I have been trying to think of an objective way to understand the Trump phenomena. It certainly demonstrates the limitations of cause and effect thinking and an individual orientation. It is easy to see Trump’s part but he is not the whole story. He is part of the regression but not the cause of it, albeit he contributes to it and has a greater responsibility given his current position in the group. Each political party influences the thinking and reactions of the other. No decisions of substance are likely to be made due to the instinctive polarization and the inability to tolerate differences. Each party seeks to gain control of the other and each gets more stuck in this process. We want to through out the old rules that do not fit with our current thinking but have little focus on the impact this will have for future generations. How often are our actions reflexive and how could we gain some capacity to move toward reflection?
It is predictable that the new congress will not alter the regression but simply maintain it. I agree with many positions/ideas/ policies of the newly elected wave in the House. But what they think is not as important as how they think. How much is the emotional system guiding them as individuals and as a group? How will the togetherness forces influence their functioning? Would they be elected or even nominated if they were more reflective and had a broader view of self and others. Here in MA we had two candidates running for congress last year, Michael Capuano and Ayanna Pressley. Michael had been a congressman for 25 years and Ayanna had been on the City Council for a number of years. Both were Democrats and both held very similar positions politically and probably would cast very similar votes on current issues. Michael took the position that he would ask for your vote based on his record and his current thinking about the problems in the nation. Ayanna had similar positions but thought it was time for a change and overall was more aggressive in her campaign, as I saw it. Her tone and presentation was more against the other and was out to convince people that she could do more for progressive policies as a younger black woman than her opponent could. She is now part of the wave of white in the congress that we saw last Tuesday. She reflects our current level of functioning. Although the level of functioning of the two candidates may be similar ( I don’t know enough about them to say otherwise) their presentations were markedly different. Ayanna was more aggressive and more in keeping with the “in your face” presentation of today. Michael was more laid back, softer in tone and was less forceful. He seemed to be someone who could listen to the other side while still casting his vote based on his progressive policies. David Brooks wrote an article recently regarding basic kindness that seems to escape us as a group. I see it as a lack of respect for the other and an automatic tendency to put the other in the one down position. An inability to hear opposing views is part of our immaturity and more evident in a regression.
Last week I sat with a woman who is delusional, at least from a DSMV viewpoint. She has some crazy thoughts and reports them to some key people in her life such as family, the public housing management group and the local police. She always gets the predictable response. She has been hospitalized for three days each time and is prescribed meds which she stops after discharge. I suddenly realized that I was trying to get her to think “right,” to fit in and to stay out of trouble. I then shifted to simply enjoying hearing about her life and all the characters cutting up her pajamas etc. Very quickly things shifted and I heard more of her thinking about her marriage, children, family of origin. I thought this is what it is about, objective listening and basic respect. During that session I went from being in the one up position, the sane one (although my own family members may question this) to an equal position with my client. Our interaction changed as a result of this.
Could individuals in Congress make the shift from the sane one, the right one, the mature one to an equal playing field with the other side who think differently, while still focusing on the facts vs perceptions of our current problems?
Ann,
Thank you for your effort to be objective about the nation’s leadership, always helpful to me to hear that kind of effort. Regarding your description of the interaction with your client, just the relaxed and humorous way you wrote about it tells the story of how it unfolded to a win for counselor and client. Interesting to tie it in to political discourse. I will just add that sometimes the emotional system contributes to bringing about positive change, as in the Civil Rights movement, and perhaps, we’ll see, do you think, some of Alexandria Cortez’s points?