Posted: Jul 18, 2010 3:54 am
Woocache wrote:
To return to my original question:
Do any of you know of effective strategies for dealing with people like T.? He is encased in nonsense, and I would like to make progress with him on at least one of his beliefs, I don't care which. What is the best way of proceeding?
I have in the past tried to be patient, but often I have failed.
I know, for example, that people rescued from cults are sometimes subjected to a 'deprogramming' procedure. Is there anything of the sort, or that has similar effects, that one can apply to people like T.?
How do you deal with someone like that?
You don't.
I know you said you didn't want to hear answers like that, but too bad, because they're the right answers. You can't make him change his mind. You've already done what you can for him, you've lead him to water, but you can't make him drink. It don't work like that. Either he'll untwist his fucked up brain on his own eventually, or he'll go to his grave with his delusions. Anything you do is just going to be twisted by him to support his delusions. You can't help people like him.
Finally, T. has severely shaken my belief in human beings. I knew already of the crazy and irrational excesses of religion, cults and various forms of denial. But to find someone who is this badly affected and who so staunchly denies so many aspects of basic reality is really disheartening. How can we hope for a brighter, more rational or moral future when humans are liable to become so totally stupefied?
Support the teaching of critical thinking in schools. You have to get them young.