**I started writing this post while midterms were still a week or two away. However, to reach a good mile marker in the semester I decided to wait until after the exams were completed to publish this post. I apologize for an in congruence or confusion in the below sections. I have tried to make things clear in the wake of the above circumstances.
MIDTERMS!
Psychology of Exception Experiences
At the end of the semester I have a research proposal due for this course. The research proposal does not actually have to be fulfilled, that is, we do not need to actually do the research It is a theoretical project for something we would potentially want to research in the future relating to exceptional and anomalous experiences. Initially I wanted to research why we choose to seek out and/or research these experiences What does this say about us? I have refined the question to be a bit more specific and elicit. My current working topic is a the emotions experienced while people are having the experiences and what they feel were the motivations for the experiences. The research would also include surveying for correlations between feelings of awe and/or angst with the emotions and thoughts that subjects experience in these situations.
Foundations of Humanistic Psychology
Again, I am playing around with different ideas for a final paper. The subject here was actually the foundation for the research project stated above. For this project I'm planning on analyzing Freud's Pleasure Principle (an idea shared by Plato and Locke along the way) which asserts that we live in a pursuit of that which we find pleasurable and in avoidance of that which we find painful. The tentative title for this essay is "Ambivalence of Awe and Angst." Furthermore, the essay will be structured around three premises.
Premise 1 - The assumptions of Freud's "Pleasure Principle", that we are motivated either by pursuit of pleasure or avoidance of suffering (pain), is inadequate in its understanding of human emotion.
Premise 2 - Human beings are motivated, rather, by an ambivalent tension between sublimity and malevolence.
Premise 3 - These tensions, sublimity and malevolence, directly beget awe and angst. Thus, we are motivated not by pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain, but by a pursuit of awe in spite of angst.
Lifespan Human Development
The final presentation project that I am working on for this class is structured around Carl Rogers' Seven Stages of Process. The topic of presentation will be cognitive development. There will of course be several implications that relate to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs as well; in regards to self-actualization. There are some aspects of Rogers' therapeutic methodology that I greatly enjoy and find highly influential. However, I think that it suffers in some areas. But that is not the point of this particular project. Rogers' Stages of Process do provide great insight into how one develops the way they think about themselves, their feelings, and the world and people they interact with.
Ganzfeld Home Experiment - (if you don't know what this is, go back to my last post or click the pic)
Dream Journal
As part of my Psychology of Exception Experiences class I have been keeping a journal of the dreams that I remember. This is not to analyze them from a Freudian or Jungian standpoint, but simply to note if there is a change in my ability to recall dreams if I consistently record them. This has been going on for a couple weeks now and I would say that there is a slight increase in my ability to recall the dreams each morning. Another note is that I have not yet reached a lucid (see below) state of dreaming, but I did find myself the other night speaking (as though narrating) to myself in a dream to "pay attention, this will be a good dream to put in your journal." Cool, huh?
Lucid Dreaming Experiment
This experiment was axed off my to-do list for a couple of reasons. Firstly, time management. I have enough projects, papers, and reading to keep me more than busy. I do not really have time to be conducting recreational experiments that need careful planning and extra effort. Secondly, see the below statement...
Personal Note on Lucid Dreaming
I want to take a little time to make my stance on Lucid Dreaming clear. I am not morally or otherwise opposed to it. I do not think that it is entirely fluffy fanciful make believe either. I think that there is great merit and psychotheraputic application to it. HOWEVEVER, my personal phenomenology demands that I rail against such a practice. My entire personal philosophy and way of life is underpinned by raw conviction in authenticity; not in terms of pain and pleasure, but awe and fear. Allow me to clarify. Camus writes in "The Stranger" of Meursault being imprisoned and thinking to himself; that a man who has been free for only one day would have enough memories to survive a lifetime in prison. Much the same, why dream it when you can live it! Do you posses the constitution to abandon your dreams and bring their fruition to reality? No matter how grandiose a dream is, if you are truly lucid within it (that is, aware that you're dreaming) your foolishness revels in euphoria while your deepest being knows that eventually you will wake up and the dream will be over. I feel as if a single sunset, a deep breath of crisp autumn air, or even a mortifying hysterical emotional breakdown, each lasting only a few small moments, would be more awe-inspiring and captivating than the most vivid, lucid, and beautifully fantastic dream could ever aspire. This writing was largely motivated by the final scene of the movie Vanilla Sky, a link is provided; while it doesn't give context to the movie, it does deliver the punch line. What is happiness to you?
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