Normal Humans See The Least Normal Version Of The World
Normal people see those who think, behave, or look different as unusual. But normal people see the most abnormal version of the world.
A stressful day at work. A sleepless night. A series of thoughts makes you question whether your days matter. Anyone can experience these events by living. Living means facing an infinite number of challenges with the tools we have. Fail to surpass one, and you can question the value of your life.
For example, some people question the value of their lives involuntarily after losing their jobs, while others voluntarily by reflecting on it. Both groups can go insane if they dwell on complex ideas like those related to the meaning of life. Ask yourself, "what's the meaning of working every day?" Then, ask "why" to the first five answers you come up with. The more you answer, the more you might realize you don't have an answer.
People with neurosis make themselves answer these questions daily. They see the world through an unstable lens, stressing over their surroundings, the meaning of their lives, and the creatureliness of being human.
Every neurosis is different, but the most common trait is that neurotics ask themselves questions ordinary people avoid. For example, a "normal" person represses their fear of death. In contrast, neurotics stress over what could kill them. They might not use the elevator because it could fall. The scenario is unlikely. But while a normal person can act despite knowing there is a tiny chance the elevator could fall, the neurotic takes the stairs.
Normal people see those who think, behave, or look different as unusual. But normal people are the least capable of seeing the world as it is. If an alien that could objectively see reality came to Earth, it would declare the neurotic as normal because normal people lie to themselves to cope with reality, while the neurotic sees its imperfections.
"Abnormal" people see the normal version of the world.
Psychologists say neurosis is a relatively mild mental disorder because the person doesn't entirely lose touch with reality. Unlike psychotics, neurotics don't hallucinate. But they evaluate the events that happen in the world differently than most people.
Psychoanalyst Otto Rank believes the version they see isn't flawed, as "normal" people think, but one closer to how the world is.
"What we call the well-adjusted man," he says, "has just this capacity to partialize the world for comfortable action."
Normal people see a portion of the world determined by their personality traits and goals. If an event happens on the right side of your peripheral vision, but you must look to your left to achieve your goal, you won't see it. People with a different goal saw the event, but it didn't happen in your version of reality.
The brain partializes the world because seeing all of it would overwhelm us. I would never leave the house if I believed I could die at any minute. Constantly being aware of the finitude of life would drive anyone insane, as it often does to those that obsess over this epistemological puzzle.
The normal human seeks to transcend life through work, statues, and charitable acts. These acts help him justify his existence. Without them, scientists, entrepreneurs, and creatives wouldn't exist as there would be no objective reason to do more than what's necessary to survive. No one would try to surpass past humans if they focused on how insignificant our species is compared to the size of the universe or the longevity of our species.
In contrast, the neurotic person is too in touch with reality. He can't partialize the world. As a result, their brains see the world as it is: cruel, deceitful, dangerous, and unfair.
These are traits ordinary people intellectually know that the world has but don't fully believe. People from the safest countries know there are nations where muggers stab pedestrians to steal their phones. But it's only until they see these muggers in action that they'll comprehend dangerous human beings exist. Before this event, "dangerous people" were a concept part of the world's reality but outside the person's reality.
Unlike normal people, neurotics can't make up lies to justify the meaning of being in such a hostile world. They can't hustle to forget they depend on others and will die at some point, regardless of what they do. Instead, neurotics let the fear of death paralyze them.
A description of an event is normal if it adheres to what happened. Let's say you are talking to two witnesses of a car accident. One tells you the truck crashed the SUV, while the other says Superman threw the truck at the SUV during a fight with a bald guy wearing a mechanical suit. Unless you are in a movie, the description of the first witness is normal because that's what happened. Neurotics are then abnormal compared to the average human, but normal because they see the world for what it is.
If man is the more normal, healthy and happy, … the more successfully he can repress, displace, deny, rationalize, dramatize himself and deceive others, then it follows that the suffering of the neurotic comes … from painful truth. … He [the neurotic] suffers, not from all the pathological mechanisms which are psychically necessary for living … but in the refusal of these mechanisms, which is just what robs him of the illusions important for living. (Rank, 1936, pp. 42-43)
Normal people are terrified of thinking about how the world is. So they create answers to questions related to the meaning of their existence. For example, if a kid questions the purpose of studying, an adult tells them it's necessary for their future. When they become adults and question the value of their work, their social circle immediately tells them it's needed to guarantee a comfortable elderly life.
The most prominent characteristic of every neurosis is continuous stress, which is something ordinary people can experience. The difference between the neurotic and average person is the source of the stress and their capacity to act despite it.
Most of last year's college students I have met are too concerned about next week's party and too indifferent about how they will probably be unemployed after college. Meanwhile, most of the parents of these college students I have met are too concerned with saving money and not enjoying their last days. The student ignores the responsibility of becoming independent, and the elder omits his life is ending. By focusing on minor problems and having quick answers to tough questions, the normal man avoids the existential doubt the neurotic can't stop thinking about.
Obsessing over reality's true nature causes existential anxiety.
Neurotics are self-conscious about the imperfections of humans and the world. But these beliefs rarely cause them to harm themselves. A psychologist can make the person less conscious of "truths" ordinary people typically deny.
But when neurotics don't seek help or challenge their worldview, they lose interest in trying to exist. If a neurotic needed relaxing pills while flying, not to think airplanes can fall, they will now not even leave the house. He becomes obsessed with the human condition's flaws and enters a state of existential neurosis.
Psychologist Salvatore Maddi dedicated most of his life to studying human stress. He says the most common traits of existential neurosis are feelings of meaninglessness and the inability to see value in one's actions.
The existential neurotic doesn't just doubt the meaning of life. If that were the condition to be an existential neurotic, all of us would be. Seeing a close family member die, splitting up with a long-term partner, and losing one's job is enough to question what to do with one's life. What characterizes existential neurosis is the permanent state of indifference and passivity towards everything. According to Maddi, it's a chronic state of the organism.
An existential crisis means you are too in touch with reality.
Neurosis and existential neurosis aren't positive. Both conditions involve symptoms of stress—depression, anxiety, apathy—that paralyze you from living. But they uncover the oddity of ordinary humans.
Normal people repress objective knowledge of the world because bearing the truth is too painful. So if you are "normal," you perceive a false world. But since most people don't suffer from neurosis, the world most see isn't an accurate representation of the world. The world we see is thereby flawed, and only the neurotic sees how the world truly is.
Any person under existential anxiety or severe depression suffers not because he sees the world wrong but because he sees its flaws. Being human means bearing the weight of one's and others' deficiencies.
Dwell on complex questions long enough, and you lose hope in the world, like the neurotic. Always think of them, and, like the person with schizophrenia, you will create a world even faker than the one normal people see.