Insanity

Have you ever beat you head against a wall?  We hear that term all the time and I would venture to say that we have all done it from time to time; beat our heads against a wall trying to figure out how to do something different so that it will finely work. It doesn’t seem to matter what it is, whether it is trying to lose weight or solve some discipline issue with our children, we have all pounded the noggin on the wall from time to time trying to figure it out.  So why is it so difficult?  Why do we seem to try so hard and often times seem to get so little for our efforts?

I read an article several years ago that a client of mine sent me.  It was written by a psychologist from some university who was watching a news broadcast and was inspired to research this question mentioned above.  The news broadcast was about a bank robber who was about five feet tall and three hundred pounds, clearly not someone who could blend into a crowd easily.  This bank robber waddled into a bank in broad daylight, pushed a gun into the teller’s face and demanded money. The teller loaded him up and he waddled out.  The interesting thing was that this bank robber didn’t think it necessary to disguise his appearance.  He walked into the bank with no disguise at all!  He then drove to the next bank and did the same thing!  When he was finished, he drove himself home and thought that he had gotten away with it.  Well, as banks now a days have some pretty high tech security systems, the police got a hold of the surveillance videos and posted them on the news that night and by 11:30 the police busted down the robber’s door and arrested him.  No surprise, right?

What is interesting about this is what the robber said when he was arrested.  He said to the arresting officer, “How did you catch me?  I wore the juice!”  You see, this bank robber was under the impression that if he rubbed lemon juice all over his face just prior to entering the bank, it would render his appearance invisible to the cameras.  When the original author saw this, he said to himself, “This person is clearly too stupid to be a bank robber”.  His next thought was, “If he is too stupid to be a bank robber, I wonder if he is too stupid to realize he is too stupid to be a bank robber?”.  And so, he started his research.

I don’t really remember much about the research design, but I do remember his findings.  His report indicated that there are some people who are so ignorant that they are blinded to their own ignorance.  I read that and thought, “This is really profound!” However, I wouldn’t use the term stupid or even ignorant.  I would say that there are some people who are so dysfunctional that they are blinded to their own dysfunction.

He went on to say that we tend to operate out of three domains.  The first is what he calls “The Known Known”.  This is what we know that we know.  I have been a therapist for almost ten years now.  I know that I know psychology.  I teach it at the college level.  I help patients on a daily basis.  I know psychology.  I also know drywall.  I grew up with a father who was a drywall contractor and, consequently, I understand all too well how to hang, finish and repair drywall.  This domain encompasses things that we are comfortable with and we tend to focus our time and energy doing things that fall in this area.

The second domain he calls “The known unknown”.  These are things that we know we don’t know.  When my son was a young boy he fell off his bed and split his head open.  My wife called me at work and told me to meet her at the emergency room; that she was on her way to get him stitches. Well, like every good father, I told her not to go and that I would be right home, (I knew that the emergency room bill would be huge!)  She exclaimed, “You don’t understand!  We have already soaked a kitchen towel with blood!  I am taking him to the hospital!”.  My reply?  “Wait in the parking lot!  DON’T GO INSIDE!”  I was sure that it wasn’t as bad as she was making it out to be and I knew that I could save some money by just by putting a bandage on it.  When I arrived, I took one look at it and knew that I had no idea how to fix it.  The “Known Unknown” are those things that we know we don’t know and can avoid, thus keeping us out of trouble.  Makes sense, right?

The last domain is what he calls “The Unknown Unknown”.  In other words, there are some things that are so far out of my understanding that I don’t realize that I don’t know them.  The bank robber is a perfect example of this.  He thought he knew how to rob a bank but clearly had no idea.  This domain is what causes us to beat our heads against the wall and wonder why things are not working.

How many of us, unwilling to admit that we don’t know what we are doing, beat our heads against the wall trying harder and harder to make something happen, when we really just need to stop and explore a different method altogether?  Someone said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.  I would agree.    Maybe it’s time to look at a different way.  Maybe it’s time to stop and reevaluate our methods.  When parenting my children, when fixing my car, when trying to lose weight…it doesn’t matter.  If I do the same thing i did before I am going to get a different result.