Letters to the Editor
J.C. Miller
Published Letters: 319 Editor's Choice: 34
-
Amma
[Read the article: Amma's cosmic squeeze]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Amma . . . .
Mmaa . . . .
Maam . . .
MaMa !
Mother . . .
Father . . .
Wah Wah . . .
Goo Goo
-
Pseudoscience
[Read the article: Pseudopsychology Today]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Quite distinct from a cult or pseudoscience, just as evolutionary theory provides the single and ultimate explanatory framework for biological form and diversity, evolutionary psychology (which, by the way, object relations, ego, Gestalt, learning theory, behavioral, cognitive, attachment, Rogerian, and other frameworks reduce to) provides the single credible explanatory framework for human behavioral predispositions and drives, including gender-differentiated drives. Happily, human behavior does not reduce to drives and predispositions. Unhappily, human behavior is largely driven by a pseudoreality constructed and maintained by patriarchy, in turn largely driven by maladaptive remnants of male biological predispositions.
If you don’t want to be driven by your evolutionarily selected predispositions, stop reacting and begin choosing.
-
Heather,
[Read the article: I Like to Watch]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I am totally with you on the texting. And it’s nice to know that someone as busy and connected as you are still wants to unplug, put down that laptop, get away from the cellular messaging devices, and just relax, aphonically, unlike so many of the young professionals these days, of your gender, or so the Science says.
But if I could text those Pussycat Dolls? I’d be all, “Tnx 4 hlpng save Mthr Erth my fine c dnky skanx :-)” Because whoring sea donkeys need affirmations too!
-
conflicted
[Read the article: Ginning up a fight between Clinton and Obama]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Democrats, especially females, have to be soooooooooo conflicted over Hillary.
On the one hand, she shares their anatomical features! And, appealing to discerning members of both genders, she has the important character trait of ELECTABILITY.
On the other hand, sadly, she supports the wholesale unjustifiable killing of hundreds of thousands in occupied Iraq :-(
Tough call! Good luck.
-
Nicely and compassionately put
[Read the article: Couric goes to bat for Lohan]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]by Ms. Traister.
BTW the disease model, as applied to substance use disorders and other mental health disorders, is neither a scientific model nor an explanatory framework, but is, in fact, a form of criminal, or antisocial, thinking error – it pathologizes individuals in order to attempt to distract attention from and avoid culpability for the environmental forces driving addictive behaviors. Those forces include toxic, coercive parenting, social systems which perpetuate poverty and differentials in power and opportunity, economic systems which entail scarcity, insecurity and fear, and all the other alienating and spirit-crushing forces we celebrate as Western civilization. One of the primary barriers to effectively addressing addiction is that treatment and policy are driven by individuals with medical training and invested in the disease model. Addiction is symptomatic of our sick culture, not sick individuals.
-
kinder, gentler machine gun hand
[Read the article: Obama: Bush is confused, but the enemy is real]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You go Mr. Obama. Hunt them down, smoke ‘em out, and kill them. Surely we must win this war against the Terrorists. As we must the War on Drugs and the War on Crime.
Is your god on our side?
-
How does it feel
[Read the article: Democrats' responsibility for Bush radicalism]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]to unplug?
With no direction home?
It seems to make your writing stronger and tighter.
And your readers insecure. Understandably. It’s easier to choose sides and vilify than to let go of a comforting delusional structure.
-
You’ve been thinking
[Read the article: I Like to Watch]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]about anxiety lately, worrying about worries, wondering if they can ever be managed without resorting to booze, benzos, or Funyuns. Or are we - like the hapless TV characters we safely distance ourselves yet seem unable to turn away from - stuck in a world of walking wounded, whose liver damage, lung disease, obesity, irritability, and obsessive behaviors are the costs of unsuccessfully coping with stress? Always after the big questions, you ask, “So why are these people so miserable?”
Turns out worries can be controlled. But it takes finding the right person to talk to, and then paying her or him a fair amount of money over a period of time. Most of the highly trained professionals who will gladly take your money won’t be of much help, because talk therapy is an art, and finding someone competent is only slightly more likely than the members of one of those reality show gangs communicating authentically and overtly and in-the-moment and deciding they don’t want to be children anymore and uncomfortably bringing out the best in each other- but who would watch that shit anyway? Forget about a laugh track. And without ruthless machinations of primal human drives resulting in victors and losers, whose interest would it hold?
Who has time in real life to talk about their problems? Especially with helpful medical providers passing out Xanax and Prozac like it was chocolate pudding? We are a strong and prosperous nation, on the go, around the world, and we didn’t get where we are today by sitting around talking and accessing inner experience. Now we can’t even sit and relax and enjoy some televised entertainment without having the consequences shoved in our faces.
-
Every day of your lives,
[Read the article: Is a "feminine" man likely to be a family guy?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]each one of you scans multiple faces, reads meaning and intent from the facial appearances, forms automatic thoughts based on your interpretations, associated with feeling and emotional states, which help form reactions and behaviors by you. You learned to do it as an infant, and you are likely unaware of the experience, as you are of much of your inner experience and behaviors.
Could there possibly be some explanation, some value, for such a pervasive and ingrained behavior? Might be worth considering.
-
This strategy, I think
[Read the article: Meatheads]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]could actually be quite effective, because the message from the woman to the man is, “Look, you can relax and not be threatened by me, because when it comes to diet at least, I’m no smarter or more authentic than you are.”