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From a psychological point of view

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_Elsa_
_Elsa_ Posts: 36,701 Sweet Legend
edited May 2021 in Candy Friends Stories

There she is! Grogu continues sharing.

‘The Dark Side Has Advantages - In addition to the general claim that the dark is more powerful than the light, according to the Star Wars mythos, when people access the Dark Side of the Force, they unlock specific powers that practitioners of the Light Side lack. We'll probably never learn to shoot Force lightning from our fingertips, of course. But real-life research does show that darker emotions activate certain useful abilities within us that our lighter emotions generally don’t. In other words, negative emotions, while unpleasant, can also be useful.

The Dark Side Can Easily Consume Us and Is Best Repressed - A final major assertion Star Wars makes about our darker emotions is that they can easily consume us and, therefore, the best strategy is to repress them. In his famous confrontation with Emperor Palpatine in Return of the Jedi, Luke Skywalker goes to great lengths to push away his feelings of fear and anger, while Palpatine repeatedly encourages him to give into these feelings. The logic of the scene is that if Luke allows himself to feel these negative emotions, he’ll become forever turned to the Dark Side.

But is this really how emotions work?

No, it’s not. Negative emotions are a normal and unavoidable part of life, at least in measured amounts. As already mentioned, it's probably not in our best interest to avoid them completely, given that they confer certain advantages. But we probably couldn’t avoid them even if we wanted to. This is due to a maddening paradoxical effect of what psychologists call “experiential avoidance”. Specifically, the more we try to avoid or suppress a psychological experience, the stronger that experience becomes. 

It’s an easy principle to prove. Just follow this command: For the next 30 second, try not to think of a white bear. If you almost immediately failed at this task, you’re not alone. Participants in a study appearing in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology couldn’t do it, either. That’s because in order to know what you’re trying to avoid thinking about, you have to think of it. 

Likewise, trying to avoid or suppress negative feelings will actually make you more likely to experience them. For this reason, research indicates that emotional avoidance can be a risk factor for anxiety disorders and depression.

Counterintuitively, the best way to decrease negative emotions in the long run may be to allow yourself to experience them in the short run. It's one of the major principles underlying the practice of psychotherapy: Experiencing and talking about our feelings is good for us, even when those feelings are unpleasant. 

In conclusion, Star Wars scores an impressive 2 out of 3 when it comes to the psychological accuracy of its assertions about our darker emotions. The dark does indeed appear to be more powerful than the light. And our darker emotions can sometimes be useful. But these feelings aren't likely to consume us, so we shouldn't try too hard to push them away. 

They won’t turn us to the Dark Side.’ (Source)

“I have to call Elsa to share the psychological side of this,” thinks Kimmy to herself. “She studied psychology in college so she can help explain this more to her.”

Let’s continue - Learning from Failure

Start at the beginning – A long time ago in a galaxy far far away …

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