Opening Up by James W Pennebaker Chapters Four and Five

I must say that I love how Pennebaker explains what research he does, the inspiration behind the research, the process used, and, of course, the results. I never realized what a creative process research can be and reading Opening Up has given me insight into how Pennebaker approaches his research, drawing from personal experience and testing his hypotheses.

I’m enjoying reading about it but I am not so sure how much fun you would have reading my summarizations of his summarizations of his research. So rather than do that, I will just discuss some of the results. You can always read the book for yourself to get the background behind these results. In fact, I would recommend that you do this because it will reinforce what I am about to share.

Pennebaker focuses a great deal in these two chapters on low and high level thinking. Low level thinking is what many of us did back in grade school when we had to write about what we did during our summer vacation. High level thinking is more intimate, more reflective, not only addresses the experiences but gets into how we feel about the things that happen in our lives. It is not enough to say “This happened to me” but to go further; “This happened to me and because this happened I feel . . . .”

Pennebaker doesn’t overlook the potential for pain that such expression can produce.

Writing or talking about the unwanted thoughts is clearly helpful. [However], . . confronting our unwanted thoughts can be painful and anxiety producing. Fortunately the pain is usually temporary (68).

I remember when a friend of mine was going into counseling for the first time. She knew she needed it and was eager for things to get better. I warned her that things were likely to get worse before they got better. Or at least it would feel that way, that when we start counseling it feels like we are working slowly upward from a low point in our lives and then, like a rollercoaster, we suddenly drop and go even further down than we were before. We wonder why we bothered. After all, if counseling is supposed to make you feel better and you start feeling worse, what is the point?

When Pennebaker talks about low-level thinking, he is making the point. It is easy to numb ourselves these inane thoughts which often result in activities meant to fill time rather than address issues. Like the person going back to work shortly after a death in the family, trying to keep busy so that they won’t think about their loss. These are as effective, and debatably safer, than using drugs or alcohol to numb the pain.

I say “debatably safer” because the results of low-level thinking are not better than using a narcotic would be and can be just as addictive.

Although low-level thinking can reduce pain, it can also narrow our thinking to such an extent that we fail to see that something is the matter. We can then become the central feature of our self-constructed paradox: If we naturally escape from the knowledge that something is wrong, how can we ever know about it? How can we ever hope to control our problem or change our lives? (71)

Therein lies the challenge. Socrates said that the unexamined life is not worth living. Pennebaker’s research concurs.

If you are plagued with unwanted thoughts, remember first that they are only thoughts. Accept them as your thoughts rather than try to fight them. One way to cope with thoughts such as these is to write about them in a self-reflective and emotional manner. What are those unpleasant thoughts? How do they make you feel? Why? Remember that self-reflection will work far better than wishful thinking in your writing. If you are obsessed with someone’s death, for example, wishing they were alive will probably upset you all the more. If you are angry at someone, writing about getting even with them or wishing their demise will exacerbate rather than diminish your ire (72).

The more I read, the more necessary it seems that we choose to write, to understand and explore how we feel about the things that are occurring in our lives. But the more I read the more I realize that this is not always the easy thing to do. First we must recognize that it is necessary. Then we must consciously choose to do the work required, to do what is painful yet necessary, if we hope to make progress. Finally, we must be prepared for the truth that this work never truly ends but is an ongoing process that we will have to do again and again no matter how long we may live.