by Richard C. Raynard, Ph.D.
Licensed Clinical Psychologist
When you look at all sides of an issue, you are likely to get the Truth. One side alone has the appearance of truth but, by itself, is a half-hearted lie - Truthiness.
The furor over invasion of privacy by the national security agencies consumes the media. Rarely mentioned is that, after a budget of $75 billion of 15 agencies a year, and about $500 billion since 2001, only 5 terrorist threats were ever directly foiled (Mueller & Stewart, 2014). Even these were questioned by a congressional Oversight Board. Gulp!
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| Who knew? |
In Milgram's famous study, 65% of subjects gave a maximum electric shock to those they saw tormented. He claimed "obedience to authority" was the cause. However, he gave no debriefing, personality tests, background or subject's view of the experiment. Milgram himself wonders, in an unpublished paper, how believable the setup was. Hmmm!
Once you get beyond a laboratory petri dish, where all the variables are controlled, things get complicated. In psychology, the causes of an angry episode can be parceled out to a genetic cause (temperament), a predisposing cause (early childhood), a contributing cause (stress), and immediate cause (frustration) a bodily cause (adrenalin), and a purposive cause (meet a need). Whew!
If you really want to prime your "truth pump", look up "falseness" in Roget's Thesaurus and find 6 pages of words for exaggeration, deception and concealment.
Truth doesn't change; it can be counted on; you can build upon it. And it is complex, too. Each of us has only a part of it.
Truth is both humbling and worthy of pursuit. What do you say?
About Dr. Raynard
Dr. Richard Raynard is a licensed clinical psychologist with 35 years experience resolving a broad range of emotional problems. As a cognitive-behavioral therapist who has specialized in anxiety and phobic disorders since 1980, he has spent the last 35 years fulfilling his life-long desire to explore and define the true purpose of emotions and how people can easily use emotions to create meaning and satisfaction in their lives. Dr. Raynard's series of books on emotions can be found on Amazon.com. His other books include Don't Panic, and Anxiety & Panic Medications.
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