Saturday 25 December 2010

Loki

Loki is the father of Hel, the wolf Fenrir, and the world serpent Jörmungandr.

Loki is a shape shifter and in separate incidents he appears in the form of a salmon, mare, seal, a fly, and possibly an elderly woman.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loki

Loki reads like an ENFP.



Seid or seiðr is an Old Norse term for a type of sorcery or witchcraft which was practiced by the pre-Christian Norse. Sometimes anglicized as "seidhr," "seidh," "seidr," "seithr," or "seith," the term is also used to refer to modern Neopagan reconstructions or emulations of the practice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sei%C3%B0r

Thursday 23 December 2010

Fear on the Low Road

Creating Fear
The process of creating fear takes place in the brain and is entirely unconscious. There are two paths involved in the fear response: The low road is quick and messy, while the high road takes more time and delivers a more precise interpretation of events. Both processes are happening simultaneously.

The idea behind the low road is "take no chances." If the front door to your home is suddenly knocking against the frame, it could be the wind. It could also be a burglar trying to get in. It's far less dangerous to assume it's a burglar and have it turn out to be the wind than to assume it's the wind and have it turn out to be a burglar. The low road shoots first and asks questions later.


http://health.howstuffworks.com/mental-health/human-nature/other-emotions/fear.htm

http://health.howstuffworks.com/mental-health/human-nature/other-emotions/fear1.htm

The Map is not the Territory

The map is not the territory is the idea that the way we represent the world refers to reality, it isn't reality itself. We don't respond to reality. We respond to our internalized map of reality.

How we represent things are our interpretations. Interpretations may or may not be accurate.

If we have inadequate maps, we don't see all our choices. Re mapping is an important problem solving strategy. Our language reveals the maps and models we use to guide our behavior.

Words only have meaning in that they trigger sensory representations in a speaker or listener.

http://www.nlp-mentor.com/map-is-not-the-territory.html


Debatable argument

Estimated Frequencies of the 16 Types

Estimated Frequencies
of the Types in the United States Population

http://www.capt.org/mbti-assessment/estimated-frequencies.htm

Trance and Hypnotism in the Community

Ericksonian Hypnosis
Traditional hypnosis uses ritual inductions and direct suggestion. Ericksonian hypnosis on the other hand is conversational and natural. Many of his techniques are not what we might think "hypnotic" but create trance states (where we find unconscious resources and choices). Trance being a common altered state we access naturally many times a day.

http://www.nlp-mentor.com/milton-model.html

By using gross generalizations, deletions and distortions, you remove all specific content from the message. When a message has no specific content person must go inside to extract individual meaning from their unconscious minds. Artfully vague (vague with a purpose) language gives people the freedom to make their own meaning of words.

http://www.nlp-mentor.com/nlp-hypnosis.html

The Cards

The Cards

% of each type

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator

Clubs 45 Guards
Spades 23 Artisans
Diamonds 15 Rationals
Hearts 17 Idealists

Collaboration

Collaboration is a recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together to realise shared goals, (this is more than the intersection of common goals seen in co-operative ventures, but a deep, collective, determination to reach an identical objective) — for example, an intellectual endeavor that is creative in nature —by sharing knowledge, learning and building consensus. Most collaboration requires leadership, although the form of leadership can be social within a decentralized and egalitarian group. In particular, teams that work collaboratively can obtain greater resources, recognition and reward when facing competition for finite resources. Collaboration is also present in opposing goals exhibiting the notion of adversarial collaboration, though this is not a common case for using the word.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration#Game_theory

[Late 19th century. < late Latin collaborat-, past participle of collaborare 'work together' < Latin labor 'toil']

http://uk.encarta.msn.com/dictionary_1861787621/collaborate.html

Wednesday 22 December 2010

Dunning-Kruger Effect

Very interesting. I had not heard of the Dunning-Kruger effect.

The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which unskilled people make poor decisions and reach erroneous conclusions, but their incompetence denies them the metacognitive ability to realize their mistakes. The unskilled therefore suffer from illusory superiority, rating their own ability as above average, much higher than it actually is, while the highly skilled underrate their abilities, suffering from illusory inferiority. This leads to the situation in which less competent people rate their own ability higher than more competent people. It also explains why actual competence may weaken self-confidence. Competent individuals falsely assume that others have an equivalent understanding.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

I am not sure that this statement will always stand up to critical analysis. Highly plausible and helpful; Judgement or Perception?

I think it is all a fallacy!

Sunday 12 December 2010

Retrograde Amnesia (Ency. Britannica)

Retrograde amnesia

Open Workspace Since retrograde amnesia relates to memory for events that took place when brain function was unimpaired, it clearly cannot be ascribed to failure of registration—with the exception, perhaps, of the very brief permanent amnesias following electroconvulsive shock or head injury. Retrograde amnesia otherwise would appear to be wholly due to a failure of retrieval, though this failure is evidently selective. That recent memories are generally harder to evoke than those more remote is usually explained on the basis of consolidation; i.e., progressive strengthening of memory traces with the passage of time. Yet, recency is not the only factor, and in some cases memory for a relatively recent event may still be preserved while that for one more remote is inaccessible. Much depends, too, on the method used to test retrieval; e.g., recognition may succeed when voluntary recall entirely fails. By and large, the availability of information in memory would seem to depend to a considerable extent on its relation to the person's current interests and preoccupations. When these are severely curtailed by an amnesic state, the links connecting present and past are severed, with a consequent failure of reproduction.

Retrograde Amnesia

Retrograde amnesia is caused by trauma that results in brain injury. Critical details of the physical changes in the brain that cause retrograde amnesia are still unknown. Retrograde amnesia is often temporally graded, meaning that remote memories are more easily accessible than events occurring just prior to the trauma (Ribot's Law).Events nearest in time to the event that caused memory loss may never be recovered.

A person who has suffered this injury will often feel as if the time (1–4 hours) before the injury were a dream. If someone informs the injured person of the events just before the trauma, he or she will most likely recollect some of the happenings.

The memory loss may just affect specific “classes” of memory. For instance, the victim, a concert pianist before, may still remember what a piano is after the onset of retrograde amnesia, but may forget how to play. The relearning rate for often used skills such as typing and math is typically faster than if the victim had never learned these skills before. While there is no cure for retrograde amnesia, “jogging” the victim’s memory by exposing the victim to significant articles from his or her past will speed the rate of recall.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retrograde_amnesia

Movement and Coping Strategies (Karen Horney)

From her experiences as a psychiatrist, Horney named ten patterns of neurotic needs. These ten needs are based upon things which she thought all humans require to succeed in life. Horney distorted these needs somewhat to correspond with what she believed were individuals' neuroses. A neurotic person could theoretically exhibit all of these needs, though in practice much fewer than the ten here need to be present for a person to be considered a neurotic. The ten needs, as set out by Horney, (classified according to her so-called coping strategies) are as follows:[

Moving Toward People

1. The need for affection and approval; pleasing others and being liked by them.
2. The need for a partner; one whom they can love and who will solve all problems.

Moving Against People

3. The need for power; the ability to bend wills and achieve control over others—while most persons seek strength, the neurotic may be desperate for it.
4. The need to exploit others; to get the better of them. To become manipulative, fostering the belief that people are there simply to be used.
5. The need for social recognition; prestige and limelight.
6. The need for personal admiration; for both inner and outer qualities—to be valued.
7. The need for personal achievement; though virtually all persons wish to make achievements, as with No. 3, the neurotic may be desperate for achievement.

Moving Away from People

8. The need for self sufficiency and independence; while most desire some autonomy, the neurotic may simply wish to discard other individuals entirely.
9. The need for perfection; while many are driven to perfect their lives in the form of well being, the neurotic may display a fear of being slightly flawed.
10. Lastly, the need to restrict life practices to within narrow borders; to live as inconspicuous a life as possible.

Upon investigating the ten needs further, Horney found she was able to condense them into three broad categories:

Compliance

Needs one and two were assimilated into the "compliance" category. This category is seen as a process of "moving towards people", or self-effacement. Under Horney's theory children facing difficulties with parents often use this strategy. Fear of helplessness and abandonment occurs—phenomena Horney refers to as "basic anxiety". Those within the compliance category tend to exhibit a need for affection and approval on the part of their peers. They may also seek out a partner, somebody to confide in, fostering the belief that, in turn, all of life's problems would be solved by the new cohort. A lack of demands and a desire for inconspicuousness both occur in these individuals.

Aggression

Needs three through seven were assimilated into the "aggression" category, also called the "moving against people", or the "expansive" solution. Neurotic children or adults within this category often exhibit anger or basic hostility to those around them. That is, there is a need for power, a need for control and exploitation, and a maintenance of a facade of omnipotence. Manipulative qualities aside, under Horney's assertions the aggressive individual may also wish for social recognition, not necessarily in terms of limelight, but in terms of simply being known (perhaps feared) by subordinates and peers alike. In addition, the individual has needs for a degree of personal admiration by those within this person's social circle and, lastly, for raw personal achievement. These characteristics comprise the "aggressive" neurotic type. Aggressive types also tend to keep people away from them. On the other hand, they only care about their wants and needs. They would do whatever they can to be happy and wouldn't desist from hurting anyone.

Detachment

Needs eight through ten were assimilated into the "detachment" category, also called the "moving-away-from" or "resigning" solution or a detached personality. As neither aggression nor compliance solve parental indifference, Horney recognized that children might simply try to become self sufficient. The withdrawing neurotic may disregard others in a non-aggressive manner, regarding solitude and independence as the way forth. The stringent needs for perfection comprise another part of this category; those withdrawing may strive for perfection above all else, to the point where being flawed is utterly unacceptable. Everything the "detached" type does must be unassailable and refined. They suppress or deny all feelings towards others, particularly love and hate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Horney

Different Types of Stalkers

You can be stalked by a Bull Dyke or a Skylark, stalked by a Bird of a Paradise or a Hawk, even stalked by a Hamster, stalked by a Rat or a Cat, stalked by a Tiger or a Mongoose. Or (God forbid by a Camel) or a Black Unicorn. Or a Dire Wolf or a Turtle. An Alligator or a Snake?

What do your prefer?

Thursday 9 December 2010

Transhumanism

Transhumanism is an international intellectual and cultural movement supporting the use of science and technology to improve human mental and physical characteristics and capacities. The movement regards aspects of the human condition, such as disability, suffering, disease, aging, and involuntary death as unnecessary and undesirable. Transhumanists look to biotechnologies and other emerging technologies for these purposes. Dangers, as well as benefits, are also of concern to the transhumanist movement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism

Tuesday 7 December 2010

Coping Strategies

1 Coping strategies
1.1 Moving With
1.2 Moving Toward
1.3 Moving Against
1.4 Moving Away



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coping_strategies

Saturday 4 December 2010

Oedipus Complex in the Twenty-First Century

In their book Homicide, evolutionary psychologists Martin Daly and Margo Wilson argue that there are few testable predictions that can be derived from the theory of an Oedipus Complex, and they found no evidence for the existence of an Oedipus Complex in humans. They do find evidence of conflict between parents and offspring, but this is not conflict over possession of the opposite sex biological parent, i.e. it is not Oedipal conflict.

The Oedipus Complex in the Twenty-First Century

"A large number of people these days believe that Freud's Oedipus complex is defunct...'disproven', or simply found unnecessary sometime in the last century". In a postmodern understanding, however, "the Oedipus complex isn't really like that. It's more a way of explaining how human beings are socialised...learning to deal with disappointment". The key element to be learnt is that "You have to stop trying to be everything for your primary carer and get on with being something for the rest of the world"

Comment:


I am not a Freudian but I am a Greek

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus_complex

I do not hold with Freud's views on this subject. This means I think it is overstated adolescent fantasies and all very childish.

Andy (Perseus)