OK, I lied on when I said I would begin answering questions from the public... ;) ... The truth is that I don't have time; I thought I would... but I don't unfortunately, not right now, but I will at the end of this quarter. Being in grad school full time, working part-time, and doing all the normal things like going grocery shopping, making dinner, etc., leaves me with little or no free time, and the tiny little moments of free time I do have, I don't seem to want to spend in front of a computer since so much of my work already involves being at the computer. So... thanks again to everyone who sent in questions, and I will answer when I can, and will send e-mails to those whose questions I answer, when I answer them, just to let you know.
I'd like to thank everyone who sent me questions to hopefully be answered here. I've gathered the questions into a list, and will begin answering one question per week starting this Sunday (Jan 10th). Whenever I answer a question, I will send an e-mail to the question-asker.
This blog has a new purpose and a new name! :) ...and I've deleted almost all of the previous posts since its inception.
I decided that instead of using this blog as a place for me to give reflections about the dark circus called civilization, I'm going to use it as a question-and-answer venue called "Ask The Fetish Analyst". I welcome the public to ask questions on anything concerning sexual fetishism, BDSM, obsessions, compulsions, bizarre fantasies, etc.
I will answer questions from the public twice a month (or more frequently if I can find time between college studies and analytic work).
E-mail your questions to me: vekquin.com/contact or vekquin@gmail.com
As of Dec. 13th, 2009 I have seven questions I will begin answers as soon as my school quarter finishes on December 18th!
I decided that instead of using this blog as a place for me to give reflections about the dark circus called civilization, I'm going to use it as a question-and-answer venue called "Ask The Fetish Analyst". I welcome the public to ask questions on anything concerning sexual fetishism, BDSM, obsessions, compulsions, bizarre fantasies, etc.
I will answer questions from the public twice a month (or more frequently if I can find time between college studies and analytic work).
E-mail your questions to me: vekquin.com/contact or vekquin@gmail.com
As of Dec. 13th, 2009 I have seven questions I will begin answers as soon as my school quarter finishes on December 18th!
I'm reading a new book (well an old book, but it's new to me! :) called Existential Man: The Challenge of Psychotherapy by Richard Eaton Johnson, born 1929. It was printed by Pergamon Press, New York, 1971.
The book was radical for it's time, 38 years ago. Here's what the author says on page 1:
Wow! Sounds pretty good so far! I can really relate to some of what he says from my own experience of being a 'rebel' or 'black sheep' in academia because I reject so much of what they attempt to pass off to me as 'truth'.
A few pages later the author states:
Finally, someone in the field of philosophical psychology who thinks in a similar way as I do! Interestingly, though he wrote this 38 years ago, not much has changed in the field of clinical psychology; it's nearly the same as it was in the 1970's, except now there are more categories of disorders that can be given for diagnoses, and more choices on types of drugs to numb the natural pain of existence. I agree with him that the pain of existence is meant to be used as a guiding force in a transformative process that results in a personal evolution (or a cultural one if everyone were to go into their existential pain rather than away from it, as the author suggests) into a permanently higher consciousness. I wonder if the author is still alive; if he is, he will become 80 years old this year.
An existential crisis generates a metamorphosis. I have known this for a long time, but have never read anyone in the field of clinical psychology discuss this idea (philosophical psychology, yes, but clinical, no, it generally lacks depth).
The book was radical for it's time, 38 years ago. Here's what the author says on page 1:
I am a psychologist. Yet I hate psychology. I owe it no allegiance. It has only abused me and those values most important to me. I was expelled from one department [...]. I was then refused admission to most other departments [...]. The department that did grant me a degree tried to expel me even after a completed dissertation because "you do not think in the mainstream of psychology". I rebelled in defense of subjective man and was repeatedly punished for it. Psychology studied the facade of man. I wanted to study man himself. My commitment to subjective existence was rejected as either naiive or pathological. My discontent with psychology was dismissed as either personal or professional failure. I will not forget the vindictive reaction of psychology to me.
Alienation from psychology drove me deeper into my own solitude. I had been alone often in the past. Most of life was alien to me. I hated every organized intellectual and social system. I hated most of the systems of psychology. I asserted myself against these calculated answers to existence. I spurned these logical reductions of man. I explored my deepest subjective self to discover a more vital reality. That subjective search led me into lonely solitude. I risked it then. I risk it now.
Wow! Sounds pretty good so far! I can really relate to some of what he says from my own experience of being a 'rebel' or 'black sheep' in academia because I reject so much of what they attempt to pass off to me as 'truth'.
A few pages later the author states:
{p.6} No one can refute the fact that ethical mores are being transformed by scientific advances in medicine and technology. The traditional ethics of physical pain and physical labor have become historically obsolete. They no longer determine the character of culture and of man. Yet the crisis in human evolution has not been precipitated by this ethical transformation. Nor has it been precipitated by scientific breakthroughs [...]. The clamor over these issues is but "sounding brass". The critical danger to man is that these same scientific instruments are being used by modern prophets to eliminate psychological pain and psychological labor. Man cannot survive such a surgery at this stage of human evolution. Pain and labor generate dynamic energy for man's commitment to his metaphysical self. They are life blood to the contemporary epoch of "redemption". Cut these vital forces out of man with manipulation, drugs, or games and he will surely die.
{p.7} I want to describe more succinctly the significance of pain and labor at this crucial stage of human evolution. Man dwells within two existential worlds at the same time. One is the solitary world of his intrapsychic life. The other is the social world of his interpersonal life. The latter world is superimposed upon the former and a state of tension exists within and between the two worlds. It is these tension states which make pain and labor necessary. The modern prophets [i.e. psychiatrists] of Utopia consider these states pathological. [...]
I begin with a rejection of the common assumption that human motivation is biological, sociological, or psychological. I reject the assumption that man is determined by the "facts" of biology, sociology, or psychology. I argue rather that human motivation and human evolution are directed by a psychic energy that is metaphysical. The term metaphysics must be introduced because the origins of this psychic energy cannot be determined. The energy is an existential given. It emerged from that enigmatic period of evolution when consciousness became aware of itself and that awareness of the self became the decisive human factor. Then the existence of the self, rather than biological survival, began to direct the destiny of man.
Such a concept of metaphysical motivation is not just a bizarre whim of my own as it has often been labeled. The struggle to encounter and define this psychic energy has occupied philosophers and theologians across cultures and across time. This same struggle to encounter the metaphysics of the self underlies the labored efforts of contemporary existential thinkers. My goal in psychotherapy is to engage each individual client in a personal struggle to encounter the existential self within him.
[...] Behaviorism and psychoanalysis are steps backward since they only substitute another "program" or "system" of authority for the obsolete authority of God. So do proposals from the psychological left threaten to destroy this progress in human evolution. They recommend shortcuts to the "divine" which vitiate the very means by which an authentic reconciliation between man and "God" might ultimately be achieved. It is for these reasons that I refuse to offer clients any "cure" of relief from the pain and labor of anxiety and guilt. Instead, I bend my being like a contortionist to engage the client in an existential crisis that will precipitate an intrapsychic metamorphosis. The crisis will transform these pathological symptoms into existential drives. [...] The dynamics of socialization will be destroyed and from that process of destruction the existential self will emerge.
Finally, someone in the field of philosophical psychology who thinks in a similar way as I do! Interestingly, though he wrote this 38 years ago, not much has changed in the field of clinical psychology; it's nearly the same as it was in the 1970's, except now there are more categories of disorders that can be given for diagnoses, and more choices on types of drugs to numb the natural pain of existence. I agree with him that the pain of existence is meant to be used as a guiding force in a transformative process that results in a personal evolution (or a cultural one if everyone were to go into their existential pain rather than away from it, as the author suggests) into a permanently higher consciousness. I wonder if the author is still alive; if he is, he will become 80 years old this year.
An existential crisis generates a metamorphosis. I have known this for a long time, but have never read anyone in the field of clinical psychology discuss this idea (philosophical psychology, yes, but clinical, no, it generally lacks depth).
I just found a great video to educate the mindless masses about the reality of where almost all animal foods come from: The Meatrix.
Imagine if the millions who saw The Matrix also watched The Meatrix... I think it would wake up the general public and help to create some much needed change in the world (or else, more likely, the public generally does not care about the plight of non-human life forms).
Imagine if the millions who saw The Matrix also watched The Meatrix... I think it would wake up the general public and help to create some much needed change in the world (or else, more likely, the public generally does not care about the plight of non-human life forms).
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