sources of stability

[Adam Blatner]

Moreno, in Essential Moreno/Fox:  "It is almost a miracle that an individual can achieve any degree of balance, and man has continually been in search of devices which will enable him to attain or increase his equilibrium."

      Now I like the 2nd part of the sentence, but the first part stimulates the following:

     People develop a rich capacity to numb out cognitive dissonance, to create loose and flexible belief systems that can be a general assortment of five to twenty platitudes---vaguely associated. Yet this matrix can serve as a sufficient narrative flying carpet to support all manner of ideologies and self-system creations, neurotic, psychotic, fanatic, submissive, oppressed, oppressor, and so forth. People don't closely reason their belief systems. They select items from the teachings of sermons, parts of books, radio or TV broadcasts, they read supportive magazines and news articles, they sustain their beliefs. You can gather enough "evidence" to maintain a prejudice, support a political position, and so forth. 

          This belief system then works as a buffer. Without it people would be very precarious, especially as they notice the profound vulnerability of their own limited and neurosis-laced consciousness. 

                What do you think of this?   Warmly, Adam
Adam Blatner, M.D.
   website: www.blatner.com/adam/   
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://grouptalkweb.org/pipermail/list_grouptalkweb.org/attachments/20080921/cbeb51ee/attachment.html