How What We Are Taught Becomes What We Believe

In my last entry, I wrote, "In actuality we are all different in varying degrees." While this may seem so obvious, that it is pointless to even state it, in actuality the vast majority of individuals do not even know how they may be similar, or how they may differ greatly from others. For example, in my long experience, it has been brought home to me that individuals tend to think that the good qualities they think they may have are common, but believe few have their negative, ("bad") characteristics, except for the most obvious ones they do share.

In actuality the person who knows who they are; what he/she believes, what he/she wants, what his/her habits are, etc., etc., is rare indeed.

While most people can usually tell you about the most obvious aspects of themselves; for example, habits: they smoke, they bit their nails, they always have a donut with coffee in the morning, etc., etc. Other habits go unrecognized; for example: habitual ways of thinking; habitual ways of relating to certain people; habitual facial expressions, (smiling, frowning, etc.); habitual ways of sitting.

Another example of how little they know themselves is what they believe. The vast majority of individuals do not even think in terms of "beliefs," because, for the most part, what they believe is, for them, "truth." Few understand that their beliefs have been programmed into them by their upbringing; by their educations; by their families/culture/heritage; by their religions, by the region of the country they live in; by their "race," i.e., skin color; by the information they take in through T.V., magazines, newspapers, books, etc., etc. The amount of programmed beliefs that we walk around with is astronomical!

Much of this programming is subliminal, particularly when we are young; we absorb it by the actions of others, and by reactions to something we might say or do, and the resultant consequences. In actuality we start taking it in with our Mother's milk, and the interactions of our family members.

As we grow older, especially when we begin to go to school, and if we are required to go to Sunday school, the indoctrination/programming becomes deliberate, with the best of intentions, of course. Did you ever think when you were going to regular school, or Sunday school, (if you went), that you had any option as to whether or not you were to believe what you were told?

The further we go in this educational process, the more detailed becomes our beliefs. Someone who holds a Doctorate in any field is totally convinced that what they have learned is the absolute Truth/Facts about reality. It is only later that some, as they gain real-world experiences, modify their beliefs.

An example of how our personal experiences can modify our beliefs, the Psychologist/author Abraham Maslow stated in one of his books that, when he had left school to practice, he was a Freudian. Later, he became a Behaviorist. He then stated that, as time went by, he married and he and his wife had two children; as the children grew and developed, he became neither a Freudian nor a Behaviorist. Consequently, he was left in a state of bewilderment as to what to believe.

This collision with reality left him to try to sort out just what was true about human development and adult behavior. He came to the conclusion that the entire fields of Psychology and Psychiatry, and their subsequent ideas about human behavior, were based on the study of people who were not mentally healthy. He went on to study, and write about, what it means to be a fully functioning human. (When I first went to college, and was studying Psychology, Freudian Psychiatric Theory was the only option; interestingly enough, the Lab classes taught Behaviorist Theory.)

Subsequently, many followers of Freudian theory, broke away and developed their own theories, until now when Freud is considered by many to be only a historical figure in the field, and not very relevant. However, these many new theories tend to still have their roots deep in the earlier theories. There are some pockets of Freudian-ism left, however; when I was studying Art Therapy to get my Master's Degree, I learned, to my dismay, that the founders of Art Therapy, and the Professors at the school were ardent believers in the validity the Freudian Theory of human development and behavior. (There are a number of branches/types of Art Therapy currently, which I do think is a valid form of therapy; one of the few, in my opinion.)

This ends today's ruminations.

Shirley Gallup