psychology

The Specters in Observance

~ DC ~ Leave a comment

treehand

deceptions of an arrested understanding

a soul in unrest
attached in the mire on this journey’s quest
I beg for release
from bondage that won’t cease
a mind that must heal
somebody help me
I’m falling, can’t seem to deal
I don’t want to think, don’t want to feel
the questions I keep asking
the answers must I fight
the forsaken rules taunt me
a claim that proves itself right
awaken the passion
align this plight
amuse these memories
settle the voices
I cannot escape in the night

The Observance of Specters and the Specters within our Observations

As a child I learned to pay close attention to the ways I was treated by others.  As I grew older and reached other stages in my maturation, I continued to learn about the effects of our behaviors and searched for a guiding philosophy.  Indeed I am still learning life’s lessons and think there is no finish line in developing oneself, rather, there is a fluent continuous process that evolves us.  As far as I can surmise, I was a normal kid, but I somehow developed sensitivities that continue to operate within me to this day.

I have often been told that “I think too much”, “I care too much”, or “I worry too much”.  It is like having a Super-ego on steroids.  I can’t recount the times I have stalled from taking action on something I wanted to pursue because I did not want to fail at it, or quite possibly the reason could have been due to the fact that I was shy in my boyhood.  My honest assessment is that I was probably too fearful of doing something wrong, and that the judgement of others weighed heavily over my consideration in some social settings.  I equate this scenario as possessing a naive perspective, and without having many resources to turn to other than my own thoughts, I did not feel like I could turn to anyone for advisement, that I was shy, and that I possessed an injured self-esteem.

Knowing this about myself, I must have been susceptible to receiving an ethos for that platonic theme of finding the best possible life when I think of my desire to know about why we treat others the ways in which we do.  I can visualize the platonic dialogs that circle my head as I think of them

  • The Republic & Crito (Justice)
  • Phaedrus & Symposium (Love)
  • Gorgias (Rhetoric)
  • Euthydemus & Protagoras (Sophistry)
  • Lysis (Friendship)
  • Meno & Protagoras (Virtue)
  • Philebus & Theaetetus (Knowledge & Pleasure)

I will never truly know why this ethical prerogative has been infused in my psyche.  I first pursued psychology as a way to understand the questions that seemed to always plague me.  I then naturally studied philosophy and opened my mind up for further discoveries about the human condition.

As time continues to place us in situations, and as we fare through these experiences one after another, we form opinions about ourselves and the world.  These judgements and beliefs from these experiences are often compartmentalized and stored within our memories.  Sometimes we are aware of them, and sometimes they are stored within deeper realms of thought that we are not so aware of.  The possibility for these sub-conscious ideas and beliefs emerging and expressing themselves within our personalities and behaviors without a deeper understanding of them seems to be a logical assumption.

As my surveillance of the world has a tendency to incontrovertibly find the grievous elements in human behavior; the insipid parts of our existence that penetrate my discerning eye, I more often than I would like to admit, regret this disposition.

I reach out to a world and find an ocean of misguided anguish-ridden souls, and a desert (scarcely populated) of visionaries.  My surveyance is preoccupied and tends to place my attention on elements that do not please the ethical aesthetic.  I spot them with uncanny ability that seems to haunt me like a curse.  But despite these observations, there remains a path for the traveler to choose how one would like to travel.  Learn to detach and separate one from a life you are not in favor of is the course of action.  Build the skills to look beyond the crass, and beyond the foul spirited such as they will always be a part of our world.  Look to the path that is hardest to travel, yet rewarding to traverse.  Fortunately one can train oneself, and can appreciate all the positive attributes that keep the spirit uplifted and resist the skeptical and rescind the nay-saying antagonists.

The fact that there is a mass misunderstanding of an ethical life in our world should not stain our souls with disgust.  The soul often tires from a constant barrage of ill-founded exhibitions in its passage through the world.  So too can the soul thrive on a healthier dynamic that can uplift oneself and others if it remains in a befitting disposition.  Again the Specters in our observances must be brought out into the open and extinguished to allow for a better perception for us to see the possibilities in our world.

Existimo Ergo Scribo

~ DC ~ 4 Comments

pen-ink

Existimo ergo scribo
Je pense donc que j’écris
Jeg tror derfor jeg skriver
Ich denke daher, dass ich schreiben
Creo que por eso escribo
i think therefore i write

One of the pleasures I have customarily acquainted myself with is writing down my thoughts, feelings, studies, research, and perceptions about the world. Being a fan of journal writing for some time, I have realized it has allowed me to assiduously concentrate on my subject and therefore crystallize my thoughts for a deeper understanding, one that allows me to go back, rethink, and even update my perspective upon further analysis.

The problem with self analysis is usually the ego, a faulty self- perception, or in the process of introspection that has been debated over its reliability as taken out of this Wikipedia excerpt….

Introspection, as the term is used in contemporary philosophy of mind, is a means of learning about one’s own currently ongoing, or perhaps very recently past, mental states or processes. You can, of course, learn about your own mind in the same way you learn about others’ minds—by reading psychology texts, by observing facial expressions (in a mirror), by examining readouts of brain activity, by noting patterns of past behavior—but it’s generally thought that you can also learn about your mind introspectively, in a way that no one else can. But what exactly is introspection? No simple characterization is widely accepted. Although introspection must be a process that yields knowledge only of one’s own current mental states, more than one type of process fits this characterization.

Introspection is a key concept in epistemology, since introspective knowledge is often thought to be particularly secure, maybe even immune to skeptical doubt. Introspective knowledge is also often held to be more immediate or direct than sensory knowledge. Both of these putative features of introspection have been cited in support of the idea that introspective knowledge can serve as a ground or foundation for other sorts of knowledge.

Introspection is also central to philosophy of mind, both as a process worth study in its own right and as a court of appeal for other claims about the mind. Philosophers of mind offer a variety of theories of the nature of introspection; and philosophical claims about consciousness, emotion, free will, personal identity, thought, belief, imagery, perception, and other mental phenomena are often thought to have introspective consequences or to be susceptible to introspective verification. For similar reasons, empirical psychologists too have discussed the accuracy of introspective judgments and the role of introspection in the science of the mind.

Criticisms
See also: Introspection illusion
Already in the 18th century authors had criticized the use of introspection, both for knowing one’s own mind and as a method for psychology. David Hume pointed out that introspecting a mental state tends to alter the very state itself; a German author, Christian Gottfried Schütz, noted that introspection is often described as mere “inner sensation”, but actually requires also attention, that introspection does not get at unconscious mental states, and that it cannot be used naively – one needs to know what to look for. Immanuel Kant added that, if they are understood too narrowly, introspective experiments are impossible. Introspection delivers, at best, hints about what goes on in the mind; it does not suffice to justify knowledge claims about the mind.[15] Similarly, the idea continued to be discussed between John Stuart Mill and August Comte. Recent psychological research on cognition and attribution has asked people to report on their mental processes, for instance to say why they made a particular choice or how they arrived at a judgment. In some situations, these reports are clearly confabulated.[16] For example, people justify choices they have not in fact made.[17] Such results undermine the idea that those verbal reports are based on direct introspective access to mental content. Instead, judgements about one’s own mind seem to be inferences from overt behavior, similar to judgements made about another person.[16] However, it is hard to assess whether these results only apply to unusual experimental situations, or if they reveal something about everyday introspection.[18] The theory of the adaptive unconscious suggests that a very large proportion of mental processes, even “high-level” processes like goal-setting and decision-making, are inaccessible to introspection.[19] Indeed, it is questionable how confident researchers can be in their own introspections.
One of the central implications of dissociations between consciousness and meta-consciousness is that individuals, presumably including researchers, can misrepresent their experiences to themselves. Jack and Roepstorff assert, ‘…there is also a sense in which subjects simply cannot be wrong about their own experiential states.’ Presumably they arrived at this conclusion by drawing on the seemingly self-evident quality of their own introspections, and assumed that it must equally apply to others. However, when we consider research on the topic, this conclusion seems less self-evident. If, for example, extensive introspection can cause people to make decisions that they later regret [2], then one very reasonable possibility is that the introspection caused them to ‘lose touch with their feelings’. In short, empirical studies suggest that people can fail to appraise adequately (i.e. are wrong about) their own experiential states.
Another question in regards to the veracious accountability of introspection is if researchers lack the confidence in their own introspections and those of their participants, then how can it gain legitimacy? Three strategies are accountable: identifying behaviors that establish credibility, finding common ground that enables mutual understanding, and developing a trust that allows one to know when to give the benefit of the doubt. That is to say, that words are only meaningful if validated by one’s actions; When people report strategies, feelings or beliefs, their behaviors must correspond with these statements if they are to be believed.[20]
Even when their introspections are uninformative, people still give confident descriptions of their mental processes, being “unaware of their unawareness”.[21] This phenomenon has been termed the introspection illusion and has been used to explain some cognitive biases[22] and belief in some paranormal phenomena.[23] When making judgements about themselves, subjects treat their own introspections as reliable, whereas they judge other people based on their behavior.[24] This can lead to illusions of superiority. For example, people generally see themselves as less conformist than others, and this seems to be because they do not introspect any urge to conform.[25] Another reliable finding is that people generally see themselves as less biased than everyone else, because they are not likely to introspect any biased thought processes.[24] These introspections are misleading, however, because biases work sub-consciously.

These fail to mention the contributions made in the field of philosophy of language by Ludwig Wittgenstein, W.V. Quine, Linguist Noam Chomsky, and the early 19th century Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard insisted that language ought to play a larger role in Western philosophy. He argues that philosophy has not sufficiently focused on the role language plays in cognition and that future philosophy ought to proceed with a conscious focus on language: “If the claim of philosophers to be unbiased were all it pretends to be, it would also have to take account of language and its whole significance in relation to speculative philosophy … Language is partly something originally given, partly that which develops freely. And just as the individual can never reach the point at which he becomes absolutely independent … so too with language.”   Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855). In Cloeren, H. Language and Thought. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1988

The reader must please excuse the author from all of this background digression on my simple post on the joys of writing, specifically upon the view of looking inward, but I presume it’s just a part of my nature… ask me what time it is; I’ll tell you how to build a clock.

Semper aliquid existimantem.   –  Always Thinking

Related articles and other foundations of mirth

The Enneagram (5)

~ DC ~ 1 Comment

 

ENNEAGRAM (Greek)
Enneas = Nine
Gramma = something written
Ancient personality descriptions in a nine – pointed star diagram
origin unknown
Esoteric laws of 3 + 7 (octaves)
Pythagoras’s ninth seal
Christian mystics desert father in the 3 & 4th centuries
Sufi ethical training for 1400 years

    Principles of the Enneagram

Thorsons / Karen Webb

 

TYPE 5
THE OBSERVER
OUTWARD APPEARANCE
Tend to seem withdrawn, intellectual, focused, quiet, objective and unemotional, knowledgeable yet unforthcoming, and self sufficient.
FEAR TYPE
Present myself as distanced rather than afraid. Most at home in the analytic realms of the mind. Devotion of intellect to esoteric subjects understood by only a few people in the world..(philosophy, psychology)

Fives are very private people, easily drained by too much interaction with others, sometimes even by another’s presence nearby. Fear of intrusion and need to have their own clearly acknowledged space, as to retire to recoup their energy and think things through.
type 5 (head based)
head / heart / belly
As an observer, it is difficult to identify what I feel and think at the moment. Privacy is needed to partially review past and future event, and what I think and feel. Need to be allowed to go away and consider how I think and feel before I can give an accurate answer when asked what I think and feel about some things.
Fives compartmentalize their lives. Activities and interest each have their place. I like to anticipate and prepare myself.
Methodical and consistent.
Seem superior – which may simply be detachment, or seem to have a deeper insight and see clearly through things.
Minimalist lifestyle
Bare shelves in frig
exception of specialized collections related to interests.

    Unaware Five:

Withdrawn, distrustful, critical, intellectually arrogant unable to commit, very controlled, and out of touch with feelings and the world.

    Aware Five:

Sensitive, perceptive, dedicated, objective and creative thinker, who can combine their sensitivity and analytical skills to be wise rather than knowing.

    Inner concerns and childhood

Scenarios:
Fives learned that it was possible to be safe in an intrusive world where their very survival felt threatened, by withdrawing into their minds and becoming self sufficient They minimized hurt by distancing from sensations and emotions and unable to escape physically, they could become untouchable by being a spectator of events in their own lives.
As children they may have had intrusive, domineering, violent or smothering parents. They recall, for example, having their favorite toys destroyed because we haven’t got room for them; or during a confrontation, I’d turn into a robot. I would just move the feelings away. It’s protective. Some fives rather than feeling threatened by people, felt their survival threatened because they were left to fend for themselves.

    Passion and Fixation:

Avarice and Stinginess
Avarice = an emotional preoccupation in which fives feel they are always potentially lacking the means for safe survival, and so are avaricious of whatever enables them to feel secure and independent. This is not usually anything material, as they minimize physical needs, but information which enriches their inner world and helps them feel prepared for the onslaughts of the outer world.
An intense need – sort of greed – for private space and time, both for safety’s sake and for nourishment.
Stinginess – Time, energy and personal space
Tend not to volunteer information unless asked.

    Stress

Anything that forces fives to deal with feeling is stressful. May pose as sevenths (epicure). Cheerful and gregarious – but actually I’m miles away. Look for options to escape.

    Security

When secure – fives become more eight like (boss). Take charge, be definite and forthcoming, and access their anger. Find it easiest to express feelings through touch, and this is enhanced in security with a release of physical enjoyment. Type eight qualities can also be seen in the quiet vigor with which fives protect their own space.

Subtypes
Self – Preservation : Castle Alone, Home

    Social:

Totems
The exchange of confidences in one – to – one Relationships enables fives to feel safe. Sharing secrets keep the world at bay, and means people trust each other, so fives need not fear intrusion or loss. Also confidentiality in the physical expression of friendship or love which feels safer than verbal expression.

    Relationships

Fives know they are distanced from the world and crave connection, but since it means making themselves vulnerable to feelings, and carries the risk of intrusion, it can be difficult for them. However much they may like another person, anything, experienced as invasive or demanding will make them back off, whereas they will be attracted towards a person who allows them their own space.
When this is present, they feel an immense and safe latitude for give and take. They also like an informed connection: they need to know who a person is and able to support them. They tend to select friends who share common interests , and relate at first on the level of shared activities. (Spontaneity deprecated)
As relationships become more intimate, non-verbal aspects of relationship are important. Touching allows them to feel present without the need to say how they feel, which they often do not know until they are alone. The reliable presence and consistency of another person allows them to feel safe. Successful intimate relationship depends on partners understanding and respecting fives need for privacy. Partners also need to understand that although fives may be demonstrative and may appear to have the relationship in just one of their compartments, once they commit themselves the relationship is central, and probably the most important fact in their lives.

Things Fives Can Do To Help Themselves Grow
✓ Take up a physical practice which helps you ground in your body
❑ Join a group which encourages self-disclosure, e.g. gestalt, oral tradition enneagram workshops
❑ Allow yourself to feel physical sensations and emotions whilst they are happening
✓ Recognize experience and recall pleasant feelings: realize that not all feelings are painful
❑ If you meditate, become aware of the difference between detachment (watching yourself) and non – attachment (nobody watching)
✓ Notice how your mind detaches from feelings and sorts things into compartments, and how secrecy and superiority create separation
✓ Cultivate here-and-now behavior, particularly allowing yourself luxuries
✓ Behave as though there is more than enough to go round
❑ Observe how withdrawal can often cause people to intrude further:start to stand your ground

    Holy Virtue and Idea:

Non-attachment and Omniscience
A possible pitfall for fives in their personal growth is confusing detachment, which comes easily to them with higher awareness of non-attachment. Non-attachment allows feelings, experiences, and things to come and go, knowing that the universe is abundant. Fives try to re-create the feeling of sufficiency by pulling in and holding on to the necessities for survival.
Detachment is a way of holding back, and enables them to deny that they care about things and are attached. As they start to allow their energy to flow more freely and share it with others, they discover that it is self-renewing. They also discover how much they have been attached to their necessities. The inner knowing that they will be taken care of by life itself gives a simultaneous ability to be involved and yet to let go.
Omniscience is the experience of essential mind in which all knowing is available without the need of think or accumulate knowledge.
Fives pacify their unacknowledged fears by acquiring information. As their personal growth takes them more into them realm of immediate experience and non-attachment to their personality, they discover they have access to wisdoms other than that of the intellect. Safety is found in an inner experience of already knowing all they need to know.

7 Billion People
Our personality type is recognizable, but our personality – the experiences, memories, dreams and aspirations, and what we do with them – IS OUR OWN!
1. PERFECTIONIST
2. GIVER
3. PERFORMER
4. ROMANTIC
5. OBSERVER
6. QUESTIONER
7. EPICURE
8. BOSS
9. MEDIATOR

Only one type for each person but (3 different variants)
Though our personality developed as a strategy to help us cope with the outer world as infants, by the time we are adults it is an automatic biased perspective.
The Unique and heartening aspect of the enneagram theory is that our “false” personality reflects, as in a mirror, our highest self. It is not an enemy to be conquered but our best friend, showing us which lessons we need to learn and how to learn them.

Each type has two wings
type 5 (observer)
Wing 7 (Epicure)
Wing 8 (Boss)
or
Wing 4 (Romantic)
Wing 6 (Questioner)

One basic type
One of two possible wings
Nine types
Eighteen subtypes
Fifty Four subtypes [18×3]
(heavy / mod / light)
We can function at different levels and are constantly shifting on the continuum
Nine levels of development
three healthy
three average
three unhealthy
Potential subtypes = [18×3] x 9 = 486

Instinctual types – variants
• Self-Preservation
• Social
• Sexual

Self Preservation-
Being safe and physically comfortable are priorities.

  • Social-
    Focused on interactions of other people and with sense of value or esteem they derive from their participation in collective activities

Sexual-
Intimacy junkies, sense of aliveness


The Nine Passions

1 ANGER
This Passion might be more accurately described as Resentment. Anger in itself is not the problem, but in Ones the anger is repressed, leading to continual frustration and dissatisfaction with themselves and with the world.
2 PRIDE
Pride refers to an inability or unwillingness to acknowledge one’s own suffering. Two’s deny many of their own needs while attempting to “help” others. This Passion could also be described as Vainglory -pride in one’s own virtue.
3 DECEIT
Deceit means deceiving ourselves into believing that we are only the ego self. When we believe this, we put our efforts into developing our ego instead of our true nature. We could also call this passion Vanity our attempt to make the ego feel valuable without turning to our spiritual source.
4 ENVY
Envy is based on the feeling that something fundamental is missing. Envy leads Fours to feel that other possess qualities that they lack. Fours long for what is absent but often fail to notice The many blessings in their lives.
5 AVARICE
Fives feel that they lack inner resources and that too much interaction with others will lead to catastrophic depletion. This Passion leads Fives to withhold themselves from contact with the world. Thus they hold on to their resources and minimize their needs.
6 FEAR
This Passion might be more accurately described as Anxiety because anxiety leads us to be afraid of things that are not actually happening now. Sixes walk around in a constant state of apprehension and worry about possible future events.
7 GLUTTONY
Gluttony refers to the insatiable desire to “fill oneself up” with experiences. Sevens attempt to overcome feelings of inner emptiness by pursuing a variety of positive, stimulating ideas and activities, but they never feel that they have enough.
8 LUST
Lust does not only refer to sexual lust: Eights are “lusty” in that they are driven by a constant need for intensity, control, and self-extension. Lust causes Eights to try to push everything in their lives – to assert themselves willfully.
9 SLOTH
Sloth does not simply mean laziness, since Nines can be quite active and accomplished. Rather, it refers to a desire to be unaffected by life. It is an unwillingness to arise with the fullness of one’s vitality to fully engage with life.

Unconscious childhood messages
Type one
“It’s not okay to make mistakes.”
Type two
“It’s not okay to have your own needs.”
Type three
“It’s not okay to have your own feelings and identity.”
Type four
“It’s not okay to be too functional or too happy.”
Type five
“It’s not okay to be comfortable in the world.”
Type six
“It’s not okay to trust yourself.”
Type seven
“It’s not okay to depend on anyone for anything.”
Type eight
“It’s not okay to be vulnerable or to trust anyone.”
Type nine
“It’s not okay to assert yourself.”

The Basic Fears of the Types
Type one
Fear of being bad, corrupt evil, or defective
Type two
Fear of being unworthy of being loved
Type three
Fear of being worthless or without inherent value
Type four
Fear of being without identity or personal significance
Type five
Fear of being useless, incapable, or incompetent
Type six
Fear of being without support or guidance
Type seven
Fear of being deprived or trapped in pain
Type eight
Fear of being controlled by others
Type nine
Fear of loss of connection, or fragmentation

Basic Desires and their Distortions
Type one
the desire to have integrity (deteriorates into critical perfectionism)
Type two
the desire to be loved (deteriorates into the need to be needed)
Type three
the desire to be valuable (deteriorates into chasing after success)
Type four
the desire to be oneself (deteriorates into self-indulgence)
Type five
the desire to be competent (deteriorates into useless specialization)
Type six
the desire to be secure (deteriorates into an attachment to beliefs)
Type seven
the desire to be happy (deteriorates into frenetic escapism)
Type eight
the desire to protect oneself (deteriorates into constant fighting)
Type nine
the desire to be at peace (deteriorates into stubborn neglectfulness)

Lost Childhood Messages
Type one
“You are good”
Type two
“You are wanted”
Type three
“You are loved for yourself”
Type four
“You are seen for who you are”
Type five
“Your needs are not a problem”
Type six
“You are safe”
Type seven
“You will be taken care of”
Type eight
“You will not be betrayed”
Type nine
“Your presence matters”