Findings in the cognitive neurosciences suggest that the orbitofrontal cortex, along with other loci, is involved in regret.
Regret is fascinating. Therein you have a comparison between the factual and the counterfactual. You have chosen A (the factual), when you could have chosen B (the counterfactual). By regretting, you are going on a time travel, to that fateful moment of decision making, and wish that you could have chosen the other alternative.
Regret invokes a often dramatic change of your world view. The fact that you have chosen A instead of B reflects the value system that you had at that moment. By regretting, you repent and try to modify, if you can, the frame of cognition and the set of biases and prejudices that led to the regrettable choice, ultimately constituting the person that is you. This reconfiguring of personality is often painful, but is worth every agony in the long run.
Humans too often ignore incidents of failure, trying to forget what have happened. While oblivion is sometimes certainly beneficial, there is a silver lining to every cloud of regret, however thick it is.
6 comments:
Everytime when I regret something, I feel vague but actual pain in the middle rather than front of my brain, and a certain emptiness and subtle wind blow around my heart. Next moment my heart starts beating faster, then I find myself trying to pretend that nohing has happened. From now on however, I will try to face my failure positively beieving in your statement today.
Everytime when I regret something, I feel vague but actual pain in the middle rather than front of my brain, and a certain emptiness and subtle wind blow around my heart. Next moment my heart starts beating faster, then I find myself trying to pretend that nohing has happened. From now on however, I will try to face my failure positively beieving in your statement today.
I am sorry, I didn't mean to post twice, but it happened. And I noticed I have misspelled "believing". I keep making this kind of failure almost on everyday bases.
Dear (ma)gog, i agree with you, that's a powerful statement; While oblivion is sometimes certainly beneficial, there is a silver lining to every cloud of regret, however thick it is. For me, in the midst of the regret tears fall in my heart (in my brain? in my mind?)like the rain on the forest. michiko
Dear Michiko-san,
Thank you very much for your comment. I reckon that you are the same michiko-san who posted on Saturday, 20 June.
A few days ago, I happened to find a book which I had not read yet by Dr.Elizabeth Kuebler Ross whom I respect from my heart ever since I first came to know about her work more than a decade ago. She was a human being of strong determination, full of compassion and love. She says in her book, that she is so sure that our souls can be healed if we understand our true nature of being. I just would like to send you a good luck in your studying Nursing. It is such a precious work to do for everyone of us!
Thank you so much. I am really struggling with my thesis. English is too hard for me, often I regret why I came here.
Regret, immediacy, pain; all of these topics in the qualia journal are precious since phenomenology has been used as my research methodology.
Unforgettable patients have always cheered me up.
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