Pronoia (psychology)
Encyclopedia
- For other uses of the term pronoia, please see Pronoia (disambiguation)Pronoia (disambiguation)Pronoia may refer to:* Pronoia , a system of land grants in the Byzantine Empire* Pronoia , the phenomenon akin to the opposite of paranoia...
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Pronoia is a neologism that is defined as the opposite state of mind as paranoia
Paranoia
Paranoia [] is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself...
: having the sense that there is a conspiracy that exists to help the person. It is also used to describe a philosophy that the world is set up to secretly benefit people.
The writer and Electronic Frontier Foundation
Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is an international non-profit digital rights advocacy and legal organization based in the United States...
co-founder John Perry Barlow
John Perry Barlow
John Perry Barlow is an American poet and essayist, a retired Wyoming cattle rancher, and a cyberlibertarian political activist who has been associated with both the Democratic and Republican parties. He is also a former lyricist for the Grateful Dead and a founding member of the Electronic...
defined pronoia as the suspicion the Universe is a conspiracy on your behalf. The academic journal "Social Problems" published an article entitled "Pronoia" by Fred H. Goldner in 1982 (vol 30, pp.82-91). It received a good deal of publicity at the time including references to it in Psychology Today
Psychology Today
Psychology Today is a bi-monthly magazine published in the United States. It is a psychology-based magazine about relationships, health, and related topics written for a mass audience of non-psychologists. Psychology Today was founded in 1967 and features articles on such topics as love,...
, The New York Daily News
New York Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
, The Wall Street Journal etc. It described a phenomenon that was the opposite from paranoia and provided numerous examples of specific persons who displayed such characteristics.
It was subsequently picked up in England and written about as described below.
Wired Magazine published an article in issue 2.05 (May 1994) titled "Zippie
Zippie
Zippie is a term used to describe a person who does something for nothing, i.e. zip. Any supporter of free culture, free food, free books, free software is a zippie....
!". The cover of the magazine featured a psychedelic
Psychedelic
The term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words ψυχή and δηλοῦν , translating to "soul-manifesting". A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly...
image of a smiling young man with wild hair, a funny hat, and crazy eyeglasses. Written by Jules Marshall
Jules Marshall
Jules Marshall has been an editor for Mediamatic Magazine since 1989. Trained as a journalist and a contributing writer for Wired, he has also written for Time Out , i-D, Weiner, Sydney Morning Herald, Blvd...
, the article announced an organized cultural response to Thatcherism
Thatcherism
Thatcherism describes the conviction politics, economic and social policy, and political style of the British Conservative politician Margaret Thatcher, who was leader of her party from 1975 to 1990...
in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The opening paragraphs of the article describe "a new and contagious cultural virus" and refer to the term pronoia as "the sneaking feeling one has that others are conspiring behind your back to help you".
The article announces a cultural, musical, invasion of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to rival the British Invasion
British Invasion
The British Invasion is a term used to describe the large number of rock and roll, beat, rock, and pop performers from the United Kingdom who became popular in the United States during the time period from 1964 through 1966.- Background :...
of 1964-1966, culminating with a "Woodstock Revival" to be staged at the Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in the United States in the state of Arizona. It is largely contained within the Grand Canyon National Park, the 15th national park in the United States...
in August of 1994. The spokesperson for the Zippies, Fraser Clark
Fraser Clark
The late Fraser Clark was the founder and editor of Encyclopedia Psychedelica and a key advocate of the rave movement, hosting regular small underground parties which laid the way for the launch of the first large legal festi-rave club in central London, Megatripolis in 1993.He advocated a new form...
, dubs this movement the "Zippy Pronoia Tour".
A New York Times article published August 7, 1994; titled "For Peace and Love, Try Raving Till Dawn" also described the Zippies and their efforts. It contained two references to pronoia.
Pronoia Philosophy
The simplest definition of Pronoia may be to say that it is the opposite of paranoiaParanoia
Paranoia [] is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself...
. A person suffering from paranoia suspects that persons or entities (e.g. governments/deities) conspire against them. A person enjoying pronoia feels that the world around them conspires to do them good. The Wired article explains a close association between Zippie
Zippie
Zippie is a term used to describe a person who does something for nothing, i.e. zip. Any supporter of free culture, free food, free books, free software is a zippie....
, rave culture, and the use of designer drugs which are noted for producing feelings of euphoria and positive fellow-being amongst users. Rave culture involves large social gatherings to participate in trance-like dancing in an environment of techno music and intense light shows
Laser lighting display
A laser lighting display or laser light show involves the use of laser light to entertain an audience. A laser light show may consist only of projected laser beams set to music, or may accompany another form of entertainment, typically a dance concert or other musical performance.Laser light is...
. The message of the Zippies appears to be a design to bring the intense positive social feeling and enthusiasm of the Rave to a quasi-religious cultural movement for the improvement of mankind.
The principal proponent of pronoia in the 21st century has been the astrologer, writer, poet, singer, and songwriter Rob Brezsny
Rob Brezsny
Rob Brezsny is an American astrologer, writer, poet, and musician. His weekly horoscope column Free Will Astrology , has been published for more than 28 years, runs in 120 periodicals, and can be subscribed to for free via email.- Career :Brezsny is the first well-known horoscope columnist...
. Brezsny's book Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings, published in 2005, explores the philosophy of pronoia.
Pronoia Affliction
According to Pronoia.net, Dr. Fred H.Goldner claims that he, writing at Queens College in October 1982, published a paper in SOCIAL PROBLEMS,V.30,N.1:82-91, in which he coined the term pronoia to describe a psychological affliction. He characterized pronoia as a mirror image of paranoiaParanoia
Paranoia [] is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself...
, which leads the sufferer to unrealistically believe that persons or entities (e.g. governments) conspire against them.
This quote is taken from Goldner's article listed above.
"Pronoia is the positive counterpart of paranoia. It is the delusion that others think well of one. Actions and the products of one's efforts are thought to be well received and praised by others. Mere acquaintances are thought to be close friends; politeness and the exchange of pleasantries are taken as expressions of deep attachment and the promise of future support. Pronoia appears rooted in the social complexity and cultural ambiguity of our lives: we have become increasingly dependent on the opinions of others based on uncertain criteria."
Long before the term pronoia was coined, J.D. Salinger referred to the concept in the novella, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters: "I'm a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy."
Other Voices
The Outsourced Zippy and Pronoia Page claims that the Zippie/Pronoia phenomenon is simply a hoaxHoax
A hoax is a deliberately fabricated falsehood made to masquerade as truth. It is distinguishable from errors in observation or judgment, or rumors, urban legends, pseudosciences or April Fools' Day events that are passed along in good faith by believers or as jokes.-Definition:The British...
and the Zippy Pronoia Tour was nothing more than a publicity stunt for Wired Magazine.
External links
- Wired Magazine Article http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.05/zippies.html
- Goldner's article in Social Problems: http://caliber.ucpress.net/doi/abs/10.1525/sp.1982.30.1.03a00070
- Fraser Clark http://www.parallel-youniversity.com/fraser/
- Pronoia.net http://pronoia.net
- Pronoia Therapy, by Rob Brezsny http://www.freewillastrology.com/beauty/pronoia.therapy.html
- http://creativity.net/images/pronoia.gif