Firstly, I disagree that the mind/brain cannot root out emotional turmoil. We are not passive emotionalists either and acquiescing to this condemns one to a miserable life. We certainly can logic away our fears when they are not supported by a rational basis. Regularly overindulging one's emotions does make it more difficult to effect th…
Firstly, I disagree that the mind/brain cannot root out emotional turmoil. We are not passive emotionalists either and acquiescing to this condemns one to a miserable life. We certainly can logic away our fears when they are not supported by a rational basis. Regularly overindulging one's emotions does make it more difficult to effect this however.
Also, people are allowed to have all of the irrational fears they like and can even have all the instinctive and emotional responses they like based on these irrational fears, provided they keep these to themselves. If their irrational emotional responses are for public consumption, then it seems only fair that the public should respond appropriately. And if these irrational emotional responses are designed to effect public policy, then we should push back and let the person know their fears are irrational.
It is not society's job to play the role of therapist.
People can control their emotional responses to a degree, but some forms of trauma (for example, PTSD in a soldier who saw his buddy killed by an IED) are better worked through with psychological counseling. Unfortunately, many people with problems like these can't afford therapy.
"Also, people are allowed to have all of the irrational fears they like and can even have all the instinctive and emotional responses they like based on these irrational fears, provided they keep these to themselves"
Well, that's the thing isn't it? People cannot keep these things to themselves. Hurt people hurt people. It's just a fact. And is why we have intergenerational trauma and so many people struggling with poor mental health and life negative outcomes. If you could reason with irrational thoughts they wouldn't be irrational thoughts. I mean do you think we could sit the Israelis and Palestinians down and say, "Look, you're both incredibly traumatised from generations of fighting and mass loss of lives of loved ones, and we understand you have emotional responses to that, and feel irrational about people who personally haven't hurt you, or are no longer alive, but it would be best for the rest of us if you didn't indulge these feelings and just keep them to yourself. 'Kay?" I mean seriously. If people could just keep trauma to themselves world history would have looked very different. You're almost saying "Don't be human". The answer is developing more effective technologies to treat trauma (such as EMDR), not insisting traumatised people hide their trauma. I mean you can keep insisting that, but it would be a pointless.
I think it's not "just a fact" and it's not OK to give people a pass for behaviour that they can either control or are otherwise responsible for. That is the social contract - there is a reasonability standard for our behaviours and not for our thoughts. If someone steps outside of that for any reason then they are accountable. The rules are clear and they apply to everyone equally, broken and traumatized and everyone else. Hurt people who hurt people are accountable for their actions and if they know that and most of them do, then they will hurt people less. It cannot be otherwise. Equal treatment under the law for everyone.
I agree, they are accountable, everyone should be and equally so. But if you want to reduce that kind of behaviour (the goal, surely), you wont get anywhere ignoring the reality of how trauma functions. If the traumatic memory resides in the amygdala, forget about rational behaviour. Finding ways to process those memories, from traumatic ones that always feel immediate and hair triggered, into the long term memory where rationality can come into play and the person can begin to rationally observe their behaviour, is the only way forward and we are yet to find a guarenteed way of doing this.
Firstly, I disagree that the mind/brain cannot root out emotional turmoil. We are not passive emotionalists either and acquiescing to this condemns one to a miserable life. We certainly can logic away our fears when they are not supported by a rational basis. Regularly overindulging one's emotions does make it more difficult to effect this however.
Also, people are allowed to have all of the irrational fears they like and can even have all the instinctive and emotional responses they like based on these irrational fears, provided they keep these to themselves. If their irrational emotional responses are for public consumption, then it seems only fair that the public should respond appropriately. And if these irrational emotional responses are designed to effect public policy, then we should push back and let the person know their fears are irrational.
It is not society's job to play the role of therapist.
People can control their emotional responses to a degree, but some forms of trauma (for example, PTSD in a soldier who saw his buddy killed by an IED) are better worked through with psychological counseling. Unfortunately, many people with problems like these can't afford therapy.
"Also, people are allowed to have all of the irrational fears they like and can even have all the instinctive and emotional responses they like based on these irrational fears, provided they keep these to themselves"
Well, that's the thing isn't it? People cannot keep these things to themselves. Hurt people hurt people. It's just a fact. And is why we have intergenerational trauma and so many people struggling with poor mental health and life negative outcomes. If you could reason with irrational thoughts they wouldn't be irrational thoughts. I mean do you think we could sit the Israelis and Palestinians down and say, "Look, you're both incredibly traumatised from generations of fighting and mass loss of lives of loved ones, and we understand you have emotional responses to that, and feel irrational about people who personally haven't hurt you, or are no longer alive, but it would be best for the rest of us if you didn't indulge these feelings and just keep them to yourself. 'Kay?" I mean seriously. If people could just keep trauma to themselves world history would have looked very different. You're almost saying "Don't be human". The answer is developing more effective technologies to treat trauma (such as EMDR), not insisting traumatised people hide their trauma. I mean you can keep insisting that, but it would be a pointless.
I think it's not "just a fact" and it's not OK to give people a pass for behaviour that they can either control or are otherwise responsible for. That is the social contract - there is a reasonability standard for our behaviours and not for our thoughts. If someone steps outside of that for any reason then they are accountable. The rules are clear and they apply to everyone equally, broken and traumatized and everyone else. Hurt people who hurt people are accountable for their actions and if they know that and most of them do, then they will hurt people less. It cannot be otherwise. Equal treatment under the law for everyone.
I agree, they are accountable, everyone should be and equally so. But if you want to reduce that kind of behaviour (the goal, surely), you wont get anywhere ignoring the reality of how trauma functions. If the traumatic memory resides in the amygdala, forget about rational behaviour. Finding ways to process those memories, from traumatic ones that always feel immediate and hair triggered, into the long term memory where rationality can come into play and the person can begin to rationally observe their behaviour, is the only way forward and we are yet to find a guarenteed way of doing this.