Martin Dudaniec and Kevin Solway’s translation of Otto Weininger: Collected Aphorisms, Notebook and Letters to a Friend is now available for free from their website. A while back I had to pay five dollars or so to download it, so I’m glad to see the authors have now switched to accepting donations. If you feel particularly appreciative you can donate here. They are also now offering a translation of Weininger’s Sex and Character as a PDF. The writing is lively and provocative and you will have much to agree or disagree with. For example, here are a few selections:
Psychology
Self-control comes in limited quantities
I’ve been collecting information today. One thing I discovered today is that deleting dead people from your AIM buddy list feels creepy. Here is an interesting yet unrelated article, Self-control comes in limited quantities, must be replenished:
Self-control, whether used to pass up the office cookie plate or to struggle against temptations like alcohol and tobacco, operates like a renewable energy source rather than a learned skill or an analytical thought process, according to new research.
Individuals had less physical stamina and impulse control and increased difficulty with problem-solving activities after completing a variety of tasks that required some measure of self-control, according to Roy F. Baumeister, Ph.D., of Florida State University.
The finding may be helpful in treating a number of behavioral health problems, from gambling disorders to alcoholism.
“Learning more about how to maintain, increase and replenish this resource may hold one promising key to helping people avoid addiction,” says Baumeister.
The study appears in the February 2003 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
Secret Lives
Compelling article at the NYTimes, The Secret Lives of Just About Everybody:
But in a series of experiments over the past decade, psychologists have identified a larger group they call repressors, an estimated 10 to 15 percent of the population, who are adept at ignoring or suppressing information that is embarrassing to them and thus well equipped to keep secrets, some psychologists say.
Repressors score low on questionnaires that measure anxiety and defensiveness – reporting, for example, that they are rarely resentful, worried about money, or troubled by nightmares and headaches. They think well of themselves and don’t sweat the small stuff.
Although little is known about the mental development of such people, some psychologists believe they have learned to block distressing thoughts by distracting themselves with good memories. Over time – with practice, in effect – this may become habitual, blunting their access to potentially humiliating or threatening memories and secrets.
“This talent is likely to serve them well in the daily struggle to avoid unwanted thoughts of all kinds, including unwanted thoughts that arise from attempts to suppress secrets in the presence of others,” Dr. Wegner, of Harvard, said in an e-mail message.
Now for something a little out of the ordinary
I was reading the Austin Chronicle this afternoon while having lunch at Burger Tex and there was an item in News of the Weird about a German device which admonishes men who urinate standing up.
The WC ghost, a £6 voice-alarm, reprimands men for standing at the lavatory pan. It is triggered when the seat is lifted. The battery-operated devices are attached to the seats and deliver stern warnings to those who attempt to stand and urinate (known as “Stehpinkeln”).
It goes on to say that “that a slang word for “wimp” (sitzpinkler) is, literally, a man who sits to urinate.” This idea has come up in conversation a few times throughout my life and it is surprising to discover that a number of men urinate while sitting. The numbers seem to be around one in seven to one in four. We seem to take it for granted that men just do it standing up. I assumed this was one of the conveniences of being born a male. In other words, unless you’re there for other business why sit when you can stand? As a boy, free-standing urination becomes one of your earliest amusements. I could provide many anecdotal experiences but you’ll have to trust me on this one. There are many questions on the subject and in doing a little research there seems to be a fair amount of discussion on the issue. The most interesting thing I discovered is that many muslim men are taught to urinate while sitting. Here are a couple of things I’d like to know from men who urinate while sitting:
- Does your father or do other men in your family sit to urinate?
- Were you potty trained to urinate while sitting?
- If you decided to sit later in life, what were your reasons?
From what I have gathered from researching, the sitting argument seems to go as follows:
- It is more sanitary since you do not have as much splashing. Many women who support the sit-down seem annoyed with the cleanup.
- It makes less noise than standing.
- It is more comfortable than standing.
- You can always leave the seat down, especially good for the female members of the household.
On face value, these are good arguments although a tad neurotic. My notion is that you should use whichever mode you like the most and are the most comfortable with. Here is a rebuttal of these arguments, also a result of some small amount of research:
- Urine is not that unsanitary. “In the first fifteen minutes after leaving the body, urine is absolutely sterile for the producer’s own body. Only after this period do the germs begin their work.” Most bacteria and viruses are filtered out by the body. While potentially containing toxins leeched from the body like undigested alcohol or even arsenic, it is relatively safe to drink. As for being easier to clean up, there are two points. Either practice a better aim, or women need to be less concerned with their men sitting and more concerned with their men pitching in to do their share of the chores.
- On the subject of sitting being more quiet than standing, well, I think that’s plainly neurotic. Urination is necessary to every one of the six billion people on earth. Where’s the shame? If you’re pee-shy you could always toss a wad of TP in the bowl before wind up.
- “Sitting is more comfortable than standing.” I can accept this argument. Fair enough. However, it seems easier to undo your fly than to drop trou. That’s just my opinion.
- Leaving the seat down. Again, men AND women can handle the toilet seat. I’ve never understood why this has become the primary responsibility of men, not that I mind. It doesn’t take the strength of Hercules to put it in either position. I’m more than willing to put the seat back down, as a courtesy, however this is a simple task for either party in question. Do women really back into the toilet without looking? What if there were a snake in the toilet or something crazy?
I’d like to hear what people think. Little discussions like this are so interesting.
References and related:
Only children
Jody sent me this link about a “study” on only children done by Dr. Toni Falbo, an ed-psych professor at UT, Your One and Only:
Educational psychologist dispels myths surrounding only children.
I’m not impressed with any of her conclusions here, although I have not had the opportunity to read the actual study itself. There’s just nothing compelling about them, at least as described by this article. There are also a number of weaknesses in Falbo’s approach. For one thing, Dr. Falbo makes it sound as if the entire field of psychology was against only children and families who have only children. As an only child herself and as the mother of an only child I get the sense that she has too much at stake personally to achieve anything of real value here. It’s almost as if she went into her project looking to overturn certain assumptions she found personally negative. She mentions the work of G. Stanley Hall and Freud and puts the blame on their heads for spreading negative assumptions of only children into the easily influenced mass of society:
Two cultures of Piracy
Japan and America, Two “Cultures of Piracy”:
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Following the logic of the Japanese companies, Condry asks his students whether there are some forms of music they would always pay for and finds that many of them cite music which struggles to survive in the marketplace or where they have a strong identification with the artists. He suggests that like the Japanese fans, American college students are swayed by loyalty and recipricality rather than legality. The solution to the music industry crisis, he argues, is cultural not legal or economic and it involves changing the relations between music producers and consumers to emphasize shared interests rather than economic exploitation. Imagine that!
Personality bits
Beyond mess: Cluttering, anxieties linked:
“One of the feelings in states of depression is that you feel lethargic,” Huntley said, “so picking up after yourself or straightening up is way too much.”
Likewise, people with ADD know they have to sit down and pay the bills, but they are easily distracted and that keeps them from completing tasks. “People with ADD also have to keep their stuff out where it’s visible; otherwise, they forget it.”
The knowledge that the task must be tackled or the item must be tossed is lost on people with OCD, who cannot determine what to keep and what to eliminate. “They can’t remove it,” Huntley said. “There’s a great deal of difficulty about decisions: ‘Am I going to need this or not?’ It’s really labored. So they keep the stuff around while they’re making the decision.
My own feeling is that much of this is caused by a lack of purpose and a lack of sense of place. Human beings in this country have become too fragmented and overstimulated. It is harder to recharge and gain quiet and peace.
Personality Profiling: Shrink to Fit?: As more entrepreneurs use psychological testing to screen hires, psychologist Ben Dattner warns against putting too much weight on the results:
Ample research has shown that organizations are “strong” situations, and that situational variables — like, for instance, the demands of a person’s role, incentive structures, team norms, and organizational culture — are much better predictors of behavior than are individual attributes. In order to add explanatory value, tests should explain the impact of personality or style on behavior, and also the impact of behavior on performance. Establishing the link between personality or style and behavior is difficult enough — many studies are unable to establish any link between personality or style and actual performance. …
I think, in general, people have a predisposition to make personal, rather than situational, attributions for behavior. We are all susceptible to “the fundamental attribution error,” meaning that we discount situational factors when trying to explain why other people behave as they do. Personality tests therefore confirm what we have a natural tendency to believe — that individuals create and influence situations, not the other way around.
These tests are also memorable, simple, intuitive, and often confirm what we already know about ourselves and others, even if that knowledge is, to some extent, built on simplified, stereotype-like categories of personalities and styles. This type of classification of people is an integral part of American popular culture, marketing, and politics. Just as many of us use movie and television stars as points of reference when describing others, marketers have well-developed “psychographic” categories that they use to target advertising, and pollsters segment the electorate and tailor candidates’ messages accordingly.
Food for your mind
Symbols of the ups and downs
I think a lot about emotional ups and downs. If manic-depression was a high school its mascot could be:
- a cicada
- a phoenix
- a butterfly
- a blooming flower
- the moon
What do you think all these things have in common?
Effective mood-altering substances
Sometimes I wonder if emotion is a dangerous thing. Like, does emotional sensitivity make you more fragile? By emotional sensitivity I don’t mean being thoughtful or considerate or anything positive like that. I mean it in the sense of easily affected. If you are susceptible to being easily affected emotionally does that cause everything to get all mixed up. I’ve noticed that when serious things, personal things, happen I can freeze up inside yet when meaninglessly sentimental things happen I can be greatly affected.
It makes me think a lot about the ways in which people try to modulate and manage their moods and emotions. I try to endure sadness because I am sure it will always be there in some fashion from time to time, and I hope to understand what causes it. I do things like read, nap, and listen to music if I’m feeling down. Sometimes I’ll eat something sweet. Other people find that exercising helps or drugs or Prozac or sex or alcohol or you name it. The common aspect seems to be the desire to create a more enjoyable sensation to overwhelm the unpleasant sensations or a desire to avoid or dampen the unpleasant sensation itself. Some people prefer getting all the way down into it, although this seems rather dangerous to me.