#it's a realm i think most objects can change into other :3

[dendixia]

Oh, y'know. Playing a tubular tune with your Partner in Rhyme <3

[ckret2]

please more evil ford please i stare with my puppy eyes for this i am obbsessed

Yeah all right, I've been working on some art. (For context, we're talking about this Evil Ford.)

Evil Ford is Evil as in "cheerfully works with Bill even after learning his full plot" and "is totally ready to conquer and/or destroy the world." But other than the shocking lack of basic ethics and the supervillain objective he's mostly the same guy—which means he still cares about his family. He's hoping to get them to join in on the world conquest plan.

Forty-odd years ago he went off to college promising someday he'd be a big shot scientist who changes the world and he'd make his family a fortune. If taking over reality doesn't qualify he doesn't know what does. The family can join him and his buddy Bill and rule the universe together. Pines Pines Pines Pines!

Unfortunately for him, the rest of the family still has normal moral compasses. And also they've met Bill.

Bill can't currently possess Ford due to Reasons; but even though he can't get in the driver's seat he still has permission to ride shotgun at any time. Ford talks to him pretty regularly. He HAS been caught doing this. Stan thinks he's just gone a little nutty from thirty years of isolation.

Naturally, since he was always on Bill's side, Ford's perception of events during Weirdmageddon is a bit different:

I finally made an official Evil Ford New Costume Character Design, check out his exciting totally different brand new look:

I decided that, since Ford is still basically the same person aside from his terrible life goals, he'd probably have the same fashion sense. And so... nothing changes except two tiny details lmao.

But he DOES have tattoos:

I traced a canon character model and took off its top to get a base to slap tattoos on, and then went dang... they gave him a big head and arms. He looks goofy. Anyway,

His forearms have less incriminating tattoos—just a birch tree and a sunrise. (The sunrise looks like the Journal 3 "The Muse Has Spoken" page.) The red text is the "triangulum entangulum" ritual; if anyone asks he'll go "it's uhh an ancient Sumerian poem about how great science is." It's not until he's topless that it's like "oh so he's a CULTIST cultist." The one exception is an unconcealed Eye of Providence on his right palm—but it's in an ink that's only visible in certain lighting. It's there so at any time he can point his hand at something and go "Bill are you seeing this BS?"

Of course, he still has the "hey now, you're an all star" neck tattoo. I didn't have room to draw it.

As you can see, he's made being Bill's right hand man a core part of his personality. Rather than spending 30 years scrabbling around the multiverse desperately searching for a way to destroy Bill, he spent 30 years chilling in the Quadrangle of Qonfusion as Bill's specialest favoritest Henchmaniac, and only scrabbling around the multiverse occasionally for fun & profit.

Here's a photo Bill & Ford took at a Nightmare Realm house party like fifteen years ago, three minutes before Bill started an argument and set the house on fire.

Most people have their wild party years in college, Ford has his in his 40s.

[lestcat-de-lioncourt]

Thank you so much @rebel-revenant for tagging me so I can share my 9 books I plan to read in 2025, and share with you all a little bit about what kinds of literature interests me, deeply, queerly, and wholeheartedly.

My 9 books of 2025

The Vampire Chronicles hosting Interview With The Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, and my beloved Queen of the Damned, out of the book series.

Well, need I explain? I think most of you know what these are about.

I'm going to be unfair and count this as 1 book, but technically, it is 3 books. I'll post my own of this one, I'm so proud of it! I own all these books also, though too.

Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Quin

The world of Earthsea is one of sea and islands: a vast archipelago of hundreds of islands surrounded by mostly uncharted ocean. Earthsea contains no large continents.

Magic is a central part of life in most of Earthsea; the exception being the Kargish lands, where it is forbidden. There are weather workers on ships, fixers who repair boats and buildings, entertainers, and court sorcerers. Magic is an inborn talent which can be refined with training. The most gifted are sent to the school on Roke, where, if their skill and discipline prove sufficient, they can become staff-carrying wizards.

Le Guin has stated that the idea of the Dry Land came from the "Greco-Roman idea of Hades' realm.

Dragons dragons dragons.

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

18-year-old Sophie Hatter is the eldest of three sisters living in Market Chipping, a town in the magical kingdom of Ingary, where fairytale tropes are accepted ways of life, including that the eldest of three will never be successful.

As the eldest, Sophie is resigned to a dull future running the family hat shop. Unbeknownst to her, she is able to talk life into objects. When the powerful Witch of the Waste considers her a threat and turns her into an old crone, Sophie leaves the shop and finds work as a cleaning lady for the notorious wizard Howl. She strikes a bargain with Howl's fire demon, Calcifer: if she can break the contract between Howl and Calcifer, then Calcifer will return her to her original youthful form. Part of the contract, however, stipulates that neither Howl nor Calcifer can disclose the main clause, leaving Sophie to figure it out on her own.

Sophie learns that Howl, a rather self-absorbed and fickle but ultimately good-natured person, spreads malicious rumours about himself to avoid work and responsibility. The door to his castle is actually a portal that opens onto four places: Market Chipping, the seaside city of Porthaven, the royal capital of Kingsbury, and Howl's boyhood home in modern day Wales where he was named Howell Jenkins. Howl's apprentice Michael Fisher runs most of the day-to-day affairs of Howl's business, while Howl chases his ever-changing paramours.

Also, you may not know this, but Howl owns his own Welsh Rugby shirt aside from all the other magical clothes he is known to wear, a personal funny of mine I discovered the first time I read it.

Castle In The Air by Diana Wynne Jones

Castle in the Air follows the adventures of Abdullah, a handsome young carpet salesman from Zanzib, who daydreams constantly about being a stolen prince. One day a strange traveler comes to his stand to sell a magic carpet.

The carpet takes them up to Howl's castle, where they meet abducted princesses and plot with them to escape the flying moving castle. Led by Abdullah, they overpower the two Djinn, freeing Hasruel, who banishes his brother. Flower-in-the-Night had by then wished the Genie free, who turned out to be Sophie's husband and little Morgan's father, the topmost-level wizard Howl Pendragon.

House Of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones

When Charmain is caught up in an intense royal search to remedy the kingdom's financial troubles, she encounters Sophie Pendragon, her son Morgan, a beautiful child named Twinkle, and their fire demon Calcifer. One of the messes Twinkle gets Charmain into results in Twinkle climbing onto the roof of the Royal Mansion. She is soon involved in curing the kingdom of its ills and rediscovering the long-lost mystical Elfgift.

Brother to the Sun King: Philippe duc d'Orléans by Nancy Nichols Barker

"In battle, he fought with legendary valour . . . At court, dressed in silks and ribbons, he openly favoured his male lovers . . . Despised but feared by his brother, he was the perpetual loser in a lifelong sibling rivalry . . . "Philippe, brother of Louis XIV, might have been a prince of great renown in the service of the king―had the king only shown him his faith and trust. . . . This is an excellent book. I congratulate the author on a work that is objective and of high quality." Henry, Count of Paris

Robert Sheehan: Disappearing Act

Informed by the author's peripatetic life, Disappearing Act reflects on the absurdity of human behaviour. Sheehan delves deep into his characters' streams of self-talk and self-imposed delusions, exploring the dark impulses that lurk below the shiny surfaces of many outwardly normal lives.

Spooky North Carolina retold by S. E. Schlosser

The spirit of a railroad flagman shines his lantern along the tracks near Maco, where he lost his head in a train accident. The ghost of a girl haunts the grave robbers who stole her corpse to use in a college medical department. And in a swamp outside Smithfield, a grisly mass hanging is re-created on dark nights. All this and much more!

-

And because one of my cats was very cute to this particular book, I'll share another photo as it was near enough for me to just grab:

Blood and Gold by Anne Rice

Once a proud Senator in Imperial Rome, kidnapped and made a blood god by the Druids, Marius becomes the embittered protector of Akasha and Enkil, Queen and King of the vampires, in whom the core of the supernatural race resides. We follow him through his heartbreaking abandonment of the vampire Pandora.

No pressure tags: @heroinecomplication @bitchywillgraham @lestatmonamour @sarcastic-clapping @gnc-lestat @lestatmonamour @xxdrowninglessonsxx @capricornsun-queen @monsterfucker-molloy @lestatbratposting @lestats-groupie @louisdulac @devilsminionworlddomination

[dykekarkat]

hey I’ve seated myself on your couch PLEASE tell me more of your ghost andreil au it is beautiful and Oscar worthy to me

omg hi yes pls be seated im sorry this got slightly long and also took a bit!! also unsure if this even makes sense or is smth u will like but alas, i just kinda went wild. anyway thank you so much for the ask :)

i love getting a chance to talk about any and all of my aus. ghost andreil came about bcus im not a huge fan of the ghost x human relationship trope thing so i thought what if instead they were both ghosts...love beyond living is just so perfect for andreil...anyway long ramble ahead so ill put it under the cut <3

basic world building in my head is that ghosts are basically humans who are living on the Wrong Layer of the universe because they refuse to let go of their lives or have some unfinished business (normal ghost things). the supernatural isn't widely known about or believed in but there are ppl aware (like renee for instance). ghosts can touch other ghosts but not humans (duh) bcus i want andreil to fist fight and also to eventually have a physical relationship bcus it is important to me. too much interaction w physical objects depletes their energy, but the more will a ghost has the more energy they have (and by god are andreil willful little assholes).

renee and jean are both mediums! renee's been involved w the spiritual realm forever (gang related) while jean just thinks he's losing his mind slowly ^-^ renee is on a quest to help andrew move on (he hates this) but theyre still besties. meanwhile neil is desperately trying to prove that no he's not a hallucination (lol) and no jean should Not kill himself to join him. tbh idk if i want the moriyamas to be in the know or not, heavily debating over whether neil should be able to escape them through death or if he's forever cursed to be in debt to the mafia (depending on how angsty i want this to get).

NOW ON TO THE RELATIONSHIPS AKA THE FUN PART

- aaron is NOT having a good time in the beginning of this au. actively going through hell after losing a brother he just found and his mother. he's getting high most of the time, barely going to school, fully given up on himself, and Super Fucking Angry at Andrew. To Be Clear andrew didn't commit suicide but his normal canon i dont care about what happens to me attitude led to him dying while killing tilda. aaron DOES NOT KNOW that andrew killed her on purpose, but he's suspicious and angry as fuck anyway because andrew broke the deal (of staying together for high school). nicky still takes aaron in but nicky hadnt met andrew before his death so the tragedy for him is that andrew never rlly got a chance. andrew himself doesnt mind being dead (in his opinion its the same monotonous apathetic existence as he had living. which changes once he meets neil) but he's Pissed bcus he thinks aaron is throwing away his life. which in Andrew's opinion he did the hard part by getting rid of tilda (the problem). so andrew takes to haunting him by hiding his drugs and being a general nuisance to try and get him to school. i have not quite figured out how to get aaron to kick the drugs and get on palmetto w/o andrew ngl ^-^

- neil dies at the same time kevin broke his hand. riko snapped and neil pushed his buttons and refused to agree that riko was the best, so riko basically beats him to death and kevin gets his hand broken trying to stop it. a very tragic skiing accident indeed :(. kevin feels Extremely guilty over neil's death and jean practically forces him out of the nest, jean himself is basically resigned to joining his partner in death (smth neil is Not About). at this point andrew's been dead for two years? ish? and aaron is on the foxes as a freshman. neil splits his death time between trying to make things easier for jean and keep him from dying, and thwart kevin's attempts to go back to the nest in increasingly comical ways. meanwhile andrew is pissed about kevin bringing danger to aaron, so andreil are Fighting, i mean full on ghost fights where shit is levitating and lights are flickering and ppl are screaming because andrew wants kevon gone. eventually they do that line drawn across the center of the room to try and stay civil.

- eventually kevaaron start bonding and processing their grief over the loss of their brothers and fall in love at the same time, while andreil are also falling in love through asshole ghost mating rituals. major plot point would be renee using her séance powers to make kevaaron aware of their ghost protectors and a lot of drama unfolds from there (andrew reveals the murder stuff, aaron gets more pissed he died, aaron wants to banish him exorcise him in anger etc etc). the catalyst to andreils romantic relationship occurs bcus riko brings drake into the picture to hurt aaron(similar to canon), and neil basically almost ghost kills himself stopping him (expends too much energy in a short period of time) --> their relationship still doesnt start until a few months after this but it is the turning point for andrew being able to trust neil.

other small things:

lola is a contracted demon to nathan (unsure if moriyamas are aware).

nathan kills riko for killing neil (its a pride thing) and basically starts a war within the moriyamas. that neil Really does not know how to feel about, still terrified his father will be able to hurt him due to his knowledge of the occult (which may or may not be reasonable)

mary died trying to escape w neil so he went to the nest at 10 as planned. when he died and realized he was a ghost he looked for her immediately but she had moved on. it was probably more crushing to see that she could've stayed and watched over him and didnt than to witness her actual death.

tilda and mary moved on immediately after death (does heaven exist in this world??? hell?? dont ask me idk either)

pre andreil reveal nicky starts a channel to document their haunted college dorm. its one of the first things andreil bond over bcus they love starting shit nicky is so reactive. post andreil reveal nicky stops posting on it bcus it feels too weird to him, until neil is like hey i wanted to spell dick with the ouija board again :( and then nicky brings it back with gusto

[nikox400x]

Kung Fu Panda 4-All the budget went to the animation (spoilers)

Hey all, its me, the guy who everyday make a tour around this site but almost never talk. How are ya?

Two days ago something arrived to the cinema's screens, something that me and everyone were waiting for since 2018, the fourth film and the begginig of the new kung fu panda triology.

You know? When I sat on that theather seat with my friends to see what Dreamworks had prepared for us, I told myself; "Maybe that post I made a while ago throwing shit at what seemed like Kfp 4 was going to be was a bit hard, I hope I can come out regretting what I said that time"

And as soon as the credits ended, it was clear to me, I dont regret a shit. Maybe it was a little exaggerated, compared to what a megamind fan would think about the terrible sequel they made, but still: the film is crappy and boring most of the time. But why?

I'm going to explain some points.

1- Po? Is that you?

I don't know you guys, but i don't think the panda we knew in the end of the third film is the same as this one. Seriously, he share more comparisons with the Po from the legend of awessonless than the one from the films, maybe its a personal thing but it feels that way. At least in the beggining of the film feel like that.

And I don't know what he was thinking about when he decided to follow a thief he doesn't know at all and who tried to steal in his own palace, and that suspiciously know who is the chameleon, whose were her plans, her past, where she lived, where exacly they had to pass through avoiding all the guard inside her home, why the others thiefs of the city hate her so much... With Po's experience with criminals this is like a chef throwing water on a pan with boiling oil, it's obvious what is going to happen.

2- Zheng- Female Nick Wilde but without charisma or half of his intelligence.

I knew it from the first moment I saw Zheng's desing, the people who know me can corroborate that; her facial expressions, her tone while she talk, her animal race, her position as thief, her final when she is part of the justice same as the protagonist... it's clearer than water I think.

Everyone could say this is forgivable if she's smart, but surprise, she's not. This character is just an absurd try of this company for """"conect with infant audience""""(I don't know in what sense, I supose for the cute design, idk). But the point is, the supposed objective of the hollywood companies is give the new generetions better things than we got at their age, but what I see is laziness for write a decent scrip only for take an advantage of a known IP and make easy money. Even the children have quality standars, this is not the dragon warrior and of course this is not kung fu panda.

And talking about the dragon warrior, having our deep and lovely Tigress with her magnific development or Tai Lung back from the spirit realm... why in the hell this character exists?! Oh yeah, for being trending topic in twitter for three days. Yay...

3- The furious five and Shifu, for us : our pretty boys, and for Dreamworks: living jokes.

What made Kung Fu Panda what it is, is not the fucking panda, it's them. They're the inspiration for Po, their allies, the royale representation of kung fu and the ones which everything started with.

Po's a comic relief, and his mission is show his development in part using his humor, but the humor in this film barely works because of the lazy script. Something that even the talented Jack Black himself can't fix, beacuse his only role there is dublin his character, unlike the rest of the residents of the Jade Palace except Dustin Hoffman.

Seth Rogen (Mantis) himself even said that he wasn't even contact by Dreamworks in the first place, only for make a scream in the credits, that's sad beacause he really wanted to see Mantis on the screen. And I know and I understand that the five are expensive, but cmon, they could just simply change the voice actors and offset it with a good script but that's not the case of course. Their role in the film is being a counter for Po's constant jokes, for not to saturate the spectator with jokes, now that's not in there anymore, thank you Dreamworks.

4-The chameleoooohhn and her "motivation".

I can't say much, basically because out of her design she's nonsense. She says that because of her size, she was reyected for being a kung fu warrior.

Yeah of course but only one little thing, what about Shifu? Viper, a warrior without tips? Mantis, literally a dawn insect? Master Oogway, a TURTLE? The masters goose? C'mon even there's a fucking master chicken! Don't talk shit chameleon!

Her importance for the plot? Its almost a lie, the others villains had links to important characters; Tai Lung (with his link to Shifu's past), Shen (with his link to Po's past) or Kai (with his link to Oogway's past), all of them related to important characters. And her? To zheng's past and present I guess? But again, anyone know this character. She's like a villain from a Disney show, you know the type of villain who say a lot of things but at the end, she don't support nothing to the lore.

And her personality is like a mix of all the previous villains, and this sounds good right? HAHAH nope. Do you remember when as a child you mixed all the plasticines of all the colors to create the final color and you ended up with a color similar to poop? well that's exacly how her personality feels like.

5- Po's dads; the only reason they're there is because they ran out of characters to make the film.

The tittle itself tell everything, they don't do anything for the script in all the film, and their objective could be done since the start.

The script of the film except for the final looks like a draft which they didn't know how to complete, everyone who watch it can see it perfecly. The animation, the music and the backgrounds are the only things notable here.

6- Tai Lung and the cheapness nostalgia.

Fan service is not necesarry bad, above all if is used in a good way, they sold us Tai Lung as a miracle but his importance for the plot feels just like a Stan Lee cameo, I like Tai Lung I can say that. But this is too weak, Shen and Kai are only characters in the background who don't do nothing except being defeated or make facial expressions (I don't even joke that Shen would show respect to Po considering what we saw in the second movie, and Kai wasn't supposed to be destroyed as a spirit, what the hell is he doing here again? *sign* I'll to stop trying to make sense of this).

By the way, anyone else think that the dragon warrior role is understimated? I mean Shifu obligated Po to transfers the role to another one just because yes, i mean he only has been the dragon warrior for less than 5 years and now they want to replace him with a random. Everything just for at the end, he choosed a thief with at least 30 crimes registred and who was a traitor during the 75% of the movie.

7- The """""""""humor"""""""", except they forgot the parts where I must to laugh.

Seeing nonsense hits only beacuse yes stopped of being funny a long time ago, and no, I don't want to talk about the bunnies of the portrait because I would get sick. I had to go to the cinema drunk to endure the filler that the movie had, no joke, it was the only way to laugh at those jokes.

So I think about applying the same method as in any movie with bad jokes, ignoring the jokes. I tried to do the same thing but with the pace that the film managed, such a thing was impossible, the pace of the movie seems to be made for Tiktoker children with attention deficit. From the chaos in the quarry until Po takes the bitc... uhg fox out of prison, only 10 fucking minutes pass, all of that for what? So that you feel like the baseless information and the nonsensical plot that they tell us is of any use? they could simply make a non-canonical short and that's it, but no, yes or they were going to tell us a story written by rotten old men who spend the entire day watching Tik Tok. It's not going to be that the child who sees this doesn't get bored, we know that much today's children don't have many neurons as they say, but even to make movies for them you have to have a certain talent.

In some point at the beguining Po make a joke about the ausence of the furious five saying that at least he had them in cardboard posters, and this would be a good joke. Only if the stupid film could be prove that the franquise can do something memorable without the furious five, but again, that's not the case.

Don't have any respect for this movie, look what it had with you. I understand that it is enjoyable because of the animation but it does not go beyond that line, it destroys important things about the canon and spoils its teaching about the need for change by treating it in a terrible way.

Coclusion: KFP 4 is just another Po's adventure as Shifu says, it won't tell nothing to you or make you feel different, it's a shame but after Megamind 2 I imagined something like this. It's a dark era for film, expecially the animated one so like Scar said; Be prepare, there're worse things waiting for us.

Do you want something with real quality? You don't even need kung fu panda 1,2 or 3, for make it easy to this film let's take this marvelous example; kung fu panda: secrets of the scroll (2016). You'll say; "An animated short, this is not like-" Shhh Just watch it, you won't regret it.

If you think I'm wrong in something, just rewatch the film. And if still you aren't agreed with me, well, I respect you and I'm happy you like it. I wish I could love it as you do, but that doesn't mean that the movie isn't bad, because if you watch it with your brain on or remembering the previous movies it's terrible.

. Me? I've to write a story, I love you all. Except you, Dreamworks, I'm mad with you, expecially when you do this at the same day as Akira Toriyama's death :(

[horizon-verizon]

Hotd is the trenches of white feminism because why else is it that most of the time when I see someone who actually understands why trying to change it to a story where both sides are wrong is actually both irresponsible and impossible, they so often turn out to be a bipoc woman? Why are we the ones out here having to defend white women and even the men around them from other white women who so often claim to be feminists and why is this also true in real life? I'm tired.

When the ASoIaF fandom itself is entrenched in white feminism with no real public acknoledgement of how/why people got the conclusions they did bc everyone wants to avoid being honest and just be either sexist/racist OR deny such things motivating some of the writers' decisions or other fans' feelings abt such and such...

the next fandom for the next TV/film adaptation will inevitably follow. And worse bc HotD is the hub of male gaze and misogynoir-baked-into-the-writing that reinforces it all.

I have had to explain how male gaze is different from "female gaze", how it has always been about trying to make subordinate a woman's true perspective AND agency for male-viewer excitement and confidence. To make the female subject no longer subject or actor as the male. How it constructs a pleasure in seeing female subjects subordinated, that that is its inherent purpose and function.

ANOTHER LINK

Not about "who is hot", or "looking with disrespect", or "what makes men attracted to women" like female gaze is supposed to be about "what makes women attracted to men" or gets them hyped or whatever. This, what I just described people have done/said about male gaze vs female gaze, is a complete misunderstanding AND attempt to redefine what male gaze is/what it has always really been about to distort the unnatural desire to see female objectification as "natural".

Something that neoliberal capitalism has tricked many people, inclu women, into believing like it has tricked girls into thinking sex work isn't as dangerous and "a big deal" bc you're making money being a commercial product of a patriarchal society.

I will repeat: male gaze, as a theory/application/criticism/observation of patriarchy in film/media was about how & why women are agency-less/mitigated objects for the male-centered or male-as-the-actor/subject story.

In the male gaze, the "woman" is not "the maker of meaning", but the "bearer of meaning".

And Laura Mulvey was a white, "mid" class woman...and other white women can't even get this shit in their fucking brains for more than three seconds.

I, too, am tired.

Now, of course we can understand how both sides went into a war that ravaged an entire realm in under 3 years. how it lead to the end of dragons before Daenerys. How we can seem to chalk it up to noble people being typically selfish nobles...however, what makes this unique is the fact that it could have been entirely prevented if sexism itself did not exist. That Rhaenyra was a woman mattered and defined the entire trajectory of the greens' moves & motivations & confidence into usurping her in the first place. This is just basic fact. Not even Maegor's war w/his own nephew (Aegon the Uncrowned) was this devastating!

(LINK#1 & LINK#2, both by zaldrizer-sovesi) The Blackfyres came from xenophobic, [likely] ableist, desires for self-aggrandizement and have a lot to do with ideas of masculinity and power: bastard given a ruler's sword by the past one vs nonmilitant legitimate ruler who invites the "Other" into his court--using such things already in the society for one's one advancement. If we can acknowledge that, why can't we acknowledge the same for Rhaenyra/the Dance and sexism?!

Why do we need to subordinate that under "both sides bad", instead of the other way around? Again, Condal and many HotD "neutrals" have argued that "both sides bad" is the "point" of the war...which, it it actually were, then what is the goddamn point of it if it can be subsumed under "oridinary" nobles' wars?!! What is the point of the Dance or even adapting it at all? bfr!

[spoodlebat]

DAY 5 - REDESIGNED

Day 5 - Redesigned OC Still playing catchup; no further forward but no further back aha. At least I'm staying consistently far behind :'D Cmon spuddy, these were meant to be simple...!

Rather than like last year where, for this prompt, I took an old character and updated them, I chose to interpret it as being a character that has changed physically over time. With it being relevant to their species and lore as a whole, I think Knoop fits this bill quite well.

Character ramblings, as well as their other forms, below the cut <3

Knoop's species (known as voidlings) can reformat their bodies in times of dire need, ejecting their inner core from the outer shell and laying dormant until danger passes. By then absorbing biomass from the surroundings, voidlings can forge a new, armour-like hollow construct that the darkness within then operates to move around. It's an instinctive process that occurs whilst unconscious; shaped by the sleeping mind within, these forms tend to grow more complex as a voidling ages and matures, reflecting their worldly experience as well as one's own character traits.

Knoop themselves has reformed many times in their long life, but they have had 3 main forms over the course of their story.

Their first form predates their original 'death' and subsequent entanglement with the Divines; its main traits were dexterity and resiliance, useful in their role as a Galactic Federation Patrol officer.

Following their Divine Quest, Knoop was rewarded with knowledge of their origins, and a planet to call their homeworld. Despite the comfort of Elysium, however, something called them back into adventure. Attacked by creatures of darkness, their reformation was poorly supplied and woefully incomplete; Knoop's physical shell was corrupted by raw void, and their fragmented soul was irreversibly altered. With exposed flesh, unintentionally-embedded objects, and weakened armour, this form was made for desperate survival above all else. It took a great length of time for them to learn how best to use its unique strengths, as well as to become numb to its chronic pain.

The final form Knoop took before their eventual death, this shell is a great many things; a much overdue understanding, the relief of long-awaited completeness, a thousand years worth of forgiveness. Above all else, it is a physical manifestation of the love they now hold for themselves. A being now of two halves, those that call themselves Well and Scribe now co-exist within Knoop's body and mind, wrapped endlessly in the sheer joy that is their own existence.

Their core is no longer hidden away, burning brightly through the raw void that makes up parts of their body. Knoop can now repair themselves at a level far surpassing that of their fellow voidlings, able to manipulate the very matter that makes up most of reality, in order to break it down into material for their body. This power also grants them several abilities, such as manifesting hardlight digits or weaponry on command, as well as energy attacks and shadow tendrils.

And, just for fun ;w;

After their death, Knoop ascends to the Divine Realms. They finally shed their shell, free to exist as they truly are. Their form is typically quite nebulous, light and dark orbitting their core. However, they can take on a slightly more humanoid form if desired. Regardless of their shape, their two halves are ever winding around one another~

[ultimate-sword-showdown]

Round 3, Match 7: Nightblood vs. Mayalaran

Nightblood

From: Cosmere/Warbreaker

Wielder: Vasher

Nightblood is a pure black sword that bleeds black smoke when drawn. If a wielder unsheathes it for too long, they will die. When it was forged, it was given the command to “destroy evil,” but it doesn’t actually understand what evil is (to quote one of my submittors, it “approaches this with all the enthusiasm and moral nuance of a golden retriever”). It is very chipper and thrives on approval, wanting to be praised for all the evil people it has killed. The sword can possess evil people, causing them to kill the evil people around them and then usually commit suicide. It can communicate telepathically with others. Finally, it is canonically “fascinated by gender, and trying to figure it out.”

Mayalaran

From: The Stormlight Archive

Wielder: Adolin Kholin

Mayalaran is a Shardblade; a type of blade that can be magically summoned or dismissed and can cut through any physical object. She is wielded by Adolin Kholin, who nicknamed her Maya. Prior to learning her name, he refused to give her a name of his choosing, musing that that would be rude. Adolin often speaks to her even though she does not respond. Much of the lore surrounding Mayalaran gets into spoiler territory, so I will place more details under the cut if you are interested in learning more and don’t think you will read the books!

Mayalaran is a true spren, meaning that she had sentience in the cognitive realm (realm of the mind) and appeared as a humanoid (as opposed to lesser spren, which appear as animal- or spirit-like creatures in the cognitive realm and do not have sapience). However, she has been killed and now manifests as a deadeye, giving her once lively grassy hair a brown, wilting look and rendering her eyes black and scratched out. She was once bonded to a Radiant Knight through a Nahel bond (formed by stating Oaths), but when the Radiant she was bonded to broke their Oaths, she was killed and turned into a deadeye. Because of this, she cannot speak and only screeches, and wanders in the cognitive realm following her corpse (the sword, her physical form). Living Shardblades are able to communicate with the person they are bonded to, and are able to shape and manipulate their physical form. They can also be summoned instantaneously. However, as a deadeye, Maya’s form is static and cannot change, and she requires ten heartbeats to be summoned.

Most likely due to the unique way that Adolin interacts with Maya, she has been partially revived and is capable of greater sapience than before. She told Adolin her name, and has spoken on at least one other occasion. Once she moved to protect Adolin from attack by a Fused (in simple terms, an hostile entity) of her own volition, something deadeyes are not known to do. Once, she was summoned in only seven heartbeats instead of ten. After being partially revived, she is able to speak and converse, although her speech is slow or off. It is possible that she may be revived further as the series continues!

[tilseptemberends]

Do you wanna talk about your book or is that on lock and key (wouldn’t blame you if it was)

No locks or keys here! At least not for the most part. Obviously, I can't give you the full details plotwise but I'm super down to talk about it.

Sorrow and Storm (working title, I'll probably change it by the time I'm done) is the first planned story in a faerie romantasy-style series. It starts in a human village just outside the Woodlands Between, which is the forest separating the human kingdoms from the faeries of the Seelie and Unseelie realms. The main characters are named Evelynne (usually just called Eve), Soleil, and Acacia. They're my sweeties and I love them all dearly.

Eve is Soleil's older sister and the one who brought Soleil to the village after they left their former home. Soleil is a gifted healer. Magic is a trait that it already very rare in humans and healing magic is even more difficult to find even among the fae which makes her a difficult loss for her parents to take. And because of Acacia's fae ancestry she's able to go hunting the Woodlands without being lost to the everchanging forest protecting the faerie realms.

I'm still pretty early in drafting but I am looking into where to publish just as an ebook or something. Snippet below the cut <3

--- (from Ch. 2)

Eve soon found herself helping her sister load up her mostly empty cart with crates of healing tinctures and salves. As well as Soleil's leftover ingredients. Soleil lingered by the bench in the back of the cart, securing the crates so they wouldn't break on the short trip to the apothecary. Eve passed up the last crate and Soleil found it a spot with the others. She moved to hop out but looked down like she'd hit something. 

“What is it?” Eve approached the side of the cart and watched as her sister picked up an old looking book. The leather cover looked rather light, a soft brown that worked well with the shining gold lettering on the front and matched the thread in the binding. Soleil half sat on the edge of the cart and flipped the thing open. Frowning, she flipped a few more pages. 

“Is this yours Eve? I don't recognize any of this…” Soleil offered the book to Eve and she was surprised by the tome's light weight. She flipped through a few pages as Soleil had and pretty soon she was frowning at the pages too. It certainly wasn't common. Or any of the languages of the human kingdoms. The characters were completely foreign but patterns were frequent enough to imply that this was indeed a different language. “Hey? Acacia? You mind taking a peek at this?” Eve called over to the front of their home where their friend had stopped to tighten the buckles on her boots. She'd changed into trousers and light tunic, her quiver at her hip as it was most days.

Acacia slung her bow over a shoulder and made her way over to the cart. 

“What is it?” She asked and Eve offered her the book.

“Do you know what language this might be?” Acacia took the book a thumbed through for a minute before handing it back. “It's not a human language. But I can't tell if its Seelie or Unseelie. I don't know enough of either to be sure.” She flipped back to the cover and considered the title.

“Can you tell what the title is?” Soleil asked and Acacia grimaced slightly, “I think so..?” She chewed her lip for a moment, “The Book of… Requirement maybe? Or Provision… Provision sounds more right.” She handed the book back to Eve. “Where did you get that?” Eve slipped the book into the bag slung over her shoulder, “I must have gotten  it in town while I was making trades at the market. I can't remember who exactly must have given it to me though.” Soleil lightly bumped Eve's arm with the side of her foot, “Maybe it's some pretentious noble's diary. Or a book of faerie curses.” Eve batted at her sister's ankle, “Don't joke about that. We live too close to their lands to be making jokes about curses.” The book felt a bit heavier in her bag as she considered what manner of object she might have brought to her home. Maybe she should throw it in a river just to be rid of it… “I don't think it's curses. If I'm right about that last word being Provision then it might be something as mundane as an inventory record.” Acacia interjected before long. Eve wasn't sure it was something so inconsequential but she took the opportunity to think about anything else.

[system-of-a-feather]

Bro honestly? Like this isn't necessarily a tip for other systems to apply cause it can become self destructive and hurtful if it doesn't work and this is a highly experimental thing that works for *us* but a while ago Riku noticed trends and came up with a whole concept of self fulfilling prophecies and how that probably works with DID and its all like, human brain correlation shit and not actually research based

But our system has been operating fully with that concept / model in mind and how that shit impacts how our DID works and crap and in short and very very butchered version, we think DID and your symptoms / changes in the system will inherently reflect what you feed it as DID works on a very subconscious level of trying to make sense of a crazy world with a shit ton of trauma and amnesia, so making sure you keep the shit you feed your DID clean is important

And so that expands to a lot of moments of uncertainty - whether we have a new part, whether a thing will work, whether or not XYZ is one thing or the next - if we are in a place where its subjective and/or up in the air, we can work within the realm of the realistic place we are in and just play into whatever fucking narrative we'd like so long as it isn't OOC for whatever story the DID Dungeon Master is DMing

So like we are tackling the driving issue our system has and that is primarily banking on me not being affected by the anxiety-dissociation loop Riku and most other parts experience (a based hypothesis since I don't really experience anxiety properly and I'm more "grounded") and that checked out and honestly I kinda like it

So an on going system meme was "watch we go from being disabled and unable to drive out of mental illness and anxiety and dissociation to it being one of our largest coping mechanisms cause XIV gets addicted to driving; then we change our disability to a monetizatable coping mechanism" and Riku over there was just like "wait but what if it doesn't work like that" and Im just like "Nah of course itll work like that because thats how XIV brain operates and XIV just is. Why WOULDNT it work that way?"

And I originally made the DnD reference as a joke that was meant to be a one off, but with the theory in mind its literally just like living our life with an anonymous DM piloting our lives and thus we play our ideal symptom presentations like a player character rolling for checks of what they want to do. If you put it out there and dedicate to the bit, you can roll and have a chance of it going your way or going AMAZINGLY better than your way; and theres a chance itll be rejected but like

I just look at our brain and I go "I'm going to end up addicted to driving as a coping mechanism" and the DID brain will roll a dice

It helps if its already in character cause my trait of "prone to movement based coping" adds +3 proficiency to coping by driving and that my car is made to get me attached and grounded which is +1 proficiency and then my tendency to get extremely attached and positively triggered by inanimate objects adds a +1 proficiency as well and THEN you add the fact I can listen to music loudly is a +3 boost so like.... thats a +8 to whatever I roll.

So long I don't completely choke my D20 roll for being addicted to driving, then this is OBVIOUSLY gonna work this way.

So like... *shrugs*

Also yes this derailed entirely and I will not apologize.

-XIV

[det2x-fanfic-dump]

SATAN'S HC Bio:

Headcanon of Obey Me! Satan's character Bio: [Repost from AO3 + Descriptions cuz why not] This Bio is basically as reference in the fanfic. Series Link is found at the end of this post.

Warning: Most of them are based on the game and actual general info about demonology stuff// I didn't look into much

Name: Satan             

Human Name: Samuel

[A normal sound name instead of Samael which is another call for Satan]

Nickname:

Note: Satan is called Samuel mostly by people and Tan-tan as a cat)

Tan-tan [Just like in the canon]

Samuel [ By those who don't want to call him 'Satan' cuz demon name]

Cata-nya [In the fanfic, he transform into a cat most of the time]

Powers and Abilities:

Satan heavily depends on his magic skills rather than strength. He mostly do magic even without chants and incantations except for curses because there should be conditions.

[Note to self: Levels are based on how big of a power they will need... For example: Level 01- a passive skill...no magic required means they can do skills without use of magic energy. Level 02 - Magic power is needed but less use Level 03- Full magic source is needed ; Needs a host if necessary.]

1. A Little bit of Every Elemental magic but has the highest Affinity for Pyrokinesis (Level 2)

[Satan can do a bit of everything his brothers can do element-wise . For example: He can make rocks out of thin air or shoot offensive elemental spells.

However since fire in mostly inclined to very strong emotions and destruction, fire magic is his strong suit.]

Reason: In real life, Satan is the universal name to refer a demon so I think it's nice to have him the same power as the rest of his brothers. Imagine that his elemental magic is a basic version of what his brothers can do. This is also a reference that he is created from Lucifer so that means he's just like Lucifer.

2. Elemental Powers/ Natural Calamity (Level 3)

[This is just the stronger version of the first ability with the condition that he's mad. Satan can manipulate the elements found in Earth or can conjure natural calamities if given that he is very mad. For example: He can make thunderstorms, tornadoes, Floods, etc.]

Reason: He is the Avatar of Wrath so of course, natural disasters is his motif. Causing Natural disasters is one way to express his madness.

3. A Master of Curses (but mostly cat-related curses) (Level 2)

[He is an expert of curses. He knows a lot of incantations and curses such as changing physical appearance or make you do stuff. It's self-explanatory that most of his curses are cat-based anyway cuz he likes cats]

Reason: He always read grimoires and magic books in the canon game.

4. Telekinesis (Based in Obey me wiki) (Level 2)

[He can control every objects or any individuals. Imagine Sans from Undertale lol]

Reason: Based on the Obey Me Wiki and I think it's pretty unique too so I added it.

Powers and Abilities with Limitation:

Reason why there's Limitations: This is a reference on the general information about demons in real life. These abilities shows how demons can affect humans and how they interact with humans.

5. Control a Human's Anger and Wrath (Lv. 1)

[Satan can influence a human or mortal's emotions whenever and whatever mood he has. He can make someone angry for no reason or take away their wrathful energy if he so chooses. ]

[Limitation: This only works in the Human World and to mortal beings such as Humans and animals. Fellow demons and angels are not allowed. ]

Reason: He's the demon of Wrath.

6. Possession (Lv. 1)

[Just like any other demon, he has the ability to possess a human or animal and control them against their will. Demons can go in and out whenever.]

[Limitation: The human or mortal must have no magic affinity and must not be blessed by angels or in a holy sacred land connected to heaven/ celestial realm.

If the human have magic affinity, this will serve as protection.

A human with magical that has made a pact with a demon have the option to be possessed since this is also a way to borrow magic or strength.]

Reason: It is a reference to real life exorcism and demonic possession. Reason/Limitation why MC cannot be possessed.

MC has magical affinity...they can do magic like in the canon game.

They're surrounded or protected by angels like Luke and Simeon.

Unless given consent, they can either be possessed or use Karasu (Like in game gacha--idk how to add this to my fanfic//crai)

Unless MC loses their magic or has no celestial beings in their presence. They can be possessed.

In TWST x Obey Me Fanfic: Yuki in a Twisted Wonderland Series

Link:

https://archiveofourown.org/series/3813811

For some reason, upon arriving in Twisted Wonderland, Satan cannot be able to do magic and was turned into a cat at anyplace except Heartslabyul.

Given that he's the fourth born, he requires to depend a host for magic needs in the human world.

Dormitory: Unofficial Member of Heartslabyul

[He stays in that dorm instead with MC ]

Title in Night Raven (Until Heartslabyul): The Cat-warden of Heartslabyul  and Riddle Rosehearts' cat.

[alderaphid]

YOU!

I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO FIND YOUR ACCOUNT FOR AGES NOW. THE LINK FROM AO3 DIDN'T LEAD HERE BUT LED TO THE FRONT PAGE OF TUMBLR INSTEAD, AND I FULLY BELIEVED YOU DIDN'T HAVE ANY OTHER WAY I CAN CONTACT YOU ON, I WAS DEVASTED.

Anyway I recently read your Welcome Home fic Rotten Apple of My Eye and I absolutely LOVED IT! I actually read the standalone chapter 3 (Coffee Consernation) first and got interested that way, did you intentionally make it so that it can be read regardless of order? As in, I didn't need to read the first two to understand what was going on! Because I really liked that!

So okay, now that I'm here. I REALLY REALLY love how you write the Mob, they feel so alive in the world, the way they're just so natural in their wicked ways is such a delight to see, not to mention the bonus after-chapter character scenes! I love the way you write the interactions of the mob with each other! And their thoughts feel really natural to come to. I think those scenes are the ones I find myself looking forward to the most! I think the after-chapter scene of Coffee Consernation was what got me even more interested to see what else you wrote, aside from your already captivating writing style!

And the world! Yes you only talk about the Mob's interactions with both the reader and each other, but even then you still manage to make the world feel so alive! The reader feels so much like a person that has their own life outside of the story, until the Mob steals them away like a Raven that spotted a really nice shiny object.

I just HAD to come here to tell you how much I love reading your fic, it actually also gave me the boost I needed to get out of my writers block! So thank you thank you thank YOU for writing such a wonderful piece of writing! I am patiently waiting for the next chapter with barely contained excitement!

Ah! Me!

Thank you so much for your wonderful ask! You made me realize I hadn't changed the link on my profile after changing my Tumblr username! It's fixed now :]

I did start writing the series in a standalone way, yes! It was originally intended to be loosely-connected oneshots exploring the AU. I just ended up with more of a tight-knit plot than I bargained for. Such is writing; the characters have minds of their own, sometimes, and I am but a lowly conduit for their machinations.

The after character scenes have definitely been my favourite to write. The dynamics in the AU are so very interesting! I've never really written stuff outside of reader-insert, as I've never been confident in writing character-to-character interactions, so hearing that you like the parts that are supplemental/outside that realm is so lovely to hear!

Worldbuilding my beloved... There's something so harrowing about a fully fledged human being in a world of many possibilities being forcefully pidgeon-holed into one role, and I've tried my best to really construct a place that sort of horror can be explored. The Raven will be successful in dragging that shiny into its nest, that's the best part about this series :]

Wow! I'm so pleased my writing could help you out of writer's block! Thank you for reading! I hope to continue to deliver a delightfully dreadful next chapter :]

[fulgursmediaanalysisdrama]

After collecting more side quests and items that seemed like side quests but weren't I finished Ikana Castle and moved on to Stone Tower

There's no place for me to progress though, not even using the bunny mask for longer jumps. On the third floor I'm just stuck, I can reach only two platforms neither of which have any buttons or anything to interact with except for one hookshot pillar used to traverse between said platforms. It clearly is the only place to progress though, as the game had the rare instance of directly stating where to progress. And like, you generally being locked out of story relevant areas completely unless you have the tools to advance, and I don't think there be another tool I need other than the song.

What would suck is if I need to call back the plaforms I used to reach the third floor in a specific order in order to build a bridge to the fourth floor

The reason this would suck is that no matter where you fall from on the first or second floor you get send back to the entrance, but now I did get send back to the third floor after being knocked off the hookshot pillar (by something I couldn't see, but I was standing on top of it and all enemies are generally out of reach? There's only a few bats that don't even spot you), so I'd assume that I can always continue on from floor 3. Unless it wants me to manually go back to floor 1, as I can't reach floor 2 from 3.

Unrelated, but I do have sidequests left over that I'm 100% aware of. They have the usual problem of unclear objectives huge time waste by waiting or both. There's a lot of redoing in this, some of which is sped up, but I thought the appeal of this game was resetting cycles and doing things differently to achieve different things.

Not redoing the same things in the same way, with it not even speeding up and getting repetitive/boring (especially since most "challenges" are just annoying, in the sonic locking the player out of having control way, and don't provide any meaningful challenge to interact with in a way that can really be practiced. Everything that can be practiced is boringly trivial once you figure out how the mechanics work, if it wasn't spelled out to you), a number of times only to then time skip/wait and do one or two things before resetting and redoing again.

Sure at some point you have done everything and there's not that many things you need to redo any given thing for but in fact it's really annoying. Like at least make rechallenging the bosses worth something and keep the swamp healthy, the mountain thawed (you'd still get a reward upon replaying if you finish the temple quickly and gain the gold dust, since you don't need the sword for the dungeon), etc etc.

Shit like making me recollect the Zora Eggs because I didn't want to recollect the fairies is garbage btw, but at least more understandable. Now I just wish I had done the band side quest before the dungeon as the new wave bossa nova is permanent at least. What pains me still is that this is a remake and they fixed none of the errors of the first version, the quality of life changes that do exist hurt the immersion more than anything I have listed in this post of my big thread imo.

They were lazy quality of life changes too, bare minimum effort. But this is the way of this company, remakes as nintended. Money good, putting effort for money bad.

It's even more shocking as good remakes are 100% possible (ie a link between worlds), and what I'm asking is in the realm of a remaster. This is a remaster, I shouldn't have been calling it a remake my bad.

Anyways: tears of the kingdom is just a breath of the wild remaster and neither game is particularly good, botw is excusable as an interesting experiment that had good ideas with often poor execution. No one but Nintendo fans was impressed by this open world title, and no one should have been. Totk is an insult and should make it clear that botw wasn't bad because of lack of experience or anything but because of a lack of effort and care. The same bad designs got repeated uncritically even in the face of criticism, the reasons why botw was popular and sold well weren't examined and no growth took place, no improvements were made.

[gameinfoxtbr]

Black Myth Wukong Guide

In Black Myth Wukong Guide we expect to play one of the most promising RPGs in 2024. Amazing graphic or graphic roots and engaging gameplay make Black Myth Wukong stand as a huge game that is based on the book Journey to the West written in China. To get down to business EU, whether you are a newbie or a pro, let’s review the basics of role-play games and give you more information for your future as the Monkey King. In this article, let’s look at some basic general guidelines, the basic system, and fun to dominate Black Myth Wukong. 🎮

Starting Black Myth Wukong Guide: Essential Tips for Beginners

As most of you have noticed, Black Myth Wukong has stunning locations and fights with bosses so here’s the advice for new players. Don't worry, though; below is a summary of the things you should pay attention to when you first enter this fantastical realm: 1. Master the Combat System 🏹 As it has been discovered, Black Myth Wukong is solely centered on combat. You are also likely to find that it is somewhat unpredictable with a fluctuating climate than some of the other countries. Here we have a complex fighter named Wukong, with transformation ability, spell-casting ability, and speedy staff fighting style. To effectively accomplish the gameplay in this type of fight, you need to be able to strike as well as defend, parry, and counter your opponent.

GameInfoX Pro Tip: Even during boss bouts you can always have a shot at assaulting the boss for a while. Some bosses have a strong hit point attack which hits fairly quickly but leaves them open. The best thing one can do is to strike a casting blow and do as much damage as possible. 👉 Check out the latest update and news on Black Myth Wukong 2. Use Wukong's Transformations 🐲 Black Myth Wukong being a shape-shifting character is one of the best action role-playing games that are being developed today. All of these changes are necessary for either combat or solving numerous kinds of puzzles. Would you rather slide right by your opponents or just worm your way past them? Of course, the change always means some transition is taking place! It refers to these forms to be used to counter the opposition in battle and coordinate maneuvers in the surroundings. 3. Explore the Environment 🌳 Black Myth Wukong has a very similar and completely open world and I think there is much more to explore in the game. This is the location of upgrades, new types of enemies, and bonuses in the game’s mandatory-to-explore mode. Contrary to this, just stroll, but do it intentionally, consciously with a purpose to observe all the surroundings meticulously. In general, there are often some areas that will have strong objects or skills that will help facilitate your travels considerably.

Key Features of Black Myth Wukong Guide

You must become acquainted with Black Myth Wukong's main elements if you want to succeed in the game: A. Stamina Management 💪 In warfare, it was important to sustain such a vitality level. Wukong even uses stamina to block and to perform any move in his repertoire as the case may be. When the caches are exhausted, hostile forces get a clear window through which they can wipe out the caches. There is a Stamina bar to look at, patience needed, and proper balance between healing and attacking. B. Upgrading Your Gear and Abilities 🛠️ In this game to progress in the story, a player needs to gather upgrade parts for tools or powers of your characters. Don't ignore this part! As the game advances, the abovementioned factors will act as weaponry and ability class part of game challenges and difficulty levels of later opponents. 👉 Interested in knowing more about this game? Check out Black Myth: Wukong’s features here.

GameInfoX C. Boss Battles 🐉 Yes, there will be huge super battles only those resulting from henchmen fights, and a few parts out of the game where henchmen will fight in packs. Each boss has a set of attributes, abilities, and special attacks so it is clear that to defeat each of them the player needs to use a different approach. Find out what they like to do, look at their shortcomings, and strike only when it’ll be most effective. If you think that it is too hard to manage your employer use earlier tasks, enhance your abilities or information, and attempt it once more. 👉 Check out the complete Tier List for Black Myth: Wukong

Explore Wukong Powers and Abilities

Wukong has several techniques and is capable of using magic in a general sense in several fashions. Even though they may possess huge authority, as it will be raised, it will greatly affect the battlefield. Here are a few important abilities you can acquire: - Spells of Fire and Ice 🔥❄️ Allow them to heat as basic magic to find out its rules. Ice is great for freezing or slowing a character or anything that rapidly moves or for knocking it back and Fire does area-of-effect non-elemental damage. - Form-Shifting Skills 🐦🦋 Because he can transform into other animals such as birds and even insects Wukong fights in many forms and angles out different aspects of an issue. When one wants to perform what he or she normally cannot, or when one wants to overcome what he or she cannot usually overcome, make these changes purposively. - The Ruyi Jingu Bang (Wukong’s Staff) 💥 The flail is another weapon that is the main tool of Wukong in battle and this character differs from others by his staff. It may be opened and closed to allow you to safely engage multiple antagonists at the same time, or to launch a ranged attack on your enemies. To try and increase the damage done by the staff take a few moments to use a couple of different staff talents.

Meet the Developers Behind Black Myth Wukong

This game was developed by Game Science Studio, a team of enthusiastic developers who devoted some years of manpower and research to it. What was their objective? to wrap the readers’ understanding of Chinese mythology into the cuddliest and the shiniest bow possible. The well-known heroes and mythological creatures have been carefully and fast reconstructed by the developers, expanding the specter of an action role-playing genre.

GameInfoX 👉 Want to know more about the developers? Meet the team behind Black Myth Wukong.

FAQs About Black Myth Wukong

Q-1 Can Wukong launch all his abilities right now?A-1 However, many of Wukong’s abilities are earned as one progresses through the game since the character evolves as you progress.Q-2 Is Black Myth Wukong an online game? Is Black Myth Wukong multiplayer?A-2 For now, Black Myth Wukong is developed as a single-player game that will emphasize the narrative aspects and playability.Q-3 How hard is Black Myth Wukong?A-3 Despite the high level of difficulty, especially in boss battles, every gamer should comprehend the system of fighting, so the game is suitable for everyone.Q-4 On which platform will Black Myth Wukong be released?A-4 It will come out to play on PS5, XSX, S, and PC.

Conclusion

Black Myth Wukong, distinguished by dramatic graphics, unique combat, and obvious reference to the Chinese legend, is set to become one of the best action RPGs of 2024. What makes it more fun to play this game is that exploring the area, gaining new abilities, and confronting gigantic enemies all fall into that category. Are you trying to become the Monkey King? follow Black Myth Wukong Guide💫 Words: 756 Read the full article

[horizon-verizon]

I'm so tired of coming across anti-Daemyra people throwing around the word grooming all the time, without obviously knowing the real definition. I'm tired of seeing people say they can't wait to see Rhaenyra get tricked by Daemon with Mysaria and Nettles, when none of her stories are certain in Fire and Blood. Besides, I don't even believe it. Too many inconsistencies and obvious mysogynism coming from the maesters. I find it ironic, that the same people who are going to qualify Rhaenyra as a victim of grooming by Daemon, are going to qualify her as a sure aggressor Criston Cole (hello consistency) and then say that they can't wait for Daemon to make her suffer, so that they initially claimed to want her protection and to be sympathetic towards her for her so-called grooming situation. These people are pathetic.

Recently wrote a post for grooming b/t Daemyra HERE.

You: "I'm tired of seeing people say they can't wait to see Rhaenyra get tricked by Daemon with Mysaria and Nettles".

I write about Daemon & Nettles in these posts:

#1, #2, #3, #3.5, #4 (Daemon & Nettles)

#5 (Daemon's characterization)

#6, #7 (Rhaenyra & Daemon's characterizations and relationship/Daemyra shipping)

#8 (Daemon's death)

And this is a master post darklinaforever made of the DaemonxNettles ship with various writers critiquing the ship and fans' using it against Rhaenyra.

You: "I find it ironic, that the same people who are going to qualify Rhaenyra as a victim of grooming by Daemon, are going to qualify her as a sure aggressor Criston Cole (hello consistency) and then say that they can't wait for Daemon to make her suffer, so that they initially claimed to want her protection and to be sympathetic towards her for her so-called grooming situation."

If they had been just as critical of Criston or Harwin for Rhaenyra getting into these sorts of relationships, we could then get into them not caring much for grooming so much as denying/ignoring this is a story about misogyny & how a woman was killed for being a woman seeking for power not traditionally allowed to her for fandom ships (Criston being PoC so being PoC changes that he is an incel?!; Harwin labeled as the healthiest, yet at least in the show, he's of similar age to both Criston & Daemon).

They like to ignore the lower age of majority (16) in Westeros AND still, how girls in Westeros are "marriageable" as soon as they get their periods (really betrothable); how the consummation still depends on what the parents will allow or can allow; that the concept of "maidenhood" exists [women are considered their "most beautiful", read "purist"] in between childhood and adulthood; that they need to think of how this impacts how these people will view childhood vs adulthood.

Is it objectively wrong for a 25 yr old to take up or sleep with a 14, 15, 16, etc.? Yes. However, what proper indictment can one use against a character who is not even in same realm of discernment as you for us? Yes, GRRM criticizes medieval politics & mindsets through showing its effects on the most vulnerable, but it is also true that GRRM doesn't allow true contexts or results of grooming to occur in characters he wants to feature for the reason of using their relationships to make other points. So again, this is a case of Watsonian vs a Doylist evaluation of things.

But bc of this consistency and their clear willingness to victim blame the victim they named a victim, it's pretty clear that "victimhood" is defined more by how well they like the actual character or according to how she acts in regards to the limits of her sexual autonomy being justified rather than her as a person.

[psychreviews2]

Object Relations: Harry Stack Sullivan

There won't be a video for this post because of it's graphic nature, but I hope you find something interesting nonetheless.

In The Closet

As Object Relations moved forward, researchers and theoreticians began to take the original elements of projection and transference, and moved them into the realm of purpose, and what this mental output was hinting at about the human psyche. Because humans have desires, and desires are political, meaning they want cooperation from others, it creates a need for readers to learn about psychologists and their personal psychological makeup to see what is inferred in their writings. Psychoanalyst Harry Stack Sullivan was a perfect example for having this core of personal desire and needing society to change and make accommodations for all the different ways of being and lifestyles that humans live in. In Private Practices, by Naoko Wake, she outlined the difficulty, especially in the 1920s, for psychiatric hospitals to decide whether patients needed treatments or if society itself was in need of reform. In this more conservative environment of early psychoanalysis, "these scientists artfully separated what they argued in public from who they were in private. For instance, Sullivan and his colleagues continued to describe heterosexuality and homosexuality in dualistic terms—'healthy versus sick,' 'virile versus effeminate,' and 'mature versus immature'—in their published writings. Following the precepts of Sigmund Freud, these psychiatrists did not think of homosexuality itself as an illness unless it caused a person distress, a belief that was in sharp contrast with the mainstream medical notion that sexual 'perversion' constituted a clinical entity. Nevertheless, their position most often expressed in public was that, given the prevailing homophobia, homosexual persons tended to be mentally and socially unstable, constituting a risk group that often required medical attention...Sullivan as a gay psychiatrist pursued a fuller depathologization of homosexuality in his treatment of psychiatrically disturbed homosexual men, even as he defined them as 'immature' individuals in his published writings."

Sexuality Pt 3: Homosexuality - Sigmund Freud & Beyond: https://rumble.com/v1gtqk5-sexuality-pt-3-homosexuality-sigmund-freud-and-beyond.html

Case Studies: Dora and Freud: https://rumble.com/v1gu2dt-case-studies-dora-and-freud.html

This need for a double life professionally also mirrored the double life that homosexual scientists lived. With scandals waiting to be discovered, the only way to live on the edge was to harbor a desire for a new world of acceptance and to incrementally move the current world forward one step at a time. For people who were homosexual or bisexual, and were more comfortable in their lifestyles, they could network together, along with researchers, and create a haven of tolerance, much like religious refugees hiding in a church for safety. In a pluralistic society, there was a developing live and let live co-existence, but if people crossed the line from one person's haven to another with different values, the hostility would begin to rise. This would be a difficulty as soon as a person looks for a job and is forced to encounter people with completely different viewpoints. Of course, the sensible attitude is that when you are doing commerce with others you are not engaging in moral inventories, but so many people, even today, don't have the boundary skills for that. They require mandatory cooperation and alignment of values from the economic to the social and political spheres, with the usual cancel culture, escalations, petitions, and protests. Because humans can imitate suggestions of savoring and different ways of doing it, it requires a lot of awareness and control of the mimetic capacity to imitate people in the environment, which can easily be seen when people imitate cultures and accents unconsciously while going on in their lives. When different ways and suggestions appear, that are culturally prohibited, a conflict is brewing unconsciously and ready to bubble up to consciousness, and lead people to adapt by making their personal lives into a pathological secret. For example, [Sullivan's partner James Inscoe believed that Sullivan] "'had experienced hostility from a great many people' throughout his life; hence he must be defended against 'nasty rumor' that might rise out of releasing any aspects of his personal life."

Penetrating through sensitive boundaries wasn't only on the conservative side and psychoanalytic theories began to experiment. When you work with people on the outskirts of society, because they have to exchange everyone else in the economy, you are already being revolutionary, even if your activities are compartmentalized. Sullivan's controversial relationship with James Inscoe, a minor at age 15, had to be covered up with the usual economic disguises. James was treated as a hired assistant so that he could leave his parents, who were struggling financially, and move into this avant-garde circle. Sullivan also hired hospital employees and aides that would follow his instructions and allow some of his controversial experiments, while shielding his methods from scrutiny in his published papers and interviews. "Sullivan obliquely criticized homophobia at an academic conference, using insights arising from his far more straightforward one-on-one discussions with his patients in clinical settings." These case studies and discussions illustrated repression, from society, and suppression from the patients themselves. For Sullivan, his goal was to have more and more patients release their inhibitions and to learn to accept their homosexual sides. This included negotiation with patients to allow aides to kiss and touch to increase self-acceptance. There was also a certain sense of snobbery and pride that existed in homophile cultures as well as in parallel academic situations that allowed these kinds of professional risks. "Just as small outposts of psychiatric care would help improve an entire community’s mental health, a homophile climate that 'sophisticated' individuals created in their small circle would eventually work against homophobia in the public...Oftentimes this secrecy supported the belief that members of the protected, 'therapeutic' community were the most 'civilized' and 'sophisticated' in sexual matters." Sullivan was also interested in taking the Freudian case study method and to make it more prominent than pure theorizing. "Sullivan seldom discussed the Freudian idea of repression in his clinical practice, although it would have been a crucial concept for examining sexual conflicts were he an orthodox Freudian. Sullivan’s approach was more oriented to acts and experiences than to theories and interpretations. He tried to get facts, or at least get patients to talk about what they considered to be facts, so that they could have something concrete in front of them to work with. In Sullivan’s view, such immediacy and direct connection to patients’ real-life situations were highly effective. Within a few years this approach was precisely what would bring medical doctors together with social scientists who were interested in an individual’s life history."

Many theories that criticized homosexuality essentially allowed it, with the promise that treatment would allow further development. In Sullivan's environment he was careful not to apply labels to individuals but instead to homosexual acts. This allowed for more bisexual patients the ability to accept themselves but also not to rule out heterosexuality, especially with children who were sexually abused before they could actively assert one kind of orientation or another. Within the pool of patients there was a wide variety of behavior that was not exclusively homosexual. There were many stories of adults, including fathers, abusing children and then children acting out the same behavior with their little brothers, often asleep at night, so for some patients mimetics was at play, but they were also capable of interest in the opposite sex. Others also felt guilty in engaging in mutual masturbation. Though, many patients were very panicked about their homosexual behavior, and sometimes even thoughts alone caused a panic. "For many men it was not easy to admit homosexual experiences. Homophobia apparently had found its way into the minds of many patients, and some were not shy about expressing it straightforwardly. A patient who had confessed his sense of guilt over masturbation and a relationship with a prostitute, but nothing of a homosexual nature, still noted that he did not want Sullivan 'to have the idea that [when] all doors were closed...I was a cock sucker.'" Fellatio at that time was considered the lowest form of male homosexuality because of the connotation with weakness and subservience. Some patients were in homosexual situations but they didn't really like it, especially the aspect of being the object of sexual attraction, like a heterosexual woman, as opposed to being the stronger masculine seeker for an object. "Homosexual experiences in youth often involved exploitation by older persons. One patient recalled his older brother 'going into my rear' when they were sleeping in the same bed. The patient 'couldn’t understand it.' He related, 'I said I wanted a separate bed,' and claimed that mutual masturbation with the brother, as well as anal sex with him, was 'revolting.' This was, the patient said, because he did not want to 'think of [himself] as the sexual object of a man...' [Another patient was afraid of] fellatio, and 'fairies—people who use their mouths,' [who] represented to him what was fearful about homosexuality...Given the feminine attributes of fairies, femininity—and the succumbing of masculinity to it—was what ignited in this patient the worst fear of homosexuality." There were also early examples of transsexual feelings in these case studies. "One patient, for instance, told doctors that he had had 'many homosexual...experiences' and that he had a constant 'craving...[in] my throat [for fellatio].' Indeed, he believed 'he was really a woman, and wishe[d] an operation to remove his genital."

The Irishman - A fairy named Ferrie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvAahGbIWXk

Queer Connections in the 1920s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRb4eQUTnUs

Because psychoanalysis was at an early stage, so many categories were lumped together. Like in Freud's analysis of Daniel Paul Schreber's book, many schizophrenic patients had concerns about their sexual orientation along with the typical hallucinations. Sullivan's work was able to divide the greater category into subcategories, but always with an understanding that having a grip on reality along with healthy interpersonal relations was the ultimate sign of health, not necessarily a heterosexual outcome. Typical of new clinicians, they eventually specialize in areas that they are good at and patients with the same problems started to group around Sullivan. "As a scientist, he became an expert in the definition of schizophrenia as a socially and culturally constructed illness...He did not seem either skilled or interested in treating female patients. In his comments during interviews with them he was often tense, frustrated, and disagreeable, more frequently so than when he was with male patients. Sullivan’s gift as a psychiatric interviewer shined when he talked to young men with sexual concerns, not with their female counterparts." Sullivan was skilled at breaking down stigma surrounding sex acts. "I have received a great number of people who are terribly concerned lest they are homosexual...If one says, 'To hell with everything, I am going to perform fellatio,' the chances are all his training which is directed against immoral practices...will come in conflict with his impulses...Sullivan was aware of the uncanny effect of fellatio. During a one-on-one interview with another patient, he argued that fellatio could 'expose an area of weakness to another person.' He did not mention the gendered nature of such weakness, while he surely thought that fellatio should not cause weakness in anyone. In the same interview, he said that he had 'had a theory for a long time that fellatio was avoided by a large number of people...for the effect that it would have on their prestige.' If there were no fear of disgrace, there would be no stigmatization of fellatio. Thus Sullivan encouraged the patient to see the sexual act as something that just 'is,' not something entangled with social preconceptions."

Case Studies: Daniel Paul Schreber - Freud and Beyond: https://rumble.com/v1gu84v-case-studies-daniel-paul-schreber-freud-and-beyond.html

Sullivan's inner convictions and private practices continually conflicted with his outer theories. For instance, he felt that "if there were no social prohibition of same-sex intimacy, people would grow healthily into 'mature' sexuality. But given the current prevalence of homophobia, homosexual experience was inevitably an episode that preceded and even produced the illness." Because schizophrenia is largely treated with medications today, the kernel of Sullivan's practice was to connect stigma, social panic, and self-hatred to illness. When treating patients with both homosexual phobias and delusions, the same treatments would lead to a variety of outcomes depending on the differences in each patient. In terms of homosexuality, the fight was against the patient's feeling that they were different and that there was something wrong with them. "If a homosexual person did not have enough awareness of the 'contrary' nature of his or her sexuality, even a single episode of homosexual contact could cause a schizophrenic breakdown. Some might not act on their homosexual desires, but would still develop a so-called homosexual panic because the mere presence of such desire could shake a person’s sense of security. This is unfortunate, Sullivan argued, particularly because the homosexual mode of adjustment came right before the heterosexual stage, in his theory of human psychosexual development."

It was predictable that Sullivan would be called out on his personal life, because he certainly wasn't an example of someone who moved into a "mature" relationship with an adult woman, and the authentic treatment was really in the end a normalization of homosexuality. Practicing with men to get better at sex with women didn't always lead to sex with women, and for some people it never would. To be living without stigma would mean living a life where a person would not feel stress or a sense of being different or excluded if they lived their life fully in the world and in public with their homosexual partner. This would also expand as far as possible with other sexual acts to diffuse shame before it started.

PATIENT: Do you mean that a person who had no mental tension and no concern about it—that he could masturbate as often as he cared without injuring himself? SULLIVAN: I think if one had...no notion of the evil of masturbation, he perhaps would do himself a wee bit of good.

"[Sullivan] prefers what he called a 'primitive state' of human relations, which was not bound to current social norms and institutions. Thus he would suggest a vision of a therapeutic colony or community where people who did not make heterosexual adjustments were encouraged to construct homosexual relationships without being stigmatized." This stigma towards homosexuality put homosexuals in a mental health risk area for Sullivan, because the unacceptability of it in the wider culture meant that there would be men not staying in long-term relationships and there would be shocks from time to time when partners would marry a woman to gain more acceptance. "The homosexual love object all too frequently fails to 'stay put,' causing homosexual men 'one disappointment after another.'" Sullivan also found problems in the heterosexual marriage and it's effect on children and their possibility of experimenting with homosexuality to relieve sexual tensions. If marriages were cold in the marital bed, and there were fights related to infidelity, this could turn children off of the idea of marriage altogether. "One such 'disastrous' consequence is the boy’s attempt to avoid all things sexual, because of what he sees as their inevitable consequence: a dysfunctional marriage, just like his parents'. But soon, the child would find it impossible to eliminate his sexual desire, and either masturbation or a homosexual contact would follow. Both of them require, as Sullivan put it ironically, 'an infinity of rationalizations...in our so called advanced society,' meaning that it is in fact unconscionable for many. They would ruin the boy’s budding sense of manhood, leading him to a mental breakdown...[Sullivan]...considered...outdated social expectations for both men and women—as the ultimate problem behind illness."

Even though were are talking about sexuality in the first half of the 20th century, many of the topics are now current with debates today. With normalization, and in fact a stigma against homophobic attitudes, there is a rush to normalize other orientations like pedophilia, and in Sullivan's case, people engaging in hebephilia, which are those who are attracted to adolescents as opposed to children. This updates the conflict between stigma, including why it's there, and Sullivan's "primitive" societies, which are primitive in the sense that they look at the desire and the satisfaction as it is without moral qualms. In modern papers like Hebephilia as Mental Disorder?, stigma is deconstructed into what is considered a mental disorder vs. a crime. The irony is that what is considered a progressive left-wing topic can conflict with other ones. The argument on one side is that many people can have problematic thought patterns and still be considered normal, for example, seeing details of what is sexually attractive in minors without a compulsion to act on those thoughts, vs. people who act and identify with the activity, which in many modern societies is a crime. The same legal arguments continue in which each person has freedom until it interferes with the freedom of another person. Modern egalitarian arguments against sex with minors, because of undue influence, who cite the economic and power dependencies that a minor is involved in, can be a form of exploitation. This way a person who sees the adult qualities of a minor, that's already in puberty, can avoid self-hatred for the thoughts, because if there's no intention to make those thoughts into an active lifestyle, the self-stigma should be reduced, while at the same time, someone like Sullivan would be considered a criminal in today's sensitivities over his actions, but not mentally disordered. The simple understanding of the modern way, where if a minor has less mental development, experience, and resources in a relationship, it would be similar to the example of a mentally intelligent adult having a sexual relationship with a mentally-handicapped person. When you are using a person as a piece of meat for gratification, this is an obvious form of exploitation. Pedophilia would be considered a mental disorder because there's absolutely no Darwinian adaptation argument for sex with prepubescents, but for Hebephilia it would be considered a crime, but not a disorder, because human cultures throughout history have had young marriages that produced healthy children, and also passed on a genetic trait for this attraction. Currently in Canada the age of 16 is the floor for marriages. The guardrails for stigma would be based on power differentials and undue influence, with the modern understanding of crime. A person can self-police their actions if there's enough empathy to see how their short-term desires would be detrimental to others, like using powerless people for sexual gratification. The lack of empathy, meaning acting on those thoughts, would constitute a crime and the mental disorder side of it would be judged based on biological adaptation, being no advantage with pedophilia. The modern ideal of a good intimate relationship is one where people have commensurate intellectual levels or a complementariness that allows for advantageous exchanges involving love and care. Using individuals for sexual gratification while neglecting everything a good relationship needs, is a hallmark of abuse. As these values become clarified, the mental health industry has to provide enough awareness through social work and therapy to guide people in the love and care direction, to avoid needless incarceration, and avoid needless moral panics over disturbing thoughts that may lead to other pathologies, as well as getting help for those that are truly mentally disordered.

Schizophrenia

In the early days of psychology, so many mental disorders were still being defined and teased apart. Sullivan was one of the early researchers that was able to help hospitals understand Schizophrenia much better. Typically these patients were considered hopeless and their "word-salad" was unintelligible for analysis. This resulted in limited treatments and a lot of neglect in psychiatric hospitals. "A great many of the people who get involved in schizophrenic disturbance proceed through it to one of two very unfortunate outcomes. One we call the paranoid maladjustment, in which sundry elements of blame and guilt in the personality are attached to other people round about, with such disastrous effects on the possibility of intimacy and simple relation with anybody in the environment that there is no way back. In the other outcome, people literally disintegrate so much under the force of horror in this schizophrenic business that they become examples of something scarcely noticed in the developmental years—namely, relatively satisfactory preoccupation with the simple pleasures of the zones of interaction provoked by one's own manipulations, which seems to be about the essence of what we call the hebephrenic [disorganized] change, or the hebephrenic dilapidation of personality. These illnesses are not to be regarded, according to my light, as part of schizophrenia, but as very unfortunate outcomes of schizophrenic episodes. [It] is not always the case; some people make stable paranoid maladjustments which are singularly free from schizophrenic processes, which actually insure them from occasions where they will have schizophrenic processes. And I am sure that some people dilapidate in such a fashion that they are very little troubled by schizophrenic processes. But a great many of the people who have undergone these very unfortunate developments have not solved life to the point where they can be happy though psychotic."

Simple Schizophrenia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcMJ98sNZOk

The Disordered Mind: Paranoid Schizophrenia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw0PdXYf4Yo

Catatonic Schizophrenia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYwGmWWxY48

Teenager with Hebephrenic-Catatonic Schizophrenia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWDAkJDUlXM

Psychiatric teaching interview with Gay Teenager: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvciA2PD3tI

Case Studies: Daniel Paul Schreber - Sigmund Freud: https://rumble.com/v1gu84v-case-studies-daniel-paul-schreber-freud-and-beyond.html

Case Studies: The Wolf Man (1/3) - Freud and Beyond: https://rumble.com/v1gucp1-case-studies-the-wolf-man-13-freud-and-beyond.html

Sullivan was influenced by William Alanson White, who was famous in psychology circles for getting therapists to "determine what the patient is trying to do." He then focused more interpersonal relations to understand symptoms and his patient's difficulties in living. "The attainment of satisfactions and security are seen to be the goals, the end-states, of human behavior, interpersonal processes. In popular language, they explain in general terms what one is after in any situation with other persons, real or fantastic, or a blend of both. From a slightly different point of view, they are 'integrating tendencies.' They explain why any situation in which two or more people are involved becomes an inter-personal situation. Furthermore, it is because of these needs that one cannot live and be human except in communal existence with others."

In the modern world, despite the introduction of many popular anti-psychotic drugs, there's still a talking therapy discipline that is built off of the interpersonal relations theory. Much of what Sullivan developed helped to merge Social Work with Psychology to focus on needs. Mark L. Ruffalo MSW described the change therapists had towards Schizophrenic symptoms. "At the heart of the psychodynamic approach to schizophrenia is the idea that psychotic symptoms are not random or meaningless phenomena, but rather rich, symbolic expressions of the patient’s inner world. Hallucinations and delusions are concrete representations of abstract ideas, wishes, and conflicts...In psychodynamic terms, patients with schizophrenia engage in concretization and perceptualization. The latter term refers to the process of transforming abstract concepts into specific sensory perceptions. For instance, patients who think poorly of themselves may smell a foul odor emanating from their body; the rotten self-perception becomes the rotten body that smells. In the absence of sensory perceptions (eg, in patients who experience delusions without hallucinations), concretization is used. This refers to patients who project onto the outside world their self-condemnation and come to believe that others are targeting them. Perceptualization can be considered the most advanced level of concretization."

Michael Garrett MD, talks about the importance of meaning in some schizophrenic systems. "Psychotic persons use figurative language in idiosyncratic ways. Driven by intense, unbearable affects, they construct concrete metaphors and fanciful delusional identities that are meaningful expressions of their emotional lives. These constructions are regarded by others as alien and incomprehensible because the associational links in the psychotic person’s figurative language are not readily accessible to the average person. A central aim of psychodynamic work in psychotherapy is to help patients reconstruct the emotional meaning of their psychotic symptoms in the protective holding environment of the therapeutic relationship."

In the time of Sullivan, there were examples of more or less recovered patients. "A socially recovered schizophrenic is often still psychotic, but is certainly less schizophrenic than is a patient requiring active institutional supervision...The non-schizophrenic individual, in his interaction with other persons, behaves and thinks in complete consonance with their mutual cultural make-up. Then, to the extent that one's behavior and thought dealing with another diverges from the mutual culture—traditions, conventions, fashions—to that extent he would be schizophrenic...If the 'contact' with external reality is wholly unintelligible per se to the presumably fairly sane observer, then the subject-individual manifests a content indistinguishable from a dream, and is either in a state of serious disorder of the integrating systems, or is schizophrenic...How does it happen that most of us are able to sort out our dreams and our waking experience with a very high degree of success, while the schizophrenic fails in this?...In the writer's opinion, the restoration of balance in favor of the dissociating system is achieved by some adjustment of interpersonal relations...A persisting dream-state represents a failure of interpersonal adjustment, such that the tendency system previously dissociated is now as powerful in integrating interpersonal situations as is the previously successful dissociating system...A degree of consciousness may vary, but conflict and a consciously perceived threat of eruption of the dissociated system is sustained." When there is difficulty in integrating with others, the typical response for the patient is to self-isolate to reduce distressing experiences.

When the therapist arrives on the scene, the resulting situation they are in is to investigate and find out what those failed interpersonal relationships were before the breakdown via transference from the patient onto the therapist. "There seems to the writer to be nothing other than the purpose of the interpersonal situation which distinguishes the psychoanalytic transference relation from other situations of interpersonal intimacy. In other words, it seems to be a special case of interpersonal adaptation, distinguished chiefly by the role of subordination to an enlightened physician skilled in penetrating the self-deceptions to which man is uniquely susceptible, with a mutually accepted purpose of securing the patient an increased skill in living."

When there is a breakdown and a need for psychiatric isolation, there is a limited time frame to try and get as much information as possible from the patient to piece together the daily failures that occurred beforehand. "The procedure of treatment begins with removing the patient from the situation in which he is encouraged to renew efforts at adjustment with others. This might well be elsewhere than to an institution dealing with a cross-section of the psychotic population; certainly it should not be a large ward of mental patients of all sorts of ages. The sub-professional must...be aware of the...extreme sensitivity underlying whatever camouflage the patient may use. They must be activated by a well-integrated purpose of helping in the re-development or the development of self-esteem as an individual attractive to others." The well people, the physicians, are communicated to the patient as being there to give the patient "a chance to get well. From the start, he is treated as a person among persons...Every disappointment is another obstacle to his recovery."

As the early part of the treatment begins, the sensitivity to the patient's self-esteem must be vigilant. "Everyone is to regard the outpouring of thought or the doing of acts as at least valid for the patient, and to be considered seriously as something that at least he should understand. The individualism of the patient's performances is neither to be discouraged nor encouraged, but instead, when they seem clearly morbid, to be noted and perhaps questioned. The questioning must not arise from ethical grounds, but from a desire to center the patient's attention on the discovery of the factors concerned. If there is violence, it has to be discouraged, unemotionally, and in the clearly expressed interest of the general or special good...A considerable proportion of these patients proceed in this really human environment to the degree of social recovery that permits analysis, without much contact with the supervising physician. Moreover, in the process, they become aware of their need for insight into their previous difficulties, and somewhat cognizant of the nature of the procedures to be used to that end. They become not only ready but prepared for treatment."

So much of what happens in therapy is an investigation because the reality behind the hallucinations is what needs to be understood and reintegrated with the patient. "Energy is expended chiefly in reconstructing the actual chronology of the psychosis...[The] free associational technique is introduced at intervals to fill in 'failures of memory.' The role of significant persons and their doings is emphasized, the patient being constantly under the influence of the formulation above set forth—viz., that however mysteriously the phenomena originated, everything that has befallen him is related to his actual living among a relatively small number of significant people, in a relatively simple course of events. Psychotic phenomena recalled from more disturbed periods are subjected to study as to their relation to these people. Dreams are studied under this guide...Interpretations are never to be forced on him, and preferably none are offered excepting as statistical findings. In other words, if the patient's actual insight seems to be progressing at a considerable pace, it can occasionally be offered that thus-and-so has, in some patients, been found to be the result of this-and-that, with a request for his associations to this comment."

Even though psychopharmacology to control dopamine levels has taken over much of the treatment, these psychodynamic methods have some therapeutic value, even if it takes some time to show efficacy. Mark had a patient that was able to explain their internal experience of improvement. "The work didn’t click for me until years in. Every psychotic experience was always preceded by a split-second shift in my emotional state. Over time, I was able to feel this window open up… and my experiences slowly dissipated. I still experience psychotic symptoms but at a much less frequent rate. Every session, a new layer of what has happened to me is unraveled through therapy. Almost every time a link has been discovered, I subsequently experience [fewer] symptoms."

Schizophrenia from the Psychodynamic perspective - Mark L. Ruffalo, MSW, DPsa: https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/schizophrenia-from-the-psychodynamic-perspective

For those who managed to improve with treatment the goal was always to provide vocational rehabilitation and social skills training. By the 1950s anti-psychotic drugs made an entrance. There currently is no cure, but with lifelong treatment, a normal life can be carved out for many patients, with an emphasis on early diagnoses and treatment. For Sullivan, "the psychiatrist has to compromise with the ideal of cure and proceed along the line of amelioration...One achieves mental health to the extent that one becomes aware of one’s interpersonal relations; this is the general statement that is always expressed to the patient...Progressively...there goes an expanding of the self to such final effect that the patient as known to himself is much the same person as the patient behaving with others. This is psychiatric cure. There may remain a need for a great deal of experience and education before the psychiatric cure is a social cure, implying a more abundant life in the community. It may be impractical to achieve this more abundant life, the collaborative participation with others, in that particular community. A change of social setting may be mandatory but impractical, in which case adequate mediate relationships and clearly understood reformulations of some of one’s interpersonal goals must fill the gaps. The possibility of achieving a social cure arises solely from the fact of psychiatric cure. The probability of its achievement is a matter of circumstances, limited chiefly by factors inhering in the culture-complex and selectively reflected in all the people available for interpersonal relations. Be social cure achieved or not, however, the person who knows himself has mental health. He is content with his utilization of the opportunities that come to him. He values himself as his conduct merits. He knows and mostly obtains the satisfactions that he needs, and he is greatly secure."

Interpersonal Theory

Harry Stack Sullivan, like many other psychoanalysts after Freud, understood that there were more avenues of research beyond the usual theorizing and uncovering of internal conflicts or the expressing of repressed emotions, as important as those techniques are. Depending on the kinds of patients, psychoanalysis was forced to experiment and try new things. With things like transference, projection and countertransference, there is an underlying relationship going on with other people. Even in the initial consultation, the words chosen, the tone, and body language is communicating how one is feeling to the patient and all these things can help or hinder the treatment. Each patient has more or less knowledge about the therapeutic process but one mustn't assume. "Do not assume you know what the patient is talking about. You don't know until you find out by engaging in an active dialogue in which you test each hypothesis and check each fact." Because this process is about collecting patient experiences and organizing them, it was best not to overlay a theory too soon. This gave flexibility to the process so the case could take hairpin turns if needed and the resonances for the patient ended up being more authentic.

In The Interpersonal Theory of Psychiatry, Sullivan made an early breakdown of different types of patients, and at this point you can see a pattern with psychoanalysts that like to describe psychology types they have encountered, which were usually limited to a certain specialty, but also there was often a cross-section of other patients who benefited from one type of talking therapy or another. In Sullivan's case, he grouped many different types into paranoia and self-esteem. "...Failure to achieve late adolescence is the last blow to a great many warped, inadequately developed personalities with low self-esteem. And the usual solution in chronological maturity is to cover over one's chronic defect in self-esteem by disparaging others—a solution which is used by all of us in varying degrees." Different people had different reactions to the social environment which led to different coping mechanisms. "With the beginning of the emphasis on cooperation, the child undergoes the experience of fear when he does not live up to the required behavior, and the complex anxiety derivatives of shame and guilt are inculcated. Thus the child is presumed to deserve or require punishment at times, and this punishment takes the form of the infliction of pain, which may be accompanied by anxiety. As a result, the child often has to make complex discriminations of authority situations, so that the ability to conceal things from the authoritative figures and to deceive them becomes a necessity which is implemented by the authority-carrying figures themselves. As a part of this comes the development of precautionary techniques and propitiatory activities such as verbal 'excusing,' often with the evolution of techniques for the maintenance of 'social distance.' A great many children learn that anger will aggravate the situation and they develop instead resentment..."

For Sullivan, self-esteem has to be based on normal needs that a person has and skillful ways of meeting them with other people. The typical pathological response is to make endless comparisons with other people. There were also philosophical questions about how much choice we could make use of at different times in the past. A typical stuck area is for people to ignore their dependent situation as a child, or adolescent, and to assume that adult choices should have been made across the board. Even in adulthood there is a difficulty in shedding old influences, but it is easier than in childhood. As a child you needed parents to take care of you and you had to accommodate them to avoid rejection and that always leads children to adopted habits along the way in the form of narrowed choices. As children develop there's a fear of ostracism as those who are better looking, more adaptable, more intelligent with relationships, or intelligent with power, tend to dominate a hierarchy and make life hard for the rest. Shame, guilt, and the need to tear down others can eat away at a personality if one is not careful. The same therapeutic methods are required for all these personality problems where lessons can be learned to improve future responses in interpersonal relationships. The failure to learn and adapt keeps the patient stuck in the same situations. "Even though there may be many actual opportunities, various security operations interfere with observation and analysis, and thus prevent the profit one might gain from experience."

Coping mechanisms described in the book include: pretending to be someone better than one is, pretending the world is different from the actual facts, moving attention away to the most interesting or exciting distractions all the time, getting eaten up with envy and jealousy, and being addicted to fantasies where there is wish-fulfillment but no actual manifestation in real life. "Many of the people who have...low self-esteem minimize their anxiety by the use of sundry concealments, one extreme of which is actual social isolation." In response to low self-esteem, one can exploit others by dominating them and enslaving them. One could also become a hangers-on and use the pity of others to gain sympathy or other rewards in return. Some turn to obsessive rituals, including hypochondria, where various medicines are applied unscientifically to behaviors, locations, and situations that tend to inflame the self-esteem. There are also preoccupations with body shape and size. All these concerns are brought into the clinic or hospital and require a teasing apart with emphasis on the relationships. In The treatment techniques of Harry Stack Sullivan by Arthur Harry Chapman, these problems can be found out, and more importantly when employing Sullivan's angle, the environment of the patient is also illuminated.

The therapist has to maintain professional distance while at the same time not be too aloof and uninterested. The questions under Sullivan's method are a little different than regular interviews. If there is a behavior in a person, the recognition just doesn't stay as "I'm too passive. I'm too masochistic." Questions elucidate which relationships are involved. If you are too passive, which interpersonal relationships is this relevant? If people in the interpersonal relations are described with an adjective, like they are "hostile," more questions to put together the scenarios and some of the dialogue may paint a different picture. Since the therapist can easily speculate, and the patient is also speculating, because they wouldn't see a therapist if they truly knew their situation clearly, more detail has to be brought out. The questioning of course is not like a tense interrogation but done with a countenance of someone who wants to understand the situation better. If there are obvious delusional elements and contents in the answer, the therapist can use the word that, like "what do you mean by that?" This allows the therapist to be skeptical while still being open to hear more detail.

At some point, if a patient is needing to see a therapist, there is usually a wounding of some kind that has caused a bout of low self-esteem. Therapists can start with the current emotions. "Now tell me, what did you ever do that causes you to have such a low opinion of yourself?" If there's any distorted, purity seeking, perfectionistic, rigid thoughts, then any corrections to have the patient follow something more human and flexible, could open up a possibility for healing. This can involve normalization, to point out how common their experiences are with the general population. If parents have worldviews, those views could be challenged, especially if they are pathological, perfectionistic and inhuman. Another method to increase insight is to investigate with the patient the things that are going right in their relationships so that the problem is not catastrophized. This is especially important if people want to repair a relationship and not just give up after every disappointment. When a person is triggered with anxiety or shame, they are not usually taking in as much information and have left behind the common place reality happening in the present moment. "Anxiety hinders the perception and understanding of experience." The memory is filled with time distortions, hiatuses, gaps and incongruities. The trick is to avoid adding to a patient's worthlessness with the practiced line of questioning. Questions are also detailed and they should look for specific answers in events instead of generalities with adjectives for nouns, like "I am bad." It's better for a question to elicit an answer like, "when I did this thing, I felt bad." The therapist can also communicate that they need more information and detail to understand better, to project a countenance of someone who listens well, as opposed to someone criticizing the patient's communication skills. It's less about judgment and more about clarity. "You do not tell a patient what is wrong with him, but with him jointly explore what his trouble is." By seeing what has happened in more realistic detail the "assimilated experience [can be drawn upon] in later interpersonal relationships."

Because interpersonal theory is about human insecurity and relieving the stress of self-criticism, it's always better to look at behaviors and choices as opposed to a global label that doesn't allow variety, learning, and the chance for people to change their points of view. As therapists gather information, they are likely to jump to conclusions of how a patient got stuck in a pathological thought vortex with toxic labels, so it's good to ask confirmation questions so that with a yes or a no, the client can correct the therapists intuitions to keep the therapist from forcing a theory on them. "Was your mother afraid of arousing irritability in other people? Was she timid in approaching people whom she did not know well?" These kinds of questions help to flesh out the interpersonal relationship so that the therapist learns more about them as well. As one gets closer to embarrassing topics, the indirect questions ask about what events happened one step at a time so that the patient gets closer to a voluntary confession. Asking direction questions like "did you and Bob have any homosexual activities?" may end the therapy sessions altogether. It's best if the patient offers up that information. When there's a confession of one kind or another, the therapist can then explore thoughts and beliefs that make one feel bad to understand the impacts better. If the feelings are authentic and reasonable, the expression of the emotion connected with the event can be cathartic. If there are distorted views that make the patient feel uniquely bad, they have to be explored and dismantled until something more human and flexible can arise. Therapists also have to avoid loaded questions that judge events, like asking "why did you do that hostile thing?" You want to find out how the patient felt and not interject how you personally judge the patient's behavior.

Because therapy is about taking what is vast in the unconscious and processing it in an awake sober manner in a reasonably short time span, only so much information can be processed at one time and insights should be processed one at a time. The summaries and paraphrases of what was learned, need to illuminate each individual important interpersonal relationship so that the patient is now beginning to learn how their environment has been affecting them, as well as their introjected beliefs, because this "remedies a good deal of the often illusory, usually morbid, feeling of being different, which is such a striking part of rationalizations of insecurity in later life." The reason why this method can be so potent is that "things going on between people in interpersonal relationships can be directly observed." Sticking with the reality and trying to understand it better from different angles can improve learning for the patient. Learning then facilitates new strategies and behaviors so interpersonal relationships can change, evolve, or part ways. Ideally, if enough good changes are made, the patient is making more sense of their life and purpose. The more observable, well-founded those facts, the easier it is to see what changes need to be made. Theories can also be developed much more independently this way so older theories can be developed upon.

Sullivan's investigation of a patient's self-system builds up an insightful inventory of symptoms and behaviors. Those reactions include addictive responses, a pattern of ending relationships too soon, a dissociation that prevents learning from experience, and these are opportunities for people to develop healthier responses in the future. Healthier responses allow the patient to regulate their emotions without needing maladaptive coping methods. Because each person is very different, and exists in very different environments, it's important to see how people behave in those specific situations. Eventually, the therapist can really get to know the patient. This is where psychotherapy trumps a lot of life coaching, because if the coaching can't get at these environmental details that are hindering self-development, any future life coaching goals will fall under self-sabotage.

As important as it is to see how the Freudian Super-ego and Ego are relating internally, Sullivan's method can help to clear up the Super-ego's distortions while coming up with realistic prescriptions the Ego can act on in this very particular individual self-system. One doesn't even have to define these Freudian terms to the patient and still get the same result. The Ego feels better because it knows what to do and has realistic goals, and the Super-ego adjusts expectations to be more realistic to return to a more flow-like state of well-being that may have existed before the the onset of a recent breakdown. The more realistic options there are for this very particular patient, the more successful the therapy sessions will be. Patients will ideally leave with less anxiety about themselves, feel less odd, weird, alone, and worthless, while at the same time have some concrete goals to manage life better. Managing life better means responding to interpersonal relationships more skillfully, which calms insecurity, while ensuring regular satisfactions. People have biological functions that yearn to be satisfied, including the necessities of life, positive emotions, and sexual gratification or sublimations. Because of projection, how people view themselves can spill over into self-confidence and see their interpersonal relationships in a different light with positive possibilities. "If there is a valid and real attitude toward the self, that attitude will manifest as valid and real toward others. It is not that as ye judge so shall ye be judged, but as you judge yourself so shall you judge others; strange but [this is] true so far as I know, and with no exception."

This is crucial because many can be brainwashed with low self-esteem with all the habitual efforts of unconscious people in society to disparage others for their own self-esteem project. An emotional parasitical paradigm. You want to be self-generating, by acknowledging human needs, and integrate them with societal exchanges. To get to this point is to get to the point where one can have new experiences, but if the world of paranoid projection is allowed to influence the patient further, there will be no development. "Our awareness of our performances, and our awareness of the performances of others are permanently restricted to a part of all that goes on and the structure and character of that part is determined by our early training; its limitation is maintained year after year by our experiencing anxiety whenever we tend to overstep the margin." This is why a good upbringing with flexible views, optimistic attitudes, focuses the individual on what to do next and what the next best action is.

Those who had a negative upbringing, who introjected a negative worldview, they will seek to see the negative in the main and become resigned and passive. "When there is anxiety, it tends to exclude the situation that provoked it from awareness, and so the person made anxious by the mathematical problem tends to overlook certain commonplace, obvious aspects of the problem that are well within his grasp. The tendency is to move away from, rather than simply to grasp, the factors making up the situation presented to him...As a generality, that healthy development of personality is inversely proportionate to the amount, to the number, of tendencies which have come to exist in dissociation. Put in another way, if there is nothing dissociated, then whether one be a genius or an imbecile, it is quite certain that he will be mentally healthy..." This constitutes self-development for Sullivan: To make conscious unsatisfied needs and then to satisfy those desires in harmony with others.

The minefield of course is matching values where people can share positive experiences with joint activities or work together in complimentary ways. "But when somebody else begins to matter as much as I do, then what this other person values must receive some careful consideration from me." Like an event planner, people are negotiating preferences and discharges of satisfaction in complex ways. "'One achieves mental health to the extent that one becomes aware of one’s interpersonal relations....' He learns to understand what he is doing. 'Most patients have for years been acting out conflicts, substitutions, and compromises; the benefits of treatment come in large part from their learning to notice what they are doing, and this is greatly expedited by carefully validated verbal statements as to what seems to be going on.' There is 'an expanding of the self to such final effect that the patient as known to himself is much the same person as the patient behaving with others.' But it takes a good deal of education and experience effectively to grasp the meaning and significance of uncomplicated interpersonal relations, to realize the full benefits of a more abundant life. Increasing knowledge and insight make possible a less complicated, richer experience. New experience in turn makes possible still greater insight. This process does not stop with the end of treatment. Theoretically, at any rate, it continues throughout life." To summarize, the complexity of the analysis leads to a clear understanding of needs and skill deficits so that patients find clear goals and simple social exchanges that can be negotiated without endless analysis paralysis. If a person needs an intimate partner, they can learn through trial and error and persist in dating environments because they clearly know what they want and if candidates can communicate what they want, social exchanges are easier to make.

The way of boundaries based on knowing what you want is similar to the Law of Attraction, but it's more closely understood by how people imitate in ways that can conflict or harmonize based on their self-esteem vibration. People who are incompatible will part ways unless one member of the interpersonal relation adjusts to match the other person's vibration, which would be detrimental if it's a low vibration. "A loving person, however free of self-distortion, cannot love a hateful person, because the latter is incapable of responding in a loving way. A situation having the qualities categorized as love cannot be integrated because opposites do not unite. There can only be conflict or withdrawal. In the latter case, the situation is disintegrated. If an interpersonal integration occurs and persists, it can only be on the basis of hostility, because a hateful person cannot love, but a loving person, under appropriate circumstances, can be hostile, if only for his own defence..."

Before this synergy can manifest, the patient has to undergo a personal investigation to find what is still dissociated. Dissociation can be defined as "selective inattention, in which one simply doesn't happen to notice an infinite series of more-or-less meaningful details of one's living...Selective inattention is, more than any other of the inappropriate and inadequate performances of life, the classic means by which we do not profit from experience which falls within the areas of our particular handicap. We don't have the experience from which we might profit—that is, although it occurs, we never notice what it might mean; in fact we never notice that a good deal of it has occurred at all..." Sullivan's dissociation is similar to Freud's displacement, where an "all-paralyzing anxiety" is connected to situations or behaviors that are awful, dreadful, that one is loathe to experience, or is a horror. There can be a failure to learn and adapt, partially because one views these situations as a "not-me," or I would say a "I want it to be not-me" versus more conscious attitudes of a "good-me" that is more easily shown to the world. The mind can go into dissociation and unconsciously operate within the not-me, to reduce anxiety at the same time it is "concealing, or excusing...unsatisfactory and undesirable attributes...Whenever dissociated systems of motives are involved, we find a relative suspension of awareness as to any effects that these motives have." These "automatisms" betray a lack of meaning and the denial that certain behaviors have happened, whereas a person who reacts with some emotion to the behavior, with an understanding, they at least have a chance to integrate that knowledge. This is assuming that there is enough memory, skill, and enough energy to develop new responses. When people integrate what is unpleasant they develop skills and routines that deal with the not-me problematic behaviors and cease to project it onto others as a defense, and cease to ignore the lessons that are readily available. Skills of course are a way of automating newer behaviors and managing energy so as to habituate behaviors into effortlessness. The mind goes into a learning mentality and avoids being stuck in dissociation and repetition. Usually if there's regression it's because energy and motivation is lacking, or there's too much unpleasantness while the new habit is not engrained enough to compensate for that stress. People freeze, avoid, try to numb the pain with other activities, or just neglect unpleasant details and move on to another activity.

The most difficult dissociations to remedy are those that are "founded in early life," and "occur in the preadolescent and adolescent phases of development." Sullivan's descriptions of integration are a little sketchy, but the two ways he mentions involve experimentation, and a figuring out a solution while being inattentive vs., a dramatic roleplaying where a person takes on a new role and "people [it] fight out, with tremendous expenditures of energy...A few people have had experiences in their developmental years of meeting situations actually characterized by these extremely disquieting extraordinary repelling uncanny emotions, in which for a while, they acted as if they were one of the demigods or the demidevils or what not, and got through it, and so from then on knew more about life on the far side of it." Regardless, a person has to repeatedly do a new behavior long enough so as to create a new habit or skill, and a certain amount of resistance and energy is going to be expended in doing what one normally avoids until it begins to feel familiar. This is a process that affects everyone more or less, including the therapist, so there isn't a long enough lifespan for most people to truly master all areas of life, and part of the reason for social life is to trade specialties with others in the libido-economy to balance out what is missing in one's life.

What comes up again and again in psychoanalysis are particular self-identities that become rigid and resist learning, and these identities involve pleasure and stress, and a combination of them related to consequences. Sullivan brought up homosexual experiences, because in his time, it was one of the most horrible identities one could ascribe to that would create a pathological panic, and possibly a schizophrenic episode of projection, avoidance, and self-hatred. The example he provided could be applied to many identities. The term grooming that is used today, can also be expanded beyond a sexual seduction, and include behaviors like a smoker offering a cigarette to a non-smoker, etc. Anything that involves a sadistic desire to be violent in one manner or another, to enjoy base desires in an addictive and unhelpful way, like a drug addiction, all can be integrated in a learning mentality, but if there's a striving to be a solid identity with an all or nothing attitude about purity and impurity, an incongruous moment of pleasure seeking behavior that wasn't previously aligned with a past identity, can cause intense stress with an internal warfare that prevents normal goal orientation and a purposeful action. This is especially so if a new craving arises that one isn't prepared for. There are also ghettoized experiences where people receive the same kind of attention from an environment over and over again so they feel that new experiences or competitive pleasures can't arise, then those pleasures habituate into a world-as-it-is. Yet if you pay attention, there are people who put enormous energy into changing their environments, including radical changes like becoming a vegetarian, or learning a new language. What was unfamiliar becomes commonplace and this is easier if there's an increased pleasure or more peace found in the newly integrated activities. Cravings compete with each other and advance to newer ones or regress to older ones depending on how stuck a person is with an identity. In some environments, people will find that they can't escape and the current pleasure template is all that can be found, whether in leisure activities, processes, certain relationship ruts, addictions to substances, or sexual experiences.

Sullivan provides an example of "abhorrent cravings...The entrance into personal awareness of increasingly-intense-because-unsatisfied, longings to engage in something which is abhorrent—that is, the picturing of engaging in it is attended by uncanny emotion such as horror, dread, loathing, or the like. The classic instance of this eruption of cravings is the eruption of 'homosexual' desires—desires to participate in what the patient feels, classically and outstandingly, to be homosexual performances. I think I can illustrate this, perhaps without misleading you too badly, by mentioning one of my patients, an only boy with five sisters, who had led as sheltered a life as that situation would permit. Shortly after getting into uniform in World War II he was prowling around Washington, and was gathered up by a very well-dressed and charming dentist, who took him to his office and performed what is called fellatio on this boy. The boy felt, I presume, a mild adjustment to the uncanny, and went his way, perhaps in some fashion rewarded. But the next day he quite absentmindedly walked back to the immediate proximity of the dentist's office—whereupon, finding himself so very near what had happened the day before, he was no longer able to exclude from awareness the fact that he would like to continue to undergo these experiences. This is a classical instance of an abhorrent craving in that it was entirely intolerable to him. The day before it had been a kind of new experience, but when it burst upon him in this way, it was attended by all sorts of revulsions and a feeling that it would be infrahuman, and what not, to have such interests. And he arrived at the hospital shortly afterward in what is called schizophrenic disturbance."

Now there are a variety of responses to these experiences. Many people won't go into schizophrenic responses and just go into self-hatred, with thoughts of "I'm not pure" and then hate "groomers" who introduced gay sex, or alcohol, drugs, or whatever the subject matter is, and then rail at the world. A healthier response would be to view one's pleasure template and challenge it with new experiences to really etch out the boundaries, the rejections, the need for more skill, the bodily imperfections that can't change, the exercises that can change the body or mind, and new neighborhoods to explore, philosophies, meditations and religions that one could experience. The way that young man wanted a repetition of fellatio after an initial introduction, could also be a craving to repeat a different experience after it was just introduced. Most therapy of any value is getting people to look at their impure lives and use adult reasoning to move into new experiences that are more optimal. In some cases, a homosexual relationship is optimal for that person. Even a person who is tired of dating the same kind of people, they often will experiment in looking for different personality types while at the same time learn what they like in a partner and try to develop into that so as to make a better match, especially if the changes to ones life, to become more attractive for example, are healthy and involve newly integrating better skills. There are also some who have made a lot of changes and found that they only attract the personality disordered and realize that sublimating by engaging in good friendships while developing hobbies, is a much saner way of living, especially when energy is depleted with repeated disappointments. Eventually a mode of life is happened upon that one is at ease with as a minimum or one is excited and wants to expand further. One doesn't get fixated on temporary identities and carves out a more authentic way of life where one can see oneself repeatedly engaging in optimal pleasure with a clearer conscience.

Sullivan's influences were international and spread wide as a form of 20th century liberalism that sought to look at the psychological impacts coming directly from society and the responding psychological prescriptions that included social programs for society to take on. As always, there were scandals in these influences related to politics and just bad therapy. One of them was an obsession with self-esteem that influenced a general narcissism in the culture. Even though Sullivan didn't want an outsized fake self-esteem to develop in people, many therapists and bureaucrats took his advice in that simplistic way and dumbed down the practice leading to some the negative results we see now. Self-esteem is very important and it has been studied in many newer modalities and can't be separated from human well-being, but it's not an entitlement to self-esteem decoupled from behavior. On exaggerations in more extreme socialist movements, like in the worse cases of communism, which was like a mental hospital concentration camp, along with a deprogramming curriculum, most western countries adopted a more balanced middle road so that a maximum amount of freedoms were balanced with needed psychiatric interventions. Regardless of one's politics, most conservatives today would want these institutions to remain, even if they have to be reformed from time to time according to new discoveries, and when situations of homelessness and addiction, sometimes supported by psychopharmacology, rear their ugly head, as well as scandals with pharmaceutical companies that make money sometimes with medications that are ineffective or dangerous.

Private Practices: Harry Stack Sullivan, the Science of Homosexuality, and American Liberalism by Prof. Naoko Wake: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9780813549583/

Conceptions in Modern Psychiatry - Harry Stack Sullivan: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9781258850692/

Schizophrenia as a Human Process - Harry Stack Sullivan: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9780393007213/

The Interpersonal Theory of Psychiatry - Harry Stack Sullivan: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9780415510943/

The treatment techniques of Harry Stack Sullivan by Chapman, Arthur Harry: https://www.isbns.net/isbn/9781568216737/

Rind B, Yuill R. Hebephilia as mental disorder? A historical, cross-cultural, sociological, cross-species, non-clinical empirical, and evolutionary review. Arch Sex Behav. 2012 Aug;41(4):797-829.

Psychology: http://psychreviews.org/category/psychology01/