NO SELF-AWARENESS OR INABILITY OR WILLINGNESS FOR SELF-ACCEPTANCE
I drifted into the weeds…but I did have a small scythe
My verse, written a couple days ago, was meant as an exploration into today’s MAGA mind, and the capacities of self-awareness and self-acceptance which I think are in play in the irrational behavior which is witnessed. I must say that the proceeding research after the verse to find possible applicable information only brought up more questions. And my amateur mind in psychology has its limitations. I wish not to disparage those who may support Trump to this day, after cascades of reasons not to after many years now, only try to understand. This understanding is important perhaps if we can ever have hope of rescuing them from their desert island. Or at least it seems to be an activity in which to place my efforts in a rational way, regardless of the possible value of it all. I have my usual quotes today, research into self awareness and self acceptance (and self esteem), a little bit of quite nerdy information on the brain as it relates to the research, information on the Big Five Factors in personality, and some information from a contemporary philosopher on consciousness, and I end with Carl Jung (how could I go wrong here).
First my verse, such as it is. You will note a level of confusion within it, I’m not faking my confusion.
The average MAGA day on Twitter. Keep some of these expressions in mind when you read what I’ve written below.
Below I have found some quotes from my 1884 Day’s Collacon reference which I thought fit into the discussion for today. The quotes were found) under the headings of ‘conscious’ and ‘self-deceit.’
“Consciousness is the faculty by which we become cognizant of the operations of our own minds.”
— Dr. Wayland.
Francis Wayland (March 11, 1796 – September 30, 1865) was an American Baptist minister, educator and economist. He was president of Brown University and pastor of the First Baptist Church in America in Providence, Rhode Island. In Washington, D.C., Wayland Seminary was established in 1867, primarily to educate former slaves, and was named in his honor. (In 1899, Wayland Seminary merged with another school to become the current Virginia Union University, at Richmond, Virginia.)
“A child of four years old possesses consciousness of right and wrong as well as a person of forty; and the boy who lies at four years old will lie when he has grown up.”
— Sir R. B. Cotton.
Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, 1st Baronet, (born January 22, 1571, Denton, Huntingdonshire [now in Cambridgeshire], England—died May 6, 1631, Westminster, London), English antiquarian, the founder of the Cottonian Library, and a prominent Parliamentarian in the reign of Charles I.
“Who has deceived thee so often as thyself?”
— Franklin
Benjamin Franklin FRS FRSA FRSE (January 17, 1706 – April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Among the leading intellectuals of his time, Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, a drafter and signer of the Declaration of Independence, and the first postmaster general.
“No man can deceive himself if he looks into his conscience.”
— J. A. James.
John Angell James (6 June 1785 – 1 October 1859), was an English Nonconformist clergyman and writer. He was also an ardent abolitionist, and is portrayed in the huge canvas depicting Thomas Clarkson's opening address at the world's first Anti-Slavery Convention in 1840, in the National Portrait Gallery, London. He was a contemporary of William Wilberforce and Charles Simeon.
“No man was ever so much deceived by another as by himself.”
— Lord Greville.
George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick, FRS, FSA (16 September 1746 – 1816), styled Lord Greville until 1773, was a British nobleman and politician. From Scotland he returned so well informed, and such an amiable manliness about him, that the most flattering prognostications were made of his future eminence... His travels did not in any great degree either improve or corrupt him, and he has since remained a quiet inoffensive domestic character, little known but by persons of taste and virtue.
“False rules of judgment are a sure and common way to self - deception.”
— G. Mason.
George Mason (December 11, 1725 – October 7, 1792) was an American planter, politician, Founding Father, and delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787, one of three delegates present who refused to sign the Constitution. His writings, including substantial portions of the Fairfax Resolves of 1774, the Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776, and his Objections to this Constitution of Government (1787) opposing ratification, have exercised a significant influence on American political thought and events. The Virginia Declaration of Rights, which Mason principally authored, served as a basis for the United States Bill of Rights, of which he has been deemed the father.
Self Awareness - the basics from psychological research papers.
Self-awareness provides the information essential for conscious self-monitoring (metacognition). Metacognition is a tool for consciously controlling behavior and adjusting our experiences of the world. It is essential for learning by conscious experience, not only within ourselves, but, importantly, also between individuals. Self-awareness is therefore of decisive importance by giving humans an advantage in phylogeny. [Phylogeny refers to the evolutionary history of the development of a species or of a taxonomic group of organisms. i.e. Self-Awareness is vital for humans to survive] Self-awareness is an indispensable part of our experience of the world, whether it is minimal self-awareness (pre-reflective, with an automatic sense of ownership of the experience), or narrative self-awareness, extended in time by retrieval of personal memories and thereby allowing predictions of the future.
Self-awareness can be defined as involving expert knowledge of oneself as a defined entity, independent of other individuals, unified, consistent and stable over time and space. Self-awareness further allows one to be the subject of one’s own attention. Moreover, self-awareness should not be viewed as an all-or-none phenomenon but should rather be conceived as a complex ability that spans several levels.
Self Awareness - the development of the trait in childhood
Rochat (2003) also defends the idea that self-awareness is not singular, but multiple. He claims that its development is a continuous and dynamic process that can be divided into five gradual levels. These five levels can be easily integrated in both facets of self-awareness. The “I” is composed of the two first implicit levels and the “me” comprises the final three explicit levels. The first level is the identified self. At this level, the individual recognizes himself in the mirror and the link between the self as experienced from within and what is displayed on the mirror is built. The permanent self is the second level. The self is specified beyond ‘the here and now’ of the mirror experience, the child’s self is not tied to the present time anymore. The child has grasped the continuity of its own self and is now able to realize that his self remains the same over the course of time. Finally, at the third level, one is not only aware of who one is but also of how others perceive us. At this stage, he is also aware that this external self can evolve or can be modified even though no changes occur at a deeper level of himself.
Self Awareness - the physical nature - diseases and disorders (addiction) bring on potential loss of self-awareness
Addiction is conceptualized as deficiency of self-regulation, impulse control, decision making, and emotion processing. The addicted subject loses conscious self-regulation of behavior, i.e., will power. Drug addiction can be viewed as the endpoint of a series of transitions from initial voluntary substance use to the complete loss of conscious “voluntary” control over this behavior, such that it becomes habitual and, ultimately, compulsive, confounded by toxic effects. One prominent example is the influence of nicotine on nicotinic acetylcholine receptors on prefrontal cortical neurons, thereby further disturbing normal functioning of the paralimbic network in a vicious circle.
The widespread dysfunction of self-awareness in pathology is likely to be a consequence of the exceedingly high oxygen demand of the paralimbic network. This makes self-awareness and meta-cognition particularly vulnerable in deficient oxygen and glucose supply. Accordingly, conditions with cerebral hypoxia-ischemia often lead to a dysfunctional paralimbic network with associated failing conscious self-awareness.
More specifically, we have shown that self-awareness is regulated by dopamine through the medial prefrontal/anterior cingulate cortex. Dopamine improves self-awareness and increases gamma power through medial prefrontal/anterior cingulate cortex.
More on the medial prefrontal cortex:
Connections between the amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) are considered critical for the expression and regulation of emotional behavior. Abnormalities in frontoamygdala circuitry are reported across several internalizing conditions and associated risk factors (for example, childhood trauma), which may underlie the strong phenotypic overlap and co-occurrence of internalizing conditions. However, it is unclear if these findings converge on the same localized areas of mPFC or adjacent anterior cingulate cortex (ACC).
More on the anterior cingulate cortex:
The front-most portion of the cingulate cortex, the anterior cingulate cortex (or ACC) has been implicated in several complex cognitive functions, such as empathy, impulse control, emotion, and decision-making.
The image below is a conclusion to a study on the anterior cingulate cortex which I found quite interesting. Some behaviors which concern us these days are addressed in the report on this part of the human brain.
A side diversion on Dopamine and alcohol.
Dopamine is a neuromodulator that is used by neurons in several brain regions involved in motivation and reinforcement, most importantly the nucleus accumbens (NAc). Dopaminergic signaling plays a pivotal role in the transmission of motivational stimuli. Dopaminergic neurons primarily affect brain areas involved in mediating the rewarding and reinforcing properties of alcohol and other drugs, most prominently the NAc. Alcohol affects dopamine release in the NAc, not only through its associated gustatory stimuli but also through its direct actions on the brain. The abnormal facilitation of motivational learning that results from alcohol-induced stimulation of dopaminergic signal transmission has been hypothesized to constitute the neurobiological basis of alcohol addiction. Through this mechanism, alcohol-associated stimuli acquire the ability to elicit craving and compulsive alcohol consumption.
The nucleus accumbens (NAc) is considered the ventral striatum, which can be subdivided into the NAc core and shell (medial and lateral). The NAc shell is considered the most rostral portion of the extended amygdala and is thought of as the transition zone between the striatum and the amygdala. The NAc receives glutamatergic inputs from the subiculum, amygdala, hippocampus, thalamus, and PFC. Many of these glutamatergic inputs mature during adolescence. The NAc shell is extensively connected with other regions of the extended amygdala described above (CeA and BNST). Similar to the other brain regions included in the extended amygdala, glutamatergic signaling in the NAc is modulated by numerous licit and illicit substances and is linked with negative affective behaviors. In adult mice, binge alcohol drinking results in increased anxiety-like behavior using the marble burying task. This behavioral phenotype is associated with increased expression of group 1 mGlu receptors and GluN2B subunits of the NMDAR in the NAc shell. Binge alcohol drinking in adolescent mice failed to produce anxiety-like behavior or the accompanying changes in glutamate receptors despite their higher alcohol consumption and blood alcohol concentrations achieved.
In my research for self-awareness I came across the concept of the Big Five Factors of personality. It is a part of self awareness. And specifically I found the relationships of four personality factors directly related to self-awareness, on a site related to the Meyer-Briggs personality criteria.
Insight
the ability to name feelings, acceptance of uncomfortable feelings, understanding one’s motives
Self awareness-Reflection
reflecting on one’s thoughts and feelings, valuing self-reflection and others’ self-reflection
Self awareness-Rumination
recalling negative events, considering the past and how things could have been done differently
Self awareness-Mindfulness
paying attention to the present moment, having a focused mind (not wandering)
And about the Big Five:
Big Five personality, also known as the five-factor model (FFM), is a widely-used professional evaluation in psychology, consisting of five dimensions: Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. The traditional way to measure Big Five personality is by filling questionnaires, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive.
The Big Five personality model was developed over time. The original work was based upon hundreds of descriptive adjectives on human behavior within the English language. Francis Galton started the ball rolling in 1884. Allport and Odbert (1936) had cataloged about 18,000 such terms and had divided them into four alphabetical lists, the first of which included approximately 4,500 terms that they had classified as stable traits. The process has been refined and tested over time, to what it is today, that of the Big Five. The use of adjectives for the origination highly intrigued me. I found two quotes below which indicate the usefulness of the adjective in speech to identification or personality traits.
ad·jec·tive
noun
a word or phrase naming an attribute, added to or grammatically related to a noun to modify or describe it.
“A man's character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation.”
— Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), best known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced", and William Faulkner called him "the father of American literature".
“When you start out on a project as an actor, you know, you approach the character from the standpoint of maybe writing a list - even if it's a mental list that you make - of the adjectives that the character has or that character possesses.”
— Omari Hardwick
Omari Latif Hardwick (born January 9, 1974) is an American actor known for his starring role as James "Ghost" St. Patrick, the protagonist of Starz's Power and his role as Vanderohe in Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead (2021). He is also known for his roles in Saved and Dark Blue, in Spike Lee's Miracle at St. Anna (2008), Kick-Ass (2010), Tyler Perry's For Colored Girls (2010) and as Andre in BET Network's Being Mary Jane.
The image below was made from a study available online, on the Big Five. Please look over and note that there are both positive and negative thinking involved in each of the five categories. One might look at this image and try to place yourself within it, and perhaps try to imagine where an average MAGA Republican might fall. It seemed to bring some solidarity to my musings within the verse I wrote in who these Americans of concern are. I produced an image with my idea of the Big Five in the typical MAGA Republican. See if you agree below.
On Self-Acceptance and Its Brother Self-Esteem
In my verse I tried to address self-acceptance in the context of a Trump Republican being unable or unwilling to accept the level of extremism they are willing to tolerate or more problematic wanting to support, yet not willing to take ownership of their beliefs. I found that self acceptance and self esteem are used interchangeably, however they do differ. I found a more correct and contemporary term unconditional self-acceptance, to perhaps better describe what I was trying to write about. So I will touch briefly on these subjects of self-acceptance and self-esteem. Self esteem is apparently the most studied human behavior there is. It went out of vogue for a number of years, but it’s been concentrated upon once again in recent years.
Self-esteem and self-acceptance are two large pieces of your self-worth, but they're not the same. Your self-esteem can fluctuate because how you feel about yourself is influenced by social interaction, outside validation, hormones and even stress. On the other hand, self-acceptance is a general permission you give yourself to not be perfect.
Self-acceptance is about accepting that you are who you are, flaws and all. Accepting your full self might seem simple enough, but it’s easier said than done. In fact, self-acceptance can be difficult for many of us. Self-acceptance is not the same as self-esteem or self-confidence. While your self-esteem might rise and fall based on the way you perceive your worth, self-acceptance remains consistent no matter how you view yourself.
Two paragraphs below describe self-esteem rather well, in my opinion. This is from a Romanian researcher.
An evaluation of self-acceptance in adults Cristian Vasilea*
a Education Sciences Dept., Faculty of Letters and Sciences, Petroleum-Gas University, Bd. Bucuresti 39, Ploiesti 100680 Romania
The “looking-glass self” theory assumes that self-esteem is not just a personal assessment, but also anticipates the other’s assessments about an individual. One’s “self” grows out of society's interpersonal interactions and the perceptions of others. People shape themselves based on other people's perception, this conducting the people to reinforce other people's perspectives on themselves. In this regard, self-esteem acts like a social measurement, as a leveled perception that one has about his social acceptance and valorization: one can be satisfied because he feels valued, conversely, one’s self esteem decreases when he doesn't feel socially valued.
Albert Ellis and Carl Rogers indicated that self-worth conditioning is related to psychological distress, but unconditional self-acceptance promotes personal adjustment and well-being. Moreover, there are studies suggesting that people with a very high self-esteem are vulnerable individuals because commonly they are characterized by conditional self-acceptance, which implies an excessive focus on evaluation and comparisons with other people. These individuals are characterized also by perfectionism, as a requirement made to themselves by their cognitions. Evidence from other studies suggests that perfectionism has consistently been associated with maladaptive cognition and vulnerability to the experience of failure in achievement contexts.
The paragraph below is from a 2018 study,
In REBT, [Rational - Emotive & Cognitive Therapy] self-esteem (SE) is seen as detrimental to mental health, in comparison to more adaptive construct—unconditional self-acceptance (USA). USA represents an absence of the person's tendency to globally evaluate his/her self-worth or ability to fully accept his/herself, regardless of the particular outcome of his/her behavior. Still, in empirical studies, USA and SE often correlate moderately, while SE correlates with positive outcomes in mental health measures, sometimes more than USA.
The results showed that besides affectivity, USA has a significant contribution in the prediction of mental health indicators, unlike SE. Higher USA is positively associated with subjective well-being, and negatively associated with the state negative affect, anxiety and depression. This study is one of the few which supports hypothesis about the superiority of USA in comparison with SE in predicting mental health indicators.
And a 2022 study brings back the idea that self-esteem is important for mental health. The paper talks of the importance of self esteem. The report also goes into detail of the difference between having high self-esteem and narcissism. This comparison seems pertinent to understand in these times.
Despite doubts cast on the importance of self-esteem, Robins said their review of the large body of self-esteem research demonstrates that it matters, and consequently interventions aimed at boosting self-esteem might benefit individuals and society as a whole.
A voluminous body of research suggests that high self-esteem helps individuals adapt to and succeed in a variety of life domains, including having more satisfying relationships, performing better at school and work, enjoying improved mental and physical health, and refraining from antisocial behavior. Moreover, these benefits hold across different stages of life, different racial and ethnic groups, and for both men and women. They also hold when controlling for prior levels of the predicted outcomes and potential third variable confounds, as well as when controlling for narcissism, suggesting that the effects are a result of genuine self-esteem and not narcissistic self-enhancement.
Both interpersonal [relating to relationships or communication between people] and intrapersonal [relating to or within a person's mind: Intrapersonal intelligence is the ability to understand oneself and one's emotions] mechanisms might account for the adaptive effects of high self-esteem. For example, high self-esteem might facilitate initiating and maintaining social relationships, resulting in a stronger social network and greater availability of emotional, instrumental, and informational support, which may lead to positive outcomes in many life domains beyond relationships (e.g., school, work, mental health, and physical health). High self-esteem also strengthens persistence after rejection and failure, which again may lead to better outcomes in school, work, relationships, and health. Future research should focus on identifying the mediating mechanisms that explain the salutary effects of high self-esteem.
Distinguishing High Self-Esteem and Narcissism
It is crucial to distinguish between self-esteem and narcissism when evaluating the consequences of self-esteem. As noted earlier, the two constructs overlap conceptually because both involve positive self-evaluations. In fact, the concurrent correlation between self-esteem and narcissism is about .30 to .40, which is not nearly as strong as would be expected if self-esteem and narcissism were the same construct. Indeed, there are important conceptual differences between self-esteem and narcissism; for example, high self-esteem is not characterized by grandiosity, self-centeredness, arrogance, and entitlement, and their unique correlates often differ substantially, at times even pointing in the opposite direction.
This pattern is apparent for many outcomes examined in the present review. For example, high self-esteem has a positive prospective effect on social relationships, whereas narcissism has a negative effect once others get to know narcissistic individuals better. Also, the prospective effect of high self-esteem on mental health holds when controlling for narcissism, whereas the prospective effect of narcissism drops essentially to zero when controlling for self-esteem. For antisocial behavior, no longitudinal studies are available that simultaneously examine self-esteem and narcissism. However, cross-sectional data clearly show that high self-esteem is related to less antisocial behavior, whereas narcissism is related to more antisocial behavior, and these associations become even stronger when self-esteem and narcissism are mutually controlled. Finally, longitudinal research has shown that high self-esteem prospectively predicts less frequent stressful events (serious diseases, accidents, criminal victimization, and losing one’s job), whereas narcissism predicts more frequent stressful events. Thus, when evaluating whether self-esteem has benefits, it is important not to confuse narcissism with high self-esteem because the two constructs are conceptually distinct and often have highly divergent (and sometimes opposite) effects on social relationships, mental health, and antisocial behavior.
Back at our Montana ranch years ago we had a small scythe we used to mow down weeds which grew around our farm buildings. I particularly went after the ragweed which I was greatly allergic to. I mention this because regardless of how I wished to stay somewhat out of the weed patch in this writing, I nevertheless found myself there. If you have read this you might agree. :—). Regardless, I find the reading of psychology research so edifying, that I lose the exact reason I’m doing so. Is this loss of self-awareness as I now understand it? Perhaps so. You can be the judge.
But I’m still whacking away at the pigweed. I found a contemporary philosopher, nearly my age, in which to end. From Coming to Our Animal Senses: A Conversation with David Abram, By Dougald Hine, originally published by The R-word, some thoughts on ‘consciousness’ which I can subscribe to. And I realize I will now have to read this man’s work.
DH: This reminds me of a conversation that I got into on Twitter last week. Somebody posted: ‘All children are born anarchists and atheists.’ I sent it on and I said, ‘I think they’re born anarchists and animists.’
DA: Well, there’s a lot of evidence that what we call ‘animism’ – which simply names the intuition that everything is animate, that each thing has its own active agency – that this is a kind of spontaneous experience for the human organism…
DH: A sort of default state of consciousness?
DA: A default, baseline state for the human creature. It doesn’t really seem to be a belief system, but rather a way of speaking in accordance with our spontaneous, animal experience. Since, for all their differences, the various entities I meet – brambles, storm clouds, squirrels, rivers – all seem to be composed of basically the same stuff as myself, well, since I am an experiencing, sensitive creature, so this maple tree must also have its own sensitivities and sensibilities. Doubtlessly very different from mine (and different even from those of a birch or an oak) but nonetheless this tree seems to have its own agency, its own ability to affect the space around it and the other creatures nearby. And to affect me.
Given the ubiquitous nature of this animistic intuition among the diverse indigenous peoples of this planet – given its commonality among so many exceedingly diverse and divergent cultures – it would seem that this is our birthright as humans. To feel that we are alive within a palpable cosmos that is itself alive through and through. From an indigenous perspective (and even, I would say, from the creaturely perspective of our sensate bodies) there’s no getting underneath the felt sense of the world’s multiplicitous dynamism to some basically inanimate, inert stratum of matter; rather, to the human animal, matter itself seems to be animate – or self-organizing – from the get-go. Such is the most commonplace human experience: in the absence of intervening technologies, we feel ourselves inhabiting a terrain that is shot through with sensitivity and sentience (albeit a sentience curiously different, in many ways, from our own).
David Abram (born June 24, 1957) is an American ecologist and philosopher best known for his work bridging the philosophical tradition of phenomenology with environmental and ecological issues. He is the author of Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology (2010) and The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-Human World (1996), for which he received the Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction. Abram is founder and creative director of the Alliance for Wild Ethics (AWE); his essays on the cultural causes and consequences of ecological disarray have appeared often in such journals as the online magazine Emergence, Orion, Environmental Ethics, Parabola, Tikkun and The Ecologist, as well as in numerous academic anthologies.
I will end (I promise) with Carl Jung.
“I realize that under the circumstances you have described you feel the need to see clearly. But your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Without, everything seems discordant; only within does it coalesce into unity. Who looks outside dreams; who looks inside awakes.”
— (C.G. Jung Letters, Vol. I, Page 33)
Carl Gustav Jung (26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philosophy, psychology, and religious studies. He worked as a research scientist at the Burghölzli psychiatric hospital, in Zurich, under Eugen Bleuler. Jung established himself as an influential mind of his time, developing a friendship with Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis, conducting a lengthy correspondence, paramount to their joint vision of human psychology. He is regarded as one of the most influential psychologists in history.
So ends another delving into the political opponents who puzzle us so much. I’m not exactly sure if I made any headway in my understanding, seemingly I have some obsession in the undertaking. Maybe I’ve only presented some interesting information to the reader, which may be new to them. Regardless, I may not have conquered anything in the exercise. I have a very interesting question which I did not directly address in the average level of self-esteem of the Trump Republican. Definitely they wish to portray bravado, and certainty in their ideas that they are on the right side of history. But I’ll let the reader come to their own conclusion.
60th posting, July 28, 2023.