James Tilley

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The Day of the election, Boris Johnson suggested that he wanted to vote The Healing of the division in the UK to leave the EU. In fact, he called on "all find the closure and let The Healing begin".

the use of The Words "closure" and "healing" is significant.

In a survey in the past year,

If that is the case, then we should ask whether psychotherapy can tell us something about why political events influence our emotions.

Or to say it differently: why is that we so het up about the political decisions, by and large, they do not have much difference in our lives and even when it acts on us, we cannot do much about it?

This suggests that our feelings arise from our thoughts. Dr. David Burns, one of the founders of Cognitive Therapy , says: "Your moods, 100% caused by your thoughts.

"For example, if you are depressed, you will say to yourself things like" I'm not good. I'm a loser. Things will never change. Should I not screwed up'.

"Or, if you're angry with someone, you say to yourself," He's a jerk. He cares only about himself. He that he just has to say no right'. "

Distorted political thought

These thoughts are often wrong, according to Dr. Burns.

"It's not just that your thoughts create your moods. But The Thoughts that lead to depression and fear and anger are almost always the wrong thoughts. Depression and anxiety are The World 's oldest cons are. "

Cognitive therapists call these wrong thoughts, cognitive distortions. There are many different types of distortion, and most of them are very recognizable. One of The Most common is the so-called "all-or-nothing-thinking". This is where we see things in black and white terms but in shades of grey.

This distortion is especially visible for everyone who studies, politics, and the voters. We talk about our side of so great, and The Other side as hateful.

Rob Johns, a professor of politics at the University of Essex, points out that this "tribal, where people tend to see everything on your page, so awesome, and everything on The Other side is so terrible, it was perfectly shown in the Brexit referendum".

Why do we get emotional about politics?

It is these kind of thoughts are activated, the perceived threats to our side, make us angry, anxious or depressed about political events. And no one is immune to this.

Matthew Parris , a columnist for The Times , the former Conservative MP and ardent Remainer, says: "I think, I eat, I Dream exit from UK EU. I get angry when I Hear people espousing views that seemed ridiculous to me; I scream at the radio. "

It's clear that some of these cognitive distortions to detect, as you think all-or-nothing, in itself.

"I see a ridiculous tendency to cast everything absolutely right or absolutely wrong, to think of a dislike, that a middle position might be possible. I definitely see not only all others but myself also. The anger that many of us feel, is disproportionate. "

emotions affect what we do, politically

These emotional reactions, as Matthew Parris ' anger, also has an impact on our policy. In particular, these emotions have a large influence on whether or not we're getting ourselves into.

While the anger to make people participate more, it also has negative effects. Lily Mason, a professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland, points out that angry people "process really information very analytically".

she says: "And so, if you are angry, we have a very active electorate, but you are not really thinking to much about what you do. "

Anxious people are not much better. If I'm excited, I'm going to try to find out more information, but the fear will often prevent me in. This means that anxious people are not really better. And in contrast to anger, fear makes us less likely to get involved.

emotions clearly see the shape of our political behavior, and not necessarily always in a way that we might want. After All , it is probably not good for democracy, bad people, The Most do, however, know the least.

we Are an angry nation?

Unfortunately, the policy seems angrier today than ever before. A possible reason for this is that we tend to interact with people similar to us.

This is partially about social-media-echo-chambers, but it is also about our real life. As Lily Mason argues in her book, Rude agreement, the people in the United States are now much less likely to be on The Other side of the political divide, and this has important consequences:

"If we think we don' T have even known on The Other side of the aisle, that you The World s best interests at heart. We are writing to you really, really, really bad types of motivations. "

The same could probably be said, about politics, about here.

there is a solution? We would perhaps benefit from a therapy to address our distorted way of thinking about politics?

Maybe.

But need to want people to change, and part of the problem is that it often feels good to embrace and reject these distortions instead of you. Therapists call this "resistance."

with the good sense to be angry

For example, Matthew Parris is happy to admit that his thinking is distorted and it makes him over-emotional. But that does not mean that he wants to change.

"I can see that I'm crazy and I'm fucking crazy good to go," he says.

"It is a strange, twisted pleasure from it. I know that I have decided everything out of proportion and I'm still all in proportion. "

Just as it is to hear difficult, on The Other hand, as David Burns points:

"hatred is very rewarding to human beings. It feels good to fight and argue and make you feel morally superior. Feel like I'm in the right and The Other person is wrong. And to meet to close to the person, you have to make a decision.

"I Would be willing to, death is my ego and my pride, in order to get close to this person? And if you are there, and many people don't, then you are ready to examine your own role in The Conflict rather than the fault of The Other person. "

In the end, The Cure for which is not together with other people with different political opinions often change their views. Rather, it is about changing ourselves.

The problem is that The Most difficult of all the changes is likely to be.

James Tilley is a Professor of politics at the University of Oxford and Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford. He presented to the voters of therapy need to Do? on BBC Radio 4 at 20:30 GMT on Monday, 17. February .

brexit

Source of news: bbc.com