Mental Health

J.D. Salinger Meets Comcast

by Aaron on December 28, 2010

in Mental Health,Philosophy,Religion

Most people are forced to read Catcher in the Rye during awkward adolescent periods of rebellion. People either love it or hate it. Either you think Holden, with his existential angst, is a whiny bitch, or you understand the kind of dark void that youth can see looming behind the grown-up world and responsibilities. As good as Catcher is, I think the two short novel collection Franny and Zooey is better. It’s a more adult, subtle, and obtuse look at the same dynamics of community, isolation, authenticity, conformity, and self-definition. In Franny’s words:

It’s everybody, I mean. Everything everybody does is so — I don’t know — not wrong, or even mean, or even stupid necessarily. But just so tiny and meaningless and — sad-making. And the worst part is, if you go bohemian or something crazy like that, you’re conforming just as much only in a different way.

The two novels deal with the titular Franny’s mental breakdown. In her anguish, she’s reached out for a book called The Way of a Pilgrim, a Russian religious text that explores the idea of continuous prayer and spiritual illumination. She becomes fixated on something called

Now Comcast and Verizon Fios are showing a documentary that explores the Jesus prayer:

A major motion-picture about divine wisdom, timeless insight, silence and prayer, entitled, “Mysteries of the Jesus Prayer” will premiere for three-months on Comcast and Verizon Fios Video-On-Demand, beginning on December 15, 2010.

His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew offers a foreword and introduction to this story as it travels to the far reaches of the east, discovering the Jesus Prayer firsthand with Emmy award winning theologian and author, Dr. Norris J. Chumley, and renowned historian and priest, Very Rev. Dr. John A. McGuckin. They take a modern exodus to the ancient lands where Christianity and the Church began, witnessing the Jesus Prayer directly in monasteries and chapels, many places that are off-limits to the outside world.

If you liked Franny and Zooey even a little bit, it’s probably worth a watch. I plan on checking it out at some point. There’s also a teaser trailer on youtube.

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‘Til Death Do You Part…

by Prodigal Son on May 24, 2010

in Government,Mental Health,Uncategorized

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending the wedding of one of my dearest friends. It was a beautiful ceremony filled with friends and family, I had a great time drinking and dancing with old friends. It really was a grand time. That being said, I still don’t understand marriage. The concept has bothered me for most of my adult life. This is not to say that I would ever stop two or more constenting adults from getting married, I just don’t think it is for me.

This particular wedding raised two red flags for me. The first was the idea of servitude. The ceremony was heavy on being a servant of your spouse (and God, but this is not the time to get theological). My hairs on the back of my libertarian neck stand up with any talk of lifelong servitude, even if it is voluntary. I understand a partnership, but being a servent implies a master, and to me this is brutally archaic and the antithetical to the ideas of individual freedom. Besides that, it is nothing more than wishful thinking, lifelong marriage is an outdated idea that made sense when the average life expectancy was 40 years and two parents were necessary to raise children to self-sufficiency. In today’s society the idea of lifelong love and marriage is at best childish, and at worst fatal to the development of the individual.

The second point of contemplation for me was a request from the pastor of this ceremony, a request that the witnesses to the ceremony vow to assist the marriage. I am not sure how common this is, but I have seen it several times now, especially in protestant ceremonies. This mindset treats the marriage as an end, instead of a means to an end. It isn’t happiness that is important, or satisfaction, security or any number of personal pursuit… no, it is the marriage that should stay together with the assistance of the witnesses even if both partners are unhappy. It is so common to hear someone speak of wanting a husband/wife, boyfriend/girlfriend, etc instead of saying that they want happiness or satisfaction. Instead of working to be self-sufficient many social institutions impart the ideas of happiness through others (as opposed to self happiness), this applies to marriage, the church and the government. When it comes down to it, my rejection of marriage has the same reasoning behind it as my rejection of religion and government… I am a sovereign being and I refuse to sacrifice that.

I should reiterate that I would never stop someone from getting married, I just hope that if my friends do wed it is well thought out instead of a pursuit of some outdated societal norm.

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Mad Men

by Aaron on May 10, 2010

in Mental Health

An interesting article in the NYT about the effects of long term sleep deprivation, told through the lens of attention seeking radio DJs.

A night of missed sleep isn’t going to kill you, even if it feels like it will. But the consequences of going for prolonged periods without sleep are poorly understood even now. The two psychologists who monitored Tripp tried to talk him out of it, but they were also clearly pleased at the research opportunity his stunt presented. Tripp, by all accounts, wasn’t worried.

Maybe he should have been. In photographs taken at the beginning of the wake-a-thon, Tripp appears confident, relaxed. Everyone’s eyes are on him, which is exactly what he wanted. After the second day, the sly grin has been replaced with a glum, nervous expression. By day five Tripp looks haggard, haunted and slightly crazed.

He was crazed, too, and not just slightly. While Tripp somehow managed to keep it together during broadcasts, off the air he was experiencing wild hallucinations. He saw mice and kittens scampering around the makeshift studio. He was convinced that his shoes were full of spiders. He thought a desk drawer was on fire. When a man in a dark overcoat showed up, Tripp imagined him to be an undertaker and ran terrified into the street. He had to be dragged back inside.

I have periodic insomnia, and it’s not fun times. But sometimes sleep deprivation is entertaining. In college I would regularly pull all-nighters, and then crash during the early afternoon. There’s a feeling around noon time the next day that kicks in. Something about having seen too much, and just being overwhelmed. Usually that’s followed, for me, by becoming incredibly giddy. The world and everyone in it seems like some delightfully absurdist farce. That feeling alone is almost worth all the work that goes into all-nighters. Doing something stupid like that is fun in your early 20′s. But like drunk visits to late night diners and Sundays in a library, it looses its luster pretty fast.

I also found this related story, on prions and familial fatal insomnia very interesting. And fortunately, sleep-inducing.

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