Why Do We Doubt?
My hypothesis is that 'doubt' is an evolutionary adaptation that keeps us safe from making really stupid mistakes.The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt. -- Bertrand Russel
Often paraphrased as "The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts."
I come to this conclusion after numerous discussion with people about the psychology of doubt. Usually this comes from people who have treated others, or been treated for dealing with the 'inner voices of doubt,' 'the committee,' or other terms, for example: Conquer Your Critical Inner Voice, by Robert Firestone, Lisa Firestone, Joyce Catlett, talks about 'the inner critic.'
People often talk about these battles of doubt as some sort of weakness or disability, but I think they have it backwards. I took a course in 'Resilience Training' a couple of years ago from the Sue Drinnan of the Wisdom Collective. One of the things we did was a self inventory of our strengths and over used strengths. Note, she called them 'over used strengths' not weaknesses.
An interesting branch of psychology is Evolutionary Psychology where we look at various psychological issues not as disabilities as conventional psychology and psychiatry do, but as evolutionary adaptations that do not serve as as well in a modern environment. For example, if we look at various 'attention disorders' in the light of early hunter/gathers living on the African plains, then hyper alertness may have been a benefit: constantly alert to prey or other predators--Squirrel!
I suspect that in a normal healthy mind doubt and confidence are in healthy balance. Indeed, there should be an inner turmoil, especially over important issues and decisions, between the perspectives of doubt and confidence. Sadly I know many people who struggle with self doubt, who feel disabled by it at times, and I do not want to invalidate such important feelings, to be sure they are very real and valid feelings, as I have struggled passionately with this at times. My perspective is that if we think about disabling doubt as an overused strength rather than a weakness, then our approach should be to harness that strength rather than eliminate a weakness.
In harnessing this strength, perhaps it is better to recognize, acknowledge, validate, and support it. I have said before, "the path to love is recognition, acknowledgement, validation, and support;" therefore to use this path on our doubts is to learn to love ourselves more, for who we are. Just as being able to 'speak the truth' is a great strength, there are times when it is not appropriate, it must be harnessed, and moderated with tact.
When I was a young child I used to be afraid to go to sleep at night because of the terrible nightmares I would have that would wake me in the middle of the night. The anxiety was ferocious. Somehow over time my dreams did not change, but they went from being frightening to simply entertaining. Perhaps this is a good way to thing about doubts or any 'disabling thoughts' is to accept them and be able to stand back from them as useful, but not crippling or dire.
To be sure, an important insight of Bertrand Russel is "that in the modern world" because it is the modern world that separates the intelligent from the stupid and cocksure. In the modern world we do not live an existence on the plains of Africa, where evolution quickly sorted out the stupid and cocksure. For example, in the 2016 American Presidential Election, one wonders how many of the myriad candidates would not have been eaten by lions and tigers first, before they had a chance live long enough to earn the merit for such an important role. For their supporters, one again wonders how many of them would have survived long enough in a dangerous world, while having little or no self doubt.
Just because the modern world seems to define confidence as success does not mean that confidence is a more important strength than doubt, it only means we are out of balance. For the most part, I would rather err on the side of doubt, as that is generally less dangerous to yourself and others, than errors on the side of the confident and cocksure.
As an aside, why do we say 'cocksure' and not 'pussysure' - or does pussysure simply mean to be sure some overconfident cock is talking nonsense. :-)Just thinking out loud...
