The Forbidden Fruit (Psychology of Wisdom and Power)

 

*Written with Christian biblical assumptions

7 Minute Read

 

I have often heard people say that the forbidden fruit was sexual intimacy. Specifically, some people indicate that the pleasure associated with sex is too good to be true therefore it had to be forbidden before Adam and Eve sinned by having sex. Although this idea makes a lot of sense, let us unpack another point of view in this psychology-influenced opinion piece of what could have been meant by the forbidden fruit.

  

"When the woman saw that the tree was good for eating and a delight to the eyes and that the tree was desirable as a source of wisdom, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave some to her husband, and he ate" (Genesis 3:6)

 

The fruit can simply be interpreted as being wisdom. One can imagine as Eve and Adam ingested this fruit they began to know and understand things like never before; acquiring information and its dynamic use. My guess is like a child does not understand what it means to be naked, until they are told by their parents, Adam and Eve in a second became wiser, as though their childlike minds were matured by the fruit. Here, we can assume that the fruit deposited a bank of knowledge and experience which inevitably influences decision-making and thus action.

 

Why would wisdom be forbidden?


With wisdom comes great power as the more you come to know and understand the more you have authority in your life and over others. This could result in one becoming self-serving (greed, rape, killing, cheating, lying, influencing others for their own gain), or choosing to do what is right (sacrifice, sharing, transparency) which is not always easy. Wisdom can be used to achieve great feats or can be used to trick, manipulate, and dominate others. The combination of free will, wisdom, and feelings can become a very potent mixture and can corrupt its very holder.

 

What does this have to do with psychology?

 

When your actions are influenced by your own wisdom you become your own god. When you become your own god, you could create chaos or order. To avoid manifesting chaos from the wisdom you hold you have the responsibility to process your feelings and emotions and not become consumed by them balancing chaos and order through the successful management of cognitions, emotions, and behavior.

 

 

Psychological Responsibility and Consequence

 

To have wisdom and not abuse it, and harness it without letting it overpower you is the dilemma we are often tasked with as human beings. That saying "ignorance is bliss" is actually more profound than we give it credit as the more you come to know and understand the more power there is to wield and the greater the responsibility. In addition, as we attempt to process and work through the magnificent ability of our brains to adapt and attempt to wield wisdom and its power, glitches may occur whereby phenomena such as obsessions, paranoias, anxieties, psychosis, etc. pool in our consciousness creating a mental illness. For example, caution (being able to anticipate adverse outcomes in the future) is a natural biopsychosocial response necessary for survival, however, when there is too much of it, it can become fear when individuals generate solutions for problems that don’t exist (anxiety, stress, paranoia, panic, etc.). Wisdom generates caution, however, with human beings it has the potential to generate fear. 

 

Simplified example:

 

Imagine for a second what happens to a computer that has been loaded with advanced software that is incompatible; it may start to malfunction. In the same way, humans do not appear to have an in-born capacity to handle wisdom and through wars, crimes, and poor treatment of the self and others demonstrate a malfunctioning. However, there may be hope as we have the potential to evolve.

 

Psychological Mental Illness

It is through malfunctioning that we can begin to process; through trial and error (and other methods of advancement) we learn, and we grow and transcend our flaws and incompatibilities.

 

 

You are Your Family Tree and Social Chaos

Poor choices made by our parents or community leaders trickle down and become the example and burden of generations to follow. This may cause a never-ending ripple effect until someone, or a group of people finds a way to stop the flow of chaos or negatively impacting patterns of poor decision-making and behaviour. For example, growing up in an abusive household and becoming abusive yourself; grudges; family feuds; mass genocides; religious crimes; segregation, etc. Thus, not being able to adequately handle knowledge falls not only into the hand of the individual but the collective as we also suffer due to the mistakes of fellow humans.


In conclusion, to understand the fruit as representing wisdom you could envision the tree as a library; its books being the fruit you can eat, and what you read and learn being wisdom you achieve from ingesting the fruit. Wisdom may have been forbidden for humans as it comes with dire consequences when not handled with psychological effectiveness. 

 

 

 

 

Picture by: Pixels

 

Centered Consciousness