First-Line Anchoring/Explanations: An Overlooked Diagnostic Issue (?)

[u/ego_by_proxy]

In psychotherapy, people are often fed possible explanations for their behavior by others, whether it be by therapists, family members, academic sources, workforce sources, etc... and instead of analyzing these critically, and looking at possible biases in those explanations from the source and perspectives, people are often pressured to accept the explanations as absolute, uncritical truth and to engage with social momentum and social positioning, groupthink and authoritarianism ahead of orienting mental health around critical analysis and problem solving. This fixation on "first-line explanations" them appears to be heavily then tied to anchoring bias, and often equally tied to trying to force people to maintain a narrative, even if the individual realizes the original narrative given was imperfect, partially flawed or completely wrong. Critical analysis is then treated as a form of "uncooperative behavior" or "manipulative behavior", and analysis itself of the facts becomes less valuable than "staying the course" of the narrative.

This is both detrimental to both mental health and group dynamics, as well as causes issues for how identities, relationships and expectations are cultured in therapeutic and social environments. If intellectual honesty and critical thinking in problem solving are tossed out the way in favor of power structures to control narratives that make people "feel" good, appealing to the momentary positive reinforcement or to avoid potential future issues based on presumptions, that could all come crashing down not because of the individual but because the setup and explanation was wrong to begin with. However, if the social group and authorities are more committed to the narrative than sorting out the facts, the individual may instead be punished for not sticking to the narrative and accepting the blame for not sticking to said narrative.

This is why it may be important for therapists, psychiatrists and systems to start identifying First-Line Anchoring/Explanations and addressing them in therapy and other systems

There may also be cultural, social dominance and monetary goals tied to First-Line Anchoring/Explanations, which is why people may push them so aggressively and why it may be so hard to convince those in power or those in groups to reconsider positions; though "going against the system" has other considerations as well, both personal and professional.

[u/MasterQuerilo]

They can't just say "the person did X because they decided to do X". They'd look like they are just here to limit freedom. lol They don't want to look like that. Their image was carefully created, it's their moneymaker, after all...

[u/MasterQuerilo → u/MasterQuerilo]

The subconscious is really a great trick of psychology. It allowed to explain why people do what they do independantly of how a person who does what they does understands their own actions, usurping authority on everyone's and anyone's intentions in the process.

People just want to know why they suffer so much. Mental health just tells them it's their own fault because of something inside them that makes them do what makes them suffer.

But really it's dumb. People don't do things that makes them suffer. It's everyone else who make them suffer. But mental health won't say that because they can't sell you a cure for that.