Friends, please excuse my stream of consciousness today... Ive always been interested in human behavior, which turned into a love of psychology and sociology. But Ive never been very intrigued by the big things: addictions, severe mental illness, severe trauma. If someone has been to war, they need therapy but I have no dog in that hunt. If they chew mattress cotton, I have no interest in that. Ive always been fascinated by the small behaviors and small decisions that impact lives in big ways, often much later. Ive always sat back and observed people whose lives were unacceptable to them and I would track their small movements: how often they missed work, how big they celebrated, what they read, who their friends were, the way in which they talked to people - and made judgments based on this observation. As I gather more information about their pasts, I begin to put the pieces of the puzzle together. I tend to zone in on what others tend to minimize because I agree that its the little foxes that ruin the vine. Ive always been less concerned about severe psychological dysfunction and more about a pervasive poor quality of life. And maybe thats because thats almost all Ive ever seen, in my family and my community. The only cure I can see is to teach a new way of being in the world. To offer people alternatives. But first you have to make them aware of the dysthymic reality that narrates the background of their lives. We have to accept the reality of our present condition. Thats the challenging part. Its hard to point out abnormality in a culture that is abnormal.
Posted on: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 17:16:39 +0000