Course 3: PL 102 - Denial & Distractions (Discussion 3)

@GlenM

1. How would you define denial in your own words?

When I refuse to accept reality for whatever reason, temporary protection (which can be beneficial short term to support hope - as mentioned in the boo), long term refusal of what is unpleasant or seems to be too challenging. Being in denial means betraying myself and others.

2. What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious?

Much of what we think, feel, and do actually happens outside of our awareness/consciousness so we might react in ways we would not do on a conscious level. Becoming aware of it and ultimately dealing with it allows us to respond in a better way.

3. What do you believe are the top 3 distraction systems? Which one of these is the most powerful and why?

Food - because we’re hardwired to it and some food is also designed to create cravings

Online distraction

Movies can be watched anytime, it is pretty much like a buffet open the whole time and thus a dangerous distraction.

Social media

Social media because it is designed in a way to “make us addicted” when not handled with great care. Often it creates false images about life/people, encourages comparison, increases feelings of inferiority, adds to creating needs which were non existent before,

@GlenM

1.

Denial is to unconsciously hide from our conscious awareness the feelings and believes that make us anxious and feel bad and fearful. We move those things from Consciousness to the Unconscious. These things stay hidden in the Unconscious, but keep trying to come back to Consciousness and be recognized as a genuine part of ourselves.

These things we deny scare us because, typically, they were traits that caused problems with our parents when we were very small. Our parents let us know that, and as we depended on them for our livelihood, the threat of being rejected by our parents made us very anxious and feel a lot of fear.

So we learned this mechanism of "putting things under the rug", and when something makes us very anxious and scary, we tend to deny it in all of these learned ways.

2.

Things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious don’t disappear, but constantly try to surface, express themselves, and integrate as genuine part of our whole self, even if we consider them evil, immoral, or damaging.

3.

1 Social Media (FB)

2 Other online distractions (movies, clips etc.)

3 Adictive Food

Which one of these is the most powerful and why?

I think it’s Social Media (FB), because it takes advantage of the deep, ancestral, even genetic need to belong to social networks. Since the origin of our species, establishing and maintaining relationships of family and friendship has been crucial to our survival (especially when we are babies now, and for our paleolitic ancestors). This was kept through chatting in even meaningful conversations and gossiping. The current IT technology and business has developed services that feel like satisfying this need to the maximum extent posible. People become addicted to them and spend there as much time as they possibly can.

@GlenM

1. How would you define denial in your own words?
When you push down an emotion or feeling because believing it is present causes conflict and more problems that aren't seen as necessary to be dealt with.

2. What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious?

The parts of ourselves we split off into our unconscious because we are afraid of them causes stress and anxiety because in our minds we cannot act on certain emotions or feelings because of our associated consequence with it.

3. What do you believe are the top 3 distraction systems? Which one of these is the most powerful and why?

Money

Technology

Power

I think power is the most powerful (haha lol) because people feel this sense of being on top, being the boss, being in control, and they abuse this power and end up only caring about themselves, and when you have power, you have and can gain so many other things that can make you even more dangerous.

1. How would you define denial in your own words?

The conscious or unconscious avoidance of unpleasant experiences/occurences etc.

2. What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious?

That things that passes by unawares might be learned behaviours, which makes them hard to detect and improve upon.

3. What do you believe are the top 3 distraction systems? Which one of these is the most powerful and why?

entertainment - really one of the classic methods to keep people occupied, you are swept up by the lives of others in gossip or on the big screen, and then it's hard to return to your own problems after that.

merchandise and commodities - the consumer culture is especially effective at drawing people in and keeping them occupied.

internet and games - somewhat new, but very addictive.

@GlenM

1. As a way of denying that something is happening to make ourselves feel better.

2. That there are many things we learn how to do or "control", let's say, in our life because of how we were taught to do and behave in our very early life.

3. The 3 top distraction systems in my opinion is social media, movies and sleeping. I believe that the most powerful is social media, because most people nowadays are sitting above a screen for many hours a day, and just immediately after they leave their phone, they leave the virtual reality of social media and the online world and come back to reality, which makes them feel sad and miserable.

1. How would you define denial in your own words?

Denial is common occurance and is when we try to avoid the issue at hand unconsciously and consciously. Sometimes, we might consciously be in denial to get pass a trauma or an event that we do not want to think of, and when we do not want to face it at the moment, we try to not think of it as an issue at all. We could also be unconsciously in denial, where one might not be fully aware that they are in denial whether it is because the situation is a common occurance, or is a biological defence for the situation.

2. What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious?

The most important thing I learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious is that it is hard to face and figure out these unconscious thoughts, and to be aware that we might be in denial unconsciously and bring awareness to the issue at hand is even harder.

3. What do you believe are the top 3 distraction systems? Which one of these is the most powerful and why?

The top 3 distraction systems might be social media, food, and reading. As for which one is the most powerful, I really cannot say because it is different for everyone. I personally think reading is the most powerful for me to distract myself because I am surrounded by an unrealistic world that sometimes just seem amazing, and I know that there are so many days I just sit on my bed and think about these books and these worlds (whether fiction or nonfiction). I suppose it might be a way of escaping reality even for just a single moment.

1: To refuse the of something of requested or desired.

2: That they are not where they need to be and still out there and we are figuring them out nonstop instead of being automatically done.

3: Food: as we use to so much social interaction during it, the internet as we only checking on it, and love from the fact that we overthink it all.

1. How would you define denial in your own words?

A refusal to something.

2. What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious?

To be aware that there's a lot we aren't aware of. We can't know everything, it can be useful to rely on others at times.

3. What do you believe are the top 3 distraction systems? Which one of these is the most powerful and why?

People, media, chemicals (food, scents, etc.)

I would say people are probably the most powerful, with media we can shut it down/shut it off, it can be difficult to ignore others and we also need them.

@GlenM

1. How would you define denial in your own words? (Denial) To me denial is not wanting to expect something. Denial could also be not wanting to hear the truth.

2. What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious? It's honestly really important to understand that our unconscious mind works in other ways we don't understand there is much more to us than we will known and our mind protects in ways we may never understand.

3. What do you believe are the top 3 distraction systems? Which one of these is the most powerful and why? Social media, Food, relationships. I think social media, social media distracts us in ways we don't even understand, it causes us to lose focus on what's around us.

@GlenM

1. How would you define denial in your own words?

Denial, according to me, a state in which you unconsciously or consciously refuse to accept the truth.

2. What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious?

The most interesting concept for me was how we start removing unpleasant behaviours from our personality from a young age by observing our caretakers which is always there in the back of our mind.

3. What do you believe are the top 3 distraction systems? Which one of these is the most powerful and why?

Food, Online distractions and Accomplishments.

Online distractions seem to be the most powerful systems since it is designed to be that way and it is heavily based on human psychology.