Psychology of losing

GM Wesley's Round 8 loss in Corus prompted me to do a little bit of research about the psychology of losing. I found two articles which I want to share with you.

Here is the first article:

"Losing is relative. The psychological effects kick in at different times for different people, based on your tolerance and history. . . The same loss to someone else may put them on serious TILT.

The basic psychological and physiological reaction to losing: Boiled down to it's absolute essence, losing Hurts! Not in an abstract way, but in a very real way. It makes your stomach churn, changes your blood pressure, constricts thousands of muscles and causes physical and mental anguish. Throw emotion on top of that and you have The Psychology of Losing.

It's real, we've all felt it, and it's no fun. So what? So this... when humans experience pain and discomfort we want to make it GO AWAY!! How do we do that? You're sitting in front of the computer so you click into another game as fast as possible. The best way to make the pain of losing go away is to WIN!!

And you want to win as quickly as possible. Add to that the fact that you're still kicking yourself for losing (whether justified or not)... How could you play so smart for 2 hours (at a ring game or MTT for instance) and then implode so quickly? And you have a recipe for disaster."

Here's the second article:

"Professional athletes are human and self introspection is so difficult. Clinically, people are very self protective and sensitive. Many see and view certain character traits and feelings that we all have to varying degrees (like making a mistake, or being afraid, feeling not good enough, or being defective) as fatal character flaws that need to be expunged, so they deny them and blame others. But they are really just protecting themselves.

Perhaps a better way to psychological recuperation and a more enhancing approach would be for each player-person to look at their own individual performances, and allow for some self-introspection, forgiveness and compassion. If given a chance this direction might allow for true personal and professional growth."