Socially Constructed Self

By the time a child is two, he or she has developed “narrative” memory, the ability to “store” and recall events in story form. This is essential to the development of thought and self-reflection, but it is, Daniel Siegel argues, a shared, social process (The Developing Mind, . . . . Continue Reading »

Hero systems

Richard Beck (The Slavery of Death) quotes some impressive passages from Ernest Becker’s The Denial of Death. They’reworthy of re-quoting.“This is what society is and always has been: asymbolic action system, a structure of statuses and roles, customsand rules for behavior, . . . . Continue Reading »

Forgetful

Augustine puzzled over the mysteries of memory and forgetfulness. Where are memories “stored”? Where do they go when we forget something? You forget where you left your phone, or forget what you were going to say, and then it comes back to you. Where was it in the meantime?Forgetfulness . . . . Continue Reading »

My computer, my friend

Annalee Newitz explains why she loved her computer in her essay in Evocative Objects: Things We Think With: “I would recognize the feel of itskeyboard under my fingers in a darkened room. I haveworn two shiny spots on it where the palms of my handsrest when Im not typing. I carried it on my . . . . Continue Reading »

Thinking with Loved Objects

Objects are not just tools or things of beauty, writes Sherry Turkle in her introduction toEvocative Objects: Things We Think With. In addition, they are “companionsto our emotional lives or as provocations to thought. Thenotion of evocative objects brings together these two lessfamiliar . . . . Continue Reading »

Terrible Twenties

“Dangerous criminals dont turn violent. They just stay that way.” That’s the conclusion of Richard Tremblay of University College Dublin. Gangs of teens and twenties act like toddlers, only with stronger bodies and working weapons. Normally toddler violence peaks at 24 months, but . . . . Continue Reading »

Varieties of sin

Christopher Schrock responds to my post on “materialist psychology” with this fascinating passage from A Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life (209-10)by Joel Beeke and Mark Jones. They are summarizing Thomas Goodwin’s An Unregenerate Man’s Guiltiness : “Goodwin points . . . . Continue Reading »

Materialist psychology

Christians often deny that addictions are “diseases” and that they are “genetic.” But this denial often assumes a materialist view of psychology, as if there are only material causes of disease and only “genetic” forms of inheritance. If we say that even . . . . Continue Reading »