I recently read [The Corruption of Reality] and it explains that what the human mind seeks the most is order. One way to achieve a sense of order out of a chaotic and frightening world is to dissociate, which can happen in many ways, some pretty obvious (like tv or music) and others not so obvious. The book argues that many forms of mental illness - if not all - are extreme forms of dissociation. For example, obsessive compulsive disorder, in which the mind dissociates from reality by occupying itself with obsessive order and tidiness.
Or paranoia, in which the mind, rather than facing the vast unknowns and dangers of reality, prefers to create, or focus and exaggerate a single manageable threat, even if it suffers while dissociating into this delusion.
Or bulimia and anorexia. The obsession of eating disorders is an attempt of the mind to have something to control as a way to dissociate from life. Some mental illnesses are specific to certain cultures because they relate to cultural taboos and fears, like bulimia. Another example: some Native Americans suffer from 'windigo', which is a form of mad cannibalism, because the cultural taboo against eating human flesh is very strong. So, paradoxically, the unconscious mind, rather than live under the constant pressure and fear of life, obsesses with a very strong taboo, until it decides to flee further into dissociation by becoming that which it fears the most. The mind would rather live in the 'controlled' (from an unconscious level) and predictable misery of such a delusion than face reality! The content of the delusion is actually secondary in importance for the unconscious mind; what it achieves in terms of dissociation is what fuels it.
Mental illnesses aside, I think this theory goes a long way in explaining many negative thought loops and obsessions, which we could say are mild forms of mental illness. When we are stuck into a negative thought loop that is only making us suffer and will not leave us alone, we are dissociating! Because the mind would rather have this sense of 'order' than face the complex, unpredictable, fearsome, threatening and largely unknown reality. How it manages to dissociate is just instrumental to the purpose of escaping from reality into a predictable and well known fantasy (or thought loop).
So in many cases, I think that negative thought loops will become more manageable, or perhaps go away completely, if we realize that the thought that is obsessing us is not important in itself, and that in reality our mind has simply found an excuse to dissociate - in a way that makes us miserable. Realize that if the mind needs dissociation, there are less destructive forms than negative thought loops.
When I went to the library and got the Myth of Sanity, quite a few of the books I wanted they didn't have so I grabbed a couple of books on the shelf next to it that looked interesting, and I must have grabbed that book..so I have it... wow..
