Maybe it’s the mid-January slump where people are most likely statistically to commit suicide, but in the past six days, I’ve learned that five of my friends have been date-raped and that a sixth friend, whom I already knew was raped years ago, had been raped again recently. Nobody reported any of it. Additional women voicedContinue reading “Depressing diatribe on date-rape”
Category Archives: Psychology
Dear Prudence,
I have seen you struggle from afar for a long time. I know you are sad, with the kind of sadness that eats into your psyche and erodes it, that the rust of what was falls away from you in fine, brittle pieces. I know what it is, that sadness. So because of this, IContinue reading “Dear Prudence,”
Psychopaths, testosterone, leadership, patriarchy
A few days ago, Doug Wilson pontificated that Doug Phillips, having fallen from grace and besmirched the name of patriarchy, had been led astray by his own “testosterone,” which men in leadership are apparently prone to do if they don’t watch themselves: “A man with lots of testosterone is in a position to start aContinue reading “Psychopaths, testosterone, leadership, patriarchy”
On sensory defensiveness and being a mutant
Today at work I made a joke about how my annoyance with a subtle chemical smell, which turned out to be the wafting paint fumes from a graffiti artist in the nearest alley, kind of made me a superhero. For a moment, I indulged in a fantasy where bringing this toxic airborne compound to myContinue reading “On sensory defensiveness and being a mutant”
Corporality, part II: When love is pain
One of the things I dislike the most about the way some Christians spank their kids is the idea that it models God’s love for us, because he “chastises those he loves.” Because this means that as a child, you’re thus indoctrinated with the idea that you will receive pain when you’re bad, and thatContinue reading “Corporality, part II: When love is pain”
Corporality
I consider it a mark of my parents’ humane natures that, as a child past a certain age, I was able to talk them out of spanking me. I hated being spanked. It wasn’t just the sting — it rarely was all that painful — it was the idea that because they loved me, theyContinue reading “Corporality”
Sociopaths and authoritarian lifestyles
For a long time now, I’ve been reading personal stories of people who have been hurt by hierarchical relationships and the cultures that surround them. Now, hierarchy exists in many forms, and in many cultures, and it’s something that we actually reduce to points on a scale sometimes — we cite Geert Hofstede, for example,Continue reading “Sociopaths and authoritarian lifestyles”
Courting sleep
I just napped for four hours or more here in a hostel in Copenhagen, with the rain falling and birds chirping and children yelping outside the open window … I needed the rest. Oddly enough, I’ve had trouble sleeping all my time so far in Europe, in part because I was in higher-end hotels withContinue reading “Courting sleep”
The triad of the self
Be honest, how many of those time-wasting quizzes have you taken in the quest to pigeonhole yourself? How many of the conflicting answers sound more or less like you? Have you ever thought (or heard someone else exclaim) “I wish someone would just tell me who I am so I know what to DO withContinue reading “The triad of the self”
Personality’s light touch
I’ve been on this personality kick, but something I haven’t really considered much is this: how do these different personality types fit into different cultures? Different microcultures? One person, for example, pointed out that although there are introverts and extroverts within his family, in the outside world, they would all be considered introverts. In aContinue reading “Personality’s light touch”
Botkin Creative 