Superstitions: The Therapy of Powerless Minds

Nour Hamadeh (9A)

      I.             I.  If truth to be told, superstitions, the religion of powerless minds, encapsulate a plethora of disadvantages that fall into the social and psychological domains.

  II.              

II. A.  To begin with, superstitions entail a bunch of drawbacks on the social field such as changing behavior and state of mind and leading to bad decisions.

1.    Showing how superstitions affect one’s social life in losing his bonds and communications

2.    Highlighting how Taiwanese people buy their needs depending on superstitions characteristics

B.  Furthermore, superstitions have various psychological negative impacts such as causing emotional inhibition and leading to depression.

1.    Showing how parents grow fear in their children’s feelings because of superstitions

2.    Revealing how one could be depressed if he faced something related to bad luck

III.           III.  To sum up with, social and psychological negative reflexions are likely to take place if people are still robustly wired to superstitions.

Superstitions: The Therapy of Powerless Minds

“Trying to understand superstition rationally is like trying to pick up something made of wood by a magnet.” This quote asserts and proclaims that superstitions have no logical or rational explanation; they are just ridiculous beliefs that people used to believe in before the development of science which flourished into many societies until today. But, we tried to seek a plausible answer regarding superstitions, logic will always be dominant. In fact, one cannot lose sight of the dark side of superstitions. If truth to be told, superstitions, the religion of feeble minds, encapsulate a plethora of drawbacks that fall into social and psychological domains.

  To begin with, superstitions entail a bunch of drawbacks on the social field such as changing behavior and state of mind and leading to bad decisions. To start off, superstitions change the way the person acts and reacts in his activities, and also change the way he thinks, for it ruins science and logic in his mind which may lead to the deterioration of his social communication and losing bonds between others which will make him unable to achieve his ambitions, and lose friendships and relationships which is necessary for the peace of one’s mind. For instance, if a person believes in superstitions and specifically the evil eye, he is going to avoid facing people because of the fear of being affected by it. This will lead him to isolate himself socially and as a result, he is going to lose his social bonds. Moreover, superstitions lead the person to make bad decisions or “superstitious” decisions based on an absurd belief he believes in. for example, a study found that Taiwanese people buy their needs based on the number of units inside it or on its color, and they are ready and willing to pay more money if the package includes a lucky number or color. On the other hand, rational people will take the appropriate decision.

  Furthermore, superstitions have various psychological negative impacts such as causing emotional inhibition and leading to depression. To begin with, emotional inhibition is derived from superior elders, based on superstitious or religious beliefs to children. For instance, when parents grow the superstitious beliefs in their children’s personalities such as walking under the ladder, opening the umbrella inside the house and many other superstitions. Kids will be overwhelmed with fear and this may shift their self-confidence in some activities. It would affect their personality and grow an obsessed child. Added to that, superstitions may control one’s psychological feelings and lead to depression and anxiety. For example, if one faces at the beginning of his day a black cat, an owl or anything related to bad luck, he is going to feel creepy and hesitated in his day based on a belief that something bad will happen to him, and this would affect him more if this process continues to happen to him which will lead to his depression and may push him to isolate himself.

  To sum up with, social and psychological negative reflexions are likely to take place if people are still robustly wired to superstitions. If superstitions will stay govern people’s lives, people will be dominated by them. Consequently, people will forget about something called science and logic, they will dive in the ocean of superstitions, and they may attend astrologers instead of scientists and doctors. Superstitions would be their ideal in life and rule their minds. This would lead to a destructed society with no literate or cultivated generations. Rational thinking and proper education would say goodbye. And then, all what one can say is –Yey for retardation!