All the world’s a stage
HOW we think affects our moods and attitudes. We are bombarded with the likes of cognitive behaviour therapy these days teaching us to change the way we think and, hey presto, our mood, energy and attitude to life change with it. The system works. It has been a major advance in psychological treatment.
A generation ago we were at the end of the two huge schools of thought squaring off against each other. One was psychoanalysis which looked backwards into life and emotions with the view that, once significant events were understood and ‘dealt with’, the person would progress through life with these shackles lifted. Psychoanalysis failed every scientific test, seemed to go on forever, and in the process enriched many well-meaning but deluded psychoanalysts. By the time I studied psychology last century it was well on its way to the rubbish bin. It did, however, do one important scientific thing. It made it clear that much of our behaviour and thought patterns were determined by prior events. They were caused. The way we live our lives did not just happen. Things could be changed. It was just that psychoanalysis was not very good at bringing about meaningful change.
In the other corner were the behaviourists who paid little attention to thoughts and feelings and instead concentrated on behaviour because it was measurable. Science measured things that could be observed and counted. It then focused on changing the behaviour and took the view that changes in thoughts, feelings and personality would be part of the result. So forget about the deep-seat- ed oral gratification provided by cigarette smoking. Just count the butts. If you want weight loss look at the numbers on the scales and plan a system of rewards accordingly. There were many successes with this approach, and it revolutionised the treatment of some disorders such as autism where the outcomes and expectations for children who take part in ABA (applied behaviour analysis) programmes are vastly superior to what they once were.
Over the past few decades we know a lot more about how experience affects our behaviour. And we also know a great deal more about genetics and about our evolutionary past. In the same way as the more we know about science the less room there is for religion, so the more we know about the determiners of behaviour the less room there is for free will. It becomes difficult to make the essential belief leaps in each case. Just as the resurrection becomes a fairy story, so we begin to think that maybe we did not order that pint because we decided we wanted one. It was a combination of the day, the sign over the pub, the TV advert, and perhaps some genes inherited from a drinking parent. It is a matter of time before religion as we know it disappears. Likewise our perception of ourselves as the intelligent masters of the universe in control of our own destiny will take a further battering.
Back in my schooldays I learned my Shakespeare. Remember “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances”. It is taking on a whole new meaning. He was way ahead of his time