"Sometimes a cigar is only a cigar" .... S. Freud

What a great platform to share whatever is on your mind! I will begin with Psychology. I love this subject so much. It is so exciting and intrigues me everyday of my life. We are all involved in it whether we know it or not. The psychology used behind making your husband or daughter behave a certain way,... the psychology used in getting the results you want from your two year old... it's like Gepetto in the background making the puppets perform as he/she wants.... Wonderful right? - Ha! (maybe if you're Gepetto) - It can also be quite dangerous, when in the control of the wrong person. Skinner was quoted as saying, "I think a science of behavior is just as dangerous as the atom bomb." What a huge, insightful statement! Skinner was born over 100 years ago... could he have had the foresight to see what was going to happen ..that theorists would continue to nit-pick each and every quirk of a persons behavior - making too much out of every little thing? Putting labels and names to personality quirks, making them almost acceptable - Ahhh,.. well, she is bi-polar ... or, well...he has multiple personalities. Think of how often a person may be misdiagnosed and then subconsciously try to fulfill the symptoms of their new 'label' - it is quite a science of the mind, and one that I believe CAN be quite dangerous. An adolescent should not be diagnosed with some personality problem, and then be treated differntly, as though they have it.. Of course the attention of this new 'label' they may be getting from friends, siblings, teachers, or parents, is naturally going to make them feel significant .. special ... unique. There may be special circumstances where this is appropriate, but from my perspective (and this is my blog) - I think there is a fine line of doing more damange than good when diagnosing a child with anything. Parents these days want to find a clinical diagnosis to replace their inept parenting skills.

I want to explore the documented theories of personality through some famous (and not so famous) theorists... from Freud, Jung, Adler, Erickson, Skinner, Allport, to Cattell, Bandura, Wilson, and Kelly - to name a few. More importantly I want to document my observations, ideas and theories, since I am totally immersed in the pscyhology behind the psychology!! Over the last year or so I have been studying different theorists and have found that I agree with some, and was surprised to learn I disagree with ones I used to be intrigued by. Our mind changes at different points in our lives, based on what we have experienced. I used to think I admired the writings of Freud, only to wonder now, how most of his psychobabble was ever published? George Kelly was noted as saying "I don't remember which one of Freud's books i was trying to read, but i do remember the mounting feeling of incredulity that anyone could write such nonsense!"

There are so many famous psychologists out there, ... all with different ideas - theory's - on why we act as we do... why a person turned out a particular way...Some of it I give relevence to, and some i believe is simply outlandish, and perhaps that theorist was in need of certain medicaitons himself.


Some people may be thinking that personality theories is the easiest topic of all, and that everyone - especially they themselves - already know all the answers. Well, it's true that personality theories doesn't involve all the higher math and symbolic systems that physics and chemistry (the famously "tough" courses!) involve. And it's true that we all have pretty direct access to our own thoughts and feelings, and plenty of experience dealing with people. But we are mistaking familiarity with knowledge, and in much of what we think we know turns out to be prejudices and biases we've picked up over the years. In fact, the topic of theories of personality is probably one of the most difficult and most complex we ever deal with. Doesn't it sound exciting?

I think this blog will represent different stops along lifes road, as well as some of the different 'drivers.' I think situations worthy of writing about, as well as people I find intruiging, will be the different subjects of this blog. I tend to be a tich 'wordy' so hopefully there is enough room out there on the WWW !! Bwuuua haaa ha!!!

I must make a speical note, that while theories are many and most people are odd, soemtimes "a cigar is ONLY a cigar" :o)