Bur

On the topic of being obsessed with introspection and “self discovery”, i recently read something by Viktor Frankl which I feel fits the whole following of astrology/mbti/personal discovery etc very well. He said that, because life has become void of meaning for many, because there is an “existential vacuum”, we compensate by “psycho-analyzing” ourselves, sharing our psychological problems and insights with others, discussing them, etc (and he predicted this development in the 40s!). An existential vacuum leads to an obsession with the own psyche that can be the cause of neuroses and its pseudo-therapy. Self-reflection can in itself be the root of many problems. I had a talk with someone about how phases of self-reflection and lots of journaling are often the least mentally stable and happy ones. When we feel good, we do not feel the need to conduct some sort of self-therapy. Viktor Frankl also came up with the concept of using a paradoxical intention for healing neuroses. A patient with insomnia, for example, cannot sleep because they so rigidly and obsessively try to sleep, which hinders them from relaxing into an unconscious state. So a paradoxical intention would be “for a change, why don’t you try to not sleep tonight, and just relax and think about something nice?” - which then makes them fall asleep quickly. Maybe by setting the paradoxical intention “i will not try to figure myself out and heal myself” many of the problems which were simply rooted in obsessing over yourself will take care of themselves.

Lol my large and handsome pig didn’t find Anything of interest in your yard

Something needs to be done about teachers who hate kids tbh

My sister is currently getting her doctorate in child psychology & education, but years ago she worked as a substitute english teacher at a high school in nyc. She spent half a year subbing for a woman who was out for surgery, and had been teaching english there for years and years. Most of the kids in this class were remedial; they had failed english before and had to retake it. Most of them hated the class, and they hated literature, because they had been made to feel unintelligent. My sister decided to introduce them to poetry, which was a little easier to digest than long form prose, and had them read Robert Frost's "Fire and Ice." And the kids loved it! They connected with it, they were spirited and engaged in class for the first time all year. They wrote their own poetry! They started seeking out and reading poetry on their own! They were all on track to get a C, B or A in that class. And then the original teacher returned and failed every single student, to "teach them all a lesson". That was the moment my sister decided to go into administration so she could hopefully prevent that sort of thing from happening. But it's difficult. Despite numerous complaints from parents and other teachers, that teacher had a job there for decades. She continued to have a job there. There are a lot of teachers like her, wielding power and taking their frustrations out on kids, especially disabled and remedial kids. And students have so few advocates in the classroom.

This post has turned into teachers complaining that this behavior is understandable because of burnout, low wages, etc and like. Ok then quit lmao. If you treat my kid like this because of "burnout" I'm gonna burn out your fucking teeth