#modern psychology

[durvakshh]

It's crazy how everyone conceals their tears. Weeping is not an sign of frailty, nor is the act of concealing it. How effortlessly do we simply wipe our tears away and wear a smile to make it easier for whoever walks into the room. One moment, it was hard to draw breath, and the next moment, we're conversing in the best possible tone we can, and most of the time, we succeed. We succeed in concealing our vulnerability not out of the fear of exposing it but due to the fact that we simply require some solitary time. I wonder whether all those moments of solitude are molding our levels of empathy towards others or towards ourselves, or perhaps both.

[as-rethinking-norms]

The Silent Suffering of Our Time: A Stark Look at Mental Health Stigma

In an age where the world openly battles with a plethora of crises, one particularly nefarious struggle simmers beneath the surface, eluding the widespread attention it so desperately requires. It’s the silent suffering endured by countless individuals grappling with severe mental illness, trauma, PTSD, and an array of psychological afflictions. It’s ironic, really. We inhabit a society that…

[livingwellnessblog]

Yoga-Based Counseling: Integrating Ancient Wisdom and Modern Psychology

Multiple studies advocate for the integration of yoga into psychotherapy. While yoga practices such as asanas, pranayama, and mind-body relaxation have already been incorporated into conventional counseling, there is a need for a structured application of

Yoga-Based Counseling: Integrating Ancient Wisdom and Modern Psychology Based on a research study: Conceptual framework for yoga-based counseling: A systematic review of literature Introduction: Yoga, renowned for its therapeutic benefits in physical, mental, and spiritual well-being, has gained recognition as a powerful tool for counseling. While the practical aspects of yoga such as asana,…

[ramsei501st]

in honor of laika coming back from the dead to release a new movie, a kubo of mine with some questionable summer fashion. im love he

inspired by @/kittarts' coraline art ;o;/

[jeyranmain]

(via Equanimity: Finding Strength, Serenity, and Contentment, where Neuropsychology Meets Ancient Wisdom Kindle Edition by John Elliott-White (Book Review #1462))

[stljedi]

Psychological Warfare

[xoceansx]

You know, in my opinion, being ridiculous is sometimes even a good thing, and better that; we can forgive one another more quickly, and acquire humility more quickly; after all, we can't understand everything at once, we can't begin directly from perfection! In order to achieve perfection, we must first of all fail to understand a great many things! And if we understand too quickly, we may not understand very well.

— Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot

[artmindlens]

The Son of Man by René Magritte (1964)

The Psychology of Transgression and Guilt Magritte’s The Son of Man immediately captivates with its two central symbols: the apple and the figure’s formal attire. The apple, suspended in front of the man’s face, evokes not only the biblical narrative of Eden but also the Oedipal Complex, where transgression against the father’s law leads to guilt. In the biblical tale, Adam consumes the forbidden fruit offered by Eve, symbolizing the birth of self-awareness, shame, and the burden of guilt. In this painting, the man’s face is concealed behind the apple, echoing the unresolved guilt from that original transgression.

From a psychoanalytic perspective, the apple mirrors the child’s desire for the mother and the violation of paternal boundaries, evoking the tension between desire and punishment. Before consuming the apple, Adam was unaware of his nakedness, just as the child, before transgressing paternal laws, is innocent of their own desires. Magritte’s man, in contrast, is fully dressed—his body covered by a formal suit, suggesting an overcompensation for that earlier transgression. His attire, like the suit of a corporate leader, represents conformity to societal rules and the defensive structures built to contain one’s hidden impulses.

However, it’s the apple that holds the deepest psychological weight. By hiding the man’s face—his core of identity and expression—it creates a psychological tension between the desire to be seen and the fear of being exposed. For a leader or executive, this speaks to the unconscious burden carried beneath the polished exterior, where the drive for success is continually shaped by the fear of transgression and the guilt of overstepping social or professional boundaries.

The Suit as a Symbol of Conformity and Defense The man’s formal attire serves as more than just a uniform of professionalism—it becomes a psychological defense. The suit, much like the hat perched atop his head, symbolizes social status and conformity, a way to signal adherence to the expectations of society, much like corporate leaders navigate the demands of shareholders, regulatory bodies, and industry norms. Yet, behind this polished exterior, the apple remains—a reminder that no matter how much we align ourselves with social structures, the hidden burden of guilt and the desire to transgress still linger beneath the surface.

Leaders who resonate with this painting might feel an unconscious connection to this duality of identity. On one hand, they must project a facade of control, success, and conformity. On the other, they may grapple with the weight of unresolved guilt from past decisions or actions—choices that, like the apple, remain hidden from public view but deeply influence their sense of self.

Transgression, Authority, and the Pursuit of Power The Oedipal Complex present in this work also extends into the realms of power and authority. The apple, symbolizing forbidden desire, creates a tension with the suit, a marker of societal success and control. For those drawn to this painting, it may evoke a subconscious acknowledgment of the transgressive impulses that often drive ambition—the desire to challenge authority and push past boundaries, while simultaneously seeking approval from the very structures they seek to defy.

For executives or professionals who might display this work, The Son of Man serves as a psychological mirror, reflecting the internal struggles faced in their journey toward leadership. The fear of exposure, the guilt of transgression, and the need for external validation all intertwine within the image. It reminds us that no matter how elevated one becomes in status or authority, the unconscious drive to rebel and the weight of guilt are never fully erased.

The Apple as the Unconscious Burden of Guilt At its core, the apple not only hides the man’s face but represents the guilt of wanting more—more power, more success, more control. In leadership, this often translates into a continuous striving for achievement while carrying the fear of overstepping boundaries. The man’s face, hidden yet central, reminds us that in the pursuit of success, there is always a part of the self that remains concealed—driven by past transgressions and the desire to surpass societal limitations.

For those drawn to this painting, it could signal an unconscious recognition of the cost of ambition—that the pursuit of power, while necessary, also comes with a burden of guilt and the need to reconcile one’s hidden desires with public expectations.

[divine-nonchalance]

Remember . by Slonaut . Belgium . 2024

slonaut.com

[kafkasapartment]

Silver Moon, 1927. Oscar Bluemner. Watercolor and pencil on paper mounted on board.

[fenrichaita]

Sometimes I wonder if people understand that you cannot make people stop comparing mentally ill and neurodivergent people to like serial killers and horror movie monsters without abandoning most of how we conceptualize and categorize mental illness. It's not like an ableism that comes from outside of the DSM or ICD from laymen, it's entirely baked in. The entire mental health system is about categorizing mentally ill and ND people as threats, liabilities, and inconveniences, while blaming it on intrinsic brain illnesses based on the ideas of typically incredibly biased and bigoted psychologists from several decades ago which are not founded in evidence (and said ideas persist mostly unchanged with the reasonings merely altered or justified with a shrug). The fact that after every mass shooting there is more posturing of "mental health awareness" and increasing MH services, when most mass shootings are committed by radicalized cis (and usually white) men tells you that a lot of this is security theatre. The MH system really just makes it more unsafe to seek medical help but it helps "neurotypical" people feel better, and it is the comfort of "NTs" that is most prioritized by this system. And of course, anyone who commits acts of extreme violence like mass shootings will likely be labeled mentally ill first (rather than radicalized, exc.) because of the circular logic that no one can be a Threat without being mentally ill. Do you see The Problem?

[nickolashx]

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (2017)

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard is a 2017 survival horror game developed and published by Capcom.

Fear and isolation seep through the walls of an abandoned southern farmhouse. "7" marks a new beginning for survival horror with the “Isolated View” of the visceral new first-person perspective.

[whereserpentswalk]

There's a cult that practices a strange and dark magic. They're strange, even to other wizards and sorcerers. They let in all beings, from mortals, to experienced mages, to demons and angels lost from the underworld, to the last of the goblins and orcs who still wander the dark woods of North America.

The cult is very secretive, and they fear the names of all gods. Their holy places are abandoned buildings, not even churches most of the time, abandoned stores, abandoned towns, abandoned malls. The type of place that cryptids would go to. And if you find them, they'll let you engage in their one and only ritual, silently, without ever talking to another member.

Their ritual is thus. They'll place a machine on your head, a strange thing made from wyrm intestines, and faerie bones, and old computer parts that nobody uses, and scrap metal, and chewed wires. And they'll turn it on over your head, and there you'll see everything, all the things from countless souls and countless planes, for as long as you wish.

But there is a catch. The machine decides exactly what to show you. Perhaps, if it wishes to impress you, it'll show you distant lands, and great creatures, and forgotten knowledge. That's useally the type of thing it'll show you at first. But it'll show you other things too. Glimpses of other people's lives perhaps, to give you a vague hint at someone you wish to know. Something shocking and disgusting that you'll never forget. Things that make you sad and worried. Perhaps even the tense nothingness of an empty dimension if it needs it.

See, the machine does not care about how you feel. It wants one thing, to never be put down forever, and to remain on your head as long as you want. It's not the only machine in the cult, every member has their own. And it'll show you things that make you afraid to take it off, warnings of coming dangers without a way to stop it, but it'll tell you to keep watching to know more if you want to be safe. It'll show you tragedy and people in pain, and tell you it's your fault for not paying attention, and denying the victims their right to have their assault watched, it won't tell you what could help them. If you could help you might be satisfied, but keep watching, you wouldn't look away like some sort of heartless monster. And it'll show you people who are better than you, people, real or half real, who'd shame you for not being like them, who want to tell a failure like you how to act, who need you to keep watching them or else your the fool. Just keep watching.

It'll show you whatever you want, though never let you interact. And eventually it'll tell you to do things more directly, if it trusts you, and soon you may be a priest of the machine cult. More and more are worn every day. More and more people are tuning into to the eternal broadcast.

[2hoothoots]

Revisiting P2 since the docu epilogue dropped and your AMV (<3) popped up as a sign for me to ask something that hopefully you haven't already spoken about years ago: What did you think of the in-game psych explanation for Maligula, that she's the primitive savage part of the mind? P2 is a weird mix of sketchy Freud/Jung concepts that Tim likes meshed with modern psych, and Maligula's deal seems like something they probably wrote a lot of different versions of but never quite solved elegantly

yeah, i think you totally hit the nail on the head - it's always felt like one of the parts of the story that they couldn't quite give enough polish to before they had to finalize it and move on with development. like - i went to go get my artbook to see if it had any insight into the writing process, and did you know that Nona and Maligula being the same person was apparently added way later in development? that's wild! i didn't know that until literally right now! i may or may not have skipped straight to my favourite characters when my artbook arrived and then put it on my shelf without reading the whole thing

ANYWAY, retrospectively i think it being a twist that was added later actually makes a lot of sense in the context of everything you mentioned. the Maligula problem, to me, is the fact that they're trying to juggle a bunch of different things that she has to be in the story. there's Maligula, the ruthless big bad, and Nona, the beloved grandma, and if you suddenly have to also make them both the same person... well, it ends up being kind of a thorny writing problem to make that work, haha.

here's some art i made so this isn't just a wall of text, rest of the answer under the cut

i think one thing they could have done when they needed to rehabilitate a mass-murderer into a lovable old lady was pull back on either end of the spectrum. make your villain softer and more sympathetic, or give grandma a mean streak like she's one bad day away from a tragedy at the crochet club. and to give the story credit, i'm really glad they didn't. Nona is relentlessly sweet and endearing - and that's great! she needs to be in order to make the audience care about her, otherwise the emotional beats are never going to land. likewise, Maligula is a great villain, she's vicious and ruthless and at the culmination of her arc we see she simply does not give a shit about murdering hundreds of people. i love that for her, honestly, you go girl

but then, like - how do you connect the dots? how do you frame grandma having a violently murderous streak in a way that doesn't make the ending of "but she's over it now" feel kinda weird and hollow? and how do you do that while also being sympathetic to the game's themes around mental health? Maligula's informed by the traumatic things that happened to Lucrecia during the war, but she can't just be a manifestation of trauma, because the moral of the story being that trauma makes you a mass-murderer (until you beat up your trauma and shove it in a giant pit) would feel... really tonally dissonant!

so i think you're totally right that the sprinkling of pop-psych concepts we get ends up feeling a little bit like an awkward band-aid. Maligula's story is about how the horrors of war can shape you into a terrible person, who does terrible things - ...but there's also, like, special circumstances, so it doesn't feel weird that she goes back to being Raz's sweet grandma afterwards. special psychic circumstances! she's not just any war criminal, she's the fight or flight response gone out of control!

which - i dunno, i think that line in particular always stood out to me, because that's not really what the fight or flight (or freeze or fawn) response is, right? it's a temporary boost of adrenaline to the system to rev you up for getting out of a dangerous situation. an overactive fight or flight response is called chronic stress and anxiety. i know the games are pop-psych and not actual science, but it always stood out to me as a little awkward.

if it were me in the writer's seat - with the benefit of all the time in the world to workshop it, and no looming deadlines, and the hindsight of having a full completed game in front of me to think about - i might have tried to frame it around connection. i think you could swing the lens to instead focus on how violence, stress, trauma etc., make it harder to understand and empathise with the people around you. the tragedy of Lucrecia's story is that she came home to try and help her countrymen, the people she cared so dearly about. but the more time passed, the less she cared, the less she was able to see them as people. after Marona's death, the Maligula that remains is one who's unable to even care about killing her own sister. the alternative is too raw, too painful - instead, she sheds her last vestiges of remorse, and throws herself into the easy relief of violence. (we see this again, when Nona "awakens" as Maligula - when confronted with the baggage of her past, she chooses to wash it all away with force, unable and unwilling to care about the people she used to call friends.)

and i think shifting the focus like that ties it in thematically, too. a big theme (of both games, but especially the sequel) is how important connection is, how being able to understand and reach out to and rely on other people is a lifeline during hard times. PN2 touches on how there aren't really "good people" and "bad people" - everyone has the capacity to do wonderful or terrible things, and i think Raz's line to Maligula about how "everybody's got something like you" works. Lucrecia was never a monster, no matter how everyone tried to pretend she was. she was just a person, the same as everyone else - and just like everyone else, she could be pushed to extremes under the right circumstances. it just feels kind of odd when the implicit context is "everybody's got a mass-murderer hidden in the primal recesses of their brain", hahaha.

but like, again, that's the privilege of hindsight, right? i've definitely also been on the other side of the creative process, stuck with something i suddenly need to make work in a story and having to come up with a solution that feels like a band-aid. sometimes you just gotta call it good enough, and move on. and i think the game is overall much stronger for having Nona and Maligula be the same person - it plays into the wider themes, it sets up some great emotional beats, and i think it's overall well-executed, even if there are one or two hiccups in the writing.

anyway, great ask! thank you for the invitation to ramble, this is something that stuck out to me on my first playthrough of the game and it was fun to sit down and get my thoughts in order

[theprodigypenguin]

Modern AU

Dragon: It's a bit of a drive, do you think you three can behave?

Luffy: Only if we can stop at McDonald's.

Dragon: Fine. Ace?

Ace: I don't care.

Dragon: Fine. Sabo?

Sabo: Can I have the AUX?

Dragon: I don't know what that is.

Sabo: No worries. I found this awesome song the other night, I'm gonna put it on repeat the whole drive!

Sabo: *puts on caramelldansen*

Dragon: