July 2009
Monthly Archive
According to
this really interesting article on
Slate.com, compulsive shopping and excessive internet use might soon become “mental disorders.”
Being a student of archetypal psychology via mythology, I’m swimming around in all sorts of stories and myths that account for the differences in human behavior. I have plenty of reasons to share in the disdain for the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which does not specialize in stories and myths but in lists and lists and lists. Virtually every behavior can be interpreted as something clinical and in need of medication or “fixing.” In fact, it seems more likely that “normal” is more of an arbitrary category and most likely itself a clinical diagnosis of not-going-with-the-status-quo.
Now it has come time to update this unholy of unholies and the APA, the governing higher power behind the DSM, wants to classify execssive shopping, “overuse of the Internet, ‘excessive’ sexual activity, apathy, and even prolonged bitterness should be viewed, quite seriously, as brain ‘disorders.’” As Christopher Lane points out in his article, this includes people who “spend hours online, have sex more frequently than aging psychiatrists, and moan incessantly that the federal government can’t account for all its TARP funds.”
Let’s think about this – since when did excessive internet use or sexual activity hurt anyone? In the case of the latter, I’m sure it improves one’s overall well-being. In the former, while it’s true that being tied to the computer separates one from the rest of the “real world,” it is also true that the internet helps people stay connected in ways taht the “real world” doesn’t offer. Also, for some (many?), the internet is just as much the “real world” as the physical “real world.” It’s an Introvert’s Paradise.
Excessive shopping – since when has stimulating the economy been a bad thing? Perhaps rather than diagnose shoppers as “ill,” we should be teaching them how to spend responsibly so they don’t fall in to the credit trap that has been dominating the news for the last few years.
Apathy and Prolonged Bitterness – Dear APA, We’re coming out of a tumultuous eight years of crazy government, a war on ideology that will never end, and swimming deep in a Housing Crisis and Recession. What is there not to be apathetic or bitter about? For the everyday person who is not trapped in the imaginary Ivory Tower housing the APA, some of us are lucky just to be able to pay our bills on time, provide food and shelter for our families, and have the kind of health insurance that would enable us to be your patients.
I’m beginning (ok, have thought for some time) that the people who try to codify things into simple, concrete terms are, well, ________ (choose your own descriptor). More people need some decent coaching and less “treatment” for “ailments” and “disorders.”
Or maybe, it’s just that the people who codify things into simple, concrete terms are themselves suffering from some sort of disability and are projecting their problems onto the world at large because they got lucky to be on the team of researchers. I’m sure there’s a name for that. Why don’t you check the DSM IV?
I did it. I consider it an accomplishment. I finished
Brisingr. I didn’t have nearly this much trouble finishing the other two Paolini books, which I suspect is more due to the fact that he had a different goal in mind when he was writing them. By the third book, the story expanded such that it wouldn’t be possible for him to finish it within the confines of a trilogy. Back in September 2008, I attended a book signing of this book. My
blog post about this event commented on an anecdote by Paolini, praising him for getting killed by his own myth. I still stand by this, because the Inheritance books aren’t bad. In fact, my only complaint about the books is that they are too much
Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and
Dungeons & Dragons, and less original myth, but we live in an era of recycled mythologies, so I don’t really hold it against Paolini. It’s the paradigm of our times (which some might say is a shame).
**Spoilers ahead. Read at your own risk.**
The cons of Brisingr is that Paolini spends too much time in exposition, developing some new story lines and enhancing some existing characters to extremes that just aren’t crucial to the overall cycle. Cutting them out wouldn’t detract from the overall story, but it wouldn’t help them flow better. Again, I can forgive this (though this is the primary reason why I stopped reading the book for several months and why it took me almost a year to finish reading it).
The pros is that Paolini really brought out Eragon’s spiritual crisis, something essential to his hero-development-qua-individuation. As a Dragon Rider, Eragon has become tightly linked to all of the races of Alagaesia, the tiny “world” of the books. He has sworn fealty to Nasuada, the leader of the Varden, the human “rebel alliance” trying to defeat King Gallbatorix, the “Darth Vader former Rider” who rules over the land. As a rider, he is tied to a short rope to the Elves, the magical people of the land responsible for the Riders and their training. AND he was adopted as a foster-son by the Dwarf King, Hrothgar, and recognized by his clan as family-minus-the-blood. Because of these relationships, he has to learn all sorts of information about the cultures and beliefs of these respective groups. The humans seems to be indifferent because they are struggling for survival. The Elves are tied, through magic and the Ancient Language, to Nature, and place their beliefs in the land, not in anything beyond. The Dwarves, on the other hand, had a strong religious presence in extraterrestrial gods. They believe they were brought forth from the stone by a deity, or group of deities, and they worship in accordance in thanks for their lives. Eragon struggles with this idea of “god,” because from his vantage point it doesn’t quite make sense. Why should there be gods, when magic can manipulate the environment to make anything happen? This is an on-going struggle at this point. I mention that this is essential to individuation because, following Carl Jung, without this crisis we never question and never get to the roots of our psychic drives, and never become whole complete selves.
At one point, however, Gallbatorix reveals himself as being “like a god.” This is mainly because he controls the power of the dragons, which has made his magical powers infinite and thus making him nearly invisible. If myths of old have taught us anything, it’s that the fall of all villians is due their own ego-centric hubris, not necessarily because the hero is just *that* good.
I like to think of villians as shadow-run-amok. Villians harnass all sorts of dark energies and get consumed. The hero swoops in and puts a cap on this, thus balancing out his or her good energies with the dark energies of the villian. At some point they meet in the middle, and the hero walks away stronger for it.
I do recommend these books, especially for those interested in Young Adult fantasy fiction. They’re not perfect (and skip the movie entirely), but they are work the efford. Just as long as you get past some of the more boring points.
Works cited
Bierhorst, John, ed. “Quezalcoatl.” Four Masterworks of American Indian Literature. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1974. 3-105.
Florescano, Enrique. The Myth of Quetzalcoatl. Trans. Lysa Hochroth. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U P, 1999.
Olson, Brooke. “Meeting the Challenges of American Indian Diabetes: Anthropological Perspectives on Prevention and Treatment.” Medicine Ways: Disease, Health, and Survival Among Native Americans. Ed. Clifford E. Trafzer and Diane Weiner. Walnut Creek: AltaMira P, 2001. 163-184.
Tedlock, Dennis, trans. Popol Vuh: The Definitive Edition of the Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life and the Glories of Gods and Kings. Revised Edition. New York: Touchstone, 1996.
Zolbrod, Paul G. Diné bahane’: The Navajo Creation Story. Albuquerque: U of Mexico P, 1984.
In her article, “Meeting the Challenges of American Indian Diabetes,” Brook Olson proposes that “drawing upon Native myths and stories is an effective method of educating about problems such as diabetes…. Using culturally appropriate stories can make an immense difference if it helps someone understand their disease and cope with it successfully” (176). The stories I have presented in this paper do not educate on modern diseases. Rather, through the cosmology they present, they establish the relationship between individuals and their food. Regardless of whether or not one is Native American or not, the problem of diabetes is epidemic within the United States.
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The floating gap is reflected in the connections of the mythologies to the observable behavior of the corn plant. One can observe the seasonal “death” and “rebirth” of the plant, and associated the harvest with appeasing the gods. For an agrarian society, it is easy to connect one’s own existence to that of one’s primary form of sustenance. The question raised is why these groups chose to move to an agricultural system and why they cultivated corn in particular. This is one of the age-old questions that may never be answered. In the different corn-dominated agricultures, perhaps the move to agriculture reflected the difficulties in hunting. In the arid climate of New Mexico or the tropical climate of the Yucatan, animals are plenty, but the numerous hiding places and difficult environment perhaps discouraged prolonged hunting trips. Corn is relatively easy to grow, fairly self-sufficient, and the entire plant lends itself to multiple uses. For example, corn can be eaten whole, popped, ground up into a meal, or the husk encasing the corn can be used as an encasement for other foods, such as tamales.
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Turn out hasn’t been to strong for the RoundTable this year. I think it’s the daunting task of winding one’s way through Joseph Campbell’s
Creative Mythology (Not to mention my accidental deletion of EVERYONE’s contact info), but yesterday was good. Helen and Daniel joing the Hubs and myself for good, enlightening discussion on the Love-Death in medieval literature and Alchemy in myth. The diverse yet common background we all possess brought the Table to life, and I hope this helps encourage it to grow.
One of the greatest things about being behind the times on posting comments on reviews is that I have the benefit of reading other people’s comments and integrating them into my own. In the case of the recent
Harry Potter installment, I find myself more compelled to comment on the reviews than on the actual movie itself.
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