Do you agree that all psychological suffering is self inflicted

In Western medicine hysteria was considered both common and chronic among women. Even though it was categorized as a disease, hysteria's symptoms were synonymous with normal functioning female sexuality.[1] In extreme cases, the woman may have been forced to enter an insane asylum or to have undergone surgical hysterectomy.[2]
 

Mr. Ed said:
In Western medicine hysteria was considered both common and chronic among women. Even though it was categorized as a disease, hysteria's symptoms were synonymous with normal functioning female sexuality.[1] In extreme cases, the woman may have been forced to enter an insane asylum or to have undergone surgical hysterectomy.[2]
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I understand this though I might not completely agree with it. But thinking about those who are prone to hysteria today and we'd have to add a few cultural entities to the roster where the perpetrators are both men and women. No .... I am not going to mention any names. You know who they are. :oops:
 
Della said:

"Do you agree that all psychological suffering is self inflicted?"​

No. People with schizophrenia have hallucinations, hear their own thoughts and fears through the parts of the brain that normally receive hearing, and feel an almost constant sense of impending doom and paranoia. All that suffering is believed to be caused by excess dopamine in the brain, neurotransmitters filling the brain like a blizzard, and it can get so bad that most people with the disease have tried to kill themselves at least once.

If you think your own brain can't tell you lies and fill you with fear, just remember the last time you had a bad nightmare. I don't think we choose to have brain disease anymore than we choose to have heart disease or liver disease and so, a definite no, I don't think it's self-inflicted. Neither is bi-polar, clinical depression or most mental illnesses.

If you're talking about a person with a healthy brain making up his/her mind to try to focus on the positive, I would agree that's possible and can make for a happier life, but even then some suffering is bound to come along. I have a friend who is known for her happ
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Della said:

"Do you agree that all psychological suffering is self inflicted?"​

No. People with schizophrenia have hallucinations, hear their own thoughts and fears through the parts of the brain that normally receive hearing, and feel an almost constant sense of impending doom and paranoia. All that suffering is believed to be caused by excess dopamine in the brain, neurotransmitters filling the brain like a blizzard, and it can get so bad that most people with the disease have tried to kill themselves at least once.

If you think your own brain can't tell you lies and fill you with fear, just remember the last time you had a bad nightmare. I don't think we choose to have brain disease anymore than we choose to have heart disease or liver disease and so, a definite no, I don't think it's self-inflicted. Neither is bi-polar, clinical depression or most mental illnesses.

If you're talking about a person with a healthy brain making up his/her mind to try to focus on the positive, I would agree that's possible and can make for a happier life, but even then some suffering is bound to come along. I have a friend who is known for her happy, positive attitude, but when her daughter died of Covid last winter I think she suffered.
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Della..TY..I should have said in my OP that mental illness was not included in this thought. I was thinking more along the lines of.."no one can make you angry without your permission" type thinking. While our initial reaction may be anger, the continuation often is a choice.
 
Verisure said:

"Do you agree that all psychological suffering is self inflicted"​


No. Does the pain you experience after hitting your head on the pavement when someone pushes you off of a 5-story building "self-inflicted"?
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Verisure...That is why I said psychological pain... :)
 
Chet said:

Do you agree that all psychological suffering is self inflicted​

You might have a little control over your reaction to a painful stimulus, but I made up my mind long ago, that when things suck, they suck, so don't kid yourself.
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Chet.... butt couldn't they can suck more or suck less depending on how we react
 
Irwin said:
Emotional (and some physical) suffering comes from an inability to accept something. I suffer when I ruminate about things that happened to me because I can't accept the fact that there are so many evil people in the world. To accept that means not wanting to remain in this world, and it hasn't come to that yet, but I completely understand why people do themselves in. For a lot of people who don't have someone, or I guess it could be some-thing, to provide a little shelter from the storm, life is enormously painful.
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Irwin..This is very much in line with what I had in mind when I wrote the OP. IMO what we tell ourselves very much affects how we think about others and the world. As for shelter from the storm so many of the great teachers/ philosophers have encouraged self-reliance
 
oldiebutgoody said:
Agree 100%.

I have known Jews who survived Nazi death camps. Not one would ever buy the notion that emotional suffering is self imposed. A Nazi death camp survivor thought I had it worse than he did as he could understand why Nazis would hate his guts and torment him as they were programmed to doing so. But he could not understand how someone could be tormented nearly to death by his own mother like I was. If he was here today he would agree that emotional suffering is not self imposed. He was living proof that such a myth is without factual basis.
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oldiebutgoody..great example of how a horrible experience can be handled as the prisoner could understand the Nazi brainwashing and mentality. The mother obviously had severe issues within herself.
 
Verisure said:
I understand this though I might not completely agree with it. But thinking about those who are prone to hysteria today and we'd have to add a few cultural entities to the roster where the perpetrators are both men and women. No .... I am not going to mention any names. You know who they are. :oops:
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I am not going to mention any names. You know who they are.
What do you mean about this?



So called mental and physical diagnosis may be not be an illness at all by today's understanding.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
We have two sources of psychological pain -others and ourselves. So yes, we can control the extent of the pain we produce on ourselves. But I don't know how you can control the psychological pain cause by others.
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fuzzybuddy...seems to me each person has or can develop the ability to control how they react to others who would inflict psychological pain...
 
Hard question in OP, and my first response is to say "whether or not all psychological pain is self inflicted" it may nonetheless be unavoidable, because any person may come up against serious problems they're not prepared for psychologically, no matter how much they think they are.
 
Serenity4321 said:
Irwin..This is very much in line with what I had in mind when I wrote the OP. IMO what we tell ourselves very much affects how we think about others and the world. As for shelter from the storm so many of the great teachers/ philosophers have encouraged self-reliance
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They might preach self-reliance, but I'd be willing to bet that every one of those teachers/philosophers had a healthy social support network. It's tough to mange in this world without close, personal relationships. Many perpetrators of mass murder were involuntary loners who felt ostracized for one reason or another.
 
grahamg said:
Hard question in OP, and my first response is to say "whether or not all psychological pain is self inflicted" it may nonetheless be unavoidable, because any person may come up against serious problems they're not prepared for psychologically, no matter how much they think they are.
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Irwin said:
They might preach self-reliance, but I'd be willing to bet that every one of those teachers/philosophers had a healthy social support network. It's tough to mange in this world without close, personal relationships. Many perpetrators of mass murder were involuntary loners who felt ostracized for one reason or another.
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Support systems are helpful for sure...but I also believe one can benefit from learning skills to cope
without being dependent on others
 


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