Dr. X's Free Associations

I Know You Are But What Am I?

From the North County Times, via The Situationst:

Peter Ditto, a professor of psychology at UC Irvine, said there’s a bit more to it. We listen to, say, a conservative host because we believe he —- or in rare cases, she —- looks at the world through the correct prism.

“Republicans turn to Fox News not because they think it will confirm their beliefs, but because they believe they are the unbiased keepers of the truth —- and that MSNBC and CNN are biased toward the left,” Ditto said. “Liberals do exactly the opposite.”

Vintage Photos

Sister Mary DeHavilland, (Sisters of St. Cessna) reading to children at orphanage (L.A. 1950).

DSM IV-TR: Axis II 301.50

Histrionic Personality Disorder: a pervasive pattern of excessive emotionality and attention seeking, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:

1. Is uncomfortable in situations in which he or she is not the center of attention
2. Interaction with others is often characterized by inappropriate sexually seductive or provocative behavior
3. Displays rapidly shifting and shallow expression of emotions
4. Consistently uses physical appearance to draw attention to self
5. Has a style of speech that is excessively impressionistic and lacking in detail
6. Shows self-dramatization, theatricality, and exaggerated expression of emotion
7. Is suggestible, i.e., easily influenced by others or circumstances
8. Considers relationships to be more intimate than they actually are.

A few years ago it was bipoloar disorder. More recently, Narcissistic Personality Disorder has become the diagnosis du jour for bad boyfriends and despised politicians. I just want to remind non-shrinks that there are other diagnoses and other personality styles.  And not only are there other personalities, but personalities are usually mixed.

Another caution: while the DSM can point to personality markers, it doesn't describe what's behind certain clusters of observable behavior--the enduring conflicts, deficits, defenses  and coping mechanisms, not to mention subjective internal experience and implicit organizing narratives.  A DSM diagnosis is, at best, a look at the tip of an iceberg.

A decent treatment of this subject goes well beyond anything I want to tackle in my blog, but I just thought I'd throw my two-cents into the mix.

Vintage Drag Photos

Arrested for dressing in drag (L.A. 1946).  Left-click photo to enlarge.

More drag arrests below the fold.

Joey Chestnut Is Not Invited To Our Cookout...Ever

July 4, Coney Island:

Joey Chestnut became a three-time winner of the mustard-yellow belt at the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest on Saturday, setting a world record in the process.

Chestnut downed 68 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes to win his third consecutive title, once again defeating six-time champ Takeru Kobayashi, who also broke the previous 10-minute record with 64 1/2 dogs and buns. This year's contest was not as close as last year's, where Chestnut and Kobayashi went to a five-dog eat-off after each consuming 59 in regulation.

Joey discusses his craft.

Vintage July 4th

July 4, 1922 (Takoma Park, Maryland). Left-click photo to enlarge.

More images below the fold

Blogging: The 'Weak Man' Argument

Julian Sanchez on political argument:

Via erstwhile debate compatriot turned awesome academic Steve Maloney, I discover the “weak man” argument, which actually seems far more prevalent than the better-known straw man. Making a straw-man argument, of course, involves misrepresenting a position opposed to your own so that you can beat up on it easily. The Internet makes it somewhat harder to do this credibly because people expect that you actually link to an instance of the argument you’re attributing to your opponents. With a “weak man,” you don’t actually fabricate a position, but rather pick the weakest of the arguments actually offered up by people on the other side and treat it as the best or only one they have.  As Steve notes, this is hardly illegitimate all the time, because sometimes the weaker argument is actually the prevalent one...

But

it also meshes with an unfortunate psychological bias that I’m finding more and more grating lately: It seems that most people genuinely have no idea what people with very different views actually think. A shocking number of folks on the left seem to be under the impression that apparently well-educated libertarians have somehow never encountered the idea of a “collective action problem” or “imperfect information.” And in fairness, you run into libertarians who think that progressives are all just innocent of elementary microeconomics. This is one reason I’m not entirely persuaded that norms of cross-linking will keep online discussion from devolving into a series of echo chambers: There’s strong incentive to link the other side’s worst arguments. (Scroll down to that post from earlier—if you’ve got ten minutes to write, the easiest thing to do is beat up on the dumbest, most outrageous thing you heard today.

Vintage Photos

 

"Luncheon at the bath" (Between 1909 & 1920).  Left-click photo to enlarge.

Quote of the Day

Derec Bownds: quotes from Thomas Metzinger, The Ego Tunnel:

The conscious brain is a biological machine - a reality engine - that purports to tell us what exists and what doesn’t. It is unsettling to discover that there are no colors out there in front of your eyes...they are models created by your brain...The world is not inhabited by colored objects at all..there is just an ocean of electromagnetic radiation, a wild and raging mixture of different wavelengths. Most of them are invisible to you and can never become part of your conscious model of reality. ...the visual system is your brain is drilling a tunnel through this inconceivably rich physical environment and in the process is painting the tunnel walls in various shades of color. Phenomenal color. Appearance. For your conscious eyes only...cognitive neuroscience has shown that the process of conscious experience is just an idiosyncratic path through a physical reality so unimaginably complex and rich in information that it will always be hard to grasp just how reduced our subjective experience is.

And check out the video below. Stare at the dot in the center of the screen without breaking your gaze until the photograph appears. The photo is in black and white, but you will see a color image.

Video via: Of Two Minds

Waiter, Do You Serve Neanderthals?

Were Neanderthals eaten by humans?