Summary
Your perspective is not the only perspective. Look at a situation from a different angle and connect with another person. Social connection creates social capital and that makes a better world for all of us.
Both Sides for A Healthy World
Every issue can be approached from more than one perspective. Let’s explore both sides for a healthy world.
Healthy Thinking
That’s an audacious topic heading for a short blog post, you say? Sure is. I am not beyond challenges. So, let’s dive in.
What constitutes healthy thinking in my opinion? Being able to stand in someone else’s shoes and seeing how they view the world. Why? Because embracing another person’s perspective allows us to connect with that person. Connection is a staple to garnering social capital, the quality of feeling invested in a community.
Allying with another person sows a seed of consent, the consent to stand up for each other. To protect each other from harm. To shield the other person from attack. To engage in community building, together. I consent to be your sister and to work with you and to work for our mutual safety.
Recall that social connectedness promotes wellbeing. Everyone gains from this investment.
Cartesian Thinking Aside
Descartes is the philosopher whose contributions to modern philosophy can be somewhat problematic in our modern world. The reality is that the dichotomy espoused by Cartesian thinking is problematic on a number of levels and including in psychiatry.
The mind and body may be two distinct entities and, I posit, neuroscience has demonstrated and will further demonstrate the interaction between our brain’s physiological functions, the concept and theory of mind, and the theories related to the seat of consciousness in our neurocircuitry. By extension, the brain’s operations, whether deemed physiological or deemed part of a theory of mind, interface with the rest of our body.
How you conceive the interface to occur depends on a number of variables, including your familiarity with philosophy; your familiarity with neuroscientific advances; and your belief system. I believe that today we can consider that the interface between mind and body is arguable from different perspectives, not simply from a religious perspective, as Descartes tended to do.
Segueing into the section heading of Cartesian Thinking Aside, Descartes’ contributions are not limited to modern philosophy. And, Cartesian thinking can be laid aside to the extent that we engage with our world in a complex fashion, not simply of substance and non-substance, not simply from a dualistic approach.
Because, there are multiple facets to a situation, as there are many facets to a diamond.
Both Sides of The Coin
Another Cartesian influence in our language: both sides of a coin. But, really, there is another dimension to a coin which this expression neglects: the rounded edge of the perimeter of the coin which gives the coin its thickness.
Can you imagine how changing the expression to include the thickness of the coin may alter your perspective of the very same coin?
Translate that into your reading of a situation as a third-party observer or your interpretation of an interaction which involves you- and, there you have it. A third dimension can be added to the analysis and a set of new insights may emerge.
What would the world look like if we all embraced the ‘multiple perspectives options’ way of thinking? As Jääskeläinen and Kosonogov (2023) suggest, “perspective taking may provide some emotion regulation strategies”. Wouldn’t it be great to promote emotional regulation in our world, to have a bit less reactivity and anger in our world?
Perhaps, we would get along, learn to compromise, silence the dictators bent on imposing their worldview, eliminate the tyrants with fragile egos and their small hands which stir the excrement all over the world, enlighten the sheep who have drunk the Kool-aid of absurdity, and broaden the minds of each other.
Just a pipe dream. Or not.
Take-aways: Both Sides for A Healthy World
Consider your perspective. Consider your perspective. Consider your perspective.
Consider someone else’s perspective.
Consider the possibility that your perspective is not the only perspective.
Of course, music to inspire everyone.
Josh Groban and Sara Bareilles performing Joni Mitchell’s ‘Both Sides Now’
A Whole New World from ‘Aladdin’
Disclaimer: This post is not meant to substitute for a consultation with your mental health professional team.
Selected References:
Jääskeläinen, I.P., and Kosonogov, V. (Feb. 15, 2023). Perspective taking in the human brain: complementary evidence neuroimaging studies with media-based naturalistic stimuli and artificial controlled paradigms. Front Hum Neurosci., 17:1051934. Accessed online on May 31, 2025, at https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9975546/
Thibaut, F. (March 2018). The mind-body Cartesian dualism and psychiatry. Dialogues Clin. Neurosci, 20(1): 3. Accessed online on May 30, 2025, at https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6016047/
UN Innovation Network. June 15, 2023. The Neuroscience of Peace and Conflict. Accessed online on March 9, 2025, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxJPHLbipNM
If you are having thoughts of hurting yourself or someone else, PLEASE CALL 9-1-1; CALL 9-8-8; or GO TO the nearest Emergency Room.
Copyright 2025 All Rights Reserved