I cannot begin to express how much THIS article resonated for me this morning while trawling Twitter (emphasis mine): Curiously, however, we subjects of late capitalism act as if there is infinite time to waste on work. Work looms over us as never before. “In an eccentric and an extreme …
“This is an original and unusual work whose purpose is to make madness” That’s what I read on the dust jacket flap for THE DIVIDED SELF, R.D. Laing’s first published examination of ‘ontological insecurity’ — the sense for some people that they’re losing themselves, becoming lost in the world. For …
One of my favourite psych ‘disorders’ is narcissism. This may have something to do with my Psych degree, or it may have something to do with meeting so many narcissists. Or it might just be all about me. See, that’s the irony of narcissism: a little can be quite healthy, …
From quotez: “The foundation of all mental illness is the unwillingness to experience legitimate suffering.” -Carl Jung Not sure I’d stretch it to ‘all’ mental illness (though, y’know, out of me & Jung, pick the famous psychologist type. So … ), but I’d pay this one. Avoidance is a mental …
doctor_k_ poses an eternally interesting series of questions: So : are you religious/irreligious? What role does it play in your life? What are the central tenets of your beliefs/ lack of beliefs? How do you reconcile the bits of your religion that don’t fit? If you have changed your religion …
Ditmar results announced: congratulations to all who won & all who were nominated! What she sez: Yay, Justine Larbalestier, for poking holes in that whole ‘woe is me, it’s just not the same around here since the golden age ended’ rubbish some people go on with. Please. I hate that …
More brain food for those recent discussions: “If the world was without any natural evil and suffering we wouldn’t have the opportunity, or nearly as much opportunity, to show courage, patience and sympathy.” – Richard Swinburne “When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters – one …
“However jewel-like the good will may be in its own right, there is a morally significant difference between rescuing someone from a burning building and dropping him from a twelfth-storey window while trying to rescue him.” Thomas Nagel, Mortal Questions Follow @deborah_b
It’s interesting how statements once meant to be inclusive have become exclusive. Like, take for example, B.F. Skinner. Skinner (1904-1990, or so the web tells me) is considered to be one of the forefathers of that particular school of psychology known as behaviourism. When I was studying psych, behaviourism was …
And in other ‘fun things you, too, can do’, today I updated my will. It was just an overdue thing — nothing at all to do with all the dying that’s featured in discussions lately. I stumbled across the half-completed will under an overdue water bill (which seemed particularly poignant …
“Suicides have already betrayed the body.” – Anne Sexton, Wanting to Die Today’s subject line was prompted by girliejones in our discussions on the suicide of Hunter S. Thompson. How do you pick a day to die? Not just die. How do you pick a day to inflict irrevocable violence …
But suicides have a special language. Like carpenters they want to know which tools. They never ask why build. – Anne Sexton, Wanting to Die http://www.poets.org/poems/poems.cfm?45442B7C000C07050E70 Thankfully, I want most to know ‘why build’. Thief — how did you crawl into, crawl down alone into the death I wanted so …