chapters

 

Nothing to Excess

Know Thyself

Certainty Brings Ruin

Nothing to Excess

Excessive appetites [addictive disorders] and excessive emotional reactions [relationship problems and neurotic disorders] are the primary sources of the avoidable suffering in your life. To the naive observer, the solutions are obvious: The overeater should eat less; the problem drinker should cut back; etc.

Crises of stress or temptation are experienced differently from the first-person perspective of the actor than from the observer's perspective. Reactions that seem foolish to the observer may be experienced as compulsory by the performer. To act in accord with your interests and principles during a crisis you must research cause-and-effect from both the observer's and actor's perspective.

It looks different than it feels.

Your friend describes what seems to be a hopeless problem; you see an obvious solution. Your superior problem-solving ability is less the result of your genius than of your distance from the problem. Likewise, therapists often have a better understanding of their clients' problems than their clients do— not primarily because of their training and professional experience, but more importantly because they are able to observe antecedent events and clients' reactions to them from the observer's dispassionate perspective.

 

Know Thyself

"Know thyself" is often ascribed to Socrates, but the Delphic inscription preceded Socrates by several generations. The remarkable 20th century mystic philosopher, Gurdjieff, observed that the "know thyself" imperative lies at the basis of many philosophies and schools of thought far more ancient than the Socratic. "Without self-knowledge, man cannot be free, he cannot govern himself and he will always remain a slave (to his passions). This is why in all ancient teachings the first demand at the beginning of the way to liberation was: ‘Know thyself.'"

It is essential that you know yourself because the psychologist only has access to the information that is available to the observer; much of the critical information about the client's subjective experience is only available to the client.

To know yourself well enough to exercise an intentional and irreversible influence on the course of your life, you need the knowledge of the psychologist [who studies the psyche from the observer's perspective] and the phenomenologist [who studies the psyche from the psyche's perspective].

 

Certainty Brings Ruin

There are different ways this inscription may be applied to our time. Diogenes saw it as an expression of Greek skepticism. The Greek word skepsis means investigation. The ancient skeptics saw themselves as investigators. They also called themselves ephektikoi, 'those who suspend their judgment.'

The Delphic oracle named Socrates the wisest of men. But he humbly insisted that if he was wise, it was only because he recognized his own ignorance.

While it may seem paradoxical that Socrates said both: "Know thyself" and "The only thing I know is that I know nothing," the two statements together communicate a wisdom that is confirmed by modern physical and neural sciences. You do not see the world as it is. The feeling of certainty that you do is an illusion and is the source of the misery you bring on yourself and those around you.

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