From Identity Politics to Utopia
Identity politics = “based on or catering to the cultural, ethnic, gender, racial, religious, or social interests that characterize a group.” Gay versus straight, black versus white, Palestinians versus Israelis, Catholics versus Protestants, Englishmen versus immigrants (see Brexit)… To many, the own group is ‘the box that I and others think I belong to’. I Read the full article…
How to Focus Your Attention
Attention is the weirdest thing. It seems so close and yet, precisely through its closeness, we cannot directly look at it. Compare it with not being able to see your own eyes, except in a mirror. And prepare for weirdness. Attention shifts happen unconsciously. Consciously you only notice that your attention has already shifted. If Read the full article…
Burned Out. The Sky Has Come Down. What to Do?
What to do if you feel that the slightest bit of energy to do anything at all has gone? Burned out: you feel drained. You’ve put too much energy in an endeavor that symbolically failed. This means: it may have failed objectively, in reality… or only in your perception of that reality. The distinction is Read the full article…
Secular Society
Secularism = the individual’s right to be free from the imposition of any religion by government, in a state declared to be neutral on matters of belief. [This text goes further upon ‘Freedom of Religion’.] Sustainability from the start ‘Secular society’ is about ‘freedom of religion.’ But not only that. In order to be sustainable, Read the full article…
Freedom of Religion
It seems a nice endeavor, the ‘best thing to do’. But is it even possible at an individual level? Is anyone ‘free to believe’? Let’s agree that you don’t believe in the existence of unicorns. Are you then ‘free to believe’ in them? Can you take a conscious decision to believe in such? I cannot Read the full article…
Two Racisms – One Way Out
At the surface, racism is simply about a feeling of superiority over people from another race or ethnicity. Here ends the easy part. Why do people rank other people as inferior or superior based on inherited characteristics, be it visible in color or anything else? With due respect to those being racially discriminated, I want Read the full article…
Six Steps Every Drug Addict Could Take
Psychology should ALWAYS be part of managing an addiction: not just fighting it but really managing it in due respect for yourself as a ‘total human being’. Thus, in every case, if you want to overcome an addiction, it’s good to take the psyche into account. First step: it’s you. Within the totality of your Read the full article…
A Leader’s Anxiety
As a leader, you are always closer to a feeling of anxiety. As a leader, you look more than others into uncharted territories. There you encounter the unknown, which always brings nearer the unknown within oneself, the principally not knowable within oneself, the own part of psyche that one is not conscious of. Psychologist C.G. Read the full article…
Is Competition Out?
‘Caring competition’ is a competition between people’s actions and competences, not between their dignities. Competition is natural. That doesn’t mean that an aggressive struggle is intrinsically good. I dare say it’s not. Even if it were all-pervasive in nature – which it is not – within human society we better transcend it. We humans have Read the full article…
Always Responsible, Never Guilty
The difference between guilt and responsibility is very important, yet frequently it’s barely acknowledged. You are guilty when having committed a crime. What is denoted as a crime may vary. Sometimes homosexuality is seen as an awful crime. At another time and place, it’s normal behavior. Crime does not exist without cultural definition. A set Read the full article…
Why Motivation Doesn’t Work… and What Does.
Deep motivation is invitation, no push nor pull. Ancient Greeks talked about ‘willing obedience’. Knowledge about this was deemed to be the quintessential leadership quality. As indeed it is. It’s also the issue that ‘leaders’ have the most difficulty with and questions about. How do I motivate these people who do not want to listen? Read the full article…
Building Consensus at the Level of Deep Motivation
Superficial consensus may create resentment. Deep consensus brings people closer to each other… … as well as to their own true motivation. Building consensus is about finding true motivations. What motivates people may be quite different from what they think to be deeply important to them. Much research points to this fact. For instance, at Read the full article…
Teen Spirit
An adolescent brain is not just an immature brain. There is a purpose: daring to experiment in an open quest for meaning. The term ‘adolescent,’ etymologically ‘one who is becoming an adult’ arguably puts the norm on adulthood: adolescence as a preparation for adult life, complexified by hormonal changes and an ongoing cognitive and emotional, Read the full article…
8. Erectile Disorders : Between Legs or Ears?
Between the legs. Between the ears. Between the blankets. The total picture is always important. We observe a swing motion in this. Nowadays the phrase ‘between the ears’ is not much appreciated. Twenty years ago this was different and within twenty years… well, who knows. But not now. However I know – just like every Read the full article…
7. Epilepsychic Reflections
Taking the mind-body unity into account leads to a more patient-friendly environment. State of affairs according to PubMed referenced literature: PNES-patients (Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizures) suffer seizures that resemble epilepsy but EEG does not show typical anomalies related to epilepsy. These people are believed to have psychic problems that cause these seizures. According to literature we Read the full article…
Is Empathy a Force of Evil?
Of course not. Still, some describe it this way. The main – but not all – disagreement is one of terminology. Terms matter. Concepts are important. See ‘Landscape of Empathy’. In that drawing, I’ve distinguished some related concepts. Others may put other terms to these concepts. Empathy devoid of rationality is impossible in my conceptualization, Read the full article…
Think Yourself Slim.
If you want a slim body, it’s better to start with a slim mind. You want to fully enjoy eating and you want to slim down… Of course, slim people eat too. They may even enjoy eating. They only don’t eat too much (calories), in the long run. So what is the real job if Read the full article…