Can our need to feel safe become our worst enemy?

I am in the midst of taking an Abnormal Psychology class through LSU and as I journey through the chapters I find myself wrestling with what I believe and what the book is providing me as scientific evidence. But after reading each chapter over at least three times, I have come to discover that what I thought the authors were conveying as fact were actually scientific studies and that my need for concrete valid answers was skewing my translation of the material being presented. I also discovered that my need to place labels on people and things in order to prove my thinking was right was getting in the way.

But isn’t that what all of us do? We try to make sense out of our worlds so that we can feel comfortable and safe in them. And yet our zone of comfort may actually be a danger zone for others. Our comfort zone may be ultimately an illusion that isn’t based on anything except on our interpretations, speculations, rationalizations and what we've been told to be true.

How many times have we been taught the importance of communication to rid ourselves of misunderstandings and misperceptions? And yet, many of us would choose to speculate and draw our own conclusions rather than do that very thing. And to make matters worse, we as a species are so desirous of making sense of our world that we would rather agree together on some type of theory than to admit we do not know.

So my question is, can our need to feel safe by making sense of our world become our worst enemy? Does our need to feel safe close us off from new discoveries and the unknowable?

One of the biggest concepts my abnormal psychology book was trying to convey was what the definition of “abnormal” according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV-TR) meant. DSM-IV-TR describes abnormal as “behavioral, emotional or cognitive dysfunctions that are unexpected in their cultural context and associated with personal distress or substantial impairment in functioning.” So, if a culture doesn’t perceive something as abnormal or if a person isn’t distressed or feels seriously impaired, then the “dysfunction” (a disturbance in functioning) isn’t regarded as abnormal. Bottom line, it is a matter of perception and interpretation. It is a matter of what we believe to be right or wrong, abnormal or normal. It is a result of our understanding of our limitations and possibilities.

Fortunately, the authors went out of their way to emphasize that just because we think we know what causes something that in the future this understanding may be disproven. And what we believe to be a dysfunction today may turn out not to be a dysfunction at all. They also stated that if something wasn’t yet proven scientifically, there was a good chance that as our understanding evolved and advances in science improved, the answer would be forthcoming. So, to state that something didn’t exist nor isn’t possible could potentially be faulty thinking. And to take a theory and make it gospel without retaining an open mind to other possible explanations is dangerous as well. In other words, they were telling me "don't throw the baby out with the bathwater" -- keep an open mind AND go out of your way to discover the multi-dimensional interpretation of behavior and disease.

So, my question is, can we as a species come to a place where we can admit that we do not know and may never know everything; and that it is okay to admit that something can happen for a reason that we yet do not understand? Can we get past the all or nothing mentality that would cause us to take sides on issues?

Can the religious admit that there are some things that happen in life that there are no good answers for instead of speculating a cause? Can atheist admit that even though something cannot be proven due to our limitations of perception as human beings that it still can occur? Are we willing to admit as a species that we are not omniscient and are multidimensional beings who are still discovering some of those dimensions?

I'm willing to. It will help me become more focused on helping others heal from their dis-ease, less judgmental and more open to possibilities.