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Description
I usually try to keep things brief, since people have lives to get on with and all, but this project was inspired by an essay I recently wrote on something my dad made me curious about; I'm including the essay below to help define it a bit. After some initial inflection and some splurging of thoughts, I came up with something sort of like an idea of humanoid caricatures of four basic mindsets Dad talked about; this probably doesn't nearly do it justice, but at least it gives some shape to the thought.

Characters (left to right):

Pessimistic Realism
Optimistic Realism
Pessimistic Idealism
Optimistic Idealism

Here's the essay for the explanation:
Optimism vs. Pessimism

and the Pscychoanalytics Therein

My father once formulated an excellent description of the differences between the mindsets of the Optimist and the Pessimist. We begin with a geometrical representation; remember the geometric grid we used to chart points on in high school? Here’s a refresher for you:

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia…

Imagine now that at the top of the Y axis is Optimism, and at the bottom is Pessimism. On the X axis, at the left end, is Idealism, which is similar to Optimism, and at the right end is Realism, which is sort of like Pessimism, but not quite the same. As you may remember from geometry, the upper right-hand corner of the grid is Quadrant I, the bottom right is Quadrant II, Quadrant III is bottom left, and Quadrant IV is the upper left. Here is a summary of my father’s discussion points:

Optimism is usually classified as the mentality of generally expecting good things, while Pessimism is the mentality of generally expecting bad things. One of the biggest downsides to Optimism is frequent disappointments, and sometimes depression, after continually hoping for something good and often being let down; a downside to Pessimism is frequent anxiety, continually in fear that something bad is always just around the corner. Idealism and Realism are much the same, but something to keep in mind is that Idealism is more like Optimism than Pessimism is like Realism; while Idealism is an expectation for the hopeful Ideal, Realism is the expectation of reality, which always includes both good and bad aspects, and not purely one or the other. Pessimism has a specific lean to the worse aspects, while Realism incorporates more of a balance of the two.

A good place to be on our “mentality grid” is Optimistic Realism; hopeful for good things, but with also understanding Reality and how things really work. With Optimistic Idealism, things are unrealistically hoped for and therefore most frequently disappointed yet continually craved; Pessimistic Realism seems to be what people who deal with stress have to endure. The most important mentality to avoid, however, is a bit unusual; Pessimistic Idealism undergoes unnecessary stress in fearing all the probably bad outcomes, and yet is still continually disappointed when things do go wrong. This person is generally left in a perpetual state not so much of doom and gloom, but of despair and why-bother.

Thus runs the gist of my father’s lesson; the two points these mentalities bring to mind that I would like to draw your attention to for discussion are the states of Depression and Anxiety that too much Pessimism or Optimism can bring on. Let us begin by putting some definition to them.

What are Depression and Anxiety and how are they caused? How are they linked? What similarities and dissimilarities run between them? There are two sides of this coin. Certain types of Depression and Anxiety are due to hormonal imbalances and have medical explanations and treatments that can be given; not all Depression and Anxiety, however, are induced by biological or mental disorders. Some of an individual’s state of mind is regularly influenced through biological and hormonal means, but some can be induced through a person’s own mentality and willpower. How the power of the will and the natural biological state of mentality connect has long been in question, and there may be no real answer; however, there is some proof that a person’s own mentality can control their moods and opinions on certain matters or issues.

Let’s say a person has an Optimistic bent; they are aware of this, and they are comfortable with it, and have decided to try and keep in this blissful state of mind by any means. Perhaps they have a chronic bent to try to cheer up people who are sad, and so often act as a comforter and reassuring person for those who suffer. Now let’s say there is another person who has a Pessimistic bent, and generally the same kind of mentality about it; the “nothing-you-do-or-say-will-make-me-change-my-mind-about-things-because-I-see-sense-and-it’s-only-sensible-to-be-ready-for-the-worst” mindset. Imagine these two people get into a debate over something; over what is of no importance, other than the idea that they both take opposing views as to whether it is good or bad. We’ll take it to more of an extreme so you can understand the idea; the Optimist takes the position of “The sun’s always shining somewhere” while the Pessimist asserts the view that “Things always die eventually.” The conversation doesn’t need to escalate to a heated level to see what I mean; the assertive Optimist, who feels the need to compel other people to be as optimistic as they are, will build a staunch refusal to understand the Pessimist’s point of view because they cannot understand why the Pessimist would willingly desire to remain generally unhappy all the time, and the assertive Pessimist will build a staunch refusal to understand the Optimist’s point of view because they perceive the Optimist as naïve and ignorant of reality. Eventually, due to the breach in understanding perspectives, we will reach one of three scenarios: a mutual avoidance of one another’s preferred mentalities and therefore a semi-maintained respectable acquaintance that may not further in friendship, a mutual avoidance of one another’s company entirely, or a lopsided arrangement of borderline harassment of one or the other’s preferences and why they can’t be different, which can result in the second option anyway.

What we have here, aside from two stubborn minds acting on each other like a rock and a hard place, is a gap in the two mentalities; the Optimist thinks the Pessimist is too focused on the gloomy points in life to be happy and the Pessimist thinks the Optimist is too happy to make wise decisions. Let’s set the concept of biological disorders aside for a moment and just take a look at the willpower side of things. The intentions of their chosen mentalities are what are starkly different: the Optimist has chosen their mentality in order to feel good more, while the Pessimist has chosen theirs in order to be smart and avoid problems. The trouble with both persons, the chronic Optimist and the chronic Pessimist, is that neither can really be said to have chosen “the right side.”

This is where we come back to our “mentality grid”; self-induced Optimistic Idealism, particularly in the nature of a perfectionist, is inevitably going to lead to frequent, sometimes continual, disappointments; expectations are never reality because reality has been neglected, all strivings for what is hoped for always has something out of place or going wrong, and when placed in a naturally hopeful person, this can lead to a continually depressed or discontented nature. In the same sense, self-induced Pessimistic Realism can lead to continual stress and anxiety over what could happen, what generally happens anyway, and what accidents might occur along the way; people with frequent anxiety are often more controlling of their circumstances and environment, and have a tendency to freak out over small things and snap at people who cause problems.

So what would be considered “the right side”? Is there one? To that question, allow me to present two literary characters in reference to our two unexplored quadrants; namely, the Optimistic Realist and the Pessimistic Idealist.

Let’s do Pessimistic Idealism (we’ll call it PI) first; to represent the PI, I give you one of literature’s most beloved creatures: Eeyore, from Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne. Eeyore is generally very gloomy, moping about how he’s neglected and ignored, which he is clearly not, and then, when his friends go especially out of their way just for him and something goes wrong, he’s all the more disappointed over it. He also gets cross and out of temper when he’s proven to be in the wrong himself, and if he wasn’t the first one to think of something, it’s no longer important or relevant. As a simplistic character designed for children to recognize easily, it’s very obvious how self-centered he really is, and it serves as a fairly good description of the PI mindset; they can often be bitter over disappointments and dismissive of any success. (If you’ve never read the actual books of Winnie the Pooh, I highly recommend them.)

Now on discussing the OR, we have one of my favorite literary characters from The Silver Chair, part of the Chronicles of Narnia; his name is Puddleglum, and he is a marsh wiggle. The marsh wiggles are described to be very reclusive creatures, and mainly pessimistic; Puddleglum seems to be a bit of an exception, as he states that other marsh wiggles have called him “too flighty.” He always gives a description of the worst possible things that could happen in each situation he encounters, though not in a very convincing way, but never strays from his mission and often advises to “put a bold face on it,” and is usually right in much of his counsel. In one of his only soliloquies, he says that he “always liked to know the worst and then put the best face he could on it”; his staunch attitude and natural practicality make him one of the most loveable characters of the Narnia series.

In our era of medical and psychological advancement, we often have a tendency to forget that we still retain the ability to “think” ourselves into certain states of mind. It is true, it’s only one thing to say, “I have a stomachache today” and another to actually get one, but basic human willpower has a much higher potential to be able to control a person’s outlook on life in general. This may depend on biological factors as well as the outside influence of others, but from what we know about the Placebo effect, our minds manufacturing self-induced Depression and Anxiety certainly remains a possibility. It is always good to be cautious as we continue exploring the vast areas of the human psyche.

Description
I usually try to keep things brief, since people have lives to get on with and all, but this project was inspired by an essay I recently wrote on something my dad made me curious about; I'm including the essay below to help define it a bit. After some initial inflection and some splurging of thoughts, I came up with something sort of like an idea of humanoid caricatures of four basic mindsets Dad talked about; this probably doesn't nearly do it justice, but at least it gives some shape to the thought.

Characters (left to right):

Pessimistic Realism
Optimistic Realism
Pessimistic Idealism
Optimistic Idealism

Here's the essay for the explanation:
Optimism vs. Pessimism

and the Pscychoanalytics Therein

My father once formulated an excellent description of the differences between the mindsets of the Optimist and the Pessimist. We begin with a geometrical representation; remember the geometric grid we used to chart points on in high school? Here’s a refresher for you:

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia…

Imagine now that at the top of the Y axis is Optimism, and at the bottom is Pessimism. On the X axis, at the left end, is Idealism, which is similar to Optimism, and at the right end is Realism, which is sort of like Pessimism, but not quite the same. As you may remember from geometry, the upper right-hand corner of the grid is Quadrant I, the bottom right is Quadrant II, Quadrant III is bottom left, and Quadrant IV is the upper left. Here is a summary of my father’s discussion points:

Optimism is usually classified as the mentality of generally expecting good things, while Pessimism is the mentality of generally expecting bad things. One of the biggest downsides to Optimism is frequent disappointments, and sometimes depression, after continually hoping for something good and often being let down; a downside to Pessimism is frequent anxiety, continually in fear that something bad is always just around the corner. Idealism and Realism are much the same, but something to keep in mind is that Idealism is more like Optimism than Pessimism is like Realism; while Idealism is an expectation for the hopeful Ideal, Realism is the expectation of reality, which always includes both good and bad aspects, and not purely one or the other. Pessimism has a specific lean to the worse aspects, while Realism incorporates more of a balance of the two.

A good place to be on our “mentality grid” is Optimistic Realism; hopeful for good things, but with also understanding Reality and how things really work. With Optimistic Idealism, things are unrealistically hoped for and therefore most frequently disappointed yet continually craved; Pessimistic Realism seems to be what people who deal with stress have to endure. The most important mentality to avoid, however, is a bit unusual; Pessimistic Idealism undergoes unnecessary stress in fearing all the probably bad outcomes, and yet is still continually disappointed when things do go wrong. This person is generally left in a perpetual state not so much of doom and gloom, but of despair and why-bother.

Thus runs the gist of my father’s lesson; the two points these mentalities bring to mind that I would like to draw your attention to for discussion are the states of Depression and Anxiety that too much Pessimism or Optimism can bring on. Let us begin by putting some definition to them.

What are Depression and Anxiety and how are they caused? How are they linked? What similarities and dissimilarities run between them? There are two sides of this coin. Certain types of Depression and Anxiety are due to hormonal imbalances and have medical explanations and treatments that can be given; not all Depression and Anxiety, however, are induced by biological or mental disorders. Some of an individual’s state of mind is regularly influenced through biological and hormonal means, but some can be induced through a person’s own mentality and willpower. How the power of the will and the natural biological state of mentality connect has long been in question, and there may be no real answer; however, there is some proof that a person’s own mentality can control their moods and opinions on certain matters or issues.

Let’s say a person has an Optimistic bent; they are aware of this, and they are comfortable with it, and have decided to try and keep in this blissful state of mind by any means. Perhaps they have a chronic bent to try to cheer up people who are sad, and so often act as a comforter and reassuring person for those who suffer. Now let’s say there is another person who has a Pessimistic bent, and generally the same kind of mentality about it; the “nothing-you-do-or-say-will-make-me-change-my-mind-about-things-because-I-see-sense-and-it’s-only-sensible-to-be-ready-for-the-worst” mindset. Imagine these two people get into a debate over something; over what is of no importance, other than the idea that they both take opposing views as to whether it is good or bad. We’ll take it to more of an extreme so you can understand the idea; the Optimist takes the position of “The sun’s always shining somewhere” while the Pessimist asserts the view that “Things always die eventually.” The conversation doesn’t need to escalate to a heated level to see what I mean; the assertive Optimist, who feels the need to compel other people to be as optimistic as they are, will build a staunch refusal to understand the Pessimist’s point of view because they cannot understand why the Pessimist would willingly desire to remain generally unhappy all the time, and the assertive Pessimist will build a staunch refusal to understand the Optimist’s point of view because they perceive the Optimist as naïve and ignorant of reality. Eventually, due to the breach in understanding perspectives, we will reach one of three scenarios: a mutual avoidance of one another’s preferred mentalities and therefore a semi-maintained respectable acquaintance that may not further in friendship, a mutual avoidance of one another’s company entirely, or a lopsided arrangement of borderline harassment of one or the other’s preferences and why they can’t be different, which can result in the second option anyway.

What we have here, aside from two stubborn minds acting on each other like a rock and a hard place, is a gap in the two mentalities; the Optimist thinks the Pessimist is too focused on the gloomy points in life to be happy and the Pessimist thinks the Optimist is too happy to make wise decisions. Let’s set the concept of biological disorders aside for a moment and just take a look at the willpower side of things. The intentions of their chosen mentalities are what are starkly different: the Optimist has chosen their mentality in order to feel good more, while the Pessimist has chosen theirs in order to be smart and avoid problems. The trouble with both persons, the chronic Optimist and the chronic Pessimist, is that neither can really be said to have chosen “the right side.”

This is where we come back to our “mentality grid”; self-induced Optimistic Idealism, particularly in the nature of a perfectionist, is inevitably going to lead to frequent, sometimes continual, disappointments; expectations are never reality because reality has been neglected, all strivings for what is hoped for always has something out of place or going wrong, and when placed in a naturally hopeful person, this can lead to a continually depressed or discontented nature. In the same sense, self-induced Pessimistic Realism can lead to continual stress and anxiety over what could happen, what generally happens anyway, and what accidents might occur along the way; people with frequent anxiety are often more controlling of their circumstances and environment, and have a tendency to freak out over small things and snap at people who cause problems.

So what would be considered “the right side”? Is there one? To that question, allow me to present two literary characters in reference to our two unexplored quadrants; namely, the Optimistic Realist and the Pessimistic Idealist.

Let’s do Pessimistic Idealism (we’ll call it PI) first; to represent the PI, I give you one of literature’s most beloved creatures: Eeyore, from Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne. Eeyore is generally very gloomy, moping about how he’s neglected and ignored, which he is clearly not, and then, when his friends go especially out of their way just for him and something goes wrong, he’s all the more disappointed over it. He also gets cross and out of temper when he’s proven to be in the wrong himself, and if he wasn’t the first one to think of something, it’s no longer important or relevant. As a simplistic character designed for children to recognize easily, it’s very obvious how self-centered he really is, and it serves as a fairly good description of the PI mindset; they can often be bitter over disappointments and dismissive of any success. (If you’ve never read the actual books of Winnie the Pooh, I highly recommend them.)

Now on discussing the OR, we have one of my favorite literary characters from The Silver Chair, part of the Chronicles of Narnia; his name is Puddleglum, and he is a marsh wiggle. The marsh wiggles are described to be very reclusive creatures, and mainly pessimistic; Puddleglum seems to be a bit of an exception, as he states that other marsh wiggles have called him “too flighty.” He always gives a description of the worst possible things that could happen in each situation he encounters, though not in a very convincing way, but never strays from his mission and often advises to “put a bold face on it,” and is usually right in much of his counsel. In one of his only soliloquies, he says that he “always liked to know the worst and then put the best face he could on it”; his staunch attitude and natural practicality make him one of the most loveable characters of the Narnia series.

In our era of medical and psychological advancement, we often have a tendency to forget that we still retain the ability to “think” ourselves into certain states of mind. It is true, it’s only one thing to say, “I have a stomachache today” and another to actually get one, but basic human willpower has a much higher potential to be able to control a person’s outlook on life in general. This may depend on biological factors as well as the outside influence of others, but from what we know about the Placebo effect, our minds manufacturing self-induced Depression and Anxiety certainly remains a possibility. It is always good to be cautious as we continue exploring the vast areas of the human psyche.