Peculiar Ignorance
The peculiar kind of ignorance against
which the counselor and student client
contend is the stuff of bias and prejudice
- the defense against reality, the
pervasive desire to leave unanswered
Shakespeare's question of "whether to
suffer or oppose the slings and arrows of
outrageous fortune." Defensive, self
-inflicted blindness carefully or precariously
maintained from the experiences
of childhood and adolescence, channels
the acceptance and rejection of information
as well as shapes the value of
communication received. Thus, to "know
thyself" is literally the most effective,
even if imperfect, means to test individual
reality for what concretely and
mystically is - to test what temporal or
enduring position is "nobler in the mind"
- to decide or reflect upon a course of
action as a relatively free, yet interdependent
human being.
