The power of the human mind is an amazing thing.

The fact that we can experience physical pain and other physical symptoms from words said by another person highlights the power of social influence. Addicted on one hand to validation, and on the other experiencing adverse reactions to rejection. Of note, there are negative correlations to all of physical strength, conditioning, intelligence, problem-solving ability, and motivation; symptoms that impact every major human system.

It is only natural that humans would create social structures that insulate ourselves from these forms of attack. When these structures break down, the results can be very traumatic. Many studies have investigated the impacts of these activities on the brain, and highlight that similar processing regions, and downstream pathways are responsible for handling of physical and psychological trauma.

There is also found a direct correlation between taking painkillers and reduced feelings of hurt and rejection. It would seem logical that a lower incidence of drug and alcohol abuse would correlate well with positive social reinforcement; and logically follow that groups that are under extreme negative social influence would be more prone to drug abuse.

These systems seem so obvious, but yet we still burden ourselves with destructive behaviors. The nature of order-vs-chaos, and yet in all of our time no perfect system for balancing the selfish nature of man vs the good nature of man has emerged which solves for this problem. We either fail by being too rigid or too lax; too controlling or too permissive. What system can solve for all of these variables without crushing the human spirit?