COMPARTMENTALIZED THINKING

(Thinking in the box (google Images, 2018))

Having studied Psychology as a part of my Masters Degree,and later working in Behavioral Health alongside a Psychiatrist or two or three, I have come to know about this kind of thinking. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compartmentalization_(psychology), as a part of our own cognitive dissonance. I have had the opportunity to see individuals revert to this thinking and the behaviors it causes first hand and very often.
Why am I writing about this?  More often than not a person will live their whole lives within a structure of compartmentalized thinking, and I wanted to address this as an aspect of how business and government uses this to manipulate people to do their daily jobs, and react to situations.  This kind of thinking is often projected to us subtly in everything from the movies we watch to the foods we eat, and how we spend our money.
Examine your daily behaviors, do you behave routinely, do what is innate to you, react without thinking?  Examine the things you say, have you thought about why you say those things?

Just the other day I witnessed a man in a truck roll down the window of his vehicle and yell obscenities at a couple in the parking lot for supposedly cutting him off.   Why would he carrying the event which is basically part of the driving experience into something  abusive?  If he had hesitated for one moment and thought about it,"Hmm," perhaps he would have held his tongue.  Its a situation that caused him to feel uncomfortable and because of his sense of power, and who he thinks he is he reacted.  In reality he might get out of his truck and we would find he is maybe a little shorter than we thought he would be, kind of wimpy even.  However, it is the person he becomes when he gets into that 5,000 pound vehicle, that he thinks he is.  This behavior shocking as it may be is a part of this individuals compartmentalized thinking. His Behavior prompted by his sense of dissonance.

Therefore, when we have an election and a person is voted on to represent  us in a body of government that candidate picks a platform.  He/she appeals to a certain kind of person that they feel lives within the boundaries of the area they will represent.  As individuals we respond to those that seem to fit the way we think about things.  The candidate's play on our fears, the flaws of former officials, and appeal to the things that might appease a certain population.
As a kid I remember when politics started in grade school with the election of a  "Class President." I fondly remember as a 6th grader hearing a boy with horned rimmed glasses and a dress shirt and tie say,
"I will make sure that we have chocolate milk in our drinking fountains."    Of course that never happened but he did become our class president.   He found out right away, " give the people what they want... "I am sure he is out there someplace holding a public office.


However, I would like to address this issue of compartmentalized thinking further.  I would like to apply it to our everyday lives.  Lately I have thought,"if a tree falls in the forest does it make a sound." (a concept based on an experiment concerning perception), How do I want to be perceived?  If i just allow myself to be present and yet still and quiet will my presence be noted or am I an invisible type of personality?

Relating to my own compartmentalized thinking I have begun to question myself: "Are my thoughts valid? How am I being perceived by others? What am I meaning to accomplish by my statements that reveal my thinking?  Am I being too nice? Am I being too careful?  What is it that I want to achieve here?" "Do I care?"  After a while after watching, reviewing, and thinking, I realize it really doesn't matter as everyone around me is programmed into one dynamic or another and who I am is merely their perception based on who they think they are and what compartment they are filling.  If the tree falls in the forest it does make a sound.  The real question to ponder is what is that sound? 

(Fallen Tree in the Forest ( google Images 2018))