"But words get in the way" is one of the wisest phrases I've heard in a song. Though we habitually identify with word-based thinking or "self-talk", this constant monologue running in our heads is NOT an accurate reflection of who we are, AND only useful in certain restricted, specific situations. Fortunately, with the help of mindfulness practice, discursive thinking becomes very quiet, unobtrusive, background noise - allowing "unmediated," direct connection with life.
“Living categorically” might well
be one of the most pervasive and under diagnosed psychological
disorders in existence. Like all psychoses, this disorder is assigned to
those who have “lost contact with reality”.
It’s when people mistake a category for something unique and then act
as if their view is true. For example, the categorical term “orange”
replaces the luscious, mouth-watering aspects of smelling a citrus
scent, tasting a tangy sweetness, the puckering of one’s cheeks, etc.
Loss of lived experience—missing out on the fullness of living—is the
most common, tragic result. On an intermediate level of harm, a unique
individual will get lumped into categories of gender, age, intelligence,
wealth, etc. It prevents a balanced evaluation of his or her unique
abilities, personality, skills, motivations, etc. At its harmful
extreme, it may even produce Josef Stalin’s view of murder in which he
stated, “The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a
statistic.”
To understand the degree to which someone
(not you, of course) might suffer from this delusion, please answer “True” or “False” to each of the following questions.
1. Races of humans exist.
2. The picture (to the right) is a pipe.
3. The word “cup” defines a specific object.
4. You can say what pain feels like.
Answer key: The more questions that are answered “True” the worse the affliction.
For those who answered “True” to any of these questions, there is
hope. The treatment is called mindfulness. At the beginning, you might
not like it, believing it too difficult, too boring, or that it will
make you stupid. But, it’s the tried and true cure for this affliction.
The treatment regimen is simple. Mindfulness is just staying attentive
to your direct experience, the seeing, smelling, tasting, etc. of what
comes to you through your senses (sensory-perceptual experience) at all
times. Alternatively, you can just stop entertaining any ruminative
thoughts—those that reoccur time and again. Most allow it to keep going
mistakenly believing it’s a helpful way to handle problems. Only after a
bit of mindfulness practice do people see they were wrong.
Mindfulness reintroduces us to immediate experience, which is
nonconceptual—without concepts and thoughts. It’s how we know the world
before we think about it. As for practicing mindfulness, most people
initially hate the part about not entertaining any ruminative thought.
However, repeating the same thought, causes anxiety, distracts from
attentiveness, doesn’t add to your understanding, and likely blocks
creative thoughts from breaking through into consciousness. Should a
continuing business tax problem be solved using the same technique used
last time? Might a fresh, creative approach be useful? Can you have a
good, informative conversation with someone when your attention is
diverted to the running commentary in your head?
Mindfulness cures the psychosis of “living categorically” because, in Gunaratana’s view,
“Words
are devised by the symbolic levels of the mind, and they describe those
realities with which symbolic thinking deals. Mindfulness is
pre-symbolic. It is not shackled to symbols.” He goes on,
“The
fact that this process lies above and beyond words does not make it
unreal—quite the reverse. Mindfulness is the reality that gives rise to
words—the words that follow are simply pale shadows of reality.” (Gunaratana, B. (2002).
Mindfulness in Plain English. p. 137.)
The world in which we live first comes to us through our senses. We
intelligently process this information, without needing to resort to
thinking. We all process perceptual (experiential) information for most
of what we do, like stopping our car at a light, pulling covers over
ourselves when the sleeping gets too cold, deciding just where a picture
looks best on the wall, and realizing an insight that pops fully formed
into consciousness. Such information is not altered by transformation
into concepts/ thoughts. It’s prior to thought—experiential,
non-conceptual. This is the world of mindfulness that Gunaratana writes
about.
In contrast, when experience is transformed into concepts and those
concepts are taken as truthful, chronically useful representations of
reality, the psychosis of “living categorically” re-arises. In such a
state, word categories, though they are transformations of directly
informative experience, are mistakenly believed as true. Consider what’s
truer. That spiders are harmful or deadly so one should be fearful of
them all or that they are benign, 8-legged bugs that sometimes appear in
the house. How have you stereotyped certain situations, like heights or
flying, or foods? How have others stereotyped you? Don’t phobias arise
when thoughts don’t match reality? Isn’t the same mechanism at play for
many of the other anxieties, like flying and public speaking? How do
thoughts relate to low self-esteem or the need to compensate by
achieving wealth? Isn’t your identity more the felt experience that’s
always been with you than your job or your race or your gender? Is
creativity enhanced or impaired when the mind is clear of thought?
To begin to reintroduce you to a more truthful reality, I’ll answer a
question posed above. Let’s take the one about the cup. A cup is a
category, not a specific object. This cup on my desk, for instance, is a
specific entity within the general category of cups. It has a specific
colorings, shapes, dimensions, etc. It’s not exactly like
any
other cup. No one can identify this unique cup through words, even by
adding many descriptive modifiers. Further, like all specific things, it
cannot be named. No one can say a word about the smell of coffee, the
color blue or the feeling of painfulness to someone who never had the
sense of smell, vision or pain. Forgetting or ignorance of this fact is
likely the origin of the psychosis under discussion here.
As for the questions above, the one about the pipe should have been
easy to get correct since the painter, Magritte, wrote in French “This
is not a pipe” below the picture. He reminds us that a picture of a pipe
is not a pipe. It’s a representation or symbol of a pipe. Further, this
picture does not represent the word “pipe” as it’s used in the sense of
a category, either. The word, too, only represents a category of
objects not a unique one. Any and every unique pipe, of course, cannot
be verbally expressed.
The question about race highlights the depth of the injuriousness of
the diagnosis. Uniqueness and creativity become unappreciated and
trivialized when the psychosis of “living categorically” becomes full
blown. Boundaries to skin color and geographic origins of ethnicity
really don’t exist. Those with this psychosis use the word “race” only
to artificially categorize people who each are, in fact, completely
unique—not a group.
At their core, mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR),
mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), and mindfulness-based
everything (MBE) all treat this psychosis because they return us to
reality. It’s the one untransformed into words. The one in which
everything and everyone is rightly, and inexpressibly unique. How does
MBE reduce stress? Mindfulness provides a re-introduction back to a more
truthful reality. Stress and anxiety may be caused by the difference
between the categories in which you see the world and how it really and
uniquely exists. If so, the mental process of all cognitive
psychological psychotherapies, which challenge one’s thoughts about the
world, may basically work through a similar mechanism.
Happiness, success, and creativity may all increase when one lives
closer to the truth of what we experience directly. This way of living,
in closer contact with reality, may be helpful for minimizing all of the
numerous, harmful biases caused by the psychosis of living
categorically. Wouldn’t it be nice to be rid of them?
About Steven Pashko, Ph.D.
Steven Pashko is a research clinician who studies treatment
effectiveness and the value of health and healthcare. With a background
in psychology (license), CNS pharmacology (doctorate), and meditation
(completed more than 52 intensive, week-long retreats) he conducts
research and speaks about well-being.
Disclaimer: This article neither describes a formally recognized
psychological diagnosis nor is it a substitute for a psychological
diagnosis or treatment. If you are in need of either, please contact a
local licensed psychologist.
Buddhist perspectives:
http://newbuddhist.com/discussion/11054/discursive-thinking 
