Idée fixe

by Half banana 3 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  Half banana

  I am in France at the moment and hence this French expression used in English speaking psychiatry crossed my mind: the expression is idée fixe (pron. eeday fix). This describes the condition in an individual who holds an obsessive attachment to a point of view which is unresponsive to reason and argument.

  There must be some comfort in arriving at this psychotic position. Once adopted everything is sorted.................

  For example being implacably convinced that the Bible is the true source of divine instruction and that seven men in JW headquarters MUST be the link between God and us and that Armageddon is coming any moment now and will kill off unbelievers and leave the world to us who are the only true believers. I have every reason to want to believe this, without this hope my life is worthless.......

  Is the JW organisation filled with members suffering (or enjoying) a collective idée fixe?

  Perhaps a psychologist here might be able to expand?
• 

  schnell

  Interesting. Another term would be delusion, or religious delusion (see: religio).

  I don't know, but I have been accused of something similar: Intolerance and presupposition that the Watchtower is wrong. The difference is not that I am correct or need to be correct, but that I wanted the Watchtower to be the truth and can now fully substantiate the case that they are wrong.
• 

  fulltimestudent

  A possible English equivalent is the cognitive bias known as the anchoring effect:

  anchoring effect. Anchoring is a cognitive bias that describes the common human tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information offered (the "anchor") when making decisions. During decision making, anchoring occurs when individuals use an initial piece of information to make subsequent judgments.
  anchoring effect Archives - PON - Program on Negotiation at Harvard ...
  www.pon.harvard.edu/tag/anchoring-effect/

  
  

  
  

  Hence the importance that both the JWs and the Catholic church place on the use of Q & A techniques in

  witness publications and the Catholic catechism.
• 

  scratchme1010

  This describes the condition in an individual who holds an obsessive attachment to a point of view which is unresponsive to reason and argument.
  

  That's pretty much every Donald Trump supporter.