Category Archives: Psychology

When They Tell You Who They Are, Believe Them

Posted on Saturday 1 June 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Actually it was Maya Angelou who said, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time,”, which I looked up after typing the title above. Today’s post is another summary of political items, in this case about … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, conservatives, Politics, Psychology | Comments Off on When They Tell You Who They Are, Believe Them

Guilty Guilty Guilty; Over and Over and Over

Posted on Thursday 30 May 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Trump found guilty today on 34 charges; we oldsters remember the Doonsbury cartoon about Nixon: “Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!”, which is apropos here; With a comment from David Brin, who has been saying the same things about Republicans, over and over … Continue reading →

Posted in conservatives, Lunacy, Music, Politics, Psychology | Comments Off on Guilty Guilty Guilty; Over and Over and Over

Jonathan Gottschall, THE STORY PARADOX

Posted on Monday 27 May 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Here’s a nonfiction book from 2021 that I read just a couple weeks ago. It’s similar in heft to the two books just discussed, in terms of length and conceptual depth, perhaps somewhere in the middle below Wilson and above … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Narrative, Psychology, Religion | Comments Off on Jonathan Gottschall, THE STORY PARADOX

Woo-Kyoung Ahn, THINKING 101

Posted on Sunday 26 May 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: “How to Reason Better and Live Better” (Flatiron Books, Sept 2022, 276pp, including 21p of acknowledgements, notes, and index) Here’s another short book, read the same month as yesterday’s Robert Charles Wilson book though it was published a year … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Psychology | Comments Off on Woo-Kyoung Ahn, THINKING 101

Living By Stories, Not Reality, Part 2

Posted on Tuesday 21 May 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

A New Yorker review of a new book about human origins; Robert Reich on how Americans don’t understand the reality of Trump and Biden; Short items about the Pope, and fundamentalists beliefs in the evil nature of human beings; how … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Narrative, Psychology, Religion | Comments Off on Living By Stories, Not Reality, Part 2

Rules for Storytelling

Posted on Saturday 18 May 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Vatican updates rules for identifying miracles; Some conservative Christians, dealing with gender wars and their own kids identifying as gay, are bowing to reality. If storytelling, more than we realize, drives the human experience — if people understand only through … Continue reading →

Posted in Narrative, Psychology, Religion | Comments Off on Rules for Storytelling

Fundamentalist Simplicity and Autism

Posted on Sunday 12 May 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

A fundamentalist preacher who denies that PTSD, OCD, and ADHD, exist; A New Yorker article about how psychiatric labels reinforce behaviors; and how I think autism is a condition, not a disease. Here’s a short item about a fundamentalist that … Continue reading →

Posted in Psychology, Religion | Comments Off on Fundamentalist Simplicity and Autism

Friday 10 May 2024

Posted on Friday 10 May 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

A round of assorted items collected on the web the past few days. Here’s that item about what universities are for, that I couldn’t find the other day. The Atlantic, Derek Thompson, 8 May 2024: No One Knows What Universities … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Morality, Politics, Psychology | Comments Off on Friday 10 May 2024

Can Education Account for Evolutionary Change?

Posted on Wednesday 8 May 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Steven Pinker on education, and how it might prioritize overcoming base intuitions that don’t apply in the modern world; The naturalistic fallacy and DeSantis’ and Fetterman’s objections to lab-grown meat. This month I’m working my way through the last ‘big’ … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Education, Evolution, Psychology | Comments Off on Can Education Account for Evolutionary Change?

Monoculture and Tribalist Thinking

Posted on Tuesday 30 April 2024 by Mark R. Kelly

Travel perspectives; Is everything a cult now? If so, the word has lost all meaning; Is religion just a tribal marker? Then why do so many Christian zealots want to impose their beliefs on others, to the point of executions? … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics, Psychology, Travel | Comments Off on Monoculture and Tribalist Thinking