Allan G. Hunter's Blog, page 78

Archetypes and Psychologists

Today I present a short paper at the Personal Construct Psychology's 19th International symposium.  The topic — the Six Archetypes as a way of making meaning that may well be so pervasive as to be one of the deep structures of the psyche.

I've never presented to a whole symposium of psychologists before.  To the Trauma Canter Therapists in Brookline, MA, yes; to Counseling Children and Young People Magazine (UK), yes; To JFK University Transpersonal Psychology Faculty and students, yes.  But not to this group.

I know what I have to say is good.  I just hope they can relate to the non-psychologically orthodox way I'll be saying it.

Stay tuned.

Facebook Philosophizing

Many of my acquaintances and friends write, or quote, really good thoughts on Facebook. Usually they use quotations.  Inspiring, uplifting, thoughtful.

I read them, think, hey, cool; and then I have a singular tendency to forget them.

I know why this is, now. When we are handed wisdom, reduced to a few short sentences, it is still wisdom, but it isn't felt on the pulse. It isn't truly vital to who we are right now. It's wisdom that hasn't been earned, puzzled through, wrestled with.  It's like reading the answers to a math problem without doing the equation.  It tends not to stick.

In this resides, perhaps, the human dilemma.  How can we retrieve what we know so that we can use it when we need it?

I can't let this one go….. (karma)

In the News of The World (UK) phone hacking scandal, we now have one minister resignation (plus his arrest); the resignation of the general editor of the paper (plus her arrest) and now the head of the Metropolitan Police and his Deputy, both resigning.

We also have a Prime Minister fighting for his political survival.

Point of information: the Head of The Metropolitan Police is the equivalent in the USA to the head of the FBI.

Why should you care?  Piers Morgan, who took over from Larry King? He was general editor of that same newspaper and almost certainly engaged in the same loathsome tactics, the same gross invasion of privacy. He's here, spreading the cancer.

So, no, I can't let this one go. It feels like Karma's wheel.

Rebekah Brooks

Yes, the former head of the News of The World, now under severe scrutiny because of the illegal hacking of celebrity cell phones, has been arrested.

In England, being arrested is about the same in the public eye as being declared to have done the deed.  Here in the US it means anything but that.

So Brooks is brought to task in a corruption scandal that has already touched prime ministers and soccer stars alike.

Why do I have so little pity for her? Is my lack of compassion necessarily bad? Perhaps I'm just sick of media manipulation and delighted to see someone, anyone, brought to task for it?

short is sweet

That's what they say - and the blog is no different.  Same goes for texting; novels, poems, also.  Short and easy. College courses, too, in 'concentrated' format. Same for therapy.  Eight visits, then onto the pills.  Shortcut.

But some things can't be rushed, and can't be explored fully in a short burst of zippy enthusiasm. In a world that complains about stress, and about not having time to breathe, why do we want short and sweet anyway?  So we can cram more short and sweet experiences into the same amount of time?

Who do we think we're fooling?

Compasses and direction

I have two compasses on my desk. One belonged to my father, and came from a WW2 plane of a type he used to fly.  It therefore has symbolic value that is close to home.  The other is a US airplane compass from the same era.

The British made compass is light, delicate, made up of dozens of tiny parts, cunningly constructed, but not built to last. The manufacturers seemed to know that the planes they put these into would not be flying for very long before meeting their demise.

The American made compass is heavy, practical, easy to use, and still functions perfectly 65 years later. The paint is superior, too. All the numbers are readable still.

British equipment conveys the message that the individual is not important, and that the task is.  One is expected to get things done well with less than optimal apparatus, and achieving this is the essence of stiff-upper lip courage.

The American equipment seems to say, in every way, that you, the user, are important and trusted to get the job done right. And here is the device that will help you do it well, no matter how dangerous the task.

The second attitude seems, somehow, more respectful, don't you think?

Facebook and Friend Matrix: a Lovestory

A friend of mine has just had to delete her Facebook FriendMatrix. For those of you who don't know, this is a collage of the friends you have, with larger pictures of those friends who are most in contact.  This has caused some people to be offended, when seeing the small size of their picture in the matrix of a dear friend.

Size matters.

And that's the trouble with the square matrix.  All it responds to is the number of times people have been in contact, or hit 'like'.  It doesn't seem to care about the actual quality of the relationship that is shared.  The moral? That one cannot quantify quality. The second moral? Isn't it interesting that some people think we should be able to quantify friendship.

Murdoch, and the News Of the World

The News of the Screws, as it used to be referred to because of its prurient interest in alleged celebrity sexual exploits, has gone too far.  Hacking into phones from everyone to the Royal Family, the Head of Scotland Yard, at least one Prime Minister and 4000 other people, some of whom happen to be the bereaved families of servicemen killed in Afghanistan….  How much more do you want?

I'm off to my bookmaker to lay a sizable bet that Murdoch never does a day of prison time.

Is there something wrong with us, that we allow this? It surely feels like it.

Allowing evil to spread is the same thing as doing evil.

Joy and pain are woven fine…..

If I wish to feel joy, it's not hard to get to it.  I just have to look at whatever is before me in a spirit of wonder at how beautiful the world is.  Then I feel alive. But I can also stub my toe on something, and feel alive - in a different way.

So why is it that so many of us seem to prefer the toe-stubbing method to feeling alive? And how can we reverse this? How can we choose what's good rather than what hurts?

Perhaps the first thing to do is be aware that there is an option; a real choice. Then we cannot go wrong.

Upcoming Broadcast: mark your calendars…

In the spirit of shameless self-promotion (which seems to be what one has to do these days) here's a link to an upcoming show, July 11th.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/earthangelsradio/2011/07/11/fifth-dimensional-living-with-guest-dr-allan-hunter