3 ms·

> The person whose father is dying has a choice about where they put their attention You've made the same mistake again. The comics are about situations where

> The person whose father is dying has a choice about where they put their attention You've made the same mistake again. The comics are about situations where the people have no such choices to make. To make your example fit, the person would have to be having compulsive thoughts about the unfairness of the situation or something. This is a real possibility. People with certain mental illnesses do not have choices over where they put their attention. Telling them to put it anywhere specific is a misunderstanding of the situation and unhelpful.

roflc0ptic 6y ago
But there's basically no situation a person can be in while remaining intact that they can't attempt to direct their attention. Falling off a cliff? The choice is available. About to get killed by a semi truck? Choice. Etc etc. Perhaps where our models differ is that I think most suffering is second order. The first order bad thing happens, and it hurts. Then we think about it, and think about it in unhelpful ways, and continue to hurt ourselves further.
- guerrilla 6y ago
  > But there's basically no situation a person can be in while remaining intact that they can't attempt to direct their attention. Except many mental illnesses, the example I'm pointing out for the third time now. Moreover, you're advice is utterly useless to the person suffering in these situations. Again, we need yet another panel with someone being beaten to death with a pipe and you standing there saying "just direct your attention to..." (scream of "AHHHHHH"! overlaps the end of your thought bubble)