#Psychological Conditioning

[girl4music]

Episode 11. Damn. That’s was cute but disheartening.

Catra’s trauma runs deep. She’s been made to believe that Adora only kept protecting her because she thought that she was weak and couldn’t handle it on her own when that’s never been the truth. That’s just what’s been instilled into her by the Horde and Shadow Weaver. That she was never anything more than weak and a failure unless Adora was with her - saving her.

Ooft that’s a tough one. I wonder how they’re going to do it. Child Catra and Adora were adorable. But it all just goes to show that this has been Catra’s experience since they were children. The constant psychological conditioning that she wasn’t ever strong enough to win her own battles, be her own warrior and hero - never mind anyone else’s. She wants to prove to herself that she can but she’s putting Adora in danger to prove it.

She needs to be shown that letting others struggle and even fall in the effort to climb higher is not a heroic act.

In fact it’s the opposite. It’s cowardice. She’s got it all backwards and upside down. But that’s psychological conditioning for you. You don’t think selfishness is bad.

I guess the question is will their friendship survive this psychological conditioning? Better yet. Will their love for each other help to heal it? For Catra, time will tell.

It’s not that Catra is a bad friend. I mean when it comes down to it, she does instinctively put Adora first. But because that trauma within her runs deep, so does the belief that she should be the one that’s put first. The way she sees it is it’s her time now to be the strong one. She doesn’t need Adora. She doesn’t need anyone to be heroic. But she’ll soon see that even heroes need help.

I know I keep saying it but I’m in awe. This really is such an ambitious storyline for a children’s show. It’s great!

[unwelcome-ozian]

Writing in the Journal of Homeland Security, a publication of the ANSER Institute for Homeland Security, Anthony Stahelski identifies five phases of social psychological conditioning which he calls cult-like conditioning techniques employed by terrorist groups: [Stahelski, 2004]:

Depluralization: stripping away all other group member identities Self-deindividuation: stripping away each member’s personal identity Other-deindividuation: stripping away the personal identities of enemies Dehumanization: identifying enemies as subhuman or nonhuman Demonization: identifying enemies as evil

[noxthesleepymoodyoverthinker]

I have, unfortunately, already (unintentionally) trained my brain to never notice the happiness of achieving something - since I have never basked in my achievements for a long loooooong time. :(

Will have to remember this and try to retrain it.

(Reblogging as a reminder.)

If you have achieved something, please remember to observe a mandatory period of basking in the warm glow of your achievement like a lizard on a stone, lest you teach your brain that effort is futile, actually, because it didn't get to enjoy its happy chemicals, so, naturally, nothing good ever comes of trying. (And no, avoiding punishment is not a reward!)

I recommend, like, 5% of basking time in relation to whatever time you invested into achieving the thing minimum. And if you can't make your own bask, friend-brought is fine (= tell your friends!).

[hisenemy]

I wanted to study others and behaviours. Now I see through everyone and everything.

Studying human nature and norms so masking isn’t as hard. (It is).

[angstingantlers]

Perfectly Clean Mind Control

Whump: psychological abuse, mind control, manipulation, identity altering, (de)conditioning, paranoia.

-

Mind control that doesn't dominate your thoughts, it just... is your thoughts. Perfectly rewriting your will and everything it embodies. Not a single trace of resistance because this is just what you want. Why would you resist your own thoughts? Why would you disagree with your own motivations, your own desires?

Mind control that doesn't shatter once it's done, it just disappears. You don't snap back into awareness. You barely even notice. You just continue as if nothing ever happened. Maybe one moment you look back and you frown, because thinking on it, you remember when you happily followed that person out of town, and you remember what you did, you remember wanting to... but that's crazy. Why did you think that was okay? Why did you want to do that?

Or maybe you were under this mind control for so long that even once it's over you look back and say, "Oh, of course I did that." As far as you're concerned you've always held the beliefs you do now. You've always wanted to do these things. You don't remember why, but you've never had to think of why, and it doesn't matter anyway when you've always been so confident that you're right. It isn't until you're challenged on it all and reminded that you never used to be like this, that you were different before, that something has changed that you finally falter. And you try to think of where this all started, try to figure out why things changed -- and all you can really remember is an entrancing pair of eyes, and a gentle suggestion, and then your own mouth responding, "That's a great idea. Let's go."

And suddenly, you realise that you have no idea how much of what you are, what you were, and what you believed you always have been is just a lie. You don't know whether any thought you have now is really yours or just another preciously placed prompt. You don't trust your impulses, you don't trust your desires, you definitely don't trust your judgement.

You don't trust yourself. And you never can again.

[call-me-strega]

Dc x Dp Prompt #7: Pavlov’s Ghost Would be so Proud

In which Jazz tries to play matchmaker and accidentally classically conditions her new friend, Jason, into liking her brother.

Basically, Jazz is a college student at Gotham U when she shares a Lit class with Jason Peterson and they bond over deeply analyzing the characters. Jazz isn’t looking for a relationship (maybe she has a partner? Maybe she wants to focus on her studies? I’m low key considering aro-spec Jazz but who knows?) but she thinks Jason would get along great with her brother Danny and decides she wants to set them up.

She bribes Jason into coming over to study or hang out with the promise of fudge and take out and incidentally observes him deeply enjoying said food. She decides that since eating food puts Jason in a good mood that’s when it would be best to talk up her brother. So the next time Jason came over she casually steered the conversation toward her brother’s recent endeavors to transfer to Gotham in order to be closer to her because he’s so sweet and protective. She then offers Jason a slice of cheesecake she had leftover from a lunch out with the some friends which he graciously accepts. Then, just as he starts eating Jazz goes “oh here let me show you a picture of Danny!” and shows off her cute younger brother to her friend.

She doesn’t do it every time she and Jason meet because she figures that’s be too obvious but every time he comes over she offers him food knowing it puts him in a good mood so she can talk up her brother. It’s just that she says his name or shows him a picture of whatever Danny’s been up to recently while he’s eating.

Jazz just genuinely believes she’s just doing her best to be a good wing woman. It’s not until Danny actually moves to Gotham and Jazz decides to introduce them that she realizes what she’s done. She invites Jason over to come meet her brother and watches her how when he sees Danny he gives him an actual genuine smile, not a polite smile you give strangers, but one with actual joy. This is followed quickly by a sense of visible confusion in Jason‘s eyes and Jazz starts to connect the dots.

She excuses herself to the kitchen to go get the snacks she was planning to serve as she looks down at the tray she realizes ‘Oh my gosh I’ve been classically conditioning Jason to associate joy with my brother’! She puts together that an unconditioned stimulus = food (specifically served in her apartment) -> unconditoned response = Jason feels happy/good and that by talking about and showing off her brother every time Jason eats she made her brother a conditioned stimulus for Jason to associate with happiness.

She mentally groans realizing what she’s done but then looks back over at Danny and Jason hitting it off and can’t bring herself to fully regret it. This kinda was her goal as a wingwoman after all. She brings that snacks over to see a flush on her brother’s face and the tips of Jason’s ears red and thinks with a big grin ‘Hey! Maybe if this goes really well it’ll be a fun story to tell at their hypothetical wedding!’

[loonybun]

official psa. we should clicker train/pavlov whumpees more often. thank you for your consideration.

[liberatingreality]

Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness.

Alejandro Jodorowsky

[basicallyanotherwitchesthing]

Erwin Lausch - Manipulation - Dangers and Benefits of Brain Research - Aidan Ellis - 1974

[abhainnwhump]

Been obsessing over the idea of a Whumper who wants to live out a stereotypical family fantasy so they kidnap a few Whumpees to do it.

One Whumpee is their spouse. Whumpee is beautiful and caught Whumper's eye. They had a promising future before, but now they're stuck in this housewife role and have to suck up to their captor. They feel worse because they already have someone they love.

Another Whumpee is the kid. Whumper chose this one because of their small size and/or cute features. They have a cute bedroom, childish clothes, and limited access to information so they don't get too smart. They're also drugged most of the time so enjoy naps.

The last Whumpee is the pet. This one gets treated the worst. They have to act like a dog 24/7 and play fetch with the kid. Bonus points if this Whumpee was super cocky before and are now treated like an animal.

Whumper is the head of the household and makes sure everyone else stays in line. They want their family to be perfect, but they aren't against violence. They'll torture the Whumpees until "they love them again".

The Whumpees all befriend each other and plan to escape. They have to be careful so Whumper doesn't catch them, but they can't stay here.

[scintillatingshortgirl19]

gee i wonder if the issue could be at all related to the fact that the current treatment plan for his chronic pain consists solely of FUCKING IBUPROFEN

[howlsofbloodhounds]

I find it a little strange that some people just don’t acknowledge that if killer stays with the bad sanses, being all “murderous and evil together so wholesome!!” then the person the gang supposedly love just won’t be there anymore given enough time.

Stage 4 will take over more and more and more, as it is getting worse even before Killer left with Color, and killer will attempt to kill even the ones he supposedly loves or die trying.

[redfacedpalindrome]

charles is actually the sweetest with his fans. i feel like i've never really seen an instance of him being annoyed with his fans coming up to him while he's doing other stuff or just hanging out – he's always so sunshine-y (especially in Monza when the crowd just tried to swallow him whole and he's so clearly happy). ik that there's obviously a huge dark side to fan culture for celebrities but it always makes me so happy when someone is clearly so excited about their own fans. he doesn't take this support for granted.

like i've not seen this in f1 explicitly but ik some celebrities who'll like take gifts from fans and immediately get rid of them in some capacity, not even spare a moment to look at it, and that clip of charles and alex excitedly looking through all the gifts they got from the fans in china just made me a little teary. it was just so sweet and i'm sure the fans who gave him the gift were so excited to see that!

[unbfacts]

[devils-yui]

Rewatching TFA, for the hundredth time in a row, and I've got to say. I used to think Sari was, kind of annoying, during my first initial watch and sometimes. The things she does makes me go wide-eyed and gripping at the screen going, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?"

But then now, as I'm rewatching it hundreds of times over. I have to physically remind myself that she is a child.

And not only that, but she was a child that was BARELY raised properly. She didn't have other children to socialize around, she had a robot teacher, a robot dog companion, and her occasionally in her life father who was busy manufacturing robots, entertaining the ideas of tours and etcetera.

So maybe, yes. I can definitely understand why she does rash things, and act the way she does. I understand why she's seen as a social outcast amongst other groups of kids (like in the show, ON HER BIRTHDAY).

And I'm not as mad as her, as anybody should be for a child who was raised/taught the wrong things or having not been taught at all.

However...

THIS GUY.

IS A WHOLE 'NOTHER CASE.

I JUST WANNA-