The following is from a draft of a book on bipolar recovery. Enjoy ...
If we look upon philosophy as the root of all critical thinking and natural science as its trunk, now we need to examine its various branches. These would include disciplines such as law, engineering, statistics, history, economics, science, the arts, and even mysticism. All of the above (there are many more) employ the tools of logic and natural science (which includes fidelity to the facts and not jumping to conclusions), not to mention virtuosity in words or numbers. In addition, they offer powerful variations of their own, what I call their trademark “thinking hacks.” You may never become, say, a lawyer, but picking up a trade secret or two is going to add clarity to your thinking and make your life a lot easier. In examining these various hacks, by necessity, I’m taking an idealized view of the professions. Let’s begin …
Law
We associate lawyers with adversarial combat, which makes it easy to forget that most of their work involves keeping us out of trouble.
Lawyers are trained to anticipate everything that can possibly go wrong. If you are depressive by nature, you are a natural attorney. Not surprisingly, the legal profession leads in those who suffer from depression. One major advantage to depression is that depressives make great realists (the term is “depressive realism”). If, for instance, you and your business associates come up with a scheme to set the world on fire, you can count on your lawyer to throw a wet blanket over it. Or maybe she will help you get the fire going without getting your fingers burnt. Either way, you will be grateful for her unbridled pessimism.
Lawyers are also adept in sorting out the relevant from the irrelevant. Instead of gathering facts, lawyers seem to specialize in throwing them out. Then they work with whatever is left. This is a gross exaggeration, mind you, but it points to a skill we all need practice in, which involves directing our focus to the matter at hand. If we want to know, for instance, whether it will be rainy or sunny tomorrow, we don’t need to hear the entire ten-day forecast.
By the same token, if a fact is relevant, lawyers take a dim view of someone leaving it out. Take, for instance, the case of a home-owner shooting an intruder. The prosecutor is considering filing criminal charges. If you happened to have heard this story second-hand, hold your outrage - chances are your informant has left out the not insignificant detail that the intruder was shot in the back while fleeing.
Lawyers also seek to establish that we’re all sharing the same assumptions. In our daily lives, particularly in our personal relationships, we demand straight answers. By the same token, we expect to be listened to in good faith. Quid pro quo: No equivocations from one party, no jumping to conclusions by the other.
On more rarefied levels, lawyers grapple with issues such as fairness and equity. When people feel cheated or exploited or lied to, the level of trust required in our personal and social and community relationships breaks down. Even the winners lose.
So, time to think of how to care for your 90-year-old mom. Your three siblings are coming over tomorrow to discuss options. What could possibly go wrong? Already you’re thinking like a lawyer. Plan for the worst, set out the rules of engagement, and aim for everyone coming out happy. Hate the lawyer, if you must, love the reasoning.
Engineering
I’m including the medical profession in this category, as well as technicians and mechanics. Engineers bring practicality to science. On one hand they bend the rules of science to make things work. Here they are, ever resourceful, masters of the work-around, patron saints of the pocket knife, demons with duct tape. On another level, though, there is no margin of error. If they get it the least bit wrong, the airplane crashes, the bridge collapses, the patient dies.
Engineers live with a constant working awareness of reality, operating according to its many laws: Newton’s Law, Ohm’s Law, on and on. Positive wire in the positive terminal, closing tags to the html code, air pressure just right. If something goes beep or flashes red, you pay attention. If it needs maintenance, you tend to it. Solution matches problem: If something has a hole in it, you fix the goddamn hole.
Their logic is relentless: If this, proceed to that. Deviate just one bit from the logic - a this where a that should be - and you have a disaster, an Ikea table with one leg pointing to the ceiling - it’s almost that simple.
If only we had that type of clarity in our personal lives. Instead, it’s a train wreck. We put the metaphorical wire in the wrong terminal, we neglect to apply the closing tag. When something goes beep, we either ignore it or over-react. If there’s a hole in it, we make a matching hole. And so we inflict endless pain on ourselves and those around us.
You would think engineers would set an example, but no, outside of their profession they’re as incompetent as the rest of us. I recall some of my personal interactions with them and their medical and technician and mechanic cousins and can only cringe. What we really need is a savior engineer, of virgin birth to dwell amongst us and show us the way. Or perhaps a Moses engineer with ten precepts cast in silicon or a Buddha engineer with the Four Geek Truths.
The least they could do for us is develop an app, one we could implant in the brain that sends a 240-volt current through us every time we’re about to do something wrong, together with a written warning that flashes across our retinal screens. You know: “This is no time to show your spouse who is boss. Shut up and breathe through your nose.” Or …
“That syllogism is a bit shaky, but it’ll do in a pinch.” Or …
“Look at the expression on her face, you moron. For crying out loud, give her a hug.” Or …
“No! No! Optimism bias. You’ll be lucky to break even. Tell your friend to come up with a better offer.” Or …
“Idiot! Use your brain. Remember what happened last time you left the cap off the toothpaste?” Or …
“No! No! That’s how your Uncle Shithead would respond. That’s the last thing we want, don’t you agree? Now slowly count to ten, then repeat after me: “I hear you.” Last but not least …
“Slowly now. Be calm, stick the fork into your potato salad like every thing’s normal. Wait ten seconds for further instructions.”
In the meantime, we’re stuck with the brain we were born with. Work it like an engineer and watch out for that live wire.
John McManamy is the author of Living Well with Depression and Bipolar Disorder and is the publisher of the Bipolar Expert Series, available on Amazon.
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