White Bears and Other Unwanted Thoughts: Suppression, Obsession, and the Psychology of Mental Control

By now we should all know the story pretty well. Or at least, we should have a vague idea of the premise of the book seeing as how we watched a video of David Wegner’s “White Bear” experiments during class. However, in case you've forgotten (which I highly doubt because we are all above average), Wegner wanted to understand how unwanted thoughts can plague our minds. His experiment had several stages, the first of which required the participants to ramble on about this or that for five minutes. Then, an experimenter informed the participant that they were not allowed to think of white bears for the next five minutes during their ramble and every time they did, they should ring a bell. Following this phase, during which the students were completely unable to adhere to the order of suppressing white bears, the participants were allowed to talk about white bears for their ramble, most of whom could do so with amazing depth and detail. By this time, they were all out of white bear thoughts. They had let their feelings go, said them out loud, and moved on from their white bear whimsies. This experiment is just the iceberg to the rest of the white bear research because Wegner uses the pages of his book to examine the real-world benefits of successfully suppressing thoughts. In other words, he uses this book as a giant discussion section because no journal would let him publish a 200-page study on their pages. Once he has given the reader’s a good review of his white bear experiment, Wegner takes a few steps back to outline what unwanted thoughts are and where they come from. He does this by comparing people to computers (which to me, seems backwards). We read a story about how he tried to program computers using a simple guide, and ended up making a loop that just kept repeating itself. This is considered an error, or a bug, in the system. He also mentions that there are lists of things that are typically common bugs, which can range anywhere from a mild disturbance at work to death of a loved one (or yourself) and rape. We tend to have the biggest issue getting the things we want out of our minds most out of our minds at all. It’s a problem. Then, Wegner gets real-world, therapy style. As readers, we get a comprehensive breakdown of ways in which we can suppress depressing or anxiety-provoking thoughts or negative thoughts of any sort, or things we simply don’t want to think about.

Why did I choose this book? Well, who doesn't like the idea of good, ole-fashioned mental control? Honestly,  I was seriously hoping he would get into more detail involving how to mentally control others around you, but I guess that’s going to be a completely different novel (and a good place for future research, I believe J). Now that I've read the book, I would still choose it. I think that this book was so rich with highly practical advice that anyone can take home and practice that everybody should read it. In fact, I might even read it again. It’s that good, and I have the feeling there is some highly imperative information that I missed and I need to re-read. As well as informative and helpful, David Wegner is also pretty damn entertaining. He can be super cheesy at times, but I really expect nothing less from someone who married into Dr. G’s family. In fact, I kept hearing our fair lady’s voice in my head as I was reading…I don’t really know how to feel about his. Damn you, unwanted voice thought.

I would recommend this book to absolutely everyone! But really, I found it extremely useful and I feel he even confirmed some of my beliefs about life, anyway. For example, I came into Southwestern as a psychology major, biology something else (we’re young, we don’t know yet), with the thought that I would become a psychiatrist. The more I thought about it and the more I watched others who had been prescribed medication act, I truly believe that although medicine does have its purpose, it’s HIGHLY over-prescribed. People don’t constantly need a pill to put into their body every time they’re feeling a bit “off.” That’s stupid and it’s a byproduct of western culture. Instead, those with anxiety and depression, for instance, need to find more natural way to cope with their feelings. Wegner doesn't say all of this exactly, but he does say that those who are depressed need to focus on creating a cycle of positive thoughts and put themselves in an environment that will prompt these good thoughts and feelings because those who are depressed tend to focus on the negative all the damn time. Circling back to the original point, because this has so many good messages locked within its short, 180 pages, I would tell anyone who wants to better their mental lives starting at the age 15 to read this book (those younger than 15 might not understand because even I got confused at some points). Furthermore, I would highly recommend this book to all those going to counseling for depression, anxiety, inability to control themselves, etc. Either that, or I would give the book to their therapists to give to them because nobody is going to listen to me. Fact. There was also a substantial amount of overlap with the class. But really guys, you should all read this. Like, seriously. It was a start-to-finish-review of pretty much everything we've learned in class up to this point. He even does a nice job every now and then of pointing out key terms and defining them, followed closely by examples. Again, it was like listening to one of Dr. G’s lectures. Get out of my head, woman! Despite the high applicability to the class, those who don’t have the background in psychology that we do (pssh, peons) could easily understand the issues in the text and the theories and experiments leading him to his ideas.

I’ve already rambled on a bit about how I think this book is applicable to life, but I shall continue to inform you because it’s the assignment. One of his follow-up experiments included informing participants to think of a red VW to replace any thoughts of white bears they might have. During the period of rambling when participants were told not to think about white bears, the students still thought of the thought that was intended to be suppressed, but then followed it with the thought of a red VW. Afterwards during the release of the white bear feelings, those who were told to think of the car thought about the white bear in much less detail. The useless image served as a sort of “lightening rod” for the unwanted thought because all of the individual’s attention was focused on that useless image as opposed to the white bear. Wegner suggests that this is highly applicable when thinking negatively. He claims, and very accurately so, that negative thoughts spawn more negative thoughts which send us into a downward spiral of unnecessary sadness. Instead, we should think of a relatively happy, or positive thought every time we start to get sad. In no time, we should start feeling happier. I decided I was going to try this for myself because just yesterday, one of my friends from high school got killed in a car accident. Yeah, sad as shit. He was a super nice kid. But, last night after I found out, rather than think about that, I decided to think about the fact that I got four modeling gigs in a span of 30 minutes or less for Austin Fashion Week. Super exciting stuff. It sounds insensitive, but you can’t ruminate in what has happened, or at least for too long. On that note, Wegner also says that sometimes, when an event is truly tragic and might shape the way you feel about life permanently, the opposite of the former idea is true. You need to let it all out. Tell people, cry about it, do everything you need to do to get the sad out of your system. This is the way I finally handled sex. My very first serious relationship my senior year turned out exactly as I didn't want it to. I got rushed into sex and forced into blowjobs to the point where I recoiled every time my ex-boyfriend even touched me. He would push my head down on his manhood and force me to swallow and tell me if I loved him, I would do it. Abusive as shit, right? I didn't realize how abusive until several months post-break up when I couldn't have a normal relationship to save my life, much less a healthy sexual relationship. It wasn't until the summer between my junior and senior year that I broke down and told my closest friends about this relationship. I cried, got feedback, felt ashamed, and all the other things someone feels, but now I’m much better. I know that I can communicate these abusive fears with current boyfriends so I can have a highly successful and healthy relationship (it also helps that they’re all really respectful of my past and don’t want to do anything that could hurt me).

I’d say David Wegner is a pretty credible author, and an expert in his field. First and foremost, I don’t think you become a social psychologist at Harvard by being a total dumb ass. You should probably know something about the field to make it to the pinnacle of professordom. I feel like it might be a bit moot now to go into all his credentials because he’s a Harvard professor with quite a bit of research under his belt. Also, he’s from Texas. If you’re from Texas, you’re automatically an expert in everything, period. He’s also Dr. G’s in-law. I have a feeling the Giuliano clan doesn't really accept idiots.

There are several things I really liked about the book. For starters, it is a really entertaining read due to the humor on almost every page of the book. Because of this, the book is easily translatable to a layman’s audience. However, more good humor and writing, I was so impressed by the overall usefulness of the book. Really though, everyone should read this book, especially if you've been feeling particularly down, stressed, or anxious, and learn ways to control your thoughts and emotions in a healthy, non-induced way.

This is going to sound really silly, but the only thing I didn't like about the book was when he started rambling on about how computers and complex math work. I don’t understand that shit. I’m a psych major for a reason. When he starts talking about “classes” of numbers and how computer systems operate, I died a little inside.

If I had to narrow the whole book down to one simple take-home message, it would be that our lives can benefit greatly from some healthy mental and emotional exercise with suppression.  

Word Count = 1,852.

References

Wegner, D. M. (1989). White bears and other unwanted thoughts: Suppression, obsession, and   

           the psychology of mental control. New York, New York: Penguin Group.

David Wegner, Biographical Sketch.http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~wegner/backbio.htm.