“Occupational Psychosis” And Trained Incapacity, And A Few Other Enemy’s Within !”

Occupational psychosis: 

Occurs when one's occupation or career makes one so biased that one could be described as psychotic, Especially common in tight occupational circles, individuals can normalize ideas or behaviors that seem absurd or irrational to the external public.

I spent some time in the military and this particular concept jumped out at me.“Occupational  psychosis”, Less than one half of 1 percent of the U.S. Population will ever enlist into military service. This is a fact that was made very clear to me throughout my military career by military leadership, in a way to sort of create an elitist mentality. This helps create an us against them mentality especially during training. Access to information and tactics and constant drilling and practice to perform at a high level with accuracy and confidence  is not a small feat. It is admirable to be trained and tasked with the obligation to run towards danger instead of away. To attempt to bring order and safety In chaos and calamity but what is the psychological impact of this occupation? And how does it express itself? Also keeping in mind that humans aren’t blank slates.  We come with preexisting biases and beliefs that can impact our perceptions as well. The military, law enforcement, doctors, lawyers, bikers, fraternities and sororities sports teams and the list goes on and on. of tight knit occupations or circles that share intense experiences that bond these groups of individuals together creating mini ecosystems of obscure activities and behaviors. If you aren’t a part of any of these ecosystems you would be lost and even disturbed at some of the activities and behaviors that are considered “normal” that these groups take part in. One element over looked  when analyzing these groups is hazing.

Hazing: The imposition of strenuous often humiliating tasks as part of a program of vigorous physical training and initiation. humiliating and sometimes dangerous initiation rituals, especially as imposed on college students seeking membership to a fraternity or sorority.

“Organizations defend hazing, they often say that only by passing through that physical and psychological gauntlet can a recruit prove that they are committed to the "values" and "traditions" of the organization, and show that they can endure the "heavy load of responsibilities" that comes with being an active member of the group. 

Why would someone remain loyal to a "family" that beats and degrades them? For that, you need to understand the psychological concept of cognitive dissonance. Humans are very good at rationalizing or ignoring two realities that are in direct conflict with each other. In terms of hazing, those two realities are the friendship and love of your "brothers" versus the demoralizing experience of being hazed by those very same people. To reconcile those conflicting narratives, most individuals that are hazed "rewrite" or recast the traumatic hazing as a valuable bonding experience.”-The Psychology of Hazing - How Hazing Works | HowStuffWorks

Cognitive dissonance:

In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance occurs when a person holds contradictory belief,ideas, or values, and is typically experienced as psychological stress when they participate in an action that goes against one or more of them.

As society grapples with the ugly and inconvenient truths concerning its inner working, from community’s to corporate board rooms  because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. We see humanity resorts to tribalistic behaviors in triaged situations we’re resources are limited and  fear is rampant and safety is scarce on a mass level. It creates an environment we’re discriminatory and violent mob behaviors become the norm. This is not only reflected in the behaviors of civilians but also in the behaviors of law enforcement as well as political leadership . Especially political leadership because if not for its tribalistic triggers, politics as we know it would loose its luster and power in our society.  And in addition politics plays a key role on how policing takes place. 

Tribalism is the state of being organized by, or advocating for, tribes or tribal lifestyles. Human evolution has primarily occurred in small groups, as opposed to people's cooperation in society as a whole. With a negative connotation and in a political context, tribalism can also mean discriminatory behavior or attitudes, based on loyalty.

Trauma bond:  is a connection between an abusive person and the individual they abuse. It typically occurs when the abused person begins to develop sympathy or affection for the abuser.

In certain circles hazing practices are used to establish loyalty to the group and a certain set of practices that group adheres to.  And this hazing Initiation is a form of trauma bonding. This process can be also seen as the breaking of ones spirit to attempt to remold it in the image interest and motivations of an organization .Creating a  tribalistic loyalty binding the group together causing them to look at anyone outside of the group as a possible threat either by design or by ignorance. 

Meaning the mentality becomes there is a threat/ enemy combatant trying to infiltrate our circle, organization or agenda  and or this is an ignorant civilian/neophyte who in their ignorance will cause trouble and disruption. Which in turn causes them to be viewed as a threat. And only those loyal  to the tight knit circle can be trusted. And in most instances there are tight knit circles within tight knit circles. These environments are charged and maintained by heard behavior and group think.

Group Think : The practice of thinking or making decisions as a group in a way that discourages creativity or individual responsibility.

Herd behavior: is the behavior of individuals in a group acting collectively without centralized direction. Herd behavior occurs in animals in herds, packs, bird flocks , fish schools and so on, as well as in humans. Demonstrations, riots, general strikes, sporting events, religious gatherings, everyday decision-making, judgement and opinion-forming, are all forms of human based herd behavior.

How much of any of these factors are considered as it pertains to law enforcement the military fraternal organizations and the like? Organizations with these practices provide safe havens for abusers and in some cases they reward their most abusive members.  From the 1991 incident were police brutally beat  Rodney king in Los Angeles to George Floyd’s Murder by police in Minnesota in 2020 and countless other brutal incidents that occur at the hand of law enforcement that aren’t documented. I submit to you that this is all occupational psychosis on full display. Not one individual in these groups of cops from these situations stepped in to stop the brutality they were all in lockstep agreement on what was taking place and how it was taking place.  They all had went as far as to participating in these brutal acts and also to falsifying how the encounters took place in their official police reports. 

Police officers charged with the Murder of George Floyd:

 

Law enforcement officers referring to a traffic stop as a “routine traffic stop” is an example of “Trained incapacity”. Nothing in law enforcement is routine and a “routine”mentality and approach is what leads to assumptions and mistakes and often avoidable deaths.  This is one example but manifests itself in many different ways. 

Trained incapacity:

Trained incapacity is the idea that certain types of education, training, experience and habits may lead an individual to be unable to think beyond a set of constraints and assumptions that they have formed. It has several common variations:

Experts vs layperson:

Experts may be unable to see how laypersons view topics in their domain.

Specialists vs. generalists:

Specialists may be unable to think like a generalist.

Bureaucrats vs. Rules:

People who have been educated in a system focused on convergent thinking find it difficult to apply divergent thinking that once came naturally to them.

Resistance to change : 

Trained incapacity can be used to explain the common tendency for people to resist organizational change. When habit replaces creative and critical thought, a system starts to feel concrete, unchangeable and important. This is only a comfortable illusion as the real world is in a constant drive to change.

Convergent vs divergent thinking: 

Convergent Thinking	Divergent Thinking
The process of figuring out a concrete solution to any problem is called Convergent Thinking.	Divergent thinking is the process of thinking that explores multiple possible solutions in order to generate creative ideas.
It’s a straight forward process that focuses on figuring out the most effective answer to a problem.	In contrast, divergent thinking refers to opening the mind in various directions and trying out multiple solutions for a problem.
Its characteristics include ▪ Speed ▪ Accuracy ▪ Logic	Its characteristics include ▪ Spontaneous ▪ Free-flowing ▪ Non-linear

Convergent Vs Divergent Thinking - Psychestudy

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convergent_thinking

For example Imagine....

A government official associated with a fraternal organization can be an example of a mix of divergence and convergence. The public official swears an oath to a public office yet subscribes him or herself to a “higher by law” or “purpose” that they ascribe to via a club society/secret or fraternal organization or an oath That may be in conflict with the pubic office position they hold.  While maintaining the public appearance and stature as a public official they can subvert and subscribe to the principals of secret motives. Yet even the true motives of  covert divergent organization are largely hidden from its “initiates” Creating layers of “elite” trained incapacity agents all moving with a sense of self righteous authority, performing with excellence the tasks they have been groomed in, roaming freely within their “trained boundaries”  lording over subordinates with grooming tactics based in trauma bonding This is one example and this can manifest in many different ways. 

-vw

LGGM

 Locally Grown Globally Minded

https://www.instagram.com/locally_grown_globally_minded/?hl=en