Posted by gardenergirl on December 4, 2004, at 22:39:55
In reply to ...our spaceship for discovery..., posted by 64bowtie on December 4, 2004, at 14:17:48
> We can't be curious in the foreground, and have a Major Depressive Episode at the same time.
Rod, I can only speak to this one personally, as well. I am currently in a major depressive episode in partial remission. I am curious all the time. It's part of who I am. I don't think of curiousity as an emotion at all, but rather a way of processing information. I think of it as a magnet drawing me towards knowledge. I suppose you could call it an emotion in that it can drive behavior, but I think of it more as a degree of response to stimulation.
Perhaps your use of the word curious is more narrow than we are interpreting it? Because I assume you mean curious ABOUT what's going on with the person....the depression, or panic or whatever.
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> We can't be curious in the foreground, and be grumbling, griping, gossipping and complaining about [nouns] => people, places, things, ideas.Rod, grumbling, griping, gossiping, and complaining are not in and of themselves pathological unless they represent a rigid and narrow personality style such as a negativistic personality. I think many of us use this adaptive response as one of many adaptive responses. It's the range and flexibility of how we use these "tools" that is a measure of mental health.
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> We can, however, use out-of-body guided imagery in the background, and watch ourselves do these things in the foreground. My Mom died at age 72 not knowing this fact!Yes we can. And?
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> Curiosity is an emotion. Curiosity is the only emotion that can't be extiguished from the outside, or by other people. Only we can turn off our own curiosity.Oh, we absolutely can have our curiosity extinguished, or at least repressed. Think of Erikson's stages of development. Autonomy versus Shame. Autonomy is what develops when a toddler's natural curiosity is allowed to flourish is a safe and nurturing environment. If the parent is constantly saying "no! Don't touch! Stay in my sight! etc" due to their own neuroses, then Shame develops as a consequence of the parents' reaction to the curiosity.
> Curiosity inevitably leads to discovery and gets stronger with practice.
Yes, but it also killed the cat. (Sorry, just couldn't resist) I would add an editorial opinion of whether that was a bad thing or not, but I would inevitably offend one half of pet lovers everywhere.
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> Since what we don't even know, that we don't even know, and can't even guess at, is almost everything in the universe, being curious can be our "spaceship" for discovery of the new [nouns].
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> What we need to use to fix ourselves, is out there somewhere, if, and only if, we remain curious...Not sure I can argue with that. It's the curiosity that can lead to motivation for change.
> PS: Denial-and-indecision-together are sins against the self, portrayed as certainty. Caution: certainty does not always mean denial and indecision caused it. Denial-and-indecision-together, do seem always to be veiled in an air of certainty, though. Additional caution: Certainty..... isn't! ...and certainty flys in the face of our curiosity
Okay, now my head hurts. Did a rubber bouncing ball just come though here and bounce in every direction at once? Or perhaps it was Tigger?
gg
poster:gardenergirl
thread:424368
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20041203/msgs/424504.html