Dr. Ronnie Janoff-Bulman [ Univ of Calgary] has done extensive research on the after effects of traumatic events in our cognitive and emotional lives . She found that traumatic events throw most humans into turmoil that endures while they attempt to make sense of what has happened. She found that at the root of the cognitive turmoil was the fact most members of modern societies hold three assumptions or premises about life that underlie their way of seeing and experiencing the world. These assumptions do not operate at a conscious level. In fact, a person may deny that they accept them. But she says that her extensive interviews of trauma victims reveal that western human beings do believe them because of how upset victims are after trauma about the apparent untruth of these assumptions.

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The three assumptions almost all of us hold prior to trauma are: [1] the universe is fair, ie, good things happen to good people; [2] most people are good; and [3] I am worthy or have worth. Dr. J-B says that these assumptions allow us to go through an average day without anxiety and fear. If we didn’t believe them at a basic, prescient level, we would be afraid to go outside and face life.

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Dr. J-B found that after trauma, these basic assumptions are shaken, and victims go through a turmoil of thoughts and emotions while they struggle to match their assumptions and experiences. This struggle continues until one’s beliefs about life adequately [1] accounts for what has happened to him/her, and [2] allows for some return to optimism about the world and life.

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While Parkinson's disease does not fit the definition of a traumatic event, it seems to me that JB’s work describes what many pwp go through in their thought and feeling worlds as we deal w changes that Parkinson's disease forces on us.

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What R your thoughts about this?