Psyche police

The psyche police used to interact with sub normal patients by trying to make them normal. More recently the interactions have been with super-normal people. The idea is to identify what makes the supers super and to encourage normal people to copy them. The new field is called positive psychology and the goal is that people should ‘flourish’

“Positive Psychology is the scientific study of the strengths that enable individuals and communities to thrive. The field is founded on the belief that people want to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives, to cultivate what is best within themselves, and to enhance their experiences of love, work, and play. http://www.positivepsychology.org/”

BUT - I am wary of the implied ‘nice’ Weltanschaung. There is a tendency to think that successful people are rational, reasonable planners with excellent project and time management skills, an MBA, and a fully functioning pre-frontal cortex.

BUT – human thinking is always linked to feelings and moods. The totally rational economic man is a myth. What we have instead is people driven by a rich mix of instincts, reflexes, intuitions and biases; and, amongst the more enlightened, a realisation that there is no fixed reality – everything changes

To get a feel for how I think at the moment I brainstormed 50 key topics and arranged them alphabetically. At another time in another mood the list would be different. Other people would have markedly different lists and they would also be flavoured by feelings and moods associated with particular times and places. The psyche police (positive branch) might care to construct profiles for people with different degrees of flourish.

Aid and development
Behavioural economics
Brain science
Changing minds
Confirmation bias

Cognitive dissonance
Consciousness
Consilience
Corporate culture
Cosmic zoom

Creativity
Depression
Doodles
Education = Changing minds
Enculturation

Enlightenment (east and west)
Evolution – gene, individual, groups
Evolutionary psychology
Executive functions
Existential crisis

Flourishing
Flow
Foraging
Free will v determinism
Globalisation

Happiness
Hegemony
Individual v group
Meme
Mindfulness

Mysticism
Myth and magic
Nature v nurture
No boundaries
Non-egoic

Plain language
Policy and politicians
Poverty
Pre-frontal cortex
Propaganda

Renunciation
Reality
Scanning (MRI etc)
Self actualisation (Maslow)
Social psychology

Spirituality
The unconscious
TFM thoughts, feelings and mood
Thinking fast and slow
Traditional, modern, post modern

More with reference to Seligman and flourishing:

http://naesaebad.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/aristotle-and-gove.html

http://naesaebad.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/the-happiness-question.html

http://naesaebad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/with-mind-in-mind.html

http://naesaebad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/unattached-to-weltanschauung.html

http://naesaebad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/the-doodle-focus.html

http://naesaebad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/interacting-mindbrains.html

http://naesaebad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/hurray-for-happiness.html

Thoughts feelings and moods

I have come to view thoughts, feelings and moods (TFM) as intimately linked such that a change in one will be associated with changes in the other two. And change is constant and ongoing so as to (a) monitor what is happening in the external and internal environments and (b) devise fast reactions and slower responses to ensure that you eat well, avoid being eaten and that you reproduce.

Note: The TFM idea is similar to the trio of psychological factors - cognitive, affective, and conative; where the cognitive part of the brain has to do with intelligence, the affective deals with emotions and the conative drives how one acts on those thoughts and feelings.

Note: “Moods differ from emotions, feelings, or affects in that they are less specific, less intense, and less likely to be triggered by a particular stimulus or event. Moods are typically described as having either a positive or negative valence. In other words, people usually speak of being in a good mood or a bad mood.” (Wikipedia)

My TFM about my TFM has been evolving as a result of inputs from such cutting edge thinkers as Daniel Kahneman (behavioural economics and fast and slow thinking) and David Eagleman (Brain science and its legal implications).

Links to some of my blogs that relate to TFM are listed below.

http://naesaebad.blogspot.com/2015/04/head-voices.html
Ian the young interviewer and William the elderly witness personify interactions in the human mindbrain. Oliver the omniscient introduces himself.

http://naesaebad.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-need-to-know.html
In the last twenty years or so there has been a blending of eastern and western world views and a rethink on the psychology of perception. The common root is an acknowledgement that thoughts, feelings and moods (TFM) are mind made mainly in the unconscious, and have no abiding reality – there is neural plasticity. The mind can change the shape and functioning of the brain which can change the mind. I feel the need to know more about this.

http://naesaebad.blogspot.com/2015/07/obsessive-diary.html
There is also the ongoing stream of thoughts, feelings and moods (TFM). There is an option on how much of this to record. It can be left to pass away (the 0% option) or every detail can be captured and analysed (the 100% option).

http://naesaebad.blogspot.com/2015/07/productive-diversions.html
Aha – I am dosing in front of the screen and the mindbrain is wandering all over the place. ‘I’ cannot remember the details of the thoughts, feelings and moods (TFM) that occupied attention more than a few seconds ago. The mind has a mind of its own and is constantly churning out stuff for the robot on autopilot.

http://naesaebad.blogspot.com/2015/07/diary-records.html
And I have now been in retreat for more than ten years. Attention is focussed on rationally knowing and emotionally experiencing neurology, evolutionary psychology and mindfulness in the on-going present moment. My diary records are therefore as much use as the logoscript that once recorded them. The only constant thing is change so I follow the flow of thoughts, feelings and moods (TFM).

http://naesaebad.blogspot.com/2015/08/not-retired.html
Reality is a jigsaw made from the shape-changing products of the default mode network. Mind stuff is forever in flux. Thoughts, feelings and moods (TFM) are briefly clumped to form actionable hypotheses which are used to monitor and evaluate the signals arriving at the sense organs.

http://naesaebad.blogspot.com/2015/09/passing-feelings.html
Patterns of thought, feeling and mood (TFM) about TFM have changed rapidly in the last 20 years. The key to the new understanding is to view the human brain as an organ which evolved to enable small groups of people to be effective hunters and gatherers. Neurological advances linked to evolutionary psychology provided a platform for consilience (multidisciplinary approaches).  

http://naesaebad.blogspot.com/2015/09/doodle-origins.html
'I' am growing more aware that there are many more thoughts, feelings and moods (TFM) in the unconscious parts of the mindbrain than there are in the conscious and self-conscious parts.

http://naesaebad.blogspot.com/2016/04/bruners-step-ladders.html
Words will arrive to expand on the thoughts, feelings and moods (TFM) recorded in my analogue notebook. In essence I am scunnert of technical ICT issues and there is motivation to get back to the dynamics of non-egoic mentation.

types of leader

Types of LEADER

Take me to your leader

Eat breathe pee and poop

When sun shines on green leaves (chlorophyll), water combines with carbon dioxide to form sugar and give off oxygen.

When sugar is oxidised in cells, energy is liberated and carbon dioxide and water are given off as waste products.

The first process is photosynthesis (light together puts) the second is respiration. They feed off each other. The detailed biochemistry is common to nearly all living things. This suggests its ancient origins.

They happen in my garden in terms of apples, pears and plums; but I go one hundred yards to the Coop shop to harvest broccoli, lettuce, leeks and lots else.

If I am to keep living I have to breathe, pee, poop and eat plants and animals. 

Tough on them. 

But thanks.