Get It Out! The Externalization of Internal Misintelligence

Post-pandemic psycho-social internalization comprises a form of misintelligence, cognitive distortion that thwarts thought. The syndrome of internalization will be defined and exemplified, reasons for its pandemic-era exacerbation suggested, and the notion of externalization offered as a mode of addressing it. The presentation will comprise four stages: First, internalization will be presented; next, its various manifestations among students and teachers in diverse disciplines around the world will be set forth; third, externalization will be proposed as a solution-focused therapy to render problems separate from the self so as to be managed; and finally, participants will be invited to undertake an externalization exercise, in which problems of assorted kinds will be separated from those who are suffering them, and the participant class will be encouraged to help resolve them. As each stage of this colloquy proceeds to the next, participants will be called upon to renegotiate problems together in a form of externalization narrative therapy.