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The Perceptual Trick That Manufactures Devils
Perception is a highly selective process. We see and vividly
remember some things that pass before our eyes. We ignore many
others. And some, we work to actively deny. What happens to those
realities which consciousness athletically shuns? They become part of
the process that makes the notion of an enemy click.
We struggle for position on the hierarchical ladder, trying to get
as close to the top as we possibly can. Very few of us arrive there.
When the wriggling and kicking is over, most of us find ourselves
some place in the middle. We are blocked out of the realm of the
beautiful people, barred from the inmost circles of power and prestige,
and never quite reach the utopias of love and fame toward which our
fantasies beckon us.
How do we live with the daily humiliations built into our
middling roles? The mind is replete with gentle anesthetics that soothe
these pains. The greatest among them is a perceptual process of
cosmetic surgery. The mind covers up the harsher facts of our
existence, and it focuses our attention on those few things that can give
us self esteem.
From 1972 until 1977, University of Utah psychologist Marigold
Linton kept detailed, daily records of every aspect of her life.
Periodically, she reviewed those records to see what she could
remember and what she had forgotten. The review was a painful
experience. Linton "warmed up" for each of these sessions by trying to
recall the events of the last year without her notes. What came to mind
were the high points--the good times with her friends, the research
successes, the new things she'd been able to buy. But examining her
three-by-five cards brought back a welter of details her mind had
thoughtfully buried: the helpless feeling when her car had broken
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