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Both things are programs that run in your head. The difference is how much the program makes you search inside yourself and ALONE for the answers you seek as o

Both things are programs that run in your head. The difference is how much the program makes you search inside yourself and ALONE for the answers you seek as opposite to reaching for an external authority. If you feel you are dependent on an external human the most likely event is that they or their group made you dependent on purpose via some sort of manipulation.

mcv 4y ago
But is relying on your own answers really better than relying on an external authority? Only if it's always the same authority. But always thinking you know better than everybody else doesn't really sound any healthier.
- zdragnar 4y ago
  I know of a guy through a social worker friend who, if he goes off his medication (which he does with some frequency), becomes convinced that there are vampires who are out to get him. The human mind is not always a terribly reliable authority, especially your own (where you lack perspective).
  - crawfordcomeaux 4y ago
    Effective approaches to this I've heard of involve learning to treat the hallucinations with respect, learning to communicate effectively with them, and learning from them. This is reflected both in how some tribal cultures approach hallucinations & modern approaches to schizophrenia and the like. Avoiding these things by medicating them away seems like a form of suppression that preserves the underlying thought/behavior processes (like avoiding one's fears of monsters or death) that are feeding into the hallucinations. Effective solutions usually don't pathologize or avoid experiences. If we get caught up in judging what's real or imagined, then we can lose sight of what's available for us to learn from.
- kibwen 4y ago
  This is a misreading. Relying on your own judgment does not mean that you need to be an island who thinks that they know better than anyone else. What it means is that your judgment is founded on your own critical thinking, which still allows you to recognize when you lack some experience and perspective and defer to the wisdom of others when necessary.
psychoslave 4y ago
>If you feel you are dependent on an external human Absolutely not, I’m a free trapper who built its own computer from scratch. Joke apart, who is thinking really that interdependence is inherently bad? Things like symbiosis are generally connoted rather positively, aren’t there? Now, being dependent on a group which is applying rigid rules which are systematically leading to toxic behaviors for all or part of its members, that is certainly a sound concern. It seems to me that "independence" is a none issue: no man is an island[1]. It’s all about the way we steer our interdependence, with indefinitely many governance models we can try, but as soon a you put apart solipsism from deemed beliefs, none will honestly pretend that anyone can be absolutely independent. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devotions_upon_Emergent_Occasions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devotions_upon_Emergent_Occasi...
- sharikous 4y ago
  I was speaking of emotional and decisional independence. Look at enmeshed family dynamics for an example of a terribly unhealthy symbiosis.

mcv 4y ago

But is relying on your own answers really better than relying on an external authority? Only if it's always the same authority. But always thinking you know better than everybody else doesn't really sound any healthier.

zdragnar 4y ago
I know of a guy through a social worker friend who, if he goes off his medication (which he does with some frequency), becomes convinced that there are vampires who are out to get him. The human mind is not always a terribly reliable authority, especially your own (where you lack perspective).
- crawfordcomeaux 4y ago
  Effective approaches to this I've heard of involve learning to treat the hallucinations with respect, learning to communicate effectively with them, and learning from them. This is reflected both in how some tribal cultures approach hallucinations & modern approaches to schizophrenia and the like. Avoiding these things by medicating them away seems like a form of suppression that preserves the underlying thought/behavior processes (like avoiding one's fears of monsters or death) that are feeding into the hallucinations. Effective solutions usually don't pathologize or avoid experiences. If we get caught up in judging what's real or imagined, then we can lose sight of what's available for us to learn from.
kibwen 4y ago
This is a misreading. Relying on your own judgment does not mean that you need to be an island who thinks that they know better than anyone else. What it means is that your judgment is founded on your own critical thinking, which still allows you to recognize when you lack some experience and perspective and defer to the wisdom of others when necessary.

psychoslave 4y ago

>If you feel you are dependent on an external human Absolutely not, I’m a free trapper who built its own computer from scratch. Joke apart, who is thinking really that interdependence is inherently bad? Things like symbiosis are generally connoted rather positively, aren’t there? Now, being dependent on a group which is applying rigid rules which are systematically leading to toxic behaviors for all or part of its members, that is certainly a sound concern. It seems to me that "independence" is a none issue: no man is an island[1]. It’s all about the way we steer our interdependence, with indefinitely many governance models we can try, but as soon a you put apart solipsism from deemed beliefs, none will honestly pretend that anyone can be absolutely independent. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devotions_upon_Emergent_Occasions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devotions_upon_Emergent_Occasi...

sharikous 4y ago
I was speaking of emotional and decisional independence. Look at enmeshed family dynamics for an example of a terribly unhealthy symbiosis.