‘Trigger Warning’ culture is psychologically crippling

Aside from the inherent magnificence of this article, which I encourage everyone read, is this elegant summation of the real world benefits of cognitive behavioral therapy. I think it’s appropriate to note that though the official psychological adoption of CBT started around the 1960’s, it is exactly the integration of reason and emotion identified by philosopher / novelist Ayn Rand, the roots of which were laid in “we The Living” (1936) and “Anthem” (1937) developed further in The Fountainhead (1943) and realized completely in “Atlas Shrugged” (1957) but the general idea was originally laid down by Aristotle in his Nichomacean ethics.

CBT is the most successful form of therapy, and requires one to rationally recognize and evaluate emotional reactions and their cause, then compare those against a rational standard. Emotions are not magical tools of cognition, whatever you feel isn’t necessarily true and right just because you feel it, your emotions are incredibly sophisticated evaluations of what you are perceiving / experiencing compared against what you value and have integrated. It is used in treatment by identifying your values and perceptions, identifying your own biases (which we all have) and attempting to habituate correct interpretations. The article gives many good examples.

If you’ve never once asked yourself “Is it right for me to feel this way?” then you should invest in studying the basics of cognitive behavioral therapy.

The ‘trigger warning’ culture is the exact opposite of this, the most successful form of psychological therapy, and instead of attempting to identify why we react to something the way we do, and analyzing if this reaction is appropriate, we automatically assume any reaction is the right reaction to have, and shield ourselves from anything that might be offensive or a ‘micro-aggresion’ without regard to how reasonable that emotional reaction might or might not be.

The Coddling of the American Mind

http://www.theatlantic.com/…/the-coddling-of-the-am…/399356/

From the article:

“Cognitive behavioral therapy is a modern embodiment of this ancient wisdom. It is the most extensively studied nonpharmaceutical treatment of mental illness, and is used widely to treat depression, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, and addiction. It can even be of help to schizophrenics. No other form of psychotherapy has been shown to work for a broader range of problems. Studies have generally found that it is as effective as antidepressant drugs (such as Prozac) in the treatment of anxiety and depression. The therapy is relatively quick and easy to learn; after a few months of training, many patients can do it on their own. Unlike drugs, cognitive behavioral therapy keeps working long after treatment is stopped, because it teaches thinking skills that people can continue to use.

The goal is to minimize distorted thinking and see the world more accurately. You start by learning the names of the dozen or so most common cognitive distortions (such as overgeneralizing, discounting positives, and emotional reasoning; see the list at the bottom of this article). Each time you notice yourself falling prey to one of them, you name it, describe the facts of the situation, consider alternative interpretations, and then choose an interpretation of events more in line with those facts. Your emotions follow your new interpretation. In time, this process becomes automatic. When people improve their mental hygiene in this way—when they free themselves from the repetitive irrational thoughts that had previously filled so much of their consciousness—they become less depressed, anxious, and angry.”

It’s easy to be angry, but what’s difficult is to be angry for the right reason, to the right degree, at the right cause…

“Anybody can become angry – that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way – that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy.” – Aristotle

Some of the wisest words from Aristotle. It is easy to just feel anger, or anything, and embrace it and run with it, but with all our emotional reactions – especially love and anger – one should constantly evaluate the degree of their own emotional reactions, who/what they are directed at, and their cause. Contrast this with other popular philosophical positions, e.g. the Christian insistence that anger should not be felt at all (even toward true injustices) or the emotional intrinsicist’s position that just because you feel something it is automatically true and accurate – be it cold indifference to the death of a loved one or furious anger when your roommate puts the toilet paper roll on ‘backwards’. Emotional reactions are not magical tools to divine truth and they should only be trusted as such to the degree one checks and integrates them against rational standards.

Without the constant honest effort of grounding your emotional reactions to rational standards you run the risk of your emotions flying off into a whim worshipping frenzy. Similarly, don’t accept the emotional evaluations of you by other people unless they’ve demonstrated to you their ability to form rational evaluations. If a close friend whose regularly demonstrated rational and honest evaluations gives you constructive criticism, take it seriously, but if a stranger on the street calls you worthless, it’s as irrelevant as that same stranger screaming that you suck at chess.

All this emphasizes as well that there is no conflict between reason and emotion, both are invaluable tools required to live a fulfilling life. While reason guides what facts and knowledge we integrate, emotions provide lightning quick evaluations of what we experience based on our integrated values and facts. It is just as inappropriate to strive to be an emotionless Spock like character as it is to reject reason entirely and live an emotional whim worshiping life.