#To bridge any communication gaps due to the disparity in perspectives.

[liedownquisition]

ugh, fuck freud. I hated when they made me learn his shit (which, admittedly i was already familiar enough to know was shit) but at least my teacher was kind of, approaching it as more of a "these ideas are prevalent and its important to recognize them so you can know when someone's a crock of shit" sorta thing (but also sometimes they're buried so deep its like you learn smth that sounds reasonable until you hunt down the origins of it). Alright, preemptive disclaimer: I am a few years out from an education that never actually got to the point of a degree due to complicated life upheavals. I try to keep up bcs it's a personal passion, but as you've said as well, psychology/ect is a rapidly-evolving field that is still divesting from a lot of older prejudices and yeah, it's very political. You DO have the more recent stuff and I do want to emphasize that I am not so much trying to discredit or outright disagree, just that with where there's overlaps in a lot of disorders (much like other illnesses), you know, understand why one thing vs another, ect. Bcs, again, you've got the most up to date resources, even if they might look different from the ones I'd get if I was able to immediately resume on the same level. (On a slightly other front, I also very much approach diagnosing a fictional character differently than I ever would even suggest IRL, largely in part due to the fact that many discredited or contested disorders, concepts, ect. are used as literary devices regardless of accuracy - Disassociative Amnesia/dissociative fugue, for example, is in particular a rather large one.)

Also some of my terminology is outdated as they frequently adapt them esp wrt as we gain greater understandings of what's actually going on behind the way things present. A vast majority of psychological terms, diagnoses, and symptoms currently do not have the same meanings or usages as their origins. Disassociation, as I recall, even started under the belief of being a "mental/cognitive deficit" and tied to a more archaic version of hysteria - which has a long political history esp tied towards the control & oppression of those diagnosed, often women.

DID is not something I necessarily was thinking of suggesting Jason might have, but rather wanting to bring in that Dissociative Fugue had been tied to other sources, & DID is frequently comorbid with other disorders that can sometimes make treatment of it, or the other disorders difficult due to the disparity - there's no medication for DID, and most treatment is directed largely at the others connected to it & regular counseling. Depression being most frequent esp treatment-resistant varieties, but PTSD & Borderline/BPD (which is also a very popular hc for Jason & includes dissociative episodes) are also not terribly infrequent (as well as any number of other personality, trauma, disorders, actually. It could be said that DID is almost an amplifier, in some ways). (DID, ftr, is also considered to be a trauma-induced disorder, especially tied to trauma starting in/induced in early childhood, and similarly to PTSD has been getting more momentum in recognition/study largely due to WW2. I have had multiple friends diagnosed with it and combined with my family history & OTHER friends who had schizophrenia it was a major factor in my interest in the field from the start, esp to understand where they diverge since they were frequently conflated. Also, an interesting note is that diagnosing DID is almost more about ruling out every other option than it is to diagnose DID itself. One of the biggest issues with it diagnostically is that a lot of the associated concepts for it are not clearly enough defined, & there are competing models for it. It may be the case that there are multiple "types" and it should be used more of an umbrella with more specific sub-branches or even just split into multiple concepts altogether, but admittedly that's a bit more of a personal theory than one I know to be actually considered.)

Where I was considering the Dissociative Fugue idea is largely more due to it's implications wrt mobility. ymmv on if "escaped the hospital and wandered around Gotham" constitutes a significant enough form of travel to qualify under "fugue", but given the emphasis on the comic even before he got hit on him walking several miles further than investigators suspected he could/would have, it seemed a viable consideration. It also apparently became More Explicitly part Dissociative Amnesia in the DSM-V which I guess was published the same year I was... studying... and my class at the time did not fully cover, jfc. That's kind of an embarrassing thing to have missed, actually. I was a bit focused on other things, but...

I believe you! Implicit learning is a good point, I was mostly concerned about how it would interact with, say, the dissociation in question. Using your house metaphor, if they're lower than the first basement, where they can't see or hear above, then how are they intaking and retaining that information. With a lighter dissociation it doesn't feel like a question, but the deeper in you get, it feels like there would be more of a struggle for that information to breach, you know? (Again, not saying you're wrong. This is just why I had the question/felt unsure of whether or not that specific concept(s) was still applicable under these conditions.)

Is it just me or does Jason not have catatonia in Red Hood: Lost Days?

It's been driving me crazy the more I think about it, his symptoms are way more consistent with dissociation than catatonia (not to mention the etiology fits much better. If you just gave me the list what happened to him and I had to pick what disorder he was most likely to suffer from (in RH: Lost Days) without describing anything, my bet would be on dissociation no question asked)

This is has enormous implications when it comes to the Lazarus Pit and what it can and cannot heal, how to calculate Jason's age, the diagnostic hypothesis we have for Jason and so much more. Am I missing something? Why does Winnick keep referencing to Jason's symptoms as catatonia?

[yashaswigroup]

Seeking Growth and Achievement? See How Education Can Lead The Way!

INTRODUCTION:

In today’s fast-paced and competitive world, personal and professional growth is a constant pursuit for individuals aiming to achieve success and fulfillment. Education plays a vital role in this journey, guiding us towards our goals, offering a pathway to expand knowledge, sharpen skills, and unlock a world of opportunities.In this blog, we will see why education matters so much and how it can transition your life.

Why Education Matters?

Empowering Personal Growth: Education opens doors to new ideas, perspectives, and experiences, encouraging individuals to become lifelong learners. By nurturing critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication abilities, education empowers individuals to overcome challenges and adapt to changing circumstances, fostering personal growth.

Reducing Inequality and Poverty: Education has the power to break the cycle of poverty. When individuals are educated, they have higher chances of securing stable employment and improving their living standards. Education plays a major role in reducing economic disparities and promoting social equality.

Unlocking Opportunities:It open ups opportunities, and equips individuals with the tools to pursue their passions, whether through formal academics, vocational training, or self-directed learning. This leads to better careers and higher earnings.

Fostering Innovation and Progress: Education fosters innovation and progress in the society. Well-educated individuals contribute to advancements in science, technology, architecture of various fields, driving societal upliftment. As people acquire knowledge and skills, they can address pressing challenges, find sustainable solutions and fuel economic growth.

Promoting Health and Well-being: Education not only imparts knowledge about health and hygiene but also empowers individuals to make healthier lifestyle choices. Educated individuals are more likely to seek preventive healthcare measures and have better access to healthcare resources.

The Struggle of Limited Education Opportunities:

Education is more than just learning from books it has been regarded as the foundation for personal and societal growth. It equips individuals with knowledge, skills, and opportunities, paving the way for a brighter tomorrow. However, the reality is that many individuals which arearound 60 to 65% are unable to pursue education due to economic constraints, leaving them unaware of the possibilities that education can bring. The lack of stable job prospects further compounds their struggles, impacting their social standing and personal lives and the challenges faced by young individuals. Many are compelled to work on contract tenure, but they struggle to find job stability. The contracts keep changing every six months, leaving them stuck in a cycle of uncertainty, which hampers their personal and professional development.

The Social Angle and Challenges:

Any individual’s educational background and job stability play a significant role in their social acceptance, particularly during the age of marriage. Families of potential partners inquire about education and permanent employment, leading to challenges for those who have pursued courses but lack formal degrees and the absence of permanent jobs. This affects financial stability, making it challenging to secure loans and financial supports from banks. This cycle continues to limit their opportunities and financial stability.

How we can break this barrier and empower these youth?

Yashaswi Group has launched the “Learn and Earn” program as part of the national education policy to promote experiential learning. This initiative aims to empower the youth by providing on-the-job training, bridging the gap between education and employment for those who face challenges in pursuing traditional learning pathways. It aims to promote holistic development among the youth who are unemployed or unable to continue their education due to financial constraints. The program provides a life-changing opportunity for economically backward students. This learn and earn model allows student trainees to gain valuable practical skills while earning a living.

Education is a powerful journey that unlocks your potential and empowers you to make a positive impact on society. It is essential not only for your growth but also to shape a better world for everyone. Despite the challenges, programs like Learn and Earn open doors to opportunities where every individual has the opportunity to learn, grow, and realize their full potential. Together, we can break barriers, empower the youth, and create a society where education truly leads the way to a brighter and more promising future for mankind.

[stretchjournalemerson]

Turn and Face the Strange: Academia’s Failure to Account For Changes in Current LGBT+ Culture

By Matt Pifko 

In the world of academic writing, there is no dearth of queer writing. Whether coming from authors belonging to the LGBT community or focusing on the community itself (such pieces often inhabit both spaces), this sort of academic discourse is prevalent. Countless journals are entirely dedicated to sexuality, queer communities, queer texts, and the general study of queer culture. Despite all of this writing, I see a gap in the academic sphere. I see a blank space, a disparity between the world I see every day and the world represented in these journals. There are essential modern queer texts almost entirely absent from the conversation, iconic figures that have yet to be mentioned by slothlike academia, and important features of the community mentioned only by non-scholarly pop culture magazines and niche community websites. In other words, these academic journals that proclaim to deep dive into queer communities with authority and accuracy appear to fail to illuminate and investigate the vibrant, ever-evolving community.

To explain the gap I perceive, I must first explain the other half of the equation. In other words, I must explain the life experiences I have had over the course of the past year. After graduating from my small, homogenized, exceedingly white and conservative high school, I was thrust into that age-old, all too familiar cliche - a wacky arts school in a major city. Emerson College, despite its notorious lack of racial diversity, was a culture shock to me, mostly due to its famous inclusive and vibrant queer community. Here, I was introduced to people of all kinds of sexualities, genders, philosophies, and nationalities. It was here that I was educated in a new language - that of queer culture.

I had been familiar with the LGBT community’s most beloved celebrities and most popular terminology, thanks to the internet and the widespread appropriation of this terminology (which is an entirely different and important discussion best saved for another occasion), but Emerson gave me a whole new vantage point. Here, I could watch other queer people discuss celebrities, films, TV shows, literature, and all varieties of pop culture that they valued. Thus, when I entered the academic sphere, which seemingly includes so many queer voices, I was perplexed to find very few voices discussing the same “icons” I had heard about in person at Emerson.

To understand this relationship between the current LGBT culture I perceive and the culture discussed in academic journals, we must first establish the context in which this relationship exists. The context, in this case, would be LGBT culture of the past, and the general concept of this culture. This culture is both incredibly storied and often hidden/undocumented, a result of the stigma around homosexuality and other “deviant” sexualities in almost every historical society. Given that LGBT individuals existed throughout history in every time period and every region, there has been a lot of lost culture.

It is most useful to examine LGBT culture in the last few decades, in that it is the most similar to the culture of today’s community, and additionally, most information available pertains to this period. LGBT “culture” is not merely a underground collection of gay-themed media, but rather, more like a vast web of mainstream media that is selectively chosen and incorporated into the community, combined with certain works that directly deal with LGBT

themes. Historically, music has been particularly important to the community. In his extensively researched article about gay and lesbian music tastes in the Belgium queer community, Alexander Dhoest (and his assistant researchers) gives some background, explaining that “music contributed to the evolution of lesbian and gay cultures on several levels... it not only provided means to meet other lesbians and gays, whether belonging to a community and the construction of lesbian and gay identities” (e.g. Chauncey, 1994; Taylor, 2012)” (Dhoest et al., 208).

Furthermore, Dhoest notes that lesbian and gay tastes can vary from one another, but there are certainly overlapping artists and sensibilities. Particularly important to the LGBT community is “camp���, a style connected to gay culture that can be described, in the briefest, simplest terms, as a heightened parody of the feminine and “tasteful” society. Such culture is showcased in drag queens and the worship of pop divas. Dhoest elaborates, claiming “In a musical context, camp can be identified not only at the level of the performer and their stage performance; it is also audible through lyrics and musical execution.” Examples of such campy divas include Judy Garland, Madonna, and Whitney Houston (Dhoest et al., 209). LGBT culture is vast and dense, and campy pop singers constitute a small fraction of the bigger picture. Other genres can fall under the lens of camp, such as punk and disco. Additionally, from observations and life experience, I have noted there is a historical admiration in the community for female performers in all musical genres, such as Bjork, Blondie (Debby Harry), and Fleetwood Mac (Stevie Nicks). Historically, camp has also existed in the world of film, in everything from What Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) to the more overtly queer John Waters “Trash Trilogy” (Pink Flamingoes) (1972), Female Trouble (1974), and Desperate Living (1977) (Snider).

So, where has queer culture gone since the 20th century? In an age where the community has been increasingly more accepted and visible, especially in western culture, what content has emerged? In Lauren McInroy and Shelley Craig’s article “Perspectives of LGBTQ Emerging Adults on the Depiction and Impact of LGBTQ Media Representation,” a valuable cross-section of early 2010s LGBT culture is illuminated. As the title suggests, the researchers interviewed various self-identifying members of the community whose ages ranged from 18 to 22 (all located in a Canadian city where McInroy works as a professor) on the subject of LGBT representation in media, particularly TV and film.

In terms of representative shows, the researchers found the following to be the most commonly mentioned/popular among LGBT interviewees: Queer As Folk, The L Word, Degrassi, and Glee. Movies included Brokeback Mountain (2005), Boys Don’t Cry (1999), A Single Man (2009), and Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001) (mistitled “Hedwig and the Angry Itch” in the article). Already, it is clear that LGBT culture in the 2000s and early 2010s revolved much more around properties with actual LGBT characters in the narratives. Moreover, the musicians the community supported more openly supported the community in return, as is the case with musician Lady Gaga. Gaga was a favorite due to her larger-than-life media persona and biting wit, but she affirmed the community in return, notably premiering the LGBT pride centered track “Born This Way” in 2011. In these interviews, the LGBT emerging adults (who, it

must be said, were overwhelmingly white and LGB) noted the improved media representation but struggled to name a character or show/film they consumed that displayed queer people in a completely accurate light. Many of the emerging adults preferred new media, i.e. blogs and social media, for LGBTQ representation, because on these platforms the community can represent itself authentically and not be forced to appeal to mass audiences (McInroy). Unfortunately, the 2016 article fails to mention specific new media or new media celebrities, leaving the reader to guess at what exactly the subjects consume.

Regardless of in which era LGBT individuals consumed media, what they consumed, or why they consumed it, it is very clear that this media has an enormous impact, especially when it features some kind of direct representation. In a 2011 study at the Austin Pride Festival, an overwhelming amount of GLB individuals identified media figures as instrumental in their coming-out process (Gomillion et al.). In other words, through these storylines and characters, members of the community can see their own stories, which in turn legitimized and clarified their own hidden experiences and emotions. In a community like the LGBT community, where members typically grow up isolated in heteronormative households/communities, media representation is absolutely essential - for many, including myself, it is a bridge to understanding and acceptance.

Thus, the discrepancy I see between the current LGBT youth culture and the academic sphere does not have anything to do with this underlying understanding. Academic writers understand and have proven through empirical research that media is important to the LGBT community - it’s just that they fail to keep up with, or rather, fail to process this constantly evolving culture in meaningful ways. Each of the academic pieces I have cited contain valuable information, and yet, they all have significant shortcomings. Namely, they are out of date. To a degree, this cannot be helped, as the articles were published in 2015, 2016, and 2011, respectively. That said, the articles do not reference any representative films that were released post-2009, and the most recent TV show referenced began in 2010. Furthermore, these articles are some of the only LGBT-centered academic writing I could locate that deals with the actual community. After scouring the internet and using all the means provided to be as a student at a well-funded communications college, I found that almost all the well-researched, quantitative data on LGBT media and its impact on the community dated back to 2016 or earlier.

To a degree, this is not so much an issue specific to queer academic writing as much as it is emblematic of the faults of the academic genre as a whole. The peer-reviewed, extensively examined processing of academic papers serves as quality assurance, but it also ignores factors such as urgency or influence. This is not to say that academic writing is completely ineffectual in its antiquity and specificity - rather, I believe academic writing is incredibly important, and that the haste with which new material and new research is released should reflect that. In the case of research on LGBT narratives and their effects on the community, perhaps these articles need to be released more expeditiously and become more readily available to the LGBT youth who are

concerned with such matters. Articles like “Radical Love in a time of Heteronormativity: Glee, Gaga, and Getting Better” simply lose relevance in only a few years time.

Therefore, when the cultural items that are examined are no longer essential topics of conversation in the LGBT community, much of the research loses its teeth, and conclusions reached about the community itself can seem inaccurate or outdated. This is not to say that the history of the community cannot be documented, nor are older cultural items like “Glee” unimportant to the visibility of the community. Rather, these simply do not reflect the current values and shared culture of the community, especially for LGBT youths who joined the community long after Madonna and Glee had phased out of popularity. Even in the academic world, timing must be considered. Research regarding an evolving world has to evolve with it and remain relevant, or else the authority of academia will wane further.

Moreover, in the world of academic writing, specifically that which was available to me through my liberal arts style institution, I see two misguided avenues which queer academia often heads down. The first is that of the misguided research. If academic research is to illuminate the influences of media on LGBT individuals, it is essential that the researchers actually interact with LGBT individuals. It is not enough for the researchers to be queer themselves (as is the case with many of the aforementioned articles) - the subjects must be as well. In the piece “Sexuality and Teen Television: Emerging Adults Respond to Representations of Queer Identity on Glee” by Michaela D.E. Meyer and Megan M. Wood, an empirical study is conducted by interviewing various students at a college about their experiences with the TV show Glee. In their opening statement, the authors stress that while previous research has established that queer media can have an impact on emerging adults, they wanted to focus on how these adults are impacted, and in what ways their identities can benefit. This is a valuable vein of research that has yet to be touched, and yet, the researchers miss the mark by solely interviewing straight-identifying individuals. In a study about LGBTQ representation in a show famously important to the community, the researchers allowed for their 97 fans of Glee to be unanimously heterosexual. While the data itself is well organized and analyzed, this oversight renders the data useless in terms of LGBT impact. When the world of academic writing is already so exclusive and, for lack of a better term, narrow, a journal like “Sexuality & Culture: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly” in which this study was published should be providing more accurate and insightful data.

On the other hand, academic writing can miss the mark by focusing too much on the thematic analysis of queer media. After finding article after article about the state of the community written in 2015 or earlier, I began to look for specific articles about current LGBT cultural items of which I knew, those that I had heard in conversations with actual LGBT emerging adults. Researching these items, I found some peer-reviewed entries (there were significantly more entries on queer film/TV as opposed to queer music, despite music’s aforementioned important role in the community), and yet, these were almost always a thematic analysis of the text. Specifically, “Beating Hearts: Compassion and Self-Discovery in Call Me By Your Name” by Joanna Di Mattia and “Call Me By Your Name: Not Pedophilia, Still Problematic” by Renee Sorrentino and Jack Turban are examples of such analytical articles about a relevant LGBT cultural item. Call Me By Your Name, a 2017 film based on the book of the same name, has been immensely popular due to its sensitive and visually splendorous take on gay romance, and therefore, would be a fantastic artifact to conduct research on. That said, these authors, despite writing for publications such as “Screen Education” and “Psychiatric Times,” offer up little more than their review of the material through slightly different lenses. The articles vary in their opinion on the quality of the representation, but each neglects to investigate the actual effects of the material on the represented people. “Beating Hearts” almost purely focuses on the technical and narrative elements of CMBYN, while Sorrentino and Turban’s article makes a surface level connection between modern LGBT youths who use hookup apps and the main character of the film’s experiences. Thematic analysis and opinion based evaluation is not without merit, but there are plenty of conversations on film analysis and queer themes already going on outside of the academic sphere. In order for academia to be necessary and essential in today’s world, it must differentiate itself by providing the kind of empirical data and findings that art journalism cannot cover.

If the goal of the academic sphere is to educate other academics, then researchers must make an effort to reach out of the academic world and learn about things outside of their domain. If the goal of the academic sphere is to educate students my age, then research that is genuinely reflective of the world in which we live must be made available to us. Many of these articles are valuable in certain respects, and on the whole, this body of research constitutes a wealth of useful information when cross-referenced with one another to fill in the gaps. Nonetheless, we, as a community and as young people with a thirst for information, deserve better. Ultimately, the most crucial oversight in the queer academic community is simple - there is a lack of new voices with new information. Whether in the form of impactful texts or influential figures within the community, these perspectives must be addressed and must be heard. Meaningful research must be done that intimately involves these voices in the process itself. It is not easy to change gears within the academic community, to ask a sloth to move faster, but valuable change is never easy. Strong academics do not teach and communicate because it is easy, but rather, because they understand that knowledge and perspective is unimpeachably important. Perhaps, academics can understand that communicating with the current culture themselves is the first step towards communicating this knowledge to others.

Works Cited

Bingman, Andrew. Influence of Media on Gay and Bisexual Identity Formation. 2016.

EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.D7683790&site= eds-live.

Boyer, Sabrina, and Erin Brownlee Dell. € ̃Pop Culture Is Our Religionâ€TM: Paulo Freire, LGBTQ Rights and Radical Love. 2015. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.EED4E14&site=e ds-live.

Dhoest, Alexander, et al. “Into the Groove: Exploring Lesbian and Gay Musical Preferences and ‘LGB Music’ in Flanders.” Observatorio (OBS*), no. 2, 2015, p. 207. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edssci&AN=edssci.S1646.595420150 00200011&site=eds-live.

Di Mattia, Joanna. “BEATING HEARTS: Compassion and Self-Discovery in Call Me by Your Name.” Screen Education, no. 91, 2018, p. 8. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsgao&AN=edsgcl.576220095&sit =eds-live.

Kies, Bridget, and Thomas J. West, III. "Queer nostalgia and queer histories in uncertain times."

Queer Studies in Media & Pop Culture, vol. 2, no. 2, 2017, p. 161+. Contemporary Women's Issues, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A496450962/CWI?u=ecl_main&sid=CWI&xid=b2c 1e0b. Accessed 8 Apr. 2019.

Meyer, Michaela D. E., and Megan M. Wood. “Sexuality and Teen Television: Emerging Adults Respond to Representations of Queer Identity on Glee.” Sexuality & Culture, vol. 17, no. 3, 1 Sept. 2013, pp. 434–448. PsycINFO, Emerson College, doi:10.1007/s12119-013-9185-2.

Mcinroy, Lauren B., and Shelley L. Craig. “Perspectives of LGBTQ Emerging Adults on the Depiction and Impact of LGBTQ Media Representation.”

Journal of Youth Studies, vol. 20, no. 1, 19 May 2016, pp. 32–46. Taylor & Francis Online, Emerson College, doi:10.1080/13676261.2016.1184243.

Snider, Sarah. “The John Waters Trash Trilogy.” Culture Wars, 19 June 2007,

www.culturewars.org.uk/2007-06/trash.htm. Sorrentino, Renee, and Jack