Symbols that Unify

Someone asked me if Rapid Resolution Therapy (RRT) is “all I do.”  This person had known me years ago, when I was working at a community mental health clinic, when I was trying to help my clients by listening and offering advice.   That was before I even knew about RRT, let alone incorporated it so completely into my life.  I explained that RRT is a technique, yes, but it’s also a way of understanding people’s thoughts, actions and behaviors.  It’s a way of understanding that makes sense, that’s clear.

The mind is always trying to make sense of the world, always trying to understand it in a clear and logical way.  Everything that we do is an attempt to make sense of the world, to create clarity from chaos.

So how does it do that?  How does the mind create order and sense from what appears to be illogical and irrational?  By discarding the nonsense and revealing the wisdom.  By minimizing what doesn't make sense and illuminating what does make sense.  And how is that communicated to others?  Largely by symbols.  Here's an example:

Khaled Said.  How many Americans know his name?  Or his face?  Khaled Said was an ordinary Egyptian businessman who, tired of the corruption in Egyptian law enforcement, videotaped some policemen using drugs.  He posted his video on the internet.  A little while later while sitting in a café, he was approached by the police, hauled off and beaten to death.  His name and the picture of his bloody face at the morgue became symbols of what sparked the recent revolution in Egypt—with a little help from Facebook, of course.  He represents, as the Egyptians have said, all of them.  He was just a regular guy who was tired of the corruption which was so common in his society.  The way he was looking at it,  exposing the corruption in such an open way would help to get rid of it, to clean it up.

And he was right.  This present revolution in Egypt is an attempt to create clarity from chaos.

The deeper part of the mind responds so well to symbols.  Meanings are attached to those symbols, so strongly that the meanings themselves don’t even have to be articulated anymore.  The swish mark for Nike, the golden arches for McDonald’s, the cross for Christianity—those are all symbols that need no linguistic explanation.

And for Egyptians, as well as for much of the world, the picture of Khaled Said’s face says it all.