Some terms tend to be useful both in technical sciences and in the humanities, and sometimes even in everyday life. Among them there is a word with a stunningly simple and understandable meaning - aberration. What is this term and what is its true meaning? We will try to understand this, and also consider its meaning within some disciplines.
General concept
So, by itself, the word "aberration" is simply a "mistake". Depending on the sphere of use of this term, it can be synonymous with the words "self-deception", "falsehood", "distortion", "incorrect refraction" and even "astigmatism". It would be logical to ask why, instead of a specific scientific term that clearly corresponds to a certain field of knowledge, or instead of a simple word "error", it is necessary to use this complex term.
There is no need, just this word has Latin roots, where the first part ab is translated as "from", and the second - errare - as"wander" or "evade". The term, so to speak, is international and generally accepted, it will be clear to a representative of any field of activity. Of course, in everyday life we do not say to our children: "You committed an aberration by skipping school today", but in sociology, psychology, management and other sciences related to human life, the term is very common.
Astronomy
Most often it is in science that studies distant stars that the concept of aberration is used. What is it within the framework of astronomy and how to correctly understand the meaning of the word? This is an apparent displacement of one or another celestial body that does not take place in reality. Such an illusion arises due to the movement of the Earth and due to the finiteness of the speed of light. The beam can be refracted at a different angle if the point from which the observer makes his inspection of the sky shifts, as a result, the spectrum is distorted, and we see that the star has supposedly shifted. Compensating for this defect can be very simple: the telescope is installed at an angle of no more than 20 degrees.
An interesting fact: the fact that this is an aberration was known back in 1729, and it was possible to fix this phenomenon precisely due to the distortion of a beam of light. Since then, there has been no doubt that the Earth is round and rotates around its axis and the Sun.
Psychology
Well, within the framework of this science, the aberration of consciousness is more than widely considered. The term is incredibly widely used both in everyday psychological practice and in psychiatry. Most often he describesor other deviations from the norm of perception of the surrounding world. Aberration can be called this or that phobia, a state of constant anxiety, stress, various manias. In a more serious sense of the word, such "errors" of consciousness are called mental disorders of various kinds, schizophrenia, neurasthenia, as well as apathy or melancholy brought to the limit.
Management
Another area of knowledge within which there is the concept of "aberration of consciousness". Its essence lies in the fact that a person, climbing the career ladder, loses a sense of reality. Especially if his rise is associated only with his personal achievements, his talents, knowledge, experience, skills, etc. (that is, there was no outside help), the distortion of the perception of the labor process is quite real. This can manifest itself as tyranny towards employees, as excessive control, or as a lack of any activity against the background of the fact that "now I am in charge and everyone will work for me."
In order to avoid such an aberration in worldview, it is worth memorizing a simple truth like "Our Father": the stability of success will be maintained only under the condition of hard work, and management is the same profession as any other, only with different powers.
On the mental level
There is also such a thing as "memory aberration", which is very interesting by definition. It is assumed that a person, for one reason or another, remembersa particular event is not in the form in which it actually happened. As a result, all his subsequent thoughts, impressions and other memories associated with this initial one are also distorted. Memory aberration is considered not only from the point of view of psychology, but also at the esoteric or hypnotic level. It is believed that it is hypnosis that can bring back true memories.
Conclusion
We figured out that this is an aberration. The term is very capacious, it does not have a clear framework and does not belong to any particular branch of activity or science. Nevertheless, it is useful to know it - this will allow you to expand your horizons as much as possible and think about whether aberrations of this kind have ever happened in your life or work.
