Wisdom Notes on Psychology

Levels of Suffering

The links in the table on the left take you to sub-headings on this page.

These three themes of trauma can be generalised in order to show the significance of three common social issues, those of power, justice, and freedom. I choose these issues because they have been the dominant issues in my life.

• The theme of domination and punishment centres on the issue of power [¹].
• The theme of victimisation centres on the issue of justice.
• The theme of rejection centres on the issue of freedom.

A person may have several serious problems throughout his life. Each problem will be influenced by his feelings towards power, justice, and freedom. Some problems may be dominated by power, some by justice, and some by freedom.

Woven around these themes is the concept of meaning. In general, when a person is subjected to regular episodes of suffering and sorrow, then sooner or later he starts to ask himself  “Why?”, “Why am I suffering?”. When this questioning becomes serious and something that he cannot let go, then he begins the search for meaning in life.

The search for meaning is really the search for the source of one’s suffering, the search for an explanation of personal suffering that will make sense to the person. The search can take the person on a journey of self-discovery, and can lead to one of three possible explorations. There are three levels of meaning, and these correlate to the explorations of power, justice, and freedom.

First Level: Power

This level revolves around the pursuit of power, which everyone engages in, in one way or another (consciously or subconsciously). Power can mean power over other people, or power over the material world (by the use of science and technology), or power over oneself (by cultivating self-assurance). A person seeks power because he or she expects that it will produce happiness in them. Conversely, when he or she pursues happiness then they also seek some form of power that can maintain the happiness. The pursuit of power uses the psychological mechanism of projection and introjection [2]. Since everyone uses this mechanism as the basis of personal relationships, so everyone pursues power.

When this pursuit is conscious, when the person knows that he wants power, then power generates an exhilarating psychological buzz. The buzz is similar to that felt by driving a fast car, or a fast motorcycle, or being at the helm of a fast motorboat.

Power is the basis of one’s definition of oneself, of one’s sense of identity. Self-confidence and assurance is based on feeling empowered. At some time, however, the person will experience powerlessness, which in turn induces moods of self-pity or resentment. When the self-pity happens regularly, the person’s sense of identity crumbles. As he struggles to survive psychologically, he embarks on the first stage of the search for meaning. He now seeks faith: it may be faith in God, or faith in a teacher, or even faith in himself [³]. In lieu of a teacher, he may find faith in a religious tradition or the tradition of science.

Having faith in science highlights what all forms of faith produce: the feeling of certainty. The person needs to have a firm base of certainty in his life, and faith can provide this. The drawback is that faith tends to develop dogmatism and narrow-mindedness in the believer, irrespective of whether the faith is religious or secular. Scientists who have a secular faith in science can be just as narrow-minded and bigoted as religious people can be.  Once the person finds faith, he acquires a new sense of power and certainty. So long as he is content with faith, then the search for meaning ceases.

Second Level: Justice

At some point in life the person may realise that faith is not enough. Faith answers some questions, but not all questions. The person discovers that there are limitations to faith, since his suffering continues. Where is the justice in this state of affairs?  Now the concept of justice may become more important than faith. If this happens then the search for meaning rises to the exploration of justice. Justice becomes an ideal that the person attempts to achieve. The person intensifies his idealism so that ordinary materialistic ideals no longer have the same importance to him. If his ideals are eventually frustrated and obstructed, he may experience much hatred and resentment. Everyone engages in power, but not all people follow justice.

The person uses his concept of justice to explore the reasons for suffering. The reasons are many, but the single most important one is that suffering eventually forces the person to learn self-awareness. Self-awareness enables the person to learn how and why he relates to others, and the consequences of his actions on others. Self-awareness helps to dispel psychological ignorance and delusions about oneself. Thus self-awareness becomes the true foundation of ethics. When ethics is tied to psychology theory, then realistic theories of ethics can be formulated, instead of trying to derive theories from personal inclinations, or imagination, or rational speculation.

Third Level: Freedom

If the person has satisfied his search for justice, then the search for meaning comes to an end. Only when justice is denied to oneself can the search be continued to the third level. As the ideal of justice fades in importance, the person turns to the ideal of freedom. The pursuit of freedom is the final stage of the search for meaning in life. Depending on his level of evolution, the person may define freedom in various ways: in terms of politics, religion, sexuality, philosophy, etc.

At various stages of his personal journey, a person may take to solitude and withdraw from social life for a time. However, solitude is only a necessary step in the overall process of self-discovery: it is not the end stage. The final step of his journey is to re-engage in social life whilst remaining detached from it. Or, as it has been traditionally put, to be in the world but not of the world.

Comparisons

I highlight some of the differences between the three levels. I note the experiences and states of mind that occur when the person cannot access power, justice or freedom.

Level 1: Domination and Power
When a person has no faith and no power, then life is uncertain and the person is likely to be a pessimist. This is bad enough, but life may get even worse. If life becomes bleak, then the person may feel trapped in circumstances and/or relationships which cannot be changed for the better. He may be functioning at the bottom of his social class.

The most important emotions to work with here are fear and guilt [4].
The negative themes of this level are degradation and punishment.

The way out lies in changing one’s beliefs and developing new ideals.
The positive theme is idealism.

Level 2: Victimisation and Justice
When a person has been subject to injustice, then life seems to offer him no choices. He seems to be the subject of abuse and is victimised and humiliated, even betrayed. When one’s family, class, or society denigrates oneself, then one develops much hatred and resentment towards it. He may hate society whilst remaining polite to people. There is no love in his life, and his ideals collapse as his sense of importance deflates. Life is experienced as a succession of punishments because he feels different from other people. Life is dreary and offers no scope for feeling good about oneself.

The most important emotions to work with here are love and hate.
The negative themes of this level are denigration and punishment.

The way out lies in the pursuit of goodness.
The positive theme is goodness.

Level 3: Rejection and Freedom
When a person has no freedom, then he may regularly experience failure in life. He feels that he is too dependent on others: dependency leads only to disappointments. He shies away from any close relationships and prefers to keep to himself, though he may have a few friends. Life seems to have rejected and abandoned him, and so apathy sets in. He may give up for long periods of time, just staring at the wall or laying on the bed and staring at the ceiling, feeling completely beaten by life - this is similar to people who experience intense PTSD [5]. He experiences long periods of intense bitterness.

The most important emotions to work with here are self-pity and bitterness.
The negative themes of this level are rejection, abandonment, desolation and hopelessness.

The way out lies in the pursuit of truth.
The positive theme is truth.

By the pursuit of truth I do not mean just the pursuit of science. Science is beneficial in that it helps to train the mind. Primarily the pursuit of truth has to be the examination and exploration of the person’s purpose and role in reality (in whatever ways the person interprets reality).

How much truth a person can attain depends on the existing level of knowledge about reality, the level of evolution of the thinker, and the level of evolution of society. As society evolves, the pursuit of truth can reach ever-new heights. Hence the pursuit of truth is always a process, a process without any final goal.

[¹]. I have three articles on Power in my book Patterns of Mind. [1]

[²]. I have an article on Projection and Introjection in my book Patterns of Mind. [2]

[³]. I have an article on Faith in my book Landmarks of Spirituality. [3]

[4]. I have three articles on Emotion on the Home page. [4]

[5]. See my article Fear and PTSD. [5]

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