Madison Hudson's Archive

This is one of my favorite psychological theories to focus on. Although I don’t believe in a hard humanistic approach to therapy or theory, I do believe in some of the main beliefs. That all humans are created with a drive to be unique and make a difference in the world. Unless there are severely altered biological or chemical imbalances, I think at the core everyone experiences satisfaction from displaying self-actualizing tendencies or behaviors. This is the backbone for why I believe in art as a form of therapy. I believe that everyone has the ability to create in some form or fashion whether that is through painting, designing, writing, singing, acting, sculpting and through that they are able to tap into and discover new sides of themselves that they didn’t know they previously had. I personally experience extreme satisfaction after finishing any form of art project or writing project even if it is not necessarily pleasing to society. Sadly, I think forms of creativity are discouraged in kids growing up or they are constantly critiqued by art teachers or professors to the point where their confidence is shot and they no longer enjoy creating because it is no longer about expressing themselves in a unique way.

Here is a short clip I found that shows more about art therapy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exRRwiIFNUU&playnext=1&list=PLB89071E220CA4D8C

Any classic good vs. evil or superhero movie will most likely have psychoanalytic theory in it. One of my favorite renditions of this is in spiderman when the green goblin is struggling with his other personality or “shadow self” as we talked about in class. He finds himself battling between the self that he longs to be according to society and the evil self that seeks power and destruction. According to Freud his evil side would be his Id and the battle would be his ego trying to regulate between the Id and superego.

spiderman

This idea of the shadow self makes me think of the view in christianity that is referred to as our sinful nature. Many of the ideas behind the shadow self are similar to how we describe the sinful nature and how we are wanting to get rid of our sinful nature but it is such a struggle between the life we want to live and are called to live according to our Maker in the christian worldview and the life we constantly fall back on. Although this is a somewhat extreme example, I find myself having a similar tormented inner dialogue in life when I am faced with temptations.

I used to be totally against Behaviorism until we recently discussed it in class. I thought the concept of us just modifying behavior in order to change went against what I believed. Now I have discovered more about the helpful side of behaviorism like the video we watched in class about the experimenter helping the autistic girl and how that can really help her life. I also realized how much behaviorism is in our everyday lives and all around us with advertising and TV.

I found this clip of one of my favorite TV shows called New Girl. Throughout the season one of the main characters, Shmit, always says or does things that seem slightly socially unacceptable. He tends to say what is on his mind without first taking into account how uncomfortable the other person might feel. His three roommates came up with a system to help negatively reinforce his behavior. They made a “douchebag jar” that he must donate money to whenever he says or does anything unacceptable. In this way they hope to reduce or eliminate this behavior.

Douchebag Jar- New Girl

Similar to this video are ways that parents using conditioning to discipline kids growing up. Some times kids are conditioned with positive reinforcement such as parents paying them money if they get all A’s on their report card. Some use negative ways to discipline kids such as spanking them anytime they act out in public and once the acting out stops, so does the spankings. I don’t agree with some of the discipline that occurs nowadays, but I would be a little nervous to see how different the world would be without some sort of conditioning.

The discussion of evolution has always been a sticky one, especially in regards to Christian faith. I had never really learned about evolution until high school when different religious influences decided we needed to learn about evolution to convince atheists to become Christian and to protect our faith (mainly creationism vs. intelligent design). I say this sarcastically, but it is true that many people still to this day think that studying evolution whether it’s evolutionary theory or evolutionary psychology will somehow uncover a door that points away from God.

I read a book recently called “Evolving in Monkey Town” by an author who grew up in Deyton, Tennessee where the Scopes Monkey Trial took place and evolution was a hot, but controversial topic because of the highly evangelical little town, somewhat similar to modern ACU you could say. My favorite quote from her book was one where she said “faith must adapt in order to survive”. I think this statement is profound because we are constantly learning new things and disproving false perceptions that we have held on to our whole lives. Keeping an open mind while learning about evolution could lead us into deeper truth about our faith and also uncover some preconceptions that we have clung to. I have also learned to not be afraid of the unknown and the possibility that we may never know some things. Just like some the articles we read today in class, it can be interesting and we may really want to know the cause of human nature, but can we be at ease with leaving some of our questions just questions? For example, I still don’t understand how the era of dinosaurs fits in with scripture or why God heals some people physically and doesn’t heal others and I may never know. The difference is will I be okay with the idea that I may never find the answer or I may not find the answer that I want to hear.

Many of Greek culture has influenced our thinking today. There are multiple parallels that I see in today’s society and what I learned about the Greeks. For one, the idea of passion and living from the “appetite” and Plato would say is apparent in the Greek culture. One example is the idea of watching men fight to the death as a pleasurable thing.

Are You Not Entertained?

Although we don’t have gladiators anymore thank goodness, we have a similar concept dealing with sports. We pay big bucks to sit in a stadium and watch two teams spar it out with strategic tackles and immense pressure. I understand that this is mostly voluntary on their part and the ultimate goal is not death, but you have to admit that there are similar qualities in modern day football and greek gladiator.

On a different note, the standard of intelligence and reason as a high value in Greek culture still exists today. In society, we place much emphasis on attending college and getting a masters to be able to get a job. Usually the higher the education, the more wealth you are able to attain. This emphasis of education resulted in government positions and were usually considered the “upper class” in Greek culture.

Since we all have different perceptions of the world around us based on our experiences, what “the good life ” means to me one day may not mean the same to me in a month. I am constantly searching and exploring what it means. In order to express such an idea I have to ask myself two questions.

What satisfies me in life? Well I could reflect the small scale experiences I have had that trigger short pleasure receptors and continue to engage in these behaviors to maintain a constant level of satisfaction such as indulging in chocolate and relaxing on a beach. However, these actions leave me discontent and only longing for another experience that supersedes the previous. Overall satisfaction for me is a lifestyle backwards to what the natural mind would assume (a.k.a. human nature). This leads into the second question.

Do I believe life is the time between birth and death, or do I believe life exists beyond death? Because I believe in life after death and in a higher deity then my life has a purpose beyond earthly pleasure. True satisfaction comes from living out this purpose and this purpose is to love. In order to love (the kind of love that is defined as “everlasting loving kindness”) I must become more like my God and in order to become more like my God I must live in a constant state of awareness. ” The good life” comes from living in this state of awareness of self and awareness of the spirit that connects me to my God. From this awareness will I be able to really love and fulfill my purpose and say that I lived “the good life”.