I watched an episode of House yesterday where (as I understand it) the patient had neurological damage to the part of his brain that stores the inhibitors.  The result?  The patient was absolutely honest about everything that was on his mind.  He told the truth about everything – from telling Dr. Taub that his nose is laughably large, to telling the doctors that he thinks his daughter is intellectually below-average (while his daughter was in the room), to confessing to his wife that he thinks her career is worthless.

As Doctors Kutner and Taub discuss this, one of them mentions that after all these years, the patient is finally showing his “real” self.  The other doctor counters with the idea that if he’s spent so many years building up this “nice” persona, isn’t that just as much who he really is?

This situation just begs the question of all of us: What would I say?  What would I be like if that happened to me?

Personally, I try to be positive.  I try to be honest.  I don’t think I lie all the time, but I tend to focus on the positive side of the truth.  For example, when a student plays a piece for me, I critique by talking about what they did well, then mentioning how they can improve.  I don’t make comments like, “Boy, you really failed at measure 17.”  Is it somehow less honest to say, “Use more bow at measure 17 so you get a better tone”?

So what would I really say?  I have a feeling that most of it would be very self-oriented.  “I’m leaving my shoes on because my feet smell and my toes are gross.  I really like hanging out with you, but I’m worried you don’t like me because I never seem very smart or interesting around you.  I wish it wasn’t socially unacceptable to cut the cheese, because I’ve had really bad gas today.”  I’d wager that my “complete honesty” would be one long string of insecurities pouring out of my mouth.  If I ever got off the subject of myself, I hope my comments would not be too far away from how I already function around others.

I don’t like the notion that being completely honest means being rude or negative.  Our culture tells us that only naive, simple, ignorant people are nice.  We’re fed the lie that if we know or understand truth – if we’re really honest, then we’ll be much more negative.

What do you all think?