++++++++++++++++++++++++++
ARCHIVE.
For a list of all my published posts:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Blog
entries beginning with #101 are not essays but minimally-edited notes and
reviews from the files I've collected over the last few decades. I no longer
have the time and energy needed to sort out and put together into decent
essay-form the many varied ideas in these files, but I would like to share them
with all who are interested.
If
you have questions and think I might help, you're welcome to send me a
note: sam@macspeno.com
Post
#131 is about the traits of healthy individuals who are "themselves" rather than
what the patriarchal culture would like them to be. It's a helpful, but
not-quite positive, description of the shamanic personality as it's seen from a
mechanistic sociology perspective. We have a ways to go yet!
===
Eccentrics:
A Study of Sanity and Strangeness, by David Weeks and Jamie James (Kodansha Globe, 1996).
Definition:
Eccentricity is departure from the norm, behavior and attitudes different from
the average, the exact opposite of “staid, right-thinking establishment” views,
perspectives, actions.
---
Distinction
from madness: Eccentricity differs from mental illness: while both show
behavior outside the norm, neurotics for example are subject to panic, anxiety,
phobias, etc. and want to be cured, whereas eccentrics to some extent choose
their behavior and enjoy it. Also, while psychotics are powerless in the face
of their voices and visions, eccentrics can to some extent control their
visions and in fact enjoy them. The mentally ill have little or no choice,
eccentrics do.
---
Main
Traits of eccentrics:
1)
Non-conformity = departure from the norm or average.
2)
Curiosity. They ask why, seek to understand, and “think” in imagery as do
children (but don’t stop doing so as they mature). Note that curiosity is the
only purely intellectual motivation and is its own reward.
3)
Creativity. Eccentrics are gifted and original. Want to try new things, to
experiment. Have (obviously strong intuitive) ability to enter into and
identify with the problem (issue/whatever). Interested in creativity for its
own sake. Creative people fall into three main areas: scientists-inventors,
artists, and the religiously creative.
4) Desire
to improve things. Eccentrics are idealists and want to make things better for
people. They want to make the world better.
---
Other
traits:
5) Tend
to have several often non-related interest-consuming obsessions going
simultaneously.
6). Know
they are different from an early age.
7) Have
higher than average IQ.
8) Have
strong opinions and tend to be outspoken about stating them.
9)
Non-competitive. They often find others petty, banal, boring, selfish,
hypocritical, and thus do not need reinforcement or reassurance from society.
10) Often
are first or only children, and bad spellers.
---
Health:
Contrary to common view, eccentrics tend to be in good mental health, even
above average. Apparently, because they are less susceptible to stress which
comes from feelings of needing to conform.
Stress
affects the endocrine system, which interacts with and is in balance with the
nervous system and immune system; therefore, less stress, more immunity.
Eccentrics by definition don’t care about conforming, and they tend to avoid
situations where failure is likely, or they simply ignore it.
---
Speech:
Eccentrics tend to be fluent in language. Moreover: they show, far less than
the norm, those speech defects known by linguists as “derailment” and “loss of
goal.” I.e., they digress far less than average people do.
They are
“dogged in reaching their goals,” not letting themselves get lost in their
train of thought the way average people often allow to happen and crazy people
can’t help happening. (This is considered to be a disorder, because to be
“mildly deficient in normal digressiveness is a trait possessing positive,
cooperative social value.”)
---
Sex
differences:
With
regard to “self-referencing” speech: the more intelligent male eccentrics are,
the less they tend to talk about themselves, whereas the more intelligent
female eccentrics are, the more they tend to talk about themselves.
With
regard to digression: eccentric males tend to digress less than eccentric
females.
---
The need
for eccentricity:
The
mental health traits of eccentrics are greatly needed in a society such as ours
where mass culture produces such intense boredom and deep feelings of powerlessness:
the energetic, enthusiastic interests of eccentrics-- feelings of being young
and playing-- tend to dissipate previous feelings of rejection, anger,
unfairness.
In any
society there is always need for innovation and fresh ideas. Diversity (i.e.,
psycho-diversity, analogous to bio-diversity) is required for every kind of
social evolution and adaptation to changing conditions.
---
A
personal comment:
Eccentricity
would seem to be the very opposite of negative patriarchal and hierarchical perspectives.
And to the extent that those perspectives are compulsive, they would seem to
have a lot in common with mental illness.
As Thomas
Berry says, “Ours is the most pathological of all cultures, ever.” It's so
pathological it sees healthy personalities as pathological!
+++
No comments:
Post a Comment