Spoiler Warning!
Major spoilers ahead if you haven’t read the Dune books or seen the second Dune movie. (And the third one if they make it.)
If you’ve seen the first movie, you can read something with less spoilers here: hudymapsychology.com/anxiety-in-pop-culture-what-dunes-litany-against-fear-gets-wrong-and-right-about-anxiety/
OK, let’s dive in.
Paul Atreides solved the problem of uncertainty. And it destroyed him.
What does this have to do with anxiety? Anxiety is based in uncertainty. Anxiety prompts us to try to answer questions about the future:
Am I going to get sick?
Is the job interview going to go well?
Am I going to say something stupid?
Will I pass the exam?
What if I ask that person out?
Am I going to be OK?
People with anxiety Human beings do a lot of things to try to get rid of uncertainty. People with anxiety do even more. Worrying, ruminating, overthinking, excessive research, reassurance seeking, checking, and so on.
So, back to Paul…
If you’re not familiar with Dune, here’s a quick recap: It’s science fiction. It’s thousands of years in the future. Transportation and trade between worlds is dependent on the mysterious drug Spice. Spice extends life, enhances mental abilities, and also allows certain people to see glimpses of the future. For example, interplanetary travel relies on Spice. Spaceship pilots use it to see briefly into the future to make sure they don’t crash their ships into stars or planets.
It only comes from one desert planet, where it is produced by the local wildlife, the giant sandworms.
Paul is the main character. His father is a Very Important Politician. His mother is a Bene Gesserit, which is like a Jedi Ninja Space Nun. She has secretly trained him in Bene Gesserit techniques to have extraordinary physical and mental abilities.
They are sent to manage the Spice planet, where they are betrayed, Paul’s father is killed, and Paul and his mother flee into the desert. Lots of things happen.
Paul ingests an overdose of Spice and because of his Bene Gesserit training he unlocks his abilities to become the Kwisatz Haderach – a person who has access to the memories of all his ancestors, as well as full prescience – the ability to see all possible futures.
Sounds great, right? If you can see the future, you’ll never make a mistake. You can always make the best decision. You can always avoid danger. If you knew the future, you would never have to have anxiety. Well, maybe not…
By seeing the future, Paul unwittingly creates Fate.
You see, once Paul can see the consequences of every choice, he is trapped. Being able to see the future means he can never be surprised. He can never experience delight or wonder. By eliminating uncertainty, he knows what he has to choose to bring about a particular future.
And, most importantly for Paul, once he sees what must be done for the ultimate good of humanity, he doesn’t want to do it. It’s a horrible choice, and it’s the only one that will work. So, he chooses not to do it, leaves it for someone else to make the hard decision, and lives in misery, backed into a corner by his prescience.
It turns out being the hero Emperor of the galaxy who can see the future is a huge bummer. It’s a lousy way to live.
OK, back to anxiety and what this means for you.
As a psychologist, one of my guiding principles is finding better ways to live.
Avoiding anxiety by worrying, ruminating, overthinking, excessively researching, reassurance seeking, checking, and so on is a lousy way to live. It might make you feel more safe, more in control, more certain. But there is a price.
You lose your ability to choose. Your world gets small. The system you created to get rid of uncertainty becomes a trap. Like Paul Atreides, the things you do to manage the uncertainty of the future become the misery of your present.
So, what is a better way to live?
Ask yourself, how alive do you feel when you are worrying, analyzing, avoiding, and so on? How alive do you feel when you are trying new things, stepping out of your comfort zone, and taking chances on something that is meaningful to you?
Stop working so hard to be certain. Stop working so hard to predict the future.
Embrace uncertainty. It’s a better way to live.
Now, I’m not advocating recklessness. Big decisions like moving, changing jobs, going back to school, getting married, or having children demand some thinking in advance. Even small decisions like what to have for lunch should be approached with some measure of care.
But there is a point of diminishing returns. Further attempts to get rid of uncertainty add little or nothing to the analysis and instead worsen anxiety. Even the biggest decisions in life need to be made with uncertainty.
So, the solution is not to create better and better ways to get rid of uncertainty. The solution is to embrace uncertainty as an essential part of life. To choose vitality over the stagnation of analysis paralysis.
You do this by noticing, by catching yourself worrying, ruminating, overthinking, excessively researching, reassurance seeking, checking, and so on.
And once you catch yourself, you make the choice to turn your attention to something else and stop putting work into these behaviors. You make decisions with anxiety, instead of waiting for it to go away. Even when it’s hard. Because it will get easier, in time. Your life will get bigger, more rich, and more vital.
Fear is not the mind-killer. Certainty is.