Video analysis: Vulnerability
Summary
The talk began with a discussion by Ms Brown of the researcher as storyteller and argued that a qualitative researcher does tell stories. She continues to tell her personal journey of how she came to appreciate that researching is more than just “if you can’t measure it, it doesn’t exist”. She wanted to take ‘messy’ topics, and understand them better by organising them.
Ms Brown stressed that the basis of the purpose and meaning to our lives as humans is the concept of connection and when she began talking to people and asking them about concepts related to connection, they told her about opposite concepts (eg. Love/heartbreak, belonging/isolation). At the basis of these opposites were the concepts of shame and fear with shame being defined as the fear of disconnection. Shame was underpinned by the idea of “excruciating vulnerability”. In her studies over the years and by analysing thousands of stories, Brown suggested that the vulnerability that underpins shame is tempered with a sense of worthiness – a sense of being loved and belonging. Those people who had a strong sense of belonging, believed they were worthy of love and belonging and the suggestion was made that what keeps us out of connecting with others is the fear that we are not worthy of connecting.
In her research, Ms Brown analysed the common variables that were found among those stories which indicated that the owners of the stories had a sense of worthiness by looking at themes and patterns. Three themes became apparent, namely courage (wholeheartedness) described as the courage to be imperfect, compassion (being kind to yourself first) and connection (as a result of authenticity – letting go of who you think you should be and allowing your true self to surface). In addition, owners of the stories had vulnerability in common by fully embracing and accepting vulnerability as a positive concept. They saw vulnerability as a necessity.
Ms Brown further researched the topic of why people struggle with vulnerability. Ms Brown found that vulnerability is pervasive in society and that people generally numb vulnerability, but added that emotion – which she implicitly implied is what vulnerability is, cannot be numbed selectively. By numbing vulnerability, other emotions such as joy are numbed. Other effects are the need for certainty and the increase of anger, fear and blame – all negative emotions. This spills over onto parents’ relationships with their children. An overemphasis on perfection, Ms Brown argues, should be replaced with an acknowledgement that life will be a struggle for our children, but that they should be given the certain knowledge that they are loved and worthy of belonging. , Additionally, the impact of our actions on other people is often ignored. Ms Brown concludes by suggesting that vulnerability should be acknowledged and embraced.
Psychological concepts discussed
| Concept | Discussion and related psychological theories |
| Storytelling | The researcher is equated with a storyteller, using data or qualitative input to create stories to tell others. The introduction of storytelling is preceded by Ms. Brown’s intimation that she follows a positivist paradigm to research which ultimately was not sufficient to explain the concepts she was trying to unpack. |
| Connection | Erik Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development |
| Shame | Erik Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development |
| Fear | Social psychology |
| Disconnection | Erik Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development |
| Vulnerability | Key concept in this discussion |
| Worthiness | |
| Love | Maslow hierarchy of needs |
| Belonging | Maslow hierarchy of needs |
| Fear | Fear of social isolation. Most social psychology theories address this |
| Courage | Arises from self-awareness and acceptance of the self. Related to authenticity |
| Wholeheartedness | Self awareness combined with authenticity, worthiness and vulnerability |
| Compassion | Positivist psychology |
| Authenticity | Positive Psychology, Jung’s process of individuation |
| Self | Maslow hierarchy of needs |
| emotion | Most psychological theories incorporate aspects of emotion |
| numbing | Freud’s concept of repression |
| anger | Theories of emotion |
| blame | Derives from anger |
Related Psychological Concepts
A number of psychological concepts were introduced in this talk. Ms. Brown seems to have aspects of an Adlerian, holistic approach to the subject as she regards the person as a whole requiring both negative and positive emotions to function. It can be suggested that she draws on Adler’s concepts of the ‘feeling of inferiority’, ‘compensation’ and the ‘creative self’.
Echoes of Erik Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development can be found throughout her talk. All stages are important, but particularly relevant in this talk are the second and sixth stages. The second stage incorporates the ideas of personal control and where shame plays an important role in providing the child with autonomy and a sense of control, whereas in the sixth stage, a strong sense of personal identity is necessary to develop a connectedness with other people.
In addition, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs are part and parcel of what Ms Brown discusses. The ‘higher’ needs of belonging (affiliation), love self, esteem and self-actualisation are integral aspects of Ms Brown’s conclusion of the importance of vulnerability.
Bandura’s self-determination theory, a social cognitive psychological theory is echoed by the idea of being ‘worthy’ to be loved and to belong. The concept of control is brought into the mix where control over one’s feelings of vulnerability can break the cycle of negative emotions.
Throughout her talk, Ms Brown is covertly advocating what can be considered as a positive psychological stance. She is seeking to describe psychological, emotional terms such as happiness, vulnerability, fear and shame by describing them in terms of their ultimately positive effects on the individual, provided the individual is able to accept them.
On a personal level, Ms. Brown intimates that she follows a positivist paradigm to research which ultimately was not sufficient to explain the concepts she was trying to unpack. This points towards the importance of storytelling, specifically narrative psychology for understanding more complex psychological concepts such as vulnerability.
Other psychological theories touched on are those of Freud’s concept of repression and reaction formation (causing numbness), sublimation (as a means to avoid being authentic and to hide vulnerability). Jung’s process of individuation as a way for the individual to reach self-realisation, echoes the ideas mentioned by Ms Brown of self-awareness and authenticity.
Reflection
This talk introduced several new ideas that I had not been aware of. The concept of vulnerability and its importance to other aspects of emotions was a particularly enlightening idea. The suggestion that without acceptance of one’s vulnerability, other positive emotions such as joy, happiness and love are numbed and replaced with negative emotions such as anger and blame actually gave me license to accept that I am not perfect and accept that I can make mistakes without it detracting from the person I really am. The message she portrays is a very positive one in that she provides a possibility to rectify the negative effects of a ‘numbing of emotions’ by embracing one’s vulnerability.
Letter to Ms Brown
Dear Ms Brown
Congratulations on a very interesting TED talk. I was particularly impressed with the way you described your research journey and was wondering if your research journey is typical of the journey so many researchers take. I’m not quite sure how you managed to reconcile your positivist research approach at the beginning of your journey (‘measuring’) with the eventual outcome of interpretation from qualitative data, though I quite understand that there are some aspects of quantitative measurement that play a role in your qualitative studies. I’m curious how you personally incorporated your findings on vulnerability into your own life? At the beginning of the talk you state that vulnerability changed your life but you do not elaborate how, on a personal level, this occurred. Have you been consciously making an effort to become more self-aware and self-accepting of your own vulnerability, and if so, has this been successful?
Kind regards
Christine Bothma