So when I say, as the subtitle of my book, that I think religion poisons everything, I'm not just doing what publishers like and coming up with a provocative subtitle, I mean to say it infects us in our most basic integrity. It says we can't be moral without Big Brother, without a totalitarian permission. It means we can't be good to one another, it means we can't think without this. We must be afraid, we must also be forced to love someone who we fear, the essence of sado-masochism and the essence of abjection, the essence of the master-slave relationship and that knows that death is coming and can't wait to bring it on. I say this is evil. And though I do, some nights, stay at home, I enjoy more the nights when I go out and fight against this ultimate wickedness and ultimate stupidity.
--Christopher HItchens

The worst criticism
seeks to have the last word
and leave the rest of us in silence;
the best opens up an exchange
that need never end.
--Critic Rebecca Solnit, quoted in Brainpickings.org

Americans are broad-minded people. They'll accept the fact that a person can be an alcoholic, a dope fiend, a wife beater, and even a newspaperman, but if a man doesn't drive, there is something wrong with him.
--Art Buchwald

I don't really have time for a thoughtful post about this but I do want to get my notes off of this ripped up envelope and into digital legible form.
( deciphering notes on a tattered envelope which I just squashed a fly inCollapse )

"The greater the struggle, the more glorious the triumph."
The Butterfly Circus
http://vimeo.com/17150524
22:35 long and well worth the time invested

This is a new finding. The earlier in life that the traumatic insult occurs, the greater the effect. The brain develops differently as a result, and there is a great chance of comorbidities. SOURCE: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/749564?src=mpnews&spon=12

Also interesting, the mortality gap between normal people and those with mental illness is getting larger. All current mental health efforts are not yet improving the odds of survival for those with bipolar and shizophrenia. SOURCE: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/749687?src=mpnews&spon=12

On managing aggressive schizophrenics: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/749195?src=mp&spon=12

What survivors do...dissociate from the body and withdraw into the head.

Cut off from the body, one doesn't feel vulnerable. By identifying the self with the ego, one also gains the illusion of power. Since the will is the instrument of the ego, one truly believes "where there's a will, there's a way" or "one can do whatever one wills." This is true as long as the body has the energy to support the ego's directive. But all the willpower in the world is no help to a person who lacks the energy to implement the will. Healthy individuals do not operate in terms of willpower except in an emergency. Normal actions are motivated by feelings rather than by the will. One doesn't need willpower to do what one wants to do. There is no need to use the will when one has a strong desire. Desire itself is an energetic charge which activates an impulse leading to actions that are free and generally fulfilling. An impulse is a flowing force from the core of the body to the surface, where it motivates the musculature for action. The will, on the other hand, is a driving force that stems from the ego--the head--to act counter to the body's natural impulses. Thus, when one is afraid, the natural impulse is to run away from the threatening situation. However this may not always be the best action. One cannot always escape a danger by running. Confronting the threat may be the wiser course, but this is difficult to do when one is frightened and there is an impulse to run. In such situations mobilizing the will to counter the fear is a positive action.
--Alexander Lowen, MD, in Joy; The Surrender to the Body and to Life, page 81-82.

As an atheist, I believe that all life is unspeakably precious, because it’s only here for a brief moment, a flare against the dark, and then it’s gone forever. No afterlives, no second chances, no backsies. So there can be nothing crueler than the abuse, destruction or wanton taking of a life. It is a crime no less than burning the Mona Lisa, for there is always just one of each.
--J. Michael Straczynski

Behavioral Problems and Adolescent Medicine
( notes (adhd notes integrated)Collapse )