Radical acceptance just means that you acknowledge reality for what it is. If you accept the reality of the situation, you can stop dwelling on situations you have no control over (and even those you do) and move on with your life. During a panel this week about the impact of religion on LGBTQIA people—religion […]
The consequences of belief
Last fall, I learned from Professor Jean Sheldon about why it’s important to be choosy about one’s ideals, mentors, models, and gods. “The picture I have of God today,” Sheldon wrote, “is the photograph others will take of me tomorrow.” People may well rise to the level of their gods. We only rise higher or stretch further when extremely […]
The limits of belief
In a recent The Atlantic article on resilient beliefs, Julie Beck writes, “There are facts, and there are beliefs, and there are things you want so badly to believe that they become as facts to you… People often don’t engage with information as information but as a marker of identity.” Humans have many superpowers. One […]
Normalcy is not a refuge
Ever since the new US president declared his candidacy, commentators have speculated about his mental health, armchair diagnosing him, and making claims about his psychological competence as if malignant politics would be comprehensible if only we had the right DSM label for it. This tactic demeans millions of people who live with mental health conditions […]
![Mari Andrew illustration: "what it looks like now [squiqqly line]... what it will look like in hindsight [straight paved road]"](https://mackenzian.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/MariAndrew_WhatItLooksLikeNow.jpg)
Remembering with minimal projection
Memory helps us to shape our sense of ourselves, and it’s a creative act, not an objective accounting. Psychologists have established what they call “hindsight bias,” a mental quirk that encourages us to believe that today’s outcomes were once obvious and inevitable and that tomorrow’s changes are unlikely. We assume more constancy and less variance […]
Why information fails
Last month, the London Guardian reported that the mantra of the Brexit campaigners was “Facts don’t work… You have got to connect with people emotionally.” MSNBC’s Maddow Show contributors also fretted about this political information approach spreading to Europe from the United States. But emotion-heavy, data-light appeals have long been part of British and continental […]