Bijou Drains
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Bijou Drains
ParticipantTM – “In Carlisle my mother and i asked several people about Hadrian’s Wall. They had never heard of it, including a policeman.”
It’s probably because there is so much to do and enjoy in Carlise that the locals didn’t have time to stop and find out about Hadrian’s Wall.
Carlise is up their with Slough, Aldershot and Newport Pagnell, in terms of the highlights of this sceptered isle.
It is rumoured that some people have even turned down the chance of spending a wet Wednesday in Hartlepool, just to have the option of a day in Carlise
Bijou Drains
ParticipantGoing back to the 60’s my aunt organised a delivery from a well known department store in London for a member of the family back in the North East, when the woman behind the counter heard that the delivery address ended in “County Durham” she replied “Oh no Dearie, we don’t deliver to Ireland!”
Somethings never change.
The one that always winds me up is when Southern commentator refers to Scotland as being “On the other side of Hadrian’s Wall”
Bijou Drains
ParticipantIt is a mistake to think that the goggle box watchers of the world or the answers from (some) quiz contestants are reflective of the general nature of people’s level of understanding of the world. On an anecdotal level I am often taken aback by the level of knowledge and understanding that people I encounter in the real world (not TV/social media influences).
I sometimes attend a local pub quiz, for example, and the large numbers of people, the wealth of knowledge they possess (shown by the scores attained) is just one example. I travel around the country for work (although not as much as I used to) and often engage in conversation with taxi drivers, hotel workers, fellow guests in hotels, as well as the people I meet through work and although I do encounter the odd balm pot, the vast majority of people I meet are well informed about what is going on in the world, current affairs, etc. etc.
As to those quiz shows TM refers to, I have a little experience of quiz shows. I was talking to a production assistant on a quiz programme some years ago and he told me that quite naturally the way the quiz programmes are set up are based on the audience they intend to attract and the responses of the audience to the contestants. The people who they recruit for the quiz are either people they think the audience will associate with or feel some form of sympathy with, which they will then invest in wanting them to win, or people that the audience will dislike and therefore wish the contestant to lose.
They also select the contestants on their level of ability; they regularly select contestants that have a lower level of quiz ability than those who watch the show. This allows the audience member to develop a feeling of superiority over these contestants. (That bit seems to have worked for you, anyway). They also occasionally select contestants who have a much higher ability than the general audience, which also varies the show and keeps the audience on their toes (modesty forbids). I was also told that the questions chosen for each quiz reflects the audience that are attracted to that quiz. They try to make the questions at a level where the audience would probably be at about the midpoint of the level that the contestants would achieve.
It might be that you’re just watching the wrong quiz programmes (perhaps Only Connect, Mastermind and University Challenge might be more your bag, or even Round Britain Quiz and Brain of Britain on the radio). Similarly there are lots of challenging TV shows, some of BBC 4, Sky Arts, etc as examples.
P.S, TM, I haven’t forgotten about posting my take on Cde Fleischman’s article and the ongoing Freud debate, just I have been up to my neck in work, etc. I will try and get that done sometime this week.Bijou Drains
ParticipantPlease don’t go Chelmsford. I for one genuinely enjoy your sarcastic, curmudgeonly comments
Bijou Drains
ParticipantI might be misremembering but didn’t the SWP also support the military dictators in Argentina in their war against British mining and oil interests in the Falklands?
Bijou Drains
ParticipantNo masturbation, no sport, definitely no football, only 2 partners for your entire life, no rude jokes, no taking the piss, you can have a drink, but only with meals, no getting wazzed and off to bed by 9.30pm
Socialism’s going to be a right giggle
Bijou Drains
Participant” but don’t many animals seek out a quiet place to die when life becomes unsupportable?”
Most animals seek out a hiding place when they are sick, this is because being sick makes you vulnerable. The fact that some of the ones that are sick actually die, it is not surprising that some of the sick animals don’t recover.
Interestingly I think this is an example of the Freudian habit of putting 2 and 2 together and making a mystically based sex related 43. It’s a bit like seeing that little girls sometimes get pissed off because they can’t widdle up the wall like their brother and developing penis envy, with the possible consequence of:
Resentment towards the mother who failed to provide the daughter with a penis
Depreciation of the mother who appears to be castrated
Giving up on phallic activity (clitoral masturbation) and adopting passivity style vaginal intercourse. (quite how the 3 year old works that out is a little bit worrying!!!)
A symbolic equivalence between penis and childOr maybe she just wishes she was able to piddle up the wall
Another more tragic situation was that Freud was for once right on the money in his badly named “seduction theory” which explained female “hysteria” as having a root in trauma and that sexual abuse was very much part of that. Of course stating that child sexual abuse was rife in upper class Paris and Vienna was not a popular thing to say and he abandoned that theory and came up with the far more acceptable Oedipus complex.
Better to get rich being wrong than staying poor being right, eh Siggy?
Bijou Drains
ParticipantI’ll let you know, TM, my posterior is a thing of great beauty!
Bijou Drains
ParticipantIt may be that gravity is not a force as put forward by Newton, however the existance of gravity is observable and prooveable, just jump out of the window if you want proof. It is also possible to observe that the effects of gravity are consistent across the universe (well with one or two exceptions, which are more about the shortcomings of the theory rather than gravity itself).
All of the “drives” which Freud puts forward as theory are not observable and cannot be consistently observed. You cannot observe these drives anymore than you can observe orgon, chi, heavenly grace or animal magnetism.
Any drive or instinct can only have evolved if it aids reproduction or survival (or at the very least has not hindered those things). If any Freudian believer of Thanatos can successfully explain how a drive or instinct involving killing yourself or destroying yourself can aid survival or reproduction, I’ll happily show my arse in the Party’s front window.
A theory is a description of reality that offers or attempts an explanation of reality’s workings. The problem is not only are what you describe as metaphores wrong teh whole theory is unsustainable.
Freud made some very interesting observations, however his observations were not unique or novel. The role of the unconscious mind had been described centuries before Freud’s birth and Rousseau and Darwin amongst others had developed models of staged child development.
Bijou Drains
ParticipantIn terms of a therapeutic use, I don’t think that Freud’s work should not be used therapeutically. I am a great believer in “what works works” if some people gain some benefit from it, what’s not to like.
That said, in it’s classical format I think it has very limited usage. Although modern psychotherapeutic approaches derived from the psychodynamic school, such as Gestalt and TA can be very useful. If you look at practically all therepeutic approaches you will find that they have their roots in Freud, including CBT and Dialectical Behavioural Therapy.
However that’s just my opinion, others more practiced may disagree.
I do however think that a great deal of Freud’s work contains a great deal of supposition and unsupportable assertion.
In terms of the links to political change, if the foundations are rotten, it doesn’t matter how much Marx you add to it, it still is unsteady and liable to collapse.
I haven’t forgotten that I said I would add areply about your questions about his and also to the WS article, I am in the process of putting bits together in between work and will try to get that bit posted asap.
Bijou Drains
ParticipantSo you don’t accept Freud’s theory of “instincts that destroy and kill” you reject his psycho sexual stages theory, his theory of the Oedipus Complex, his theory of the Electra complex and you need to adapt his theory of the death instinct to include alientation to make it make sense.
Poor old Siggy is disappearing like the Cheshire cat. Well, apart from the fact that the old bugger never smiled!
Bijou Drains
ParticipantTM “Surely libido is just a name for the sexual feelings (nervous stimulation) which are aroused by certain external phenomena and certain thoughts, leading to “take off” if fortunate, and repression if not.
Surely there are three responses, take off, repression or, when you get to my age, nostalgia
Bijou Drains
ParticipantWez- “of a thoroughly psychological one containing the rival forces of ‘Eros’ (the life force) and ‘Thanatos’ (the death instinct).” genuine question, were you being ironic?
Bijou Drains
ParticipantAnd I’m sure he did good work. Similarly if Reichian approaches help you, that’s great. Different approaches help different people, we wouldn’t think that there is only one approach to help physical health, why should there be a universal panacea for mental health.
The question here is, however, is does Freud’s and or Reich’s model of the mind stand up to critical examination, and the fact of the matter is that neither of them hold much water in my opinion.
I will though, have a read through the article from the World Socialist, I remember reading it when it was published.
I will add my thoughts to it when I get the time to do so.
Bijou Drains
ParticipantTM – “I’m not following what any “Great Man” says. I’m going by my experience.
Your posts here, on the other hand, are full of academic terminology and names, as read in a book”I must admit I am “guilty” of reading books, how dreadful.
However my replies are also based on “my experience” of over 40 years of professional life of working therapeutically with some of the most challenging children and difficiult children in the North of England.
This work does not mean spending one hour a week with them in an ivory tower like Reich et al, but working directly with them day in day out 24 -7. My thoughts are based on that direct work as appled by the books and training I have undertaken.
I am, I admit, more regularly working in a more academic role, but I still get involved in direct work and in support work on a regular basis.
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