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Emotional Pollution and the Cult of Feelings

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 23:47:51 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: <<<No matter how many self-help books and experts on talk shows insist that your feelings are "valid" and "appropriate," they cannot feel authentically like your own so long as they are mere reactions to someone else. If we allow the meaning of our lives to be subject to the vagaries of our reactions to the subtle emotional displays of others, we cannot help but fall into the present day quagmire of emotional pollution.

To feel genuine and empowered, like a person of substance, folks need to know more than whether their emotions are "appropriate." They need to know what they mean about the self. The meaning of our emotions cannot lie in how they feel, but in what they tell us about the current fidelity to your deepest values.>>>

Clip Source: blogs.psychologytoday.com

The popular psychology movement in the United States consists of hundreds of self-help books, magazines, Internet blogs, TV talk shows, and radio advice/call-in programs. The movement derives from an outdated form of psychotherapy based on the superficial doctrine that how you feel is who you are. Thus we live in a "cult of feelings," where what you feel has become at least as important as what you do.

Self-help books claim that to be "real" you have to explore all your feelings, without regard to the fact that "exploring" feelings amplifies and magnifies, i.e., distorts them, not to mention the fact that "exploring" your own feelings makes it difficult to see anyone else apart from your reaction to them.

People are now entitled to express every negative feeling they have, without regard to the effects on others,

result is a world rife with emotional pollution that divorces the superficial experience of emotions from their deeper meaning.

Tags: feelings, neurosis

Top Medical Myths

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 23:41:42 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Details at source.

Clip Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

HAVING SEX CAN CAUSE A HEART ATTACK IN MEN

How wrong is this? Fairly.

related myths? That sex is a form of exercise. In fact, it equates only to climbing two flights of stairs.

HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE CAUSES HEADACHES

How wrong is this? Very. An astronomically high blood pressure might cause a headache, but this is rare.

related myths? That high blood pressure causes dizziness. No,

DIABETICS CRAVE SUGAR

How wrong is this? Fairly.

related myths? That diabetics need to buy special, low-sugar versions of food and drink. They don't - a simple healthy diet will suffice.

WOMEN NEED TO EXAMINE THEIR BREASTS

How wrong is this? Very.

DIETS CUT CHOLESTEROL

How wrong is this? Fairly.

HEADACHES ALONE CAN BE A SIGN OF A BRAIN TUMOUR

How wrong is this? Totally.

YOU SHOULDN'T MIX ANTIBIOTICS AND ALCOHOL

How wrong is this? Totally,

YOUR TIREDNESS MAY BE CAUSED BY ANAEMIA

How wrong is this? Fairly.

FLU JABS GIVE YOU FLU

How wrong is this? Totally.

Tags: medical myths

Myths of Mental Illness: chemicals or people?

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 19:38:46 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry Is Medicating a Nation by Charles Barber

Excellent interview with author, difficult to do justice in clip. Part of the growing critique of the myth that mental distress is solely a matter of chemical imbalance, 'hardwiring', genetics etc. Relocates the human in culture and ideology rather than identifying a biological misfunctioning atom.

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

Author Charles Barber discusses Americans' unrealistic notions about happiness. We've medicalized a lot of life issues that aren't mental illnesses.

Mental illnesses were thought of as the product of chemical imbalances, or that you're genetically programmed a certain way. Those concepts have completely entered the culture, and you can't pick up a publication without some latest genetic explanation of, for instance, schizophrenia.

This can be very dangerous to think of in such simple terms. In psychiatry in particular, it sets up this division of a house divided against itself: genes versus environment, psychotherapy versus drugs, or nature versus nurture. The sophisticated thinkers understand that these things work together in an infinite dance.

the way the studies are reported, it's all hard wired and chemical imbalance-related. These things are just cartoons of the science. There is no clear chemical imbalance for any mental illness.

Tags: mental illness

Stages of Life & Philosophy

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 18:43:40 GMT

clipped by: Sheroug

Clip Source: www.alionline.net

stages of life

806. Every stage of life corresponds to a certain philosophy. A child appears as a realist; for it is as certain of the existence of pears and apples as it is of its own being. A young man, caught up in the storm of his inner passions, has to pay attention to himself, look and feel ahead; he is transformed into an idealist. A grown man, on the other hand, has every reason to be a sceptic; he is well advised to doubt whether the means he has chosen to achieve his purpose can really be right. Before action and in the course of action he has every reason to keep his mind flexible so that he will not have to grieve later on about a wrong choice. An old man, however, will always avow mysticism. He sees that so much seems to depend on chance: unreason succeeds, reason fails, fortune and misfortune unexpectedly come to the same thing in the end; this is how things are, how they were, and old age comes to rest in him who is, who was and ever will be.

Goethe, Maxims and Reflections

Hypothosis gains validity from objections.

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 17:04:02 GMT

clipped by: graphictruth
clipper's remarks: Do extremism and an unconditional adherence to religious dogma result from a failure of a portion of the frontal lobe to fully develop or, if fully developed, to activate? Studies suggest that faithful adherence to a single reasoning strategy on tests such as the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test means that parts of the frontal lobes are inactive, have failed to fully develop, or have even been damaged. Thus, unqualified disdain for divergent beliefs,for personal interpretation, and for creative theories like Darwin’s theory of evolution, may indeed have, at least a partial, biological explanation: a reduced utilization of that section of the brain which has played such a vital role in humanity’s creative advances—the frontal lobes. By unconditionally obeying religious tenets—or any dogma—some people may be relying on the phylo-genetically older, more posterior portions of the brain that store knowledge and enable consistent or stable behaviors and, unknowingly, circumventing the portion whi

Clip Source: www.tikkun.org

The evolving and growing complexity of the human brain allowed our ancestors the ability to question, wonder, and consider new possibilities—to be creative. Life altering advances were the result. Is unconditional adherence to dogma (whether religious or secular) at odds with this evolved capability and our full potential as creative beings?

Adherence begets consistency or stability; questioning, searching, and discovering innovative alternatives, which is creativity, leads to change.

The implication that adherence behavior could involve a more primitive or phylogenetically older portion of the brain should not be an altogether startling notion. After all, given the most basic understanding, we would expect that early humans eventually became unstuck from various conditions because of an increasingly evolved reasoning power. Our capacity for creativity expanded and so we conceived of new and often better ways to do things.

Tags: bizarre, mental health, fundimentalism, religion, conservatives

Did an Ancient Language of Universal Symbols Exist?

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 09:24:43 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Over the last several years, similar petroglyphs have been identified on as many as five continents. They all date from roughly the same time-period. In the late 20th century, archaeologists discovered a collection of symbols carved in stone as petroglyphs in the Negev desert of Israel that appeared to be writing. Dating of these symbols showed that they were made over an extended period time, beginning around 1700 BC.

This strange collection of symbols was first examined by Dr. James Harris, a petroglyph expert and archaeologist from Brigham Young University. He identified the alphabet as being a proto-Canaanite system, which successfully translated by using old-Hebrew or Thalmudic phonetic sounds.

Earlier, William McGlone, an amateur archaeologist and retired space engineer, discovered the same collection of symbols carved in heavily patinated stones surrounding the Southeast town of La Junta, Colorado

the patina corresponded to the same era as the writing found in Harkarkom in Israel.

Tags: petroglyphs, archaeology, language, symbols

Turning Israeli Soldiers into Animals: by Israeli Soldiers

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 08:01:13 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: A force for justice

Breaking the Silence was formed four years ago by a group of ex-soldiers, most of whom had served in Israel Defence Forces combat units in Hebron. Many of the soldiers do reserve duty in the military each year. It has collected some 500 testimonies from former soldiers who served in the West Bank and Gaza. Its first public exposure was with an exhibition of photographs by soldiers serving in Hebron and the organisation also runs regular tours of Hebron for Israeli students and diplomats. It receives funding from groups as diverse as the Jewish philanthropic Moriah Fund, the New Israel Fund, the British embassy in Tel Aviv and the EU.

Clip Source: www.independent.co.uk

In shocking testimonies that reveal abductions, beatings and torture, Israeli soldiers confess the horror they have visited on Hebron

In a confessional interview with the Israeli Channel Two investigative programme Uvda, Gigi, who had previously been in many ways a model soldier, talked of "losing the human condition" in Hebron. Asked what he meant, he replied: "To lose the human condition is to become an animal."

In its introduction to the testimonies, Breaking the Silence says: "The soldiers' determination to fulfil their mission yields tragic results: the proper-normative becomes despicable, the inconceivable becomes routine ... [The] testimonies are to illustrate the manner in which they are swept into the brutal reality reigning on the ground, a reality whereby the lives of many thousands of Palestinian families are at the questionable mercy of youths. Hebron turns a focused, flagrant lens at the reality to which Israel's young representatives are constantly sent."

Tags: male violence, israeli military