Welcome, everybody! I am recording from the lovely town of Port Angeles, Washington.
This past week I was able to go to stake girls camp for the last evening. They give the bishops an hour and a half to spend with the young women. Played paper airplane golf. What an awesome thing that is to be able to connect with the young women in the ward. I know that there are some things that I will look back on very fondly one day of the time that I served as a bishop, and this is going to be one of them. I hope that they continue that tradition each year.
Well today I have a good show for you about the silent treatment. So let’s get to it.
I read an article in The Atlantic written by Daryl Austin who is based in Utah. He spoke of the silent treatment. It reminded of two families on my mission. They shared a driveway that went out to the main road. You would go down this dirt road and then it split into a Y and one went to one house and the other went to the other house.
There was an accident.
They hadn’t spoken to each other in years.
They stopped going to church.
They are next door neighbors.
The silent treatment goes by many names: shunning, social isolation, stonewalling, ghosting. Although psychologists have nuanced definitions for each term, they are all essentially forms of ostracism. And the tactic is nothing new. Ancient Greeks would get expelled for 10 years if they were thought to be a threat to democracy. Early American settlers banished people accused of practicing witchcraft. Some churches like the Church of Scientology recommends total “disconnection” from anyone deemed antagonistic toward the religion.
So this type of Ostracism can also happen in many ways maybe someone walks out of the room in the middle of a conversation.
Someone looks the other way when you wave at them, or a person addresses comments from everyone in a message thread except you. The article says that “Ostracism can take a heavy toll whereby victims become anxious, withdrawn, depressed, or even suicidal.”
He quoted Joel Cooper a psychology professor at Princeton. “Because we humans require social contact for our mental health, the ramifications of isolation can be severe,” “In the short term, the silent treatment causes stress. In the long term, the stress can be considered abuse.”
“People use the silent treatment because they can get away with it without looking abusive to others,” Williams explained, “and because it’s highly effective in making the targeted individual feel bad.”
Tune in to hear the rest!
Rocky Mountain Sunshine Podcast by Jason Bringhurst who is a faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Sometimes referred to as Mormon or Mormons.
