This is a syndicated blog post from Bluepace. It and the images here are being used with exclusive permission. As you read through this piece, think carefully about documenting social connections between others.
This post is about the psychology of human connections. It’s about our need for social interaction, the things we attach to, and the barriers that restrict us. We also attempt to discuss roots of negative human behaviour in the hopes of stimulating individual exploration.
Ineffective communications can lead to a variety of human social issues, an inability to express oneself can pave the way for manipulation by others. This can manifest itself in everything from personal relationships, to ones with institutions of authority. It can leave an individual feeling helpless, lost and alone, lacking the ability to clearly express feeling, emotions and needs. This leads the way to frustration, tension, anger, even violence.
When we experience a positive connection in life however, something very special happens. It is felt deep down inside the soul, making a person feel alive and validated. These type of relationships feels effortless and stimulating, leaving us with a sense of purpose and expanded awareness.
As communal animals, we are shaped by our physical and social environment, our survival is owed to an evolutionary requirement for social dependency. At birth the human baby is the most dependent mammal in the animal kingdom, out of this dependency grows our psychological needs for social interaction.
When human social bonds are threatened, the human being may suffer huge amounts of psychological pain, which can be more destructive than actual physical pain. This type of torment can persist far in excess of events that caused it, having huge effects on individual well-being and development.
In understanding our human needs, both physical and psychological, we may begin to comprehend abnormal behaviours resulting in their deficit.
We create many connections throughout our life, most of these are to other humans beings. We do however, establish links to other forms of life and situations. For example, we form relationships to: animals, nature, events (past and perceived future), we even form obsessions to our own behaviour patterns.
Of the most important though, is the relationship we form with ourselves. Through the recognition of portrayed self-image, we gain awareness of the psychological foundations on which we build all other forms of connections.
In understanding this, we may begin to explore the underpinning of psychological instability, which may limit us from cultivating social interactions. This subsequently provides an understanding of emotional and psychological reactions, when we believe our established bonds to be threatened.
The base of our social psychological foundations are established in childhood. Children are educated from a wide variety of sources, all taken as empirical truth. Religions indoctrination, racism, nationalisation, and bigotry, are all installed at an early age, promoting various forms of human separation.
We build upon these foundations based upon our own individual, interactions with the world. Events in life may cause an individual to create subconscious protective psychological controls, in an effort to shield the psyche from perceived, (real or not), vulnerability’s. Although beneficial at the time, these temporary measures become permanently incorporated into our core beliefs.
Our base reference of self-image, is therefore one that must be analysed and decoded, if we are to fully understand the barriers limiting our development.
Taking a scientific approach to self exploration, can lead an individual to greater self awareness. Through this awareness the individual becomes motivated to implement small behavioural changes. The effect of which should not be underestimated by any means, for it is the smallest of changes that amplify throughout a persons life.
As one rebuilds their psychological groundwork, behaviour stemming from it establishes greater stability. Through understanding and facing weaknesses in our own psychology, we begin to understand the same in others.
Through self-realisation comes a wider, empathetic, social awareness. Our self-image is fashioned on beliefs we hold true, by changing our beliefs through empirical knowledge, we begin to change the psychology of who we become. Constant growth, is the true state of human being.
It’s easy for society to ostracise those who take this journey, for individual liberation brings to light, the perverse acceptance of our collective social illness. Easier and safer it is to stay with the crowd, than accept any responsibility for our own individual state of being.
Yet as we grow, so does our understanding and resilience to the world around us. We learn that, as important as it is to build social bonds, so the strength and courage to liberate oneself from unhealthy ones is just as significant.
If we understanding life as a journey, rather than a destination, we may begin to gain an acceptance of the challenges required, and necessary, for our individual growth. Through love and the formation of healthy relationships, our social psychology can be rebuilt to enhance our collective evolution.