Sources of suspicion and pessimism

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Social losses of mistrust Immunity from mistrust is the requisite of a safe community

Suspicion and pessimism in mental view may appear sometimes lightly and sometimes acutely and severely, that is as a mental disease - and anyway it could be the effect of various causes, including:

1- It often happens that source of suspicion is the sense of revenge and malice and envy, and since a man can not take vengeance practically on the other person, and or express it by his tongue, so he retreats to the areas of mind and heart, and causes a sedition there, trumps up him, and judges and rebukes and blames him, and thereby seeks relief of his mind. That is to say whatsoever he could not find outwardly, he seeks in his mind and imaginations, and on this account, and he feels a sort of false enjoyment and tranquility from his action.

This originates from a sort of subjectivism and mental escape from realities and resorting to fancy which is proved today in psychoanalysis. The sense does not appertain to this case. Rather, all cases in which man's desires are not satiated outwardly, and retreat to unconscious inner sense as repressed, man seeks for visionary and fanciful substitutes in order to fill the vacuum created in that respect. Sometimes, he seeks them in the dreamy world (a part of dreams are the effect of this cause).

And sometimes he seeks them in the world of poetic imaginations and dreams in wakefulness, and for this reason, the able poets in whose poems there are affection, enthusiasm, influence and mirth, are those who in addition to poetic talent, have faced with the lost, disappointments and failures, fiery kindness' and unsuccessful loves, and have sought their lost and beloved one in the world of imaginations among the poetic masterstrokes and literary niceties, and thereby their imagination power has extremely developed.

In brief, mental escape towards fancy is the source of a lot of mental events, including suspicion, pessimism and mistrust.

2- Sometimes, the source of suspicion is impurity and taint of man, as too much optimism somewhen originates from the purity and serenity of a man. That is to say a man assumes the others good or bad based on the principle of self comparison. This is particularly apparent in low knowledge and simple persons.

3- Excusing or reducing one's own punishment in the court of conscience is also one of the other causes of suspicion, because in this way he tries to create some partners for his offences, and suspects on the others for justifying his own ill deeds, and showing them less effective and more usual, and saying that I am not the only one being involved in this state.

4- Suspicion may originate from pride and selfishness, because such people intend to show themselves superior to the others in any way, and so try to create some weak points for the others in the environment of their mind, and devaluate them through different probabilities, and elevate their own value.

5- Educational environment and suggestions of parents and teacher are also important causes of pessimism and suspicion.

6- Association with unrighteous individuals too is one of the causes of suspicion, because the criterion for general judgements of man is often a defective induction which he makes about the individuals dealing with them, as judgements of persons about the people of a city or a village or a country is based on the special individuals having contact with them.

If the associates of a man are unrighteous, he will naturally become pessimistic to all people.

It is mentioned in Islamic traditions:

«مُجالَسَةُ الاَْشْرارِ تُورِثُ سُوءَ الظَّنِّ بِالاَْخْیارِ».

Association with evildoers causes suspicion in the righteous.(1)

7- Sometimes suspicion has a real source, that is when corruption dominates on the people of a certain time or place, so that a man becomes suspicious to every thing based on this intellectual principle that Suspicion connects everything to its popular sample «الظَّنُّ یُلْحِقُ الشَیْءَ بِالاَْعَمِّ الاَْغْلَبِ».


1- Majlessi, Beharol Anvar, 197/74, narration 31

 

 

 

Social losses of mistrust Immunity from mistrust is the requisite of a safe community
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