Photo by Jan Huber on Unsplash
(sharply focused green trees on ridges in the foreground fading to a series of gradually higher, more distant, less distinct, bluer tree covered ridges)
When I was a child, one of my nightmares was of being a slave in chains. Some of these were probably bordering on lucid dreams, as I could feel the shackles around my wrists and ankles (but not my neck).
There are a whole stack of ways of interpreting that nightmare, quite a few of genuine validity for my life circumstances, but the most obvious characteristic that I notice, as I look back over my life, is that those nightmares gradually disappeared as I became a mature, independent thinking adult.
My neurodiversity probably helped me there (unlike so many other places), as I did not form the association that most do of emotional approval (initially from parents) being connected with certain views.
From Pascale Larivierra's 2025 article “What If the DSM-5 Got Autism Wrong?”,
, based on the French language “Si l’autism n’est pas une maladie, qu’est-ce?” of Laurent Mottron:
"According to Mottron, typical infants process information through a social bias — meaning their cognitive and emotional development is shaped by constant social interaction. They don’t perceive objects in isolation, but in reference to others: parents, siblings, peers."
My life experience suggests that many people continue that bias throughout much of their life, past the 18 months age that Mottron states. As an example, in my opinion, many of those who, when challenged as to the basis of something that they, say, were taught by their parents, may respond along the lines of "I was taught that by my parents and therefore it has been thought through and has a valid basis" - which could be wrong on at least two counts (or it could be correct, in some cases).
Firstly, their parents may not be an authoritative source of knowledge on that topic - likely because of their parents and their parents' parents etc, etc, etc. Secondly, it may well be that knowledge has improved and there is a new nuance or even complete overturning of actions (such as escaping from cars sinking in water or treating jellyfish stings [in particular, do NOT do this!] ).
This gets in to the area of "folk knowledge" - some of which can have a kernel of truth or validity, or have once upon a time been valid.
As an example, I once read (I think in one of Lyall Watson's books) of some people in Africa who had a long, complex procedure for treating wounds ... which just so happened to create conditions that were likely to grow Penicillium fungi, the basis for penicillin. Another example is the active ingredient of Buscopan, which (from the packet of Buscopan I have) "is obtained from the Australian native Duboisia bush" - or, in other words, was traditional First Peoples knowledge.
Other actions are less ... beneficial. As an example, I used to know people who wrapped (hot) food that they wanted to put into the fridge in aluminium foil. Their explanation for this was "it will help keep it cool" - but, as the initial cooling was done outside the fridge, what it was actually doing was keeping the food in the dangerous range of temperatures for longer. I suspect what had happened was that older knowledge about covering food to keep flies off while it was cooling, was vaguely conflated with the use of alfoil to manage temperature, and the wrong procedure developed - as opposed to, say, covering the food with a clean, non-insulating material while it is cooled as quickly as possible and then covered with alfoil just before it is put into the fridge (or, even more usefully, covered with alfoil when it is taken out of the fridge for possible transport before consumption).
Now, in my opinion, that is fairly clear and, once pointed out, an easy change to make. But in the case I am referring to, that way of (mis)handling food had come from a loved parent who had passed (as has the person I am writing of), and changing the technique would have cut off an emotional connection/reward that was triggered by using that.
The emotional connections that people have with knowledge or actions is, in my opinion, an under-recognised aspect of getting people to change. Those emotional connections can include things like refusing to wear bicycle helmets - and, when that was being made compulsory here in my adopted home state, an aggrieved person I knew asked me "well, don't you want to keep the freedom?", to which I replied "I would make a decision on that after spending a shift on a brain injury ward" (and, years later, I knew someone who worked in respite care for people with ABIs [acquired brain injuries], and would absolutely have worn a bicycle helmet … if bicycle seats were comfortable enough for me to use one [before arthritis made it a moot point] ).
Another example of an emotional problem is the fear of being a fool. The person I knew who did respite care was knowledgeable and capable in the field of caring for people with ABIs, and stayed up to date, but had staggering mental roadblocks in other areas of life, where they would use phrases such as "Everyone knows ..." as code for "I was taught that by my parents and therefore it is inviolate and sacrosanct and must not be questioned as that could suggest my parents were not perfect" - as opposed to their parents being well intentioned (genuinely loving) but human and doing the best they could with what they had been taught and had experienced.
Another problem is people being flummoxed by the unfamiliar. A work colleague once sang the praises of bananas, and could not accept that there was any imperfection when I pointed out that, because of the sugar content, diabetic people could not eat a bunch a day.
His response was a bewildered "but it contains [list I did not bother to memorise at the time]", which is a bit like those people who say to diabetics "the sugar is natural, so it is OK". No, it is not OK for diabetics - if it is not natural it may come with a bunch of other problems that make it worse, but even if those problems are removed it doesn't change the risk that too much sugar is for diabetics.
Those emotional connections cannot be addressed by logic, which makes the job of introducing new knowledge on public health and other public matters more challenging.
This can also be an issue in workplaces. As an example, a comment I make for younger professionals in particular, is, if they find in a client meeting that they have made a mistake (perhaps misunderstood an instruction), it is vital to own the mistake (on behalf of the company, if you didn't make the mistake), and that comes with two separate emotions:
disappointment that you didn't do what you wanted to, or didn’t do so to the standard you wanted; and
fear of human aggression.
These must be handled differently.
The personal disappointment is something you deal with yourself, hopefully with the support of others, in your own time and space (which can happen at work, in the case of better workplaces), and will likely involve your emotions and expectations, as well as any specific mistakes (e.g., not checking, not listening - maybe because you make the mistake of assuming the client was not a capable and trusted authority figure ... ).
The fear of human aggression you should use to motivate yourself to keep the meeting as calm as possible, and acknowledge the client's reasonable anger (they are also obliged not to be unduly angry, and cannot be threatening or violent) - do so in a way that they genuinely feel understood (and platitudes don't help).
This case involves both technical knowledge, and knowledge of emotions.
Going back to my case, a few factors (including neurodiversity and personal growth work as part of being Pagan) meant that it was easier for me to recognise and let go of the emotional connections to knowledge that I had - and that was when the slavery dreams ended ...
Achieving an adequately mature, adult, and independent attitude towards knowledge broke my shackles to ignorance ... which meant I still had to do the learning, and - as with everyone - continue to do so on an ongoing basis, but my biggest initial hurdles were gone, or at least manageable.
And I sleep a lot better ...
And, of course, there is also the aspect, as mentioned above, that some very important knowledge is inherently based in emotions - such as understanding oneself, understanding other humans, and knowing how to motivate oneself to help the world be a better place and oneself to be a better person.