TLDR; Does the Placebo Effect have a dark side? Science has proven that placebos can actually work. We can chalk this up to how belief systems and habits change our brains and the personal narrative we have about ourselves and the world around us. But at what point does the placebo evolve into us gaslighting ourselves? A better sense of self, an awareness of what our brain is consuming, and how neuroplasticity can shift the paradigm from internal struggles to productive challenges could help us from gaslighting ourselves.

The Placebo Effect

“A Placebo is a sham substance or treatment which is designed to have no known therapeutic value.” Furthermore, however, the Placebo Effect can shift our perceptions on given circumstances due to it being “a therapeutic outcome derived from an inert treatment”, which questions how mindset can have a role in outcomes. A Placebo can have benefits for someone who has a specific set of goals they want to achieve. How does one calibrate whether their goals are in alignment with what serves them? It is a situation of whether the chicken or the egg came first. Our goals or identity may be based on lies that are curated by external elements and not necessarily a fulfillment of the self (if there is little to no understanding of the self).

The Dark Side

Where there is light, there is dark. Where there is good, there is bad. Supposedly.

Each side of the coin creates perspective for everything that is and is not. This point of view allows us as humans to seek and find the harmony that fulfills and challenges us based on choices, outcomes, and maybe a little bit of alchemy.

So what is on the dark side? The other side of Placebo’s coin could be Gaslighting: a manipulation that lives within a destructive version of delusion. The dictionary’s definition of Gaslighting is to “manipulate (someone) by psychological means into questioning their own sanity.”

Yes, we may indeed have the power to gaslight ourselves unknowingly.

Who benefits from gaslighting when you are gaslighting yourself? Without a deep awareness and understanding of yourself, your principles, and your identity, you are at risk to crumble under any ideology, system, or doubt placed upon you. The foundation is not solid enough to withstand external factors that cause unproductive internal struggles (instead of productive challenges) because the unproductive internal struggles would have been acknowledged and pivoted toward productive challenges. Note: the antecedent to this pivot is shifting your perspective or cognitive reframing (acknowledgement) that comes from self-actualization, or at the very least, metacognition. What you then do with this understanding creates the pivot. (See “Know Thyself Best” for more on this.)

You Are What You Consume

Our brain is quite the eavesdropper and is always listening. As we consume information from what we read, hear, see, and discuss, our brain is taking note. These consumptions create emotions, true or not. We are always running the risk of becoming what we consume because our brain acts accordingly. Whether we identify with what we consume or we consume what we identify with, a lack of awareness and acknowledgement of such happenings within ourselves risk authentic well-being and true homeostasis. Rather, an artificial balance of lies becomes the lens which we construct our reality around.

At the risk of bastardizing René Descartes’ “I think, therefore I am” (1637) philosophy, we exist because we are thinking entities and have the potential to become what we believe ourselves to be. This holds great juxtaposition when considering that we may struggle (subconsciously perhaps) when attempting to be something we are indeed not, but perhaps thought we were (or at least had potential to be).

At what point does our perception of ourselves and our reality become misaligned with who we are when we believed ourselves to be the version of this misalignment?

The Something Effect

How well do you actually know yourself? The Something Effect (part one and part 2), identified and developed from a stance of you versus others, takes an internal role in this case; it is you versus you.

The Something Effect is when “you assume everyone has a similar understanding of what you deem as ‘common sense,’ but in actuality your own common sense was uncovered through much work and in-depth exploration. The challenge here is to calibrate your own insights and understandings to your conversation partner’s insights and understandings -- to get on the same page, as it were.”

When applying The Something Effect to oneself and away from any other person, deep introspection is a necessary component to ensure you are not the one actively causing your own compounded stressors, anxieties, or fears. The misalignment between you and yourself can happen when too many external factors seep into your program and mess up the coding that is your homeostasis. A lack of awareness may leave you feeling burned out or even guilty for not achieving what “self-care” promises those who work hard get. This is where the intersection of Placebo Effect and Gaslighting meet; we listen to others, but fail to listen to ourselves.

When you stop asking questions to deepen your understanding of yourself, and rather ask questions about others without introspection, metacognition, or self-actualization, the projection is now a skewed, unrecognizable reflection that has nothing to do with how your program is coded.

Systems, Identity, & Cognitive Dissonance

How can you know whether the challenges set before you are productive or destructive?

In Atomic Habits (2018), James Clear points out that “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems” (p. 27).

The belief system you have of yourself contributes to the identity you inevitably become. This identity can either make you or break you and the achievements that you strive for, and is completely up to the personal narrative you tell yourself about yourself. This is akin to Dr. Maxwell Maltz’ work with Pyschocybernetics and the preconceived notions you can adopt as your identity based on external factors outside of yourself. Whether these external factors are other’s success stories, paradigms, or tools, they are not necessarily yours. This is the foreign code your system is not designed to read, which can leave you living someone else’s life that may or may not align.

If the entire world of education truly differentiated to the needs of every single learner, we would have over 7 billion personalized learning plans, one for each individual learner. Humans are wonderfully unique and complex for a variety of reasons, and therefore cannot rise to their fated potential upon a dogmatic infrastructure. Personalized Life Plans necessitate self-exploration and good questions being pondered. Otherwise, we succumb to a self-fulfilling prophecy that was never ours.

A Quick Note About Neuroplasticity & Your Paradigm

When all is said and done, the world is made up of rules curated for and by a multitude of factors. Your rules may differ from those in the system you find yourself in. Do we have an obligation to adhere to man-made rules that do not align with our own? For a small scale example, eating “breakfast foods” at any other time but the morning is not a novelty in and of itself. However, the rules make it a novelty because we have come to believe there is a “breakfast foods” category that we normally eat at a certain time of day. The rules that create the system can dictate how we navigate our individuality and survival.

The more we adhere to said rules, the deeper the paths toward these rules are created, which in turn form the cultures, ideologies, and self-narratives we see all the time. This is a direct metaphor for our beautiful brains and the wonder of neuroplasticity: “the ability of neural networks in the brain to change through growth and reorganization.” The very idea of our brains being as malleable as plastic is an enticing (and maybe daunting) one, since it can challenge us to realize that we have the power to become whatever we want. From the beliefs we have about ourselves, to the habits we implement daily, to the new skills we want to learn, to the amount of chances we take on ourselves, everything we practice can be made permanent in our brain via paving neural pathways. The more you walk upon those paths, the more distinct and permanent they become.

Remember, whatever you program into your daily life, your brain will always follow suit. And your brain is an obedient super-computer who holds the keys.

References

Chollett, Shelby. “Know Thyself Best.” The Pedagogical Refinery, 18 Mar. 2021, pedagogicalrefinery.com/fullblog/2021/1/15/know-thyself-best.

---. “The Something Effect: Part One.” The Pedagogical Refinery, 15 Feb. 2021, pedagogicalrefinery.com/fullblog/2021/2/9/the-something-effect. Accessed 8 May 2022.

---. “The Something Effect: Part Two.” The Pedagogical Refinery, 28 Dec. 2021, pedagogicalrefinery.com/fullblog/2021/2/9/the-something-effect-part-two. Accessed 8 May 2022.

Clear, James. Atomic Habits. Penguin Publishing Group, 2018.

McDonald, J.H. Tao Te Ching Chapter 1. 1996.

René Descartes, et al. Discourse on the Method and Meditations on First Philosophy. 1637. New Haven ; London, Yale University Press, 1996.

Wikipedia Contributors. “Gaslighting.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 17 May 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslighting.

---. “Neuroplasticity.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Feb. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroplasticity.

---. “Placebo.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 21 Feb. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo.

---. “Self-Actualization.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Jan. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-actualization.