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the-star-stuff: 10 Psychological States You’ve Never Heard Of —...

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 02:33:42 -0500

10 Psychological States You’ve Never Heard Of — And When You Experienced Them

Everybody knows what you mean when you say you’re happy or sad. But what about all those emotional states you don’t have words for? Here are ten feelings you may have had, but never knew how to explain.

1. Dysphoria
Often used to describe depression in psychological disorders, dysphoria is general state of sadness that includes restlessness, lack of energy, anxiety, and vague irritation. It is the opposite of euphoria, and is different from typical sadness because it often includes a kind of jumpiness and some anger. You have probably experienced it when coming down from a stimulant like chocolate, coffee, or something stronger. Or you may have felt it in response to a distressing situation, extreme boredom, or depression.

2. Enthrallment
Psychology professor W. Gerrod Parrott has broken down human emotions into subcategories, which themselves have their own subcategories. Most of the emotions he identifies, like joy and anger, are pretty recognizable. But one subset of joy, “enthrallment,” you may not have heard of before. Unlike the perkier subcategories of joy like cheerfulness, zest, and relief, enthrallment is a state of intense rapture. It is not the same as love or lust. You might experience it when you see an incredible spectacle — a concert, a movie, a rocket taking off — that captures all your attention and elevates your mood to tremendous heights.

3. Normopathy
Psychiatric theorist Christopher Bollas invented the idea of normopathy to describe people who are so focused on blending in and conforming to social norms that it becomes a kind of mania. A person who is normotic is often unhealthily fixated on having no personality at all, and only doing exactly what is expected by society.

4. Abjection
There are a few ways to define abjection, but French philosopher Julia Kristeva (literally) wrote the book on what it means to experience abjection. She suggests that every human goes through a period of abjection as tiny children when we first realize that our bodies are separate from our parents’ bodies — this sense of separation causes a feeling of extreme horror we carry with us throughout our lives. That feeling of abjection gets re-activated when we experience events that, however briefly, cause us to question the boundaries of our sense of self. Often, abjection is what you are feeling when you witness or experience something so horrific that it causes you to throw up. A classic example is seeing a corpse, but abjection can also be caused by seeing shit or open wounds.

5. Sublimation
If you’ve ever taken a class where you learned about Sigmund Freud’s theories about sex, you probably have heard of sublimation. Freud believed that human emotions were sort of like a steam engine, and sexual desire was the steam. If you blocked the steam from coming out of one valve, pressure would build up and force it out of another. Sublimation is the process of redirecting your steamy desires from having naughty sex, to doing something socially productive like writing an article about psychology or fixing the lawnmower or developing a software program. If you’ve ever gotten your frustrations out by building something, or gotten a weirdly intense pleasure from creating an art project, you’re sublimating.

6. Repetition compulsion
Ah, Freud. You gave us so many new feelings and psychological states to explore! The repetition compulsion is a bit more complicated than Freud’s famous definition — “the desire to return to an earlier state of things.” On the surface, a repetition compulsion is something you experience fairly often. It’s the urge to do something again and again. Maybe you feel compelled to always order the same thing at your favorite restaurant, or always take the same route home, even though there are other yummy foods and other easy ways to get home. Maybe your repetition compulsion is a bit more sinister, and you always feel the urge to date people who treat you like crap, over and over, even though you know in advance it will turn out badly (just like the last ten times).

7. Repressive desublimation
Political theorist Herbert Marcuse was a big fan of Freud and lived through the social upheavals of the 1960s. He wanted to explain how societies could go through periods of social liberation, like the countercultures and revolutions of the mid-twentieth century, and yet still remain under the (often strict) control of governments and corporations. How could the U.S. have gone through all those protests in the 60s but never actually overthrown the government? The answer, he decided, was a peculiar emotional state known as “repressive desublimation.” Remember, Freud said sublimation is when you route your sexual energies into something non-sexual. But Marcuse lived during a time when people were very much routing their sexual energies into sex — it was the sexual liberation era, when free love reigned. People were desublimating. And yet they continued to be repressed by many other social strictures, coming from corporate life, the military, and the government.

8. Aporia
You know that feeling of crazy emptiness you get when you realize that something you believed isn’t actually true? And then things feel even more weird when you realize that actually, the thing you believed might be true and might not — and you’ll never really know? That’s aporia. The term comes from ancient Greek, but is also beloved of post-structuralist theorists like Jacques Derrida and Gayatri Spivak. The reason modern theorists love the idea of aporia is that it helps to describe the feeling people have in a world of information overload, where you are often bombarded with contradictory messages that seem equally true.

9. Compersion
We’ve gotten into some pretty philosophical territory, so now it’s time to return to some good, old-fashioned internet memes. The word compersion was popularized by people in online communites devoted to polyamory and open relationships, in order to describe the opposite of feeling jealous when your partner dates somebody else. Though a monogamous person would feel jealous seeing their partner kiss another person, a non-monogamous person could feel compersion, a sense of joy in seeing their partner happy with another person. But monogamous people can feel compersion, too, if we extend the definition out to mean any situation where you feel the opposite of jealous. If a friend wins an award you hoped to win, you can still feel compersion (though you might be a little jealous too).

10. Group feelings
Some psychologists argue that there are some feelings we can only have as members of a group — these are called intergroup and intragroup feelings. Often you notice them when they are in contradiction with your personal feelings. For example, many people feel intergroup pride and guilt for things that their countries have done, even if they weren’t born when their countries did those things. Though you did not fight in a war, and are therefore not personally responsible for what happened, you share in an intergroup feeling of pride or guilt. Group feelings often cause painful contradictions.

Image by Tom Wang/Shutterstock

bindedsouls: totally-free: The amount I want to do every...

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 02:33:18 -0500

bindedsouls:

totally-free:

The amount I want to do every single one of these is unbelievable

this is very beautiful.

How To Build Your Own Mind Palace

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 02:33:11 -0500

anotherboywholived:

I’ve been using a mind palace since my teens and never thought it odd until I saw tumblr’s reaction to Sherlock’s use of the technique. A couple days ago I found myself building an extension in order to cram for my philosophy exam the following day and I figured I’d use this as an example and get you all exploiting the genius of this method.

Because, frankly, that one on wikihow that’s been going around is a headache, and mine has bad jokes and Sherlock examples.

If anyone’s any further questions just hit up my ask and we’ll talk.

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beautifulwhatsyourhurry: atticrissfinch: evarren: jonestownsco...

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 02:16:11 -0500

beautifulwhatsyourhurry:

atticrissfinch:

evarren:

jonestownscoundrel:

The commentary to this is priceless

I’M SCREAMING

remember how this is the most hilarious thing ever

“looks like a giraffe sucking its thumb while giving birth”

QWOP OMG FUCK THIS GAME SO HARD

55 best similes written by high-school students

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 02:15:46 -0500

1:Her eyes were like two brown circles with big black dots in the center.
2:He was as tall as a 6′3″ tree.
3:Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.
4:From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you’re on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.
5:John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
6:She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
7:The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
8:He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
9:Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
10:She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.
11:The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife’s infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM.
12:The lamp just sat there, like an inanimate object.
13:McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.
14:His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.
15:He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at asolar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.
16:Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.
17:Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.
18:The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.
19:Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.
20:The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.
21:They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan’s teeth.
22:He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant and she was the East River.
23:Even in his last years, Grand pappy had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it hadrusted shut.
24:He felt like he was being hunted down like a dog, in a place that hunts dogs, I suppose.
25:She was as easy as the TV Guide crossword.
26:She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs.
27:The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.
28:The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.
29:“Oh, Jason, take me!” she panted, her breasts heaving like a college freshman on $1-a-beer night.
30:It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.
31:It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.
32:He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.
33:The politician was gone but unnoticed, like the period after the Dr. on a Dr Pepper can.
34:Her eyes were like limpid pools, only they had forgotten to put in any pH cleanser.
35:Her date was pleasant enough, but she knew that if her life was a movie this guy would be buried in the credits as something like “Second Tall Man.”
36:The thunder was ominous-sounding, much like the sound of a thin sheet of metal being shaken backstage during the storm scene in a play.
37:The red brick wall was the color of a brick-red Crayola crayon.
38:She caught your eye like one of those pointy hook latches that used to dangle from screen doors and would fly up whenever you banged the door open again.
39:Her pants fit her like a glove, well, maybe more like a mitten, actually.
40:Fishing is like waiting for something that does not happen very often.
41:They were as good friends as the people on “Friends.”
42:Oooo, he smells bad, she thought, as bad as Calvin Klein’s Obsession would smell if it were called Enema and was made from spoiled Spamburgers instead of natural floral fragrances.
43:The knife was as sharp as the tone used by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) in her first several points of parliamentary procedure made to Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) in the House Judiciary Committee hearings on the impeachment of President William Jefferson Clinton.
44:He was as bald as one of the Three Stooges, either Curly or Larry, you know, the one who goes woo woo woo.
45:The sardines were packed as tight as the coach section of a 747.
46:Her eyes were shining like two marbles that someone dropped in mucus and then held up to catch the light.
47:The baseball player stepped out of the box and spit like a fountain statue of a Greek god that scratches itself a lot and spits brown, rusty tobacco water and refuses to sign autographs for all the little Greek kids unless they pay him lots of drachmas.
I felt a nameless dread. Well, there probably is a long German name for it, like Geschpooklichkeit or something, but I don’t speak German. Anyway, it’s a dread that nobody knows the name for, like those little square plastic gizmos that close your bread bags. I don’t know the name for those either.
48:She was as unhappy as when someone puts your cake out in the rain, and all the sweet green icing flows down and then you lose the recipe, and on top of that you can’t sing worth a damn.
49:Her artistic sense was exquisitely refined, like someone who can tell butter from I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter.
50:It came down the stairs looking very much like something no one had ever seen before.
51:Bob was as perplexed as a hacker who means to access T:flw.quid55328.com\aaakk/ch@ung but gets T:\flw.quidaaakk/ch@ung by mistake.
52:You know how in “Rocky” he prepares for the fight by punching sides of raw beef? Well, yesterday it was as cold as that meat locker he was in.
53:The dandelion swayed in the gentle breeze like an oscillating electric fan set on medium.
54:Her lips were red and full, like tubes of blood drawn by an inattentive phlebotomist.
55:The sunset displayed rich, spectacular hues like a .jpeg file at 10 percent cyan, 10 percent magenta, 60 percent yellow and 10 percent black.

Photo

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 02:15:02 -0500

Photo

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 02:03:10 -0500

iconicboyzillness: nobonezanon: keepcalmanddanceonx3: camilara...

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 01:37:42 -0500

iconicboyzillness:

nobonezanon:

keepcalmanddanceonx3:

camilaramires:

HOLY SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT

HOLY SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IT’S NEVER ENDING!

WE ARE FUCKING NOTHING.

wtf.

People who make the same face in every picture.

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 00:29:01 -0500

Lindsey Lohan:

Beyonce:

Duck-Face Girl:

Paris Hilton:

Nick Jonas:

Lady Gaga:

Paula Dean:

Kristen Stewart:

Brock:

asdfghjk Brock.

lolololololol…BROCK

BROCK OMGH

LOL

had me looking at this for like an hour

Alexis GIF appreciation

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 00:24:45 -0500

katiefinneran:

Alexis dances

Alexis has ninja reactions

Alexis has style

Alexis is secretly a member of the Wiggles

Alexis fails

Alexis is seducing you

Alexis is awesome

shh this is just me being nosy about stuff in Blaine's room and locker because I'm creepy

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 00:09:02 -0500

sultrycrisses:

Read More

you just don't understand how hard i'm screaming

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 00:01:54 -0500

sk8-hi:

cpcoulter: thegestianpoet: madehimsaycomfychairs: werepez: co...

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 23:59:19 -0500

cpcoulter:

thegestianpoet:

madehimsaycomfychairs:

werepez:

colemotherfuckingphelps:

jonathanegbert:

lord-english-muffin:

bitch-im-cool:

hot-laundry:

afternoonsnoozebutton:

wellthatsjustgreat:

At the grocery store. Orange juice was available as:

No Pulp

With Pulp

MORE Pulp

LOADED With Pulp

They did not have the other levels which are, in order of increasing pulpitude:

Loaded With Even More Pulp

Extra Loaded With Lots Of Pulp

Holy Shit, That’s A Lot Of Pulp

Seriously. There’s A Lot Of Pulp In This Motherfucker.

Stop Fucking With Me. Who Would Want This Much Pulp?

I’m Not Fucking With You. There’s So Much God Damned Pulp In This Sumbitch That You Should Forget A Straw Because You’ll Need A Fucking Ladle.

Screw The Ladle. Get A Carving Knife.

No Longer Juice. Slightly Damp Pulp.

An Orange

Ag

Beautiful.

I usually go with slightly damp pulp but it’s so hard to find.

[]Lost my shit at ‘an orange’ []

pff

dave, i thought we talked about why your marketing techniques don’t work.

An orange.

AN ORANGE.

What is this, PULP FICTION?! 8D

LITERALLY GOT TO “AN ORANGE” AND STARTED WEEPING

iama fbpeeing omgdffdg

I can’t even breathe right now—I’m laughing so hard I’m crying—

darkknightrises: lotr encyclopedia

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 23:54:35 -0500

darkknightrises:

lotr encyclopedia

idk why youre all following this blog because i moved urls, so: eunoir unless you’re waiting...

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 01:56:05 -0400

idk why youre all following this blog because i moved urls, so: eunoir

unless you’re waiting for me to delete this url or something idk

I'VE MOVED

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 12:29:26 -0400

I'VE MOVED