The camouflage of the psyche

It would be a serious mistake to say that the mood of the people is reflected with vivid clarity paying attention to how to describe the world around them: if you think that everything is bad is because your mood is negative and if you think all is very well is because your mood is positive.

Several times I have referred to the phenomenon of contrast necessary for our sensory perceptions may occur: white on black, sound of silence, salty about bland, smooth over rough cold to hot.

This also happens on an intellectual level: seems terrible when something happens in a context of serenity, amorality seems aberrant under very restrictive criteria, anger is less significant in chaos, sadness individual is minimal when all are equally sad someone not very smart if our attention is in a group of gifted, a bad actor goes unnoticed if among others, in a chorus of saints seems willful renegades.

Almost all my comments on the implications of these phenomena include some mention of Gestalt psychology (1).

Now I comment an observation that anyone can confirm with your own experience.

Imagine the state of mind of a person is very negative, because it goes wrong in life, because your health is precarious, because it has a bad temper, or whatever.

If that person can reasonably live with your discomfort, you may be able to make objective observations of reality, but if you do not want others to know of his bad mood, because he feels shame, because that will increase the discomfort, or because those around him they threatened him that he can not continue bothering with his petulant temper, it is likely that observations of reality might not be as objective, but instead, try to show everything as disastrous, chaotic, vile, hellish, corrupt, lacking respect, full of menacing hazards.

Why make such negative comments ? Because in fantasy claim to believe, (and make others believe) that he is fine but what is wrong is the world, the environment, society, people, country, period.

If we return to Gestalt psychology discussed above, we would say that this person, so that your character difficulties go unnoticed, so that no one perceives, describe the environment with features such as unpleasant mood. If this is black color, then painted black everything else so no one can perceive it, to go unnoticed. So everything looks bad, as bad as it feels. Camouflages the fact that his mental health to go unnoticed.

(1) Artículo en Wikipedia sobre la Psicología de la Gestalt

Ganar dinero para una larga vida

La represión de las coincidencias

Morir no es lo peor

Note: Original in Spanish (without translation by Google): El camuflaje de la psiquis.

(Este es el Artículo Nº 2.185)

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