Academia Education General Psychology

Finding Your Passion in Psychology: A Method of Study

It is common for senior undergrads or post-grads in Psychology to lose their interest. They forget why they had decided to enter into Psychology in the first place. Even when (or perhaps especially because) they get involved in a line of research, they might become cynical, practical, confused, mirroring the attitude of many of their professors (who, if their conference-drinking habits are any indication, have become maximally practical, cynical, and nihilistic). If you have talked…

Continue reading

Academia Culture Descriptive Psychology Education Writing

Psychology as Counter-Discipline: On Introducing Oneself

What is a good way to introduce yourself to someone? I hadn’t given this question much thought. But I started asking it when I received Rachel Haywire‘s tweet, “Where can I get an introduction to your work?” Is there an introductory place in my work? A place appropriate for new friends and interlocutors? I can search for such a place now, or ex post facto put the label “start here” on an article. But I…

Continue reading

book review Culture Discourse Education Interpretation

Reading ‘Pride & Prejudice’

My guest in the upcoming episode of the Three Books series will be Andrew Taggart. We have already had one conversation, which I immensely enjoyed. I am very much looking forward to talking with him again. Given my decision to read at least one of the three selected books of each guest, I have started reading Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice. The book is divided into 61 chapters. I am currently on Chapter 30. Before…

Continue reading

Academia Culture Education

Isolation & Availability

I am writing this for my students, having in mind how the changes in our educational arrangement have impacted them. Prolonged periods of isolation is difficult. This is especially true when we lose contact with what excites us, what inspires us, and what motivates us. Sometimes being around family members for long can feel isolating; sometimes being in a classroom can feel isolating; sometimes, I am sure, listening to an online lecture can feel isolating,…

Continue reading

Culture Education metaphysics Philosophy

Untying Knots: Nietzsche’s Dance

I recommend reading Pam Weintraub’s article on Nietzsche and Dance. What is crucial about this perspective is that it views dancing not as doing, as much as undoing, unraveling, untying. Here is, to me, the most significant passage: … those who dance are not burdened by ressentiment, or need for revenge. They have the sensory discernment needed to resist pernicious applications of the ascetic ideal. In Twilight of the Idols (1889) and The Antichrist (1895), dance appears as a discipline for…

Continue reading