The human mind is at once rational and irrational, reasonable and unreasonable. We naturally see the world from a narrow self-centered perspective and are also highly vulnerable to influence from group traditions, mores, taboos, and customs. We are frequently selfish, self-deceiving, prejudiced, and biased. We frequently and naturally distort reality to fit our vision of it and to keep from seeing what we would rather avoid. We naturally seek more for ourselves and our group than is rightfully ours. We often act without due regard to the rights and needs of others.
In short, humans are intrinsically egocentric and sociocentric. At the same time, we are capable of developing as reasonable persons. But to do so requires commitment and some fundamental understandings about the pathological tendencies of the human mind. In this workshop, we will focus on some of these painful truths about the mind. We will explore egocentric and sociocentric thought as intrinsic mental phenomena that get in the way of cultivating the disciplined mind, and hence in the way of our development as rational human beings. For those of you who teach, we will also briefly discuss implications for the classroom of this theory.
