Impulse control
Jul. 7th, 2009 05:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
webcowgirlAs a person with a strong temper and a big mouth, I found this article in the New York Times very interesting.
"The adult brain expends at least as much energy on inhibition as on action, some studies suggest, and mental health relies on abiding strategies to ignore or suppress deeply disturbing thoughts — of one’s own inevitable death, for example."
But then: "Perverse impulses seem to arise when people focus intensely on avoiding specific errors or taboos. The theory is straightforward: to avoid blurting out that a colleague is a raging hypocrite, the brain must first imagine just that; the very presence of that catastrophic insult, in turn, increases the odds that the brain will spit it out."
I am doomed, I tell you. But I sure feel my brain sweating through keeping my mouth shut, even though I so frequently don't.
"The adult brain expends at least as much energy on inhibition as on action, some studies suggest, and mental health relies on abiding strategies to ignore or suppress deeply disturbing thoughts — of one’s own inevitable death, for example."
But then: "Perverse impulses seem to arise when people focus intensely on avoiding specific errors or taboos. The theory is straightforward: to avoid blurting out that a colleague is a raging hypocrite, the brain must first imagine just that; the very presence of that catastrophic insult, in turn, increases the odds that the brain will spit it out."
I am doomed, I tell you. But I sure feel my brain sweating through keeping my mouth shut, even though I so frequently don't.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-08 05:31 pm (UTC)