The most interesting question in psychology
I think the question of whether, why, when, and how people change is the most interesting in all of psychology.
I’ll never forget the story from Psychology 101 of the railroad construction worker who survived after a large iron rod was driven through his skull. One day, he was one man. The next, a completely different one.
Far less studied, though, are people who experience personality transformations for non-physical reasons. Or people who want to change but can’t make it happen. When people want to change and fail to do so, is it “weakness of the will”, to borrow the term from Aristotle? Or is something else at play? Maybe some people can’t change because it would necessitate overriding their genes or rewiring their brains, two things we don’t really know how to do.
I’m not talking about changing as in becoming a better basketball player or public speaker. Those are “skill issues.” Practice and you’ll improve. I’m talking about one’s inner life. One’s psychology. What one is interested in. How ambitious one is. What makes one excited. What makes one laugh. What makes one cry. What makes one annoyed or anxious or scared.
We know of a few activities that can trigger changes: meditation, psychedelics, religion, reading, friendship, profound life experiences. But I don’t think we are anywhere close to understanding the mechanism -- what actually happens inside a person’s mind when something fundamental changes.
So where does that leave us? Honestly I don't know. We've figured out how to launch rockets and land them. Clone animals. Build computers that can write original poetry. Harness nuclear energy. Construct towers stretching miles into the heavens. And yet on the topic of why our minds are the way they are and how they might come to change, it certainly seems we are mostly in the dark.