HUMAN PSYCHOLOGY

Some things happened recently to remind me that as much as we sometimes think we have a gift for knowing what people are thinking and feeling, as much as we trust our instincts regarding people around us, none of us are, ultimately, mind readers or omniscient.

And while it is human to judge, it is also human to err. We should all allow for some margin of error in our judgment, and perhaps not be too hasty in our actions, especially if these actions are based on nothing more than what our instincts or what we feel is the situation. Evidence may be circumstantial and non-conclusive. We may be right in attributing certain thinking and hidden agendas to certain people, then again, we may be wrong, or at least, we may not be completely spot-on. And even being a little bit off may result in much misunderstanding and misery.

And of course, how ye judge, ye may be judged.

I have to remind myself constantly on the above, and even then, it is harder in practice than in theory.

It seems that even when one is minding one’s own business, there will always be other people who put a spin on one’s actions and deem otherwise. Is it any wonder that some people prefer a loner existence away from other people? Then there would be no complex psychology to navigate, no question of error, of thinking through every action or reaction.

Newton formulated his Third Law of Physics – and we can now accurately formulate the reaction of every physical action. I wish some social scientist would come forth with a Third Law of Human Psychology, and save us all the trouble of navigating in the dark.