Dr. Brene Brown Explores Language, Boundaries, and Dehumanization

A New Brunswick, New Jersey-based strategic leader, Brenda Ross-Dulan leads The Ross Dulan Group and offers services aimed at enabling executives to make optimal decisions. Brenda Ross-Dulan feels a particular affinity for the ideas of Dr. Brene Brown, a TED Talk presenter who authored the 2017 book Braving the Wilderness.

One topic explored in the book is how language can be a starting point for dehumanizing others. Dr. Brown’s research draws a link between respecting well-defined boundaries and developing high-level compassion and empathy for others. When boundaries are not clear, a sense of threat or being taken advantage of can emerge, which makes it a challenge to remain open and empathetic.

While the physical safety aspect of the boundary equation is clear cut, the “emotional safety” aspect is more ambiguous and difficult for research participants to define. One thing that it does not involve is having hurt feelings or being unwilling to hear a dissenting opinion. Rather, it centers on dehumanizing behavior and language that blurs boundaries and removes inhibitions that prevent people from harming and degrading others.

As differences are defined within a binary framework that places people on opposing sides, positions can become rigid, and conflict may become the sought-after solution. With social media one potentially dehumanizing force, what Dr. Brown terms “rehumanizing” starts with the same types of words and images, but reestablishes the types of shared boundaries and values that start rebuilding empathy and trust.