#perceptual pervasiveness

[monriatitans]

Realism is Bad, Actually

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* Description: * We say we love "realistic" fiction like Batman, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Horizon: Forbidden West. We say we love when our characters "act like real people" and "have realistic dialogue." But it's worth asking: Are these things ACTUALLY realistic? And if not, is realism even worth trying to capture?

* chapters: * 00:00:00 - Intro: Concrete Monsters 00:04:17 - Part 1: Using Realism 00:10:34 - Part 2: Investigating Realism 00:17:27 - Part 3: Criticizing Realism 00:40:32 - Intermission 00:43:17 - Part 4: Replacing Realism 00:59:16 - Conclusion: Sounds Good 01:08:39 - Outro & Poem

* Sources: * ---Books ------“Gamic Realism”: Player, Perception and Action in Video Game Play - Hanna Sommerseth ------Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds - Jesper Juul ------Hunting the Dark Knight - Will Brooker ------Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn't Exist - James Gurney ------Maps of the Imagination - Peter Turchi ------Method and Madness - Alice LaPlante ------reality tv: realism and revelation - Anita Biressi and Heather Nunn ------Rules of Play - Eric Zimmerman and Katie Salen ------The American Monomyth -  Robert Jewett and John Shelton Lawrence ------The Militarization of Childhood - ed. J. Marshall Beier ------The Rules of Play - Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman ------What is Cinema? - Andre Bazin 

---Articles ------“A Grounded Investigation of Game Immersion” - Emily Brown and Paul Cairns ------“Foley Sounds vs Real Sounds” - Stefano Trento and Amalia De Götzen ------“Footsteps with character: the art and craft of Foley” - Benjamin Wright ------“Making fictions sound real – On film sound, perceptual realism and genre” - Birger Langkjær ------“Perceived realism and the CSI-effect” - Logan A. Ewanation, Susan Yamamoto, Jordan Monnink & Evelyn M. Maeder ------“Reading Realism: Audiences’ Evaluations fo the Reality of Media Texts” - Alice Hall ------“Realism in FIFA? How social realism enabled platformed racism in a video game” - Sam Srauy and John Cheney-Lippold ------“Selling Marvel's Cinematic Superheroes through Militarization” - Brett Pardy ------“Skeleton Keys: Teaching the Fiction of Narrative Truth” - Douglas P. Felter ------“Social Realism in Gaming” - Alexander R. Galloway ------“The One Measure of True Love Is: You Can Insult the Other” (Interview) - Sabine Reul and Thomas Deichman ------“The Perceived Realism of African American Portrayals on Television” - Narissra M. Punyanunt-Carter ------“Videogames of the oppressed: critical thinking, education, tolerance and other trivial issues” - Gonzalo Frasca 

---Videos ------"Reality Isn’t Always Right" - Solar Sands (   • Reality Isn't Alw...  )  ------"SHUT UP ABOUT PLOT HOLES" - Patrick (H) Willems (   • SHUT UP ABOUT PLO...  )  ------"What's the Point of R-Rated Superheroes?" - Patrick (H) Willems (   • What's the Point ...  ) ------"Why Do We Care if Movies Are "Realistic?" - Patrick (H) Willems (   • Why Do We Care if...  )  ------“MASSIVE sound design breakdown of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy” - INDEPTH Sound Design (   • MASSIVE sound des...  ) 

* Further Watching: * ---"How Animal Sounds Are Made For Movies And TV | Movies Insider" - Movie Insider (   • How Animal Sounds...  )  ---"Does Representation Matter?" - Legal Kimchi (   • Does Representati...  ) 

* quote reads (in order of appearance) * ---Caelan Conrad ------Twitter: https://twitter.com/CaelanConrad ------YouTube:   / caelanconrad   ---Mica (Ponderful) ------Twitter: https://twitter.com/PonderfulYT ------YouTube:   / @ponderfulyt   ---Little Hoot ------Twitter: https://twitter.com/hoot_little ------YouTube:   / littlehoot   ---Aranock ------Twitter: https://twitter.com/Aranock1 ------YouTube:   / @aranock   

* edited by Charlie Flowers * YouTube:   / @xxinrealtimexx   Twitter: https://twitter.com/xXinrealtimeXx 

* To Support Me: * ---Become a channel Member! ➤   / @zoe_bee   ---Join the Patreon! ➤ https://www.patreon.com/zoe_bee ---Make a one-time donation! ➤ https://ko-fi.com/zoebee ---Join the Discord! ➤ https://discord.gg/8GBmS9Qug9 ---Check out my second channel! ➤   / @zoecee   ---Watch my D&D game! ➤   / @thejaycorn   ---Watch my Blades in the Dark game! ➤ https://www.twitch.tv/itucrew 

(disclaimer: This video was sponsored by Wren.)

[ternaryanalyst]

A (not so) little analysis on why I think the 2022 Riddler has STPD

(written by someone who has STPD)

Contains spoilers for The Batman (2022) and The Riddler: Year 1 

As an introduction, a brief explanation of what STPD is: Schizotypal personality disorder (STPD) is a cluster A personality disorder characterized by odd/eccentric behaviors, pervasive social anxiety, unusual thoughts/beliefs, and few close relationships. The diagnostic criteria are listed below (the criteria that I believe Edward meets are highlighted) 

Ideas of reference

Odd beliefs/magical thinking

Unusual perceptual experiences

Odd thought and speech

Suspicious/paranoid thoughts

Incongruous/limited effect

Odd, eccentric, or peculiar behavior 

Lack of close relationships

Excessive social anxiety

Now, a breakdown of each of these criteria that I think he meets: 

Ideas of Reference

Ideas of reference refers to notions that everyday occurrences have special meaning or significance. People with STPD believe that these occurrences were intended for them.

In Edward’s case, I think that the encounter he has with Batman in the Year One comic stands out. He places great stress on this brief encounter, and while it isn’t outright stated that he thinks this was an instance of fate I think that it fits within his characterization to say that he would believe that and seems to do so. 

Odd beliefs/magical thinking

The category of odd beliefs and magical thinking is similar to ideas of reference in that the person experiencing these symptoms connects things from reality to illogical perceptions. 

The main point here for Edward’s case is the line “I begin to wonder if it is him guiding me”. This can be categorized as an odd belief because there is nothing gonding it in reality. At this point he has barely interacted with Batman, and their relationship is purely parasocial.

Unusual perceptual experiences

This category covers bodily illusions and hallucinations.

In the comics, Edward can be seen hallucinating multiple times. The shadowy figure that knows his name is almost definitely a hallucination. He also hallucinates that Batman is with him when breaking into an office.

Odd thought and speech

Odd speech can be summarized as any abnormal ways of producing language (verbal or written).  

For Edward, the majority of his dialogue to himself can fall into this category. Specifically, his written ramblings. Repetition can also fall under the category of odd thought/speech, namely his repetitions of ‘shh just breathe’ to himself throughout the comics, as well as the numerous repetitive writings he produces. 

Suspicious/paranoid thoughts 

Similarly to odd thought, paranoid thoughts can be seen in Edward, largely in the comics. Edward is shown to be extremely paranoid when conducting his investigations, revealed in his internal dialogue and writings. 

Odd, eccentric, or peculiar behavior

Edward displays various instances of peculiar behavior. For starters, following the owner of the firm he works out of the office and trying to talk to him, rather than meeting him during working hours. He even acknowledges this himself. His behavior in the movie in general also fits into this category, from wearing his mask as the Riddler to the noises he makes. His affinity for riddles and puzzles is another aspect of odd behavior, as is his elation during the arrest scene. 

Lack of close relationships

(Note that the diagnostic criteria for STPD excludes family members from this lack of close relationships, so Edward not having any familial relationships is excluded from this analysis)

Edward’s relationships are largely digital. And even then, he lacks close bonds with anyone he communicates with. Despite having a decently large social media following, he isn’t close with any of his followers. He also does little to initiate intimate relationships, and this pattern is present in his childhood as well, with him being a social outcast.

Excessive social anxiety 

Social awkwardness, often a product of social anxiety, is brought up by Edward’s coworker when speaking about him. His anxiety can also be seen in how he berates himself for how he acts around others as well as his reclusive nature. He also shows signs of severe social anxiety as a child, with him not speaking. 

[gothhabiba]

Metaphors are pervasive in the language of science. Scientists regularly engage in analogical reasoning to develop hypotheses and interpret results, and they rely heavily on metaphors to communicate observations and findings (1). In turn, nonexperts make sense of, and contextualize, abstract ideas and new knowledge through the use of metaphors. While indispensable heuristic tools for doing, communicating, and understanding science, metaphors can also impede scientific inquiry, reinforce public misunderstandings, and perpetuate unintended social and political messages (2). For these reasons, it is especially important for scientists, science communicators, and science educators to acknowledge the conceptual, social, and political dimensions of metaphors in science and adopt critical perspectives on their use and effects.

[...]

Embodied cognition perspectives shed light on the imperative of metaphor in scientific thought and communication. Conceptual frameworks and theoretical models in science are rooted in the same embodied understandings of the world as those unconsciously employed in other day-to-day physical and social interactions (6). Scientific reasoning, then, is situated in what Gerhard Vollmer (21) refers to as the mesocosm, or the “section of the real world we cope with in perceiving and acting, sensually and motorically” (p. 89). Building on Vollmer’s work (as well as Lakoff and Johnson’s conceptual metaphor theory), Niebert and Gropengießer (17) argue that, because the human perceptual system is not well suited to interpreting macrocosmic (e.g., the biosphere, solar systems, galaxies) and microcosmic (e.g., cells, molecules, atoms) phenomena, scientists regularly turn to metaphors, grounded in mesocosmic experiences, to make sense of observations and communicate ideas. They explain:

Though the use of metaphorical language in science has been historically criticized by some philosophers of science and scientists on the grounds that metaphors are figurative, ambiguous, and imprecise, their generative potential cannot be ignored. It is, in fact, metaphor that makes theory possible, and a great number of scientific revolutions have been initiated through novel comparisons between natural phenomena and everyday experiences (3).

Limitations of metaphors in science communication

Metaphors in biology and ecology are so ubiquitous that we have to some extent become blind to their existence. We are inundated with metaphorical language, such as genetic “blueprints,” ecological “footprints,” “invasive” species, “agents” of infectious disease, “superbugs,” “food chains,” “missing links,” and so on. While we may not be able to conceptualize, or communicate, abstract scientific phenomena without employing such metaphors, we must also recognize their limitations, as well as their potential to constrain interpretations of natural processes. In many ways, the metaphors we rely upon may uphold and reinforce outdated scientific paradigms, contributing to public misunderstandings about complex scientific issues.

–"On the Problem and Promise of Metaphor Use in Science and Science Communication." Cynthia Taylor* and Bryan M. Dewsbury. J Microbiol Biol Educ. 2018; 19(1): 19.1.46. Published online 2018 Mar 30. doi: 10.1128/jmbe.v19i1.1538.

[gray-gray-gray-gray]

Chapter 5 of Schizophrenia, Third Edition: The schizophrenia spectrum persononality disorders

Classic studies by Kraepelin and Bleuler reported that schizophrenia is present in a continuum. The assessment of this disorder thus has included populations other than those with the disorder itself like relatives of patients with schizophrenia, subjects in prodromal stages, and people with schizophrenia spectrum personality disorders.

Schizotypal personality disorder (StPD) is the primary example of a schizophrenia spectrum personality disorder. Patients with the disorder share common genetic, biological, phenomenological, prognosis, and treatment response characteristics with people with schizophrenia. StPD shares with schizophrenia symptom dimensions such as ideas of reference, magical thinking, and suspiciousness, and deficit-like symptoms. Pervasive asociality and cognitive impairments observed in patients with StPD are usually milder than those with schizophrenia. People with StPD also do not suffer from chronic psychosis like those with schizophrenia do.

Individuals with StPD suffer from attenuated psychotic-like symptoms such as ideas of reference and cognitive-perceptual distortions as well as deficit-like symptoms such as constricted affect, social isolation, and peculiar appearance and speech. Ideas of reference in StPD are not held with the same conviction as in schizophrenia, but are nevertheless pervasive and disturbing. People with StPD also contemplate idiosyncratic beliefs that are not part of the social norms of their culture. One example is magical thinking, that the mind is able to change the physical world. They also experience illusions.

Studying StPD alongsize schizophrenia and healthy patients can allow us a further look at genetics and pathophysiology. Genes possibly related to schizophrenia are starting to be identified, and with that we can identify those that are related to both schizotypal and schizophrenia or just schizophrenia and psychosis along.

Individuals with schizoid personality disorder (SzPD) share the lack of close friends with StPD. However individuals with SzPD may not experience the cognitive-perceptual distortions that are criteria for StPD. Asociality is a core trait of SzPD, but in contrast in StPD it is not secondary to distrust of others, but just a desire to be alone due to a lack of pleasure from casual relationships.

In paranoid personality disorder (PPD) the diagnostic criteria has emphasis on the individual's mistrust and suspiciousness. The expectation of malicious intent from others and volatile responses to perceived slights comes from the perceived hidden threatening meanings that justify their preconceptions. People with PPD are also reluctant to confide in others since they question the loyalty of others and are even fearful of the ill-will of close friends.

Individuals with avoidant personality disorder (AvPD) may seem socially distant and exhibiy similar cognitive impairments to those observed in schizophrenia spectrum disorders, however, the critera emphasizes that this results not from lack of desire for relationships but from substantial anxiety and need for reassurance.

In some contexts, schizophrenia spectrum disorders are conceptualized as continuous or dimensional in nature. By some authors the common underlying liability shared between schizophrenia spectrum disorders is identified as "schizotaxia," that describes a set of signs and symptoms present in individuals genetically predisposed to schizophrenia.

Genes play a big role in schizophrenia. This genetic liability is not specific to schizophrenia - PPD, SzPD, and StPD are all associated with the genetic risk for schizophrenia. The strongest familial relationship to schizophrenia is with StPD, with the genetic relation between the two being suggested by several family and adoption studies.

Differences between schizophrenia and StPD are being examined with genetic, neurochemical, imaging, and pharmacological intruments.

[mysticallion]

Awareness, Consciousness and Attention

Awareness is a “static” Field, meaning it is all-pervasive, like wetness is all-pervasive in water. Awareness is a property of Reality. It is that which knows, which illuminates experience, which renders perception. Other than that it has no discernible characteristics. It is, in and of itself, entirely insubstantial. All sentient beings share this same field, with varying degrees of self-awareness within it. Their specific or individual or relative experience is dictated primarily by the biological forms of their sensory apparatus in relation to their environment and, in higher developed life forms, by their mental (subjective) responses to said input. This dynamic mass of specific content is what we call “consciousness.”

Consciousness is individual-specific. It is an ever-changing mental pattern, more reflexive and responsive and perhaps emotional in lower life forms; while higher life forms tend to transcend (include but surpass) these basic contents with higher level mental phenomena such as imagery, structured social-relational concepts of some sort, symbolic and linguistic concepts, and memory/identity. This tangle of experience is a function of the nervous system and probably ceases at death, though of course this is still a highly debated point.

Attention is a neurological mechanism. It is how the nervous system narrows the Field of Awareness into functional sized chunks. It contracts, almost constantly, in order to differentiate or delimit aspects of the (actually singular and unbroken) Field of Attention into the perceptually and conceptually constructed diverse experience we commonly share. It’s like the difference between losing yourself while gazing into the vast, wide-open, diamond-studded void of space (Awareness) or peering at a small portion of it through a telescope (attention) or even a microscope (developed attention). The mechanism of attention is both a reflex, constantly flickering, and a function that can be brought under deliberate control. Attention is the initial source of differentiation, and therefore of duality, so it is understandably a vital aspect of meditatively-oriented developmental systems. Indeed, in order to pursue spiritual practices or even phenomenological practices, a decently developed mechanism of attention is an inescapable necessity, the more developed the better. This allows the mind to focus back upon itself while not being constantly pulled away from its immediate object of investigation. In other words, a well-developed mechanism of attention allows for the mind to peer deeply, for prolonged periods of time, at very specific aspects of its own dynamic processes. Lots of different disciplines (methods and practices) for strengthening attention have been developed and refined globally over countless millennia of serious self-reflection, and are widely available today to anyone interested enough to do a little research.

[cluster-a-culture-is]

how do you tell if you have schizotypal or schizophrenia (with only moderate hallucinations) ? im looking into schizotypal but idk if it may just be schizophrenia

in my experience, it mostly depends on severity of symptoms and how long you've been dealing with them.

schizotypal has less severe symptoms but it's lifelong or almost, since it's a personality disorder and it's pervasive in nature.

while schizophrenia is episodic but its episodes can last very long with full symptoms, months or years, so the main difference is in the severity.

schizotypal usually doesn't cause word salad, pressured talking, or clanging (using words just because of how they sound, regardless of meaning), it's usually more of a different way of talking while still being intelligible, like a large use of metaphors, making up words but still making some sense, things like that. for example, I often add a sillable or two in what I'm saying because it sounds nice but people usually can understand what I'm saying.

schizotypal can have hallucinations as a feature, but they're subtle and tend to look like distortions in perception rather than full on perceiving something that's not actually there. it can be hearing whispers in the wind, seeing lights, seeing things brighter/darker than what they should be.

schizotypal also doesn't have a criteria of delusions, rather it's something like believing in something odd, but not completely untrue. or if it's untrue, it's not inflexible like a delusion is. I sometimes think I can control the weather but can scroll off the thought quite easily.

negative and motor symptoms aren't a criteria for schizotypal either, but they are for certain manifestations of schizophrenia (though they aren't necessary for a diagnosis and pw schizophrenia can live all their lives without an episode of negative symptoms or catatonia), so you might look into them too.

stpd is an end in the schizophrenia spectrum, and can be considered a milder form of schizophrenia.

it doesn't mean it's easy to live and deal with, it just has less severe symptoms, but it's pervasive and more often than not lifelong, and relatively stable over time in symptoms

if it helps to clear up, criteria for stpd (in the icd-11) are

Constricted affect, such that the individual appears cold and aloof;

Behaviour or appearance that is odd, eccentric, unusual, or peculiar and is inconsistent with cultural or subcultural norms;

Poor rapport with others and a tendency towards social withdrawal;

Unusual beliefs or magical thinking influencing the person’s behaviour in ways that are inconsistent with subcultural norms, but not reaching the diagnostic requirements for a delusion;

Unusual perceptual distortions such as intense illusions, depersonalization, derealization, or auditory or other hallucinations;

Suspiciousness or paranoid ideas;

Vague, circumstantial, metaphorical, overelaborate, or stereotyped thinking, manifest in odd speech without gross incoherence;

Obsessive ruminations without a sense that the obsession is foreign or unwanted, often with body dysmorphic, sexual, or aggressive content.

[leanstooneside]

Spinning knee

1. Jennifer Love Hewitt's intolerant lip

2. Celine Dion's wordless lip

3. Rob Kardashian's unorthodox lip

4. Scott Wolf's specialized lip

5. Melissa Gorga's fated lip

6. Jason Ritter's reliable lip

7. DJ Pauly D's ambivalent lip

8. Alexis Bledel's spineless lip

9. Chris Evans's dictated lip

10. Emma Roberts's fulfilling lip

11. Courtney Love's migrating lip

12. Sean Penn's wanton lip

13. Chace Crawford's safest lip

14. Ellie Goulding's dulled lip

15. Vanessa Minnillo's colour lip

16. Elisabeth Hasselbeck's charcoal lip

17. Keri Hilson's safest lip

18. Lisa Snowdon's brimming lip

19. John Legend's interpreted lip

20. Chris Pine's perceptual lip

21. Bobby Brown's unassisted lip

22. Aubrey O'Day's excess lip

23. Holly Montag's accented lip

24. Cat Deeley's occurring lip

25. Christie Brinkley's adverse lip

26. Josh Holloway's folic lip

27. Gabriel Aubry's hard-pressed lip

28. Snoop Dogg's devastating lip

29. Channing Tatum's amorphous lip

30. Kendall Jenner's penal lip

31. Bret Michaels's pervasive lip

32. Vin Diesel's supernatural lip

33. Maria Sharapova's trusting lip

34. Rachel Bilson's flowing lip

35. Lisa Bonet's motley lip

36. Kevin Federline's tarry lip

37. Jessica Simpson's subjugated lip

38. Anna Wintour's fleshy lip

39. Zoe Saldana's elaborated lip

40. Vanessa Williams's beneficent lip

41. Jessica Chastain's aligned lip

42. Michelle Trachtenberg's classless lip

43. Evan Rachel Wood's presumed lip

44. Jamie Foxx's metering lip

45. Josh Brolin's comparable lip

46. Jeremy Piven's intuitive lip

47. Barack Obama's timed lip

48. Naya Rivera's starlight lip

49. Jerry Ferrara's avocado lip

50. Christina Aguilera's standing lip

[musicforspaandearthquake]

"Critical Ambience" (Jonathan Dovey and Matt Hayler, from Ambient Literature monograph)

--we want to argue that practices of critical ambience can speak back to some of the current problems posed by the totalising discursive framings of 'immersion.' (142)

--ambient work, by definition, is concerned with that which already surrounds us, with subtle additions to the environment and the elevation of attention, not with replacing our surroundings with a better, more malleable, more frictionless fantasy environment. Instead of the complete sensory takeover implied by immersion, we argue for a critical ambience that produces ways of attending to the world that allows us to move between scales and entities...

--interested in those forms of cultural practices that surround us, where the physical environment co-constitutes the work itself.

--Critical ambient practices are part of the traditions of environmentally based arts, land art, walking arts, architecture, urban design, and public arts...

--the development of the smart city and the rise of the research field of ambient intelligence arising out of ubiquitous computing are reframing our understandings of ambience and immersion. Places, sites, and environments are now augmented by the instantiation of pervasive and ubiquitous computing systems affording them new communicative potentials. These emergent augmentations are producing new contexts for immersive or ambient practices...

--talks about the desire to be immersed *in* a work of art.

--first critical conversation about the virtual (and VR) [in the 1990's] reaches its apogee in Janet Murray's 1997 classic definition of immersion: The experience of being transported to an elaborately simulated place is pleasurable in itself, regardless of the fantasy content. We refer to this experience as 'immersion'. 'Immersion is a metaphorical term derived from the physical experience of being submerged in water. We seek the same feeling from a psychogically immersive experience that we do from a plunge in the ocean or swimming pool: the sensation of being surrounded by a completely other reality, as differest as water is from air, th[at] takes over all of our attention, our whole perceptual apparatus.

--immersion also implies a forgetting of the structure or apparatus of the medium itself, a making invisible of the medium

Ambience

the ambient literature works of the monograph might offer 'a way into understanding the way that the ambient could begin to become actively critical.'

--the idea that the ambient is necessarily passive has been present in much writing about ambience. Seth Kim-Cohen's essay 'Against Ambience) (2013): 'The appeal of ambient phenomena is attributed to their evanescence, ineffability, and immersiveness; 'they appeal through their effacement of the important histories of critical art practices like feminism, postcolonialism, relational art, or social aesthetics,' and they offer us instead what he calls the 'inchoate space of wombessence.'

--in this critique, the immersive and the ambient are closely related, an all-around passive enclosure of undifferentiated 'inchoate space.' Kim-Cohen objects to the inability of the ambient to ever become more interesting than it is ignorable, art reduced to backdrop, like a mindfulness app.

--however, another strain of writing about the idea of ambience develops a more radical understanding based on its potential to reconfigure our subjectivity towards a more usefully posthumanistic position. In picking up this strain we want to correct the popular notion of ambience as necessarily inert background to argue that environmentally situated works are critically important at this moment and that environmental siuatedness and ambience are closely related. this emergences in timothy morton's often challenging and contradictory ecology without nature (2007): "I choose the word ambience to make strange the idea of environment, which all too often is associated with a particular view of nature. Morton's ambient poetics looks for experiences that produce heightened awareness of all the entities that constitute our environments, decentres human subjects.

--Morton: Ecological writing wants to undo habitual distinctions between nature and ourselves. it is supposed to describe, but also to provide a working model for a dissolving of the difference between subject and object, a dualism seen as the fundamental philosophical reason for human beings' destruction of the environment. If we could not merely figure out but actually experience the fact that we were embedded in our world, then we would be less likely to destroy it (Morton, 2007, italics the editors).

--what is it that is preventing us from experiencing the fact that we are embedded in our world?

--the editors: "our version of ambient literature doesn't seek the dissolution of subject and object. instead, it requires audience to shift between and through those positions, and it is this movement of attention between scales of time and place that produces a new, potentially critical awareness of one's own time and place. In doing so, we argue that these works usefully suggest a way of frmaing events that produce particular modes of attention constituted by a situated awareness of the complex entanglements of subjects in global technological, social, and environmental systems (151).

--Thomas Rickert's Ambient Rhetoric (2013), begins with an account of how computer and communications technologies are 'permeating the carpentry of the world' before seeking to reframe rhetoric as an environmentally situated practice in which, ambience refers to the active role that the material and informational environment takes in human development, dwelling and culture, or to put it differently it dissolves the assumed separation between what is (privileged) human doing and what is passively material

--Paul Roquet's Ambient Media (2016) draws on Heidegger's 'stimmung' from Being and Time (1927), usually translated as attunement to atmosphere or mood (but also, interestingly for our argument, having overtones of climate or listening). Its importance for us is that it establishes how mood can be a foundational experience; our experiences are subjected to mood or atmosphere before they are determined through cognition (Roquet, 2016, 133). Moreover when 'attuning' we are being co-constituted by our environments, our being moulding to its surroundings....

--Later in the book, in his own chapter on 'ambient literature' Roquet (2016) argues that such a phenomenon can be found in particular tropes and narrative styles of the Japanese novel...In the end Roquet develops a position not far from Malcolm McCullough's (2013) in so far as he suggests that critical ambience that he hints at might produce a greater sense of responsibility for the 'affective attunement of shared space'. More pertinently for our argument here, he also wants to understand ambience as productive of a mode of subjectivity that decentres the human through its reconnection with wider energies and forces: "An ambient media understanding of self necessarily situates the person in an intimate relationship with larger ecologies, affirming our interdependencey not only with other people but with the affordances of the objects and environments we live with and through.

--In our proposition for the critical potential of ambient literature, this encounter with the wider flow of energies present in the reading is characterized by particular forms of attention, shifting between the foregrounded content of the work itself and the background setting for the experience. This movement back and forth is, as we have seen above, a feature of ambient artworks; here, however, our ambient literature projects hail the user on the digital ground of the contemporary attention economy. They call attention not only to the particularities or generalties of the environment but also to the global data networks of control and surveillance that co-constitute them.

--Such a call is quite different in nature from those ordinarily proposed. More often, place based or site based art would call our attention to the immediate environment, site, or piece of art, to the exclusion of "the global data networks of control and surveillance." In fact, such data networks and informatic flows are usually seen as the opposite or enemy to such focus on place or immediate sensory environment.

--What in any case, is the difference between "having your attention called to" these informatic flows, or "noticing the various layers of information," and the usual day-to-day experience of having one's attention dominated by those very same flows. Why do we need special "ambient literature" works to call our attention to the varied flows of information which are required in day to day experience, when those varied layers of attention are our daily norm? it seems the editors are simply building in the same layers of distraction and anti-immersion that are present in our day to day life.

--The world of information overload and attention scarcity produces distraction as social malaise and attention as its answer; 'In an era of changing planetary circumstances, personal attention to immediate surroundings seems like a manageable first step towards some huge cultural shift (McCullough, 2013). In his consideration of this manageable first step, McCullough turns to the category of the ambient as a way to start to think about the modality of information in the urban environment. Our aim in proposing the field of ambient literature has been to address McCullough's key question '...do increasingly situated information technologies illuminate the world, or do they just eclipse it?' We want to argue for a poetics alert to embodiment, textuality, place, sonics, and technology that enhances awareness, connectivity, and understanding of the instrinsic qualities of phenomena of the world that we share.

[pagebypagereviews]

12 Must-Read Titles on Psychological Insights The human mind is an enigma, a complex labyrinth of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Understanding it has been the quest of psychologists, neuroscientists, and thinkers for centuries. Today, we have a treasure trove of literature that delves into the depths of our psyche, offering profound insights into what makes us tick. Here, we explore 12 must-read titles that illuminate various facets of human psychology, from the way we make decisions to the intricacies of human relationships. These books are not just for professionals in the field but for anyone curious about the inner workings of the mind. 1. "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman introduces us to the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. Kahneman reveals the extraordinary capabilities—and also the faults and biases—of fast thinking, and the pervasive influence of intuitive impressions on our thoughts and behaviors. This book is a masterful exploration of judgment, decision-making, and happiness, and how they are affected by the two systems. 2. "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" by Robert Cialdini Robert Cialdini's seminal work on persuasion explains the psychology of why people say "yes"—and how to apply these understandings. He outlines six universal principles of influence that are powerful yet ethical, offering readers the tools to become skilled persuaders themselves. With case studies and insights from psychology and behavioral economics, Cialdini's book is essential reading for anyone interested in the art and science of persuasion. 3. "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" by Oliver Sacks In this collection of narratives, neurologist Oliver Sacks recounts the case histories of patients lost in the bizarre, apparently inescapable world of neurological disorders. Sacks explores the strange tales of individuals afflicted with fantastic perceptual and intellectual aberrations, offering insights not only into their conditions but what they reveal about the human mind in general. It's a compassionate and compelling look at the fragility of our brains. 4. "Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance" by Angela Duckworth Angela Duckworth shows that the secret to outstanding achievement is not talent but a special blend of passion and persistence she calls "grit." Drawing on her own powerful story as the daughter of a scientist who frequently noted her lack of "genius," Duckworth describes her early eye-opening stints in teaching, business consulting, and neuroscience, which led to the hypothesis that what really drives success is not "genius" but a unique combination of passion and long-term perseverance. 5. "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking" by Susan Cain In a

[longlistshort]

Depicting various locations during different seasons, Dylan Vandenhoeck’s paintings for Right Under the Nose at Jack Barrett Gallery, explore the way selective vision creates and distorts our memories of moments and places.

From the press release by Jonathan Crary-

One of the important features of the Western European modern world that begins to emerge in the decades around the year 1500 is a reorganization of the human senses. Taking place over several hundred years is a relentless prioritization of vision and its isolation from the other senses. What some theorists have called “ocularcentrism” is this privileging of the eye and its alignment with rationalized forms of knowledge that distance a human observer from the physical world and estrange them from the multi-sensory immediacy of perception. Since the Renaissance, the arts have been shaped by practices and techniques that have posed the fiction that our vision is a faithful mirroring of an objective external reality. This model has been a crucial underpinning for the rationalized forms of knowledge and utilitarian, extractive priorities of Western modernity. But there have long been artists whose counter-practices have challenged this dominant framework, including, for instance, Hans Holbein and his Ambassadors, William Blake, J M W Turner, Roberto Matta and Stan Brakhage. 

Dylan Vandenhoeck is part of this lineage for the ways in which his work foregrounds the embodied, or subjective nature of our vision. One of many examples of embodied vision is the fact that our optical impressions are shaped by the actual curvature of our spherical eyeballs. Yet the most pervasive systems of visual representation, such as linear perspective, have “corrected” this phenomenon by imposing rectilinear organizations onto perceptual experience. Another feature of lived vision to which Vandenhoeck is attentive are afterimages, the response of our eyes (as part of our nervous system) to  strong stimulation of various kinds, but notably sunlight. Afterimages are vivid evidence of how our vision is a composite of sensations produced by our body and of the diverse effects of the luminous environment in which we are situated. His paintings present this hybridity as a heterogenous field of divergent events with different temporalities, but which nonetheless coalesce into the dynamic world of immediate experience. Using the terms of Deleuze and Guattari, Vandenhoeck creates a smooth space as opposed to a striated one, that is, non-metric, de-centered and open to metamorphoses. 

Around the Mound, for example, manifests some of these qualities in its disturbance of conventional spatial cues, such as altering our reading of what is near and far. It affirms an aggregate field of vision composed of perceptual fragments that don’t cohere into a unified whole. But notably, while Vandenhoeck has crafted a landscape shaped by these disjunctions, he has also interwoven into the work swirling and pulsating flows that engage the viewer kinesthetically. Part of his project is to challenge the ways in which our attentiveness has been regulated and impoverished by the digital milieus in which we are perpetually immersed. The monotonous omnipresence of electroluminescent color and powerful forms of perceptual control, such as eye tracking, have routinized and diminished our visual capacities.  Vandenhoeck conveys intimations of the sensory and libidinal gratifications of a heightened bodily response to the vibrant plurality of a living world. In this sense, there is at least a limited utopian underpinning to the images in this show. Yet if one dimension of his work poses the possibility of revivifying our perception, he makes clear that this can only occur within the broken actualities of the early twenty-first century. His revelatory images are all grounded in the prosaic periphery of New York City, marked by highways, shopping malls, and cell phone towers. Thus, one of Vandenhoeck’s remarkable achievements is the reclaiming of an expanded, transfigured vision amid the familiar terrain of the everyday. 

This exhibition closes 6/22/24.

[sebastianvarghese]

Digital Media : Sources and Significances

Critical Analysis

Esther Leslie and Joel McKim (2017). Life Remade: Critical Animation in the Digital Age,           Vol.12 (3) 207-213. https://doi.org/10.1177/1746847717740841

Introduction

The material selected is an article excerpted from the publication "Animation: an interdisciplinary journal" authored by Esther Leslie and Joel McKim. The authors posit that animation has evolved to encompass a broader cultural and political significance as a result of its pervasive presence in various media, artistic expression, and knowledge generation within the digital era. They contend that animation plays a pivotal role in processes such as data visualization, modelling, and simulation, which are fundamental forms of knowledge production and innovation. Furthermore, they emphasize its function as an intermediary between digital data and human perceptual experiences.

From this article, I am particularly interested in conducting a critical analysis of pages 209 and 210. These two pages provide detailed explanations of three key points: Animation in the art world, Politics of traditional animation in the digital age, and Digital infrastructures. It is fascinating to observe how animation has evolved into a flexible and powerful medium, enabling artists to express themselves artistically and make poignant social commentary. By using animation as a contemporary art medium, artists have been able to delve into various themes such as history, culture, identity, and technology in incredibly sophisticated and thought-provoking ways. This has opened up new avenues for exploration and experimentation within the realm of animation, ultimately leading to a greater understanding and appreciation of its significance in the artistic landscape.

The use of animation opens up exciting new avenues for exploring various topics, such as deformation, stereotypes, the digital world, and other important concerns. Through their work, animators are able to establish connections between characters and the historical contexts as well as traditional cultures they represent. For instance, Mark Leckey employs the iconic early TV character Felix the Cat to symbolize consumerism and media influence. Similarly, Leslie delves into the realm of CGI art, specifically focusing on the representation of clouds. By referencing the concept of the Cloud as a digital surround and incorporating contemporary cloud imagery, Leslie highlights the interconnectedness of our digital infrastructure. Additionally, Charnley delves into the animated art created by Jordan Wolfson, which confronts and analyses the problematic aspects of contemporary popular culture and internet-based political culture through the clever use of stereotypes, pratfalls, and lack of harmony. Together, these artists and their explorations through animation bring awareness to important social and cultural issues, making animation a powerful medium for expression and critical reflection.

In Patrick Crogan's thought-provoking article, he delves deep into the realm of mainstream US animation. His exploration centers around how this type of animation often depicts bleak and destructive futures while simultaneously suppressing any sense of hope. This stark contrast is certainly fascinating, particularly when considering the historical potential of US animation to introduce critical and political perspectives. To further understand why destructive themes and capitalist consumerism prevail in Hollywood animation, Crogan goes on to examine the technical procedures and software that are commonly employed in this industry. Interestingly enough, a different approach to animation can be found in Japanese children's anime. Renowned scholar Steinberg dives into this topic, shedding light on how anime effectively integrates consumerism through "media mix" and "total mobilization." By seamlessly blending elements of the economy, technology, and desire, Japanese anime has managed to capture the attention of audiences far and wide. Drawing attention to yet another aspect of animation, Honess Roe explores the captivating intersection between analogue and digital animation modes. She skillfully highlights the challenges that arise when trying to maintain codes of realism in both live-action and digital filmmaking. What sets animation apart from other forms of visual storytelling is its freedom from the constraints of photorealism. This unique position allows animation the ability to challenge and critique societal norms in ways that even documentaries cannot achieve. Building upon this notion, Elsaesser suggests that the insertion of analogue animation into digital formats offers intriguing critical perspectives. This blending of animation's rich and disorderly tradition with innovative technical advancements provides a panoramic view of the vast possibilities within the realm of animation.

Animation production, with its heavy reliance on resources and capital, requires a significant investment in technological infrastructure such as servers and render farms. This stands in stark contrast to the commonly perceived notion of digital media being accessible and democratized. Scholars have brought attention to the material and ecological consequences associated with the use of digital technologies in animation, which includes the extraction of minerals and the generation of electronic waste. In order to fully comprehend digital animation, it is necessary to delve into the analysis of software, tools, and techniques, rather than limiting the examination to textual analysis alone. Scholars devote their attention to studying the technical platforms, software programs, and codecs that facilitate the creation and distribution of animation. It is important to recognize that digital animation relies not only on intangible data, but also on a diverse range of tangible materials, such as vector graphics, data servers, and storage systems, all of which are integral to bringing animated characters, like Rango, to life. The cloud is rapidly assuming a crucial role in large-scale animation production, despite the fact that its implementation introduces new technological dependencies and uncertainties.

In summary, the chosen article emphasizes how animation has evolved to play a vital cultural and political role in the digital age. Through its ubiquity across media, art, and knowledge production, animation acts as a bridge between digital information and human perception. The selected pages for critical analysis explore animation in the art world, the politics of animation, and the digital infrastructures that support it. By examining these aspects, scholars can gain insights into the versatile and powerful nature of animation as a contemporary art medium. They can also analyse how animation intersects with culture, identity, technology, and various political issues. Finally, the article highlights the resources and technological infrastructure required for animation production, as well as the material and ecological impacts associated with digital technologies. Through critical analysis, scholars can deepen their understanding of the technical aspects and social implications of animation in the digital age.

[curatedmentalhealth1]

The Power of Hope: Ketamine Treatment for Depression

Introduction: Depression, a pervasive mental health disorder affecting millions worldwide, can have debilitating effects on individuals' lives. Despite various treatment options available, a significant number of patients continue to struggle with persistent symptoms. However, a glimmer of hope has emerged in recent years in the form of ketamine treatment for depression. This groundbreaking approach has shown promising results, offering new possibilities for those who have not responded well to traditional treatments. In this article, we will explore the potential benefits and considerations surrounding ketamine treatment for depression.

Understanding Ketamine:  Ketamine, originally developed as an anesthetic, has gained attention in recent years for its potential in treating depression. Unlike traditional antidepressants, which typically take weeks to show noticeable effects, ketamine has demonstrated rapid-acting properties. It targets the brain's glutamate system, enhancing synaptic connections and promoting the growth of new neural pathways. The result is an alleviation of depressive symptoms in a remarkably short time frame. Ketamine treatment is usually administered through intravenous infusion or nasal spray under medical supervision.

Research Findings:  Several clinical trials and studies have provided compelling evidence supporting the efficacy of ketamine treatment for depression. Research has shown that a single ketamine infusion can lead to significant and rapid reductions in depressive symptoms, even in cases where other treatments have failed. Furthermore, ketamine has demonstrated effectiveness in treating treatment-resistant depression (TRD), a particularly challenging form of the disorder. While the exact mechanisms behind ketamine's antidepressant effects are not fully understood, its ability to rapidly modulate brain activity is believed to play a crucial role.

Considerations and Potential Side Effects: Despite its promising results, ketamine treatment for depression is not without considerations and potential side effects. As a relatively new therapeutic option, the long-term effects of ketamine use are still being researched. Additionally, ketamine may cause short-term side effects, including dissociation, nausea, increased blood pressure, and transient perceptual disturbances. These effects are typically mild and transient, but they should be discussed with a healthcare professional before initiating treatment. Furthermore, due to its potential for abuse, ketamine treatment is administered in controlled medical environments with careful monitoring.

Future Directions and Hope:  The introduction of ketamine treatment for depression represents a significant advancement in psychiatric care. While it is not a cure-all, its rapid-acting properties and effectiveness in treating treatment-resistant depression provide renewed hope for individuals who have exhausted other treatment options. Continued research and ongoing clinical trials aim to expand our understanding of ketamine's long-term effects, refine treatment protocols, and explore its potential applications in other mental health disorders. As we strive to unlock the mysteries of depression, ketamine offers a promising pathway toward better mental health outcomes.

Conclusion: Depression is a complex and challenging mental health disorder, but the emergence of ketamine treatment has opened up new possibilities for those struggling to find relief. With its rapid-acting properties and notable effectiveness, ketamine has demonstrated the power to alleviate depressive symptoms when other treatments have fallen short. As research progresses and our understanding deepens, the future holds the potential for improved treatment options and increased hope for individuals living with depression.

For more info:-

Ketamine Treatment For Depression

[blacksunscorpio]

Astrology of Mental Illness Part 1

A mental disorder, also called a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. So, these features may be persistent, relapsing and remitting, or occur as a single episode. As humans, these things can be quite difficult to deal with, no matter the background, race, religion, orientation or lifestyle in general.  

Now, a person’s ultimate mental state is the result of their entire birth chart. The state of the sun, moon, Mercury, etc. and their aspects between planets in the houses combined. Your chart might be an indicator of how mental illness might look for you rather than whether or not it occurs. So, before I begin, I want to mention that the following aspects alone are not HARD indicators that an individual with a placement is or will suffer from a mental affliction, disease, or tendency. Many may be fully functional or well adjusted. There’s no basic placement or aspect really that indicates without a doubt that one has a mental illness or not. It has to be the perfect storm of natal placements, heredity and triggers which depend on the outside world as well as life circumstances.  However, in my research studies, and observations- a common thread when looking at mental illness starts with the Big 3

1. Moon = Mind/Emotion

2. Mercury = Mind/ Nervous System

3. Jupiter = Behavior/Well-being/Maturity

Taking a look at these three first and foremost can often tell you exactly what is going on in a person’s chart emotionally, mentally, and behaviorally. For further illustration, lets look at a few examples beginning with:

Cluster A Personality Disorders

Cluster A personality disorders are characterized by odd, eccentric thinking or behavior.  They include paranoid personality disorder, schizoid personality disorder, and schizotypal personality disorder.

Schizotypal/Schizoaffective behavior/disorder

Schizoid personality disorder is often described as odd or eccentric and usually has few if any, close relationships. They generally don't understand how relationships form or the impact of their behavior on others. They may also misinterpret others' motivations and behaviors and develop a significant distrust of others. There can be a lack of interest in social or personal relationships, preferring to be alone. There can be limited range of emotional expression or an inability to take pleasure in most activities. This disorder can cause an inability to pick up normal social cues, appearance of being cold or indifferent to others, and little or no interest in having sex with another person. Schizotypal includes- Peculiar dress, thinking, beliefs, speech, or behavior. Odd perceptual experiences, such as hearing a voice whisper their name. Flat emotions or inappropriate emotional responses. Severe social anxiety and a lack of or discomfort with close relationships. Indifferent, inappropriate or suspicious response to others "Magical thinking" — believing one can influence people and events with thoughts and the belief that certain casual incidents or events have hidden messages meant only for them. These problems may lead to severe anxiety and a tendency to avoid social situations. Since these particular illness lie in the realm of emotion [moon/4th house], and nervous system [Mercury] and perception [1st and 10th] of reality [Neptune] we want to look at:

Moon in the 12th or 10th house afflicted

Moon in the 1st afflicted

Moon in hard aspect to Saturn [Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer had this aspect at a close orb]

Moon in hard aspect to Uranus

Moon in 8th house touching a malefic

Moon in the 3rd house Ruled by a malefic [Saturn/Pluto/Uranus]

Scorpio Moon in 4th house

Moon in hard aspect to Mercury

Mercury in malefic aspect to Pluto in a water house

Mercury in the 11th or 12th House with malefics aspecting

4th house stellium with malefics such as Saturn or Pluto touching Mercury or Moon

Moon in hard aspect to Neptune [Since Neptune is about the hidden and subconscious

Neptune forming a malefic aspect to moon

Excessive squares to Neptune or 12th House

Neptune in hard aspect to Uranus in the 1st

Afflicted asteroid Psyche in 1st, 12th, or 6th, or 10th

Paranoid Personality Disorder

Can often be confused with general paranoia, but by definition is: Pervasive distrust and suspicion of others and their motives. This illness often manifests:

An unjustified belief that others are trying to harm or deceive you

Unjustified suspicion of the loyalty or trustworthiness of others

Hesitancy to confide in others due to unreasonable fear that others will use the information against you

Perception of innocent remarks or non-threatening situations as personal insults or attacks

Angry or hostile reaction to perceived slights or insults

Tendency to hold grudges

Unjustified, recurrent suspicion that spouse or sexual partner is unfaithful

Since this illness lies within the realm of the hidden, paranoia, subconscious, dark or fearful realm, you’re going to want to look at Pluto- or Plutonic contacts.

Often this behavior on a more significant level can be seen with:

Pluto in hard aspect in the 1st [self, how others perceive you]

Pluto in hard aspect in the 4th [family/security]]

Pluto in hard aspect in the 5th [fun/social flings/casual relationships]

Pluto in hard aspect in the 7th [relationships]

Pluto in hard aspect in the 8th [shared resources/secrets/hidden]

Pluto in hard aspect in the 9th [beliefs]

Pluto in hard aspect in the 10th [public sector]

Pluto in hard aspect in the 11th [collective/community/network/social sector]

Plutonic Stelliums in hard aspect

Mercurial Stelliums in the 8th house in hard aspect

Lunar [remember lunar= moon, the prefix of the word “lunacy/lunatic”] stelliums in the 6th, 8th or 12th

6th House ruled by Scorpio afflicted/excessive malefics

Venus ruled by Pluto in hard aspect [especially to moon or in 12th house]

Mercury in hard aspect to Pluto in the 1st, 7th, 10th.

Pluto and Uranus in hard aspect.

Cluster B Personality Disorders

Cluster B personality disorders are characterized by dramatic, overly emotional, or unpredictable thinking or behavior. These include

Borderline Personality Disorder

Includes Purposefully impulsive and risky behavior, such as having unsafe sex, gambling, or binge eating.

An unstable or fragile self-image, major unstable and intense relationships.

Up and down moods, often as a reaction to interpersonal stress.

Suicidal behavior or threats of self-injury.

Intense fear of being alone or abandoned.

Ongoing feelings of emptiness.

Frequent, intense displays of anger. Stress-related paranoia that comes and goes.

Histrionic Personality Disorder

Constantly seeking attention

Excessively emotional, dramatic, or sexually provocative to gain attention

Speaks dramatically with strong opinions, but few facts or details to back them up

Easily influenced by others

Shallow, rapidly changing emotions

Excessive concern with physical appearance

Thinks relationships with others are closer than they really are

Since these illnesses live in the realms of emotion, drive, sexual behavior, and views of the self and values you’re wanting to look at Moon, Venus, 2nd House, Mars, 1st house, and Pluto 8th House. Jupiter [Maturity/Wisdom].

Sun in hard aspect to Jupiter

Sun in hard aspect to Moon

Sun in hard aspect to 10th House 12th House

Moon in hard aspect to Pluto

Moon in hard aspect to Venus

Moon in hard aspect to Jupiter

Moon in hard aspect to 2nd House

Moon in hard aspect to 8th

2nd House Stellium involving malefics

1st House Stellium including malefics

Uranus in hard aspect to Rising

Uranus [direct or Rx] in 1st

Mars in hard aspect in the 1st house/ruler

Mars in hard aspect to the 2nd house/ ruler

Jupiter forming multiple malefics aspects

Jupiter in opposition to rising

Moon in the 9th ruled by Neptune

8th House Neptune

Neptune most elevated forming malefic aspects

Lilith in hard aspect to moon

Lilith in hard aspect to Pluto

Lilith in hard aspect to Venus close to ascendant

Uranus in hard aspect to Venus

12th House malefic stellium involving [Mars, Pluto, Uranus, Saturn or Neptune]

Antisocial Personality Disorder

antisocial personality disorder displays itself as a general disregard for the rights or needs of others. Common features include deceitful, manipulative, and criminal behavior.

Antisocial personality disorder is sometimes referred to as sociopathy. Common traits include:

Disregard for others' needs or feelings

Persistent lying, stealing, using aliases, conning others

repeated antisocial actions, such as harassment or theft

Recurring problems with the law

Repeated violation of the rights of others

Aggressive, often violent behavior

Disregard for the safety of self or others

Impulsive behavior

Consistently irresponsible

Lack of remorse for behavior

Since these symptoms live in the realm of, order and structure [specifically the lack of it], Aggression, relationships, and behavior we’re going to want to look at Saturn/10th House, Sun, Moon, Mercury Mars, Venus, 7th House and Jupiter.

Moon square/Opposite Venus

Mercury in hard aspect to Saturn

Mercury in hard aspect to Uranus or  Neptune [Mercury = Communication, Neptune=illusion Uranus=sudden/rebellion/chaos]  Andrew Cunanan- the killer of Gianni Versace is reported to have made up stories about his background, which has led many to believe that he showed early signs of antisocial personality disorder—previously referred to as psychopathy or sociopathy.

Mercury Opposite/Square Pluto

Saturn in the 1st in hard aspect

Mars square Uranus

Jupiter Opposite/square Uranus

Jupiter Opposite Neptune

1st House Stellium involving malefics

7th House ruled by Jupiter in hard aspect

Venus Square Saturn

Sun Square/Opposite Mars

Sun square/Opposite Pluto

Pluto square/opposite North Node

Mars square/Opposite North Node

Nessus touching Saturn in hard aspect

Mars ruled by Mercury in hard aspect

4th House Stelliums with multiple hard aspects including Moon in hard aspect in the 4th, Jupiter in hard aspect in the 4th, etc

Narcissistic Personality Disorder

There are varying degrees of narcissism but, overall, two distinct subtypes of [currently known and agreed upon]. Narcissism is personality dysfunction- meaning any human on earth with a personality can showcase occasional narcissistic tendencies at times. The most severe or extreme cases being labeled as a personality disorder.  To circumvent confusion, terms like self-centered or egotistical, I find are more accurate to describe weaker cases. Look, the fine print is important because many incorrectly synonymize and confuse narcissism and psychopathy when describing socially problematic behavior. While the two have some overlap and congruence on a surface level, they are not inherently the same. Psychopaths lack empathy largely due to neurological deficits in emotional functioning, which makes it difficult for them to understand the gravity behind why manipulating, deceiving, or exploiting people is not right. As a result, moral development is severely hindered. Narcissists don't lack empathy in the same way as psychopaths, rather, they fail to develop true empathy due to being absorbed by their own emotional issues.  Narcissists, at their core and in their hearts desire to be worshipped and admired in order to keep their delusory self-concept intact. So generally, they only manipulate, deceive, or exploit on an “as needed” basis so as to feel better about themselves [i.e exclusive of the intention of ruthlessness or sadism).   

With that being said, those with narcissistic personality disorder have little empathy for others. They have an excessively elevated self-image. They need constant praise, ego stroking, can be unreasonably pushy-ignore or violate boundaries, and often are deeply insecure. This inflated self-image often comes from a past of poor self-esteem, hypersensitivity, and/or shame issues, and their extreme self-focus makes it difficult if not impossible for them to really see others. Notice the common thread here is “self”. Since these traits lie in the egoic center, the empathetic and feeling sector, the self and vanity sector, and relationship realm, we’re going to want to look at Sun, Moon, Venus, Mars, 1st House, 4th House, Jupiter, and 5th House.

Sun in hard aspect to the 1st or 10th

Sun in hard aspect to Jupiter

Sun in hard aspect to Neptune

Sun forming hard aspect to Venus

Multiple squares to the ascendant

Moon forming hard aspect to Neptune in the 1st or 10th

Saturn in hard aspect to the 4th [security restricting emotion]

Venus in hard aspect in the 1st or 10th

Venus in hard aspect to Neptune in 1st [fantastic image of beauty]

1st House Stellium including Venus, Neptune, Jupiter, Moon or Mars in hard aspect

Asteroid Narcissus touching 1st House

Asteroid Adonis in hard aspect to the rising

Mars in hard aspect to Venus

Mars ruling Mars forming hard aspect to 1st

Saturn in hard aspect to Venus [Restriction of Love/ affection to others]

Jupiter in hard aspect to Rising [Jupiter expands and “inflates” and rising is the “self”]

Jupiter Squaring multiple planets [Cult leader Jim Jones had Jupiter forming multiple malefic aspects]

Midheaven containing afflicted/hard aspect to Jupiter- Serial Killer Ted Bundy has his Jupiter opposing his midheaven and multiple squares to the ascendant

Midheaven containing afflicted Sun or Mars

Astrology of Mental Illness Part 2

[anniesardors]

do you think jay has a perceptual disorder i.e. undersensitivity and borderline?

Here we go with another episode of psychoeducation with Annie... (Gonna preface this by saying this is in no means to call this anon out but rather to provide any education I can share. The more conversations we can have about mental health, the better.) I might be misunderstanding your question, but I believe you used the wrong term for "perpetual disorders." Perceptual disorders are typically classified as disorders that affect someone's sense and their ability to understand objects. These types of disorders would include hallucinations, synesthesia, auditory or visual disorders. If you meant perpetual disorder in a different context (or something else entirely) please let me know. So, I am going to answer this ask with the assumption you mean personality disorders because borderline is a type of personality disorder.

Under-sensitivity is not an actual diagnosis and while it is present in some mood disorders and personality disorders, under-sensitivity alone is not enough to make a diagnosis. Sensitivity is a trait and it's on a spectrum, so some people are more sensitive and some people are less sensitive. Some of it is biology, and some of it is environment.

Borderline personality disorder is defined as a "pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self image, and affect." Individuals with BPD are not typically under-sensitive. In fact, it's the opposite. They are very empathetic and experience emotions differently than those without BPD. The diagnostic criteria for BPD is very specific and Jay does not meet the criteria for it, nor does he meet criteria for any other personality disorders. It is difficult to be diagnosed with most personality disorders because of the fact that they are "pervasive" and affect many different areas of one's life and they are persistent.

Overall, it's not good practice to assign anyone diagnoses until you have training in diagnoses. Even then, diagnosis takes a series of assessments and observations in addition to that training. It's super common for people to attribute labels to other people without really understanding what those diagnoses mean, and it can create a lot of misinformation. So, that's my long winded answer to say that I don't think he has any of these disorders. We've seen Jay express his emotions (both in a healthy and unhealthy) manner throughout the show and I would argue that he is sensitive, but just in selective moments. For some people, sensitivity and emotional vulnerability are just more difficult, especially if you've been in environments where those qualities were accepted (so for Jay, potentially from his father or the military.) But that does not mean it's diagnosable.

[vslumbrs]

Defamiliarization of the Familiar

If ‘everyday’ is characterized as the familiar, ordinary, commonplace, and routine, regardless of the specific content that varies from people to people depending upon their lifestyle, occupation, living environment, and other factors, what makes its aesthetic appreciation possible? The following response dominates everyday aesthetics discourse: the aesthetic appreciation of everyday life requires defamiliarization, making strange, or casting an aura. Because we are most of the time preoccupied by the task at hand in our daily life, practical considerations mask the aesthetic potential of commonplace objects and ordinary activities. Furthermore, such experiences lack any coherent structure consisting of unity, pervasive character, and a clear beginning and an end. In short, according to Dewey, our everyday humdrum proceeds mechanically without any internal organic evolution, hence “anesthetic.” Only when we have an experience with all the structural requirements fulfilled does our everyday life gain aesthetic merit. Once we have an experience with a different attitude and perceptual gear and/or a cohesive internal structure, we can unearth latent aesthetic values in the most ordinary and routine. This view can be interpreted as a faithful application of the claim made by the aesthetic attitude theory that theoretically anything can be an object of aesthetic experience. Mundane objects can acquire a kind of ‘aura’ that heightens their aesthetic value (Leonhardt 1985; Tuan 1993; Visser 1997; Gumbrecht 2006; Leddy 2008, 2012a; Al Qudowa 2017). According to this interpretation, what is new about everyday aesthetics is its illumination of those aspects of our lives that are normally neglected or ignored because they are eclipsed by standout aesthetic experiences we often have with works of art and nature. More careful attention and a different mindset can reveal a surprisingly rich aesthetic dimension of the otherwise mundane, non-memorable, ordinary parts of our daily life. Many works of art are helpful in guiding us through the morasses of everyday life toward a rewarding aesthetic experience (Dillard 1974; Prose 1999; Stabb 2002; Martin 2004, Leddy 2012a; Nanay 2016, 2018). This trajectory of everyday aesthetics is welcomed by a number of thinkers for its contribution to enriching life experiences, encouraging mindful living, and facilitating happiness without problematic consequences that often accompany a hedonistic lifestyle (Irvin 2008b; Shusterman 2013; Melchionne 2014; Leddy 2014b).

[antoine-roquentin]

Fascism—a form of revolutionary conservation—gains force as a means to smash the workers movement, to crush communism. If today there is no fascism, it’s because there is also no communism. It’s for this basic reason that the analogies with Weimar are wide of the mark.

There are, of course, other authoritarian, conservative politics out there, but conservatism itself is historically weak. As Corey Robin has argued, the U.S. Republicans, for instance, only hold onto power through the Senate, Electoral College, and the courts—precisely those institutions that don’t rely on popular support. Liberalism is still majoritarian, and even as it has become more authoritarian. Populism is merely its ineffectual shadow.

So, why do we fantasize otherwise? The historian and author Barbara Tuchman coined an eponymous law that holds that “the fact of being reported multiplies the apparent extent of any deplorable development by five- to tenfold.” As Tuchman elaborates:

Disaster is rarely as pervasive as it seems from recorded accounts…. Besides, persistence of the normal is usually greater than the effect of the disturbance…. After absorbing the news of today, one expects to face a world consisting entirely of strikes, crimes, power failures, broken water mains, stalled trains, school shutdowns, muggers, drug addicts, neo-Nazis, and rapists. The fact is that one can come home in the evening—on a lucky day—without having encountered more than one or two of these phenomena.

Perceptually ready to find disaster, we’ve been primed by cinema as much as history-writing and the news to expect emergencies to feel like, well, emergencies. The reality is that very serious and dangerous situations—war, for instance—are often boring for the participants. The much-prophesied global pandemic, now that it has arrived, hasn’t been permanent emergency but rather a lot of tedium and a steady wearing down of society. Nothing feels as real and immediate and urgent as we were told it would be. When does the real stuff start?

At a basic level, then, we should wonder if our favored fascist dystopia is not an attempt to make good on the projections of the culture industry, the reality of the contemporary emergency having failed to live up to its hyperreal expectations. The radical aspects of the Trump presidency were his tweeting and his grating bravado; the rest, continuity—the same deportations, tax cuts, and wars as before. To adapt our political views to Hollywood schemas, we choose to imagine that the mundane degradation of politics is actually fascism, or that the real fascism, the real disaster, the real dystopia, will emerge next time around.

However, it’s not simply that this fantasy is a function of the fact that we are all subjects of the culture industry; it’s also that the fantasy enables a certain kind of left cowardice in the guise of left bravery (antifascists out on the street punching Proud Boys). The leftist denunciation of the powers-that-be as “fascist” is ultimately complicit with the constitution of elite authority. When we rebel, we build up power as a substantial Other, and thereby infinitely postpone seizing authority for ourselves. As philosopher Todd McGowan has written, “rebels never have to see how their resistance manifests itself without what it resists. Rebellion provides the comfort of being on the outside while imagining that there is a substantial enemy on the other side.”

Fantasizing the fascist threat makes it feel like those in power are really wielding authority, rather than being the incompetent, self-contradictory forces they are. The reality of power today is a void of outsourced authority—outsourced to science, both physical and economic; to external enemies; to the objective necessities of globalization. Without our participation in sustaining the fantasy of substantial authority, we would all have to face the void: now what’s going to happen to us without the barbarians? The desired-for fascist dystopia is thus a kind of wish fulfillment: it allows us to imagine that someone might exercise a strong hand, that our world of drift and wearing-down will end, so that we can finally be confronted with our real reality—the naked exercise of power, not this simulacra.

The political right, it should be said, has its own versions of fascist fantasy. In the 2000s, it was “Islamofascism,” an idea as fraudulent as Trumpofascism. Today, the populist right conjures up “Cultural Marxism,” an unholy alliance of the Left and international capital. The “Great Reset”—an uninspired rebranding of “ethical capitalism” by the World Economic Forum, whose purpose is to provide legitimation for a stagnant capitalism—has been recast as a Bolshevik plot. Shit, they imagine, is getting real. The truth, of course, is that it’s all the same shit, just with different aesthetics. This is the secret of our contemporary political polarization: both populist reactionaries and liberal antifascists loudly shout about how everything is changing, when really we’re just getting the same slow decay.

Reaction has always thrived off lurid fantasies—this, for once, is a genuine continuity with fascism. But for the portion of the Left that participates in the fantasy of antifascism, it is self-sabotage. Elites are unfit to rule—we know this, and their response to the pandemic only confirms their incompetent authoritarianism—and yet we persist in imagining them to be domineering masters. In thinking of them as fascist strongmen rather than weak placeholders, the Left avoids its real task of filling the political void with a concrete, alternative program.

Rather than stoke fears about an imminent fascist takeover, we should accept that dystopia has already arrived. It is a low-intensity, mostly banal dystopia, but dystopia nonetheless. Images of emergency, immediacy, sudden action and tanks on the streets—these are fantasies used to cover over the much more mundane situation of diminished popular sovereignty. Worse, in fearing a fascism that doesn’t come, we make ourselves prey to other forces—both those that currently destitute democracy as well as those that may emerge.

When government becomes too intractable, when the continuing absence of popular sovereignty means that elite discipline and coherence ebbs away, the stage is set for a new character to bring order. This may be a sensible and self-composed figure who provides succor to all of those exhausted by an increasingly rancorous culture war. This non-partisan, charismatic figure would be parasitic on worn-down democratic institutions, on the feeling that, “if this is democracy, I don’t want it anymore.” For all of us accustomed to fantasizing about fascism—an act of abnegating our own authority—a 21st century Caesarism may prove seductive.

should be read in the context of AOC supporting pelosi against a candidate perceived to be worse, hakeem jeffries, and ending up with no committee posting as a result. would a progressive movement within the democratic party that championed hawkins over biden, ultimately causing biden to lose to trump, have more or less power than it does today?