Psychoarticles

By Tereza Konstari

"Here I aim to analyze human subconscious psychology. What is hidden behind certain emotional states like greediness, hate, envy, etc.? Why do people often value money more than their family and friends? Why do people get angry if they have to wait when having a neglected attitude towards somebody's time? Why do businessmen save money on their employees and business needs when traveling with "business class"? Why does society try to suppress individuals, who act and think in their way? What could our brain show us under hypnosis?

 

I have lived in several countries, on two continents and, when communicating with other nationals, such questions were arising in my head. I was analyzing what I saw, faced, and heard from the perspective of the subconscious part of human nature. And that everything finally led to the creation of this work..."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tereza Konstari
• Release date: Jun 22, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201949815

Book preview

Dear reader,

My name is Teresa. I started this work many years ago when I was a teen. That was the beginning of my involvement in psychology and then psychoanalysis, which I love. Back then I went through the self-hypnosis test and described it. Of course, I mainly generalize things and express my own opinion, which could be different from yours and that’s fine, we should look at this world from a critical position and from various angles to see it how it is, in all its beauty and its horror.

This manuscript is not for optimists, my aim is not to make things look nice and cheerful. I don’t discuss here brain activity and the influence of hormones on our behavior. Here I aim to analyze human subconscious psychology. What is hidden behind certain emotional states like greediness, hate, envy, etc.? Why do people often value money more than their family and friends? Why do people get angry if they have to wait when having a neglected attitude towards somebody’s time? Why do businessmen save money on their employees and business needs when traveling with business class? Why does society try to suppress individuals, who act and think in their way? What could our brain show us under hypnosis?

I have lived in several countries, on two continents and, when communicating with other nationals, such questions were arising in my head. I was analyzing what I saw, faced, and heard from the perspective of the subconscious part of human nature. And that everything finally led to the creation of this work, which I decided to write not according to some standards but in a freestyle manner. I have chosen English because despite it is not my mother tongue, indeed it is the easiest language for me for expressing myself.

I hope, you will enjoy my work and would find a lot to think over.

Faithfully yours,

Chapter 1

Psychology of stupidity

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.

Albert Einstein

It’s not the case when a smart human makes stupidities, but a case when stupid tries to be smart.

I’ve been interested in psychology and psychoanalysis since I was 14, I’ve read a lot of books, but the only research paper I managed to find about the psychology of human’s stupidity was the essay The basic laws of human stupidity by professor Carlo M. Cipolla[1]. Another analysis to pay attention to is Sigmund Freud’s works, where he mentioned, that if you call a child a fool, a child would answer: You are a fool by yourself. The father of psychoanalysis explained, that we are what we are telling about others. That, of course, depends on the situation, but in most cases, I would say, it is really so as people tend to think first of all of themselves and compare others with themselves.

I can have a bet that everyone in everyday life meets such people, about whom we could only say what an idiot. And stupidity could be faced in many different ways on various levels: individual, group of people or organizational (institution, company), country or macro level, and even international. I have always had a question why? when facing something foolish, that could be put in a simpler and smarter way easily. So, about this why...

To start with, there is an opinion among some scientists, that the human brain does not sleep as such. Even when the body sleeps, the brain continues to work. Indeed, its parts rest one by one during a different time. Unfortunately, I could not make proper research to argue with this opinion. That I why I would hypothetically suggest to presumed, that we can do something without thinking about consequences, because a certain area of our brain was sleeping during this time. In that case an adequate person would say sorry after doing something occasionally or at least would realize his or her mistakes. So, I would focus on cases, when people make idiotic things so on purpose, with or without realizing, on either conscious or subconscious levels. Why do people do this? What is hidden behind?

I would discuss based on the levels, mentioned a bit above. To begin with, speaking about the individual level of stupidity, should be noticed, that humans same like other animals are selfish by their nature in their majority. Isn’t it true, that most people, first of all, think about themselves and their profit and only after about anyone else? Isn’t it true that animals' priority instincts are safety, food, and shelter? I think, it could be referred to as an instinct of self-protection. So, based on this instinct somebody may say or do something stupid due to lack of intellect or knowledge[2] and may refuse to recognize it because such recognition requires courage and emotional wisdom. And self-protection instinct is not about courage, but about how to stay alive, safe and undamaged.

Stubbornness to recognize mistake and guilt is, at some point, related to not just physical, but also the mental instinct of self-protection. Mental injury is like a slap on your ego and libido.[3] Or such refusal to recognize your fault could also be analyzed as a response by the child's part of our personality. Famous psychoanalyst Eric Berne in his work Games people play stated, that each personality has inside a parent, an adult and a child. Based on how one person may react on different transactions, either as a parent, or as an adult, or as a child part of this person’s mind is responsible for the answer on this or that transaction.[4] I believe, in case of being stubborn to recognize your fault, it is exactly the child, who is responsible for such response, as it does not matter for a person, how stupid it was and what would be the consequences. And when there is a group of such individuals, it could lead to a bigger stupidity on a higher level, causing scandals, argues and even fights. Humans are social creatures, the crowd could follow one leader without thinking over where the flow goes. For example, each revolution or a revolt had always had its leaders, who guided the masses. And revolution or revolt could be smart and could be stupid, depending on the leader’s personality, history knows examples of both cases.

Now I would discuss further layers of stupidity in the social context when we have to deal with more than just one such personality. I will follow Dale Carnegie’s advice regarding letting people to save a face[5] and thus will not publish any names, even despite some I would like to mention them with pleasure. So, I would divide the organizational or micro stupidity level into a few sub-levels, depending on the professional and personal development of specialists at this or that institution or company.

I would start from the first sub-level – which takes place in a primary and secondary school – on the example of Ukraine’s case, where I am from, and where I had such experience. In my home country (and I’m sure, not only there) nowadays before you’re accepted to the school you must already be able to read, write and count. So, a 6-year old kid is supposed to go to school to learn that all, but instead the school requires this little child to learn all that stuff somehow beforehand. Next,