The societal (also educational) software instilled into our system which can be termed as “MENTAL SETUP”, can be defined as “the particular way we think, perceive the reality or the happenings around us, interpret those happenings, categorize them and finally respond to them in a generic manner. That is we generate a particular response for a particular category of event no matter how different they may be from each other”.
An example to illustrate what is MENTAL SETUP & how it works, one person sees a man jump over a closed gate at odd hours of night, (this an event being perceived by him), his MENTAL SETUP interprets this event as a robbery, he categorizes this situation as that of alarm and reacts by starting to shout, calling for help or dialing the police.
But another man who has had the experience of having left the keys behind, locking an automatic lock door & then having to jump over the locked back gate to gain entry through the backyard has a MENTAL SETUP that makes him perceive this same event as the one similar to his, he interprets this as “owner misplacing the keys”, categorizes it as innocuous and reacts by either just passing by or if he is of a more generous nature then offering to help.
Situation is the same but its PERCEPTION differs between two individuals because of the difference in their MENTAL SETUP hence the categorization and reaction also differ so greatly.
Another example, a person has been sarcastically nicknamed tiger by his friends to make fun of his cowardice. Whenever he is called by that nickname (tiger) it is only to make fun of him and humiliate him. This name generates so much defensiveness and suppressed anger in him that every time he is called by it he reacts by angrily justifying himself. On an occasion (by mistake or by chance though) he really does commit an act of bravery and someone in the crowd applauds his act of bravery by referring to him as tiger his MENTAL SETUP categorizes this as HUMILIATION and he reacts with angry justification. Though the two situations are a world apart (one of humiliation & the other of applause) his MENTAL SETUP CATEGORIZES them as the same and hence invokes a similar (generic) response for that category that is angry justification.
MENTAL SETUP is the looking glass or the goggle (sun glass) through which we see & perceive the world and not as it is.
