Can someone provide a satisfying anwer to the dilemma of the imperfect human mind?

Question

If it is true that our perceptions and cognitions are imperfect (as many studies in recall, perception, and memory demonstrate), how can cognitive psychology work (in other words, the type that claims that if you change your negative view of yourself by viewing yourself in a different, more positive light) if the very thing you are using to change your perspective is an imperfect mechanism to begin with.

Answer 1

The only imperfection in nature is the concept of perfection.

Answer 2

Just because something is imperfect doesn't mean it can't be better. As humans, we aren't perfect, but we can be happier.

We tell ourselves stories all the time - about what is happening in our world and about our role in it.

We can change those stories. There is too much sensory information at any one second to take it all in. What we pay attention to and what we tell ourselves about that winds up as our reality.

The trick is that we want everything in our environment to confirm the reality that we've created. So, if we feel the world is "bad" we will actually seek out experiences to confirm that. We will watch the news instead of a sitcom and say - "See? See? It's true! The world IS a bad place."

Changing our reality, our perceptions, our story takes consistency and awareness of what we are telling ourselves. Once aware of it, we can begin to shift it if we want.

The movie "What the Bleep" deals with this beautifully.

Answer 3

Hmmm...great question. Cognitive psychology and therapy work WHEN we recognized that life is a moving object - the constant shifting and motion of our ideal self against the contant shifting and motion of our true self.

Perfection in life is not reconciling and holding both views/worlds in perfect harmony, it is in 'consistently' keeping them close enough to keep one leg in both parts.

The pretense that we can attain perfect harmony for any length of time - that's what makes people crazy. ;)

Answer 4

It doesn't. Yes, you have identified the glitch in the system. Like life itself requiring someone stepping in from outside the system to add order and energy, what we know requires someone to step in from outside to provide an ACCURATE perspective. I call it "hypermetropia": our perceptions are skewed to see the distant too well and the near (ourselves) not at all. (So, how much of Freud's theories really applied to himself?)