What You Can Change _. And What You Can't - Martin E. Seligman [43]
Being evolutionarily prepared does not justify something. Some of what our evolution demands of us is just a vestige of pressures that no longer exist. Some of it is morally repulsive. But closing our eyes to the biological side of our nature is worse than useless. For when we work against our evolutionary heritage, we had better be aware that we are doing so. We should know that change in this arena is never easy. Sometimes, as we will see, change is impossible, and so we must learn to live with aspects of ourselves we don’t like. Other times, change is possible, but reason alone will not usually produce change. Aided by techniques that work at levels more fundamental than reason, however, we can sometimes succeed. We have just seen two such examples. We will see more as we turn to obsessions, to depression, to anger, and to post-traumatic stress.
7
Obsessions
What do we plant when we plant the tree?
We plant the ship that will cross the sea. . . .
What do we plant when we plant the tree?
We plant the houses for you and me.1
This song is running through my mind now and has been for about two hours. It began when I was singing this jingle from my childhood to my two-year-old, Lara, as we were picking tomatoes. It won’t go away.
The jingle channel. Everyone has a jingle channel. For some people there are ditties on it, but not everyone has music. Others have phrases repeated over and over. The words often rhyme, they sometimes have a beat, and they are always simple: “Step on a crack and break your mother’s back.” For others who are less verbally inclined, there is no audio, only video; the same images recur repeatedly: the Little Mermaid swimming toward Prince Eric, or Lee Harvey Oswald being shot by Jack Ruby. Some people have a mixture of words, songs, and images. Left alone, the content shifts slowly, but with an external prompt, like your roommate humming a tune, it can jump.
Your jingle channel is slightly below consciousness, but once you know about it, it is easy to tune in and listen. Some people have a louder channel than others. You can sometimes tell how this hour’s contents started: a radio ad, a phrase from your boss, a new rock song on MTV.
Once you tune in, you will discover that the jingle channel has a life of its own. It is very hard to change voluntarily. When it intrudes and you can’t turn it off, it becomes quite a vexation. Mark Twain discovered this, over a century ago, when he heard this ditty for streetcar conductors and could not rid himself of it for days.
A blue trip slip for an eight-cent fare.
A buff trip slip for a six-cent fare.
A pink trip slip for a three-cent fare
Punch in the presence of the passenjare.
Punch, brothers! punch with care!
Punch in the presence of the passenjare.2
Civilization has often taken advantage of the channel. Before the modern media bombardment, poetry (epic poetry, no less), catechisms, and the Bible were probably featured. I like to think that human mental furniture was classier then. Astonishingly, psychological researchers have shown no interest in this channel. It is broadcast by an unknown and uninvestigated part of the brain.
The nightmare channel. Much of emotional life is carried on the jingle channel. For many, the jingle channel is not a pleasant and elevating experience. Sometimes the lyrics are about loss and hopelessness. “She’s gone, she’s gone, she’s gone, and she’s never coming back” or “I’m a born loser” are the sort of phrases that intrude when we are in a low mood. When these kinds of jingles are dominant and recurrent, we call the listeners depressed, and their thoughts have been named ruminations or automatic thoughts. For others, the jingle channel is a nightmare channel, a production of Stephen King that may feature ferocious animals or poisonous insects, or scenes of humiliation. These people are called object phobics or social phobics, respectively. For others, the channel features thoughts of a heart attack or of going crazy or of losing control: