What are Beliefs?
This series of eight posts will consider these questions:
What are beliefs?
What are the different kinds of beliefs?
How do beliefs work in the brain?
How can I change my problem beliefs?
Understanding how belief works in the brain is a relatively new area. Knowing and questioning your beliefs is good for you; it’s part of preventative mental health. Many people have problem beliefs, particularly about themselves:
I’m no good
I’ll never get anywhere
I’m a bad person who deserves to go to hell.
Based on science, we can change belief if we understand what belief is and if we have a method to change it. This series will help you understand and change problem beliefs and discuss belief relating to science, faith issues, and subjective opinions you may carry about yourself, others, or ideas.
Belief vs thought
Thoughts can be useless and troubling:
I’m a no good loser
I’ll never achieve what I want
My relationships are doomed to fail.
But thoughts become particularly harmful if you believe them. Belief gives them emotional power, otherwise they’re just thoughts: fleeting, random and transient. Here’s the message:
A thought can be just a thought.
A belief is sustained by emotional power and will.
Beliefs are strong. They’re sustained by knowledge, emotion, will, past events, and by people around you. With so much behind them, beliefs can become dependable rocks in your mind’s stream of consciousness, or useless boulders that get in your way.
We all need to trust our sense of reality; what we believe. When I work with people suffering from psychosis due to a drug, a head injury or schizophrenia, they too trust what they believe. Just “telling” someone their beliefs are wrong doesn’t help. With the help of medication, a person can reawaken to reality. Psychosis aside, each of us has a unique set of beliefs, and some can be problems.
Here I’ll ask you to think of personal beliefs as useful or useless rather than right or wrong. My aim is to help you understand beliefs and make yours work for you not against you.
Definitions of belief
Having to resort to dictionary definitions tells us that we don’t really know what “belief” is. Dictionaries[i] tell us that belief is …
Acceptance that something is true, especially without proof.
A conviction of truth when based on examination of evidence.
Something considered true or held as an opinion.
An idea that you are certain is true.
A habit involving trust.
A feeling of being certain: His belief in God. People's belief in politicians. Everyone is entitled to express their own beliefs.
You can see the problem: contradictions. Is belief an idea or a feeling? A conviction or habit? Accepted without proof or based on evidence? Truth or opinion? The word “belief” refers to too much: belief in facts, theories, faith issues, opinions and more. This explains the contradictions; dictionaries are talking about different types of belief. Belief can be in
Fact: I believe that snow is white
Theory: I believe in the theory of evolution
The unknown: I believe that she has psychic powers
Faith issues: I believe in Father Abraham
Political opinion: I believe in a centre-left approach
Subjective experience: I belief I saw a ghost
Subjective evaluation with evidence: I believe he’s a good father
Feelings: He’s great, he makes me feel good
Subjective self-evaluation: I’m worthless.
Believing in psychic powers is very different to believing that snow is white or that you’re a worthless person. The context changes the meaning. What is common to all these “beliefs” is
the conviction that something is the case.
But another problem arise: What is a conviction? How do we arrive at it? “Conviction” is just another word for “belief.” We’re caught in words. Can we please understand “belief” better?
The science of belief – how belief is formed and how it works in the brain – is complex and incomplete. In these posts, I’ll look at
What are beliefs? (Post 1)
Belief in objective fact and theory (Post 2)
Belief in faith issues (Post 3)
Opinions; belief in ideas, others and ourselves (Post 4)
How does belief work in the brain? (Post 5)
The philosopher who got belief right (Post 6)
How can I change my problem beliefs? (Posts 7 & 8).
Soon, I’ll offer a more complete definition of “belief.” To help clarify a complex subject, I’ll introduce the idea that there are three distinct Belief-Types:
Belief-Type 1: in objective fact and theory
Belief-Type 2: in faith issues
Beliefs-Type 3: about ideas, others and ourselves
The problem of beliefs
As a psychiatrist, I see the destructive influence of problem beliefs:
I’m worthless
people are out to get me
I’m better than anyone, so I’ll take whatever I want.
These may be OK as fleeting thoughts, but, at an extreme, when these thoughts become entrenched beliefs, they lead to loss of life. I help people change beliefs like these as part of my work, because belief determines much of your mental states, actions, expectations and emotions:
If you believe there is food in the fridge, you will go there if you are hungry.
If you believe life is a random accident, you’ll live differently than if you believe it’s all predestined.
If you believe you’re a worthwhile person, your emotions and life experience will be different to believing you’re a worthless piece of crap.
Beliefs matter for mental health.
I am not here to change your belief in accepted fact (1+1=2), in theories (the origin of life) or in faith issues (religious and spiritual matters); but we’ll discuss those to understand. In later posts, we’ll discuss changing problem beliefs to help your mental health.
Belief, faith and trust
These three words – belief, faith, and trust – are closely connected; the following illustrates how.
If you believe your keys are inside the house,
you’ll have faith to look for them there
and trust that you’ll eventually find them (good luck).
If you believe your keys can start your car,
you’ll have faith to put them in the ignition
and trust that they’ll actually start the car (bad luck if they don’t).
It’s always Belief Faith (action) Trust for a expected result. Belief comes first. This connection shapes our interactions with people and with ourselves.
If you believe that other people are safe, you’ll have faith in their safety to interact with them (actions), and trust that they’ll treat you well (expected result). This leads to pleasant societal interactions.
If you believe people are dangerous, you won’t have faith in their safety so you’ll be cautious around them (actions), and you won’t trust (expect) them to treat you well. This leads to more societal discord.
If you believe you are worthless, you have less faith in what you do (actions) and you’ll trust (expect) yourself to fail. This leads to greater chance of failure.
If you believe you are worthwhile, you’ll have more faith in your actions and trust your ability. This leads to greater chance of success.
Life experience is greatly shaped by belief. That’s why they’re important to Preventative Mental Health. Our understanding in this area is growing. We will look at what we know to consider belief-change based on science. Until then, I believe it’s helpful to have faith in yourself, and I trust you’ll find this information useful.
Cheers.
[i] See https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/belief
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/belief
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/belief
https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/belief retrieved 10 September 2020