“Just Un-F*ck Your Thinking”
[Question] Do Self Help Books Really Help? Can you learn ethics from them?
[Deliverable] The premise of appealing to one’s logos is to get them to actually think. Transversely, to instill ethical habits, one must train the student in the art of unthinking. With classics self-help books being a worthwhile exception, most non-original mediations proliferate the half-measure:
‘Just Un-Fuck Your thinking.’
Pretty much ad-nauseum. And despite the mass appeal, the message bears little-to-no actual effect on existent, finite, or hypothetical test populate. Wherein the decree most salient, yet misbegotten by self-help authors is largely derived by ascertaining what is currently lacking in the reader's life. The myopic approach begotten to self-help authors center attunement to one’s life facets, and its varying enigmas, which are loosely defined as one’s life’s demarcations. Wherein a positive demarcation means one is doing well, and a negative ‘needs fixing.’ However, they fail to address the axioms of one’s ego and its relation to life-succulence. Egotistical clairvoyance is necessary to learn ethics — something overlooked by new-age self-help authors. Transversely, if success is not clearly defined and the sense of one’s ego is nebulated, then the journey to ethical behavior, for many, becomes enigmatic too. A full-measure would include the juncture one would face when confronting ego. Life’s success, unthinking, and ethics fall under the prevue of either having the intrinsic ability to ‘unthink’ or one ascertaining the will-power to learn the art of unlearning.
One’s ability to unthink is predestined by their ego and the nebula Carl Jung postulates as the anima/us within us. Notably so, having the want to learn and having the intrinsic ability to re-learn thought procesees are all too much an overshadowed precept proliferated in today’s self-help agenda. Therein, most authors skip over the animus(a) part. Though however flawed this andragogy may be; it is indeed a result of marketplace vigor, which in-part is imparted to the get-rich-quick and get well-quick-schemas in modern society. More so, catering to the get-rich-quick populace in large plays into the author’s own animus. Essentially the inadvertent self-identity and judgments imparted by the author’s pandering, in itself, is a caustic delineation forthcoming to void egos. Ironically cyclical pattern is established where the dealer sells and uses his own drug — and in this case, the proliferation of new-age self-help authors seek to both sell and believe their own esoteric bullshit. Self-help books are worthless if the student does not understand their own ego.
Per the constructs of reality, nobody can actually teach the art of un-thinking, because it is an art requiring masterful attunement. Moreover, no singular man (or woman) could especially affect change to a degree inclusive of specific personalities and idiosyncratic, maladaptive patterns. Transversely, learning to unthink is a process that is found within existential-theory; specifically, to one becoming of oneself. A body of people or a population cannot be defined as oneself. And, unfortunately, self-help books skim on the heavy underlying axioms needed to deconstruct one’s ego, and overload with light puffery, which is palatable to most. And as popular as these books are, the tunes sung are nothing more than mis-laden promises packaged for those fluent in idiomatic speech.
Though faultless for some individuals, no singular mechanic can actually un-fuck most people’s thinking, when given specifics like test regions and critical values are considered. Therein the action itself is impossible to apply to all domains, especially when considering the existing variability found within the vast array of human personalities. Our idiosyncrasies are termed idiosyncrasies for a reason. Notably too lurks a ubiquitous peculiarity within self-help manuals: rather than emphasizing how to reverse one’s maladaptive procesees, the authors pander and successfully market their books with another half-measure promissory such as,
— — — — — — — — — — — — ‘Just Try Harder.’
The process of un-thinking is a predetermined thought process requiring deep insight into one’s ego and the toxic animus lurking within. One cannot just un-fuck their thinking with the strive of determination. However, if properly sought — once the animus is discovered, then can the ethical pedagogy start. Unthinking is an art that requires a sound mind, regimented practice, and perpetuity. And within such constructs, no human can truly be the master of unthinking, as life does not assure soundness nor does any being live forever.
As seemingly enticing as the ‘un-fucking your thinking’ paradigm may be, anyone who could actually, and would willfully demonstrate the masterful art of un-thinking, in turn, would be immortal, and perhaps even transcend the beings of deity.
[Reflection] — 1.] If one can just un-fuck all of our thinking, his riches and fame would be innumerable. 2.] And more so, teaching ethics within the confounds of the aforementioned is seemingly an impossible task. 3.] And even more-more so, the continual publication of self-help books could not be possible with the perpetuity of those who perhaps think they have ‘fucked-up-minds.’ In a likely sense, think they are messed up, but in actuality (per cognative biases its relation to derived statistics), they’ve just adopted mal-adaptive practices as a behavioral-idiosyncrasy. Learning how to unthink is complex, with many setbacks potentially preceding one’s triumphness. However, despite lurking confounds, the onus to learning how to unthink befalls the tutored, rather than the tutor. If one wants to un-think, all they must do is practice the art of unthinking for perpetuity.
