GOING-ALONG DISEASE

The following excerpt is from the self help
psychology book, Be Your Own Therapist.

One particularly destructive trait of groups is what I am calling "going-along disease." It is a learned tendency to go along with whatever is happening in our group, whether or not we agree. To voice our disagreement would probably cause us to be labeled as divisive and uncooperative. Therefore, it often takes great courage to speak one's truth when in a group. Furthermore, it goes against what most of us learned as children where adults made the rules.

Nothing is miserable but what is thought so, and contrarywise, every estate is happy if he that bears it be content... Boethius 500 A.D.

The failure to speak up, however, leads either to: (1)group stagnation - "let's do it the way we did it last time" or (2)group deification - "our group is better than any other." People who are noxious to outsiders often later in a group's life become spokespersons who serve to alienate the group from outsiders, an alienation for which those outside the group will no doubt be blamed.

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More Excerpts This Chapter
   OUR FAVORITE GROUPS: THIS AUTHOR WANTS YOU!
   CELEBRATION TIME
   MUST LACK OF UNDERSTANDING FEEL BAD?
   HARD TRUTHS @ UNDERSTANDING AND BEING UNDERSTOOD
   YOUR GROUP HAS THE SAME PROBLEMS AS ACME INC.
   GOING-ALONG DISEASE
   BLAMING OTHERS DISEASE
   EFFECTIVE ACTIVISM TODAY
   THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY

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Psychology of Sex Education - Psychological Sexual Health Care

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