Two Things Can Be True

In a disagreement two things can feel like opposites—but it can still be a fact that both things are true.

You wish they'd listen; they wish you'd not get so angry.

Your kid isn't going to that unsupervised sleepover; your kid is going to be furious about that for weeks.

When we start allowing for coexisting differences of opinion—when we stop feeling like the other person can only be super-wrong before we get what we want—something like change can start to occur. The idea that two things can be true dates back to the ancient Greeks, and in this episode, we discuss

the history of dialectical thinking

why our lizard brains love to overcategorize

how we can use the "two things can be true" script in our parenting

We're still figuring out how this works for ourselves, but the effort seems well worth it.

Here are links to some of the resources mentioned in the episode:

Dr. Becky on Instagram: How to Respond to Pushback With Firmness and Connection

Raising Good Humans with Dr. Aliza Pressman: Two Things Can Be True

Paul Sonderegger for Quartz: Forget the Turing Test—give AI the F. Scott Fitzgerald Test instead

Steven Reidbrd M.D. for Psychology Today: "Dialectics in Psychotherapy"

Oakwise Counseling: "Two Opposing Things Can Be True"

The poem "Good Bones" by Maggie Smith

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