Negative Psychology

One thing that we tend to have a spectacular lack of insight into is how trying to bring about change in ourselves - in the psychological sphere rather than the physical - inevitably rebounds on us, inevitably becomes 'counterproductive'. We don't WANT to see this because purposeful or willed change is the only thing we know about (the only means open to us) and so to discover that...

As a general rule, we 'think first and act later' and it is because of this that we become Prisoners of Thought . We are prisoners because when we think we automatically become incapable of questioning our thoughts and the thing about this is that our thoughts never show us the full story. The thinking process never tells us the full story and yet at the same time it gives us to understa...

A1 is a machine for creating hyperreality; it works by copying (just as the Demiurge does) - first it copies humans and then it copies itself copying humans. This is the fastest route to a hyperreal world that has ever existed and we're in the most terrible hurry ever to buy a ticket. This is the best thing since sliced bread, we say! This is the thing that's going to save us for sure......

The default is for us to 'live in a world that is the same size that we are' (which is to say, a world that is no more than a linear extension of what we understand the world to be). Society (or 'the Consensus Reality') is a world that is 'the same as size that we are', but - more than this - it's a reality that is forced upon us, a reality that we are not allowe...

There are two types of information (according to Ernst and Christine von Weizsäcker's Pragmatic Theory of Information ) - 'novelty' and 'conformation'. Novelty is information that doesn't fit with our existing categories of interpretation, and which will therefore result in change (if taken on) whilst confirmation is information that affirms (or confirms) these catego...

The activity of thinking takes place on a flat plane surface (the flat plane surface that is made up of logic ) and the thing about flat plane surfaces (which is to say, the self-consistent 'Continuum of Logic') is that it only has one side to it. There is a trick here therefore - a trap that is exemplified by the topological paradox which is the Möbius Strip, or Möbius Loop. The illusio...

The rational faculty is like a super-powerful genie that we have summoned and which has granted us all sorts of things. The more powerful the genie however the more we should be on the lookout, the more we should be cautious, but the reverse is true - intoxicated (and rendered foolish) by the gifts and powers it has given us, it never occurs to us that we don't actually know how to get it to...

When we lose our identity we lose what was never there. We don't want to lose this unreal identity however! As far as we're concerned, this constitutes absolutely the worst disaster there could ever be...

Industrial enterprise - as we know - requires 'scale' in order to be viable, in order to be efficient, in order to turn a 'healthy profit'. The more we scale-up the better it works. Hypnotised (and rendered blind) by this paradigm, we apply it to everything -  including mental health care. When we scale up mental health care it becomes a threat to our mental health, however (wh...

We collectively consider ourselves to be members of a scientific civilisation, distinguishing ourselves thereby from the awful dumbness of previous ages, and we generally feel pretty good about this. Each one of us personally feels elevated by this status. This is no more than hollow self-validation however - as a collective, we're just as 'dumb', just as prone to being deceived, as...

There are lots of theories that try to explain what is happening in psychosis. Theories are 'empty' however - theories are about about reality without partaking in it. Theories can't contain reality and they can't explain it and what lies at the heart of psychosis is actual reality - the genuine article. What we're doing with our various theories about psychosis is 'e...

“Dangers lurk in all systems. Systems incorporate the unexamined beliefs of their creators. Adopt a system, accept its beliefs, and you help strengthen the resistance to change”  - Frank Herbert

We don't agree with people because we think what they are saying is TRUE (says Kurt Vonnegut), but because we want to be 'friends'. Short-term convenience is more important than acknowledging the truth. This is practical up to a point, but inevitably disastrous in the long term - as we might of course expect if we ever actually thought about it (which we never do).

We creates systems and then we place them 'above' us so that we have to conform to them , so that they get to dictate terms to us . The assumption we make is that the systems in question serve us, that they exist for our benefit. The truth is that it is the other way around - we serve the systems and the 'benefit' is theirs not ours...

Mechanical therapy isn't therapy, it's psychological abuse - anything involving control or forcing is abuse when it's human beings we're talking about - Mechanical therapy' - which is therapy done by rules, therapy according to some generic 'formula' - alienates us from who we are (or the way that we are) in favour of who (or how) we're supposed to be...

Our civilization - although we'd never admit - is based upon the glorification of abuse, the glorification of control. Actual freedom is like Kryptonite to us - it would ruin everything, it would ruin the power hierarchy that is society. Control is always abuse when it's people we're talking about and the classic justification (used from time immemorial) is that 'it's for...

The socially-adapted person has no 'interest in the truth' - if a socially-adapted person had an interest in the truth then they would no longer be 'socially-adapted'. They couldn't be - to function in society it is necessary that we have loyalty to the group (to the 'tribe') and so to question what we collectively understand to be true would be an act of betraya...

Everything that happens in society happens as a result of the exercise of power, and - psychologically speaking - anything that happens as a result of the exercise of power is entirely meaningless, entirely hollow. If I am compelled to say (or do something) then this is of course a caricature of freedom, a caricature of volition...

Through paying attention comes freedom. Through NOT paying attention comes the opposite of freedom, through NOT paying attention comes slavery...

Anger isn't an emotion (as we might sometimes imagine) - it's more of an opposite to an emotion since the whole point of anger is to NOT feel the emotion (whatever that might be). Anger is when we don't take emotional pain on board but - on the contrary - try very vigorously to reassign it, to send it somewhere else...

We regard 'self-talk' as being potentially useful, as being a way by which we may bring about helpful change. It isn't though - the mind's chatter is always entirely inconsequential....

'Western mindfulness' is a project designed to optimise the performance and general reliability of  that particular highly-valued construct known as 'the identity'. This is 'our interpretation of the Eastern meditation traditions - we think it's all about 'self-improvement' (or 'making life easier for the everyday ego')...

Living 'carelessly', without paying 'proper attention', without 'checking anything out ourselves', without 'asking any questions', inevitably results in us living in 'Literal Mode', which is where we run on extrinsic meaning , 'meaning that is provided for us from the outside'. Meaning that is provided from the outside (by some kind of ex...

The identity has no intrinsic strength , no strength of its own. It has to rely on extrinsic strength therefore - extrinsic strength being 'the ability to control or manipulate so as to get the outcome we want'. Once we get into the game of relying on tricks and methods in order to feel OK we can never stop however because by relying on the ability to control or exert power we turn our b...

Either we live our lives within a rational context, or a mythological one. When we are in 'Rational Mode' then the rational world is the only one that we ever perceive - anything out gets screened out before we even get to register it. We only ever see the world that makes sense' to us. The think about this though is that 'the world which makes sense to us' isn't actu...