Journal Entries

February 1st, 1999

I will absolutely NOT start with a greeting. Aahh--a big weight just lifted?? I also will NOT describe my surroundings, what I'm doing, or the mood I'm in. Well, I have to go now--I have not written for quite some time. So why should someone NOT mention psychology to a philosopher? It sounds like a bad riddle or joke....because the philosopher might subjectively go existential on your neurotic ass?? It seems to me that members of each respective career should be proponents of the other--they go hand in hand. One supposedly studies the source and nature of our knowledge (logically and critically) while the other studies our minds, emotions, and behaviors.
How can you study knowledge without about the mind? HMM? To be logical, you have to be non-emotional. Well, how can you be non-emotional if you do not first know what emotions are?
Never mind, that argument just died. Actually, maybe philosophers are strongly against psychology because philosophy is very, very objective, critical, unemotional. It studies things logically, and psychology is basically the opposite of all of that. It studies things emotionally, subjectively, individually. Or at least that's probably how a philosopher would see it. But psychology--if you know anything about the actual science, not just all the bullshit everyone knows, that is taught in school, stereotyped, etc, it is logical, consistent, and critical. It's not just someone sitting in a chair saying, "tell me about your mother", or "...and how does that make you feel?" It's a critical (exact and careful judgment and evaluation) done either through written or visual tests, and through a line of questioning about your thoughts, feelings, experiences. The thing that makes psych. seem unscientific, I believe, is the fact that to a lay person, it looks as though a psychologist is just listening, and pulling some bullshit out of their asses about how to solve things and then charging a lot of money for doing what anyone could do. What people don't realize is that there is a lot going on that the outsider doesn't see. The science is going on in the head of the psychologist. They are watching and listening to assess what category of problems you fit into, whether it is specific (anti-social behavior), or more general (difficulty coping with life's problems). And there is an objective, tangible list of these categories in the DSM-V or whatever volume it's up to. That lists problems, symptoms, prognoses, etc, and you learn in all of those advanced classes, internships, practicums, how to treat each of those disorders. And it's not something you SEE...it's a process of asking the right questions, listening to the right buzzwords, and most importantly, getting the patient to address the issues he needs to without him realizing it. So it IS rather manipulative, but not in a negative way. It HAS to be somewhat manipulative to work; if you told each person, "well, sir, it seems to me as though you are a perfect case of anti-social personality disorder, so the way I'm going to treat you is to ask you a series of confrontational questions that make you get angry, and lash out at me, then I'll ask you what I did that made you angry, then ask you to liken that to actual events in your life and see the pattern of behavior...once you notice this pattern, you'll get sad and cry a lot...etc, etc. If psychs. did that, the patient would just adjust their behaviors so as to NOT fit the mold because they are defensive. It would not work.
I can lend dishes, silverware, cups, rug, shower curtain, soapdish, phone, answering machine (??) 2 chairs, color tv with remote, comforter, sheets, tv shelves
Go to storage closet.
t-shirts.
Prosaic: literal, matter-of-fact, ordinary, lacking imagination.
If one ever comes to know "the good," one becomes good.
Ignorance is the only sin.
Plato
Callicles: sophist. Traditional morality is just a clever way for the weak masses to shackle the individual.
Power=survival=pleasure
Protagoras: the way to achieve success is through a careful and prudent acceptance of traditional customs, not because they were true, but because an understanding and manipulation of them is expedient. (Sophist)
Reality=imagination
PEZ! PEZ! PEZ! PEZ PEZ PEZ
YOU!Pre-Socratic) Heraclitus--nostalgia and loss

Things I want:
computer
Palm Pilot
bed (just need delivered)
black cotton tights
black, short straight skirt
brown, short straight skirt
black shoes
brown shoes
brown cotton tights
jeans
shorts
haircut
art class
rods and metal hooks for closet