About Human Depth

October 7, 2020 Cognitive Insights No Comments

Everybody knows it, and nobody knows it. It is nowhere and everywhere

As a youth,

I used to read a lot of ‘elite literature’ that costs almost nothing for what it’s worth, has nothing to do with how-to-earn-money, and everything with depth. The writers are frequently found in history books of literature. What they wrote and write has an immense degree of human depth.

To me, it was heavenly to read about those places, characters, situations. Then there were also paintings and music, the arts. The main thread through all this was depth.

I loved it.

Perhaps with exaggeration. There was depth, sports, and then the necessary stuff. In the latter also – at school – much was revolving around depth.

At the schoolyard, we talked in-depth or in disinterest. Most of the time, there was no third option. It was a boys-only school, but this might not have made a difference.

I wanted to become a psychiatrist.

So, I grew up with depth

At medical school, bye-bye depth. How could it be so devoid of it? I passed each year without a problem, but I spent most of the year in sports and in depth: books, talks, arts — a lot of depth psychology. I knew this was eventually more important to medicine than medicine.

I didn’t become a psychiatrist. I became myself.

What is depth psychology?

For me as a student, it was the sign above the bookshelf where many of my books could be found: Jung, Freud, Maslow, Laing, etc.

Depth

is what you consider to be of utmost importance after spending your time as a youth in a universe of depth. It is a way of being, which enables you to see what it is, unmistakably. What you learn to see this way is:

Everybody craves depth.

Yet there is much distraction and ‘so little time’ that many people rarely encounter it. With everything full of urgent importance, there is little room for anything essential.

COVID

COVID is as much a mind-issue as it is a virus-issue. Relevant within the mind is depth. A superficial way of life brings about a lot of stress, sometimes within the same people, sometimes within others. This concept of stress is, of course, much more complex than what one finds in any introductory text. For my in-depth view on stress, see my book: Stressional Intelligence.

In several ways, a lack of depth has brought us to a situation in which the tiniest organism on earth teaches us this crazy lesson. If we don’t learn it this time, we get another reading, probably more in-depth.

So, what is depth?

All my preferred authors were trying to convey the same message: Depth has no form, yet it is about meaning. [see: ‘Depth is Formless Meaning’] Also, it is energetic, therefore dangerous. [see: “Three Dangers of Careless Depth”] It is intangible, thus not easily conveyed. [see: “Depth Makes the Teacher”] It is real, yet not within most people’s daily reality.

It is parallel. [see: “What is ‘Parallel’?”]

It is where we find motivation and purpose in life.

It is a universe inside, made up of billions of mental/neuronal patterns.

It is a strength and possible weakness, also in times of corona. [see: “Our Mind Is Our Way Out (or Into) COVID”]

Where is it in medicine as a domain of investigation?