Sep 21, 2009

Self-conflict & Mortality

“The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.”
I am currently reading M Scott Peck's book 'Denial of the Soul'. Have almost completed Part 1 and impatient to get to Part 2 which is on the spiritual aspects of the subject. The book addresses Euthanasia and Mortality, through medical and spiritual perspectives of individuals.
Apart from discovering more on the mind, the other reason why I picked this book up, is to discover if it is wrong or right to say that I don't want to live that long a life just upto 68 and not 90.. would suffice. I don't think the book will deliver an answer, only God can, but it will give me food for thought. Yes I know it sounds like a strange thing to think about but haven't you ever wondered about it. This topic actually comes up in discussion with my insurance agent who constantly advises me to save more for my future.


Part 1 attempts to uncover definitions, reasons and causes on why we are conflicted, is it right to give up, when we should(alternatively to pull the plug).. from medical and psychiatric points of view.
For most of us, we are able to deal with conflicts and overcome them. Depression is a bi-product if we are not able to solve conflicts. So depression is normal I 'm happy to discover. And depression (Peck describes it like we are in a cage trapped) is apparently useful to us as it helps us grow.
It is interesting to know that conflicts which are inherent in the human condition, are considered psychological pain. These are the simple everyday issues, M S Peck describes these ranging from husband/ wife difficulties, not enough money, job stress, are children  a drag to competitive existence. As long as the world order is not in sync with us (does not conform according to our thinking), we are in conflict. ....  (To continue click on Read more below)


We are each conscious of our conflicts and their cause to different degrees. To what degree, affects how much we are willing to listen to others or help ourselves. And that is the psychological stuff our minds mill on. Of course the author also talks about the biological issues(when a psychiatrist can help) but what intrigues me at the moment is the psychological.

For  most of us, the 'pain' or 'conflicts' that we each experience affects us such that we choose to be rational about it in two ways, 1) to admit there is a problem and we deal with it or 2) to blame the problem on others and let others deal with it (we do nothing). In both cases we are aware of the problem but the outcomes will be different. In the former the problem is being addressed but in the latter case, it is not and we let the problem rule us.
One of the common ways of avoiding such pain is to run away from it, fortunately for the majority of us, we don't. Many of us cope(able to) with all kinds of conflicts daily, you must admit the human mind is truly resilient. Most of us are rational and responsible individuals, we are fully aware of the conflicts in our consciousness and attempt to find healing. We make attempts to address the conflicts and when there is no immediate solution, we get depressed . We then look for solutions in other ways in order to move forward and resolve the conflict. In the words of the author depression "inspires people to psychospiritual growth and the creation of posiitive changes in their lives". Will be back on Part 2 later.

2 comments:

  1. Looking forward to Part 2. God Bless.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Loved that blog as I am a great fan of Scott Peck. Thanks

    ReplyDelete

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