I came across an interesting study revealing the part of the Russian soul’s mystery: although looking ever-suffering, in fact Russians are tend to be less depressed than the Westerners. The study gives an explanation why.
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Study co-author Igor Grossmann, a doctoral candidate in psychology at the University of Michigan, said in a university news release, “our study suggests that Russians are actually less likely than Americans to be depressed.”
“Among Westerners, focusing on one’s negative feelings tends to impair well-being, but among Russians, that is not the case,” Grossman stated.
Grossman explained that Americans tend to dwell more on past experiences and negative feelings than Russians do. The Russian people are able to distant themselves much better from these emotions than Americans.
Grossmann and co-author Ethan Kross, a University of Michigan assistant professor of psychology, published their findings in the August issue of Psychological Science.
Grossmann and Kross reported on two studies, funded by the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health:
The first study focused on 168 Russian and American students who underwent testing to measure their degree of brooding and depressive symptoms. While the Russians were found to brood more, they also displayed fewer indicators of depression than their American counterparts.
The second study involved one hundred and sixty-eight students who were measured for distress after being asked to remember and discuss a recent negative memory involving themselves and another individual.
Grossmann and Kross concluded by stating that the Russians people experience less distress than the Americans after speaking about an experience or while discussing an event. They can immediately distance themselves which is a skill to less stress or blaming themselves for the situation.
Source:
Study Suggest Russians Less Depressed than Americans
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Personally I can fully confirm that 🙂 I guess most of Russians too.
LOVE, axinia
axinia
1000 petals by axinia 
I know this post is more about Russians than Americans. I have no insights into the Russian soul beyond Tolstoy, whose brooding I find enlightening. But I can speak for Americans in relation to this study.
The American culture embraces high ideals and high expectations. That probably is a good way to think of the American soul. And that’s what has generally drawn immigrants in such large waves throughout US history.
It is a naive soul because when we can’t achieve those levels there is no option but to take it very seriously and very personally. Of course many blame society or the system first, but either way is a quick road to depression.
This also gives a clue why Americans are considered arrogant by the rest of the world. Our ideals make us self-righteous and we sometimes resort to a bold front to mask the fact that we can’t always walk the talk. But nobody likes to be accused of inconsistency, and our response is to start pointing out the enormous amount of taxpayer money that goes to helping virtually every other country in the world. And what we get back as more criticism is how we push other countries around with our military power. So get a little cranky that nobody loves us.
When you can’t when win no matter what you do, you naturally get little depressed.
yea, a reason enough to get depressed…
In my case I dont’ know Americans, I met just several people in person and I never visited the country.
But I find it really interesting that on the surface Amricans look so optimistic and inside many are depressive. Just he opposite with Russians – they are too gloomy to look at but actually optimistic inside (one should be! otherwise you just cannot survive there).
Yeah, such is human nature. Suffering gives birth to beautiful art; prosperity makes one blase and mediocre.
There is another observation, that the women in so-called backward countries are more intelligent and strong.
Terry and you have rich experiences of people of own country. what I feel about experiencing Indians, social and family support systems are more important in this concern. may be due to high expectancy from self and society or family, individual get depressed if unable to fulfill demands but at the same time If he uses those systems properly and effectively then he can escape from that . Unfortunately even though globe is becoming village with the help of technology the distance between two people is increasing widely, even in India, which infact increases loneliness and frustrations.
How much one work hard to prove himself best? there is cut through competition and no body want to stop with own for a while to take even rest there is fear of lagging behind or loosing one’s hold or competency. so depression is inevitable even though there is no failure and more exllance. working with group or together, sharing the emotions, supporting to each other ….appraisal, understanding to others and giving space ….even through healthy competition and hard working All theses …we have forgotten. they are there in value teaching books to read only and not to follow. the person who follow it may become illiterate and villager in MBA guided corporate world.
Sorry @ Terry but I dont believe in your statement of helping nature of Americans. What i Feel they merely see business in every help they are giving to poorer and nothing else They take care that their every action will be profitable to Americans only (and obviously it is right too) so I dont see any better point in that help they should not expect the respect on true moral sense as it has pure business value.
So it is the individuals belief systems,cultural values and social and family support systems are responsible for that conditions in Americans and Russians what I feel. and as that trend is going to be more popular so there is high chances of increasing cases of depressions round globe.
Even another point should be noted that after 9/11 they take more time to settle and collapse very fast . comparatively even after 26/11 and many more such incidences of bomb blasts and natural calamities Indians settles very fast and started their routines very early. (i dont know much about Russians but they take hard decision without involving emotions and ready to scarifies in such concerns what I heard ) So support systems …. valued more.
Any way Wish you all a very happy, prosperous,peaceful and spiritual new year . Let all should enter in new year of wisdom,awareness and humanity apart from race ,religion and county differences around the globe.
@ Swaps
It is said, from couple if husband died ,wife can manage any way and leads to life but if wife died then husband can not manage alone … he collapses.
literally they become so habitual that they can not manage afterwords alone
Woman’s are always strong on not only on emotional background but also physical ???? too ..and they give better support to man . may be nature made them like that due to so much struggling to survive since from long…..long years …..
So happy going for better support system.
let’s decide and truly respect them from coming new year….
( Sorry for changing track but some how relate to support system!!!??)
Thanks.
When the labelling of symptoms as “depressives” as rise up dramatically in the last years in “western” country’s and specially in the USA, for the best of the pharmaceutical industry.And on the other side, avoidance of problems has been systematic trained in a country like Russia where the open critic of the state can have “dangerous to health” side effects like getting send to hell.(anybody watching the news this days?), lets pick up few students and neglect few sociological conditions and….yeah, a statistic about something like the “Russian soul” (how deeply scientific as terminology!)compared to the blues of those who “talk about problems” appears.
Wonders to what purposes this researches was made.Who sponsored it?
Depression appears globally the response to the evidence of the failing of the actual systems, and at the same time the inability of the middle class to truly change their own mind concepts.Depression is remaining in an artificial non moving state of frozen emotions, mostly anger.
Real sadness is a healthy reaction and not to confuse with depression.
I guess those who truly suffer in both country’s have much more in common, as they have with those in both country’s who have a profit of the evil.
Cant wait for a research about the difference of the “Russian soul” between an oligarch in a tacky new riche estate expecting lots of eternal prosperity for his spoiled child send to study to a “western” state , and a poor old with a small pension in a forgotten countryside spot .
This is an interesting study indeed, Axinia 🙂
However, I feel it is too simplistic to look at it purely from the point of view of the so-called “depression”.
“Among Westerners, focusing on one’s negative feelings tends to impair well-being, but among Russians, that is not the case,” Grossman stated.
Grossman explained that Americans tend to dwell more on past experiences and negative feelings than Russians do. The Russian people are able to distant themselves much better from these emotions than Americans.
Let’s assume these factors do indeed make Russians less “depressed” as opposed to “Westerners”. Good as it is, there must be some trade-off. What is it?
It has got to be the fact that Westerners are able to learn from their past mistakes by dwelling on past experiences and negative feelings arising out of them. By doing so, they sub-consciously adopt a better civilisational learning curve and an inbuilt tendency to progress from any state of existence or create renaissances out of hopeless situations.
History and current events have proven this correct. This intrinsic ability has ensured that Western Europe and those countries in the “new world” that have a Western European mindset are always at the forefront of civilisational advancement and the progress of humanist behaviour. They were able to create a Renaissance right out of the Dark Ages, have always been at the forefront of human, civilisational, social, ethical advancement and egalitarianism. All the best civilisational contributions to humankind in the past few centuries to this day have either arisen out of Western Europe or similar societies in the “new world”. Why, even after the horrors of the two deadly World Wars that devastated Europe the most, they were able to build a continental system of peace, respect, equality and brotherhood. Who would have thought the countries which were at each others’ throats and baying for the blood of their enemies in the two World Wars and even for centuries before that would be the very same ones who would come together to create an experiment such as the EU? Even if the EU experiment fails, I don’t think Europe would go back to the bloody days of the first half of the previous century. I firmly believe Western Europeans are too intelligent to go back to such savagery. In any case, we have the very existence of Switzerland as a perfect and enduring example that once Western Europeans commit mistakes and learn from them, they have put it well behind them in their path of civilisational advancement.
This intrinsic ability of the mindset of the peoples of Western European Christendom to serve as the guiding beacon of human civilisational, societal and humanist advancement is the greatest gift to all of humankind, arising out of the continent of Europe. Indeed, it is something that I believe is the best gift to humankind and the planet EVER to have been contributed by a single region of the world. It’s largely because of the civilising influence of Christianity and the intensity with which Western European Christendom implemented Christian values. This is an enduring gift to humankind that will not be matched by any other region of the world for a long, long time to come. There is also the incomparable scientific and technological contribution of the so-called “West” to ALL of humankind, but great as it is, it is nothing when compared to their own humanist and civilisational contributions.
Even if Western Europe loses its prominence in the coming satanic times and does not serve as a guiding beacon to all of humankind like it did till now, the few civilised countries of Far East Asia will take over that mantle. But they would have learnt it from the Western Europeans and admirably built the same as a superstructure on the foundation of their existing culture. And, being a civilised people, the Far East Asians themselves would gladly say it anytime that the East Asians are the best at taking an existing thing and tuning it/polishing it/refining it to perfection, but actually inventing it is something best done by the Western Europeans.
I might sound effusive in my praise of Western European Christendom, but it is indeed true, and one has to give credit where it is due. I make no secret of the fact that I admire the civilised societies and the ability of their peoples to build such societies and their contributions to the betterment of ALL of humankind. Being someone who is completely aware of the sheer sadism and sub-humanism that the uncouth savages of the regressive turd world shit holes are capable of stooping down to, I look around at all the good things that exist in humankind today and realise that almost all of it is a product of the Western European mindset, and most parts of it can be traced straight back to the message of Christ.
So, let me (as a turd world heathen, but someone one who absolutely hates the typical, regressive, uncouth, hypocritical, lying, cheating, deceiving, primitive, sub-human turd world mentality) convey my hearfelt gratitude to Western European Christendom for all that they have contributed to the betterment and civilisational advancement of all of humankind, in the past centuries and continuing till this very day.
Kudos to them! :standing ovation: 🙂 Had it not been for the so-called “West” and the civilisational and humanist contributions by them, the entire world and all of humankind would be wallowing in terrible, utterly despicable misery and bloody sub-humanism of the worst kind. It’s the most enduring contribution of Western European Christendom to all of humankind to have given a radical shift in the collective consciousness of Earthlings from the uncouth, filthy and sub-human “age of turdy empires” as it existed then (and exists to this very day among the sub-human turd world empires, crap holes and their pea-brained, barbaric hordes) to the “age of enlightened humanism”.
I understand the satanist “global elite” scoundrels have planned the total destruction of all of Western Christendom by rapidly turd worldising (and by extension, dehumanising) them and are putting their nefarious plans into action. The scum, along with the sub-satanic turd world empires and their sub-human hordes are gleefully proclaiming that Europe (and the “West”) will slowly pass into complete oblivion and that they can perpetually rule over the planet after transforming it into a hell on Earth for everyone.
Let the turd world barbarians, savages, sub-humans and the criminalised global elite scum keep gloating about their nefarious, sadistic aims of turning the entire planet into one big spherical turd world shit pit. If you ask me, the sub-human hordes and the criminalised global elites are completely underestimating the intrinsic ability, ingenuity and inbuilt humanism of the civilised Western Christendom to rise like a phoenix from the ashes and come back even more civilised and advanced.
The planned “age of the sub-human turd world empires”, even if it happens, will be fairly short lived. The low-IQed, pea-brained barbarians of the filthy turd world empires will soon dig their own graves by their own evil, sadistic actions and satanic thirst for human blood and savagery. It won’t be too long before the civilised forces take up the mantle of acting as the guiding beacon for the advancement of humankind again!!!
🙂
Good to see you back, An Alien Earthling!
I am less optimistic than you about Europe as light bringer.The European union my parents fought for after the war, was based on the humanist hopes you speak about.But the actual union of lobby puppets in Brussels, hardly mirror the ideals of cultural enlightenment, who by the way, had to overcome the hierarchical structures of the church as only possible wisdom.
But, I agree with you that many critical minds still remain vigilant in Europe, and fight to protect humanist vallues.
I just think of this one almost empty newspaper few days ago, in Hungary out of protest against the media control law of their government, and I smile .
Merci, Antiphonsgarden! 🙂
Yes, I guess the EU was supposed to be a voluntary collective entity that would promote peace, justice, equality, goodwill, understanding, brotherhood, not to mention the most important one – trade and other exchanges among the devastated peoples of Europe after WWII.
While it has achieved many of the above-mentioned objectives, it has outgrown its brief and grown into a fe(de)ral monster sitting in Brussels and lording over the peoples of Europe. The feral bureaucratic horde in Brussels are indeed becoming far removed from the ordinary EU citizen while attempting to concentrate more and more power in their scaly hands.
But even if the EU experiment fails, it would only be the European Monetary Union and the idea of a common continental currency that would fail (due to a terrible tendency to get neck-deep in debt by many members when compared to the productivity-austerity-surplus model adopted by a few). The idea of a trans-national confederation of European nation states would NOT have failed as it is based on voluntarism, equality, liberty, fraternity, civilisational and humanist advancement and safeguarding of hard won human rights and NOT on sub-human barbarism, savagery, genocide, violent occupation, brutal oppression, blatant discrimination, sadism and sheer sub-satanism as is the case of all filthy, putrid, stinking, rotten turd world empires (such as the despicable shit pit called the sewery Indian empire).
I guess a point has been reached where it is best to make it possible for some countries to withdraw from the Euro and print their own currencies, just like some countries chose to stay in the EU and yet stay out of the Euro. Europeans can afford to let the Euro fail, and may be even let the bloated (and still inflating) Brussels bureaucracy fail, but they simply cannot afford to stop acting as the guiding beacon for all of humankind.
In a world that is becoming rapidly satanised with the growing clout of the sub-human sadistic hordes belonging to filthy, evil, sub-satanic turd world empires, humankind and the planet desperately needs the civilised and humane European mindset to guide it on the correct path. Of course, the Far East Asians too are a civilised peoples, but they are much fewer in number, are in a highly vulnerable region of the world and prefer to keep to themselves.
I’m glad to learn of that Hungarian newspaper’s protest too, especially considering that Hungary is struggling to get rid of the evil influence of the totalitarian Red hordes who kept the Magyars enslaved for half-a-century. In the shit pit of a turdy empire where I live, there is even no need for the gubmint to bring a media control law. As it is, voraciously arse-licking of the criminal sadistic scum who run the empire is the preferred work mode of the media whores. In fact, one infamous barking bitch belonging to a filthy “news” channel called Barkhing Dutt (among several others) got caught red-handed on leaked tapes as she was whoring herself to play the role of an intermediary between crooked corporate vermin and gubmint goons.
🙂
A friend of the family got hang in Hungary after the revolt he had join in, once by the Stalinist bunch who abused a valuable concept of solidarity for his own purposes.But this time, the danger is coming from a right wing movement, similarly stupid in his megalomaniac attempt to control the minds.
I guess that the fast expansion of The EU who got pushed on us, was not about higher aims for our all good, but to create some delocalising options of work and new spots allowing the old well know rip off games.
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