“ In 1988, psychologists Shelly Taylor and Jonathon Brown published an article making the somewhat disturbing claim that positive self-deception is a normal and beneficial part of most people’s everyday outlook. They suggested that average people hold cognitive biases in three key areas: a) viewing themselves in unrealistically positive terms; b) believing they have more control over their environment than they actually do; and c) holding views about the future that are more positive than the evidence can justify. The typical person, it seems, depends on these happy delusions for the self-esteem needed to function through a normal day. It’s when the fantasies start to unravel that problems arise. ”
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Very interesting article on “depressive realism”, the concept that people with mental disorders actually hold a more realistic world view than those without. (via secondlifesyndrome)
I’ve thought this for a while now. I hold up brutal realism as a virtue and look at positive yet slightly deluded people as things to be despised yet I know that it’d be quite intelligent of me to try and practise self-deslusion like that so I end up being happier. Whenever I say to myself “I don’t look too bad today” or “I was quite funny then” or “She looked at me, maybe she likes me” I suddenly rush in with something to counter it to ensure I’m not being delusional or unrealistic.
(Source: supascooperandmightymansh)
