Cognitive Disassociation Of Clarity

I have found, in my 30 years of providing pastoral counseling, and 15 years previous to becoming a pastor studying counseling and psychology that many believers develop a systemic behavior that follows them for many decades to come and sometimes will for the rest of their natural life. The mind is an amazing phenomenon but at the same time very fragile. In the 21st century this has become almost an epidemic condition of modern Christians.

It is the problem of "Ambiguity" that takes place in the cognitive centers of the brain and in the mind. At first I considered that the levels of stress in the society in which we live has created many serious challenges for the 21st century believer. Although I still believe this I have come to understand that it is much much more than a mere life of stress. Stress has existed as long as man has lived upon this earth. Stress is defined as:

1. a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances.

2. a physical, chemical, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension and may be a factor in disease causation.

There is a certain level of stress that one faces every day. Maturity and growth literally meant that one became capable of handling and dealing with the stress of the day. This occurred because individuals had many support systems in their lives. In recent times people have become more impersonal for many reasons. One of the major reasons is the rise in sexual intimidation and sexual harassment. Another reasons for the lack of what seems to be the emotional fortitude to deal with stress in a healthy manner is the inability of most individuals to think clearly in the face of adversity.

Most individuals have not developed the skills that enable them to cope with adversity or adverse situations. Neither have they developed their minds to operate with critical thinking skills. When this is the case an individual may begin setting the brain and the mind on a journey of a mental incapacitated state of the mind that keeps the brain and mind from thinking clearly. In fact, what may occur is the mind becomes skillful at thinking in illogical patterns. As this is done more and more in years to come the mind and the brain begin to be structure neural pathways of thought in such a manner that the human mind becomes accustomed to thinking along specific paradigmatic modalities.

A lack of clarity can produce a mental state of "Cognitive Disassociation of Clarity." When this occurs the individual develops impulsive cognitive responses to critical thinking wherein sound critical thinking become so difficult that the individual begins building their their lives around impulsive and illogical critical thinking and the needed organizational skills to maintain critical thought and underdeveloped. What generally occurs is the individual finds no need to commit to life changes that are consistent. Its not that these individual do not think and cannot think but that they have trained themselves to avoid thinking rationally and critically. They become disassociated with the need for thinking for themselves or thinking at a cognitive level that most healthy adults usually function in consistently. In a sense they do not want to associate with logic thought or critical thought and all of those things that go into developing critical thinking skills.

Many of these individuals have almost no confidence in themselves and therefore will suffer greatly from self hatred or self loathing. They will not have confidence in contributing to a group or family because they, in their minds. feel like they have nothing to offer. For lack of a better terminology, these individuals have literally trained themselves to not deal with thinking rationally and developing their own cognitive powers of thought and learning. Almost always, when these individuals are placed over a project or job they will possibly get the job completed but the time and the disarray that comes with their performance creates other problems such as: excess waste, disorder, and confusion. In many cases the mess that is made is not worth the completion of the job. Cognitive Dis-associative behavior will be discovered in every aspect of one's life such as the decision making process or tasks in organization or administrative function such as developing programs and utilizing those who are under their charge to complete a task.

This disassociation with systematic and orderly thinking is not always debilitation or life threatening. It can; however cause a disruption in relationships and cause emotional trauma in all parties considered. Invariably the CD (Cognitive Disassociate) will have problems in communicating or in developing the appropriate manner of communication. In many cases the individual is afraid of the process of communication especially in times of conflict. One problem that can arise within this perimeter of behaviors is that the CD will cognitively synthesize that there is nothing wrong with their point of view and consider others to be unreasonable and demanding.

With some this mental paradigm is mild allowing them to function at work. It is in places where they feel that they should not be held to a rigid standard is where they will relax, so to speak, not having the desire to think or structure their lives in an orderly function. These are the mild and usually volitional cognitive disassociates. There are some who in extreme cases, may become a disillusioned cognitive disassociates. Where their disassociation is so severe that they become combatant and adamant that they can become prone to verbal abuse, disruptive in relationships and on the job. In very rare cases individuals may even be moved to violence to defend their position.

Readjusting the cognitive disassociate is a process that will require teaching the individual to think logically and to develop critical thinking skills. In many cases individuals may be fully reintegrated if they are willing to be trained and to accept the instruction of a counselor or mentor. The cognitive disassociation of clarity is nothing that has to be permanent in that it is a learned and developed behavior that has to be learned. The key is desiring to change the thought process while learning to redevelop the mind and heart in the process of eliminating the dis-associative behavior.

At the RMEG Institutes of Higher Learning the staff is now being trained in the development and usage of "Life Principles" that includes the use of critical thinking skills that also incorporate logical thinking and communication skills as well. In part there is much success; however the realignment of the thought processes are not always easy to do especially if the individual has not come to recognize what they are doing.

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