The Illusion of Choice: From Diet to Suicide

There is a seemingly compelling logic to the notion of personal human responsibility, particularly for the conservative way of thinking. When Tony Abbott, Australian Prime Minister, says that people are responsible for what they put in their mouths and no-one else, people nod compulsively. The same can be applied to the poor, drug takers, the jobless, refugees jumping on leaky boats and so on. Taking the cake for the most disagreeable case for personal responsibility though goes to Scott Morrison, Immigration Minister, in response to the asylum seeker ‘choosing’ to commit suicide. In absolving the Australian people of responsibility, he sagely pointed out that it was the asylum seeker who chose to overstay his visa. Apparently it is all about choice, and more about that later.

I have to admit to having had similar fleeting ideas when wearing my psychotherapy hat and working with patients who were making bad choices. How easy to simply say that they just need to decide differently, to choose more wisely. Luckily the moment is short, a burst of frustration that passes and we move on to more important things.

This is yet another example of humans attempting to simplify the complex. Instead of looking at phenomena in detail and getting all the facts, we find the easiest potential answer. Sadly it is often the wrong answer because of this oversimplification and because we base our answers on beliefs, our attitudes, fears and values rather than facts. Solutions such as criminalising drug taking, processing refugees off shore, removing welfare, having children and school teachers carry guns in schools (in the US of A), increasing fines, increasing gaol terms and the death sentence are all classic examples of failed solutions. A part of the problem is that the right answers are often counterintuitive despite overwhelming evidence of what works. Humans are not great fans of the facts.

With respect to responsibility of the ‘what you put in your mouth’ kind, the oversimplification forgets that in order to make a choice one has to have options. As a psychotherapist, it was my role a lot of the time to help people discover more options, then they can make a choice. Then it could be up to them to decide whether to do this or that. And sometimes they chose not to change: disappointing perhaps but clearly a matter of choice.

Maybe the options are not clear when one is caught in a trap, such as domestic violence or in a cycle of poverty. Perhaps a person is popping chips and lots of sugar into their mouth because they do not really understand the dangers and need more education. Habits are not so easy to break and are very enduring-even Prime Ministers have bad habits that they don’t change. Many habits are bad for us but when you can’t see past a wall of trees how can one imagine other possibilities? Governments can take a role in educating the public, providing options, without creating a ‘nanny state’-another compelling terms that captures the imagination of the unthinking. Governments can make enlightened policy based on the evidence. It’s called leadership.

Some behaviours are driven by chemical forces in our brain. Compulsive behaviour such as gambling and other addictions are of this ilk.  There are lots of others. This doesn’t mean the behaviour is acceptable, just that we need to think more carefully about how to change it and that choice is not as simple as it seems.

So to the Scott Morrison lesson in empathy for 2014. I wonder what options we left that refugee. Fleeing from a country that wanted to kill him, caught in the hopeless situation of endless detention, appalling conditions, and no future. I have worked with people who have wanted to kill themselves, and some who eventually did so. When one has lost all hope then there are no options. No capacity for choice.

Choice is not a simple matter. Like much of human psychological and social behaviour it is incredibly complex and needs complex solutions. Some of which may seem counterintuitive and illogical: especially to the conservative brain that tends to think in black and white.