The Zodiac, Reconsidered

Aries, March 21-April 19 – A lit match with legs, enthusiastically starting things (fires, projects, rivalries) and only later remembering that consequences are also a thing.

Taurus, April 20-May20 – A velvet-upholstered bulldozer: immovable, comfort-obsessed, and quietly judging anything that isn’t buttered, scented, or worth the effort.

Gemini, May 21-June20 – Two raccoons in a trench coat hosting a talk show in your brain, both interrupting each other and somehow still charming the audience.

Cancer, June 21-July 22 – A haunted Victorian teacup filled with feelings, offering snacks while remembering something you said in 2007.

Leo, July 23-August 22 – A sunbeam that learned how to pose, radiating warmth and drama in equal measure, with a standing ovation playing softly in the background at all times.

Virgo, August 23-September 22 – A benevolent spreadsheet that developed anxiety, here to fix everything—including problems that were perfectly happy being problems.

Libra, September 23-October 22 – A chandelier with opinions, gently swaying between choices while making indecision look like an aesthetic philosophy.

Scorpio, October 23-November 21 – A locked drawer that definitely contains something alive, maintaining eye contact while you wonder if you should be intrigued or afraid.

Sagittarius, November 22-December 21 – A philosophical cannonball, launching into the horizon mid-sentence and somehow turning chaos into a life lesson by dinner.

Capricorn, December 22-January 19 – A mountain in a tailored suit, slowly achieving everything while pretending it’s no big deal and side-eyeing your shortcuts.

Aquarius, January 20-February 18 – An alien anthropologist wearing vintage denim, observing humanity with fond confusion and occasionally inventing a new personality trait.

Pisces, February 19-March 20 – A watercolor dream that forgot its edges, drifting between realities with a poetic sigh and at least one imaginary friend who gives excellent advice.

The Sensitive Artistic Type

The Importance of Vulnerability

A short film from The School of Life.

https://www.theschooloflife.com/london/
https://www.facebook.com/theschooloflifelondon/

New Study Suggests Connections Between Homophobia And Mental Disorders

Just can't resist posting this article about an Italian study on homophobia. I couldn't agree with it more. We have always known this to be true, but it is nice to now have scientific proof to back it up.


New Study Suggests Connections Between Homophobia And Mental Disorders
BY ZACK FORD SEP 11, 2015 3:17PM

Homosexuality was long derided as a mental disorder — and being transgender often still is — but a new study suggests that it might be more likely that it’s actually homophobia that is a sign of mental disorder.

Researchers working with the Italian Society of Andrology and Sexual Medicine evaluated the mental health of 560 Italian University students to see what connections could be found between their psychological traits and their propensity for homophobia. Indeed, they found that aspects of psychoticism and immature defense mechanisms were significant predictors for homophobic attitudes.

“We found that psychoticism represented an important risk factor for homophobia, demonstrating that pathologic personality traits are involved in homophobic attitudes,” the study explains. Psychoticism embodies various characteristics, but above all, “severe psychopathologic conditions, such as delusion, isolation, and interpersonal alienation, but also hostility and anger.” Homophobia could be partially linked by “pathologic trait of personality,” meaning that various disorders of relationship and thought could be predictive of homophobia.

Immature defense mechanisms similarly predicted homophobic attitudes. These are coping mechanisms activated during states of distress and anxiety and include behaviors like projection, acting out, isolation, denial, passive aggressiveness, and displacement. “Our data revealed that immature defense mechanisms predict homophobia, highlighting that a negative attitude toward homosexuals is influenced once again by dysfunctional aspects of personality.”

While these aggressive personality traits were linked with homophobia, depression had the opposite effect. “Subjects with depression have a lower risk to develop homophobic behavior,” in part because it seems they were less likely to “perceive external reality as a threat and project their anger.”

The study also found that gender was a significant predictor of homophobia. “Men are more homophobic than women,” and in particular, they demonstrated a tendency toward more negative attitudes and “a major risk of aggressive behavior or acting out toward homosexuals.”

Speaking to Medical Daily, lead researcher Dr. Emmanuele A. Jannini suggested, “After discussing for centuries if homosexuality is to be considered a disease, for the first time we demonstrated that the real disease to be cured is homophobia, associated with potentially severe psychopathologies.”

Homophobic attitudes have previously been linked to unacknowledged same-sex attractions and dying younger.


Link to original article on Think Progress:
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2015/09/11/3700857/homophobia-mental-disorder/

Do you favor a side?

To be clear, we all use BOTH sides of our brain. It is necessary. But sometimes we are more comfortable on one side or the other...
Do I have more left- or more right-brained followers?

My Own Proust Questionnaire

Tired of receiving forwarded email "personality tests," in 2008 I made up my own version, inspired by the famous "Proust Questionnaire." Although not invented by him, this type of get-to-know-you parlour game has come to be associated with Proust because he answered a set of similar questions in writing at a party he attended in 1890, when he was still in his teens.

Such questionnaires are intended to reveal a deeper level of the personality of the one answering the questions. Following are questions that I think reveal a lot about someone--or at least what is interesting.
Feel free to answer, re-post or send to friends.


1. What is the most important thing you have to do today?
2. Do you know the day of the week and the time of your birth? What is it?
3. What is your Zodiac sign? Do you think you fit the traditional characteristics of that sign?
4. What is your ethnic heritage? Can you trace your family tree back? How far?
5. What is your earliest memory?
6. What is your blood type? How did you find out?
7. Do you have any scars? What and how did you get them?
8. Have you ever broken a bone? How?
9. If you could change something about your physical appearance, what would it be?
10. If your mother were an animal, what do YOU think she would be?
11. If your father were an animal, what do YOU think he would be?
12. What is (are) your comfort food(s)?
13. At what age did you learn to swim? How did it happen and who taught you? Do you recall it fondly?
14. Can you open your eyes under water? If you can’t would you like to be able to?
15. What book are you reading right now? Do you like it?
16. Name up to 3 books that have had a great influence on you and/or changed your life.
17. Name up to 3 films that have had a great influence on you and/or changed your life.
18. What film can you watch over and over again?
19. Name up to 3 artists (living or dead) whose work you are strongly drawn to.
20. Who are your favorite heroes/heroines of fiction?
21. Who are your heroes/heroines in real life?
22. What cologne or perfume do you wear?
23. Name a singer whose voice makes you swoon.
24. Do you play an instrument? How long have you played it?
25. Poker or Tarot cards?
26. Pool or ocean?
27. Jungian or Freudian?
28. Sun or rain?
29. North or south?
30. Name a compliment someone gave you that made you blush.
31. When you fly in an airplane, you leave the earth for a while. Guess how long you have been “off-world” in an airplane (hours or days).
32. Out of your five senses, which one(s) do you think is (are) the strongest?
33. Although neither of these are “preferable,” if you had to lose either your sight or your hearing, which would you choose to lose?
34. Regardless of size or circumstance, what animal would you own as a pet if you could?
35. What famous view or monument would you like to be able to see from your bedroom window?
36. How many languages do you speak?
37. What language do you WISH you could speak?
38. Under what circumstances do you become impatient?
39. Does a photo of you naked exist?
40. Do you have a phobia? What is it?
41. Are your dreams important to you? Do you recall them? Do you keep a dream journal?
42. Name a recurring dream or nightmare.
43. Where is the most unusual place you have ever fallen asleep?
44. Do you think there’s life on other planets?
45. What in your life are you most proud of?
46. What emotion do you tend to hide the most?
47. Do you have a motto? What is it?
48. What was your last mystical experience?
49. What, to your mind, would be the greatest of misfortunes?
50. When and where was the happiest you have yet been in your life?
51. How would you like to die?
52. Do you want to be buried or cremated?
53. What do you want to have happen at your funeral/memorial (people, place, music, etc.)?
54. Do you believe in God? Describe God.
55. How do you picture the end of the world?

Three Time Periods

I like conversational parlour games and questionnaires, like the so-called "Proust" questionnaire. They can be fun and revealing, allowing one to get to know people on a deeper level. Ideally, the best conversational parlour games lead to interesting discussions that exceed the original topic. One conversational game I learned of many years ago is called Three Time Periods. Here is the set-up:
You can travel back in time to visit three time periods. You will have twentry-four hours in each time period. Any time, anywhere. You will be given the correct clothing to blend in and enough money to buy what you need. Language is not an issue as you will magically be able to speak and understand whatever language you encounter. What three time periods will you choose and why?

Here are my answers.
1. That lovely time in between wars, about 1932-33. I would choose to be in New York City to see the culture then...attend a matinee, hang out by the offices of the New Yorker magazine and see if I could find Dorothy Parker or John dos Passos or Ring Lardner going in/coming out, perhaps go to a nightclub or two (the Cotton Club!), and just generally drink in the Edward Hopper-like tableaux. I am sure I would find more to do once I was there. Maybe I could get to meet Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant!

2. Impressionist Paris, late 1800s, when the Impressionists had their third exhibition at their own Salon des Refuses, being refused from exhibiting at the Academie des Beaux-Arts. By then the movement would have been past the birth stage and into the growth stage. I would try to find where Monet was painting--if in plein air (most likely), I would go there and sit and watch him. Same thing with Manet--especially were he to be at the frog pond!
And of course, for night life, I would have to go up to Montmartre and also to the Folies Bergeres.

3. I had to make a painful decision to skip ancient Greece (the Colossus of Rhodes would have been fantastic to see), ancient Rome, and even ancient Egypt (oh, how I would love to see the temple at Luxor, the temple at Karnak, and the temple of Abu-Simbal) and opt instead to visit India around 400 BCE-ish for an opportunity to see the Buddha, Siddartha Gautama, and to hear him teach.

What three time periods would you choose and why?