1.  

    What part of being a psychologist harmed your personal mind?
    Profile photo for Jennifer Armstrong

    Well I’m not a psychologist. But what confused and bewitched me for the longest time, and harmed my IMpersonal mind was not realizing that psychology, in this day and age, is a language of sensitivity. This is quite an interest point to discover, since if one speaks the language of psychology (specifically I mean that taught in the Freudian school onward, and in the psychotherapeutic context), one is speaking with the sensitivity of a small child, whether or not one really feels that way.

    There is a problem here because this form of contemporary psychology has entered the humanities, too, to the degree that Freud has permeated its fabric. My background in education and training was up to PhD level in the humanities, hence, one may say that in a sense I was well and truly brainwashed. Thus one is educated to speak a language that in turn connotes to others that one is tangled up in threads of hyper-sensitivity. But what if this is false? What if it becomes an overlay that prevents one from telling the real narrative?

    Specifically, and some might say “ironically”, what the therapeutic language does is to prevent one from conveying ANY of the meaning of one’s real world problems. They simply do not make sense, or will not be believed. One’s own language, which implies a reference to childhood experience, or to mere “subjectivities” mitigates against it.

    The consequence of using the language provided by the therapists and Freudian psychologists is that as the real life problems mount, which includes the problem of communication, one has absolutely no means to set things back on course. I’ve had extremely Pinteresque interactions with psychologists, which go absolutely nowhere, because they have ignored more remarks that the issues I am speaking about having absolutely nothing to do with sensitivity — my own, or that of those around me. The therapeutic language itself mitigates against speaking about any aspect of reality.

    I had a year’s worth of therapy in one instance, during which time I tried to cope with an extreme level of inflammation in my body, which had been caused by vast hormonal fluctuations. Eventually, during this time and later, I figured out the problem, gave a name to it — systemic inflammation — and found lifestyle adaptations to resolve it. But the problem itself was not something we could talk about, since it had no bearing on the language of sensitivity, so my indifference and frustration mounted.

    But the most Pintaresque thing of all was when she made up her mind to ask the patient directly: “Why will nobody help you?” At this point I had a feeling like when the screws ask you, in a prison drama, who it was that beat you up. You realize that all answers would incriminate only yourself. I kept mum.

    I haven’t been in prison, but the sense that whatever I had to say at that point would only expedite the imposition of another false narrative was something I felt palpably.

    0

    Add a comment

  2. Jennifer Armstrong - Quora

    Well postmodernism was an attempt to deal with the irrational nature of existence, particularly the sense that there were now too many moral principles, counter-weaving and contradicting one another. Postmodernism was, in a sense, glib, but in the face of a real seriousness and sense of being overwhelmed as to how to make sense of power structures, and their conflicting demands, in a manner that embraced a transcendental morality.

    So now what do we have? A moral earnestness which attempts to make the old Christian moral paradigm work again, but this time anchoring it in “biology” rather than in transcendental reason. This is the ideological newcomer to the stage, which attempts to reconstruct some of the features of the past, although more modestly, but nonetheless using the rhetoric of appealing to biology in order to instruct women back into the home, and to encourage men to be on top.

    I think we need to give this new fledgling some time to consolidate its gains. It may be that a large number of people will embrace it, some unwittingly, but others because it furthers their own agenda, to gain strength through ideological simplification.

    Ultimately, though, I foresee that this will be a consolidation of mediocrity, which Nietzsche’s philosophy addresses at length in the last two books of Will to Power. This is in the context of the idea that the majority of people are capable only of reproducing the human race, without leaving an intellectual or creative mark. Even the leader of the movement, J P himself, admits that the majority of people are simply not going to be highly intellectual or creative. Perhaps what one can learn from this is that they need a morality that can consolidate their own strengths, which is to maintain a certain level of “averageness”, whilst assuring that what is average and normative is also reproduced. (In my own view the heavy emphasis on biological reproduction, as seen in J P’s videos, also comes into this.)

    So, postmodernism is out, and perhaps this is a good thing too, as it was always rather elitist. It was also stymied in effectiveness by its own insistence on a Kantian transcendentalism. It made sense to very few people, and muddled the minds of many, whilst making a fetish in wallowing in its own self-gratifying sense of moral indecisiveness.

    What will have to happen next is that the consolidated mass of humanity, that embraces quite self-consciously the morality of averageness — or what Nietzsche calls “mediocrity” — will gain an extreme level of self-assurety to the point that they close the circle around themselves to prevent any further change. By locking themselves into solid moral values, they will also lock out other modes of thought that would be too challenging.

    Thus it will be that finally, as Nietzsche had expected, two human races will develop — one that safeguards the importance of convention and simplicity in morality, and the other that “plays dangerously” with ideas and thoughts, whilst living far outside of the awareness of the mass majority.

    0

    Add a comment

  3. (6) Jennifer Armstrong's answer to What are your thoughts on Jordan Peterson's chances of winning the Nobel Prize? - Quora

    Profile photo for Jennifer Armstrong

    Well he has striven to come up with a middle-class ideology to save the intellectual middle classes — those who are not too bright to be real intellectuals, but who are better off having a firm moral system to guide them. It is also clear that he is speaking to, and behalf of these people, who actually form a demographic majority, when he focuses primarily on reproductive issues. The idea he promulgates is that reproduction provides the primary meaning in life. Now, this would be the case only for the majority, but not for the exceptions in humanity — a point Nietzsche mentions.

    But can JP’s efforts help to bolster those in the “intellectual middle”? Can he provide a system or a way of thinking that is simple enough, authoritative enough, and reliable enough to improve the quality of life of those who view reproduction as their life’s mission? And can he do so without making it worse for those of us who view things very differently?

    I do sense that these middle class values have become stronger online, in the past ten years or so, and this is largely indicated by a shift to Christian influenced values, and away from humanism. Along with the advent of this new online culture, we also find the idea of sinfulness and the notion that it is possible to “burn” (perhaps through guilt and shame).. These metaphysical notions are required to keep our middle classes on the straight and narrow. The point is that they accept their different roles as men and women, and produce babies, which is their life’s mission. (This is a different twist from old-fashioned Christianity, which had the goal of purifying the soul.)

    But once again, what effect does this new ideology have on others who may want something entirely different? We can certainly speak of a hegemony that is in place when those of us who think very, very differently indeed are silenced, on the basis that it is inferred that all we really, really want to do is to reproduce. We don’t.

    I have, personally, found a difficulty with people not being able to correctly grasp my written tone, ever since the shift took place from humanism back to Christianity. This ideology maintains that there is a distinctly feminine tone, and that it is to be disregarded on all matters other than to do with femininity. So what I say and do is regularly disregarded as though I had a neurotic tone. I don’t.

    It’s very vexing, though, and so much so that I have finally understood a large portion of Nietzsche’s philosophizing in Will to Power, where he insists that the middle class and its morality should be destroyed, and instead a chasm should open up between those who are high and those who are low, with no bridging mechanism in-between. The fact that there is a middle-class morality can obscure the actual differences between two types of humans, by making them seem to merge into one another though different shades of grey. Nietzsche wants a stark black and white instead, so that we are not confounded with one another.

    I would have found this idea weird and extreme in the past, but now I see the need to make a division as a very basic requirement for my own dignity and sanity. If I look at the material that JP produces, I cannot identify with how he characterizes “human nature”. I find it mispresents everything I do and everything I think, at least to the extent that I am coerced to viewing things in his terms. And the coercion, believe me, is there and palpable. For instance if I were to object to a video I saw yesterday, that stated that women, essentially, and hormonally were “neurotic” from puberty onward, you can bet your bottom dollar (I am willing to receive your money as a bet) that there would be people popping up to tell me that my views on this matter were merely “neurotic”. So, to me, the spiritual middle classes are a problem, and I must worker harder to separate myself from the law and the ideology they impose.

    I can’t actually, you know, totally destroy this bridging class, as Nietzsche suggests. But I will be increasingly divorcing myself from any participation online, as my resolution for the new year.

    But as for whether J P deserves a Nobel prize for saving that which Nietzsche planned to destroy, I think that would come down to the values of the bestowers. Let them bestow in terms of what they feel is fit.

    Profile photo for Jennifer Armstrong

    0

    Add a comment

Popular Posts
Popular Posts
  •  Different domains. As long as the control of the domain is not interfered with, both can win at their own games. As an ENTP, I tend to take...
  •  I love it. But Twain was in a sense too optimistic as travel is not always the answer. Or rather nothing beats being a local yokel and expe...
  •   What is a good book by Nietzsche to read in order to understand how he thought that people have an innate nature? Basically arguing nature...
About Me
About Me
Blog Archive
Blog Archive
Labels
Loading
Dynamic Views theme. Powered by Blogger. Report Abuse.