Dr. X's Free Associations

Why Neo-cons Don't Change Their Minds About The War

Neo-con psychoanalytic blogger, Shrinkwrapped, has discussed the innate human resistance to changing opinions (here and here).  He draws from self psychology and object-relations theory to explain why opponents of America’s involvement in Iraq don’t change their minds and agree with his support for the war in spite of the facts which, if he is to be believed, speak for themselves.  While his explanation for why we humans find it difficult to change our minds might be news to his lay readers, there is nothing unfamiliar here to anyone with an understanding of contemporary psychoanalytic theories.  There is also a great deal of evidence from the cognitive sciences to support his conceptualization of resistance to changing minds.

In and of itself, Shrinkwrapped’s explanation for why human beings resist change is fine.  The problem is that he arbitrarily hitches his neo-con wagon to it, creating an air of ‘scientificity' around his political beliefs.  Shrinkwrapped begins with the certainty that everyone who disagrees with him on a single political position is out of touch with reality.  Then he offers a generic description of the difficulty all human beings have with changing their minds, as if it is only this universal resistance to changing one’s mind that keeps the rest of humanity from jumping on the back of his personal hobby horse.  In fact, Shrinkwrapped’s explanation for resistance to change is applicable to all human beings, of all political persuasions, including neo-cons like Shrinkwrapped.

When Youtube Goes Down

Never thought about what would happen.  Two days of Youtube dodginess messes up 100 million + websites worldwide, leaving big empty spaces in pages across the globe.

Twango: Faster uploads, no onscreen logos.  Maybe it's time to switch all of my video links.

Berry Christmas

Sing Along

How Do I Look?

'[Rosie O'Donnell] better be careful or I'll send one of my friends over to take [her] girlfriend!'... I imagine it would be pretty easy to take her girlfriend away, considering how Rosie looks."

— Donald Trump quoted in the New York Daily News

Donald Trump:

Yes, Donald, you'd better send a friend to take Rosie O'Donnell's girlfriend away.

Remember to Practice Safe Intellectual Intercourse

Trying to explain the exasperating phenomenon of people who continue to disagree with him on Iraq, despite his eloquent arguments and unassailable mastery of objective facts, Shrinkwrapped writes:

'Those of us who have not been infected with the thought disorder known as post-modernism and believe that there exists an actual reality that we can reasonably and objectively approach; if that is the case, what is it that prevents people from recognizing facts that are right in front of their eyes?'

It sounds to me like the erudite Shrinkwrapped experienced a little thought glitch during the writing of those sentences, but never mind that.

Shrinkwrapped goes on to explore the reasons people are unable to change their minds once they hold an opinion.  He is quite troubled by the possibility that those who have not been infected by post-modernism can continue to disagree with him.  Fortunately, Shrinkwrapped is able to draw upon self psychology to explain the substantial internal barriers to changing one's mind.

This set me to thinking about the problem because it seems to me that lots of people have been changing their minds about President Bush and his policies in the Middle East.  After doing a good deal of my own checking on the situation, I can only conclude that I am correct in my assessment that many minds have been changing, despite formidable, intrinsically human, internal obstacles to changing the mind.  Most disturbingly, though, minds have not been changing in the ways Shrinkwrapped would wish them to change.

Actually the situation is dire. Given that I agree with Shrinkwrapped's observations on the mind's resistance to changing, I can only conclude that conservative former congressman Joe Scarborough, Colin Powell, General Abizaid, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and 80% of Americans have been infected by the thought disorder known as post-modernism.  Okay, maybe Colin Powell didn't change his mind.  Perhaps he was infected all along.

In related news, President Bush has asked all citizens who are uninfected by post-modernism to return to their safety bubbles immediately. If you must go out in public, wear protection.

Shrinkwrapped and Airtight

I laughed as I read Psychoa’s post on the religious dustup over on the Lacan boards. My thoughts have been much the same. I've had some other thoughts, as well.

Recently, I said that Lacan’s ideas seem more 'penetrable' to me now than they had in the past.  I’ve realized over the last few days that it may be that what I'd found least penetrable about Lacanian discourse earlier on in my experience were the gaudy intellectual defenses that a friend describes as serpentine.  I suspect I'm not the first person to have noticed.

Elswhere in the blogosphere, the psychiatrists seem to be operating in an airtight bubble of certainty, depriving themselves and their readers of fresh intellectual oxygen as much so as the Lacanian discourse suffocates.  I have a bit more hope for the Lacanians.  At least they appear to feel distressed by the lack of air.

As I finish these comments, the pun just fell away and I remember the meaning of the word 'shrinkwrapped'.  I'll have to re-title this post.

The War On Secularism

Fox News demagogue and commander in chief in the war to save Christmas, Bill O'Reilly, wished his viewers 'Happy Holidays' last month.  His clumsy effort to recover from the unsettling slip was a thing to behold.

The Enemy Of My Enemy Is My Friend

Yesterday, in my post on Capitalism, Creativity and Fundamentalism, I commented on the tendency to become manifestly more like the enemies we defeat:

'Truth be told, I believe that hard line tactics tend to be paradoxically 'cynical' and 'naive,' often leaving the victor more like the defeated enemy rather than the other way around.  The parallel I would draw here is to arguing with a patient over an interpretation. When we win, we lose.'

Today's NY Times offers an account of the wrongful imprisonment of Donald Vance, a contractor from Chicago who worked in Iraq.  Vance, who is a 29-year-old Navy Veteran, was held by US authorities for three months after a raid on the company where he worked.  One of the more nightmarish aspects of this story is that the raid was triggered by a tip to the FBI from Vance.  He had recently gone to work for a local Iraqi security contractor and had noticed a number of suspicious activities that he believed U.S. authorities should know about.

The military did not reach Vance's FBI contact until three-weeks after he was picked up during the raid.  After Vance's account checked out with his FBI contact, the U.S. continued to hold him for two more months because he was under suspicion for having associated with the bad characters he had turned in to authorities.

Vance, who was subjected to abuses designed to break down detainee' resistance to interrogators complained that he asked for an attorney but was not given legal counsel during his imprisonment without trial or charges.  A pentagon spokesperson, Lt Lea Ann Fracasso, said that Mr. Vance had been 'treated fair and humanely' and that there was no record that he complained about his treatment.

To put this in more polite terms than I am inclined to use here, I find that sort of official response to be disgraceful.  To suggest that Mr. Vance was treated humanely because the captors who were abusing him have no record of his complaint serves to underscore my contention that the victors become more like those they defeat.

In my post yesterday, I also called economic liberals in the Republican party to task for their unprincipled alliance with Christian fundamentalists:

'I believe that one of the great failures of Republicans who understand the destructive (and deconstructive) side of creative activity has been their politically expedient silence on homegrown Christian fundamentalism.  It seems that many Republicans who reject fundamentalism and tribalism have decided that the political enemy of my enemy is my friend, without thoroughly considering that the friend of political convenience is saying the same thing about them.

When the enemy of my enemy is my friend, should it come as any surprise that some people are confused about the differences between their enemies and their friends?  Under such a circumstance, we should not be surprised that some people even begin to act very much like their enemies.

The Times reports that Mr. Vance is back in Chicago.  Of his current situation, Mr. Vance says "It's really hard.  I don't talk about this stuff with my family.  I feel ashamed, depressed, still have nightmares, and I'd say I suffer from some paranoia."

Skype Taking Intrusion To New Places

Skype, the internet phone service, has announced that it will be making voice stress analysis available to its customers as an add on service feature.

For those who may be concerned about talking with Skype customers, Digital Acoustic Solutions may have a solution.

Other Dimensions

Theoretical physicist, Lisa Randall, author of Warped Passages: Unraveling The Mysteries Of The Universe's Hidden Dimensions, was interviewed by Charlie Rose last week. She is engaged in some fascinating work that has garnered a great deal of attention in the popular press recently.  Charlie isn't the most inspired interviewer, but Randall did manage to convey a few things I found very interesting.

E.O. Wilson is interviewed in the second half of the video.

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-45154219728824809