Things I've Been Reading About Mental Health!

Slate just published a review of Milton Rokeach's "The Three Christs of Ypsilanti," and it was not very interesting. The book appears to be a sort of philosophical justification for why a 1950s psychologist thought it might be interesting to put three schizophrenics who each believed they were Jesus into a ward together. That might've been interesting!

Instead, the 1950s psychologist lies about the schizophrenics' interactions with each other in order to make his experiment "meaningful." Then he fucks with the schizophrenics, sending them condescending letters from make-believe people in order to try and get them to stop believing they are Jesus. Then the schizophrenics stop reading the pretend letters and go on believing they are Jesus. Then, apparently, the book is over. Good job, book review! Running out to Powell's right now!

The part of the book that appears to be lies follows early meetings between the schizophrenics. Apparently, they weren't happy that they all shared the same identity.

"You oughta worship me, I'll tell you that!" one of the Christs yelled. "I will not worship you! You're a creature! You better live your own life and wake up to the facts!" another snapped back. "No two men are Jesus Christs. … I am the Good Lord!" the third interjected, barely concealing his anger.

This is clearly made-up nonsense directed at a reading audience that, logically enough for the 1950s, had probably never met a schizophrenic. (An audience that could see how Jesus 1 could walk up to Jesus 2 and say, "Hello, my name is Jesus. I like being the only son of God," instead of saying something like, "Mother says to stay away from the parasites. That tornado weapon was glinting?") It is intended to introduce a narrative about how each of us continuously constructs our identities: through logical interaction with our environment.



Its message is similar to Voltaire's story of Simon Morin (also mentioned in the Slate piece): Morin was a Christ-identified schizophrenic condemned to share a "mad-house" with "another fool, who called himself God the Father." Voltaire writes: "Simon Morin was so struck with the folly of his companion, that he acknowledged his own, and appeared for a time to have recovered his senses." So they let Morin out, and then, d'oh!, he remembered he was Jesus again, and then they burned him alive. These narratives emphasize Enlightenment logicality while ridiculing fanaticism, reminding us to ask questions toward finding truth, including the truth of who we are, in order to better ourselves and our society.

Which reminds me: Talking about mental illness is always talking about morality. It's always about "shoulds." What should we believe about this? What should be done about that (in order to uphold these values at the expense of those)?

Just sayin'.

Alvin Greene!

I was seeing this video...



... when I realized that it was the most informative political video ever made. It teaches us so many things! Alvin Greene teaches us so many things! Alvin Greene does, I mean, I mean, yes... a little... just a few things. Bronze booties!



One: Unemployed people accused of felony obscenity who are given $10,000 to file to campaign for Senate seats and then do absolutely no campaigning and yet magically go on to win the primary against an actual politician who isn't mired in scandal or actually very controversial at all and go on live TV to talk about how everyone knows they're a plant Politicians are allowed to do national press in their 1993 FAMILY REUNION T-SHIRTS!!!

Two: People selected to be Republican plants are given lawyers to stand just off camera and loudly whisper answers to interviewers' questions, but are not coached beforehand? About even the most innocuous questions?

Olbermann: What was your campaign like? Did you have a lot of meetings?

Greene: I had quite... I had just a few meetings. Not many.

I really like the fun that many journalists are having with transcribing Greene's interviews!

From the Washington Post:

"I'm the Democratic Party nominee," Greene says in the interview at his father's home on a lonely stretch of rural highway in central South Carolina. "The people have spoken. The people of South Carolina have spoken. The people of South Carolina have spoken. We have to be pro-South Carolina. The people of South Carolina have spoken. We have to be pro-South Carolina."

From Fox News:

"Last weekend was the first, I mean, I had friends and their friends help," Greene said, pausing several seconds. "I mean, I don't want to talk about the campaign. We get caught up in the campaign -- 'How he won?' -- whatever. I worked hard."

From Mother Jones:

[W]hen asked whether there was a specific person or circumstance that precipitated his decision to jump into politics, Greene simply replied: "nothing in particular...it's just, uh, nothing in particular."

Three: Just because you're a powerful political entity capable of winning primary elections by paying the campaign fees for a stooge with an upper-alphabet last name DOES NOT MEAN you are very picky about choosing your stooge!

UPDATE! Uh-oh! Here's Talking Points Memo, to rain on the fun parade:

"I don't believe he's a plant," [South Carolina State Rep. Bakari] Sellers told TPMmuckraker in an interview after his meeting with Greene. "I think he just kind of doesn't know what he's getting into... I don't think there's anything nefarious going on. I think he actually did save his money" ...

Todd Rutherford, another Democratic state representative who met with Greene today alongside Sellers, told TPMmuckraker, "Before I got to my third question, I could tell that something was awry," adding, "I don't know whether everything is OK."

Rutherford, an attorney, said that if Greene were his client, he would move for a mental evaluation. "If there's a joke he doesn't get the joke. If someone paid him to do this, they certainly exploited someone who is vulnerable. It's not even funny, it's just sad."

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN? More importantly, WHEN WILL THERE BE MORE VIDEOS?

Kristen Stewart, An Apology

So we saw "Twilight" a while back. It was pretty hilarious. The best, as everyone already knows, is where Kristen Stewart walks into the science classroom and there's a well-placed fan, so her hair's all, AHHH! And she walks to her seat, and her mouth IS ALWAYS OPEN, and Kristen Stewart's gay boyfriend's like, SUPER COLD TO HER EVEN THOUGH SHE IS SOOOO HOTTTT??? And then she keeps her mouth open, because it is ALWAYS OPEN, and then she sort of salivates and moves her tongue around lustily inside her mouth, and lustily up against her teeth, while her tongue glistens inside her mouth, glistens with saliva and lust, and we were like, TOO MUCH MOUTH SCIENCE!

And then I saw that children on the internet had also noticed that Kristen Stewart, who is probably filed under "Rosetta Stone" in Paul Ekman's My Documents, has problems expressing emotion with the parts of her face that are not her open mouth. One internet person, who should have been doing her pre-calc and studying hard for her spring formal, did this, instead:



Which is not nearly as interesting as this, which, presumably, is the work of a separate internet person who has allowed her love of Jesus Christ to lapse in favor of thinking hard about Kristen Stewart:



Indeed, Kristen Stewart does appear to have the ability to close her mouth.

But then, yesterday, I saw "Adventureland." It is the kind of movie that makes forty-five-year-old movie critics say things like, "Yes, you've seen much of it before... But Stewart makes you care anyway. This, folks, is an actress" in response to this:



But then, during the seven minutes I gave a shit about Kristen Stewart and the great Open Mouth: Sexy or Creepy? debate, which occured about halfway through "Adventureland," around the time it was becoming clear that it's not ok to make fun of Kristen Stewart because there is clearly something wrong with her mouth function... and then I accidentally googled "kristen stewart mouth problem?" you know, just to see, and up came this page, at igossip.com.

"Kristen Stewart has a serious problem! *see photos this page

"Here is a photo of Kristen from when she filmed Twilight vs. how she looks now on Eclipse (pic with hat on). At the risk of being mean, something is wrong with Kristen.



"She looks so changed and has gained weight lately. This is highly strange considering that her looks are very important to her career and getting a chance to act in the future. Something is up with her and the warning signs are there.

Is anyone looking out for her?"

It was at this point that I realized, Kristen Stewart's mouth problem was always only subterfuge. Robert Pattinson's hair was always the interesting one.





SO INTERESTING!!! I can't wait to pay actual dollars to see him on the big screen!

DVD: "The Informant!"

Matt Damon's Mark "Corky" Whittaker is a happy, lucky, corporate guy. Colorful ties, tan suits. In his dealings with other people, Whittaker is affable, agreeable, persuasive. In his head, however, there's a running, diarrhetic stream of interesting ice-breakers he never uses; he's too familiar with the way conversations with his Boss, his Co-workers, even his Wife, should conform to really let himself go. (At one point, Whittaker thinks, "Polar bears cover their noses before they pounce on a seal. How do polar bears know their noses are black? Did they look in the water one day, see their reflection and say, ‘Man, I’d be invisible if it wasn’t for that thing'... That's a lot of thinking for a bear".)He's a creative guy, very interested in the details of what's going on around him; these, too, he keeps to himself, to his own eventual detriment.



Soderberg's "The Informant!" views Whittaker as a pathologically splintered individual. It's not until his job forces him to take on a third self, however, that his world begins to tip its axis. The film is the true story of a guy who, for no explicitly discernible reason, decided one day to expose his company's crimes, and then set out to single-handedly gather all of the intelligence needed to do so. Whittaker spied on and taped his bosses and the bosses of several other companies for two and a half years. In that time, he lost his ability to maintain an idea of objective reality.

But the character's reality too closely mirrors "real" reality for others to view him as suffering from "real" mental illness. Because he presents well, appears (for the most part) happy and engaged, and seems to mostly know what he's doing, we buy him as a "regular guy."

It isn't until a third or so of the way into the movie that it becomes clear that Whittaker's completely bonkers. He lies all the time, to everyone he comes into contact with, about everything, even when there's no reason to lie. The anecdote about the magazine story about the polar bear? Think about it for a second. He's lying to himself!

Whittaker's story could've gone tragic, or even tragicomic. But it didn't! It stays true to where its protagonist's at, and is a pretty happy little movie.

Thank you, nice movie! Smiley emoticon here!

Lost: The End

I am very proud of my Fruedian unconscious today, because last night, I had a dream where I figured out how they would tie up all the mysteries of "Lost." There was a narrative arc and everything! In my "Lost" dream, this is what happens:

First, the Muppets finally realized that the statue had been destroyed.



They were mad.



So they all came down to the island, wearing chain-mail. Not scary chain-mail, just Muppet chain-mail. And maybe they had a flag. And they were like, "Hey you guys! You broke our statue! And that was the only thing holding the moon in place!"



So then the moon fell down.



And then the Muppets got out of the spaceship and swam with the dolphins!



And probably sang the moon song:



But with the dolphins!

Because that is the only way to end "Lost" that would not make me really really up-tight about all the time I've wasted trying to make the mysteries add up and watching new mysteries appear and reading about how they're not going to tie up all the loose ends! If you're not going to tie up all the loose ends, just bring in the deus ex Muppets! Then everyone's happy :)

Anthropologie Spring 2010 cataVOMIT

Anthropologie's buyers have, this season, banked on the public's willingness to believe that The 80s Are Tacky Are IN, No Matter What. Welcome to Bizarro (UGLY) world:



Egregious. I mean, lush loveliness! Everyone looks good in this! Especially when summering in the 80s! Wear it with your fanciest 2002 gladiator sandals! To a Save the Rainforest Party As Inspired by "Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest"! Ton Loc, what up! Because: This season... our buyer got IRONICAL. But not ironical in an awesome, Funky Cold Medina kind of way, apparently.

This is their COVER look:



So South American! So political! The perfect cut! Wear it! NOW!



Your choice! Mustard-floral swimwear, or tent-length wonder-dress!

Anthropologie: Officially for old people.

Lost to the Future

So...

So the physicist wunderkind who was somehow involved with dangerous espionage thugs? This physicist says, "If you blow up the island with a hydrogen bomb, then the island will never have existed, and it won't make your plane crash, and you'll be just fine," and everyone's like, "Sounds about right"?

So then everyone works real hard to make sure the hydrogen bomb goes off, with no discussion at all, even a little?



And then the hydrogen bomb goes off, and it turns out that hydrogen bomb explosions, as everyone in the Marshall Islands knows, doesn't actually destroy anything, so much as it creates three alternate universes? In one universe, everything is CGI and the island is under water? In the next, everyone's still stuck on the island? And then there's one where the plane didn't crash, but the island's still there, above water-level?

And then, in the everything's-the-same universe on the island, Sayid's bleeding, and Jacob, who's dead, appears to Hurley, and gives him a guitar case, and tells him to bring Sayid to a special temple? And Hurley waits for like an hour for another friend to die and get buried, and then tells everyone about the Jacob thing? And everyone's like, "Right on"? And the medical doctor doesn't even try any CPR or anything, or even check Sayid out, until they've gotten him to the magical temple? Which they've never seen before? Because the Smoke Monster kept them from exploring the island? Wait, have they even checked its periphery? Because, remember from "Gilligan's Island," when they forgot to check the periphery, and it turned out they were really on Hawaii the whole time?


(Possibly Hawaii)

And then, in the temple, they meet some Chinese guy with a long beard who does bonsai and martial arts and relies on a magic hourglass, because that's what's up with all people of Asian descent?

And then Hurley gives the temple guy the guitar case, and it turns out it holds an ankh symbol, like in "Logan's Run," as in, "SANCTUARY"? Inside the guitar case is the symbol for sanctuary?



And the temple guy breaks the ankh and finds an ancient-looking scroll that tells him to help Sayid live? And then he drowns Sayid?

And then John Locke turns into the Smoke Monster or Man in Black (Johnny Cash?), and there are too many metaphors to make sense? And my head hurts from all of the attempting to make this show make sense?

And then, in the alternate reality at LAX, an entry-level customer service personnel lets Jack know that they've lost his dad's coffin, and they don't know when it's coming in, because they don't know "exactly" where it is?

And then Jack, a medical doctor, asks stranger John Locke why he's paralyzed, and it's irreversible, and the MD says "Nothing's irreversible"? And then they exchange names and Jack the doctor's all, "Nice to meet you"??? Oh shit! We're going to need a bigger CUSTOMER SERVICE OVERHAUL and BESIDSE MANNER and also HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION!!! (This guy's whole life, nobody's ever like, "Oh yeah, Locke, right, 'Some thoughts concerning education,' right on, heh heh, I bet you get that all the time"? Dude's name is JOHN LOCKE!)

And then, back in the other alternate reality, Jack the doctor is about to beat up some people with his mad academic doctor skills - namely his FISTS - when Sayid wakes back up, like hours later? And then



I fucking HATE this show.