Great post. A few gut level thoughts before chewing on it.
This feels richly entangled with conscientiousness somehow.
Refusal to deal with a world full of horror seems potentially superrational to me, IIRC charity workers dealing directly with the magnitude of suffering in the developing world commit suicide at pretty high rates, although I’m having trouble sourcing this now and I imagine this is difficult to get good numbers on.
Tearing away illusions all at once is itself traumatic, avoiding the pain and only taking it in doses, especially if it can be taken in doses with qualified supervision, seems better than many alternatives. In particular, one interpretation of stuff like this that I’ve seen is something like “it is virtuous to try to take the pain all at once.” Law of equal and opposite advice applies there, some people need to lean in more, but others likely less. Calibrating this is exactly what a good therapist can do.
Great post. A few gut level thoughts before chewing on it.
This feels richly entangled with conscientiousness somehow.
Refusal to deal with a world full of horror seems potentially superrational to me, IIRC charity workers dealing directly with the magnitude of suffering in the developing world commit suicide at pretty high rates, although I’m having trouble sourcing this now and I imagine this is difficult to get good numbers on.
Tearing away illusions all at once is itself traumatic, avoiding the pain and only taking it in doses, especially if it can be taken in doses with qualified supervision, seems better than many alternatives. In particular, one interpretation of stuff like this that I’ve seen is something like “it is virtuous to try to take the pain all at once.” Law of equal and opposite advice applies there, some people need to lean in more, but others likely less. Calibrating this is exactly what a good therapist can do.