Insight and Decision Making

Insight is an essential word in mental health treatment. Therapists want their patients to understand the motives for their behavior and their origins. Freud famously talked about making the unconscious conscious. Awareness and understanding bring the possibility of change. Therapists want self-insight, so their emotional snags don’t interfere with their work. 

 

Insight, awareness, and anticipation allow us to make the right decisions. At times our wants or emotions get in the way, and we make mistakes. I recently read about a government official who told a reporter, “I will destroy you.” We all get mad, but in certain situations, unbridled anger doesn’t work out. The official resigned.

 

It is incredible how people who are intelligent and savvy can make terrible decisions. Ted Cruz’s trip to Cancun put him in a bad light. Governor Newsom’s evening at the French Laundry in Napa during the height of the lockdown did not sit well with the electorate and gave his opponents an open the door to mount a recall movement. Why didn’t these people think through the potential ramifications of their behavior? 

 

Why didn’t Bill Clinton understand that his association with Jeffrey Epstein was doomed from the start? What was an attorney as smart as Alan Dershowitz doing spending time with a charlatan like Epstein? Mark Sanford, the former governor of South Carolina, told people he was solo hiking on the Appalachian Trail for a week. He lied and flew to Argentina to be with his mistress, Maria.  He was the governor!  Where was his head?

 

The entire Oakley, California school board recently resigned when they mocked parents during a public meeting about reopening schools. The board member didn’t realize a microphone was on. A mayor in Texas left office after maligning his constituents with” Quit whining and looking for a handout.”. What was he thinking?

 

I noticed that Rick Perry told the people of Texas that enduring horrific storm conditions was worth it to be free of Federal Government interference. The silk tie he was wearing had to have cost 100 dollars. I wonder if he thought about that or what it represented?

 

Often highly effective people fly under the radar. Why? It is because they have a well-developed ability to assess situations and themselves. Their responses don’t make waves and cause uproars.