But he is apparently “a rational being who can make his own decisions”. While he’s certainly intelligent, he’s misguided in this particular direction. How can I persuade him to stop these thoughts?
There’s a personal aspect to your troubles that will be very hard for a group of internet strangers to address. I think the obvious next step would be to seek some sort of family counseling, where a trained therapist, who may deal with issues like this all the time, and hopefully has the training to manage the parent/child power dynamic, can help facilitate the conversation. That would be my biggest piece of advice. There’s no guarantee it will lead to the exact outcome you prefer, but it would be where I would start, were I in your shoes.
Alternatively, you might steer his energies and enthusiasms in a more constructive direction. For example, a few years ago, I was able to take a class on “the psychology of drugs,” which presented current science on issues related to recreational drug use. That might be a chance for him to get a deeper perspective on the science, under the tutelage of somebody who’s an actual expert and to whom he might be willing to defer.
But my guess is that this will be a hard one to solve just by arguing with him yourself.
I’m not sure if therapy would help, and my son would not willingly agree to it (he thinks most issues can be solved without outside intervention based on some past experiences, and I tend to agree).
He’s already into neuroscience and vying for a research internship at a local university, but thanks for the suggestion!
There’s a personal aspect to your troubles that will be very hard for a group of internet strangers to address. I think the obvious next step would be to seek some sort of family counseling, where a trained therapist, who may deal with issues like this all the time, and hopefully has the training to manage the parent/child power dynamic, can help facilitate the conversation. That would be my biggest piece of advice. There’s no guarantee it will lead to the exact outcome you prefer, but it would be where I would start, were I in your shoes.
Alternatively, you might steer his energies and enthusiasms in a more constructive direction. For example, a few years ago, I was able to take a class on “the psychology of drugs,” which presented current science on issues related to recreational drug use. That might be a chance for him to get a deeper perspective on the science, under the tutelage of somebody who’s an actual expert and to whom he might be willing to defer.
But my guess is that this will be a hard one to solve just by arguing with him yourself.
I’m not sure if therapy would help, and my son would not willingly agree to it (he thinks most issues can be solved without outside intervention based on some past experiences, and I tend to agree).
He’s already into neuroscience and vying for a research internship at a local university, but thanks for the suggestion!