psychoanalysis and religion

     Many people believe that psychoanalysis is religion in another form, and not necessarily a more modern one. A famous author and mental patient ( Sylvia Plath ) once compared psychoanalysis to being "born again". Both psychoanalysis and religion promise a new existence, free of the guilt and responsibilities of the past. Both use confession as one of the means to achieve this new existence.  Psychoanalysis is considered a "process"--it has no end.  It isn't meant to cure an illness, after which the patient moves on. It is an ongoing way of life, as religion is to many people. All "analysands"--everyone who has undergone psychoanalysis, including psychoanalysts--are members of a club, in a way. Psychoanalysts have their own therapists, as priests have their confessors. Many analysands attend meetings ( Jungian meetings, or meetings of the "oversoul") , as churchgoers attend services. The only thing psychoanalysis lacks to make a religion is priestly robes and sacraments.

the great brain

     Some of the people you may encounter on the internet believe that they are fashioning a great brain. The great brain will be a cyber great brain, and will be omniscient. No one will need to go to school, as they will all be a part of the great brain. They won't need to learn anything, or understand anything--they will just "be".  Some "great brainers" don't believe they need to know how to read and write. Some "great brainers" believe that if each participant learns just one thing, together they will be omniscient--or at least smarter than anyone else.
     I suggest that some of the merely human challenge the great brain. Perhaps a human could play chess with the great brain. Or a human and the great brain could each take a standardized test. Be sure to let me know where  the contest takes place, and when. I am confident that a human could defeat the great brain, even in a trivia contest.

birth control benefits

     How can the federal government insist on birth control benefits from private insurers, when birth control benefits are not offered to Medicaid recipients? In Pennsylvania, this may be because of the state's use of a Catholic health service provider.  If benefits are offered, they may be offered through Planned Parenthood. This may be the government's attempt to work out the problem--but the plan seems to cover employees, without mentioning welfare or disability recipients.

psychics

     In Pennsylvania, claiming to have the ability to tell the future will get you a visit from the bunco squad. That is why "psychics" call themselves "readers and advisers".  Many "psychics" consider themselves religious. They believe that humans are predestined, in a way, and that they are in on the "divine" loop, and know what is in store. What the point of knowing the future would be to someone who believes in predestination, I don't know. If people are predestined, their fate cannot be altered, nor could they choose a new course of behavior--and if they did, according to the theory of predestination, the consequences would be the same.    
   Perhaps psychics don't believe in predestination, and they are in the business of warning people about the consequences of their actions--this would mean a belief in free will--which wouldn't leave a book of "the future" open to initiates, as there would be no predestined future, other than the one we make with our actions.  This renders the "psychic" an "adviser"-- perhaps a badly needed service. Anyone spending money on a fortune teller probably does need help with thinking about the consequences of his or her actions.

still a guessing game

It's obviously true that even a broken clock is right twice a day--but not useful, as you'll never know when.

can we make adults go to school?

     Can we make adults go to school? Probably not. Perhaps if they are in prison, but I'm not sure that the prisons have the capacity to test for literacy, or to force remedial schooling on the incarcerated. If the prisons do not have the capacity to test for literacy and enforce attendance in class, they should be given the capacity. If they do have the capacity to test for literacy and enforce class attendance, they are failing miserably.
     People spend 10 years in jail, and re-enter society completely illiterate. People spend 10 years ( or 20 years ) in jail and still can't tell time when they get out--or make a sandwich, or tie their shoes, or catch a bus, or use the laundromat. They can't eat anything but takeout--they don't know how.
     If we're not spending money to teach basic literacy and life skills to prisoners, let's spend it. If we are spending the money, let's find out what the prisons are doing with it.

pets and TV

      I have had several cats of my own over the years, and even more foster cats. They all seem to like TV.  They want to sit on my lap, on the back of my chair, or under the chair. It's the one time they seem to agree with what people do--just sitting and not moving, almost like naptime. It never seemed to matter what was on TV, or what movie I might be watching on a DVD. Even cat food commercials don't seem to mean anything to them. But now I'm watching them more closely, because I think they don't like certain TV shows. They run around the house in a kitty panic attack on occasion, and I think it's connected to TV, and what's on TV. The shows only have people on them--no cats or dogs, so I wonder if some people's voices frighten or annoy them.