“People lie to themselves most of the time”, interview with Imre Csernus

Similarly to the above, an important question is also whether how we can change our bad habits. The answers to Dívány’s questions already dr. Psychiatrist Imre Csernus was given by the person we met in Eger, at the Almagyar Archbishop’s Vineyard.

Why did you replace the doctor’s room with this beautiful atmospheric environment?

I didn’t replace it.

So does that mean you are practicing the same way now as before?

Years ago, when I was just working as a doctor, once out of curiosity I counted how many people I meet in a month. Then, the final result broken down for a year was a number in the tens of thousands. This means that if we count twenty working days per month and I can deal with about 8 people per day, then an average of 1,200 patients visited me in a month. That’s when I realized that what I do as a doctor is actually secondary prevention.

I thought about what it would be like if I could find a method and a tool to help primary prevention, and people would come to me with even a very small problem, such as a blockage.

Because a lot of blockages, a lot of little goes a long way, requires secondary prevention after a while, which burdens the public health sector much more than it should, as if we were pursuing primary prevention. That’s when I started looking for the tools with which I was able to reach many people. This became the media, at that time with the subscription TV show, then books, various YouTube videos, and other platforms. I never changed the doctor’s room.

I have always remained a doctor, I just work differently.

But it must be the end result of a conscious decision that, even as a doctor, he went out into nature.

Dealing with people even when I’m giving a talk is actually one hard work because today’s people read more and more, know more and more, go to see specialists. So it is equipped with a lot of defense mechanisms. Breaking through this, or leading them to a different path with the right logic, is a huge job.

And in the meantime, let’s not forget that people basically lie to themselves most of the time.

However, nature does not lie, the energies are clean here. When the sun shines, the sun shines. When the ice breaks, the ice breaks. And I need clean energies, because they nourish me, from them I get back the energy I put out. This is the most effective method for me, being in nature, from which, armed, I go to hell tuned up.

Do you live your work like it’s hell?

No, it’s a chore.

Is it more work than being here among the vines, since you also work here, do your work here?

You know, making a coffee here or talking about what’s on offer is one thing. But just imagine that when you feel comfortable in your own skin, people come who they are not okay with themselves at all with the world. This is not a peaceful story, it is work.

In his latest book, he undertook to decipher what it means to be Hungarian. If you had to summarize all of this in a few sentences or words instead of in 300 pages, how would it sound? May I also ask how you would briefly describe Hungarians?

We have ourselves to thank for that virtus has ceased to exist in us. And most of all in acute situations that generate different intense emotional states. We throw ourselves back and forth and are afraid, because the “adult-looking” is afraid of a lot of things.

He is afraid of failure and has no idea what the difference is between failure and failure. He tries to fit in with his surroundings. He only wants to hear the good.

You don’t hear honest criticism, but you can actually learn from it, then change. We mastered the lamentation, envy and malice. We cannot rejoice in the success of others, we do not help the other, and we do not want to notice that the other is also human. We are full of ourselves. Add one to all of these highly developed rationality. Because we are strong in that too. The Hungarian man is resourceful, he lives even on the back of the ice. Regardless, we changed with difficulty, and not because of fear, but because we are lazybecause to think and act differently would be work, and we we are used to quasi-comfort, which some people like to use here divide and conquer principle Based on.

How do you explain the Péter Magyar and Azahriah phenomena?

When I started writing the book, Péter Magyar was not in the public consciousness. But in general I can say that people like to have their own conflicts resolved by others. Always looking for rescuers. The only question is why they don’t find it in themselves. The people you mentioned are all secondary solutions, and it doesn’t matter what they are called, none of them will ever be a structural cause treatment. Because a prophet will always come, but prophets disappear sooner or later. And then what about the common man? Who cares about that? However, this is exactly what I am interested in, because I am a doctor.

But don’t we need such prophets to change people’s minds?

No, for that you need self-awareness. Singular first personal self-awareness to realize that I I can solve my fears.

How can this be a collective consciousness?

If there are many such individuals, sooner or later the critical mass will developand the critical mass will realize that they want to be manipulated, and the critical mass, already self-aware, will have the courage to say no. In other words, its influence decreases and ceases. That is he stands up for himself. And he doesn’t swallow, he tolerates and listens. As many people usually do today.

Do you see a chance for this change? Because – and looking at it from this point of view, I think much more naively – many people thought for a long time that the current generation of 30s and 40s would bring a kind of change of attitude.

There will be no change until most people know how this would also be necessary emotionally for adulthood.

Most people have not grown up emotionally.

Does this also mean that we haven’t grown up enough to feel truly Hungarian?

This is why, we feel it with a spark for example, when the various sporting events. The feelings that arise at this time last for two weeks. How do you think a working man feels now after the first two matches we played at the European football championship and after they kicked us out, while beforehand it was a completely different voice. Is he now proud of being Hungarian, or is he ashamed? I don’t think he would be proud of the performance, but quite a proud character to admit that the boys did not work with heart and soul. However, the boys did not work with all their heart and soul. But now too the excuses will come the explanations that it is not our fault.

We are envious, we bury our heads in the sand, we look for scapegoats – this is the picture that emerges of us. But what can we do to prevent our children from thinking this way? How can these fixations, the long-suffering past be overwritten?

For example, it is with honesty to ourselves. By starting to consistently do things differently every day, say our feelings to see our shortcomings and change them. When I get up, I have two options. I already start my day gloomily or smiling. It’s up to me, regardless of the fact that we lost to the Germans at the European Championship, because that makes me still believe in myself and feel good in my own skin.

In other words, we need to set an example and to live differently in a crisis situation.

In his opinion, our national anthem could also benefit from a change. By scanning the QR code in the book, you can listen to the version in which Dömjén Szilveszter revised the music of the Anthem. This new version is definitely more dynamic than the original. Did you have a say in this, or did you entrust the work to the composer?

I just asked pace yourself. Change can be started with slow, gradual steps, because no matter what kind of change, Hungarian people are incredibly afraid, because he should say it, admit his own responsibility, that he allowed it to happen. At such times, it also occurs to us that if it has been this way until now, it will be good after that why would I want change…

As you mentioned earlier, if there is no critical mass, there is no change. However, the root of everything is self-confidence. But from what, where should we draw confidence from?

A a feeling of success from solving our conflicts develops self-confidence. Yes, but we do not accept conflicts because we are afraid of our own little million. Me they were never seen as Hungarian abroad, they always thought I belonged to another nation. They thought of themselves as members of a nation that believed in themselves. Many times they didn’t even want to believe that I was Hungarian.

Because Hungarians abroad are uncertain about who compensates with money and who compensates in other ways.

Everyone finds a solution to uncertainty in their own toolset, for which it is enough just to not know the language. There are very few who do explains with hands and feet and makes himself understood. There are some, but most people say: “Sorry, I don’t speak English well. Sorry.” But why do we say this, since we are responsible for not learning English. Yes, but it should be said boldly. But that’s not what happens, because at that moment we would be authentic.

Can’t we consider this more of a politeness formula?

With which we indulge in self-destruction…

Do I understand correctly that the sense of identity is not only a feeling, but also the result of conscious work?

You see, that’s what my book is about. Look at the Americans, they teach children from a young age to be proud to be american. They believe this and behave accordingly, even if it has no right to exist.

All in all, the picture he has painted of the Hungarians so far is not very bright.

Of course! Imagine, I once read in a psychiatry textbook that a negative crisis can be seen in such a way as to turn it into a positive one. I say what the hell?! How to do this? And I started wondering how to make it happen. My first insight into this was when I worked with addicts who put a horrifying amount of energy into self-destruction by lying, making excuses, using drugs, and escaping from reality.

That’s when I realized what a great energy it was and realized I had the key.

I started this high energy consistently and gradually to use for self-development, and there was the solution.

Are people receptive to this solution key that you offer them?

No, not yet. The positive return of what I do generations later it will happen, but I have no problem with that. I am almost 60 years old, that way I may not experience the consequences anymore. You know, I have been for a long time I do what I believe in. And I feel good about it.

If you want to read why János Lackfi steered his life into a new direction, read the Our interview with József Attila award-winning Hungarian poet, writer and translator is.