Even when they do not know any of the details, generous onlookers must make a stab at picturing the overall structure of what might have happened to the wretched being before them. They must guess that there will be sorrow and regret beneath the furious rantings, or a sense of intolerable vulnerability behind the pomposity and snobbishness. They must intimate that early trauma and let-down must have formed the backdrop to later transgressions. They will remember that the person before them was once a baby too. The charitable interpreter holds on also to the idea that sweetness must remain beneath the surface, along with the possibility of remorse and growth.
Author: Alain de Botton
Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings)
Subjects: Psychology | Behavior, Relationships
Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings)
Subjects: Psychology | Behavior, Relationships
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