How God Changes Your Brain
- Thread starter RCG Trader
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I understand what you're describing but I think it would help if you used a different word in place of thought. I'd suggest imprint, experience or memory. Thought requires a feedback loop as in contemplation.
Not exactly. I think the term "cognitive therapy" was chosen intentionally. The words "imprint," "experience" and "memory" have an objectivity attached to them. However, consider that two people may perceive the same past event in a very different manner. Therefore, it is not so much the event that necessarily causes them anxiety, panic or whatever (even joy, depending on the circumstances), but rather their own subjective interpretation of the event. And it is the interpretation of the experience or memory that gives rise to the specific way we feel about it, both in the past and going forward. Emotions and feelings are subjective because the thoughts (interpretations) are subjective. The goal of cognitive therapy is to instill some objectivity into those thought processes that are causing us pain.
Thanks for the book suggestion, but my reading schedule is very, very full. Coincidentally, I am reading something along those lines right now, a reinterpretation of Freud's work, Life Against Death, The Psychoanalytical Meaning of History. Psychoanalysis of course being akin to and a predecessor of cognitive therapy.
Anyway, let's continue or discussion! you attempting to change men's thoughts so that they stop feeling there is a God, and me attempting to get you to leave them alone. : )
Fine, but I think you should at least place this book at the back of your reading list. Cognitive therapy is much more efficient than Freudian psychoanalysis, and has been clinically proven to be very effective. You will probably get more out of this book than any other on the general subject matter.
Insofar as this thread is concerned, I am not so much looking to change anyone's thoughts as I am to have them consider the genesis of their own feelings. It's basically a process of walking backwards mentally to get to the root cause of the way you feel about any particular subject matter. And it was you who brought up the reality of feelings.
So to summarize, feelings are real and they are subjective. They are subjective because they are based on a subjective interpretation of objective facts. By attempting to objectivize the basis of our feelings, we are in a better position to determine the appropriateness of those feelings against the facts and to even begin the process of modifying those feelings to better fit a more objective interpretation of the underlying facts.
I'm not actually reading it for any therapeutic reason, I'm reading it because it heavily influenced Ernest Becker in his book The Denial of Death, a book I discovered while looking at the modern philosophers of existentialism, and how that philosophy has changed from Kierkegaard's time to now. So, I'm reading backwards.
Yes, I brought up feelings. I don't believe any amount of thinking is going to change some people's feelings about the divine, and I know you'll probably laugh about that. *shrug* The more some people see of the universe, the more they believe it's too fantastic to be the result of chance. I think you have zero chance of changing that. And I believe there's a good chance that if you succeeded on a wide scale you might make the world a worse place. I primarily believe that because of my existentialism--morality is not innate in my view.
You are correct, because it was their thinking that caused those feelings in the first place. The analytic process begins not by more of the same, but by a detached and objective assessment of the thinking that gave rise to the feeling. So to better understand the feeling, you must begin by thinking about the thinking, once removed.
A pill would be so much easier, wouldn't it? (A suppository in the case of Trader666, of course.)
Quote from Gabfly1:
You are correct, because it was their thinking that caused those feelings in the first place. The analytic process begins not by more of the same, but by a detached and objective assessment of the thinking that gave rise to the feeling. So to better understand the feeling, you must begin by thinking about the thinking, once removed.
A pill would be so much easier, wouldn't it? (A suppository in the case of Trader666, of course.)
There is no "correction", most of them feel better with their beliefs than without. Very few people worldwide in fact want to think of the universe and themselves as "nothing but". You have an interminable task. But, hey, maybe that's your immortality project.
Edit: I note your replacement of "corrective" with analytic. Makes sense.