The Yin and Yang of the Human Mind

In Chinese philosophy, there are two opposing forces called yin and yang. They create a harmonious balance, just like a circle.

Our planet operates optimally when in balance. When too many people are stressed out and burned out, they can cause a disturbance to the natural order of things.

It is a mistake to believe that yin and yang are meant to represent good and evil, respectively. Night and day represent two ends on the same spectrum and are therefore highly metaphorical representations.

This philosophy says that all things in existence come with a natural balance between two characteristics, with one set being yin and the other being yang.

It is interesting to note how these exact comparisons can be applied to mental health in general and, more specifically, when studying human personalities.

Readers will note that this is not a conclusive study. However, it does present an alternative avenue to studying many personalities and psychological traits that make up human beings.

Psychology uses yin and yang to signify a person’s feminine and masculine sides.

Whether or not yin is representative of these things is up for debate. What is agreed upon though, is that there are too many yins in some things and that it can lead to stagnation and being devoid of emotion by excess.

Emotional distress can be linked to various mental health disorders, like a lack of emotional disorders.

A critical theme of this case study was the connection between yin masculinity and status anxiety. In other words, people can be overzealous with their aspirations because of how social conventions have shaped culture.

Though this can also be misinterpreted as someone with a great focus on their yin aspects or people with social anxiety, you must know how others see these emotions to help the issue.

“According to some older texts on the yin and yang, psychological impotence can also result from an excess in a person’s mental yin, emerging from the complete and total suppression of all emotions including the sex drive.”

Yang has long been considered the masculine side of the human mind. Still, many people are beginning to recognize that it can also include qualities such as creativity and impulsiveness. There is, however, a danger in confusing physical and mental health with too much in the way of yang energy.

The lens of mental health terms can make some of the more common psychological disorders easier to understand. Yang aspects are closely tied with the outer facade and lead to potential symptoms.

Examples of over-developed yin aspect effects include anxiety disorders, separation anxiety, performance anxiety, depression, dissociative identity disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, ADHD, and manic-depressive disorder.

People with yang-dominant mental health tendencies might express themselves more in dangerous ways and be less interested in expressing the yin side of their emotions or suppressing the expression of desire.

Yin-dominated personalities tend to better mask the wilder parts of their psyche, so they typically don’t present outwardly deviant behaviors.

Most people, in general, will usually be a mix of yin and yang. They persist despite the many contradictions that make up the human condition.

According to western and eastern theories of mental health, there are references in some psychiatric studies that one or the other can lead to mental illness. Some psychologists believe that mental illnesses can result from yin and yang energies imbalances.

There has been a lot of discussion about whether or not one side of the psyche can be so all-dominant that the other is no longer present.

Traditional belief tells us that if one is shown to be dominant over the other, it’s just a disruption in balance and not an absolute absence of the side — showing there’s an interplay between the yin and yang.

For example, even if someone is clinically insane, there are still signs that the other person may act saner. This is another sign that the yin’s influence is still present and provides guidance to that person.

Yang traits are those in which we allow ourselves to be swayed even by emotions. Yang people can recognize and experience emotions more efficiently, while yin people cannot.

It is challenging to study the human mind and personality because they are so complicated. But it is an excellent idea to check these two entities’ psychological connections to understand them better.

In modern-day society, we are grasping to understand the duality in all things because we want to be able to catch a glimpse of the remarkable interplay of motive, emotions, and actions in people. We know that this balance is essential for understanding human thought and behavior.