Aberration
1. Deviation from rational thought or action. The Reactive Mind causes a person to be irrational in areas or subjects. Aberrative behavior can also stem from misunderstanding something.
Examples of aberration stemming from the Reactive Mind:
A. Joey lives in Arizona—a desert climate—and he refuses to visit beaches or swimming pools. He also won’t let his kids learn to swim or hang out at beaches or pools, and punishes them for going to a friend’s pool party.
Joey nearly drowned as a child. He fell in a swimming pool and when he was dragged out he was unconscious and had stopped breathing. His neighbor rescued him, but ever since Joey can’t get past a fear of water.
B. Veteran soldiers can feel very anxious around loud noises like fireworks. Even though there is no real danger at a fireworks display, the noise sends them back to times when they witnessed violence and explosions. While fireworks may bring joy to most people, veterans can feel overwhelmed by them.
Example of aberration stemming from misunderstanding something:
A. If you are familiar with the Amelia Bedelia children’s books, you have seen some good examples of this. Amelia is a housemaid for the Roger’s family. Her failure to understand tasks leads to bad work performance. In one instance, Mrs. Rogers asks Amelia to dress the chicken for dinner and Amelia puts clothes on the chicken. Another time, Amelia is asked to pitch a tent and she literally throws it.
Amelia’s misunderstandings may be funny, but aberrations like these can cause real problems. Wrong thought and action can come about due to miscommunications and not understanding things properly.
B. For some real world instances of how misunderstanding can cause aberration here are some real life examples of nuclear close calls.
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