Source | People's Forum magazine and People's Forum Network (rmltwz)
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Modern people's anxiety is everywhere: the pressure of going to work, the difficulty of buying a house, the dilemma of marriage and love, the indefinite birth... Some contemporary young people choose to passively resist by lying flat, suffering from hollow heart, mental poverty, low mood, and unable to find a sense of meaning in life. In fact, "hollow heart disease" is by no means a characteristic of a certain country or a certain region, and looking at the world, "hollowness" seems to have become a social representation of the youth of the times. How can we help young people get rid of "hollow heart disease" and discover and pursue the ultimate meaning of life? Let's take a look.
Shakespeare said in his line in Macbeth: "The so-called life is just a walking shadow." A clumsy man on stage who pointed fingers and feet appeared for a moment and then withdrew from the hustle and bustle. It is a story told by a fool, full of noise and restlessness, but unable to find any meaning. In 1925, the English poet Thomas Eliot created the poem "Hollow Man", which became a representative work depicting the mental state of contemporary people, portraying the boring, empty and anxious spiritual life of modern people, depicting people as "hollow people" and "scarecrows", mentally mutilated, emotionally sad, emotionally lonely, full of pessimism and nihilism. This feeling of inner emptiness, spiritual barrenness, low mood, decreased interest, lack of pleasure, and inability to find meaning and be depressed is called "hollow heart disease" by modern people. At the heart of "hollow heart disease" is the lack of perception of the meaning of life. The meaning of life is a lengthy and philosophical concept that deals with the metaphysical question of why human beings exist, the discovery and understanding of the meaning of their own lives, and the determination and pursuit of their own goals in life. Human beings pursue the search for the meaning of life in the course of their lives all their lives, it is a deep understanding of the relationship between the individual and the world, and it extracts personal life goals based on individual life experience.
The manifestations and characteristics of "hollow heart disease" in contemporary youth
The sense of meaning of life gives young people long-term goals and directions, gives them motivation and value, and also affects their psychology and behavior. Hollow heart disease is a manifestation of a lack of meaning, which is manifested as a lack of existential meaning and a lack of exploratory significance. The meaning of existence is the existence of the individual, the essence of existence and the meaning of feeling, and the exploration of meaning is the effort of the individual to establish and strengthen the understanding and strengthening of the meaning of life.
Hollow heart disease is emotionally reflected in decadence and negativity, depression, pessimism and despair. Rousseau said in the Social Contract that people are born free, but they are always in chains. Contemporary young people in the face of survival anxiety choose to use the lying flat way to passively resist, do not want to go to work, do not want to fall in love, buy a house is difficult, fertility is indefinite... Modern people's anxiety is everywhere, life is too difficult to lead to anxiety, and life is simple to create boredom. The Lancet webpage shows that the global prevalence of major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders has increased significantly in 2020. Psychotherapist Carl Jung said that 1/3 of his patients are not really neurotics in the clinical sense, but because they feel that life has no meaning and cannot find the purpose of life. Michael Steger, a scholar who studies the meaning of life, has developed the famous scale for detecting the meaning of life, and he found that meaning seeking has certain psychological indicators for characterizing positive outcomes, such as life satisfaction, positive emotions, and dynamic adjustments, which have a strong direct effect and predictability. That is, individuals with a sense of meaning in life have a more positive attitude, are more mentally healthy, have stronger life satisfaction, are more likely to feel happy and happy, are hopeful about the future, are more optimistic, and are better socially adaptable. On the contrary, it is easy to experience more loneliness, anxiety, depression, and even some people will have suicidal ideation.
Hollow heart disease is cognitively manifested as a lack of presence and value. "Hollow heart disease" stems from the lack of a sense of meaning in life, which in general contains two dimensions, namely purpose and importance. The goal is a directed motivation, the importance is to achieve the value of the goal to the individual, the goal × importance = sense of meaning, the more specific the goal, the more important it is, the more important the value, the stronger the sense of meaning to the individual. In real life, the material life of young people is greatly enriched, but the spiritual goal is still clear, the ideal seems to be dispensable, and it is difficult to find a stable and lasting sense of meaning by using "small luck" to replace long-term happiness. Only when the individual has a clearer understanding of the goal to be achieved in the individual's life, and that goal is extremely important to the individual, will he feel a strong sense of meaning in the continuous pursuit. When a person has a sense of existence, the meaning of life naturally appears.
Hollow heart disease manifests itself in behavior as a flat-lying doctrine of no desire and no demand. Hollow heart disease is more desireless and desireless, and it seems to be a "Buddhist system" that pursues inner peace and light wind, but in fact it is shrouded in a pessimistic and decadent "funeral culture". In 2020, the European Journal of Social Psychology found that the symbol of the existential crisis is boredom, meaninglessness, and when this behavior occurs, it often uses thoughtless behaviors to escape, such as alcoholism, games, sexual behavior, excessive diet and even drug dependence, and the accumulation of meaningless behaviors further strengthens boredom, so that it falls into a vicious circle.
Influencing factors of "hollow heart disease" in young people
In terms of global significance, the youth group has changed from the "confused generation" after World War I to the "Beat Generation" after World War II, from the "angry generation" in the 1960s to the "low-desire generation" in the early 21st century, and "hollowness" seems to have become a social representation of the youth of the times, becoming a grass snake gray line for understanding social and cultural transmutation.
From the perspective of cultural trends, "hollow heart disease" is accompanied by neoliberal thought, emphasizing self-interest as the center, disregarding others and the collective, lacking responsibility and responsibility, and a sense of value tilted, showing exquisite egoism. The cultural trend derived from neoliberal economics and political science takes the "economic man" paradigm as the starting point, emphasizes human self-interest, believes that collective interests are the superposition of individual interests, advocates individualism, and takes self-interest as the core of all activities, only cares about personal happiness or not, and takes personal satisfaction as the primary driving force and ultimate value. However, a 2019 study by cognitive neuroscientists Bojanowska and Piotrowski found that the happiness and meaning system includes the peripheral system and the kernel system, and the material wealth, sensory stimulation, and power position in the peripheral system can bring people a short-term happy experience, which in turn produces a certain sense of meaning. However, the stimulation of the peripheral system cannot last, satisfaction can bring pleasure, and lack of regret appears anxiety, regret, anger. This shows that the marginal effect of the happiness brought by matter gradually decreases, and if you want to continuously obtain a happy experience, you must constantly find new happiness growth points, and after the old desire is satisfied, the new desire is constantly replaced, and then the cycle falls into greater emptiness and myth, and the situation of desire is difficult to reconcile. The happiness and meaning brought about by the peripheral system always fluctuate, happy and satisfied at the peak of the wave; painful disappointment in the trough, which in turn produces a strong "hollow heart disease". In fact, people often overlook the point that the kernel system is the fundamental source of meaning, it can transcend the immediate interests and desires, above the personal self and small interests, with a grand vision as the goal, young people in the pursuit of the core meaning in the process of experience lasting happiness and sense of value, even in the process of pursuit of bittersweet, but the sense of meaning will not disappear.
The current spread of "hollow heart disease" also suggests that contemporary young people should pay more attention to the core meaning, and only whether there is a "small luck" satisfaction in life as a criterion will inevitably fall into the fluctuation curve of meaning and be alienated by it. If people's hearts are blinded by selfish desires, and if their actions are wrapped in noise, it is easy for individuals to fall into the confusion of the "small self", and then cognitive entanglement, negative emotions, and ineffective actions. "The 'public' road is far away, the big self is back; the 'public' road is close, and the big me is in", the ancients emphasized that establishing a heart for heaven and earth and establishing a destiny for the people is the fundamental.
From the perspective of psychological literacy, the "hollow heart disease" side reflects that the psychological resilience of contemporary youth has yet to be improved. Hardships and hardships, Yuru Yucheng. Psychological toughness, also known as resilience and resilience, is an individual's ability to effectively cope with setbacks and adversities, and is a trait that recovers and rebounds from difficult situations. When individuals face negative emotions or negative events, individuals with strong psychological resilience can have the competence traits of stable mental health and successful response, and they are not prone to "hollow heart disease". The reason why psychological resilience can obtain a sense of meaning is because after experiencing setbacks, people's physical and mental functions can not only be restored through effective response, but also can be improved, and the level of mental function can not only rebound to the original level, but even surpass the previous level and feel the meaning of personal growth. This is why Nietzsche said, "Whatever cannot kill me, ultimately makes me stronger." The Flynn effect found that as far as the world is concerned, the phenomenon that is common in contemporary developing and developed countries is the rapid increase in the IQ of young people, the progress of thinking style and cognition in more than two decades, which is changing and unexpected, but this does not mean that young people are getting better and better, but the adversity quotient of human beings has decreased significantly, psychological resilience has become more and more fragile, and resilience to stress has become worse and worse.
The growth of contemporary youth has accompanied the process of China's rise from standing up and getting rich to becoming strong after the mainland's reform and opening up, and the mainland has become the world's second largest economy and the largest industrial country, and young people are witnesses of national development and the most core benefit-sharing. In the process of youth growth, material abundance is great, and family care is great. Psychologists have found that the more satisfied the external material life, the more likely the individual is to develop depression, boredom and meaninglessness. Thus, there is a "happiness paradox" in psychology, that is, "Easterling's paradox". That is to say, with the continuous increase of per capita economic income, people's happiness level will not continue to rise, on the contrary, the contribution of economic development to happiness is marginally decreasing, and it will experience a "happiness inflection point", which means that the increase in achievement and income will initially bring happiness and satisfaction to individuals, but people will have "hedonic adaptation", the preset level of happiness will be higher and higher, and it will be more and more difficult to maintain. The sense of human meaning must be concerned with deriving it from higher spiritual pursuits. The growth model of the meaning of life also found that psychological resilience has constructive significance for obtaining a sense of meaning in life, if the individual can integrate the negative events and painful experiences encountered into the individual positive meaning system, so that the self-structure can be expanded, the life experience can be enriched, a deeper sense of experience can be obtained, and the positive result can be obtained, and the sense of meaning of life will be maintained and improved, thereby promoting personal self-growth. The more young people experience hard work, the more they go through quenching, in order to have a rich foundation and make a difference.
Cracking and coping with youth "hollow heart disease"
The sense of meaning of life is integrated and bisysystem. That is to say, the meaning of life comes not only from happiness, but also from suffering, not only from good times, but also from adversity. From the good situation, people can get a pleasant experience, produce a positive sense of value for their own growth and life experience, and their positive emotions make individuals feel the beauty of life, which is to find meaning in active life; the coping system is that individuals stand up in adversity and negative conditions, perseverance and perseverance, this process includes brave face, self-acceptance, promotion of growth, and excavation of potential growth factors in adversity, which is the creative meaning of adversity transformation. Therefore, to enhance the meaning of life and avoid "hollow heart disease", we should start from discovering meaning, creating meaning, and pursuing the ultimate meaning of life.
First, in ordinary life, discover meaning. Personally, in real life, actively establish contact with others and cultivate a sense of meaning; warm sharing with people with the same interests can get meaning from friendship; enhance the individual's sense of control over life, which can strengthen the sense of self-efficacy; pay attention to beautiful details, and can find the value of existence from small places. When the basic psychological needs of the individual can be continuously and often satisfied, the meaning of life can be often perceived and experienced, otherwise it is easy to self-denial, inner pain, self-doubt and sense of meaninglessness.
Second, create meaning in the face of adversity and setbacks. Nothing is good or bad, it's just thought. A deep understanding of meaning is the basis for creating meaning, and the meaning of life originates from belief. The sense of meaning includes experiential in good times and realization in bad times. The former takes the self as the center of the circle, and when the self obtains satisfaction, it produces a positive and stimulating effect, producing positive and pleasant emotions, and this small sense of satisfaction and happiness can reach a certain degree of experience. The meaning of the latter is to deal with setbacks as a starting point, gain the strength to grow in the face of adversity, and be able to experience a more enduring sense of meaning. Thus, frankl, who had experienced life in the Nazi concentration camps, founded the theory of meaning, which at its core believed that meaning was the center of life, and that the meaning of life not only existed in the joy of success, but also the acceptance of the suffering experienced in life and the adaptation to setbacks and adversities could also obtain a sense of meaning. The little beauty of active life is to find meaning, while the face of adversity is to create meaning. Lu Xun once said that "all that young people have is vitality, and when they meet deep forests, they can be leveled, they can meet the wilderness, they can plant trees, they can meet the desert, and they can dig wells and springs." A sense of meaning and presence is often nourished by the intensification of frustration. It is necessary for young people to re-recognize the resilience of life and enhance their personal resilience. Although life is short, as long as young people have a strong will and a creative will, they can become spiritually strong and realize their personal value.
Third, the ego merges into the big self and acquires the ultimate meaning of life. The meaning of life is the understanding and pursuit of young people's purpose and goals in life. Young people need to have a clear understanding of the individual, need to know what they want and will do, and strive to achieve their goals. In terms of attaining happiness and meaning, it includes both self-enhancement and self-transcendence. The sense of pleasure and sense of gain in life can enhance the self-enhancement of meaning perception, but if you want to obtain a deeper sense of self-transcendence, you need to go beyond the scope of the individual, combine self-interest with the grand values of group interests, social interests, national interests, and even human interests, attach importance to the well-being and needs brought by individuals to others and society and even human beings, and the individual's sense of meaning in the process of benefiting others is a lasting and stable self-transcendence. Psychologist Morelli et al. in 2018, by recording participants' daily emotional experiences, found that individuals with a self-transcendent value orientation often have more interpersonal connections, can report more positive experiences, feel less anxiety, and have a more positive mindset, because they value the well-being of others and groups, and value the efforts of individuals for the greater good, rather than just staying in the endless pursuit of personal money, pleasure, and social status.
Modern society is developing rapidly, if individuals only focus on individual interests and personal competition, they will inevitably be accompanied by negative emotions in the process of chasing, and the individual will be placed in resonance with the country, society, and others, and the mentality can be more positive and open. The average age of the completion of the 2020 National Natural Science Award is only 44 years old, and these most dynamic scientific and technological innovation talents have never had a sense of "hollowness" in the original innovation center from "0 to 1". The average age of the aerospace Chang'e team and the Shenzhou team is 33 years old, and the Beidou team is 35 years old, and they use their youth to ignite science and technology and innovate to stimulate potential. To create great meaning, it is necessary to integrate the "small self" motivation into the "big me" torrent, and the motivation and passion drive people's desire for life. In early 2021, the author's research team used a stratified sampling method to distribute questionnaires to mainland youth, and obtained a total of 2356 valid questionnaires, of which 942 were men and 1414 were women, with the age range of 16-25 years old. Studies have found that women perform better than men in both presence and exploration. At the same time, the more confident individuals are in their future development, the higher their sense of meaning in life, and the stronger the sense of meaning of individuals who closely link their future and destiny with the country and nation. This shows that the sense of meaning is a more lasting sense of happiness, which needs to be transferred more from the self to others, society and the whole, that is, from the "small self" to the "big self" to obtain a lasting and stable sense of meaning.
Only when young people have a big vision and a big pattern can they have a big stage and great achievements. General Secretary Xi Jinping once sent a message to contemporary youth that only by integrating the small self into the big self will we have a mind like the sea and a lofty mountain. Sending ephemera to heaven and earth, a millet in the sea, any small self is insignificant, and placed in a grand blueprint, in the Realization of the Chinese Dream to achieve the determination to gather the strength of youth, clear in the heart, high ambition, hard work, perseverance, in order to truly interpret the true meaning of youth existence, activate the big realm, the big pattern, in order to achieve the true mountains and seas in the heart.
Slight deletions have been made above
Excerpted from | People's Forum magazine, April 2022
Original title | the improvement of contemporary youth's way of thinking and cognition
Author | Guan Jian, Professor of Zhou Enlai School of Government, Nankai University
New Media Editor | Liu Yilin
The original article is responsible for editing | Danielie Lee
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