Psychology

HOW DO WE KNOW WHO WE ARE?     June 9 2009   Ayad Izzet Gharbawi         How many people do you know are honest with themselves?   How many people do you know, actually know themselves?   Assuming a person knows him or herself, how many people see their personalities, emotions and needs change over time?   Doesn't that fact, in itself, change the entire identity of these people?     I am also thinking about subjects such as love, marriage and how can we trust each other, if we human beings are not quite sure who we are - never…

    THE UNITY OF THE MIND – OR NOT?   Ayad Izzet Gharbawi   July, 2009   Let us take an Observer (O) who is sitting on a chair and in front of him is a table, upon which sits an apple. Now, if (O) decides to pick up the people, we can say that his ‘Mind’, his ‘Self’, his ‘Consciousness or his ‘I’ decided to pick up the apple and he acted upon his desire. Next, let us say that Observer picked up the apple without thinking about it. In other words, he did not think about it or visualize the act in any way. What happened, was that his hand simply moved and picked up the…

  THE SPEED OF TIME IN RELATION TO THE MIND Ayad Gharbawi August 4, 2009 - Damascus   Is there a ‘speed of time’ in relation to the Mind? I will argue, that yes, there is a ‘speed of time’, as far as the Mind is concerned. When I say ‘speed’, what exactly do we mean? Is it measurable? No, by ‘speed’, I mean that which is felt by the relevant Mind. Thus, there are no precision measurements involved here, as we do with time in general. Let us take our first example, Observer (O1), who experiences two Events (E1 and E2). Let us make the events emotionally neutral; meaning, that they…

WHO AM ‘I’?Ayad Gharbawi   2 Persons Talking: 1 is Person One, and 2 is Person 2. July, 2009   1: What is your problem? 2: I don’t know ‘who’ I am? 1: ‘Who’ do you want to be? 2: I don’t know. I just don’t know what is ‘best’ for me’. Do you understand me? 1: You do not know ‘who’ you want to be. So, how can you ask me, or how can you ask anyone, how you can best be yourself? 2. Actually, I didn’t understand a word you just said. Can you speak in plain English, please? 1. All right. You don’t know ‘who’ you are, and furthermore, you don’t even know ‘who’ you want to be. Fine. So, my…

The science of Chaos is usually defined as the systematic study of non-linear processes within dynamic turbulent systems (see www.hesiodproject.net). Vivid examples of such systems are: the global economy and the global crisis, wars and armed conflicts, human beings and social organizations, the stock market, science and technology, the Olympic Games, football games and other sport events, the weather systems, the internet, World Wide Web, Web 2.0, journalism and journalism 2.0, etc.Chaotic systems are intriguingly rule-based; they are both deterministic and unpredictable at the same…

The diagnosis of mental health disorders in the US has nearly doubled in the past 20 years and clinical psychologists and therapists are on the front lines of handling it but many are falling short because they use methods that are out of date or lack any scientific rigor or both. How is that possible?   Because many of the training programs, and especially some Doctorate of Psychology (PsyD) programs and for-profit training centers, are not grounded in science, according to a new report in Psychological Science in the Public Interest. A panel of  clinical scientists - Timothy…

Mind over matter. Think happy thoughts. Don't worry be happy. Accentuate the positive. Is happiness really that simple? Sure, it's easy to say, "Think positively." But to actually do it? Not so much.1 We spend bazillions of dollars trying to buy happiness and yet somehow we're not satisfied.2 I don't have any money left to spend, so my options are (a) a life of misery and despair, or (b) find a cheaper alternative. The Coldplay Proof, and searching the InterGoogle Socrates asserted that the highest good for any human being is happiness.3 If given that x = highest good, and y = best things in…

Women who considered themselves sexually satisfied had a higher overall psychological well-being score and scores for "positive well-being" and "vitality," compared with sexually dissatisfied women in a study of 295 women sexually active more than twice a month. The study was published today in The Journal of Sexual Medicine, also uncovered a positive association between age and well-being, but a negative association for general health.  The results applied to pre- and post-menopausal women. To assess whether there was a correlation between sexual satisfaction and well-being, the team of…

Most recent intellectual developments in post-human complex systems (see, e.g., www.hesiodproject.net) perceptively conclude that “social equilibrium” is just a theoretical state. But it is also something quite undesirable. Equally undesirable is a linear, predictable, stable, orderly, homogenous and pure human world.This would probably be a very hopeless, colorless, dull and boring world: A completely grey social universe! In addition, there is indeed a small degree of optimism about the future, by focusing upon possibilities rather than limitations.The future…

We look at heroes and do-gooders as a special sort of breed; people who possess extraordinary traits of altruism, or self-less concern for the well-being of others, even at the expense of their own existence. On the other end, sociopaths also have an extraordinary set of traits, such as extreme selfishness, lack of impulse control, no respect for rules, and no conscience. As crazy as it sounds, there may be a closer link than than most people would think between the extreme-altruistic personality and sociopathic personality. Would it shock you to know that two people, one with the traits of…