Magical thinking is the conviction that some of our actions, thoughts, or words somehow magically influence reality. A person who thinks in this way assumes a fairly clear causal relationship between the inner, personal experience and the outer physical world.
“Knock on wood”, “If you think about something bad, it will happen to you”, “If I don’t believe in illness – I will never get sick”, “I had a bad dream – something bad will happen”, “In the horoscope for today they predicted good fortune – hurray!” etc.
Looking (and finding) the hidden meaning, ignoring the factor of coincidence leads to the belief that everything in life is not accidental, that there are patterns that need to be grasped. And the person may feel in the center of what is happening because the reality depends on them taking the “Right” or “Wrong” action.
People “juggle the facts” to come up with explanations of what happened AFTER the fact. And thus, getting up in the morning on the wrong foot becomes the “cause” of the accident on the way to work.
In part, these beliefs come to us from our ancient past with its archaic ideas that, for example, rain must be caused by performing special rituals, and the disease is sent by gods or shamans.
Magical thinking is completely normal for preschool children. They have these beliefs until the time when they learn to establish causal relationships based on rational thinking, which contradicts magic.
Some of the rituals that magical thinking suggests are quite harmless and take place automatically: sprinkle the spilled salt with sugar so as not to quarrel, knock on wood, read a favorable astrological forecast and feel good…
But sometimes magical thinking captures much more territory than reasonable, and in this case, you can’t call it harmless.
People with magical thinking are looking for connections and signs in everything that happens to them and around them: “Yesterday, my neighbor looked at me badly and jinxed me – I will definitely get sick now!”, “Someone put a curse on me – this is why I cannot find a husband”.
Moreover, as a rule, they do not even notice obvious contradictions. For example, if a cat crosses your path five times everything will be fine, but after the sixth time – you will trip and fall. It is as if such people have an impenetrable cloak around them – common sense cannot reach them.
Helena could not convince her mother to go see a doctor and have a mammogram. The problems were obvious, but the mother kept repeating: “The main thing is a positive attitude. If I think that I have no illness – everything will pass by itself, you will see! And you’re just a pessimist!”
Irini is sure that she cannot give birth to a child, because she is being punished for having an affair with her friend’s husband, in her youth. She brought misery to another person – now she will need o pay for it. Irini did not go to see a doctor – after all, everything is clear … She is cursed…
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Magical thinking is convenient and at the same time painful for people with neurotic disorders and high personal anxiety. Convenient – because it allows them not to take responsibility for their lives. But painful because it demands that they cannot think about bad things (which is impossible for neurotics), otherwise they will certainly happen. This may lead to panic attacks.
If magical thinking does not take up much space in your life, you do not need to do anything about it. Many of us have a “lucky” piece of clothing or knock on wood when describing good events. ? Confident behavior sometimes needs such little tricks. But if magical thinking influences a large part of your life, then it is not helping you. What to do if your every step is affected by it?
Cognitive-behavioral therapy for obsessive thoughts and anxiety is very helpful. It is better to do this together with a psychologist who specializes in CBT. But if you need to start somewhere on your own, here are some recommendations.
1. Irrationality can only be fought with rationality. Keep a diary in which you need to write down and analyze all events where magical thinking is turned on. Conduct a comparative analysis of what happened when protective rituals were performed and what happened when not. Record only real facts!
2. Make a list of the situations that scare you. Rank them from the least scary to the scariest. Pick one each week, starting with the simpler ones, and study as you move closer to it.
3. As soon as thoughts about horrors and dangers begin to appear – return yourself to reality, ground yourself, answering these questions:
– where am I?
– what is around me?
– what time is it?
4. Feel the ground under your feet (directly, physically) and tell yourself that you cannot control everything. Remind yourself of this fact.
Magical thinking “helps” to deal with uncertainty, which is unbearable for an anxious person. But it is impossible to overcome uncertainty – it will always be present in our lives. This must be recognized as a fact.
Our course “Mind cleaning” can be very beneficial in this case. It will help you to reorganize your thinking patterns and separate constructive thoughts from useless ones. And this is the first step towards overcoming infantilism and magical thinking.
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