A useful book on the use of one's own thinking as a tool to lessen or eliminate depression is The Mindful Way Through Depression. In discussing their research, the authors introduce the idea of emotional cascades. They use the term to describe a set of attitudes and mental stances that a person builds up, more or less unconsciously, over time. So, when I say "Uncle Harold", you immediately think how you have never liked or trusted that guy, no matter what your parents urged you to think and feel. His manner, his smell, his financial proclivities, his smoking, etc. etc. The three British and one American authors found that we all have cascades of feelings, memories and convictions and we can move an entire cascade into consciousness in a flash, like bringing a series of pack horses into the yard, all tied together end to end and all quickly moved into position.
I wrote about this idea in Cascades of Thought, a blog of June 1 of last year. Since then, it has come back to me over and over again. As I have tried to be alert to the way my brain works, hauling in a whole crew at once, party-crashing into consciousness, a set of unexamined and often outdated ideas, I see that my mind works with cascades all the time. In my world, the letters CSS occur often. They stand for "cascading style sheets" and this link says they are best considered a language for coding web page styles. But again, the idea is a series of boxes with boxes that carry a meaning or information conveniently and quickly. Conveniently IF the contents are still what I, at my present height of maturity and insight, want. Quite aside of the matter of feelings that lead to depression and inert inability, my pretty little head keeps a ton of cascades at the ready. I suppose all this evolved to save me time and maybe blood. When a saber-toothed tiger lurks, I need to muster all available mental resources immediately and not try to spend time on research and analysis. But, see, today's world is peopled by a different sort of animal, not tigers, but concepts, principles, philosophies and allegiances. So, those adolescent ideas about Uncle Harold need to be sorted, culled and updated. I am no longer an adolescent and Harold is quite a different man now, too.
So, getting fully in contact with myself, I benefit from considering my pack horses and the packs of goods. I can improve my appreciation of Harold if I recognize that the guy was a grump for a reason and I too would be a grump had I sustained his war injuries, the family losses disease visited on him, etc. Halting the cascade for examination and de-junking can benefit me and Harold.
