The first victim of group-think and the group shadow is critical thinking:
"In such a scenario - "to object"- is to stand apart from the group. Rather than become a pariah of sorts, potential dissenters remain silent. Self-censorship then becomes one pole of a mutually reinforcing feedback loop in relation to the prevailing group norm. The predictable consequence is a situation in which important feedback never enters the collective awareness."
Psychotherapy, meditation and contemplation, and group observers, as well as conversations with honest friends, etc. all can help us to see, own, and work-through our shadow sides.
Masochism, according to Fromm, involves:
"annihilation of the individual self and the attempt to overcome unbearable feelings of powerlessness and isolation.
"One surrenders one's own self and renounces the strength and pride connected with it; we lose our integrity as an individual and surrender our freedom of thought and action; at the same time, we can gain a new security and a new pride in participating in the power in which we are submerged. Doing so, we gain refuge from the torture of doubt."
"This power can be a person, an institution, the nation, or God. By becoming part of a power which is felt to be unshakably strong, eternal and glamorous, one participates in its strength and glory.
Fromm argues that it is in the modern age that the contradiction inherent in "freedom" fully manifests. On one hand, man becomes "more, self-reliant and critical," but at the same time he becomes "more isolated, alone and afraid." A critical issue is people's willingness to submit to autocratic and/or totalitarian rule.
He emphasized that a haunting experience of aloneness and powerlessness arose out of the massive societal transition from the Medieval era the modern period.
There are a number of antidotes to masochism. These include creating: 1) simple support systems, where healthy, egalitarian, mutual support is the norm or 2) participating in study /action groups where expression of emotions such as anger and grief is supported. When past trauma is at the root of masochistic behavior, psychotherapy can help us overcome this conditioning.
While capitalism is an overarching culprit, the already epidemic proportions of loneliness and lack of community have been radically increased by the Covid-19 pandemic. It is up to us to develop the psychological/spiritual "strength of self," so as not to fall prey to the loss of integrity that goes with seeking security by submerging ourselves in religiosity - or another person, institution, group.
One of the most powerful antidotes to the state of being of deep loneliness is the felt-experience which Thich Naht Hanh calls "inter-being." The realization of the interconnectedness (or interdependence) of all that is, is a vital component of overcoming the soul-draining aspects of isolation. This is a state of being, rather than merely an intellectual understanding.
Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to this reality:
"It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."As it turns out, King nominated Vietnamese Zen Master Thich Naht Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967. Here, in Naht Hanh's own words, are an understanding he lives:
"If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either. So, we can say that the cloud and the paper inter-are. "Interbeing" is a word that is not in the dictionary yet, but if we combine the pre-fix "inter" with the verb "to be," we have a new verb, inter-be. If we look into this sheet of paper even more deeply, we can see the sunshine in it. If the sunshine is not there, the forest cannot grow...
"Whether we're at work or at home, we can practice to see all our ancestors and teachers present in our actions. We can see their presence when we express a talent or skill they have transmitted to us. We can see their hands in ours as we prepare a meal or wash the dishes. We can experience profound connection and free ourselves from the idea that we are a separate self through the conscious recognition of inter-being""
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