Rationalization and Long Term Care

The third article in a series written by LTC Tree Advisor, Joe Houston, M.Ed., LPC, CRC 

Rationalization is that psychological process that we use to explain to ourselves and others the reasons for our actions, and it is used to defend the vision we have of ourselves.  It is not a conscious process and the person always believes his rationalizations are correct.  The rationalizer almost always presents his behavior as exemplary and reasonable, seldom admitting to any underhanded motives.  This article will discuss this common psychological behavior that people use when it comes to avoid planning for needing long term care.  Imagining yourself needing long term care from an auto accident at age 45 or developing Alzheimer's at age 85 is certainly not a pleasant thing to think about, most don't, they choose to rationalize in their own minds on why they are special and will not need care.  The sophisticated investor and planner who do buy long term care insurance and the ones that can take their emotions out of the decision and just look at the facts. 

Suppose a man decides to invest considerable amounts of money in some speculative, gold-mining stock.  His wife, knowing that he has a significant gambling problem, suggests that he's only doing it because he enjoys this type of high-risk behavior.  But the man does not think of himself as a gambler, considering himself a shrewd investor.  Thus he defends his behavior by saying that gold is a good investment in bad times, pointing out that even blue-chip stocks are not doing well at the moment, and that his dear wife knows nothing about the stock market and investments.  This is a rationalization, designed to cover up his true motive, which is to get a thrill out of gambling.

You will recall in our discussion on repression that these people have and empty psychological void inside them--one that cries out to be filled by something worthwhile.  Rationalization often seems to fill this void, but the benefit is short-lived and ultimately unsuccessful.  But it does help to get feelings and thoughts from the unconscious mind into conscious behavior, which gives a sense of security.

Another aspect of rationalization is that most people do think of themselves as rational, logical persons; to think otherwise would mean that we would have to see ourselves as childlike, letting emotions rule us.  And we don't like visions such as this of ourselves.  So whatever activities we are engaged in, we always construct reasons to justify our actions, as stupid as some of them may be.  Activities based on facts need no rationalizations, but individual fantasies do!

If you suspect someone is using rationalization in a particular instance, and wish to confront this behavior, just ask the person to consider some alternative motives that are different than the ones he'll admit to.  If he refuses or tries to sidestep the issue, you can be sure he is rationalizing.  Yesterday, in the President's round table with the members of Congress, trying to reach a consensus on the health care reform, I saw a lot of rationalization going on.  Everyone was using reasons to defend their position, but they all seem to be groping in the dark, with very little provable facts to back their positions.  Governmental rationalization.

In the matter of whether one should purchase long term care insurance or not, the provable facts are that people 65+ years of age have a provable seventy five percent chance of needing it before we die .  One common rationalization is that we convince ourselves that we are in that fifty percent that won't need it.  We can further rationalize by thinking that we come from a family who has never needed any type of long term care, so why would I?  We should ask the rationalizer if there is another reason, other than he thinks he has superior DNA.  It is likely that such a person views himself as strong and hardy, with great resistance to diseases.  I would in turn counter with, "Are there no people in your family who died young, were in bad accidents, had heart attacks or strokes, caught serious diseases, or lived to an old age?  Because the longer we live the more likely we will need long term care, especially since medical science now has the ability to keep us alive and kicking, whereas our ancestors didn't live long enough to get some of the diseases we are now prone to.

All of should use rationalization in our lives as little as possible, because it diverts us away from reality.  Admittedly reality is not always pleasant, but to avoid it usually digs us into a deeper hole.  In all areas where we develop attitudes and opinions about things, our touchstone should be to culture our attitudes around the facts as much as possible.  As that great American psychologist, Carl Rodgers said,  " The facts are friendly."  With the facts we always know where we are.  Without them we are lost.  I don't know about you, but I don't like being lost.  Buying long term care insurance to protect you and your family from the high cost of receiving long term care will prevent you from becoming financially lost and ending up of government welfare (Medicaid).  Plan today, so you may enjoy tomorrow.