On The Benefits Of Whims

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Dmitry Anatolyevich Zhukov, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Institute of Physiology named after I. P. Pavlova RAS, St. Petersburg "Chemistry and Life" No. 8, 2014

Whims - that is, the desire to achieve something forbidden, or impossible, or meaningless - is considered to be a form of childish behavior, and one that must be suppressed and in no case encouraged. Meanwhile, whims have great biological meaning. This is often a demonstration based on the child's need for attention. The biological significance of such actions is obvious - without the attention of the mother, the chances of the death of the child increase many times over. Sometimes both adults and pets are capricious. Such behavior in humans is regarded as infantile (if we are not talking about a pregnant woman), in animals - as a result of poor training. However, capricious behavior is often based on other needs - this is one of the varieties of displaced activity, a method of protection from the uncontrollability of the situation.

The concept of uncontrollability

To control a situation does not mean necessarily to influence it, but to understand the patterns of what is happening. Most people and animals have such a need. Many domestic dogs, when the owner accidentally steps on their tail or paw, begin to apologize, demonstrate a pacifying behavior: wag their tail and seek to lick the owner's nose and lips. The dog knows that the owner can hurt only as a punishment, which means that she did something bad. If in the events of the surrounding world the animal cannot grasp the patterns, then this often leads to behavioral disorders.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, in the laboratory of I. P. Pavlov, his employee N. R. The dog could not distinguish between two geometric shapes, one of which was accompanied by the appearance of food reinforcement, and the other was not. Three weeks of fruitless attempts to understand the pattern of the appearance of food brought the animal into a state that we now call learned helplessness. The dog constantly tried to escape from the experimental setup, whined all the time, and, most notably, all previously developed conditioned reflexes disappeared from it.

Crucially, the dog did not experience any physical discomfort in this experiment. She was not hurt, not frightened, she did not starve - the animals are fed in the evening in the vivarium, regardless of how successfully they developed reflexes. The dog's psyche was traumatized by only one psychological factor - the inability to establish dependence, according to which positive reinforcement appears, that is, the uncontrollability of the situation.

To emphasize again, when people talk about uncontrollable stress, a person or an animal is not necessarily exposed to unpleasant, painful, or harmful stimuli. It is enough to make the appearance of the stimulus unpredictable, and the whole situation, therefore, uncontrollable. For example, a rat is trained to step on a pedal to get a dose of water. After the conditioned reflex becomes strong, the pedal is turned off. Water periodically appears in the drinking bowl, but this happens not when the rat presses on the pedal, but when the rat in the neighboring cage presses the pedal, which our experimental rat, naturally, does not know about. After a week of uncontrolled watering, the rat develops a learned helplessness.

Another fundamental point in the effects of uncontrollability is the lack of involvement of the intellect. The state of learned helplessness does not develop because the intellect turns out to be powerless. An animal or a person does not make a conscious intellectual effort to search for patterns in the environment. Attempts are made at an unconscious level. This is evidenced by the results of experiments in which the state of learned helplessness after uncontrolled exposure was formed in cockroaches and snails. Invertebrates do not have a brain, they have only nerve nodes - ganglia, which are noticeably inferior to the mammalian brain in complexity. Accordingly, the forms of behavior in invertebrates are much simpler than in mammals. But insects and mollusks develop conditioned reflexes quite easily. A conditioned reflex is formed on the basis of the connection (which IP Pavlov called "temporal") between various changes in the environment. If such a connection is not obvious, then the situation becomes uncontrollable, as a result, a learned helplessness is formed.

The state of learned helplessness is used as a model of a person's depression, but now it interests us as a tool for controlling behavior, since in this state the volitional properties of the personality are suppressed.

Out of control as a method of manipulation

A man with learned helplessness is deprived of his will. He loses the desire to understand the laws of the complex surrounding world and the desire to do something, somehow influence this world. Experimental animals that have been exposed to uncontrolled influences lose the ability to choose. Even strong influences, such as irritation by electric shock, do not cause them to have a natural avoidance reaction for all living things. People with learned helplessness do not perform any independent actions, but only expect direct instructions - what, how and when to do.

Therefore, sometimes the uncontrollability of the situation is created intentionally. For example, in the armies of some countries, the main thing is not to train a new recruit in a military specialty, but to force him to follow orders without reasoning. To do this, it is necessary to suppress the will of a person, his desire for independence, a tendency to reasoning, inherent in one way or another to each person. The irrationalism of the military service is created and maintained artificially.

Much more often people create uncontrollable situations for their loved ones completely unconsciously, sincerely believing that they only wish them well.

The husband does not limit his non-working wife in spending, but requires a report to the nearest ruble. After all, accounting and control is the basis of economic stability. Not to mention that it is he who makes money, so he has the right to know where they go. At the same time, the woman feels unhappy.

A woman gives her son-in-law a thong (a real case!). After all, she is sexually more experienced than her daughter and knows better which parts of the figure of a given man should be emphasized. But the young wife is unhappy with this act of her mother.

Left-handers are prohibited from using their left hand. The child is not able to understand why it is impossible to hold a spoon or pencil as it is convenient for him, why he is punished for it. A left-handed person who is being retrained to be right-handed is constantly in an uncontrollable situation.

Right-handed parents also forbid their children a lot. After all, they know better what is dangerous and harmful for the child, and what is useful. But children very often protest against parental control and prohibition systems. The protests of the younger generation, and sometimes of adult family members, are manifested in the form of strange actions, sometimes those that are called inadequate. In fact, these are, perhaps, socially unacceptable, but adequate reactions - attempts to create a subjectively controlled situation. Most people try to achieve at least the illusion of control over the situation, which cannot be influenced. This helps to avoid the state of learned helplessness.

Biased Activity as a Protection Against Out-of-Control

In Nazi Germany, "labor camps" were created, in which people were placed, objectionable to the regime, first of all - dissatisfied. The main method of influencing the psyche was the uncontrollability of the situation. The internal regulations were constantly changing, and the prisoners were not informed about this. What was allowed yesterday today turned out to be forbidden and punishable. In addition, irrationalization was widely used, for example, prisoners were ordered to dig a hole - urgently, quickly, even faster! Once the hole was ready, the command followed to bury it. And again - faster, time "perfectly" ends, whoever fails will be punished!

After several months of such a regime, the prisoner lost volitional impulses. It did not occur to him to try to understand what was happening, let alone critical reflection. A man was released who believed everything he hears on the radio and unquestioningly followed the instructions of his leading comrades.

Psychologist Bruno Bettelheim also ended up in such a camp. As a professional, he very quickly understood the parenting methodology. He called this method "the formation of a child's attitude." Indeed, a small child does not understand the world around him. Often he is not only unable to comprehend the laws of his environment, but he can not even formulate questions. Why climb on a chair - you can, on a table - better not, and on a windowsill - in no case, never? Incomprehensible. For a small child, the only possible strategy of behavior is absolute submission to adults. Nothing can be done without first asking permission. Any initiative is punishable.

As a psychologist, Bettelheim also developed a method to counteract the formation of learned helplessness - to do everything that is not expressly prohibited. It is not forbidden to brush your teeth - brush it. And not because you care about oral hygiene, but because it is your decision. It is not forbidden to do physical exercises - do exercises. Again, not because you care about the tone of the muscle, cardiovascular and other body systems, but because you do not follow the order, but implement your decision.

Bettelheim spent nine months in the camp. When he was released, he left for the United States and wrote a great work there about his experience of being in an uncontrollable situation. According to Bettelheim, the basis of the method of preventing learned helplessness is the use of displaced activity. Attempts to directly influence an uncontrollable situation are doomed to failure. It is impossible to avoid or get rid of all unpleasant influences. You can neither adapt to them, nor predict the appearance of stimuli. It is also useless to endure and wait for “when this is all over”, because the end of the impact is also unpredictable. But you can make the situation subjectively controlled. To do this, it is enough to be active, not even aimed at getting rid of acting stimuli, but simply being active.

By definition, displaced activity is devoid of biological meaning, since it is not aimed at satisfying an urgent need. It occurs when an animal or a person, for various reasons, does not have a ready-made program of action. In such situations, a motor stereotype of a different motivation is used. But in a situation of prolonged uncontrollability, the displaced activity has a somewhat unexpected biological meaning - salvation from learned helplessness.

In the simplest model of an uncontrolled situation - immobilization on the back - half of the rats were given a wooden stick in their teeth. In these animals, physiological and behavioral changes after the end of immobilization were significantly less than in those who were deprived of the opportunity to gnaw a stick. It is pertinent to recall that during the punishment with the whip, the tortured person was put into his mouth with a leather belt so that he would not bite off his tongue.

Learned helplessness develops in rats receiving electric shocks that they could neither avoid nor predict while sitting in a small cage. But if rats received the same painful irritation in a large cage, where they could run, then the learned helplessness was not formed. Although active movement did not reduce pain, it prevented the development of changes in the psyche that were detrimental to the body. Although the situation was objectively uncontrollable - the electric shocks reached the target, the illusion of control arose, the animal was doing something.

Similarly, learned helplessness is not formed in rats that were placed in pairs in a cage with an "electric" floor. Received electric shocks, these rats fought with each other. Despite the numerous wounds, after the end of the painful action, the behavior of these animals was much closer to normal than in the rats that suffered alone.

This psychological defense mechanism - the subjectivization of the control of the situation - manifests itself in the constant fights of prisoners, no matter how humane the conditions of detention in correctional labor institutions. Note that it is possible to avoid learned helplessness in a situation of total prohibitions and unpredictable punishments without starting fights. As already mentioned, you can do everything that is not directly prohibited, and not only brush your teeth and exercise. During rush hour on the subway (this is, of course, not a prison, but still a restriction of freedom) write poetry, solve mathematical problems in your mind, translate jokes into English. All this will be a manifestation of your will, and in this area it is you and only you who will fully control the situation.

Unfortunately, FM Dostoevsky was right when he noticed that all intellect is a disease. Unlike animals, many people in an uncontrolled situation, instead of showing displaced activity, seek to regain control. If these attempts prove fruitless, they only hasten the formation of learned helplessness.

However, in many people we observe an adequate defense mechanism - a displaced activity, which often seems to others to be whims.

Whims as a form of displaced activity

The actions of children often seem wild and incomprehensible to adults. Meanwhile, this is just an attempt to show oneself that it is he (she) who controls the situation. The child himself would be glad to study well, play sports, be friends with good boys and girls, but not be friends with bad ones. He would like not to drink or smoke. But he knows that all these forms of behavior will be the realization of parental desires, that is, he will follow the lead of adults. But to climb on roofs, run across railway tracks in front of a nearby train, ride a bike on the highway - all this parents would strongly disapprove of. Consequently, such behavior will be his decision, his act, by which he proves to himself that he controls his behavior, that is, controls the situation.

It is very difficult for parents to refrain from controlling the behavior of their children. An adult can better foresee the long-term consequences of actions, and will do everything faster, better and more reliably. It is much easier to put on a child everything necessary for a walk than to wait for him to get dressed himself. But, leaving the house, the child will immediately take off his mittens - to spite his mother, let his hands freeze! Going to the dacha, the mother takes a huge bear from the child - well, where is it, and so all hands are busy - but with this she emphasizes that only she makes decisions, and nothing depends on the child. As a result, the child is capricious during the whole long trip on the subway and on the train. By this he subjectivizes the controllability of the surrounding world.

In one of the modern films there is such an episode. Children ask the mother to have a kitten, she refuses, then the children buy a kitten with the money saved on breakfast. The mother immediately gives the kitten into good hands, and there is no more talk about the cat. And in the final scene, the children come home and are greeted by a smiling mother with a kitten at her feet. According to the authors of the film, this is probably a peppy finale, a major chord. In reality, this is all very sad. The woman once again showed the children that nothing depends on their behavior, on their desires, the situation is controlled by the mother and only the mother.

In one of Marinina's novels, a girl who worked as a secretary for her father passed his secrets on to competitors and, moreover, finally managed to get her father to jail. The fact is that the father continued to control the behavior of an adult girl as if she were still a child. In particular, when writing out her salary, which was usual for a businessman's secretary, he gave her the same meager amount as in his school years. It is noteworthy that the girl was not aware of the motives of her behavior, the needs that she was trying to satisfy. She herself believed that she was suffering from the inability to buy expensive things, visit expensive clubs and spend money in other ways. But, becoming an heiress and gaining financial independence, she quickly became convinced that the costly social life was not interesting to her. It turned out that the whole drama played out due to parental hypercontrol.

At the heart of the actions of adults, too, sometimes lies the desire to subjectivize the control of the situation. A person whose behavior is completely controlled by a spouse may suddenly have a lover (mistress). And this behavior will not be based on falling in love, not looking for novelty, but only an unconscious desire to do something clearly not approved by the controller. In Maupassant's story "Bombard", the husband, who regularly received a small sum from his rich wife for self-made men's expenses, gave almost all of it to the servant - "a hefty woman, red and stocky" - for which she allowed to copulate with herself on the back stairs. And the next day, sitting with a fishing rod in the reeds, the husband shouted with joy: "Cheat the mistress!"

If a person is forced to do work that does not bring him inner satisfaction, he always has some kind of hobby, often very expensive. With the money spent, a person could travel to distant countries, make a renovation in an apartment, or even ensure a comfortable old age. But an uninteresting job is a situation of uncontrollable stress, and a person unconsciously escapes depression by indulging in his favorite pastime. Although, from the point of view of others, this is a completely empty affair, a nonsense waste of money, a whim!

The same mechanism - the subjectivization of behavior control - sometimes works for pets. Most owners see the dog as a companion and neglect its training, that is, the creation of a clear system of rules of behavior. Periodic shouts of "Fu!", Pulling at the leash, slapping on the nose - all this is unpredictable for a dog, because in other cases the same behavior, like begging for food from a human table, was not punished in any way and was even encouraged. As a result, a seemingly clever dog runs out onto the roadway! She does this to subjectivize the control of the situation.

To increase the amount of happiness in ourselves and in those close to us, it is enough just to weaken our desire to keep our finger on the pulse of all family events. It is necessary to give each family member - from spouse to dog - that mental space in which he is not accountable to anyone. For men, this is often the garage (which is why garages are so expensive). However, the children do not have their own garage. Therefore, of course, it is absolutely unacceptable to read the daughter's diary, but it is also impossible to clean the teenager's room, putting everything in its place of its own free will and throwing out the excess. Even reminding her or him of this mess and the stable is better only in the form of hints and allegories.

It is also worth treating the whims of pets. For example, the dog of the author of these lines is always happy about the upcoming walk. This is manifested in motor-vocal excitement - she rushes around the apartment, periodically howling when I start dressing at the appointed time. Before the walk, you need to eat, but the dog comes up to the bowl of food only when the person is already standing in a buttoned coat with a leash in hand. At the same time, she begins to indulge in: with her front teeth she takes one granule and, holding it, throws it on the floor, and so on several times. Then he begins to eat, chewing food thoroughly. Of course, one could simply leave the apartment, and the dog, of course, would follow. But she has so few opportunities to implement her own decisions, that is, to completely control the situation! Walking time, route, duration - all this is chosen by a person. The owner constantly gives instructions - do not go there, do not smell here, spit it out immediately, do not wallow in shit! Therefore, I patiently wait for the dog to eat with all its tricks and twists - let it subjectivize control, being capricious at the trough, and not running out onto the roadway.

In the film Basic Instinct, the heroine Sharon Stone explains the behavior of the boy who blew up his parents' plane by the fact that he wanted to check: will he be punished for it? Obviously, the boy's parents suppressed any possibility of his independent behavior, which caused such a dramatic, but completely biologically explainable reaction. (Note here that the upbringing of an unfrustrated child, that is, a system of upbringing with a complete absence of prohibitions and punishments, is also the creation of an uncontrollable situation for the child. Leaving the family into the outside world, he will be deprived of complete freedom and will face an unknown and very unpleasant concept " it is forbidden".)

We will demonstrate our experience, intelligence, knowledge of life and the ability to predict the development of events in providing our loved ones with a certain freedom and, of course, responsibility that is inalienable from freedom. And of course, you should be more indulgent to the whims of your family; after all, their whims are unconscious behavior, the cause of which is most often in ourselves.