Why We Can't Block Thoughts: Tolstoy's White Bear

A very curious anecdote circulates of the legendary Russian writer Leo Tólstoi. When he was a child, his older brother told him to sit in a corner and not get up until he stopped thinking about a white bear.

As you can imagine, the innocent young Tolstoi spent hours and hours sitting in the corner, and he couldn't get the happy white bear out of his head. Quite simply, the more he tried to block the mental image of that animal, the more intense it became. How overwhelming, right?

• Related article: "The 11 executive functions of the human brain"

The paradox of thought blocking

Many, many people face this paradox on a day-to-day basis, with all kinds of distressing thoughts and ideas that you can't get out of your head, no matter how hard they try.

It seems that this is the problem: the more we try to "suppress" an idea, paradoxically the more attention we are paying to it, and therefore longer will stay there with us.

Daniel Wegner's psychological experiment

In the 80s of the last century, a social psychologist at Harvard University, Daniel Wegner, coordinated an experiment on the suppression of thoughts, inspired by the anecdote of Leo Tolstoy.

You can imagine the results of the experiment: when we try to suppress or block a thought, a "rebound effect" occurs which makes us think about that idea even more. In other words, aspiring to "control" your thoughts is counterproductive.

For this reason, many psychologists criticize the discourse of certain people without real training in psychology, who promise to people who with their book or with their course will be able to “control their thoughts” and stop having thoughts worrisome.

And it is paradoxical, even if we managed to get distracted enough to stop paying attention to a certain thought, the moment we realized our achievement, we would drag the thought back into our consciousness. It's like silence, that if you name it, it breaks.

And is that this "white bear effect" is at the base of many psychological problems, such as depression, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, irrational beliefs, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, addiction problems, suicidal ideation ...

The phenomenon is often referred to under the name of "rumination", when we go into loops with certain thoughts, and we are not able to break the pattern and think about something else.

• You may be interested: "Rumination: the annoying vicious circle of thought"

Why is it counterproductive to try to block out thoughts?

Wegner gave this phenomenon another motley name: bimodal ironic control mechanism.

On the one hand, the conscious part of our mind takes care of some things, while the unconscious part works on many other tasks in the background. That is, on the one hand we are trying to think of something else, but another part of our mind is dedicated to verifying that we are actually achieving it.

The paradox comes when our unconscious mind tries to verify that we are not thinking about the white bear or anything else that is related to the white bear. That is essentially impossible. At the moment in which our mind makes the verification that we are not thinking about "what should not be named", the forbidden idea comes to the surface again to the conscious part.

Then one feels even more anguished, a failure, powerless, and thinks that he is doing something wrong by not being able to "control his mind." Hence the importance of working on the acceptance of certain thoughts and sensations on a day-to-day basis, tolerating them even if they are certainly unpleasant, because fighting against ourselves often increases feelings of anxiety and frustration.

Implications in psychotherapy

Very often, when people go to their first therapy session and report their reason for consultation, many people say that what you would like to do is "stop having negative thoughts" or "stop worrying" or "block your thoughts".

The job of a psychologist there will be to help the person adjust their expectations.. We cannot block thoughts or avoid thinking unpleasant things or prevent painful memories from surfacing. Yes, we can work on strategies that allow the person to be functional in her life, with those thoughts included. In this case, the metaphor could be to make friends with the white bear.

Advertisers and marketers are also aware of this phenomenon

A popular ad campaign a few years ago was inspired by this white bear anecdote. A very original advertisement that, quite cleverly, takes advantage of this phenomenon of rumination of the thought, and ends masterfully with "So you better not look at the red car that comes to continuation". Here the short advertisement of the well-known car brand, and it has no waste.

Psychologist in Valencia (and online)

If you are having problems with obsessive thoughts and you do not know very well how to handle the situation, consult a professional as soon as possible. A psychologist can help you take the best steps for your specific case.

If you want to work on an issue with me in therapy, you can contact me by this page.