multiple exposure situations.
Our persona establishes our body language. It determines how we carry ourselves, the timbre of our voice, our attitude, and the clothes and shoes we wear (boots, sneakers, high heels). It reflects our character strengths best suited for the situation. (The actor, Paul Newman, allegedly crafted his characters by initially determining their walk and posture.)
We all have multiple personas. We present ourselves differently depending upon the context of the situation, e.g., a sports event versus an interview for a job, a funeral versus a wedding, or a family dinner versus a hoedown. Our personas are ostensibly unconscious – they reflect the environment. Deliberately crafting our persona is an essential learned skill that can dramatically alleviate the stress of a situation.
Persona is an extension of the Social Psychology of Dress, which is concerned with how our dress appearance affects our behavior and that of others toward us. Our outward appearance expresses our internal vision of who we want to present. Persona is more than appearance. It is attitude and performance.
Rooted in self-complexity theory, delivering personas indicates that individuals with diverse self-aspects–different dimensions forming their identity–navigate life more effectively Developing and utilizing personas is vital to preparing for and adapting to multiple exposure situations.
Personas are not other selves distinct from who we are but different aspects of our personality. To analogize, all the clothes in our wardrobe belong to us, but we choose an outfit for a specific occasion to appeal to our sense of self. The same pattern of thought-driven choice establishes our persona.
Projected Positive Outcome
Our projected positive outcome is the reasonable expectations we set for our feared situation. We already know the projected negative outcome if we capitulate to our ANTs. Therefore, we rationally respond by setting reasonable expectations. A projected positive outcome is rational, practical, and doable to ensure success. For example, being immediately hired with a fantastic salary at a networking event is not a reasonable expectation. Making an initial and fruitful contact is an effective projected positive outcome.
Purpose
Purpose is the primary motivation behind our exposure to a situation. What do we seek or hope to accomplish? Why are we exposing ourselves? If our feared situation is the barbershop or beauty salon (not uncommon sources of anxiety), it is reasonable to consider that our purpose might be to get our hair cut or styled comfortably. Our purpose is a subjective determination.
Attending a social event offers multiple purposes, e.g., networking, carousing, making friends, and seeking an intimate relationship. However, maintaining numerous purposes reduces the probability of success, leading to disappointment and self-recrimination. Therefore, we set a reasonable expectation a focus on the principal purpose. To paraphrase a Russian proverb: if you chase two pigs, you have less chance of catching either one.
Small Talk
Small talk is an Informal greeting, comment, or conversation – discourse absent any functional topic of discussion or transaction. In essence, it is polite, non-confrontational verbal interaction meant to acknowledge presence and or open channels of further communication. This activity is not as easy as it appears for those experiencing social anxiety. In interactive workshop activities, graded exposure defines the parameters and establishes the comfort zone critical to successful small talk.
SUDS Rating and Projected SUDS Rating
The Subjective Units of Distress Scale ranges from 0 to 100, measuring the severity of our situational stress. Additionally, it allows us to set reasonable expectations of success. We evaluate what level of distress we anticipate in our feared situation (SUDS Rating) and what we project it will be upon its successful completion (Projected SUDS Rating).
Again, we set reasonable expectations. A moderate projected SUDS rating will offer the probability of a successful venture. For example, if our SUDS rating of distress for making a presentation is 80, a reasonable projected SUDS rating might be 70 or 75. Projecting a 10 SUDS rating would imply that we expect a standing ovation and a national speaking tour. It’s possible, but it is an unreasonable expectation.
Coping Mechanisms for Everyday Stress
Anything that alleviates stress qualifies as a coping mechanism. From listening to music to tending a garden, coping mechanisms are as numerous and varied as individual experience and imagination.
To iterate, some will work for us, and others we will discard. Some will work sometimes and not at other times. Many are general activities like exercise, meditation, and creativity. Examples of coping mechanisms for everyday stress include:
Arts and Crafts:
DIY
Music
Creative Pursuits
Connecting with nature
Hobbies
Personal Time
Physical Activity
Body Relaxation
Self-Empowering Activities
Coping mechanisms are tools and techniques with a wide range of uses. They assist in moderating our situational fears, anxieties, and ANTs. They temporarily allow us to step outside the bullseye so that we can objectively analyze our thoughts and behaviors. And react and respond rationally and productively. They also help us cope with everyday stress and other negative emotions.
WHY IS YOUR SUPPORT SO NECESSARY AND ESSENTIAL? ReChanneling develops and implements programs to (1) mitigate symptoms of social anxiety and related conditions and (2) pursue personal goals and objectives – harnessing our intrinsic aptitude for extraordinary living. Our paradigmatic approach targets the personality through empathy, collaboration, and program integration utilizing neuroscience and psychology including proactive neuroplasticity, cognitive-behavioral modification, positive psychology, and techniques designed to regenerate self-esteem. All donations support scholarships for groups and workshops.
INDIVIDUAL RECOVERY. The symptoms of social anxiety make it challenging for some to participate in a collective workshop. Dr. Mullen works one-on-one with a select group of individuals uneasy in a group setting. ReChanneling offers scholarships to accommodate the costs. What is absent in group activities is provided in our monthly, no-cost Graduate Recovery Group. In this supportive community, graduates interact with others who have completed the program. Contact ‘rmullenphd@gmail.com’.
Committing to recovery is one of the hardest things you will ever do. It takes enormous courage and the realization that you are of value, consequential, and deserving of happiness.
Mental Health Stigma (MHS) is the hostile expression of the abject undesirability of a human being who has a mental illness. It is the instrument that brands the mentally malfunctional defective due to stereotypes. MHS is purposed to protect the general population from unpredictable and dangerous behaviors by any means necessary. MHS is fomented by prejudice, ignorance, and discrimination. The stigmatized are devalued in the eyes of others and subsequently in their self-image as well.
Between 50 and 65 million U.S. adults and adolescents have a mental illness; 90% of those will be impacted by mental health stigma, a presence that elicits unsupportable levels of shame and jeopardizes the emotional and societal well-being of the afflicted.
Trajectory
The Signaling Event. MHS is triggered by a set of signals or a signaling event, i.e., an occasion, experience, news story, or encounter where the visibility of behaviors and mannerisms associated with mental illness elicit a reaction.
The Label. Labeling defines the signaling event and distinguishes it from other labels. ‘Woman’ is a label; it is specific, restrictive to gender, and says certain things that distinguish it from other labels. A successful label elicits a strong public reaction. The defining characteristics of the label become the stereotype. Labeling is subject to the labeler’s belief system and, like stereotypes and stigma, is reliably inaccurate because of implied expectations of behavior.
Dr. Mullen is doing impressive work helping the world. He is the pioneer of proactive neuroplasticity utilizing DRNI—deliberate, repetitive, neural information. — WeVoice (Madrid, Málaga)
The Stereotype. Labeling gives the signal a moniker for identification; the stereotype defines it and gives it meaning. Stereotyping is a cognitive differentiation of something that piques one’s interest; everyone stereotypes. Mental health stereotyping is distinguishable by pathographic overtone that identifies the victim as unpredictable, potentially violent, and undesirable.
Ironically, 14th-century asylums in Spain and Egypt were built to protect the mentally afflicted from the dangerous and violent members of society.
Mental health labeling and stereotypes support and collaborate with preconceived notions of mental illness, generated by the natural aversion to weakness and difference. This is supported by an ignorant and prejudicial belief system and, on occasion, personal experience. Labels and stereotypes are unbound by truth or evidence; believability is the ultimate criterion.
Stigma. A stigma is a brand or mark that negatively impacts a person or group by distinguishing and separating that person or group from others. The branding concept originated with the ancient Greek custom of identifying criminals, slaves, or traitors by carving or burning a mark into their skin. Stigma is identified by three types: (1) abominations of the body, (2) moral character stigmas, and (3) tribal stigmas. The first refers to physical deformity or disease; tribal stigmas describe membership in devalued races, ethnicities, or religions; and moral character stigma refers to persons perceived as weak, immoral, duplicitous, dishonest, e.g., criminals, substance addicts, cigarette smokers, and the mentally ill.
Mental Health Stigma
The objective of MHS is the perceptual protection of the general population from the unpredictable and dangerous behaviors associated with mental illness by any means necessary, including deception, misinformation, and fear-baiting. Its ultimate goal is to negatively impact the social reintegration of the victim.
“It is one of the best investments I have made in myself, and I will continue to improve and benefit from it for the rest of my life.” – Nick P.
Anticipatory stigma is the expectation of a stigma due to behavior or diagnosis, and subsequent adverse social reactions. This causes resistance by the potential victim to disclose any physiological aberration.
Stigma-avoidance identifies those who avoid or postpone treatment fearing the associated stigma will discredit them and negatively impact their quality of life. Studies indicate almost one-third of the potential victims resist disclosure, impacting the potential for recovery.
Family stigmatization occurs when family members reject a child or sibling because of their mental illness. Throughout history, it was commonly accepted that mental illness was hereditary or the consequence of poor parenting. A 2008 study found 25% to 50% of family members believe disclosure will bring shame to the family. (Courtesy-stigma reflects supportive family members.)
An active stigma is a parasitic one. If it finds enough suitable hosts, the parasitosis can spread rapidly by traditional means. Studies show the aversion to mental illness is prosocially hard-wired which provides an abundance of hosts.
Contributing Factors to MHS. The stigma triad of ignorance, prejudice, and discrimination is generated and supported by preconceived notions, general obliviousness, a lack of education, and society’s deep-rooted fear of its susceptibility. The primary attributions to MHS are public opinion, media misrepresentation, visibility, diagnosis, and the disease or pathographic model of mental healthcare.
How Mental Health Stigma Impacts the Victim
MHS impacts the victim through a series of stigma experiences:
Felt stigma. The anticipated or implied threat of a stigma.
Enacted stigma. The activated stigma.
External stigma. The victim holds the perpetrator responsible for the stigma.
Internalized stigma. The victim assumes behavioral responsibility for the stigma.
Experienced stigma. Victim’s reaction to the stigma.
The victim anticipates their mannerisms, behaviors or diagnosis will generate a stigma (felt stigma). When the stigma is realized it becomes an enacted stigma. The victim blames the person who originated the stigma (external stigma) or assumes responsibility due to behavior (internalized stigma). When the stigma impacts the victim’s well-being, it becomes an experienced stigma.
MHS Impact. Mental health stigma can negatively affect the victim’s emotional well-being and quality of life by jeopardizing their:
Safety, health, and physiological wellbeing
Livelihood
Housing
Social Status
Relationships
Solution
Mental health stigma will not be mitigated or eliminated until the mental healthcare community embraces the wellness model over the disease of mental health. The disease model of mental health focuses on the problem; creating a harmful symbiosis between the individual and the diagnosis. The wellness model emphasizes the solution. A battle is not won by focusing on incompetence and weakness but by knowing and utilizing our strengths, and attributes. That is how we positively function―with pride and self-reliance and determination―with the awareness of what we are capable of.
Establishing new parameters of wellness calls for a reformation of thought and concept. In 2004, the World Health Organization began promoting the advantages of wellness over disease perspective, defining health as a state of physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. The World Psychiatric Association has aligned with the wellness model and it has become a central focus of international policy.
Evolving psychological approaches have become bellwethers for the research and study of the positive character strengths that facilitate the motivation, persistence, and perseverance helpful to recovery. Wellness must become the central focus of mental health for the simple reason that the disease model has provided grossly insufficient results.
A WORKING PLATFORM showing encouraging results for most physiological dysfunctions and discomforts is an integration of positive psychology’s optimum human functioning with CBT’s behavior modification, neuroscience’s network restructuring, and other personality-targeted approaches. including affirmations, autobiography, and methods to regenerate self-esteem and motivation.
This new wellness paradigm, however, should not be a dissolution of medical model approaches but an intense review of their efficacy, and repudiation of the one-size-fits-all stance within the mental health community.
WHY IS YOUR SUPPORT SO NECESSARY AND ESSENTIAL? ReChanneling develops and implements programs to (1) mitigate symptoms of social anxiety and related conditions and (2) pursue personal goals and objectives – harnessing our intrinsic aptitude for extraordinary living. Our paradigmatic approach targets the personality through empathy, collaboration, and program integration utilizing neuroscience and psychology, including proactive neuroplasticity, cognitive-behavioral modification, positive psychology, and techniques designed to regenerate self-esteem. All donations support scholarships for groups and workshops.
INDIVIDUAL RECOVERY. The symptoms of social anxiety make it challenging for some to participate in a collective workshop. Dr. Mullen works one-on-one with a select group of individuals uneasy in a group setting. ReChanneling offers scholarships to accommodate the costs. What is absent in group activities is provided in our monthly, no-cost Graduate Recovery Group. In this supportive community, graduates interact with others who have completed the program. Contact ‘rmullenphd@gmail.com’.
Committing to recovery is one of the hardest things you will ever do. It takes enormous courage and the realization that you are of value, consequential, and deserving of happiness.
