Paranoia vs Low Resolution Thinking

Transcript from video

While paranoia and rigid thinking are distinct processes, they both involve simplified, low resolution ways of seeing the world, and they often reinforce each other. To illustrate the paranoia, narcissistic people tend to be preoccupied with how others see them. They are very self focused and interpret situations and interactions as being about them, even when they aren’t.

Because their sense of self is very fragile and they are very sensitive to anything which might challenge their ego, this can lead to paranoia about being mocked, judged, or undermined. So even innocuous or benign statements can be interpreted as threats to their image, their status. So they can become defensive, confrontational, or hostile, even where there was no threat or offense intended. When things don’t go their way they might claim there is some kind of personal conspiracy against them. Others have taken something from them, others have deliberately denied them or sabotaged them to prevent their success, even complete strangers who wouldn’t have an agenda. So with the paranoia we also see are bizarre accusations, non sensical reasoning and emotive arguments.

This would be very common with despots, cult leaders and so on. They can become very guarded and defensive, they suspect other people’s motives, accuse people of plotting against them. They are in constant fear of losing their power, their status, which is one of the reasons they dehumanise their critics, portray them as bad, evil, and create a ‘them and us’ culture.

Many of the arguments and accusations narcissistic people make tend to be emotive rather than factual. For instance they could accuse a partner of cheating, but they don’t have any evidence. They don’t need evidence, they feel so strongly about it. This is known as emotional reasoning, it’s true because I think it. If the partner is able to prove their innocence, well, that doesn’t mean they don’t want to cheat, they must be just waiting for the opportunity. But regardless of how it manifests the paranoia is emotionally driven, usually by fear and insecurity. It often stems from their inflated sense of self importance, entitlement and their hypersensitivity to any perceived criticism. They live their lives through a self centered perspective and reject anything which might challenge their perspective, even reality.

When it comes to the rigid thinking, we can look at that in different ways. Firstly it can refer to seeing things as day or night, right or wrong, so there’s no nuance, no context or exceptions. You are either with me or against me. For instance if you agree with me you are good, if you disagree you are bad.

It can also refer to being inflexible. For instance in spite of new information or evidence they double down on a particular opinion or approach to something. To learn something new might suggest there was something they didn’t know and that would bring up too much shame. So instead they dig their heels in, fly into a rage, or weep openly until, miraculously they’re not wrong again. So we see low trait openness to experience or information.

But either way it involves low resolution thinking which refers to a simplified, all or nothing cognitive style where they fail to see nuance, so they lack the ability to interpret situations in an open and balanced way. From a self centred perspective, it’s defaulting to egocentric interpretations, because it’s easier to make something about them, or how something might apply to them personally, rather than considering different perspectives. This often leads to over simplified explanations and over generalisations.

So an example could be someone says ‘no’ to an unreasonable demand but a narcissist might claim, “They said no because they hate me”. So rather than exploring deeper motivations behind the ‘no’, trying to negotiate or even acknowledge the nature of their own demand, it’s jumping to an over simplified explanation.

Now it might not always be easy to see the difference between the paranoia and the low resolution thinking but you can see how they often feed off each other. The low resolution thinking reinforces the paranoia because they lack emotional and cognitive flexibility to explore, challenge or re-evaluate their assumptions. Whereas the paranoia can drive defensive reactions and quick and easy interpretations. So someone not saying hello is instantly interpreted as deliberate exclusion, which would be the paranoia, but due to low resolution thinking there’s no further thought given to any alternative explanations such as them being distracted. Or a casual remark they didn’t fully hear, or the look on someone’s face, even their tone of voice can be construed as a challenge or an insult. If a friend receives good news, they get a new job or a new car or whatever and others are pleased for them, a narcissistic person could feel they are being unfairly overshadowed and take this as a personal slight.

Next, Narcissists generally struggle with humility, they avoid responsibility and have a multitude of ways to shift the focus of the conversation elsewhere so nothing is ever resolved. But how about when they have something on their mind they need to address. Paranoia can lead people to misinterpret situations, rigid thinking can lead them do so with conviction. Remember, no context, nuance or exceptions. So with narcissistic people issues aren’t really addressed with concern or curiosity, nor are they necessarily looking for a resolution. They want to win. If they’re asking questions, it can feel like more like an interrogation, they keep interrupting, throwing more questions, accusations, and if you cannot remember every single detail or don’t repeat the same thing word for word, they’ll accuse you of lying.

If you ignore it they’ll accuse you of not caring. If you become agitated, well that’s evidence of your guilt. So it’s like in their rigidity they’ve come to a conclusion, and they’re working backwards, filtering out any evidence they don’t want to hear.

Both paranoia and rigid thinking play significant roles in how narcissistic interpret and react to the world around them, and both involve low resolution thinking. If anyone has ever found themselves trying to discuss, argue or reason with a narcissistic person, this is where the both can kick in. They tell others what they are doing, what they are thinking, how they are feeling, the motivations and so on. But the differences are paranoia is rooted in emotional vulnerability and is driven by fear. It can lead to an exaggerated mistrust of others and can involve projecting their personal fears or their own behaviours outwards. Low-resolution thinking is cognitively driven and reflects simplistic thought, oversimplified interpretations and surface level logic. Top of Form

But it all stems from their fragile self-esteem and need for control, and a constant anticipation of some kind of criticism or betrayal, and being constantly being vigilant about how others view them, fear of losing status, being suspicious of others motives, seeing plots where there aren’t any, and projecting their own traits onto others causes a huge strain on their relationships.

Their connections with others erode over time due to their constant suspicion, judgmental attitude, need for validation and their inability to consider any alternative that doesn’t fit their narrative.

Eventually they may end up dumped, abandoned. But due to their lack of empathy and low resolution thinking, rather than reflect on what they may have done to cause or contribute to the breakdown, the simplistic answer is the other person was the villain, and this reinforces their paranoia, and gives them stories of victimhood to tell their future audiences.

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