2017 Personality 02/03: Historical & Mythological Context

0:00[Music]

0:12now you know I used this picture to

0:16represent my class and you might not

0:20know anything about this picture it's

0:22it's a picture of Jonah being thrown up

0:26out of whales belly after spending three

0:29days inside it it's an old biblical

0:31story it's a myth it's a fairy tale

0:34that's that's one way of looking at it

0:36and and I don't mean that derogative

0:39manner we know for example that some of

0:42the Grimm's brothers fairy tales are

0:44perhaps fifteen thousand years old

0:46they've been traced way back they're

0:48really really old and old stories are

0:51strange and they're strange because well

0:54they've been told generation after

0:55generation after generation and so you

0:57could imagine that something retold over

1:02such an expand of expansive time has

1:04been reduced to its gist many many times

1:07and nothing that's in the story anymore

1:09is superfluous it's all meaningful in

1:12some sense it's sort of like a meta

1:16story that's one way of thinking about

1:18imagine that you took a hundred books

1:20hundred adventure books and you had to

1:22extract out the central features of an

1:25adventure book now it's hard to do that

1:28it's like you're averaging across them

1:30or something like that

1:31distilling them in some manner then you

1:34get a meta adventure and it would be

1:37like a myth upon which all adventures

1:40are based and this story is actually one

1:42of those stories and I'm going to tell

1:45you what I think the story means and I'm

1:48not saying that this is all it means

1:49because most stories of this sort are in

1:52some sense inexhaustible just like great

1:56works of art are inexhaustible there

1:58there's more information in them than

2:00you can possibly articulate that's what

2:02makes them profound that's why you go

2:06look at them otherwise someone could

2:08just tell you about the painting and

2:10that would be the end of that but that

2:11doesn't work so so that Jonah is being

2:16spit up by this whale and of course on

2:19the face of it that's an impossibility

2:21because well

2:24you can't live inside a whale that's why

2:28it's impossible now you may remember and

2:30likely do that you all know a story

2:34about someone who is inside a whale

2:36that's Pinocchio right and you know you

2:40go to that movie maybe even as an adult

2:42you watch that movie and Geppetto is

2:45down there in the whale in his little

2:46boat you know it's big cavernous inside

2:49you don't really care that that's

2:51there's a bunch of things you don't care

2:52about you don't care that those are

2:55drawings and not real people you don't

2:57care about that and you don't care that

2:59the inside of a whale isn't a cavern and

3:03you don't care that Pinocchio is a

3:05puppet for that matter none of that

3:07matters to you at all and that's because

3:08you're really strange creatures and you

3:10don't even notice when you're doing

3:12something absolutely absurd and that's

3:14one of those times when you are but if

3:16someone taps you on the shoulder and

3:18says you know you're just watching

3:21drawings of a puppet puppets can't

3:24really move autonomously and now he's at

3:27the bottom of the ocean you have no idea

3:29why he's going to rescue his father and

3:31you're just sitting there annoyed and

3:33you're okay with that and you'll say

3:35shut up because I want to finish

3:37watching a movie and so that's

3:40interesting you see that tells you

3:43something about your unconscious if

3:44you're psychoanalytically minded because

3:48you're doing something that you cannot

3:50account for now you might say well it's

3:52it it's enjoyable

3:53well that's deep man you're really

3:55really going a long ways with that the

3:58question is a why is it comprehensible B

4:02why is it enjoyable see just exactly

4:06what are you doing there and you think

4:09that whatever you are doing there is so

4:12valuable that you'll actually pay to do

4:14it weird very very weird and you know

4:19when you read about let's say the

4:22archaic rituals of tribal people and you

4:27ask yourself just what are they up to

4:29you might think well they're up to the

4:32same thing that you're up to when you go

4:34see a movie so and then you might also

4:37notice that the

4:38most expensive artifacts or among the

4:41most expensive artifacts that human

4:42beings create our movies they spend

4:45hundreds of millions of dollars on them

4:47and we consider that a good deal and you

4:52know it drives our technology to because

4:54the high-tech movies like the Marvel

4:57movies that require so much computer

4:58animation they actually drive the demand

5:01for high-end graphics chips so our

5:03technological advance forward is

5:06actually motivated in part by our desire

5:10to represent things fictional II in ever

5:13more spectacular manner so Jonah well

5:19let me tell you the story of Jonah and

5:22I'll tell you why I'm gonna tell you it

5:24this is from Camille Paglia who's a

5:27critic of the modern University and a

5:29very brilliant woman I would say very

5:31controversial incredibly rapid speaker

5:35and she can think so fast it's just

5:37unbelievable she's really fun to watch

5:39if you like that sort of thing

5:41vicious adversary in an argument she

5:45says the number one problem in academia

5:47today is not ignorant students but

5:50ignorant professors who have substituted

5:54narrow expertise and theoretical

5:56sophistication a preposterous term for

5:58breadth and depth of learning in the

6:00world history of art and thought art is

6:03a vast interconnected web work a

6:07fabricated tradition and over

6:10concentration on any one point is a

6:12distortion here's here's a problem I had

6:23I wrestled with this when I was trying

6:25to understand some of the things that

6:27I'm going to teach you about there's

6:32some things that you kind of have to

6:33grasp as a whole you know sometimes you

6:35have a flash of insight and a bunch of

6:37things that you didn't know we're

6:38related fall together that that's

6:40supposed to happen in psychotherapy when

6:42you link different disparate patterns of

6:44behavior together because you've linked

6:46them say with a single cause and you get

6:50this like excited feeling

6:52of illumination and possibility and

6:59there are forms of communication that

7:02require the simultaneously the

7:05simultaneous realization of a multitude

7:07of disparate phenomena like a movie can

7:16be like that

7:17you know you you listen to a movie you

7:19watch movie and then you don't know what

7:20the hell is going on and then something

7:22happens near the end and bed everything

7:25clicks together and it's cuz you've sort

7:28of seen the thing as a whole and a lot

7:30of the things that we a lot of the ways

7:33that we interact with the world that are

7:35mysterious are like that there and this

7:40is what peg lay is referring to is that

7:42and this is a psychoanalytic proposition

7:45I would say or a romantic proposition

7:49now the idea roughly is that way out in

7:55the periphery of reality are all those

7:57things that not only do you not know but

7:59you don't even know you don't know right

8:01there you're completely blind to their

8:03existence and then there's unknown

8:05things that you have some suspicions

8:07about and then there's unknown things

8:09that you can start to imagine and and

8:12act out and dramatize and so all of that

8:17is on the periphery of our knowledge

8:19that's a psychoanalytic dictum where the

8:22thoughts come from well partly they're

8:25nested in dreams dreams are the

8:27birthplace of thoughts fantasy it's not

8:29that surprising fantasy is the

8:32birthplace of ideas you know if you're

8:33thinking about what you're gonna do in

8:35the future

8:36you enter into a reverie a dream state

8:39and you contemplate multiple

8:41possibilities and then you start

8:43thinking them through

8:44use your imagination to search beyond

8:48where you are and the collective human

8:52attempt to do that is our mysterious

8:57humanistic artistic tradition which is

9:00very difficult to justify from a formal

9:04articulate point of view

9:06what good is dance like what is it that

9:10you're doing when you're dancing

9:11well you don't care because you like to

9:13dance why well you don't know what you

9:17do it's built into you music musics a

9:21human universal cultures use music to

9:24organize themselves right they use music

9:26to catalyze their identities they use

9:28music to unite around you know in in

9:31more archaic societies less

9:33differentiated societies let's say no a

9:37mask that represents part of the family

9:41tradition will have a particular design

9:43and there'll be a particular song

9:45written for it and there'll be a

9:46particular dance about it and the song

9:49and the dance or something like the

9:52symbolic representation of a mode of

9:54being in the world like maybe the mask

9:56is a wolf mask and so you act out the

9:58wolf and there's music that goes along

10:00with that and you think well what are

10:01you doing when you're acting out the

10:03wolf and part of that is what you're

10:04trying you're trying to understand

10:06wolves

10:06you know it's an image it's imitation in

10:09part and you know if you live in the

10:10natural world and if you hunt and if

10:12you're preyed upon then understanding

10:15the things that you're hunting and

10:16preying upon is useful and there's also

10:19pull out perhaps useful things to learn

10:21from them and so we play this strange

10:25symbolic game with the world like

10:27children pretending that's another way

10:30of thinking about it and we do that to

10:32act out and to begin to understand

10:35things we don't understand like how to

10:37act that's now for me the most important

10:43question in life is not what the world

10:48is made of and in fact I would say

10:54that's a relatively new preoccupation of

10:57humankind you know we didn't really

11:00formalize you could say that the ancient

11:03Greeks originated laid the groundwork

11:08for the emergence of an empirical

11:09science and then it emerged more

11:14formally with bacon and Descartes and

11:16Newton five six hundred years ago not

11:22very long like a blink blink to the eye

11:24in human terms before that people were

11:30engineers they could build things and so

11:32forth but they didn't know how to

11:33they weren't scientists they didn't

11:36really conceptualize the world as an

11:38objective place we do that automatically

11:41because science has seeped so far into

11:43our set of presuppositions that doesn't

11:48make us good scientists by the way but

11:50it does make us believe that the

11:53fundamental reality of the world is an

11:55objective reality and I'm not going to

11:57dispute that particularly but leaves one

12:02set of questions unanswered

12:05probably by its nature because it wasn't

12:08designed to answer the question then

12:10that question is how should one conduct

12:13oneself in the world and that's an

12:18important thing since you're alive and

12:20hypothetically you'd rather stay alive

12:22and well you're alive you probably don't

12:25want to suffer any more than you have to

12:26and no more stupidly than you have to

12:29and it might also be good if some of the

12:31things that you want it actually

12:33happened and so you know you're

12:35motivated to know how to act and and

12:38people are always telling each other how

12:40to act we're sending each other

12:42information all the time about how to

12:44act we do that with our the expressions

12:46on our face and of course when we talk

12:48to people we always look at their face

12:49and that's because their face tells you

12:52what they're up to

12:53you know if they're smiling and paying

12:55attention to you well then you can

12:56assume that you're doing something right

12:59and if they're looking annoyed or

13:02disgusted that's a particularly bad one

13:04then you might think you might take a

13:07hint

13:07from that especially if you know three

13:09or four people are doing it at the same

13:11time and so we're reflecting we're

13:14reflecting some ideal to one another

13:17constantly and the more attentive you

13:20are the more likely you are to act in

13:24accordance with that ideal and the more

13:27like you likely you are to move towards

13:29it you may not even know what the ideal

13:31is in an articulated sense in fact you

13:34probably don't you know you could come

13:35up with a well you know a good person is

13:38nice and friendly and you know

13:40cooperative and yeah yeah you know

13:42that's all just cliche but you don't you

13:45know your conception might be very

13:47Hollow it's very likely that it's very

13:48Hollow even though you may be able to

13:50act in a very sophisticated manner

13:52alright so anyways this is a story I'd

13:55say oh it's a meta story it's it's what

13:59would happen if you collected a bunch of

14:00stories and then you extract it out a

14:02story from them and it's sort of a story

14:04about destiny and it's couched in a

14:06religious language but that's okay

14:09because most of these distilled stories

14:13are form the foundation of religious

14:18texts and religious texts and myth and

14:20myths and stories are as I said part of

14:23the outer perimeter of our society they

14:27have a they have a coherent nature and

14:29it's all and they form a foundation and

14:33it's on that foundation that everything

14:35that you take for granted rests even if

14:39you don't understand the foundation so I

14:41can give you an example there's a

14:43metaphysical idea that underlies Western

14:46civilization and that metaphysical idea

14:48is that the individual has transcendent

14:52worth that's that's the idea from which

14:55the notion of natural rights is derived

14:57and of course our legal system is

15:00predicated on the idea that you have

15:02certain natural rights they're enshrined

15:04in the Bill of Rights for example and in

15:09the in the states when the bills Bill of

15:11Rights was being formulated when the

15:15legislation Ridge the legislation that

15:17found that the state was being

15:17formulated the formulators said we hold

15:20these

15:21truths to be self-evident what does that

15:24mean

15:25they're axioms of faith right there

15:28they're propositions and there's no

15:32proof for them there they're a mode of

15:34operation in the world and so the

15:37hypothesis is something like well if I

15:40treat you like there's something about

15:42you that has transcendent value implicit

15:44intrinsic value whatever that might be

15:47and there are stories about that and

15:49we'll talk about that and you do the

15:51same to me and then we set up a body of

15:53laws that recognizes the sovereignty of

15:56the individual so that the law itself

15:59has to act with respect towards every

16:03individual even if that individual has

16:05done something reprehensible which is

16:06very weird if you think about it

16:09then our society will work better and

16:13well perhaps that's true but for better

16:19or worse that is what this society is

16:22predicated on and that's a very very

16:24very very very very old idea and it's an

16:29idea that people came to with great

16:31difficulty because it was over thousands

16:34of years that people learned how to take

16:37their little tribal groups which are

16:39always squabbling with one another right

16:41because there's human beings they're

16:42very violent and tribal groups are by no

16:45means civilized it's there's no noble

16:48savage like the Europeans thought if you

16:50study tribal groups in the world today

16:52the murder

16:53the death rate by violence is

16:55unbelievably high so something unites a

17:00tribe within a tribe it's often kinship

17:03but then tribes come together to form

17:04larger civilizations and they have to

17:06determine some sort of meta principle

17:09that guides them so that they can

17:10cooperate and come together without

17:12destroying one another and they have to

17:14extract out a principle by which the

17:16society might function and that has to

17:19work and then as societies get bigger

17:21and bigger and bigger and bigger and

17:22bigger they have to bring more and more

17:24of these diverse traditions together and

17:27extract out something from them that has

17:29power and functional utility and that

17:32allows people to unite

17:34and so this is one of the stories that

17:39talks about that it's a story about

17:42individual responsibility and what

17:46happens when it's not heated so you know

17:51because we could say you are a social

17:53creature right to the core and most of

17:58your environment is other people and

17:59those other people want something from

18:01you and you want something from them so

18:04you're gonna play games with them you're

18:06either gonna be good at it you're gonna

18:07be bad at it but you're gonna play games

18:09with them and so the game might have

18:13rules really sophisticated rules in fact

18:16and you'd expect that because as your

18:19behavior more and more approximates an

18:21ideal assuming such a thing exists then

18:25you're more and more sophisticated and

18:27the nature of the ideal is perhaps more

18:29and more complex and and difficult to

18:32understand you get a hint of this though

18:35you can get a hint of this because you

18:37will see if you pay attention to your

18:40own soul your psyche your unconscious

18:45you'll see that there are people that

18:46you admire and that there are people

18:49that you have contempt for and that's

18:51and it isn't necessarily that you're a

18:53hundred percent accurate in your

18:55judgment you know it's not such a bad

18:58idea to criticize your first impressions

19:02but those states exist and so there's a

19:08reason you admire someone and there's a

19:10reason you have contempt for someone

19:11there may be multiple reasons and that's

19:13a hint to your intrinsic value structure

19:16it's a hint about your intrinsic value

19:17structure right you wouldn't admire

19:19someone unless there was something about

19:21them that you valued and perhaps that

19:24you would also like to be able to do and

19:25he wouldn't despise someone or have

19:28contempt for them if you didn't feel

19:30that something they were doing was wrong

19:32and that it would be wrong if you did it

19:34too and so you're bringing to bear on

19:37the situation an implicit morality and

19:40you have to do that because as I said

19:45you can't act without a morality because

19:47if you're gonna act you're gonna try to

19:50make things better that otherwise why

19:54bother and if you're acting to make

19:56things better than some things have to

19:58be better and some things have to be

19:59worse and that's a value structure so

20:01you have one

20:04all right so Jonah he gets a call from

20:11God and God tells them that there's a

20:14city Nineveh that's falling into moral

20:17disarray now what does that mean well

20:22it's a universal story it's like all

20:26cultures are always falling into

20:28disarray it's their nature just entropy

20:32does that right things change the world

20:35changes the environment changes and the

20:37culture doesn't keep up very well and

20:38then of course it has corrupt elements

20:40and so it's an interior eternal story

20:43the individual is always placed in

20:46relationship to a culture that's

20:48somewhat corrupt and then the question

20:51is well what do you do about it and if

20:54the answer is nothing well then it'll

20:57just get more corrupt and if the answer

20:59is be corrupt - then it will just get

21:01more corrupt so the answer has to be to

21:05oppose the corruption because that's the

21:10only way it's going to stop now god

21:13threatens to destroy this city because

21:16of its corruption and I don't think you

21:20need to presume anything particularly

21:23metaphysical about that to understand it

21:25it's very straight forward that the more

21:29corrupt the culture is and the less

21:31Trust is possible between individuals

21:33the less productive of the culture is

21:35going to be because why do anything if

21:37some corrupt person is just gonna come

21:39and take it you know it might even be

21:41that the culture is so corrupt that if

21:43you are good for something and you

21:46produce resources you're actually more

21:48likely to get killed because you have

21:50something of value so like this just

21:52you're just not going anywhere with that

21:54and why would you work if you didn't

21:56have any sense that you know you

21:59store up the value of your work for some

22:01reasonable time in the future so if the

22:04society is corrupt and there's no trust

22:05its degenerating and you know it might

22:08live for a while but isn't it last very

22:10long and so that's the idea corrupt

22:12societies collapse that leaves open what

22:18corruption means anyways Jonah

22:20thanks no no bloody way I'm not going to

22:24that City they can go to hell as far as

22:26I'm concerned and that's really what he

22:27thinks and why in the world should I do

22:30anything about it anyways and these are

22:32good objections it's like why would you

22:35do that and you'll face this believe me

22:37in your life you will face this in fact

22:41you already do always constantly

22:43continually in small ways perhaps when

22:46you're interacting with people who

22:48aren't treating you properly and when

22:50you're acting and those might be your

22:52parents they might be your friends they

22:53might be people at your workplace they

22:55might be professors they're playing a

22:59crooked game and you don't like it and

23:02you know it's crooked

23:03and so then the question is well what

23:06should you do about it well if you know

23:08you're correct know it's crooked it's

23:10not so good to play along with it I mean

23:12we'll say that you know it's crooked by

23:14your own standard of values it D

23:15degrades you to play along with it

23:17you're gonna stand up and oppose it well

23:21no probably not

23:24you're probably gonna do what Jonah did

23:27jump on a ship and get the hell out of

23:29there and you know that's a logical

23:32thing to do but it doesn't solve the

23:34problem and I think this has something

23:36to do with human ethical responsibility

23:39because there are other old stories and

23:43I'll tell you one likely where the son

23:45of the king the Lion King the son of the

23:51king he goes off and he's some pathetic

23:54adolescent and then he's shamed by the

23:57reappearance of his old girlfriend into

23:59turning into something vaguely useful

24:01and he opens his eyes and he goes back

24:04and he fights scar and you know it's a

24:08scene of hell right because there's fire

24:09everywhere and he fights scar finds

24:12skaar killed his father he casts him

24:15into the pit roughly speaking and then

24:17the rain comes and then you know the

24:21movie returns to its beginning

24:23fundamentally it's a paradise paradise

24:26lost' Paradise Regained that's the movie

24:29and and I mean that's the story of human

24:33beings you know you're in a place that's

24:35working out pretty well something

24:37happens to knock you off your perch

24:39you're down in the chaos for a good

24:41amount of time and maybe you never get

24:43out but maybe you learn something down

24:45there maybe a strength in your character

24:48then you pop up to a new place and maybe

24:51it's better better aim better you now

24:55I'm not being overly optimistic about

24:57this I know perfectly well that people

24:59encounter impediments during their life

25:04that they find almost impossible to

25:06recover from but it's the best shot you

25:10have so anyways Jonah runs away but God

25:15isn't very happy about that because it's

25:17actually Jonah's destiny it's necessary

25:20for Jonah to repair the city so God

25:23sends a storm and you know the waves are

25:27high and and and I think what that means

25:29is because the water is often a symbol

25:31for the unconscious and that's because

25:33things lurk down there in the water and

25:35that you could pull up that that are

25:37useful monstrous things that you can

25:39pull up they're useful you can fish for

25:40them you can go fishing in your own

25:42being for answers which is what you do

25:44when you try to think right you ask

25:46yourself a question and you wait maybe

25:49an answer appears it's like where did

25:51that come from you didn't know what the

25:53answer was before it appeared but it

25:55just popped into being out of nowhere

25:58who knows so you fish so anyways the

26:05waves come and the boats gonna be

26:07knocked over it and that's what happens

26:09I think when you know when you know you

26:10should do something I mean everyone has

26:13the this experience I believe perhaps

26:16you would be willing to put up your

26:17hands if this experience is foreign to

26:19you okay

26:21just part of your telling you you should

26:24do something and it's hard

26:26to do it effortful and maybe you're

26:28afraid of it and so you don't do it you

26:30just procrastinate right and so how do

26:32you feel about that good I mean so what

26:37do you feel that you're betraying

26:39yourself your anxiety actually gets

26:42worse not better even though you know

26:43you can put it off moment to moment but

26:45that doesn't help because every time you

26:47put it off the anxiety just grows a

26:48little bit you're not proud of yourself

26:50you have a sense that you're making

26:54things more chaotic than they should be

26:56you know and if you do that long enough

26:58and I'm sure many of you have had that

27:00experience if you do that long enough if

27:01that becomes habitual things will get so

27:04stormy around you that you'll fall right

27:06into the into the chaos into the watery

27:10chaos and maybe you'll drown so it's not

27:14a very good idea to run from your

27:16destiny let's say whatever that might be

27:21and you need a destiny you need a place

27:24to aim at because that's what gives your

27:25life meaning and you need meaning in

27:28your life because life is hard so you

27:30know you need something to buttress

27:32yourself against that so anyways they

27:36wake joan up and jonah says that's

27:38probably my fault because like i'm

27:39running away from something i'm supposed

27:41to do and you know god isn't very happy

27:43about that so why don't you just throw

27:44me over to overboard and the crew isn't

27:46very happy about that but the waves are

27:48really starting to come up and joan is

27:50pretty insistent that he's the cause of

27:51the problem and so they draw they draw a

27:57lot and and jonah is chosen and so they

28:00decided to toss him into the ocean and

28:04immediately everything's calm so he's a

28:07center of chaos because he's not doing

28:10what he's supposed to do fine well then

28:12that whale comes up and swallows him and

28:16then he's in the whale for three days

28:19now that's a weird thing the whale

28:24that's the way all that

28:26Gepetto's ian that's a dragon it's the

28:30thing that you have to go out there and

28:32conquer to get something of value now

28:37when you've made an error when you've

28:41fallen off the pathway when you deviated

28:46from what you know you should do it

28:48produces a state of internal chaos and

28:50worry and concern you're you're thrust

28:53into the unknown you're thrust into

28:55unknown territory and chaos you don't

28:57know what to do and that's often

29:00symbolized by the encounter with a with

29:02a monster

29:03like a dragon something that lives under

29:06the water that's and I think the reason

29:07for that is as far as I've been able to

29:09tell is that human beings because we've

29:12been prey animals for forever in our

29:15battle with carnivorous lizards for

29:16example and alligators and even

29:18dinosaurs because there were dinosaurs

29:20around at the time of our most distant

29:22ancestors there was even a cat at one

29:25point that was that was adapted with

29:28teeth to pierce human skulls so it had a

29:31head that was exactly shaped to grab you

29:34here and put a tooth through the back of

29:37your skull so like we've come through

29:39some rough times man and we have a

29:42system in our mind that's a threat

29:45predator detection system that's the

29:48thing that makes little kids think about

29:50monsters in the dark right because well

29:53there is monsters in the dark parents

29:55always say well there's no monsters in

29:56the dark it's like that's not true the

29:59dark is full of monsters there might not

30:01be any in your room right at that moment

30:03but that doesn't mean there aren't

30:05monsters in the dark and crimes take

30:08place like criminals don't get up at

30:106:00 in the morning and like you know

30:12have breakfast and go rob a bank they do

30:14it they do that sort of thing at night

30:16people do the things that are fit for

30:20the night in the night and lots of

30:23predators are nocturnal and you can't

30:25see very well in the dark and kids

30:28aren't stupid

30:28you know they've evolved to stay pretty

30:31damn close to the fire because the kids

30:35that wandered away from the fire got

30:37picked off by hyenas and lions and you

30:40know crocodiles and whatever else the

30:44hell was out there to eat the unwary so

30:52the circuit that we use to to defend

30:56ourselves against predators as we've

31:00evolved cortically that circuit has has

31:03come to represent what we don't know in

31:05general because the Predators of course

31:07inhabit where we don't know and so

31:10evolution is a conservative force and we

31:13use the circuits that we've evolved to

31:15represent new things and so the unknown

31:18the chaos is often represented by a

31:21monster that swallows you up and pulls

31:23you down and you know when you're

31:26feeling terrible you don't say well I'm

31:28feeling up you say I'm feeling down well

31:31why is that well down is worse I guess

31:36you're flat on the ground when you're

31:38down or you're in a hole or something

31:39like that you're hiding in a hole

31:41you know it's down and you're threatened

31:44by something you know maybe you're

31:45threatened by your own inadequacy that

31:48might be part of it maybe that's partly

31:50what you imagine as a monstrous force

31:52because you know your proclivity towards

31:54procrastination and your weakness of

31:57character is part and parcel of why you

31:59happen to be in the underworld and

32:02that's the underworld the mythological

32:04underworld that's where you go when

32:08things fall apart and if you understand

32:11that if you know that that's what that

32:13means then you have one of the keys that

32:15opens up ancient stories to you and you

32:18understand things you could live can be

32:21an organized going very well and then

32:24something comes up and poof everything

32:28changes some axiom that you were living

32:30by and it might be the existence of a

32:32partner might be a job it might be your

32:35health any of those things go on and you

32:40go somewhere when that happens you go

32:43somewhere it's a state of being you're

32:45still in the same world but it's not the

32:47same at all anymore

32:48everything about it is different it's

32:50all negative and dark and you don't know

32:52what to do you're confused and so what

32:55do you do down there in the underworld

32:58when things have fallen apart especially

32:59if oh if it's the worst possible case

33:03scenario and you

33:04realize that you actually had something

33:06to do with your demise that's really

33:08annoying you know when something bad

33:10happens to you and then you know you

33:12grind yourself into bits trying to

33:14figure out what the hell happened and

33:15then you realize that well you were

33:19playing a causal role now sometimes

33:21you're so depressed you assume you're

33:23playing a causal role and you work it's

33:25not easy to figure out by any stretch of

33:26the imagination and it isn't that

33:29everyone who does something terrible is

33:30at fault for it but sometimes you find

33:35that you are off the path somehow and

33:37maybe even that you knew it and they

33:38didn't attend to it and that's why all

33:40of this hit the fan and so then down

33:44there in that chaos you decide that

33:46you're going to do what you're supposed

33:48to do instead and then maybe you get to

33:51rise up again renewed if you're lucky

33:55and then you can go fix the city and

33:58that's what this story's about and

34:02that's why I picked the image to

34:05represent the course because really what

34:06happens you see with the psychoanalysts

34:10the road due to health if you're not

34:13doing well which means that as you act

34:16in the world you're not getting what you

34:17want there's something wrong with your

34:20the match between your presuppositions

34:22and your actions habitual and the way

34:25the world is responding to you and so

34:28it's not turning out for you and the

34:30question is well what can you do about

34:32that

34:32and one answer might be to examine

34:35yourself for presuppositions and action

34:38patterns that are not serving you well

34:40and to find out what they are and what

34:42to do about them and maybe some of that

34:44is maybe you're not moving forward

34:46because of fear and maybe that fear is

34:48grounded in terrible experiences that

34:49you had in the past that you've never

34:51been able to understand and maybe one of

34:53the ways of gluing yourself back

34:55together and expanding your personality

34:57so that you could in fact live properly

35:00in the world is to go back to those

35:02terrible events and untie them and

35:06straighten them out and understand them

35:09and drop them and that's what

35:12psychotherapy is about in large part

35:14psychoanalytic behavioral doesn't matter

35:17what are you afraid of what are you

35:20avoiding what are you failing to develop

35:22maybe from fear maybe from avoidance god

35:25only knows maybe from disgust how can

35:30you get over it

35:30how can you reclaim those parts of your

35:32self

35:47now I said in the first lecture that I

35:49was going to try to provide you with a

35:51schema into which you could place the

35:56theorists that we're going to discuss

35:57and it requires going down deep to do

36:01that and there are presuppositions in my

36:04presupposition and this is a

36:05psychoanalytic presupposition it's

36:06predicated on a poetic tradition I would

36:11say don't an ancient tradition I learned

36:14most of it from reading Jung it was Carl

36:17Jung that helped me understand that

36:20we're nested inside a dream that we have

36:24to be because we don't know everything

36:26we have to take things as Givens and the

36:32things that we take it as Givens are

36:33nested inside stories and we accept the

36:37stories as valid and then outside the

36:39stories is the absolute unknown you know

36:43and that's partly the stories are tricky

36:46you know that one of the classic stories

36:48it's a variant of the the Jonas story I

36:52would say is st. George and the dragon

36:58and that that story was represented in

37:02during the Renaissance and during

37:05medieval times thousands and thousands

37:08of ways it's like the story of st.

37:11Patrick who chased the snakes out of

37:13Ireland same idea and that the typical

37:17st. George story is the Hobbit or Harry

37:22Potter so in the second volume of Harry

37:25Potter correct me if I have any of these

37:27details wrong you remember there's that

37:28snake the basilisk so this is Magic

37:32Castle right you guys have no problem

37:34without Magic Castle no problem there's

37:37an or if he's an orphan he goes to the

37:38Magic Castle to learn how to be more

37:40than normal right the muggles he has a

37:43muggle family we're not too happy with

37:45the muggle family like as

37:46representatives of normal people they

37:50they have some blacks now of course the

37:52reason for that is that well that's what

37:53teenagers often feel about their parents

37:55right they fail Jesus these couldn't

37:57really be my parents I must have some

38:00other parents who are like

38:01together those are like magical parents

38:04right parents that live in the sky and

38:07of course Harry Potter has earthly

38:08parents that's the muggles and Dursley I

38:12think is the kid he's at one he's a

38:14wonderful piece of work and you know

38:17ill-formed a spoiled ill-formed

38:21selfish very far from the ideal he's a

38:24foil for Harry and of course he's

38:26appreciated and doted on and Harry is

38:28actually punished for his virtues that's

38:31a classic story right to to be punished

38:33for your virtues I mean if you look at

38:35the story the central story in

38:37Christianity the central story and

38:39Christianity is about someone who is

38:41precisely punished in the worst possible

38:43way for the highest possible virtues

38:45that's what it makes it an archetypal

38:46story because there isn't anything more

38:48unfair than that and so it's a limit in

38:51a sense you it can't be worse than that

38:53being punished for being you know

38:55unworthy it's like yeah yeah well at

38:58least makes sense but to be punished

39:00because you have your act together and

39:02you're a good person that's real

39:04punishment and that's what happens to

39:06Harry so luckily he finds out that he's

39:09magical which is quite convenient and

39:11off he goes to Wizarding school and you

39:14know that's actually like taking that's

39:17actually like going and studying the

39:19humanities I mean it was when they still

39:22were you know because you it's through

39:26the humanities that you that you make

39:30contact with the magic of your culture

39:32and that makes you more than merely the

39:36child of your parents because you are

39:39more than merely the child of your

39:40parents you're the child of nature and

39:42you're the child of culture and until

39:45you understand what that means

39:48understand that you have two sets of

39:49parents like the divine hero always has

39:51two sets of parents you you can't

39:54construe yourself properly as an

39:57individual you're not situated properly

39:59in the world you don't know what your

40:01responsibilities are you can't orient

40:04your values properly and you will suffer

40:06for that because as far as I can tell

40:09because life is so difficult you have to

40:14do something that's

40:15truly worthwhile in order to justify it

40:19and so well that's what all these

40:22stories tell you that's what the story

40:23of Jonah is telling you it's like you

40:25have an ethical duty to straighten

40:28things up and if you don't do it you're

40:33gonna be sorry and that stories echoed

40:37everywhere while now st. George

40:38well let's go to Harry Potter well

40:40that's what we were talking about so he

40:43goes off to the Magic Castle and he's

40:45learning to be a wizard and he's kind of

40:48an interesting character a because he's

40:50not really good and we find out I think

40:53that's because does he have a piece of

40:55gold amarti in him he's not what happens

40:58yeah and that's what that means is that

41:03to be good

41:04truly good you can't just follow rules

41:07that's that's very clear in the Harry

41:09Potter story and you also have to be

41:11able to understand and malevolence and

41:13in order to understand malevolence so

41:15that you can withstand it you have to

41:17understand that part of you that's

41:18malevolent because if you don't you're

41:21naive and if you're naive you're easy

41:24pickings and so that's a union idea too

41:27and the Union idea is that part of

41:29personality development is to understand

41:31your shadow and the shadow is those

41:35things about you that you do not want to

41:37admit to and you can learn about your

41:42shadow by reading history you know you

41:44can read about Auschwitz you can read

41:47about the concentration camps in Russia

41:49and you can imagine yourself as a guard

41:54instead of as a heroic rescuer of

41:58unfortunate victims which would be very

42:01very unlikely and once you can imagine

42:05yourself as a guard which is a

42:06terrifying thing to do then you

42:11understand something about yourself and

42:13I actually think and I think this is

42:16also from students studying young that

42:18you cannot have proper respect for

42:20yourself until you know that you're a

42:22monster because you won't act carefully

42:25enough you know if you think well I'm a

42:26nice person I'd never do anyone any harm

42:28it's like you're no saint you can be

42:31sure of that and the harm that you do

42:34people can come in many many ways and so

42:37if you regard yourself as harmless

42:39inoffensive nice well why do you have

42:45any reason to be careful

42:46you're like a teddy bear sitting on a

42:48shelf even if you throw it at someone no

42:50one's gonna get hurt

42:51but that isn't what you're like because

42:53you're a human being and human beings

42:54are some vicious creatures and there's

42:59utility in knowing that because it's

43:01also the case you know in the Harry

43:03Potter series Harry could stand up

43:05against full-dome art and understand

43:06them and speak his language because he

43:08was infected by him to some degree a

43:10very very interesting idea anyways in

43:13the second 10 the reason I'm telling you

43:16this and this is worth thinking about

43:17it's like how long were each of those

43:20books like 500 pages they're long eh and

43:25there was how many of them seven and how

43:28many of them were sold I mean how many

43:30of you read every Harry Potter book

43:34right that's how many of you read at

43:37least one okay how many you saw the

43:41movies it's like you're all in a cult

43:44you are I'm telling you really that's

43:48the truth it's really the truth so in

43:52the second volume there's this snake

43:54that's zip it around there the basilisk

43:55right and it lives in the underground

43:57that's chaos that's chaos and that's

44:01because wherever you are you're on thin

44:03ice and underneath you're thin ice is

44:05chaos and here we are in this

44:08unbelievably civilized environment and

44:10everyone's getting along so perfectly

44:12but you know we've got hot guard lights

44:15with electricity the sewage system is

44:18working no one's hungry it's like we can

44:21be peaceful but if any of that fell

44:24apart and it could easily fall apart

44:26because it's a bloody miracle it ever

44:28works at all then the chaos that's just

44:32underneath the surface is going to come

44:34up right now and it's useful to know

44:37that because it makes you properly

44:39grateful if you really understand it it

44:41makes you proper

44:42be grateful for the bloody miracle that

44:44it is that you can be here in peace

44:47so anyways there's this snake that's

44:50underneath the surface and it's you know

44:52no joke that thing it's big and it's

44:55ancient it's always been there and what

44:57happens if you look at it it turns you

45:01to stone right it paralyzes you well

45:04that's the more that's the Gorgon that's

45:06Medusa the woman with the head of snakes

45:09and if you look at her it paralyzes you

45:11what does that mean well you're walking

45:15through the jungle and big snake appears

45:17what do you do you freeze and no bloody

45:20wonder because you're a prey animal and

45:23that's what they do when they see things

45:24that are going to eat them and so the

45:28snake well lots of people still die from

45:32snakebite and our ancestors were and I

45:37mean our ancestors like you know tens of

45:39millions of years ago when they were

45:41living in trees and weren't very big

45:42they made a nice snack for a snake and

45:45there's a woman named Lynn Isbell who's

45:47an anthropologist at UCLA who's

45:49correlated the presence of carnivorous

45:52snakes with the acuity of primate vision

45:55and what she found was that the more

45:57snakes around the better the primates

45:59could see so and we're particularly good

46:04at picking up patterns like snake

46:06camouflage in the lower half of our

46:08visual quadrant you know and people

46:10generally don't like snakes you can

46:11learn to handle them but no snake fear

46:14appears to be an eight to Nate in

46:15chimpanzees and it tends to increase as

46:17you age rather than decreasing you can

46:19overcome it but well my daughter had

46:22snakes and one day her snake bit her it

46:24was a fairly big snake and she hadn't

46:28paid attention to it for a while so it

46:30nailed her and from then on she had very

46:34difficult time grabbing the snake it was

46:36like bitten once you know shy

46:40permanently she also told me years later

46:43she had nightmares about snakes all the

46:45time when she had a snake in her room

46:47it's like you know and I think it was

46:49probably the smell so anyways so Harry

46:54Potter decides he's going to go

46:56after the basilisk rake he's gonna go

46:58out there and face the thing that he's

46:59most afraid of so he does that wait out

47:03in the depths so it's like Jonah going

47:05down into the depths and he faces the

47:08basilisk and it bites him and you know

47:12that's a that's right because if you go

47:15down into the depths you can get bitten

47:18like it's no joke and this is a hero

47:20story but the thing about the hero

47:22stories it's actually real the thing

47:24that you're facing is actually dangerous

47:25and even though facing it voluntarily

47:28might be your best bet and is likely

47:31your best bet because that's the central

47:33story of humanity that doesn't mean

47:35you're going to succeed it's the real

47:37thing so anyways he gets bitten right

47:40and he's gonna die now he's rescuing

47:42Ginny so that's the st. George story if

47:45you go after like dragon dragons like to

47:48capture virgins god only knows why I

47:52think it's because I think it's because

48:01one of the things that male humans have

48:04done from the beginning of time is chase

48:06the damn predators away and I suspect

48:10that the males from god only knows how

48:14long ago who were particularly good at

48:17that were rewarded with female attention

48:21and why the hell not so it's deeply

48:25rooted inside of us that idea of facing

48:28the unknown and freeing the woman so the

48:30idea there is that if you it's a male

48:33idea and in large part I can talk about

48:35the central female myth and I will as we

48:38proceed the idea is that if you're this

48:40sort of person who can stand up against

48:45the unknown and the frightening then

48:47you're also likely if you develop into

48:49that sort of person then you're also

48:50likely to develop into the sort of

48:52person that other people will find

48:54attractive so you know and that's why

48:58young believed that the inside the

49:00shadow was the anima which is like a

49:02female figure and so his idea was

49:04something like you know if you look

49:07watch movies there's always this beta

49:08male guy if there

49:10romantic movies and he's a nice guy and

49:12he's the friend and you know the woman

49:14tells him everything but she doesn't

49:15like him a bit she likes the guy who's

49:17like God an edge and and who's capable

49:20of I would say mayhem but at least of

49:23aggression now that doesn't mean she

49:26wants them to be aggressive but what it

49:28does mean is that she wants him to be

49:30able to be aggressive that would be good

49:32and so he's the romantic target and so

49:35he's the person that's incorporated the

49:36shadow and he's someone that is

49:39respectable and perhaps useful and so

49:42well that's a very old story

49:58so let's let's think about this for a

50:00minute I've already offered you a

50:02proposition

50:04and I think it's an important

50:06proposition and I'm I'm offering you

50:08this proposition so that you can make

50:10sense of art and literature and

50:13mythology and religion and dance and all

50:16those strange ritualistic things that

50:19human beings do which seem central to us

50:22including including not least the in

50:26eradicable tendency of us to seek out

50:31stories of heroes I should finish the

50:35Harry Potter story so Harry Potter goes

50:39down there to rescue Virginia no it's

50:41that's not her name what is it

50:44Ginny yeah but there's a there's a

50:47formal name for that it's a variant of

50:50Virginia anyways which is a very

50:51divergent so um and it gets bitten

50:55didn't yes Ginevra that's it he gets

50:58bitten and the bite is poison and so

51:01there is dying which doesn't seem to be

51:04so good and then what happens and again

51:07you guys swallow this it's no problem

51:09so what's his name the Dumbledore

51:12character he's got a bird right so he's

51:15the wise old man he's the ruler of the

51:18castle he's the ruler of the Magic

51:19Castle he's the Magic King you know he's

51:23like God the Father as far as Harry

51:25Potter is concerned and he has a bird

51:27what kind of bird is it it's a Phoenix

51:30right and one of the things that's very

51:32strange about a Phoenix is that well

51:35it's immortal but in a strange way you

51:37know it lives and lives I think a

51:39hundred years and it gets older and

51:41older and then one day poof it bursts

51:42into flames and turns into an egg and

51:45then you get a new Phoenix so that's a

51:48symbol of transformation it's a symbol

51:51of transformation the bird is a spirit

51:53or psyche and so here's what it means in

51:58part you know you know how when you

52:02learn a lesson in your life that that's

52:03not very pleasant right it's not like

52:06when you learn something important it's

52:09best day of your life it's often the

52:13importance of what you learn is often

52:15proportionate to just how wretched it is

52:17to learn it you know you learn things

52:19the hard way you learn things by getting

52:21hit because obviously if what you're

52:24doing is working you get where you want

52:26there's no learning in that and that's

52:28happy it's when you're doing something

52:30and you hit an obstacle and maybe yeah

52:33bloody well hit it hard and then you

52:35know you recoil and then you down into

52:37the depths you go and you have to sort

52:38yourself out and you realize that you're

52:40you know this particular kind of idiot

52:42and that you should probably fix that

52:44and that's really annoying and difficult

52:46and you know and maybe you're down in

52:48the dumps and anxious for quite a while

52:50and then you get it repaired more or

52:51less and you know you put yourself back

52:53together

52:53that's the Phoenix poof into flames bang

52:58egg new you and so you know that's the

53:03ability to learn now human beings are

53:06very strange creatures right because

53:08we're very malleable compared to most

53:11animals you know like grizzly bears now

53:13and grizzly bears a thousand years ago

53:15it's like whatever they're the same

53:18thing they do the same thing

53:20there's no transformation about human

53:23beings we have this massive brain and

53:25you know it's a pain because it means

53:28you have to take care of human children

53:30until they're 40 and and that's a big

53:34burden and so you know we pay a big

53:37price for it it also makes childbirth

53:38very difficult and and it's costly you

53:42have to eat a lot because you have a big

53:43brain because it uses up a lot of energy

53:45and so you know you pay a price for it

53:48but the advantage is your plastic you

53:51can learn now learning is a strange

53:54thing because you can think of it as

53:57just acquiring more information but you

54:01could also think of it and this is more

54:03accurate as finding out something that

54:06you're doing wrong so that's sort of

54:08built into you like a character a

54:10character element of your character a

54:12presumption of your perception or a deep

54:14habit it's really built into you it's a

54:16neural structure right it's a little

54:18I've and you have to kill it because it

54:22isn't working

54:22properly and the pain that you go

54:25through in part when you're suffering

54:26because you did something stupid is it's

54:30something like your your the neurology I

54:33can never get this quite right it's the

54:36pain of the death of that structure and

54:39that could be a huge chunk of you you

54:41know if you really have to go through a

54:43massive revision it's like the person

54:47that comes out the other end might

54:49hardly be the same at all

54:50you know that happens for example if

54:52you're trying to combat alcoholism which

54:55is just you know a wretched thing to do

54:58because well all your friends are

55:01alcoholic all your family drinks too

55:03much the only thing you know how to do

55:05when you're socializing is to go to the

55:07bar and drink too much you know and you

55:09spend like 20 hours a week on it it's

55:12like it's not just that you're addicted

55:14to the substance it's like that's how

55:16you live and so if you want to stop

55:18being an alcoholic

55:19not only do you have to stop drinking

55:21alcohol but you have to stop seeing all

55:24your drunk friends and then maybe you've

55:26had them for your whole life and you

55:28have to have continual battles with your

55:30drunk family and then you have to figure

55:32out something to do with that 20 hours

55:34that's now like hanging around your neck

55:36like an albatross and so you have to let

55:40that whole part of your personality die

55:42and a new part has to spring forth and

55:45that's what the Phoenix is and the

55:48Phoenix is the capacity of the person to

55:50transform and so when Harry gets bit by

55:54the snake that freezes him he gets

55:59seriously injured the Phoenix comes in

56:00Christ some tears in his wound it

56:04prepares him bang he's back to life and

56:09the strange thing is that that's okay

56:13with all of the viewers now why would

56:17that be there's nothing about it that's

56:19rational nothing right Magic Castle

56:24that's not rational giant snake

56:28underneath it that's a little more

56:30irrational

56:32turning you to stone going down there to

56:35face it being rejuvenated by a Phoenix

56:37it's like yeah yeah that's okay we can

56:39we'll watch that clue

56:41well swallow it will be completely

56:42engaged in it and the reason for that is

56:44because it's a myth it's about how

56:47people it's a meta story about how to

56:50act about how to conduct yourself in the

56:52world to face the things that you're

56:54afraid of that would otherwise paralyze

56:56you to let the death of what is

57:01insufficient about you occur and then to

57:04wait for the rebirth

57:10okay so science is about what the world

57:14is and myth and drama and dream and the

57:21unconscious all of that let's say the

57:25aesthetic and artistic and fantastic

57:28side of humanity that's more about how

57:30things should be it's more about how to

57:33act they're there lessons in how to act

57:36and they're abstract lessons people are

57:38capable of abstraction right so you say

57:40well there's something good about you

57:42and there's something good about you and

57:44there's something good about you and and

57:45there's some bad about you and you and

57:47you and so we'll take all the good

57:48things and make one good thing out of

57:50that we'll take all the bad things and

57:51make one bad thing out of that and then

57:53we sort understand the difference

57:54between good and bad and we get better

57:56and better and better and better at that

57:58over the centuries as we distill that

58:00and then we have a figure of ultimate

58:02good and a figure of ultimate evil and

58:03that helps us understand what those two

58:06things are those are the hostile

58:09brothers that's a very common

58:11mythological motif and you could say

58:13well they're at war inside you and and I

58:17think that that's a universal truth it's

58:21an existential truth

58:27the domain of ethics and morality is how

58:30are we in the world and what how should

58:31we be what's the good and the reason I'm

58:34telling you all this apart from the fact

58:35that you should know it because this is

58:37what you should know if you go through

58:38university is that it bears directly on

58:41issues of health you're trying to

58:44accomplish something say if you go see a

58:45psychotherapist you know you could say

58:47well I'm trying to get healthy but you

58:49know that's not really right what you're

58:51trying to do when you go see your

58:52therapist just get your life together

58:53and that's not the same thing you know

58:56like mostly when I'm acting as a

58:59therapist it's not like I'm directly

59:01treating mental disorder like mental

59:04disorders aren't there just not neat

59:06little boxes it's not like someone has a

59:08fully functioning life but they have an

59:10anxiety disorder and then you bring them

59:13and you treat the anxiety disorder and

59:14they go back to their fully functioning

59:15life it's like it's not like that at all

59:17the disorder is tangled out into their

59:19life you know if you're depressed

59:21well usually your your workplace isn't

59:23going very well and your relationships

59:25with the people around you are damaged

59:26and you know you're connected in the

59:29actual world with all of these things

59:31and so when you come to see a therapist

59:33you have to work on putting your life

59:36together in a sustainable manner and

59:38that's certainly not just removing the

59:40mental illness is very rare now and then

59:43you see someone who's depressed whose

59:45life is together and they're just

59:47depressed something's gone wrong

59:49probably biochemically and so with

59:52someone like that you can often give

59:53them in SSRIs I can't give them to them

59:57but I can recommend them recommend they

59:59go see a doctor anyways and that

1:00:02sometimes just does the trick because

1:00:05you know their life is actually pretty

1:00:06good they just can't see it but that's

1:00:08bloody rare man it's usually the case

1:00:10that someone comes and sees you and

1:00:12things are in a serious state of chaos

1:00:14and all of that has to be addressed and

1:00:17some of its psychological and a lot of

1:00:19it's just practical its embedded out

1:00:21there in the world that's what the

1:00:23behavior cycle behavioral psychologists

1:00:25are particularly concerned about so

1:00:27anyways psychology especially the

1:00:30clinical end is predicated on it's

1:00:33necessarily predicated on the question

1:00:36how is it that we obtain the good how do

1:00:38we aim at the good and what would that

1:00:39be when my clients for

1:00:41come to see me one of the things I often

1:00:42ask them is okay well let's say you look

1:00:44a year ahead what do you want what are

1:00:47we aiming at what would what wouldn't

1:00:49your life isn't the way you want it to

1:00:50be how would it look if it was the way

1:00:53you wanted it to be or at least partly

1:00:54that way and we aim at that right we

1:00:58look for impediments psychological

1:01:01impediments fears avoidance strategies

1:01:04that sort of thing and we develop

1:01:06strategies and we try to move towards

1:01:09that I would say ideal all right to

1:01:14understand the categories of myth we'll

1:01:18say you we have to understand something

1:01:20about the nature of categorization now

1:01:23categorization is a tricky thing and

1:01:25we're gonna run through some complicated

1:01:29ideas relatively quickly you know you

1:01:34think you put things in the same

1:01:36category because they're similar but the

1:01:40problem is is that first of all that's

1:01:42not an answer it's just a restatement of

1:01:44the initial proposition and second of

1:01:47all you can put things in the same

1:01:50category that are by no means identical

1:01:52and you often do that and third it's

1:01:55things are things that are similar are

1:01:57often also importantly different and so

1:02:01picking which element of similarity you

1:02:05know like let's say oh if you have a

1:02:07group of books well are they the same

1:02:09well obviously no because well unless

1:02:12they're you know all the same book but

1:02:15the category of books is a pretty

1:02:17strange category because the content of

1:02:19the books differs completely well you

1:02:21could still make a group of books and

1:02:22you pick some arbitrary element that

1:02:25unites them and consider that grounds to

1:02:28make a category there's other categories

1:02:31more scientific categories and

1:02:33scientific categories tend to actually

1:02:36contain things that are very very

1:02:38similar in across multiple dimensions

1:02:40like protons are like that as far as I

1:02:43can tell there's nothing that

1:02:44distinguishes one proton from another

1:02:46and the same with electrons and you know

1:02:48the set of triangles is like that

1:02:50because you can define it precisely but

1:02:52most of the categories that human

1:02:54Jews aren't so neat and the problem with

1:02:57that is that unless the categories are

1:02:59neat like scientific categories it's

1:03:01very difficult to investigate them

1:03:04scientifically so for example you might

1:03:07do research on a group of people with

1:03:09anxiety disorders but the problem with

1:03:12that is that the anxiety disorder

1:03:15category is so heterogeneous that it's

1:03:18almost impossible to identify the

1:03:22commonalities across all the people who

1:03:24are in that category and that's partly

1:03:26because the category isn't actually a

1:03:27scientific category it's a hybrid

1:03:29category it's a practical category I can

1:03:32give you an example of that

1:03:54no I can't because I must not have saved

1:03:57it anyways many of the DSM categories so

1:04:00these are categories for psychopathology

1:04:02require if you're part of that category

1:04:05imagine there's seven symptoms that you

1:04:07could have or eight symptoms that you

1:04:09could have that would put you in that

1:04:10category like antisocial personality

1:04:12eight symptoms you steal you kick you

1:04:15hit you bite you you know you're abusive

1:04:17I don't remember the category categories

1:04:20precisely but you can be in the category

1:04:23if you have symptoms two through five

1:04:25and you can be in the category if you

1:04:26have symptoms six through eight they

1:04:28aren't the same symptoms but you're in

1:04:30the same category and you think well how

1:04:32the hell can that be well that's a

1:04:34family resemblance category roughly

1:04:36speaking and lots of the things that we

1:04:38use our family resemblance categories

1:04:40there's a prototype and then if you have

1:04:42enough of the features of that prototype

1:04:44imagine the prototype has ten features

1:04:46and if you have an six of it those pro

1:04:49features you get to be in that category

1:04:51but it means that the categories are

1:04:53actually quite diverse and that's one of

1:04:55the problems that plagues psycho

1:05:00psychiatry as a science in clinical

1:05:01psychology as a science it's a really

1:05:03big problem because if the categories

1:05:06aren't homogeneous then it's very

1:05:08difficult to draw conclusions about the

1:05:10members of the category and the

1:05:12psychologists and the psychiatrist's

1:05:13claim that those are scientific

1:05:16categories but but they're not and they

1:05:19can't be partly because they're aimed at

1:05:20the classification of health or ideal

1:05:23versus non health or non-ideal and

1:05:25partly because they play multiple roles

1:05:26say I mean the category isn't there just

1:05:30to provide neat demarcations for

1:05:33scientific study the categories there to

1:05:35give people a language to talk about

1:05:39certain sets of symptoms to diagnose

1:05:42because you know when you come in and

1:05:43you have a set of symptoms you might

1:05:45want to know what what they are so that

1:05:47you also know what they aren't it's

1:05:49really a relief often to find a

1:05:51diagnosis and then of course the

1:05:53diagnosis has certain implications for

1:05:55treatment and and for billing and for

1:05:57all of that so the category has to play

1:05:59all of those roles so there's multiple

1:06:01types of category and the categories

1:06:05that were talking about in relationship

1:06:08to

1:06:08ecology aren't scientific categories

1:06:11they're categories about the world

1:06:13construed as a place to act so here's a

1:06:19way to think about it you're always

1:06:22looking at the world through a framework

1:06:23of reference and you have to do that

1:06:26because there isn't very much of you you

1:06:29can't see the whole world at once and in

1:06:31fact the amount of the world you

1:06:33actually see is so small you can't

1:06:34believe it the central part of your

1:06:36vision is zipping around producing a

1:06:38pretty high-resolution representation of

1:06:40exactly what you're looking at but

1:06:43outside of that center like if I look at

1:06:46you I can't see her eyes I can see her

1:06:48glasses but barely I can't even tell

1:06:52whether you're male or female the person

1:06:56past that I can't see it all now you

1:06:59don't notice that you know you don't

1:07:01notice that you're that blind because

1:07:03you're your central vision is always

1:07:05popping around illuminating that tiny

1:07:07space but you're so damn blind it's just

1:07:10mind-boggling and I'm sure some of you

1:07:12have seen the invisible gorilla video

1:07:14you know where a gorilla comes into the

1:07:18video and you don't notice which is

1:07:20somewhat shocking because you would

1:07:22think that you would notice a gorilla

1:07:23but what happens is that you actually

1:07:25don't notice something unless it

1:07:28interferes with what you're doing and

1:07:30because what are you gonna do notice

1:07:32everything you can't do that you can

1:07:35hardly notice anything so what you do is

1:07:36you pick something to focus on it's

1:07:38usually something that you value because

1:07:40why else would you focus on it so that

1:07:41means that your value system determines

1:07:44the direction of your perception bloody

1:07:47well think about that for a minute

1:07:49that's a Buddhist idea right people

1:07:52people live in a kind of illusion and

1:07:55sometimes that illusion causes suffering

1:07:57and they can transform the way they look

1:07:59at the world and that can release them

1:08:00from their suffering but the idea that

1:08:02you do live in an illusion well I don't

1:08:05know if it's exactly an illusion but you

1:08:07certainly do live within a framework of

1:08:10perception that's determined by your

1:08:12values now that is so weird you know

1:08:15because we never think of the world as

1:08:17something that reveals itself through

1:08:19our values but of course it of course it

1:08:22because you look at what you want you

1:08:26aim at what you want and once you've

1:08:28aimed the world lays itself out for you

1:08:30and that's exactly how perception works

1:08:32that's why I represented it this way

1:08:35you're always somewhere that's point a

1:08:36that's somewhere in some place and some

1:08:39time and you always have some notion

1:08:42about what you want to have have

1:08:43happened next you know you're gonna go

1:08:46to the next class maybe you've got a

1:08:47plan after this in this class you have a

1:08:50plan you're hoping to learn something I

1:08:52presume and maybe you have a goal with

1:08:54regards to a grade and that's nested

1:08:56inside your desire to get a degree and

1:08:58that's nested inside your desire to be

1:09:00educated and to have a career and and

1:09:02and and have a successful life so

1:09:05attending to me at the moment the reason

1:09:09you're doing that is because all of

1:09:10those values exist within you

1:09:12simultaneously focusing your attention

1:09:14and so you're attending to me and not to

1:09:18something else assuming that all of you

1:09:20with your computers open aren't surfing

1:09:22the web which you might be but assuming

1:09:26that you're focusing whatever you're

1:09:29focusing on is directed by what you

1:09:31value and some of that can be

1:09:32unconscious in fact a lot of it is

1:09:35unconscious because you know it's very

1:09:37difficult for you to get control of what

1:09:38you pay attention to you know what

1:09:40that's like you're trying to study it's

1:09:42kind of a boring paper christ' your

1:09:45attention it's just like everywhere you

1:09:47know maybe you'll vacuum under the bed

1:09:49instead of doing the Pape reading the

1:09:51paper you know you can't get a grip on

1:09:53that thing so your attention has an

1:09:55autonomy and that's another

1:09:57psychoanalytic idea you know because you

1:09:59kind of think well you're in control

1:10:00it's like really

1:10:02you ever try telling yourself what to do

1:10:04does the how does that work for you I'm

1:10:07going to go to the gym three times a

1:10:09week right sure heard you who are ya I'm

1:10:12gonna quit eating sugar for a month it's

1:10:16like how long does that lasts like 15

1:10:18minutes and you're eating like three

1:10:20chocolate bars so you're this is and

1:10:24this is Freud central insight I would

1:10:25say you're an autonomous group of

1:10:29spiritual agents let's say personalities

1:10:32and they don't really get along very

1:10:34well and

1:10:36you the ego will say is by no means

1:10:39necessarily in charge and that's a very

1:10:42strange thing to realize but you can

1:10:44really realize that by noticing how

1:10:46little control you have over your

1:10:47attentional focus okay so you've got

1:10:50your point a you're going to point B

1:10:53you're always doing that you inhabit a

1:10:55structure of value and it changes what

1:10:58the point a is and what the point B is

1:10:59but the structure itself doesn't change

1:11:01when you're looking at the world what

1:11:03you see is not objects you see tools and

1:11:06they make you happy those are things

1:11:08that facilitate your movement forward

1:11:09and you see obstacles and those are

1:11:11things that make you unhappy and when

1:11:13you encounter in an obstacle one of the

1:11:16problems is as well you don't get to

1:11:18where you're going and that's a problem

1:11:19but the other problem is if you

1:11:21encounter an obstacle the frame might be

1:11:23wrong right because you never know it

1:11:25might be just something that you could

1:11:26Ditu around real easily might be a fatal

1:11:29flaw in your whole plan and so obstacles

1:11:31have this dual nature they get in your

1:11:34way but they can also take your plan

1:11:36down and so they can produce anxiety so

1:11:39my point is and this there's a book

1:11:41called visual an ecological approach to

1:11:45visual perceptions great book by Gibson

1:11:49JJ Gibson if I remember correctly and

1:11:52this is although I thought of this a

1:11:56while back I realized eventually that it

1:11:59was a variant of his theory and when he

1:12:01believed was that when people looked at

1:12:03the world they saw a value first and an

1:12:06inferred object second so for example

1:12:09for Gibson if you're standing by a cliff

1:12:11you don't see a cliff and then think

1:12:14about the fact that you might fall and

1:12:16then feel frightened you see a falling

1:12:18off place and part of the seeing of that

1:12:21part of the act of seeing is being

1:12:23afraid of that because your eyes are

1:12:25connected right to your emotional

1:12:26systems and part of what your eyes do is

1:12:29tell you what the object is but your

1:12:31eyes do all sorts of other things like

1:12:33they prepare you for action they prepare

1:12:35you for gripping they prepare you for

1:12:37emotion and and none of that actually

1:12:39requires the the existence necessarily

1:12:43the existence of your perception of the

1:12:45object so there are people who have

1:12:46blind sight and if you show them so they

1:12:49think they can't see but if you flash

1:12:51them in angry face they'll show a skin

1:12:53conductance response and that's because

1:12:56the visual pathways to the amygdala

1:12:58which does face a most facial emotional

1:13:00processing can still be active these are

1:13:02people who've usually had a stroke so

1:13:04their eyes are okay but they've

1:13:05destroyed the visual cortex so so

1:13:10anyways it's perfectly plausible that at

1:13:12least at one level of analysis when you

1:13:14look at something you see it's utility

1:13:16first so you see a chair and you might

1:13:19say a chair is an object but I wouldn't

1:13:21say that beanbags a chair and a stump is

1:13:24a chair and they don't share much in

1:13:26common except that you can sit on them

1:13:28and so you know the chair is just the

1:13:30chair is basically conceptualized by its

1:13:33functional utility and when you look at

1:13:35a chair what you perceive its is its

1:13:37functional utility and the chair tells

1:13:39you what to do

1:13:40it says sit on me and so that and there

1:13:42are people who have prefrontal damage

1:13:44and they engage in something called

1:13:46utilization behavior and if they're

1:13:48walking down the hallway and there's a

1:13:50door opened they have to walk through it

1:13:52they can't not do what the object tells

1:13:54them to do that's called utilization

1:13:56behavior so that's how the world is laid

1:13:59out and I would say inside that domain

1:14:03you're in the predictable world you're

1:14:05in the world that you understand it that

1:14:07you know and that if you hit an obstacle

1:14:09or if you're outside that domain you're

1:14:11in the unknown you're in unknown

1:14:13territory in the mythological world in

1:14:18the world for action you could

1:14:20conceptualize the world as a stage for

1:14:22action and this is a Shakespearean quote

1:14:27that sort of sums it up quite nicely all

1:14:30the world is a stage and all the men and

1:14:34women merely players

1:14:35they have their exits and their

1:14:37entrances and one man in his time plays

1:14:39many parts and you might say well is

1:14:42that really true and the answer to that

1:14:44is well it depends on what you mean by

1:14:46true and and that really is the answer

1:14:49because there are different ways of

1:14:51defining true so and it isn't

1:14:58self-evident that there's only one way

1:15:00of defining true that's appropriate

1:15:03you know the definition of truth might

1:15:05be more like a tool and you know we are

1:15:08tool using creatures and really what

1:15:09we're trying to do with our conceptions

1:15:11of truth is to work through the world

1:15:13successfully so even science is

1:15:16subordinate should be subordinate to our

1:15:19use of the world as a tool because if it

1:15:22isn't useful tool like what are we doing

1:15:24with it you know

1:15:25just generating technology that might

1:15:28destroy the world that seems like a bad

1:15:30idea

1:15:30so so I think that that the world as

1:15:35tool is actually the fundamental sword

1:15:37of truth and I think that that's a

1:15:39Darwinian idea right that that our

1:15:42notions about the world have evolved

1:15:44through a Darwinian process and that

1:15:46it's appropriate for us to regard as

1:15:50what is most real those things that

1:15:55reliably ensure are the continuation of

1:15:59our life and the probability of our

1:16:02propagation and if you're a true

1:16:04Darwinian I don't think there's a way

1:16:06out of that argument and it isn't

1:16:09self-evident by any stretch of the

1:16:11imagination that seeing the world as all

1:16:14as objects is the way that our brain

1:16:18works in fact I don't think it's the way

1:16:20it works at all and I think that that's

1:16:22why we're so wired for stories right

1:16:29it's a mystery

1:16:31you know like you won't line up for two

1:16:33hours to go see a lecture but you'll

1:16:37line up for two hours maybe you'll even

1:16:39camp overnight if you're mythological

1:16:40imagination has been seized for god only

1:16:43knows what reason by Star Wars and you

1:16:45know that's the source of mythology

1:16:49it's the mythology of the modern person

1:16:51and it fills a gap and that's why people

1:16:54do it so that to me speaks of men the

1:17:01manner in which our psyches are

1:17:03constructed and that's a union idea

1:17:05that's the idea of the archetype

1:17:07essentially that to be human is to

1:17:10participate in a certain pattern of

1:17:12being and that that pattern of being is

1:17:17socially it's acted out individually but

1:17:19it's also part of your structure even

1:17:22your perceptual structure as a as a

1:17:25living organism of your particular type

1:17:28and it would be the case at least in

1:17:31part that the hero myth which is go out

1:17:33where no one has gone before

1:17:36face they terrors of the unknown gather

1:17:40something of value and return is the

1:17:43central story of humankind it's not the

1:17:47only central story but it's it's up

1:17:50there in the top three and many of the

1:17:53dramas that you engage yourself in are

1:17:56variations of that story and you watch

1:18:01it over and over and over because you're

1:18:03trying to learn how to do that because

1:18:05that's what you need to do to live okay

1:18:14here's the here's an idea what's common

1:18:20among people

1:18:20well we're self conscious so we know of

1:18:25our own existence and we know of our own

1:18:27limitations and so that means that we

1:18:31have a certain innate terror and

1:18:33fragility our existence is a problem to

1:18:37us and in some sense what we're trying

1:18:39to do when we search for meaning is to

1:18:41search for a solution to that problem

1:18:42and that can be security but it don't

1:18:45can also be mode of being you know and

1:18:47so for example being engaged in

1:18:49something worthwhile seems to be a good

1:18:51medicine for being fragile you know

1:18:54because you think well I'm doing this it

1:18:55seems worthwhile and the fact that

1:18:57there's a price to be paid for it and

1:18:59that things could befall me that aren't

1:19:00good I'm willing to put up with that

1:19:02because what I'm engaged in seems to be

1:19:04of appropriate of sufficient

1:19:06significance to justify all that we all

1:19:10become self-conscious and we're all

1:19:11trying to do something about that figure

1:19:13out how to deal with it so there's a

1:19:18landscape that we inhabit I would say

1:19:21within which that takes place so there's

1:19:23a human being self conscious doomed to

1:19:27tragedy and doomed to be aware of that

1:19:30the human being has two elements and

1:19:32that's the element that seeks the good

1:19:34and there's the other element that seeks

1:19:35I would say revenge and destruction and

1:19:39we have our reasons you know if

1:19:42something tragic happens to you it's

1:19:44tragic and unfair and it really brings

1:19:46you low the probability that you're

1:19:48going to become resentful and want

1:19:50revenge is extraordinarily high at no

1:19:52wonder and you know the archetypal

1:19:54representation of that is evil itself

1:19:56and the archetypal representation of the

1:19:59good that you could do is is the hero

1:20:01and so those things inhabit us they're

1:20:05they're permanent elements of the human

1:20:07psyche and then what else is universal

1:20:10to us well we live in a society you

1:20:13could say and that's deep that's deep

1:20:16it's not just human society like we've

1:20:18lived in a society forever so you know

1:20:21lobsters live in dominance hierarchies

1:20:24and they use their serotonin system at

1:20:27least in part to keep track of their

1:20:29dominance position and so you can use

1:20:31antidepressants on lobsters when they

1:20:32get defeated and they don't feel so bad

1:20:34from being defeated in a fight and so

1:20:37you just think about that because the

1:20:38antidepressants do the same thing to us

1:20:40we're so bloody social that the circuits

1:20:45that evolved 300 million years ago when

1:20:49the lobsters in us had a shared ancestor

1:20:52are still operating at the base of your

1:20:55brain that's why status is so important

1:20:57to people and reputation I mean that

1:21:00serotonin system governs your emotional

1:21:02regulation how people respond to you and

1:21:04what they think of you man that matters

1:21:06that's why you're on Facebook all the

1:21:08time and checking your texts and and

1:21:10obsessing continually about your online

1:21:13presence and assuming that you're doing

1:21:14that and you know contacting people

1:21:17frantically and seeing what the updates

1:21:18are it's like where where how are you

1:21:21held in the esteem of others very very

1:21:24important and that's because it

1:21:25determines your emotional regulation

1:21:27it's really important so we exist in a

1:21:30society always and the society has two

1:21:33elements the tyrannical element of the

1:21:35society that would be the tyrannical

1:21:37king roughly speaking a very common

1:21:39mythological theme you see that in the

1:21:41Lion King - right because that's scar

1:21:44and of course you see it in the real

1:21:45world with almost continually and then

1:21:49the benevolent king who is the source of

1:21:52all the good things about culture you

1:21:54know and and you can see these things

1:21:55play out as mythologies in political

1:21:58terms so I would say for example the

1:22:01continual harping about the oppressive

1:22:04nature of the patriarchy is part of a

1:22:07myth and the myth is that society is

1:22:10oppressive it's like well yeah obviously

1:22:12you know because you have to be quite a

1:22:16bit like you and you have to be quite a

1:22:17bit like you even if you're not so that

1:22:19you can get along right everybody

1:22:21sacrifices a tremendous amount of their

1:22:23individuality to the common to the

1:22:27common mode of being that's there's a

1:22:30tyrannical element to that but you know

1:22:32by the same token it's the basis of

1:22:35cooperation and the stability of society

1:22:38and the the final element is that's

1:22:42often represented met in a masculine

1:22:44manner by the way society and I think

1:22:46that's because our primary dominance

1:22:48structures given the creatures we are

1:22:50like chimpanzees the primary structures

1:22:53of dominance are masculine and then

1:22:56outside of what's known is the unknown

1:23:01and we always have to contend with that

1:23:06and it's wonderful in that it's the

1:23:08source of all new things and it's

1:23:10terrible in that it's the place where

1:23:12all the things that destabilize you come

1:23:14from and so this is a good

1:23:17representation although not the only one

1:23:20so that's the feminine nature that's the

1:23:25masculine order and that's the

1:23:27individual who's destined to suffer in

1:23:29the grasp of those two things and

1:23:42I'll finish this next time what have we

1:23:45got here yep

1:23:48all right good enough we'll see you next

1:23:52time

1:23:54so today to begin with we're going to

1:23:58finish the last lecture and then with

1:24:03any luck we're gonna start the next one

1:24:05there somatically linked anyways well

1:24:06you know what all the lectures for the

1:24:09next well for the whole course hopefully

1:24:12will be thematically late to some degree

1:24:14given that nominally they're about the

1:24:17same topic but some are more tightly

1:24:19linked than others

1:24:20so I started telling you last week about

1:24:27this idea of the voyage to the

1:24:28underworld

1:24:29and I want to tell you a little bit more

1:24:33about that young in particular

1:24:38conceptualized the voyage to the

1:24:39underworld as a journey into the

1:24:42unconscious and the unconscious for the

1:24:46psychoanalyst is a place of fantasy and

1:24:49dream an implicit presupposition and

1:24:53habit and that's all correct you know we

1:24:55there is an unconscious and it's

1:25:00perfectly reasonable to conceptualize it

1:25:01that way that the big difference I think

1:25:03between the psychoanalysts and the later

1:25:06more empirical scientists is that the

1:25:10psychoanalyst sort of envisioned your

1:25:13psyche as a place of living partial

1:25:19personalities instead of cognitive

1:25:23computational systems you know they took

1:25:27into account the fact that you're alive

1:25:29and that the parts of you are alive and

1:25:33you know there's there's a

1:25:34neuroscientist named gives that Gazza

1:25:36Nick I don't know how to say his name

1:25:40Gazza nigga that's wrong is that

1:25:43Gazzaniga yeah I think that's it anyways

1:25:46he did some of the earliest experiments

1:25:48on split brains and so sometimes if you

1:25:51have intractable epilepsy which I

1:25:52wouldn't recommend by the way

1:25:56one of the surgical procedures for

1:25:58mediating its negative effects is

1:26:01something called a you cut the corpus

1:26:03callosum and it's very large number

1:26:05large structure in the brain that

1:26:08connects the two separate hemispheres

1:26:11and you know it's not obvious why we

1:26:12have two separate hemispheres although

1:26:14I'll tell you a little bit about why I

1:26:15think it is but anyways they do

1:26:17communicate and what Gazzaniga

1:26:23demonstrated was that you could tell one

1:26:26hemisphere something without the other

1:26:28one knowing that both hemispheres were

1:26:32conscious and that the consciousness was

1:26:34somewhat independent it really strange

1:26:37it's very interest makes very

1:26:39interesting readings reading you know

1:26:41because it suggests that fragments of

1:26:44ourselves you could think of you have

1:26:46fragments of yourself within you that

1:26:48are like low resolution representations

1:26:50of you you know and that and the

1:26:52psychoanalysts would think of those more

1:26:53as they're kind of like they're kind of

1:26:55like one-eyed Giants that might be a way

1:26:57of thinking about it if you were

1:26:58thinking about it in a fantastical way

1:27:00so there's the angry you and you know

1:27:03you've all come in contact with the

1:27:06angry you it's a rather rigid that's the

1:27:10first thing you might say about it it's

1:27:11impulsive and short-term it doesn't

1:27:13think much about the past unless it's

1:27:16bad things about whoever you're angry at

1:27:19in which case it thinks about them a lot

1:27:21it's not too concerned with long-term

1:27:23future consequences and mostly it wants

1:27:26to be right and you know when angry you

1:27:31disappears and normal you assuming such

1:27:35a thing exists reappears you can be

1:27:38perfectly shocked about how angry you

1:27:40behaved and in fact sometimes if angry

1:27:45you really gets out of hand like it

1:27:47might in a battle like a war it might do

1:27:51things that you just can't imagine that

1:27:53you would do and under those

1:27:55circumstances you can reveal parts of

1:27:58yourself to yourself that are so foreign

1:28:01and so horrifying that it will leave you

1:28:07with post-traumatic stress disorder

1:28:09because it is the case that many but not

1:28:14all people who suffer from

1:28:16post-traumatic stress disorder

1:28:18especially if it's battlefield related

1:28:21get it because of something they did

1:28:23rather than something they saw or

1:28:26something that happened to them and

1:28:27that's really we're thinking about you

1:28:30know I mean there's a lot of weird

1:28:31potential nested inside people and you

1:28:34know you don't see it under normal

1:28:35circumstances because the circumstances

1:28:37are normal and part of the reason that

1:28:40we like the circumstances to be normal

1:28:43is precisely so that we don't see those

1:28:47parts of people we don't want to see and

1:28:50that's really worth knowing it's really

1:28:53worth knowing because that's why people

1:28:56are so identified with their culture and

1:29:00why they need a culture you know the

1:29:01terror management theorist types they

1:29:03kind of think of culture as a mechanism

1:29:05that inhibits anxiety and they think

1:29:07about it psychologically like it's it's

1:29:09something inside your your head let's

1:29:11say and it gives meaning to events and

1:29:14stops you from collapsing into chaos and

1:29:17protects you from death anxiety but that

1:29:22isn't that's not right it's sort of

1:29:24right but that isn't what your culture

1:29:26is your culture is a set of value Laden

1:29:29presuppositions that you orient yourself

1:29:33in the world that match the set of value

1:29:37Laden presuppositions that everyone in

1:29:40your culture has and acts out and so

1:29:43what that means is that when you believe

1:29:45something and you're among your own

1:29:47people you believe something implicitly

1:29:50it's the way you look at the world it's

1:29:52the way you act things out you act about

1:29:53everyone expects you to act about

1:29:55they're happy about it in fact so

1:29:57there's a match between what you're

1:29:59doing what you see and what you're doing

1:30:01and what other people expect and it's

1:30:03that match that regulates your emotions

1:30:06it's not the belief system it's the

1:30:08match and so part of the reason that

1:30:11people are so tied to their cultural

1:30:14identity is because their cultural

1:30:17identity regulates their emotions and in

1:30:22a profound way like this is

1:30:23no joke you know I mean one of the

1:30:25things that stabilizes human nervous

1:30:29systems is imagine that you have a

1:30:31domain of competence there's many

1:30:33domains of competence and of course in

1:30:35some of those domains you're completely

1:30:36incompetent but they met me not matter

1:30:38because you don't go into that domain so

1:30:40you have some area of specialization

1:30:42which you might think of as your

1:30:43sub-tribe you know your university

1:30:46students and so some of you are lower

1:30:48status by the rules of the university

1:30:51game and some of you are higher status

1:30:53by the rules of the university game by

1:30:55the tribe and so the higher status

1:30:57people tend to be the ones who fit into

1:31:00the academic environment you know and

1:31:02and find it conducive to their mode of

1:31:05being and all who also do well and their

1:31:08serotonin levels rise and you know the

1:31:11neuro chemicals that moderate mood

1:31:15particularly are serotonergic its

1:31:18serotonin it's lots of other things it's

1:31:20an oversimplification but that'll do for

1:31:22now as you become dominant in a

1:31:24hierarchy your serotonin levels rise and

1:31:26what that means is that happy things

1:31:29make you happier and sad things make you

1:31:32less sad it Tunes your nervous system so

1:31:34if you're down at the bottom of the

1:31:35hierarchy and you're failing it's like

1:31:37hey hardly anything makes you happy and

1:31:40everything makes you nervous and it's no

1:31:42wonder because it's it's not very good

1:31:44down there so the the societal structure

1:31:50which which is an elaborated dominance

1:31:52hierarchy regulates your emotions

1:31:56because of the match between your

1:31:58expectations and the behaviors of the

1:31:59people within that structure and then

1:32:01your position within the hierarchy

1:32:03regulates the rate ratio let's say and

1:32:06the intensity between positive and

1:32:08negative emotion so you mess with

1:32:09people's status at your peril and you

1:32:13disrupt their culture they don't like

1:32:16that and no wonder because when it's

1:32:20disrupted they fall into chaos and chaos

1:32:22isn't just anxiety the anxiety is bad

1:32:25enough but it's not just anxiety because

1:32:28when you fall into chaos when things

1:32:29fall apart for you

1:32:31of course you're uncertain and anxious

1:32:35because you don't know what the hell is

1:32:37going

1:32:37on and you don't know where you are and

1:32:39you don't know what to do Pat's

1:32:40anxiety-provoking and maybe you can't

1:32:42even understand your past properly

1:32:44anymore that as I said that happens when

1:32:45people get betrayed and so you fall into

1:32:48this state where nothing is certain the

1:32:52way you construe the world isn't certain

1:32:54and even the way the world is is no

1:32:56longer certain because you don't know

1:32:58how to act or your actions aren't

1:33:01working and so the world is presenting

1:33:03itself as something that's chaotic it's

1:33:05not just psychological the chaos is a

1:33:07weird intermingling of the chaotic world

1:33:10and the chaotic self I mean that's what

1:33:13happens when you get unemployed it's

1:33:14like it's devastating right it's

1:33:17devastating to people and it you could

1:33:20say well that's psychological it's like

1:33:21well yeah but they're unemployed that

1:33:25makes the world far more

1:33:26incomprehensible and uncertain it's not

1:33:29just psychological

1:33:30it's psychological and that's bad but

1:33:32it's also real and that's even worse and

1:33:35then those two things can spiral which

1:33:37they often do because you know if you

1:33:40don't set your expectations properly for

1:33:42a job search and assume that you're

1:33:45gonna get 49 rejections for every

1:33:48interview which you really need to know

1:33:50because if you get 49 rejections it's

1:33:53not because you're useless it's because

1:33:54the baseline for rejection is 98% and

1:33:57that's okay because the base rate for

1:33:59rejection for everything is 98% no

1:34:03matter what you do but you need to know

1:34:05that so that you don't feel that it's

1:34:06like something wrong with you and of

1:34:08course you only have to get it right

1:34:10once that then you have a job it's a

1:34:13lottery but you have to set yourself up

1:34:15you have to think okay well I'm gonna

1:34:17look for a job I need to how many

1:34:19resumes can I tolerate sending out a day

1:34:21you know it has to be enough so you

1:34:23don't feel like a useless moron and it

1:34:26can't be so many that you're overwhelmed

1:34:28by the burden so and I help people do

1:34:32this sort of thing all the time so maybe

1:34:33you decide well you're gonna send out

1:34:35ten a day and you're gonna work two

1:34:38hours on it and it's gonna take six

1:34:39months and then you know you've got your

1:34:42parameters set properly and you would

1:34:44know what to expect in the world and and

1:34:46your emotions are regulated and so but

1:34:50the state of being unemployed doesn't

1:34:53just produce psychological consequences

1:34:55so the distinction between the psyche in

1:34:59the world in some sense is quite

1:35:01arbitrary and the psychoanalysts I think

1:35:04it air too much on the side of the

1:35:07subject they tend to think that too much

1:35:09of you is inside of you and too little

1:35:11of you is outside of you and part of the

1:35:14reason I believe that is because of my

1:35:17clinical experience

1:35:18I love the psychoanalyst man they're

1:35:21brilliant they're brilliant they're deep

1:35:24they grapple with real problems like

1:35:27with the problems when people have real

1:35:29problems that I mean profound problems

1:35:31there really won't profound moral

1:35:33problems or problems of good and evil

1:35:35really you know there are things going

1:35:37on in their family that are so terrible

1:35:39that well that there are there are

1:35:42sometimes fatal

1:35:43you know lie upon lie upon lie upon lie

1:35:46for decades and decades and decades it's

1:35:50awful and that's not exactly inside them

1:36:01it's out there in the world and lots of

1:36:04the people that I see very famous critic

1:36:07of psychology I can't remember his name

1:36:11but I probably will criticize the

1:36:16practice of psychology quite effectively

1:36:18in the leave in the early 60s the myth

1:36:21of mental illness by Thomas says Szasz

1:36:25it's a classic you should read it if

1:36:28you're interested in psychology read it

1:36:30like it's it's a classic and he

1:36:32basically said most people have problems

1:36:35in living they don't have psychological

1:36:36problems and so I've experienced despite

1:36:40my love for the psychoanalysts very

1:36:44frequently what I'm doing as a therapist

1:36:45is helping people have a life that would

1:36:49work you know and you can parameterize

1:36:52that it's like what do you need how

1:36:56about some friends that people kind of

1:36:58like that how about an intimate

1:36:59relationship with someone that you can

1:37:01trust that maybe has a future that would

1:37:03be good

1:37:04how about a career that puts you in a

1:37:06dominance hierarchy somewhere so at

1:37:08least you've got some possibility of

1:37:10rising some possibility of stabilizing

1:37:12yourself and our schedule in a routine

1:37:15because no one can live without a

1:37:17routine you just forget that if you guys

1:37:19don't have a routine I would recommend

1:37:22like you get one going because you

1:37:25cannot be mentally healthy without a

1:37:27routine you need to pick a time to get

1:37:29up whatever time you want but pick one

1:37:31and stick to it because otherwise you

1:37:34dis regulate your circadian rhythms and

1:37:36they regulate your mood and eat

1:37:39something in the morning I had lots of

1:37:42clients who've had anxiety disorders I

1:37:44had one client who was literally

1:37:46starving very smart girl sheet there's

1:37:49very little that she liked she kind of

1:37:51tried to subsist on like half a cup of

1:37:53rice a day she came to me and said I

1:37:55have no energy I come home all I want to

1:37:57do is watch the same movie over and over

1:37:59what like is that weird and I thought

1:38:02well it depends on how hard you work you

1:38:04know it's a little weird but whatever

1:38:06it's familiar you're looking for comfort

1:38:09so I did an analysis of her diet it's

1:38:11like three quarters of a cup of rice

1:38:14it's like you're starving eat something

1:38:18you know you'll feel better

1:38:22so she modified her diet and her all her

1:38:26anxiety went away and she had some

1:38:27energy it's like yeah you got to eat so

1:38:34schedule that's a good thing man your

1:38:36brain will thank you for it it will

1:38:38stabilize your nervous system with it's

1:38:41a bit of a plan that's a good thing you

1:38:43need a career you need something

1:38:45productive to do with your time you need

1:38:47to regulate your use of drugs and

1:38:49alcohol most particularly alcohol

1:38:52because that does even a lot of people

1:38:56you need a family like the family you

1:38:59have your parents and all that be nice

1:39:01if you all got along you could work on

1:39:03that that's a good thing to work on and

1:39:04then you know you probably need children

1:39:06at some point that's life that's what

1:39:09life is and if you're missing you know

1:39:13you may have a good reason to not be

1:39:15operating on one of those dimensions

1:39:18it's not mandatory but I can tell you

1:39:21that if you're not operating reasonably

1:39:24well on four I think I mentioned six if

1:39:26you're not operating reasonably well on

1:39:27at least three of them there's no way

1:39:30you're going to be psychologically

1:39:34thriving and that's more pragmatic in

1:39:37some sense than psychological right

1:39:39human beings have a nature there's

1:39:41things we need and if we have them well

1:39:44that's good and if we don't have them

1:39:46well then we feel the lack and so

1:39:48behaviorists behavioral psychologists

1:39:51concentrate a lot more on that sort of

1:39:53thing

1:39:53you know it's practical it's like

1:39:56strategizing make a career plan figure

1:39:59out how to negotiate because that's

1:40:00bloody important figure out how to say

1:40:02what you need figure out how to tell the

1:40:04truth to people figure out how to listen

1:40:07to your partner in particular because if

1:40:12you listen to them they will actually

1:40:13tell you what they want and sometimes

1:40:15you can give it to them and maybe

1:40:17they'll return the favor and if you

1:40:19practice that for like 15 years well

1:40:22then maybe you're constantly giving each

1:40:24other what you want well hooray that

1:40:26would be good and then there's two of

1:40:28you under all circumstances and it's

1:40:32better to have two brains than one

1:40:34because people think differently because

1:40:36of their temperament mostly and so the

1:40:39negotiation is where the wisdom arises

1:40:42and it's part of the transformation the

1:40:45psychological transformation that's

1:40:46attendant on an intimate relationship

1:40:48and one of the fundamental purposes of a

1:40:51long-term intimate relationship anyways

1:40:55when that falls apart chaos ensues and

1:40:57that's why chaos is represented so

1:41:00continually in myths and stories and I'm

1:41:04going to walk you through a bit of that

1:41:05more today I talked about the story of

1:41:08Jonah now here's something to think

1:41:11about the internal representations of

1:41:16language meaning evolved partly from our

1:41:20pre linguistic ancestors knowledge of

1:41:22social relations like modern monkeys and

1:41:25apes our ancestors lived in groups with

1:41:27intricate networks of relationships that

1:41:29were simultaneously competitive

1:41:32operative the demands of social life

1:41:34created selective pressures for just the

1:41:36kind of complex abstract conceptual and

1:41:38computational abilities that are likely

1:41:40to have preceded the earliest forms of

1:41:42linguistic communication although

1:41:45baboons have concepts and acquire

1:41:47propositional information from other

1:41:49animals vocalizations they cannot

1:41:51articulate this information they

1:41:53understand dominance relationships and

1:41:55matrilineal kinship but they have no

1:41:56words for them this suggests that the

1:41:59internal representation of many concept

1:42:01relations and actual action sequences

1:42:04does not require language and that

1:42:06language did not evolve because it was

1:42:08uniquely suited to representing thought

1:42:10well you you know you can think without

1:42:12language well take the case of someone

1:42:15who's deaf and mute they have no

1:42:18language well they can operate in

1:42:21society they learn how to represent

1:42:23other people and they do that with image

1:42:25now with the post modernists who I

1:42:30despise would be a reasonable way of

1:42:32putting it have this proposition that

1:42:36there's no meaning outside language and

1:42:38and it's a powerful argument by the way

1:42:40but it's seriously wrong

1:42:43there is a meaning network outside of

1:42:46language and it's what language is

1:42:48grounded in and that's this pre verbal

1:42:52comprehension of the world it's an

1:42:54embodied comprehension of the world

1:42:55animals have it lobsters have it you

1:43:00know this particular scientist Seyfarth

1:43:03talks about our shared history with you

1:43:06know higher primates that probably goes

1:43:10back 20 million years something like

1:43:11that

1:43:12we split from the common ancestor with

1:43:14chimps about 7 million years ago but you

1:43:18know lobsters have dominance hierarchies

1:43:22they hardly have a nervous system at all

1:43:24which is partly why they're studied

1:43:26quite extensively and so they have a

1:43:28social structure and they understand it

1:43:31like if one lobster thira lobster to be

1:43:34quite a shark to you if it happened and

1:43:37you were fighting with another lobster

1:43:39and you lost you would remember that and

1:43:41the next time you saw that lobster you'd

1:43:43scuttle off somewhere else and you

1:43:46know that and all the lobsters in an

1:43:47area know who's top lobster and who

1:43:50isn't and top lobster gets the best

1:43:53bloody place to be and the best food so

1:43:57this dominance issue this cultural issue

1:44:01you know the fact that we live in a

1:44:03social environment is far deeper than

1:44:06people usually consider and it's also

1:44:08worth considering and that this is what

1:44:10you might think of from an evolutionary

1:44:12perspective you know you think of

1:44:13natural selection as producing evolution

1:44:16right well random mutation with natural

1:44:19selection but here's something to think

1:44:21about and Darwin knew this but Darwin

1:44:24was really smart and the biologists who

1:44:27followed in his footsteps even up to now

1:44:29have only expanded out a fraction of

1:44:32what he had to say you know he was very

1:44:35interested in sexual selection now one

1:44:38of the things about human beings that's

1:44:40unique is that human females are picky

1:44:43majors they're choosy

1:44:46they're also sneaky because you can't

1:44:48tell when they're ovulating and with

1:44:50many other female animals you know so

1:44:54they have hidden ovulation and they're

1:44:57choosy and they tend to choose men who

1:45:00are more successful in the dominant

1:45:01turkey well they're there's a shock I

1:45:05mean if you have a choice why not

1:45:08if you pick someone who's at the bottom

1:45:10of the competence hierarchy well that's

1:45:13probably not going to work out very well

1:45:14for you and since women bear the burden

1:45:17of representation you know when you

1:45:29think of a doorman sorry you might think

1:45:30well it's the powerful guy the

1:45:32aggressive guy say that rises to the top

1:45:34of the doorman it's hurricane that's not

1:45:35true it's not even true among chimps

1:45:37like you can get a chimp tyrunt but then

1:45:41what happens is other chimps gang up on

1:45:42him and tear him to pieces and they

1:45:44don't do it nicely

1:45:45they don't do it nicely and the chimps

1:45:48that tend to maintain their dominance

1:45:50for long periods of time have a pretty

1:45:52wide network of friends roughly speaking

1:45:54with whom they engage in reciprocal

1:45:56interactions like grooming and they

1:45:58actually pay a lot of

1:45:59attention to the female chimps who have

1:46:01their own hierarchy by the way and to

1:46:03the their offspring so they're like baby

1:46:05kissing politicians and so the idea that

1:46:08it's raw power that produces dominance

1:46:11is a it's just wrong it's it's wrong now

1:46:15you know tyrants you know it's pretty

1:46:17damn up unstable business being a tyrant

1:46:19there's lots of people who want to kill

1:46:21you plus you know you tend to rule over

1:46:23something approximating hell so maybe

1:46:26that's bit worse better than being a

1:46:28subject in hell but it's not much better

1:46:30so anyway so this social social now so

1:46:35what this means think about this for a

1:46:37minute so imagine you know imagine what

1:46:41I'm telling you bears some vague

1:46:42resemblance to the truth I think there's

1:46:44quite a lot of evidence for it from from

1:46:46a biological perspective I mean this

1:46:49choosy mating thing occurs with lots of

1:46:52species you know there's this bird

1:46:54called the bower bird you got to look up

1:46:56bowerbirds man those things are you just

1:46:59can't even believe they exist and so the

1:47:01male bowerbird he makes this really

1:47:03complicated nest that's close to the

1:47:05ground he weaves it it's really quite

1:47:07nice you couldn't make one so and then

1:47:10he sweeps this yard in front of the nest

1:47:14and then he runs around the forest or

1:47:17flies cuz he is a bird

1:47:19finding pretty things so maybe he'll

1:47:22find a nice collection of red leaves and

1:47:24so then he'll take the red leaves one by

1:47:26one and fly back to his front yard and

1:47:28make a little square you know he's a

1:47:30bird so it's not a great square but he

1:47:32makes a little patch of red and he takes

1:47:34a look at that and then he goes off and

1:47:35finds something blue and and he

1:47:37decorates it makes a little piece of

1:47:39abstract art in the front of his nest

1:47:41and a lot of male bowerbirds do this all

1:47:44at the same time and so then the females

1:47:46come along they hop on something nearby

1:47:48and they kind of look like this checking

1:47:51it out and if they're happy with it well

1:47:54then things proceed but if they're not

1:47:55they'd fly off to someone else's piece

1:47:57of abstract art and if a male piece of

1:48:01art is rejected by like three females in

1:48:03a row he gets irritated and brushes it

1:48:06all off with his wing and then he makes

1:48:08another one it's like God well they

1:48:12obviously have a sense of where

1:48:13well developed sense of beauty it's so

1:48:15cool you know and I guess the idea is

1:48:18that who knows what the hell the idea is

1:48:21the female birds like artistic males

1:48:24something like that but if you're

1:48:26thinking about it biologically maybe

1:48:28it's an indication of intelligence right

1:48:30it's a marker of intelligence you know

1:48:32and it's certainly the case that female

1:48:35humans prefer creative men so and no

1:48:40wonder of course we wouldn't be creative

1:48:43if that wasn't the case so then imagine

1:48:44that there's two primary forces of

1:48:46evolutionary selection operating on us

1:48:49and they're not really the natural world

1:48:51which is what people always think like

1:48:52the environment you know the animals and

1:48:55the trees and nature but it is nature

1:48:58that selected us it's two other things

1:49:00well partly it's two other things so one

1:49:03is the dominance hierarchy the male

1:49:04dominance hierarchy is one of the

1:49:06primary mechanisms of selection so it's

1:49:10like well women are faced with a hard

1:49:12choice which guy to go after right

1:49:14that's a hard choice well so they do the

1:49:17same thing that people do with the stock

1:49:19market they outsource the cognitive

1:49:21problem the computational problem to the

1:49:24male dominance hierarchy then they just

1:49:26let the male Sirk themselves out however

1:49:28they're going to and then they appeal

1:49:30from the top and so what that means is

1:49:32the dominant male dominance hierarchy

1:49:34itself is a selection mechanism because

1:49:36if you fail at it then you don't leave

1:49:39any offspring and so what that means at

1:49:43least in part is that we have adapted to

1:49:46be better and better at attaining status

1:49:49in dominance hierarchies over god only

1:49:52knows how long a period of time and that

1:49:54doesn't mean just power you know it

1:49:57might mean cognitive flexibility because

1:49:59you could imagine dormant its hierarchy

1:50:01a dominance hierarchy be dormant its

1:50:04hierarchy see okay so if like if you're

1:50:06really successful you climb up dominance

1:50:08hierarchy a right but you'd be and see

1:50:11know if you happen to land it knows you

1:50:13just be a failure so then you could say

1:50:16the ideal human being is someone who can

1:50:19climb to the top of a doorman it's her

1:50:20key no matter what the doorman is

1:50:21hierarchy is right so we've evolved to

1:50:28we've evolved such that success across

1:50:32the set of possible dominance

1:50:34hierarchies is the target and I think

1:50:37that's why we have general intelligence

1:50:39because general intelligence is a

1:50:41general problem-solving mechanism and

1:50:43it's a single factor even like there is

1:50:46intelligence is a single factor it's

1:50:48it's not divisible despite what people

1:50:52like Robert Sternberg and Howard Gardner

1:50:58falsely claimed so and then from the

1:51:03female perspective females are the next

1:51:07gatekeeper and that's why they're often

1:51:09Mother Nature took me a long time to

1:51:11figure this out why the hell is nature

1:51:12feminine in mythological representations

1:51:15it's a very very it's extraordinarily

1:51:18common mother nature you don't think a

1:51:20father nature you think of mother nature

1:51:22it's like why well nature brings forth

1:51:24new forms so that's feminine and nature

1:51:31select in fact that's the definition of

1:51:34nature from a Darwinian perspective

1:51:35nature is that which selects women

1:51:39select their nature and that's partly

1:51:43why far more men than you might think

1:51:46like far more are terrified of women

1:51:50because to be rejected as a romantic

1:51:54partner by a woman is to be classified

1:51:59as vaguely acceptable life form huh no

1:52:06value in propagating it though right so

1:52:10it's a major major rejection and you

1:52:13know I've had dozens of clients and many

1:52:16many people write to me whose primary

1:52:19problem is that they're so terrified of

1:52:21women they can't even approach them very

1:52:23very very common so all right I want to

1:52:28show you this little triangle thing this

1:52:31is kind of cool

1:53:39go yet so no no nonverbal right

1:53:43nonverbal so what happened well there's

1:53:48mother triangle

1:53:49I would guess and mutter triangle has

1:53:52circle as a child and triangle is maybe

1:54:00a friend but not one that's very welcome

1:54:02according to mother and child Circle

1:54:10goes out to try to play with triangle

1:54:12child and mother doesn't like that so

1:54:16she goes out there and pecks the hell

1:54:17out of her out of him

1:54:18chases him away pushes child circle back

1:54:23into the home and goes into the home and

1:54:27then child circle isn't very happy about

1:54:29that

1:54:30it's running around causing trouble and

1:54:32it manages to escape and then bad child

1:54:35triangle shows up and they play together

1:54:37and run around and run around and round

1:54:39around and run around with mother

1:54:40chasing them and then they well maybe

1:54:43they elope who knows and then mother

1:54:45triangle has a fit and blows down the

1:54:48house right it's obvious reasonable

1:54:52would you consider that a reasonable

1:54:54story about what happened perhaps you

1:54:59had other interpretations but I suspect

1:55:01they were vaguely along that line well

1:55:04but the point here in this is the point

1:55:06of this experiment is how much

1:55:07information do you need from which to

1:55:09derive a narrative and the answer is

1:55:11like none it just it's just immediate

1:55:15you you can watch some triangles moving

1:55:17around a box and instantly you

1:55:20personalize it and that's because that's

1:55:24what you're like and the reason you're

1:55:27like that is because your environment

1:55:30isn't nature your environment is culture

1:55:34your environment is other people other

1:55:36people and that was even more true for

1:55:40chimpanzees and so forth and especially

1:55:42animals that had a limited diet like

1:55:45like gorillas they pretty much only eat

1:55:46like leaves you know a chimp spends like

1:55:5012 hours a day chewing and

1:55:53that's where they have a gut like this

1:55:54it's like you can't eat leaves you know

1:55:57have you tried

1:55:58they have no nutrition so if you're

1:56:00gonna eat leaves you have to eat a lot

1:56:01of them and then it takes like three