Depressive Realism

To All God's Children,


-->Most people fall victim to the “Happy man’s illusion” or the optimism bias when one believes that have control over their fate and always find a positive outcome. Feelings of losing control can bring depression. There’s even a debate in psychology between the assumption of “free will” (i.e. we decide our fate) versus “determininsm” (i.e. which is that everything is already predetermined for us). I believe that we have free will, but within limit. It’s my will to fly, but I do not have the capacity; it may be a person who was in a car accident’s will to walk, but she cannot because of paralyzation. The ability to make deliberate decisions using the “conscious control” of our forebrains is the free will of humans who have no brain damage.
There was a study done once on depressed versus nondepressed people. From what I can remember, they asked the participants to use a remote control to move a spotlight projected on a wall around on the screen. Nondepressed people reported more control over the light although the researchers set up a hoax and the light did not move at all. The depressed people recognized that they had no control and thus were more realistic about their control. In other words, nondepressed people have an illusion of controlling their environment that nondepressed people do not have. This is depressive realism. So to discover truth is to discover sadness.

Peace be with you

Angels Book Series by D. C. Cowan