America's No 1 Mental Disorder Version 1.1

DRAFT Concept ac 4/09

America’s No.1 Mental Disorder: IRES

Inability to Reason on Emotional Subjects

A Crancer B.S., M.A. Copyright al crancer 06 2008

IRES

To: ______________ I sincerely hope you get cured! Al Crancer

IRES

Table of Contents Introduction An example 2 Characteristics of the disorder Where it manifests itself most Characteristics explained Facts don’t matter Unreal perceptions about persons/things/places Passion to belong. Belief trumps facts Tests to see if you have the disorder

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Try “What If . . .” to see if disorder is curable Proper reaction to persons with this disorder

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IRES

America’s No.1 Mental Disorder:

Inability to Reason on Emotional Subjects Introduction Have you ever wondered why it is so difficult to discuss certain subjects with your business associates, friends, family, and loved ones? It seems like no matter what you say or how you say it, they just can’t reason on certain subjects. It’s like they are under a spell. You go over the issue step by step and then they still come up with totally wrong conclusions. It’s like 1 + 1 equals 3 every time! The truth is that they are suffering from America’s No. 1 mental disorder that affects literally millions of people: the Inability to Reason on Emotional Subjects (IRES). What we will do is explain the disorder, discuss its symptoms, and give you some idea on how to detect this disorder. The treatment for this disorder is beyond the scope of this book. But one thing is for sure, the first step is a correct diagnosis followed by medical or psychological treatment that may lead to a cure.

IRES

An Example Isn’t my new-born beautiful? You’ve heard this a dozen times. But how many times was it actually true? About never! The reason mothers say this is because they are emotionally blind when it comes to their children, especially their new born. Usually the disorder relating to their children lasts a lifetime and is totally incurable.

Even Charlie Manson’s mother thought little Charlie was always a good boy. Let’s excuse the mothers of the world and explore the characteristics of this mental disorder that affects millions in all walks of life.

Characteristics of the disorder There are three major characteristics of the disorder: 1. Facts don’t matter, or are totally or selectively ignored. (Fact Phobia) 2. Unreal perception of persons, things, or places. (Stereotypically Challenged) 3. Passion to be identified with a group/class/movement. (True Believers) Usually one or two of these characteristics dominate the thought process for people with IRES.

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Where it manifests itself most This disorder manifests itself most often in four areas:

1. Politics

3. Environmental issues

2. Family Matters

4. Purchasing Decisions

The following paragraphs expand on these areas. 1. Politics This disorder is well known in the area of politics. How else could a KKK person from West Virginia keep getting elected to the Senate? Ask a person why they are for a certain candidate and they will very often give you the most absurd and twisted reasons. Even when you tell them that their candidate holds a totally abhorrent position on something they will still support their candidate. 2. Family Matters

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The arguments, the fights and violence, and the law suits are evidence that this is an area where IRES is almost an epidemic. People get so mad that they can’t “see straight”. What’s even worse, they can’t think straight! 3. Environmental issues The issues of global warming, drilling for oil, and endangered species, are but a few of the issues in this area in which people suffer quite a lot. Just mention global warming and many of my friends get hot! Add organic food to this list. If you eat nonorganic food you will probably die in a week! 4. Purchasing Decisions The basic maxim of sales for years has been Elmer Wheeler’s maxim, “You don’t sell the steak, you sell the sizzle!” How else can you get people to buy worthless stuff? They think that if they buy expensive shoes their ugly feet will look great. Buy an overpriced car and they will look rich driving it. Buy expensive wine and it will always taste great. Rational reasoning just left the building with Elvis. Brands are a powerful factor in purchasing. People with IRES are the kind of person that let brand recognition dominate their purchasing decisions.

Characteristic 1: Facts don’t matter! (Fact Phobia) Facts about Facts: True facts are hard to distinguish from false facts. The reason for this is that liars and other wrong people manufacture and distribute their stuff the same way true facts are distributed.

Often well meaning people spread false facts. The guy that first said that the world was flat really thought it to be true. His experience led him to that conclusion. The guy that said Obama took the oath of office on a Koran spread a false fact. Lots of people believed it that did not have the IRES mental disorder. Here are several things about facts: The best way to validate a fact is to check the source. Two or more sources are usually better than only one. An expert in a fact area is generally better than one that isn’t. New facts from many sources are usually better than old ones from the same number of sources. I could go on and on and soon you would be totally confused about facts. That’s why so many totally ignore them! One thing for sure, leaving facts out of the equation when reasoning on emotional subjects is a sure sign of a mental problem.

Characteristic 2: Unreal Perceptions about persons, things, and places. Unreal perception of about everything! (Stereotypically Challenged) Have you ever noticed how people with this disorder have a fairy tale view of almost everything? It’s hard to find someone with just an unreal perception about persons who also doesn’t have an unreal perception about things, and sometimes places. They are hard to separate in the twisted mind. There is no way that you can reason correctly if this component of the reasoning process is screwed up.

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Most unreal perceptions involve generalizations and stereotypes. Most stereotypes are based on what we hear and see about things, since most of us don’t have the experience to develop our own based on our experience.

Often those stereotypes are not fact based and of course they don’t apply to all members of the group, regardless of the validity of the stereotype for the group. Further we may have developed a stereotype based on unusually bad (or good) experience. An example of this happened years ago when my father, a businessman, had his store robbed twice by men with beards. From that day on he had an usually negative regard for anyone with a beard. Unreal perceptions regarding persons: Because of stereotypical thinking, many people become emotionalized in their thinking when it comes to persons of different outward characteristics such as race, creed, color, national origin, sex, sexual preference, height, weight, and even the color of hair, just to name a few. The same problem is found for perceptions of persons in occupations such as lawyers, politicians, medical professionals, and the clergy, And in family matters, we see unreal perception a significant problem. Persons with IRES just can’t objectively assess relatives no matter what the issue. Unreal perceptions regarding things: People become emotionalized when it comes to how things work or don’t work such as relationships, government, businesses, etc. Because of the way many perceive how things work, they think you can just wave a wand and things will instantly get better or worse. This is especially true in bad economic times. Many think that the government can fix things instantly because of the way they perceive that government works. 4 Man made global warming is a darling of unreal thinking as is organic food. The unreal perceptions in these areas can actually lead to physical violence! They say that the media paints such an idealized and stereotyped picture of relationships between men and women that it results in most relationships being considered less than acceptable.

Unreal perceptions regarding places: Places such as countries, states, neighborhoods, restaurants, and business establishments evoke stereotypical and emotionalized thinking. No one could possibly live in West Virginia and be happy, get a good meal at Denny’s, and buy a good diamond ring at any place other than Tiffany’s.

Characteristic 3: Inordinate desire to belong! Belief trumps facts (True Believers) One of the characteristics of persons with IRES is they often have an inordinate desire to belong or be identified with a group, movement or ideology that clouds and even prevents clear thinking. The reason is they are simply true believers. For these people, belief trumps fact. If you believe that the president walks on water, you cannot possibly believe that he can have a wrong policy on anything. Belonging to a group, movement, or maybe even a cult of radical/screwed thinking is quite important to most with this disorder. Most independent thinkers do not have this problem. The worst cases of IRES are among persons in activist groups. Members of activists groups such as environmental, political, religious, and social are extremely difficult to reason with about issues dear to their group. There are numerous examples of this. Try to change the mind of a Republican (or Democrat) on issues dear to their heart. Try to change the mind of a true believer (or non-believer) in a religious group, and try to change the mind of an environmentalist about saving the planet. It simply won’t work.

A member of the ‘Rich” group could never agree that something bought at WalMart could ever meet their standard. A member of the “Liberal Left” could never agree with reasoning that could possibly be misinterpreted as racist. A rabid “Fiscal Conservative” could never agree with a reasoned conclusion that supports deficit spending.

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Belief trumps facts 99% of the time. When persons with facts collide with persons of belief, usually the believers will get angry when pressed, while the persons with facts will change the subject, knowing that further conversation is useless.

Tests to see if you have the disorder. Test No.1 President Bush lied to us about Iraq having WMDs. VP Cheney gave a no bid multi-billion dollar contract to Halliburton to work in Iraq. Test No. 2 Your kid, the axe murderer, is really nice, but misunderstood. All children could do well in school if the parents got involved. The major problem with schools is that they are way underfunded. Test No. 3 Global warming is an imminent (like in the next five years) danger to mankind. Waste from nuclear power plants will eventually destroy the environment. Coal can never be made clean enough to burn in our environment. Eating non-organic food significantly increases you chances of cancer. Test No. 4 Designer clothing is of significantly higher quality than medium priced products. Wine less than $10 a bottle is never fit to drink.

To be continued . . . .

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Play “What If. . .” to see if they are curable Really sick people with this disorder will still reason wrong even when you play the “What If. . .” game. For example, “What if drilling for oil in ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) wouldn’t hurt anything no how, no way, no where, would you still be against drilling there?” Really sick puppies would still answer a resounding YES! Another example, “What if we have a video tape of your son stealing the car, would you believe it?” Of course their answer would be NO!

Proper Reaction to persons with IRES These people are beyond help and cannot be cured. Just smile at them and try to avoid subjects that evoke their truly sick responses. Only occasionally should you tease them, for deep down they know they are suffering from IRES. And, of course they may become violent!

To be continued . . . .

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