Sullivan University Book Club discussion

Bechdel writes quite a bit about psychoanalysis. One of the ideas she mentions is Freud's theory that things that seem to happen by accident are really your unconscious reacting to your environment. His example was a time where his sister complained about his inkwell not matching his desk and, just a few hours later, he accidentally knocked it off the desk and broke it. Bechdel similarly mentions that she had a series of incidents, including hitting herself between the eyes with a board, that led her to believe that her unconscious was trying to get her attention. What do you think of this theory? Has there ever been a time where you've had accidents that seem to be too coincidental to actually be accidents? Do you believe in fate, serendipity, or chance?

I think Freud may be giving us all a little too much credit. I think the human mind has an attraction to order, so we ascribe meaning to things that are accidental, like a person seeing shapes in clouds.

Cara wrote: "I think Freud may be giving us all a little too much credit. I think the human mind has an attraction to order, so we ascribe meaning to things that are accidental, like a person seeing shapes in c..."
I loved when I found out that the phenomenon of seeing shapes or patterns in random things, like seeing dragons in clouds or Jesus on a piece of toast, has a name. It is called pareidolia and you are correct, people do tend to try to assign meaning to random actions. However I do think that sometimes we are trying so hard not to think about something that we do unconsciously try to address it.

Reminds me of this study that determined that people sometimes respond to reminders of their own mortality by increasing consumption, perhaps as a way to attempt to gain control of that which is ultimately out of their hands: http://cognitivebuyers.com/?p=3166.