| Author | Message | ||
     Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.161.241.208 |
Are you generally a pessimist or optimist? | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.24.122.40 |
Optimist. What's the point of being anything else - it won't lead to anything. :<0 | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.161.241.208 |
I see a balance between Pessimism and Optimism, strengthening each other by symbiosis ... not that one can adequately summarise such a power of polarity by these shorthand words of Pessimism and Optimism. I personally have no religion. But I do have faith in ideas that have a power all of their own once we set them in motion. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.230.9 |
Pessimist, albeit not to the point that I feel genuinely miserable all the time. I'm in good health, so I can't complain. I try to convince myself and others that I'm a realist. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.161.241.208 |
I reckon on a Horror site, there will be more pessimists than optimists. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.190.155 |
I'm an optimist at heart, though these days I feel I live more and more in a state of 'strained optimism'. I hope I never become an outright pessimist. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.230.9 |
'Strained optimism' - I like that  | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.29.101 |
Pessimist mostly - with occasional outbursts of doesn't the sky look wonderful tonight/isn't that crocus astounding - sort of thing. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.249.146 |
Unfortunately I am an utter pessimist: everything's crap, including my outlook on life. | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
Black dog says, "WOOF WOOF!" | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
I suspect he's pawing at your door, Zed. | ||
| John_l_probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.208.214.32 |
Optimist of course. But you knew that, didn't you? | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
What are you wearing, JPL? | ||
| Barbara Roden (Nebuly) Username: Nebuly Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 142.32.208.233 |
Optimist, me, otherwise what's the point, really? We only get one go-round in life, so might as well be as cheerful as possible about it. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.24.122.40 |
To what degree do folk feel that optimism/pessism is, as it were, a choice they make? Some folk - eg, Stephen Pinker - think it's biological. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.161.241.208 |
"I perceived that one is *born* happy or unhappy, just as one is born successful or unsuccessful. [...} ...Millais stood out from the other young painters as the one who was marked for success. It is beside the present point that success did Millais so little good that he was seen weeping at one of his last exhibitions; for the nature and worth of happiness are often questionable also." --Robert Aickman (The Attempted Rescue) I don't think you can force optimism on a pessimistic mind. I think one is what one is. One just varies within certain parameters from one's original position on the optimism-pessimism spectrum. | ||
| John_l_probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.208.214.32 |
What am I wearing? Today was black trousers & shirt complemented by brown gold green and black striped summer blazer with crest-embossed iron buttons | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.249.146 |
The way I see it is that we're born neutral, develop optimism, and then realise that pessimism is the only sensible option in an insane existence. Otherwise what's the point? As others above have said, we only get one go at this crazy merry-go-round, so we might as well just realise that it's utterly pointless and we all die wanting to hang onto life. :-) See you all in a fortnight. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.249.146 |
Sometimes, John, I think I'm a little bit in love with you. But in a macjo way (coughs into fist). ;-) | ||
| Stephen Melling (Steve_melling) Username: Steve_melling Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 87.115.0.251 |
I mean, what's the point in being optimistic? . . . Sorry, just finished a second glass of wine. Grin on me face. Weeeeeeeeeeee. Came upstairs yesterday and my missus was bathing a chicken in my new roll-top bath. How's that for friggin' weird? Bloody rhode-island red in my bath! s | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.247.38 |
I believe, with anything fairly major in our lives (love, religious beliefs, etc.), we go through three stages. Take religion.... 1) Stage 1 - optimistic. We roughly believe in it all, for good or ill, or at least what we're told. Truth. 2) Stage 2 - pessimistic. We roughly disbelieve in it all, for good or ill. It's all a pack of lies. 3) Stage 3 - synthesis. We realize life would be better if the lies were true, maybe some of them at least; and so we spend the rest of our time fashioning the world into an image (a "reality") of those lies. Cynicism and skepticism and pessimism is one aspect this last stage can take; but it can also be very positive, and well-meaning, and honest. The key in life, is to optimistically believe life's lies, as opposed to pessimistically believing in its truths. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 212.74.96.200 |
Dunno. I'd like to be optomistic, am quite often, but the reality of the world tends to send me pessimistic. It's all a question of perspective. I didn't know I was doing so, but I've often used some NLP techniques to put a happier spin on things. I suspect the optomisim/pessimism outlook is as much learned behaviour as biolgical. But I've no evidence to support this, other than casual observance. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.230.9 |
"I have seen the dark universe yawning Where the black planets roll without aim, Where they roll in their horror unheeded, without knowledge or lustre or name." | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
"What am I wearing? Today was black trousers & shirt complemented by brown gold green and black striped summer blazer with crest-embossed iron buttons."  | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
You are Terry-Thomas. | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
Craig. That's a very unhealthy way of looking at life. It's a one way ticket to loonyville. | ||
| Albie (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.195.236.131 |
Surely every situation demands a logical answer. Am I pessimistic about becoming rich and famous? Am I optimistic that I'll be eating a sandwich in an hour? Are there more situations that I am pessimitic about than optimistic? And how many of them would I care about anyway? You gauge your world view on a feeling that you are pessimistic or an optician. But is it in fact that you only ever face situations you know you will succeed? I will never try to become Miss World, for many, many reasons. In the reverse, are you constantly trapped in a world that forces you to face situations that you really never have a chance at being successful at? What situations do you face each day? Getting to work on time? Having a good orgasm? Enjoying your sandwich? telling a good joke down the club? Summoning the antichrist? Getting a story published? Getting through half an hour without wishing you were dead? We need to examine all of these things before we can truly understand anything of this thread. | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
I'm watching you. | ||
| Albie (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.195.236.131 |
No, that's a photo I staged of me. I'm actually watching you. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.161.241.208 |
I still think one can generalise about a person's basic temperament, as Aickman did in that quote above. | ||
| Albie (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.195.236.131 |
From seeing someone a few times? Sure you can generalise. Doesn't mean you are right. Or be right about yourself. Well, only you know if you are happy. But you could be happy about having on nice new socks. I might find that a non-event. You can be optimistic and yet constantly fail, if all you ever try to achieve are non-events. "oh well." Perhaps it doesn't matter as long as you are happy. Which is why I vote for surgical mental retardation and constant care and trips to the zoo, please. | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
"No, that's a photo I staged of me. I'm actually watching you." I'll find you eventually. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.230.9 |
Let's coin another new word. Antisimistic. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.161.241.208 |
Doesn't mean you are right. Or be right about yourself. I agree with that! No harm in testing the water of self, though. That's what discussion threads are for. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.24.122.40 |
Albie's comment highlights the problems of all such trait-like approach to identity. They're situationally variable. Still, I do think we all have behavioural repertoires which are identifiable. This board, for instance - if the posters' names were stripped off the messages, I bet most of us could identify who was posting. I prefer to think of identity as 'variations on a theme' on oneself. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.161.241.208 |
A bit like Elgar's Enigma? All his so-called friends were facets of the Elgar self. Nimrod was the soul. Some others parst of the body. Others projections of the soul into intimations of identity and immortality. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.24.122.40 |
I've done some research on this very issue. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.161.241.208 |
Does it fit my poetic licence re Elgar? | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.24.122.40 |
Not really. It was more about what people mean when they claim that they can "be themselves" in the company of certain people, and why they can't "be themselves" in the company of others. I found that rather than a fixed behavioural profile in the former case, people could feel comfortable exhibiting a range of behavioural strategies across a varying range of people, but - and here was the interesting thing - they found it hard to articulate exactly what characterised their identity here. With behaviours with people with whom they couldn't "be themselves" they had no problen explaining why. I concluded that it must be something to do with the fact that in comfortable relationships we lack the necessity of reflecting upon the nature of the engagement, since if it ain't broke don't fix it. It's in the cases of things misfiring that we start picking them apart. That was part of the study, anyway. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.161.241.208 |
It was more about what people mean when they claim that they can "be themselves" in the company of certain people, and why they can't "be themselves" in the company of others. Isn't his all to do with investment (as well as comfortable familiarity)? How important is the connection, how much you have invested in it, whether you can behave in a perceived normal way or not so as to be able to reap your investment. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.230.9 |
Here, too, it's a matter of degree: with some people you can be yourself more than with others. I wouldn't say it's entirely possible or even necessary to be yourself completely. | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
You gauge people and alter your behaviour. | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
In some situations, e.g. if you work in small close teams this is very important. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.5.3.246 |
One has to find "drugs" of any kind, Griff, to shut out the horror that is life itself on this planet. Some people affirm the horror that is life. They find pleasure in justifying it, or finding reasons for it, or accepting it. That's called "pessimism." Some want to rail against it, believe against it, and erect something better in its name. Until the truth is erased, it's confronted by a lie. Once the lie supplants the truth, the lie is the new truth. Truth and good, lies and evil, are not mutually exclusive. I have long since come to the conclusion that so much of our f*cked-up thinking in life is a result of sticky terms (that themselves are inaccurate), clinging to others as if they were bonded together. Artists are key to the optimism of this planet. Vision itself is a lie, that creates monuments out of sprawling, formless truths. Nature as primally "better," is pessimistic; cities and civilization are optimistic; and we seem to have forgotten that. ... which is all, by the way, not to say I'm not already the resident Mayor of Looneyville....  | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
"One has to find "drugs" of any kind, Griff, to shut out the horror that is life itself on this planet." You my friend have spent too long in LA! | ||
| Adriana (Adriana) Username: Adriana Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.230.239.233 |
'Strained optimism' - I like that. I'll go with that. | ||
| Adriana (Adriana) Username: Adriana Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.230.239.233 |
I don't know though. I feel like I'm an optimist when it comes to seeing potential for other people. But a pessimist in believing it's not the same for me. But there's always hope. And I think hope is ultimately a sign of a secret optimist. | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
You are wise, shrewd and insightful, Adriana. | ||
| Adriana (Adriana) Username: Adriana Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.230.239.233 |
"Nature as primally "better," is pessimistic; cities and civilization are optimistic; and we seem to have forgotten that." You MAY have a point in there, but I almost fail to see it. Because so much of our civilization is corrupt and vacant. Nature itself is an act of optimism. Cities??? hmm. | ||
| Adriana (Adriana) Username: Adriana Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.230.239.233 |
I was talking to Donald the other day about some of this - about how we both believe that the very act of creation is an optimistic act. An act of hope. Therefore all writers are on some level, optimists... Even Zed. ha ha | ||
| Adriana (Adriana) Username: Adriana Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.230.239.233 |
And I don't believe that we're born as empty canvases, or slates or whatever. But I do believe that regardless of our predispositions (whether it be genetic or *something else*), that we are all capable of change and growth - that in fact, that's what life is all about. I've often found myself feeling that our very challenges are the areas that we have the most potential for growth. Jung once said something along the lines of - identify what a person most fears, and that will be their next area of growth. I agree with that. Or at least believe that in a best case scenario, that's how it works. It's natural to fear the unknown, and areas where we don't have a comfort zone of experience or a safety net. But those are precisely the opportunities that teach us who we are, and pave the way for a greater version of ourselves. | ||
| Adriana (Adriana) Username: Adriana Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.230.239.233 |
Thanks Griff, I'd hope that you'd still feel those things if you met me. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.253.105 |
Corrupt civilization is a by-product of the positive aspects, like food and aesthetic pleasure could be said to be by-products of nature's pessimistic aspects ("you can't change the course of this river, but you can drink from it"). Those who love nature overly much, or romanticize it too much: realize how very little of it is in our daily lives. Nature is "out there," but we're in here, warm and cozy. "Repetition" is the real demon of life, dove-tailing on your ringing-the-Changes, A. The thirst for repetition is destructive. Projected into the future - in either its fear aspect, or desire - is anxiety; projected into the past - again, fear or desire - is regret. Taking the single moment and experiencing it and not craving to repeat it (or, fearing its repeat)... and feeling joy at that (optimism), as opposed to resentment/anger/sadness/etc. (pessimism)... that's it, I think..... | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.161.241.208 |
I think I see a point emerging... Living for the present moment - optimism Seeing the consequences of the present moment - pessimism I fear I am in the latter camp. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.24.122.40 |
>>>And I don't believe that we're born as empty canvases, or slates or whatever. But I do believe that regardless of our predispositions (whether it be genetic or *something else*), that we are all capable of change and growth - that in fact, that's what life is all about. Some psychologists reckon that trying to cut against the grain of our 'nature' is what causes neuroses. I don't romanticise nature. Just because it's natural doesn't mean it's good. To think otherwise is the naturalistic fallacy at work. | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
What's your take on Goffman, Gary? | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
...and symbolic interactionism in general. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.24.122.40 |
Goffman: brilliant writer and an inspired theorist. I used some of his ideas in my PhD. I like George Herbert Mead's work, too - the father of SI. Me and I and all that. Used him, too. But I'm more taken with Bourdieu these days, particularly his work on embodiment, which extends a lot of Merleau-Ponty's ideas into the social sphere. Alfred Schutz is worth looking at, too. | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
You've read Mead's original work! I've only seen him in footnotes. What's his work like? | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.190.61 |
Foucault, Adorno and Marcuse are my heroes in the social theory/philosophy sphere. After Marx and Freud, of course. Please note that none of the above are readily compatible with each other. I'm an optimist, but the conflict between that and reality brings me down hard on such a regular basis that my smile is almost permanently inverted. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.161.241.208 |
An interesting point from Joel. Being an optimist generally can make visits of pessimism seem far more extreme. And how many people who have read 'The Lost District & other stories' book would predict that (intentionally) the author considers himself to be an optimist? | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.24.122.40 |
Mead never published anything, Griff. His work was cobbled together from lectures by one of his students. | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
Then why do I have sociology textbooks quoting him!? | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.74 |
How do we know this isn't Mead through the prism of his student? He must have left something? | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.92.216.182 |
Joel: 'I'm an optimist, but the conflict between that and reality brings me down hard on such a regular basis that my smile is almost permanently inverted.' I agree completely. | ||
| Karim Ghahwagi (Karim) Username: Karim Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.92.216.182 |
Which reminds me of that great, terrifying slogan from Brazil: 'Happiness, we're all in it together' | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.24.122.40 |
Mead's books have be reconstructed from his notes and lectures. As I said. | ||
| Albie (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.195.236.131 |
Death skews our sense of hope, I reckon. If we can force our minds to hope that death is not the end, then imagine what that must do to us on other levels. Maybe we develop unnatural levels of hope for small things. Or maybe all hope in the end is tainted by a feeling of foolishness. Knowing we die must have had a great influence on the evolution of man's mind. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.149.134.59 |
Pessimists are happy because they're never let down. Optimists are mis because they're always let down. Hence all intelligent optimists are miserablists. | ||
| Albie (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.195.236.131 |
But I'm a pessimist and I'm as miserable as can be. Perhaps I'm not pessimistic enough. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.5.1.230 |
Maybe deep down, Albie, you're an optimist. Why is it that "deep down" is always used in a negative psychological context? That people act happy but, "deep down," they're really miserable, is a cliche. But no one ever says: he's so depressed he's nearly suicidal... but you know, deep down, he's really as happy as a lark. "Deep down," one of Freud's mythical terms. Deep down, we're squirming intestines and sacks of blood. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.149.134.59 |
Freud used the term in a very different sense from the way it's used in today's psychobabble. He was talking about emotions that can't be expressed or accessed, not emotions we choose not to give voice to. We literally have no idea what is 'deep down' in a Freudian sense. But he's surely right that most of what is there is not great, because it's been buried for a reason. There's no reason to repress nice things, unless you're James Anderton. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.157.159.47 |
On one of many occasions when I felt down my wife once told me to tell myself that I was a good person; I suddenly broke into uncontrollable tears and sobs that lasted almost half an hour. It's one of my horriblest memories. | ||
| Adriana (Adriana) Username: Adriana Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.230.239.233 |
I kinda disagree about not burying nice things. Apparently it's one of my worse qualities. But I do it. ;) Furthermore, I wonder about the relation ship between deep down and say "the shadow" by which I Jung's "shadow" which is at the end of the day not "good" or "bad" but merely all that is cast aside/away, behind the light of the life we're outwardly living. I find it interesting that much of our persona and even potential is put there. And that ultimately to fully realize ourselves, and certainly to live a rich life - means at some point turning to face that shadow, and bringing forth that which we've hidden. | ||
| Adriana (Adriana) Username: Adriana Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.230.239.233 |
Sending you a hug, Tony. I know what you mean. That kind of sobbing is good though, I think. You should do it more often. As frequently as necessary to let all the material that comes with it assimilate, and then either absorb or let go... Then hopefully, you can smile someday when thinking such thoughts. Give Marie a hug for me too. She's such an angel. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.5.1.230 |
I guess it's those terms, Joel: "deep down," "buried," even "there," because they're all tropes. We can't communicate without tropes, I know; but like, um... which Commandment is it again?... we have a compulsion to "idolize" things, even terms; by which I mean give substance and form and tangibility - i.e., reality - to things that have nothing of the kind. There is no "there," though it's a good trope in some contexts. But the problem is, that ditching Frued is also good in many situations; maybe for some, maybe someday, all situations. The problem is that Freud's terms have become pervasive and insidious, ubiquitously so. We have a problem even thinking extra-Freudian. There are times when repression is good. When the darkside is preferable. When Shakespearean villainy is the surest path. When being happy, is a bad thing.... | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.5.1.230 |
A, I agree with the shadow aspect, maybe "shading" it to my own theory: that we - defined as, our current consciousness (that part of you which is reading this post now) - are always merely whatever's passed through the filter of this thing called "ourselves" at this current moment. Like one of those string artists: weaving, weaving, weaving, until we settle on a pleasant shape - a cat's cradle, say. Then back to weaving, producing another shape, back to weaving. We're string - potential and persona, as you say - but we're mostly whatever shape we choose to be at this moment. I think ennui is one of the key factors that has been neglected in all psychologies: sheer boredom is more impacting on our psyche than any amount of horrible life traumas. If a bad guy puts a gun to your head long enough, you *will* get bored, and your fear will vanish. People get bored of being good, and decent. People get bored of doing the right thing. People get bored of being happy. There is no ground of being (reality), but the weaving bit of string making shapes between the hands, every few minutes.... | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.24.122.40 |
Gestalt theories of perception could handle that phenomenon, Craig. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 61.216.39.39 |
As you lot are waxing all philosophical, I would like to take this opportunity to recommend Freud's The Uncanny (which I'm sure some of you have read). Not to mention Jung's Memories, Dreams and Reflections (among others). I read Goffman when I was considering doing cultural/social anthropology at university many years ago. Interesting stuff. I can't remember all the things I read, but there was Boas, Manilowski, Levi-Strauss, and many others who elude me now. I remember liking Ruth Benedict's books, especially. | ||
| Albie (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.195.236.131 |
If I'm deep down an optimist then it would take Doug McClure and Peter Cushing to find it. |