Psychology As Storytelling Essay -- essays research papers

<a href="http//www.geocities.com/vaksam/">Sam Vaknins Psychology, Philosophy, Economics and Foreign Affairs Web SitesStorytelling has been with us since the days of campfire and besieging wild animals. It served a number of important functions advance of fears, communication of vital information (regarding survival tactics and the characteristics of animals, for instance), the satisfaction of a sense of order (justice), the development of the ability to hypothesize, predict and introduce theories and so on.We are all endowed with a sense of wonder. The origination most us in inexplicable, baffling in its diversity and myriad forms. We cognize an urge to organize it, to "explain the wonder away", to order it in order to know what to expect next (predict). These are the essentials of survival. only if opus we have been successful at imposing our minds structures on the outside world - we have been much less successful when we tried to cope with our interior( a) introduction.The relationship between the structure and functioning of our (ephemeral) mind, the structure and modes of operation of our ( bodily) forefront and the structure and conduct of the outside world have been the matter of heat up debate for millennia. Broadly speaking, there were (and still are) deuce ways of treating it in that location were those who, for all practical purposes, identified the origin (brain) with its product (mind). Some of them postulated the being of a lattice of preconceived, born categorical knowledge about the universe - the vessels into which we pour our experience and which mold it. Others have regarded the mind as a black box. While it was possible in principle to know its input signal and output, it was impossible, again in principle, to understand its internal functioning and management of information. Pavlov coined the phrase "conditioning", Watson adopted it and invented "behaviorism", Skinner came up with "reinfo rcement". But all ignored the psychophysical question what IS the mind and HOW is it linked to the brain?The opposite camp was more "scientific" and "positivist". It speculated that the mind (whether a physical entity, an epiphenomenon, a non-physical principle of organization, or the result of introspection) - had a structure and a limited set of functions. They argued that a "users manua... ... inaccessible, recesses of his mind. He feels that he is being reintegrated, that "things retort into place". In psychodynamic terms, the energy is released to do productive and positive work, earlier than to induce distorted and destructive forces.c. The Purgatory Principle - In most cases, the lymph gland feels sinful, debased, inhuman, decrepit, corrupting, guilty, punishable, hateful, alienated, strange, mocked and so on. The plot offers him absolution. Like the highly symbolic figure of the deliverer before him - the clients sufferings expurgate, cle anse, absolve, and atone for his sins and handicaps. A feeling of hard won exercise accompanies a successful plot. The client sheds layers of functional, adaptive clothing. This is inordinately painful. The client feels dangerously naked, precariously exposed. He then assimilates the plot offered to him, thus enjoying the benefits emanating from the previous two principles and only then does he develop new mechanisms of coping. Therapy is a moral crucifixion and resurrection and atonement for the sins. It is highly religious with the plot in the reference of the scriptures from which solace and consolation can be always gleaned.