Why Didn't I Think Of That?...epigenetics

"If I only had a brain."

Epigenetics hypothesizes that a parent who experienced a trauma could have certain changes in their brain which might lead to epigenetic changes that are passed on, inhabiting the neurons of their children’s brains or even their grandchildren. That rumination bore an entirely new field, behavioral epigenetics. That means if you had a parent or grandparent who lived through a genocide, war, saw someone murdered, or who suffered a different trauma, say at the hands of an abusive or neglectful parent, you carry traits for that emotional impact in your genes.

Discovering Ourselves...trust

The human need for trust and attachment was initially studied and developed as a psychological construct in the 1950s, when John Bowlby tracked the reactions of small children when they were separated from their parents.  In a nutshell, he found that infants, toddlers, and young children have an extensive need for safe and reliable caregivers. If children have that, they tend to be happy in childhood and well-adjusted (emotionally healthy) later in life. If children don’t have that, it’s a very different story. In other words, it is clear from Bowlby’s work and the work of later researchers that the level and caliber of trust and connection experienced in early childhood carries forth into adulthood. Those who experience secure attachment as infants, toddlers, and small children nearly always carry that with them into adulthood, and they are naturally able to trust and connect in healthy ways. Meanwhile, those who don’t experience secure early-life attachment tend to struggle with trust and connection later in life. In other words, securely attached individuals tend to feel comfortable in and to enjoy the human rat park, while insecurely attached people typically struggle to fit in and connect.

Lemme Think About It...

Paraskevidekatriaphobia

Dr. Ego-ology

                       
                                "I'm not arguing with you! I'm only trying to explain why I'm right."

From Inside The Sane Asylum...when I'm gone

A Pinch Of Me When I'm Gone

Put a pinch of me in things I like.
Maybe my desk drawer
or on the spokes of my ole bike.

I like my tote bag
that travels on my back.
It never brags or talks back.

And how can I forget the Sea.
To North, South, East and West.
Fling a pinch to what life might be.

Maybe send a pinch to China
and mix me with bone.
Fine China I will be known.

Kaolin, Feldspar, pegmatite
Mix me according to alchemy
And you will know my might.

Maybe a set... I will be.
Strong and durable
to hold fine tea.

Sit me at a table between friends to be.
Let me listen to their soft words
Hold me close so I might see
the mist above the fine tea.

Appears for a little while...then it's gone...Doc 1/12/17

Lessons From The Sane Asylum...values

"The essence of who we are does not lie in our strengths. It does not lie in our talents, our accomplishments, or the things we do well. The core of our being lies in our values".

The most basic human value must always have been life itself. It must have been the first and oldest basic human value, for today we still see throughout the whole of nature, any living being is in a continuous struggle for survival.

However, respect, is the most basic social standard, from which all other social standards can be derived...

Footnote:
Essentially, we’ll never truly be able to distinguish between “right” and “wrong” actions. At any given time in history, however, philosophers, theologians, and politicians will claim to have discovered the best way to evaluate human actions and establish the most righteous code of conduct. But it’s never that easy. Life is far too messy and complicated for there to be anything like a universal morality or an absolutist ethics. The Golden Rule is great (the idea that you should treat others as you would like them to treat you), but it disregards moral autonomy and leaves no room for the imposition of justice (such as jailing criminals), and can even be used to justify oppression. Moreover, it’s a highly simplified rule of thumb that doesn’t provision for more complex scenarios. For example, should the few be spared to save the many? Who has more moral worth; a human baby or a full-grown great ape? And as neuroscientists have shown, morality is not only a culturally-ingrained thing, it’s also a part of our psychologies.  At best, we can only say that morality is normative, while acknowledging that our sense of right and wrong will change over time.


           

Stopped To Ponder...

Where You Will Or Won't...

Sometimes that thing
you are afraid to do,
is the change to set you free.

Makes little difference
where you will or won't,
can't change if you don't.

You see...in life
it's just a choice to make,
where you will or won't ...Doc

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Therapy...compassion

"Compassion is understanding the basic goodness in all people and then seeking to discover that basic goodness in specific people. Because of this, it helps you from going through the often mental torture we experience because we don’t understand the actions of others."

Scribblings From The Study...before language

"I cannot doubt that language owes its origin to the imitation and modification, aided by signs and gestures, of various natural sounds, the voices of other animals, and man's own instinctive cries." Charles Darwin, 1871. The Descent of Man

Before language, man would still have felt the need for food. He wouldn't have had a word for it. He would have just felt it. He would also have known that particular feeling meant he must find food. Again, he wouldn't have thought the words "find food", he would just have known instinctively what to do.

Now, what happened in a group of prehistoric people if one of them was injured and felt hungry? He may not have been able to go find food for himself. Somehow he had to let the others in the group know. Sign language was the answer. He possibly pointed to his mouth, rubbed his tummy, made eating movements with his jaw, or whatever. There would still be no words, no verbal language - but sign language is a language nonetheless.

But surely, by the time man reached that stage, he would be thinking - although without words - that he had to inform the others he needed food. That thought surely must have preceded the concept of making signs to convey his need.

Thought is not much use without language, and language is not much use without thought. So, it seems to me that thinking and language probably developed in tandem as a response to the need to communicate with other members of the group.

Commonly, modern man thinks in language (according to such as Chomsky) not pictures; although this is not always the case. Autistic Savants can sometimes be an exception - Kevin Peet being an example. He is a genius at math, but he doesn't think numbers. Instead he sees colours, and those colours coalesce and intermingle to give him the answers to incredibly complex math in an extraordinarily short time.

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis states that language is a straight-jacket for thought. That could indeed be true. Many times, our thoughts or communications with others are stifled because we can't put our thoughts into words. Misunderstandings are commonplace. How much better would communication be if we could send pictures & emotions to others instead of having to use words? Oh...guess we do...👍👎✌️🙏.

Footnote: I personally think language evolved out of the need to gossip...:) Doc

Let me tell you a story...a gathering of old men, part 2

                                                                Marshall Plantation

Part two...

While Mapes was trying to make sense of the killing and confessions of all the old men, Gil Boutan, a star football player at LSU and Beau's brother, gets the news that his older bro has gone to meet his Maker. Confused, angry, and hurt, Gil heads on back to the Boutan home and has a heart-to-heart with his not-so warm and cuddly daddy. Gil begs Fix not to do anymore of the evil things that he's done in the past, and Fix agrees—after he disowns Gil, that is.

Gil is pretty upset in more ways than one, but Luke Will—one of Beau's drinking buddies with a whole lot of hate, not a lot of brains, and ties to the Ku Klux Klan—is angry for a completely different reason. He promises that bad things are going to happen to Black folks in Marshall, whether Fix is there himself or not.

The next thing you know, it's back to Marshall Plantation, and Sheriff Mapes is just about as happy as a five-year-old on his sixth birthday when he finds out that Fix isn't planning on showing up. When he tells everybody the news, Mathu agrees to head over to the station and go down for killing Beau. Most of the old men are pretty upset, because they'd been secretly loading fresh ammo into their shotguns this whole time, and were planning on either taking Fix out, or going down in a blaze of glory.

That's when Big Charlie shows up. He admits to killing Beau in self-defense, and says he's ready to take his medicine and take his chances with the law.

But Charlie isn't the only unexpected guest who shows up late to the shotgun party. Luke Will and some of his redneck pals show up too, drunk and armed with guns of their own. When one of them wings Mapes (who's too fat to get up afterwards), a firefight kicks off. At the end of it, one of Luke's pals is wounded, and Luke and Charlie are dead. When the case goes to trial, the judge gives every surviving member of the battle at Marshall five years of probation. Mathu and his pals head back to Marshall, leaving Candy and Lou holding hands and watching the dust clouds that the truck kicks up as it leaves.

The author, Earnest  Gaines was among the fifth generation of his sharecropper family to be born on a plantation in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana. This became the setting and premise for many of his later works. He was the eldest of 12 children, raised by his aunt, who was crippled and had to crawl to get around the house. Although born generations after the end of slavery, Gaines grew up impoverished, living in old slave quarters on a plantation.

Gaines' first years of school took place in the plantation church. When the children were not picking cotton in the fields, a visiting teacher came for five to six months of the year to provide basic education. Gaines then spent three years at St. Augustine School, a Catholic school for African Americans in New Roads, Louisiana. Schooling for African-American children did not continue beyond the eighth grade during this time in Pointe Coupee Parish.

As of November 2013, Gaines lives on Louisiana Highway 1 in Oscar, Louisiana, where he and his wife built a home on part of the old plantation where he grew up. He had the church he grew up with moved to his property.

From The Far Side of The Glass...Kissing Cousins

Observations from behind the glass...my time with my cyber family has really evolved since I started about two years ago. I have collected a great circle of friends. I have a special name for my friend circle. I named you Kiss...ing Cousins. Remember the ole Elvis movie in 1964, same name. Relatives you feel close enough to greet with a kiss or hug...

To be technical, that kiss thing should make us at least second cousins. You see, in the south second cousins are as far back as we go in really knowing another layer of our family. Second cousins represent the fourth generation. Seems we can't retain to much more than about four generations of linage.

So here is my reasoning. The people that know more about me than my best second cousin should be on equal liner space of kinship...there you have it my Virtual Kissing Cousins...smile on occasions...it might make you feel about half not bad on a good day.

Scribblings From The Sane Asylum...whistle

I was watching a football game today and they delayed the game while the Referee unfroze his whistle. Did make me grin realizing just how important that whistle really was. Seems there are not a lot of extra whistles laying around. You would think the Ref. would just grab a spare one from a warming cabinet. Who makes whistles anyway? Looks like the company would advertise, like Nike. Some nifty little whistling commercial. You know a happy little tune. Whistle while you work kind of thing...

Wet your whistle or is it whet your whistle? Easy to get that confused. Whet your appetite comes to mind as being correct, but I have not used that term in a number of years. I've been around three score and ten, and my guess, I could count the times I've used the term on one hand.

I’ve  seen both “whet your whistle” and “wet your appetite,” and neither correct. Most people’s lips don’t need to be any sharper, and appetites aren’t aroused by giving them a good soaking.

Wet Your Whistle...Seems this phrase has been around for a while. Don't really think there's a hidden meaning in wet—probably some ole Saxon word meaning moist, quench or liquid. Whistle is a little harder to decipher. It may refer to a person’s lips or throat. I think it came from a time when pub regulars used whistles to order more drinks.  I would bet a whistle was part of the mug, built into either the rim or handle. I went digging on the web and could find no example of Ye Olde Whistle Mug. I'm sure one wet ones whistle before one whistled? I know you just can't whistle with dry lips. A word of caution, don't wet your whistle in freezing weather.

Now to whet your appetite is almost the opposite. Whereas wetting your whistle quenches your thirst, whetting your appetite, sharpens. Whet, probably another ole Saxon term. Blades are whetted by whetstones. Appetites are whetted by tasty morsels or glimpses of interesting or desirable things. Like...bring me some corn nuts or moose jerky to whet my appetite. Another word of caution. It's best to eat coconut while you still have your teeth. I know that has nothing to do with what we are discussing, but it did cross my mind.

I did a very unsophisticated test on the Internet and Googled “wet your whistle” and had 426,000 hits, the majority directed towards drinking. “Whet your whistle” resulted in 421,000 hits, the majority of the answers related to stimulating further thought or experience processes. Now you have a good basis to go scratching around for more information and draw your own conclusion on this important discussion.

I asked my friend Jess B Rambling about this subject, as I often do on the more puzzling aspects of life.  Jess is anal about placing language in its proper order and knowing when to use whom. He said "whistle was a metonym." "Kinda started out as one meaning and just morphed into another." Makes a lot of sense to me...just an ole Saxon morphing-ism.

I was around this crazy ole uncle years many years back. I recall when he used the term " I'm going to whet my whistle", it meant he was going to relieve himself. See how I'm being appropriate and not using the word pee? I'm just that way. Don't want to offend anyone...:)

Did you know the opening in a whistle where you blow is called a fipple ? Hell I didn't. Never thought of it. I know I'm glad the ref's whistle had so much spit it froze up. Learned something new, got to talk to an old friend, explored the deep recesses of my mind, even pondered on Uncle Rufus for a spell. Hell, I think I will design a little whistle koozee warmer. Jess, how do you spell Koozee?

Not half that bad on a good day...Doc

Discovering Ourselves...the pain of an unlived life

The Pain Of An Unlived Life...

The unexamined life is surely worth living, but is the unlived life worth examining? It seems a strange question until one realizes how much of our so-called mental life is about the lives we are not living, the lives we are missing out on, the lives we could be leading but for some reason are not. What we fantasize about, what we long for, are the experiences, the things and the people that are absent. It is the absence of what we need that makes us think, that makes us cross and sad. We have to be aware of what is missing in our lives — even if this often obscures both what we already have and what is actually available — because we can survive only if our appetites more or less work for us. Indeed, we have to survive our appetites by making people cooperate with our wanting. We pressurize the world to be there for our benefit. And yet we quickly notice as children — it is, perhaps, the first thing we do notice — that our needs, like our wishes, are always potentially unmet. Because we are always shadowed by the possibility of not getting what we want, we learn, at best, to ironize our wishes — that is, to call our wants wishes: a wish is only a wish until, as we say, it comes true — and, at worst, to hate our needs. But we also learn to live somewhere between the lives we have and the lives we would like.


"We refer to them as our unlived lives because somewhere we believe that they were open to us; but for some reason — and we might spend a great deal of our lived lives trying to find and give the reason — they were not possible. And what was not possible all too easily becomes the story of our lives. Indeed, our lived lives might become a protracted mourning for, or an endless tantrum about, the lives we were unable to live. But the exemptions we suffer, whether forced or chosen, make us who we are." Adam Phillips, Missing Out: In Praise Of An Unlived Life..

The Human Conservancy Field Office

Field Notes...

Today's psychology, as a collection of theories, concepts, and techniques, has attempted to help individuals and the society realize relief from mental problems solving methods that do nothing to increase ones understanding of the role of thought. This has led to the misperception that rituals, techniques or other placebos are the route to change. Thus, by creating the illusion of change through altering the form or formate through which people express their insecurity, negative feelings, and dependencies, psychology has unwittingly contributed to its own inability to progress as a science and as a field of study. There is nothing to be found in studying and explaining the attributes of placebo sugar pills, water injection, or psychotherapeutic rituals, because in the end it is the human beings level of understanding and ability to think that brings results.

The field of psychology will take a new and exciting direction when we begin to look directly toward the mental power we as humans possess. Once this new wisdom is formulated and shared with people, the benefits will spill over into our society to help many people looking for relief from emotional dis-ease. Mostly from their own fear anxiety and recurrent life of self destructive behaviors that seem just out of individual control. Life Adjustment issues I call them.

This direction is also the one that will help the most people in the long run become better humans. Whether they are talking about improving the quality of their own individual reality, or possibility that of a society or even an  entire humanity, the principle is the same. The only barrier to accomplishing these feats are those of thought. It is the knowledge of this fact that will allow human beings to successfully break the perceptual, emotional, and behavioral barriers that we all struggle with.

It's a beginning...but now the idea must mature into a reality. Our evolution of humans being human as a science will emerge. After all, consciousness is now being studied as a mass, something akin to gas and other quantities that cannot be seen. Our evolution will emerge as a willingness to accept something new, to listen to someone saying that the world is round rather than flat; that the earth is not the center of the solar system; that energy, matter, and space are alloted. Or perhaps by shifting our focus away from the manifestation of people's problems and move to the principles of thought, reality, consciousness, and emotions we will see our connection to mental well being. Society may just find the route to its own wisdom.

Human Ecology, The Human Conservacy, a new way of being human, a new humanity...it's time, it's a possibility...well that's what I'm thinking on this day...Doc