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Wait, Mikasa. Didn’t I say there were two options? I just mentioned the last resort that came to my mind as a basis for judgment. The rest is up to Armin’s judgment.”
“Huh?”
“I know that what I just said lacks practicality. The power of this Titan should function most effectively under the command of the Corps. If Armin can convince the Garrison Corps here that I’m not a threat, then I’ll believe and follow that. If he can’t, then we’ll resort to the last resort I mentioned earlier.”
“Decide within the next 15 seconds. Can you do it or not? I’ll respect either way.”
“Eren, why are you entrusting me with such a decision?”
“You’re good at guessing what’s right, especially in dire situations, aren’t you? That’s why I want to rely on you.”
“When have I done such a thing?”
“There have been many times, right? Like five years ago, if you hadn’t called for Hannes, both Mikasa and I would have been eaten by Titans and died.”
“Armin… if you have a plan… I’ll believe in that too.”
…I was just assuming things on my own. I was convinced I was powerless, a burden. But they didn’t think that at all…
…Where does their trust in me come from…? Saying they’ll entrust their lives to me… They are… the people I trust most in this world…
― Dialogue between Eren, Armin, and Mikasa from “Attack on Titan,” along with Armin’s inner thoughts.
When you’re about to go on a trip abroad, what do you imagine?
People who imagine meeting new people abroad or what they’ll see or eat there tend to have an extroverted personality.
People who imagine how they’ll feel or grow when they go abroad tend to have an introverted personality.
Debra Johnson experimented with the brain activity of introverted and extroverted people using positron emission tomography (PET) used in cancer screening.
Subjects were injected with a small amount of radioactivity and scanned to determine which parts of the brain were most active.
Two findings emerged from this research.
The first is that introverted people have more blood flow to their brains than extroverted people. A greater blood flow means that the brain is more active.
The second is that the blood of introverted people flows to the parts of the brain involved in “thinking” compared to extroverted people. The blood of introverts flowed to the parts of the brain responsible for memory, problem-solving, and planning, which are involved in “thinking.” In contrast, extroverts’ blood flowed to various parts of the brain responsible for sensory information such as “vision,” “hearing,” and “touch.”
Parents of children with characteristics such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and people with mental disorders such as depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia have difficulty or cannot build long-term relationships with others.
Children with characteristics such as ASD and ADHD face challenges such as not being able to live in groups and not being able to communicate with others properly. Many of the people who come to our company for consultation have children who are 2 to 3 years old and have problems such as not speaking or not following instructions, but those who have children who are 4 to 5 years old tend to have problems like those mentioned above.
People with depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and other mental disorders often cannot continue working or cannot build long-term relationships with partners because they cannot build long-term relationships with others.
People with some form of mental illness have a 64% chance of not getting married, and the probability of quitting their job within one year of employment is also 51%.
Unfortunately, except for those with special talents, most people in jobs require the ability to get along well with others. People with special talents may not be able to live well in society, but that’s another story for another time.
Therefore, what I propose to such people is to acquire “assertive communication skills.”
“Assertive communication” is communication that respects the other person while expressing one’s own feelings.
Building a Nice Relationship with Assertion – You Are OK, I am OK
“Assertive communication” was born in the 1970s during the women’s liberation movement in the United States. It is a concept born in a movement aimed at overcoming differences in race, gender, age, and position and understanding each other.
When talking about “assertive communication,” one tends to focus only on observing the other person and expressing one’s own feelings. However, here we hit a wall. Many people with children with ASD and ADHD or people with depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia have little or no experience facing the question of “what their feelings are.” To express one’s own feelings, one must face and know one’s own feelings. Many people with mental disorders tend to attribute the cause of their condition to others or society, but unfortunately, the cause of the disorder lies within the person themselves. In “assertive communication,” as in observing others, it is necessary to know oneself more than anything else.
You cannot practice “assertive communication” without knowing what you are seeking or what would make you happy. While “assertive communication” is often talked about as a technique, its essence lies in being true to oneself. No matter how much “assertive communication” you practice, if you don’t have “yourself,” you can’t convey yourself to others.
The essence of “assertive communication” is to aim for “yourself.” And people who are interested in their inner selves, such as introverts, tend to be more likely to demonstrate assertive communication skills naturally.