psychology

Antibacterial Soap and the Quest for Absoloution

“Out, out damned spot!” howls Lady Macbeth in one of the most overplayed and psychologically transparent scenes in Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”.

The story up to that point involves some troublesome witches, and the murder of a King that both Lady Macbeth and her husband, apparently, have some issues over. Ms. Macbeth just can’t seem to get the blood off her hands…no matter how hard she scrubs.

Slide forward with me 300 years, to a very different country and a somewhat larger cast. The United States of America, founded by Puritans, conceived in liberty, and struggling with a few issues of its own. Any individual, under the weight of extreme psychological distress, will begin to manifest symptoms of that burden. As a society, we can look to the societal trends created by great numbers of individuals to diagnose societal dysfunctions. Continue reading

The Genie In The Bottle

Once upon a time…
This is how the stories begin, and from the first four words we know the ending we expect. No matter how old we grow, we continue to be affected by the tales of our childhood. These stories fill us with dreams and expectations which, even as we take our knocks and draw on the mantle of cynicism, we cannot quite expunge. Somewhere in the deepest dregs of our consciousness, we all still dream of the happy ending.

Our lives are given over to the end result. We are a culture obsessed with the product, the end point, the elusive “conclusion” with little to no emphasis put on the process which got us there. The schooling we endure is for the purpose of a good job when we are older. The job we do is for the purpose of a paycheck, or a chance to climb that next rung on the corporate ladder. The paycheck is for the purpose of buying things, and the things are for the purpose of filling up that empty hole in our hearts where our life’s purpose ought to be.

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