Brief Politico-Therapy: A Tour Of The Psych-Bloggers

It is hard to believe that another week has passed boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, libs and neocons but it has. I've spent most of the week setting up my new office for my private practice, and letting referral sources know I'm back. And no, I wasn't thrown out of any of their offices (insert grin here). But I digress, another week has passed and it's time to take a brief tour of the Psych-Bloggers. Those intrepid practitioners of mental health, those wise sages of the workings of the mind, and those folk who wonder why the libs just don't get it.

As in weeks past, our visits will be to our usuall suspects Dr. Helen, Dr. Sanity, Shrinkwrapped, neo-neocon, Assistant Village Idiot, One Cosmos (Gagdad Bob), Sigmund, Carl and Alfred as well as OK, So I'm Not Really A Cowboy and our newest member, Iron Shrink. You may have noted that we have all (well, except for me) chosen rather odd names for our blog. Ok, Ok, my blog name is odd too and appropo of absolutely nothing else, let us begin the tour. First off is the illustrious Dr. Sanity, a practicing psychiatrist, former shrink for NASA (and boy, could they use here now) and my mentor in doing this weekly post. Dr. Sanity posts on "The Consequences Of Denial"

In the longer-term, denial requires a continued compromises with reality to maintain the pretense that "Everything is fine!" or "If only X would happen, everything would be fine!" Eventually, delusional thinking, along with paranoia and its inevitable conspiracy theories begin to take the place of rational thought in those who deny reality for long periods of time. (see all the 9/11 conspiracy theorists for examples in our own country; or the more recent comments of former President Clinton--once considered a "moderate" democrat, who now fully adheres to the model that the Republicans have manufactured a culture of fear in order to fool the American public into thinking we are at war..."

As is typical of Dr. Sanity, she nails the left with a taste of reality and be sure and read the whole post to see how the "reality based community" is, uhhh, well, n-o-t!

We turn now to tales of yester-year: A firey horse, a cloud of dust and a hearty Hi-Yo Silver... Whoops, wrong post... now, where was I? Oh, yes... now we turn to our newest member Iron Shrink with a slightly older post on "A Methodology Critique in Defense of Those Wascally Wepublicans" and what a delightful post it is:

Since his graduate school days, John T. Jost, who currently holds position as an Associate Professor of Psychology at New York University, has been studying the reasons for which people adopt conservative political ideology. His most publicized achievement is a 2003 article titled Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition (from here on out, I’ll refer to it as “the study.”) It was touted in the February issue of Psychology Today (Dixit, 2007) as, “the most comprehensive review of personality and political orientation to date.”

Don’t confuse comprehensiveness with integrity. The study maligns half of the U.S. population and much of the population of the world. Research resulting in mass vilification always causes the Iron Shrink to raise an eyebrow, so I examined the methodology that the authors used to arrive at their conclusion. Regular readers will know that I have little tolerance for intellectual sloppiness.

Dr. Helen is up next and boy is she on the money this week with a timely post on being a "club sandwich." What's that you say? Well, you'll just have to read (and click on the links too), but here is a tidbit for you:

Are you in your thirties or forties and desperate? I am--and no, it's not what you think, get your head out of the gutter. I have found myself lately part of the Sandwich Generation, more specifically, a Club Sandwich, defined as "those in their 30s and 40s, with young children, aging parents and grandparents" (thanks to several readers who emailed me to ask me to post on this topic).

Hmm, in my case I guess I'm the (gasp) aging parent... Gee, thanks Dr. Helen!

And that of course (although, again, for no discernable reason) brings us to Gagdad Bob who has written another stem-winder on "On Creating a Cultural Womb for the Seed of Eternity (updated with your worst nightmare)" in which he tackles religion, marriage, and child rearing practices... a really different, but oh-so-enlightening read:

An efficacious ritual does the same thing, focusing God's grace, as it were, onto a single point in the now. The purpose of the sabbath, for example, is to unveil and open wide the "hole" in creation through which the divine energies flow. A special day is set aside for this specific purpose, even though the energies are always flowing. But again, in the absence of a divinely authorized human container, the grace will tend to fall like rain on a rocky landscape, with nothing there to "receive" it.

Don't miss this one folks, it is that good. Of course, all our Psych-Bloggers are good too, including, me (he said demurely - insert another grin here). Assistant Village Idiot has an excellent post (though way too brief, I'd like to see an expansion of the post) on the tax system & The Meaning of Words

I am back on the edges of this tax-protestor thing again – from a different direction and partly my own fault. Ah well.

Sigmund, Carl and Alfred has (have?) an excellent post: Religion, Denial, Leaders And Followers that takes a look at perverting religion to political agendas and uses John Paul II's faith as a starting point. This is a must read folks:

The real inquisitors of today are those who preach and seek to ‘finish the job’ and either seek new holocausts, with new victims or ignore today’s holocausts because they interfere with their political agendas. The the foot soldiers of the real inquisitors of today are those that would withhold freedom from those less fortunate, and leave them to be devoured by the beasts of tyranny.

Those with the most blood on their hands are those who support the call for more death and destruction or an advancement of a scenario that would do just that- and do so with a religious zeal, pretending all the while to do so in the name of ‘peace’ or ‘love.’

The real inquisitors are those who who support an agenda of hate as opposed to John Paul II’s agenda of faith. The real Inquisitors are those who deliberately mischaraterize faith and those who choose faith as a way of life. That deliberate mischaracterization is a deliberate result of denial- an attempt to negate even the possibility that people with religious beliefs and values are moral equivalents to those who are non believers.

lets sashay over to neo-neocon's blog and see what this lady has to talk about this week. Why, she holds forth on election fraud in Venezuela and notes that few are surprised except perhaps Jimmy Carter. A tidbit for you:

An isolated study or two wouldn't mean much. But there's a lot more evidence that this particular election was rigged.

And is there anyone who doubts Chavez capable of such a thing? In fact, is there anyone who thinks he would think twice about doing such a thing?

Shrinkwrapped has a lengthy four-parter on Abortion on Demand: Reverberations and Vicissitudes and talks about a young woman, Susan, who had an abortion. What ever your particular stance on the issue, this one deserves your full attention. Be sure and read all four parts, it is that good:

When conflictual material is suppressed or repressed, it does not disappear, harmlessly out of sight. It has effects that reverberate throughout a person’ life and character. Susan felt that she was a bad person, not worth loving. While there were multiple antecedents for her feelings, her abortion formed the nidus around which many of these concerns coalesced. I suspect, though I cannot prove, that had she never had the abortion, the feelings would have been less intense and had less of a hold on her psyche. I suspect carrying the child to term and giving it up for adoption would have been extremely difficult but ultimately a healthier resolution for Susan.

OK, So I'm Not Really A Cowboy is on hiatus for the nonce and we are hoping he will be back. So, until our next sojourn amongst the wild and crazy folk of that part of the blogosphere called the Psych-Bloggers, take care, and take two asprin, and call me in the morning.

Posted by GM Roper at February 24, 2007 12:57 AM | TrackBack