Ethan Kross has written a book called Chatter: The voice in our head, why it matters, and how to harness it. (New York: Crown, 2021.) Kross is said (on the jacket cover) to be “one of the world’s leading experts on controlling the conscious mind.” He teaches and does research at the University of Michigan’s psychology department and is the director of the Emotion and Self Control Laboratory.
Kross believes he has put together answers to puzzles that “form a toolbox that evolution crafted” (xxiii) and that his tools will “help us manage the conversations we have with ourselves.” It sounds a bit egotistical, and the book is overpriced and grounded with an evolutionary perspective. However, Kross is quite humble and realistic in discussing his approach, although for or every claim there seems to be a hedge or two.
Although evolution is his cornerstone, he nevertheless sees the “mind and world” as “exquisitely designed” (xxiv), which should allow a Christian to wonder, “Who designed the mind and world?” We are assured (p. 19) that our “Your mood is defined not by what you did but by what you thought about.” In other words, our mind allows us to function and achieve goals and define who we are. But we don’t want our dreams to morph into chatter.
The case of Rick Ankiel, former pitcher for the St Louis Cardinals, is an example of negative mind control. Following a series of wild pitches in a particular game, Ankiel was never able to regain his major league status as a pitcher. However, after 5 years away from the game he was able to return to the major leagues as an outfielder and was quite successful. The observation: “Chatter in the form of repetitive anxious thought is a marvelous saboteur when it comes to focused tasks.” (p.29) This is a kind of “uncontrolled emotional sharing” and a type of chronic negative chatter, and out of it comes stress.
Kross maintains that we can “use our thoughts to change our thoughts—by adding distance”. His question is, “When chatter strikes, how do we gain psychological distance?” (p.49) We not only need to gain perspective, but we need to gain wisdom and Kross uses Solomon’s paradox as an example.
Kross observes that can refer to ourselves in the 3rd person (note: like Jesus and John did) as a form of “distancing.” The phenomenon is similar to the linguistic use of “shifters,” (p. 75) like the “universal you.”
Kross also examines the painful experiences people have “to learn something valuable about how people navigate such events.” (p. 88) People who want to help in tragic situations may actually reactivate negative feelings. Kross uses the metaphors of Kirk from Star Trek as the impassionate ice man and Spock, the advisor for parents raising children, as a doctor who is compassionate and feels the children should not be over corrected. There does not seem to an answer with either approach.
How will nature and physical spaces help us with chatter? By allowing us to “recharge” by paying attention to and using the natural resources around us. As a city dweller, it surprises Kross the urbanite to see how beneficial natural sounds, green grass, sunrises and sunsets, the trees and other aspects of nature can invigorate us. Sometimes the methods at our disposal are so strong they may seem like magic. One kind of magic is the placebo and its affect, which is both “profound and undeniable.” (p.140) Even if patients are told that the pill or injection is a placebo, it may still help them. Another tool to influence the mind is “ritual” such as rosary beads or some other object or routine.
The various “tools” Kross presents throughout his book, are:
1. Those you can implement on your own: distanced self-talk; imagine advising a friend; broadening your perspective; reframing your experience as a challenge; reinterpreting your response to chatter; normalizing the experience; engaging in time travel; changing the views, writing with expression, adopting a neutral third-party perspective, using a luck charm or superstition; and finally, performing a ritual.
2. Those that involve other people.
3. Those that provide chatter support: address emotional and cognitive needs; provide invisible support; pretend they are a superhero; be someone’s placebo.
4. Those that receive chatter support: build a board of advisors; seek physical contact; look at a photo of a loved one; perform a ritual with others; minimize passive social media usage; use social media to gain support.
5. Those that involve the environment: create order in it; increase exposure to it; seek awe-inspiring experiences.
I have often read or referred to books that engage or recommend various kinds of self-help for improvement. They can be useful, but none of them, including this one by Kross, seem to offer more advice than what I find already, for example, in the books of Proverbs or James.
Karl Franklin
Commentaires