I talk with a lot of people who really want to make inner-work part of their day-to-day life, who want to figure themselves out and to start living a life that is more genuine, more authentic, more inspired and more joyous. Although well-intended and, at many levels sincere about their search, I have noticed, over time, that there is a defense mechanism that very often intervenes in order to protect the psyche from becoming aware of its own unhealthy patterns. I call this “the cobra effect”.
The term “cobra effect” originated in an anecdote that describes an occurrence in the time of British rule of colonial India. The British government was concerned about the number of venomous cobras in Delhi. The government, therefore, offered a bounty for every dead cobra. Initially, this was a successful strategy as large numbers of snakes were killed for the reward. Eventually, however, enterprising people began to breed cobras for the income. When the government became aware of this, the reward program was scrapped, causing the cobra breeders to set the worthless snakes free; the wild cobra population further increased.
As in the case of the cobra breeders, the individual, usually at a point where inner-work becomes uncomfortable and threatening to the (dis-eased) psyche, will attempt to sublimate one of their negative traits, patterns, behaviours, in a false attempt to solve a problem. Here is an example:
Let’s say a woman has a propensity towards eating disorders. She has had several bumps on the road with regards to eating unhealthily, too much or too little, etc. She is now at a point where she simply cannot go on eating the way she did (because of health problems, self-image issues, etc.). Let’s say she finds out about the ketogenic diet and she loves the idea, she likes most of the foods on the diet’s list, she is ready to make the shift. Under the umbrella of having a healthy regime, she will feel free to openly ingest exclusively what is recommended on her diet, only, with a twist. If you know anything about the ketogenic diet, you are aware that it is focussed on healthy fat, very little to no carbohydrates and ZERO sugar. So this woman will be able to stop herself from eating any form of sugar, but her fat intake will be way out of proportions and severely unhealthy (please research images of clean vs dirty keto online to understand this better). This woman will not have solved any of her self-sabotaging ways, and thus none of the consequences on her health and her image, on the contrary – she has brought in a much deeper layer of toxic shame, of disease to her body, and a grandiose sense of entitlement and/or victimhood.
As you might be able to see, the self-sabotage has been morphed into an acceptable form, where the individual has “normalized”, pseudo-sublimated her destructive patterns, where she can now keep her victimhood alive, through “not understanding” why she is still unhealthy. She can also feel a sense of entitlement because she is, after all, “doing the right thing” in following such a healthy regime. The toxic shame that is the root of her initial food disorder is maintained through her refusal to look into it.
If you have been on this recovery road for a while but still see no outer results, if you are using one of your weaknesses in a way that is less than authentic, you might be a slave of the “cobra effect”. Your psyche (some call it the Ego) has sneakily taken over the one thing that you need to eliminate from your life and gave it a golden hallow. What I mean by a golden hallow is the excitement that you feel when cognitive dissonance has been negotiated in a way where it is not felt any longer, but where the unhealthy behaviour has not stopped. In the case of the woman above, she feels ecstatic that she can still eat the unhealthy foods while thinking (lying to herself at some level) that she is finally doing the right thing for herself.
If you have troubles with relationships, it is not a different relationship that will make you healthy. If you have problems with addictions, it is not a socially accepted addiction that will heal your life. If you have financial problems, it is not a different job that would make you prosperous. Engaging with something different in the same way that always brought disease to you, while hoping to achieve better results, will only mask the problem better for a while, only for it to resurface later with more devastating results.
Please also take a look at this article on the same subject:
Self-Sabotage ~ The Solution You Weren’t Expecting: