“Is seeing believing? alternatively, perhaps ‘it’s more accurate to say that believing is seeing.” On July 17, 1996, a TWA Flight 800 crashed immediately after take-off on the coast of Long Island, N.Y. several eyewitnesses reported seeing a missile hitting the plane, but a four-year, $40 million investigation by the NTSB, in which from the wreckage of the plane, concluded that the crash happened due to problems within the plane itself.
Similarly in a remarkable historical case according to Vietnamese newspaper “VN Express,” 66 female workers at a garment factory in Vietnam’s Quang Nam province mysteriously got sick last week: Twenty three workers fainted on Thursday, followed by another 43 the following day. Workers complained that an unexplained odor made them tired and caused difficulty breathing. The workers got hospitalized, but no one found a trace of an environmental toxin or underlying cause for the illness. There are numerous cases of mass delusions out there, and reports go through all of our senses from seeing to hearing to feeling and so on.
A delusion is a fixed belief that is not changed even in the case of overwhelming contradictory evidence. The tendency to form delusion is considered a symptom of mental illness; the most common symptom would be schizophrenia, but in reality, delusions accrue in a spectrum with schizophrenia appearing at the far end of that spectrum. There are several different types of delusional disorders, and each type captures a particular theme within a person’s delusions.
Erotomanic: An individual believes that a person, usually of higher social standing, is in love with him or her.
Grandiose: An individual believes that he or she has some great but unrecognized talent or insight, a distinctive identity, knowledge, power, self-worth, or relationship with someone famous or with God.
Jealous: An individual believes that his or her partner has been unfaithful.
Persecutory: An individual believes that he or she is being cheated, spied on, drugged, followed, slandered, or somehow mistreated.
Somatic: An individual believes that he or she is experiencing physical sensations or bodily dysfunctions, such as foul odors or insects crawling on or under the skin, or is suffering from a general medical condition or defect. Mixed: An individual exhibits delusions that are characterized by more than one of the above types, but no one theme dominates.
Unspecified: An individual’s delusions do not fall into the described categories or cannot be determined.
Delusional disorder is a rare condition and difficult to study; as a result, it is not widely discussed in clinical research. According to studies, people develop delusions as a way to manage extreme stress or deal with a history of trauma. Genetics may also contribute to the development of a delusional disorder. Individuals are more likely to be diagnosed with delusional disorder if they have family members with schizophrenia or schizotypal personality disorder.
We don’t usually use criticism in our daily life with good intentions, only to find dirt, disprove an argument, or to make assumptions from first impressions and many more simple reasons, however, criticism should be a good factor in our lives, if we want to know the truth behind most things, that is. take for example conducting a research The first step of the scientific research process involves defining the problem and conducting research. Moreover, that can be quite exhausting if you’re not determined to find the truth since you have to go through Designing an experiment then collecting data and analyzing the data, then concluding. Which is a process that may take years, for example, how a Harvard study, of how to live happier took almost 80 years and still in progress! Moreover, that’s all not enough, conducting research, arguing, writing a report they’re all a step closer to the truth, but one of the most vital steps to take is not to be biased a good scientist practices objectivity to avoid errors and personal biases that may lead to falsified research. The entire scientific research process from defining the research question to concluding data requires the researcher to think critically and approach issues in an organized and systematic way. Scientific research can lead to the confirmation or re-evaluation of existing theories or the development of entirely new theories.
You have to be ready for the possibility of being wrong to accept it and move forward. Socrates said that “an unexamined life is not worth seeing.” Now in the case of mass hysteria where everyone believes a delusion, ‘it’s even harder to stand up and try to convince them otherwise. A class experiment that my teacher and I once did: is to draw two lines on a board one ‘wouldn’t be at the same length as the other two. We would try and get one student to get out of class with a lame excuse like to bring us a coffee. Moreover, we would tell the class to say that all the lines are identical when asked, when the student comes back we would ask if there is something wrong with the lines and all the students would say no, including the one that got out. Standing up for yourself isn’t always an easy thing to do when you’re a minority, but it’s what you should do if you want to get justice out of this system of ours. Now I’m not telling you to go and live your life as if you’re in a study lab, but I only advise you do not believe everything even if it’s coming from your ideas and question your thoughts and feelings before believing them, to avoid delusions.
Refrences:
1- https://explorable.com/e/what-is-self-criticism
3- https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/conditions/delusional-disorder
4- https://www.today.com/news/former-fbi-investigator-alleged-flight-800-cover-it-just-didnt-6C10387813
5- https://www.seeker.com/mass-hysterias-ground-planes-close-factories-2076239439.html
6- https://sciencing.com/steps-procedures-conducting-scientific-research-6900127.html
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