There is a strong belief in the value of equality in human relations. It is a comfort to many that we all are equal. We are born equal. We feel that equal is good. The basis of our legal system is the talion principle, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. And many folks spend their life getting even, as if revenge brings some sort of satisfaction or worse "closure". This egalitarian philosophy is quite a burden on some people who succeed in financial matters. And indeed, 20 percent of the population controls 80 percent of the wealth. Just like 20 percent of the people produce 80 per cent of the goods. And life in general is not at all even but it is quite skewed in favor of the few 20 percent as opposed to the many 80 percent.
Envy is one of the feelings associated with inequality. We envy people who have more than we have and that feeling can get quite ugly and lead to bad actions. Envy can be malicious and result in destruction defamation and death. It gives some people great satisfaction to scratch the paint of a beautiful new red painted car with a key and mar the surface of the car that is an object of envy. In some strange way defacing an object of envy makes the envious one less envious. It seems as if that this violation of the law is "fair" in the twisted mind of the envious one.
I asked a group of my patients the question "What is justice". The immediate answer from one of my heroin addicts was "Justice is when I get what I want". That puts it in a personal context. When he gets his drugs and puts himself into la-la land, that is fair. But if he does not get his drugs, that is an injustice. He feels this injustice keenly, and is willing to steal from a drug store in order to get what he wants. It is "fair" according to him to do this to get what he wants. One can think that this is twisted logic, but our government realizes that many people in the United States do not have health insurance. The government , along with all the professors in our universities feel it is fair to have a one payer system. In this system our government is going to provide health care to all citizens like other countries do. Of course, our government does not produce anything much other than waste, and so they intend to Steal from the 20 percent of the people who have health insurance to pay for the insurance of the 80% who currently do not have health insurance. They think this is fair, just like my heroin addict patient thinks it is fair for him to steal his drugs from the drug store because they have the drugs, and he doesn't. The egalitarian philosophy is the bed rock of communism and socialism and no one has decent medical care in Cuba so it is all equal. Canada also has a one payer system and it only takes fourteen months to get your Canadian hip set after it is fractured. Their health care is so poor that Canadians come to America to see a doctor.
In the same way, the sense of injustice pervades the doctor's office when he treats obese patients with an eating plan. Every patient I have ever treated develops a sense of injustice that their weight loss is much too slow and questions the accuracy of my office scale. "I have hardly eaten a thing and to lose only 4 pounds in two weeks is just terrible" the patient moans in pain. If you dare inquire about the statement that the patient has hardly eaten one lettuce leaf all week, you might find out that she had a "few" pieces of pizza and two glasses of wine a few nights ago etc. etc.. But the sense of injustice hangs heavy in the office and the patient either feigns anger as a defense or she is really feeling injustice in the amount of weight she has lost. This outrage is related to the sense of injustice the lady feels about not getting the food that she likes and wants. It is not fair according to her and she really feels that injustice. Meantime she envies "all the food that her husband can eat" and bemoans the fact that he can eat so much and he hasn't gained a pound in the last fifteen years. "That's not fair" according to the patient who tries to even things up by eating as much as her husband eats. But since he is six foot two inches tall and she is 5 foot two inches tall , she is never going to eat s much as her husband eats with out getting really really fat.
So patients overeat to get even and to right the wrong that they experience in being deprived of their favorite foods. They perpetrate an injustice on themselves in righting the wrong that they cannot have what they want to eat, and that they have to give up on their eating habits and on their favorite foods. This sense of unfairness and injustice has to be dealt with in treatment or the patient will relapse and go on an eating binge in order to correct the injustice she experiences in being on a diet.
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