Reddit mentions: The best history of psychology books

[2 of 4]

• How curious are you? Do you have more ideas then you can execute? What are your curiosities about? What are your ideas about - is it environmental or conceptual, and can you please elaborate?
  
  • I think this is something I struggle with on a daily basis. I like many things, or so I like to believe. Like I feel that everything’s interesting and everything is connected somehow through symbols. I like thinking about these symbols and connections constantly. So my ideas are about concepts mostly. I can’t remember facts if I can’t attach them to concepts that make sense to me.
    
  • This has been my latest conflict I have to say. I started a career in EE, and then I shifted to computer science. I’ve wanted since I was an undergrad to start a research path, but I’ve been struggling to find something I really really love. I am not good at taking decisions, but an academic path looks now like my best bet for not working in a desk never again (I like having my own desk at home, though).
    
  • I’m confident everything will be good at the end, and I am confident I can do almost anything. Not trying to be cocky, is just that I know I’m physically and mentally capable of learning anything (in the realm of normal stuff, of course I won’t build a heavy falcon myself), so unless that does not change, I’m good. On the other hand, being so certain about that backfires at me, filling my head with “what ifs”
    
  • I have this bad habit of reading (and most of the time not finishing) books in parallel, now I’m reading about
    
    • Carl Jung (https://www.amazon.com/Jung-Short-Introduction-Anthony-Stevens/dp/0192854585 mostly motivated by understanding this mbti thingy)
      
    • About network science (https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/complex-network-analysis/9781680505399/ and https://www.amazon.com/Networks-Introduction-Mark-Newman/dp/0199206651 because network analysis can be applied to almost anything)
      
    • Machine Learning (http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920052289.do) because is what the cool kids do in IT now or so I’ve learned, I’m more into software architecture though, and
      
    • EGB (https://www.amazon.com/G%C3%B6del-Escher-Bach-Eternal-Golden/dp/0465026567) which is a beast and I wanted to get my feet wet about cognitive science and semiotic. I am at about 40% of all of them,
      
  • I pick a chapter until I finish it, and then I move on to the next book, when I have time. I’ve lost interest in reading fiction, I get that from reading graphic novels and manga, mostly. If it matters something, currently ongoing mangas I like are Hajime no Ippo, One Piece, Vinland Saga and The Promised Neverland.
    
• Would you enjoy taking on a leadership position? Do you think you would be good at it? What would your leadership style be?
  
  • I’m not very good at getting stuff done so I would probably suck as a leader of anything. But hey, I am good listening to people and helping them improve. I also don’t think I’m a good teamplayer. I’m bad at following instructions if I don’t trust them. During college I was the guy that ended redoing the work of others during group assignments, because I either I was not satisfied with their work or I was not good at giving instructions. I didn’t know at that moment I was being a dick and I know now, and it’s not something I’m proud of. I'm working on it.
    
• Are you coordinated? Why do you feel as if you are or are not? Do you enjoy working with your hands in some form? Describe your activity?
  
  • I used to draw more when I was younger, and did a bit of woodwork also. I had plants. I like to cook, and have strong opinions on food. I like creating stuff with my hands, I consider myself a creative person. In short, I am coordinated, but not so with team activities like team sports.
    
• Are you artistic? If yes, describe your art? If you are not particular artistic but can appreciate art please likewise describe what forums of art you enjoy. Please explain your answer.
  
  • It’s hard to pin down what kind of art I like, I just know I like something after I’ve seen it or told about, with no particular topic. I don’t understand sculpture, and I vaguely get poetry. Regarding drawing, I appreciate the flow and light in shapes. I was into human figure for some years, and I did a lot of drawings that were good.
    
  • I know a bit of guitar and ukulele, but I never played for others than girls I like. I am too shy of my voice, my singing and technique, I know it needs improving. I took singing classes once but with only the gist of it I got it’s something that requires more discipline and time than what I’m willing to spend.
    
• What's your opinion about the past, present, and future? How do you deal with them?
  
  • uhm, now I strive to live a life that maximises happiness and minimizes regret. At my age I think I know enough about the things I can control, and play along with that hand, always with the best intentions, and I am optimist about the future.
    
  • Sometimes I regret not being like this in the past, however, and I see myself revisiting things I would have done better, like studying more, eating better, loved more.
    
• How do you act when others request your help to do something (anything)? If you would decide to help them, why would you do so?
  
  • I always help, I believe in karma as a thing (I mean, not religiously) and that life has been really good to me. I don’t help when I know I can’t help, or when I’m being ordered to or asked in a bad way i.e. makes me feel bad. I have trouble noticing these situations though.

>You espouse nothing but poor reasoning

You can't espouse poor reasoning. You can however espouse an idea supported by poor reasoning. Assuming this is what you meant, I still haven't done it. You have no examples for how my arguments rely on poor reasoning, you just keep insisting that they do. This is due to your own reliance on specious reasoning.

>You're an apologist. You've chosen that position and it's an ugly one.

Sigh.... You know what an apologist is right? Lets use the term in a sentence... "The christian apologists tried to defend their beliefs using reason, thinking that belief in god could be found through logic." Hmm... Maybe a definition would still be useful.

Ya... I'm not an apologist. I'm not arguing in defense of a belief. I'm arguing against a belief in moral realism. You, my friend, function as the apologist in this debate. Please stop using words without knowing how to use them.

>My morals are quite measured and I do not follow them blindly, with faith. I quoted this because this is all you do. You make stupid and baseless attacks because you have no defense.

Watch this: "My belief in God is quite measured and I do not follow him blindly, with faith." Just because you use reason to justify things after the fact does not make the original assumption true, or any less "faithful."

You seem to have a complete lack of knowledge when it comes to moral theory and what is possible through moral theory. Sam Harris, while an interesting individual, and right about many things, is fundamentally wrong when it comes to what science can do with regard to morals. Not in the sense that his moral system is untenable, but rather in the sense that you can't get his moral system strictly through scientific study—which he claims we can. Assumptions must be made before you can even begin the study of well-being and suffering, and even more must be made in order to say that you should promote one and avoid the other.

A person's insistence on the existence of universal objective morals is best termed as a FAITH. There is no evidence of universal objective morals, and they are fundamentally unscientific entities in the same sense God is—even if we wanted to, we could never find evidence of them. At best they are commonly assumed entities—like God is for most people.

And I repeat, because you seem to think I am some sort of moral heathen, THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT MORALS ARE USELESS OR THAT WE SHOULD LET PEOPLE DO WHATEVER THEY WANT BECAUSE THERE ARE NO OBJECTIVE MORALS. Your feelings about me being somehow deficient are the same feelings a religious fundamentalist would have toward both of us due to our lack of belief.

That you think a bit of pop-science is somehow "important" for me to read is laughable. If what you know of morals comes from that book, I feel sorry for you. I understand that many atheists will praise anything that comes from the "canon" writers on atheism like Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins, however, being a fan of someone does not make all of their work good, or even relevant. At best, Sam Harris is simply endorsing the naturalistic fallacy. At worst, he's willfully ignorant of what the naturalistic fallacy is, and simply wishes to push his view as a "counterpoint" to religious morality.

Since you so kindly left me a link to a book, allow me to do the same, by linking you to the most important books in moral theory for you to read, some of which argue directly against me, but at this point the idea is to get you educated, not to get you to agree with me:

Alisdair MacIntyre — After Virtue

Nietzsche — Beyond Good and Evil

Nietzsche — The Genealogy of Morals

Kant — Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals

Aristotle — Nicomachean Ethics

G.E. Moore — Principia Ethica

I've done my best to find the best editions of these books available (I myself usually default to the Cambridge editions of works in the history of philosophy). You may also want to check out some Peter Singer, along with Bentham and Mill, if only to know what it means to be a utilitarian. After that, read John Rawls, because he'll tell you one reason why utilitarianism is so controversial in ethical theory.

I hope to hear back from you about the results of your studies. I figure you can easily find pdfs of these books (though perhaps not the same editions I linked) somewhere online. Given about a month or two to read them all (I'm not sure how much free time you have... maybe more like three months) you should be up to speed. Hopefully I'll hear back from you after the new year. At that point, I don't expect you to agree with my view on ethics, but I at least expect you will understand it, and be able to argue your own position somewhat more effectively than you are at the moment. If nothing else, think of this as a way to learn how to "stick it" to people like me.

Maybe by then you'll have gotten beyond the whole "I'm taking my ball and going home" disposition you seem to have when confronted with someone who's better than you at debating ethics. I can only hope.

If you take ethics seriously at all, do this for yourself: study the shit out of ethical theory.

Alright I hope you get this. Sounds like you are a lot like I was growing up. I would read a book a week and listen to two. haha. these were books i had to grow into a lot of times. so don't get discouraged. some of these are tough but they'll help you in the long run. promise.

anyways.. here's my list.

Foreign Policy

-Dying to Win- Science and strategy behind suicide terrorism

-Imperial Hubris- good book by a CIA vet on what to expect because of US foreign policy

-Blowback- Same type of book as above, but better.

-The Looming Tower- a good history and account for Sept 11






Economics and Money

-Freakonomics- Ever wonder about he economics of drug dealing, including the surprisingly low earnings and abject working conditions of crack cocaine dealers? This book is fantastic.

-Outliers- Gladwell is a master of minute detail. This book helps you focus on the future.

-Blink-Great book on intuitive judgement

-The Age of Uncertainty- the best book I've ever read on the fight between Capitalism and Communism

Biology and Science

-Why Do Men Have Nipples- a general Q&A book. Good for info you can use at a party or to impress somebody. really random stuff.

-A Short History of Nearly Everything- Humorous take on some heavy heavy science. Easier to read than people think.

-The Ancestors Tale- It was hard picking just one Dawkins book, so I gave you two.

-The Greatest Show on Earth- Dawkins is the world-standard for books on biology and evolution in layman's terms.

Good Novels

-1984-Hopefully no explanation needed

-A Brave New World- a different type of dystopian universe compared to 1984. read both back to back.

-The Brothers Karamazov- My favorite piece of Russian Literature. It made me think more than any other book on this list honestly. I can't recommend it enough.

-Catch-22- There are so many layers to this book. So much symbolism, so much allusion. You must pay attention to get the full affect of this book. Great satire. Masterfully written.

-Alas Babylon- Yet another dystopian novel. This time about what would happen after a world wide nuclear war.

-Slaughterhouse-5 Vonnegut is a badass. And that's really all there is to know. I read this book in one day. It was that good. Satire on WW2.

Philosophy

-Sophies World- Good intro to a lot of basic principles of the major philosophers

-Beyond Good and Evil- Nietzche can get REALLY depressing because he is a nihilist but this book is extremely quotable and will give fresh perspective on a lot of things.

-Atlas Shrugged- Ayn Rand's masthead. Its a novel, but its also a commentary on her precious objectivism.


So there you have it. My short list of books to read. I can get deeper into certain subjects if you want me to. Just PM me.

I've been a big fan of Icon Books' "Introducing" series. They're sorta like intellectual comic books, but are able to give you a good precis of a given author or subject quite efficiently. I prefer them to Paul Strathern's 90 Minutes series because they go into better depth on the theoretical aspects of a thinker, whereas Strathern spends more time in biographical detail and only briefly dips into the theory. If you buy used, and look around for older editions you can usually find them going for about between a penny and a buck or less on Amazon, and with $3.99 shipping, it's a pretty cheap way to get a good start in a subject. The upside is their more recent books like the ones on Derrida and Zizek come with approval from the author they're covering. Derrida reportedly loved his, and Zizek was apparently quite excited about the medium and had many ideas for how to communicate with it.

Consciousness, Time, Ethics


But yeah, the best thing you can do for yourself though after or while sating your interests is to get a solid foundation in the Greeks, because EVERYBODY references them, everybody. They are great in and of themselves, but you will literally save yourself years of your own time that would have been spent trying to pin down this that or the other thing that so and so said if you don't have a solid basic understanding of the Greeks.

Personally I think a better questions is 'how should one read Jung?' I have a friend who studied psychology with a neuroscience concentration, and that area doesn't tend to take Jung or most psychoanalysts seriously, and while that's not my background, I can see why. I used to be someone who took those methods of self-description and analysis very seriously, but in addition to occasionally taking me some weird places, it's really not taken seriously by most professionals in the fields of, say, psychology.

That said, there are a couple reasons to still study psychoanalytics. One is if you're interested in things like art, film or literature, which were all hugely influenced by ideas about the subconscious. I read a lot of James Joyce and Marcel Proust, and those writers can't be fully understood without some decent understanding of the understandings of psychology that fed into those authors works (Joyce even had his daughter be analyzed by Jung). Artists like Picasso and Pollock were heavily inspired by psychoanalysis, and much can be said for numerous filmmakers, and even some interesting religious study has been done with their work (Joseph Campbell comes to mind here). So if you're interested in that angle, I'd say go for it, as they've got a lot of interesting insights into how art, literature and even religion work.

Another way you can read them is for personal growth, rather than as a transmission of analytic information (I'm not sure I'm phrasing that very well; apologies). I have a few authors that I love to read, but would hesitate to use them to back up some assertion made in an academic paper, unless it was for a very specific purpose, or maybe just finding some flowery quote that I put at the front of a chapter to be pretentious. Jung's been great for me to understand myself, but I would be wary of using him in some academic setting (outside of some where it makes specific sense). I read him like I do Joseph Campbell, Peter Sloterdijk and Allan Watts.

TLDR: Yes, but only sorta. Expect personal growth, but not rigorous psychology, and you should find a lot of value in his work. I'd also recommend Joseph Campbell, since he developed a lot of psychoanalytic stuff into some somewhat more accessible work, and even edited some of Jung's work into an anthology.

I have a copy of the cards; they're not super helpful and are pretty massively overpriced imo. The book doesn't handle player psychology in a very rigorous way (and there's only one chapter on it) but I'm probably a lot more picky about that than most people.

I haven't read it yet but Glued to Games looks pretty good coming from authors with a bit more experience in psychology. Their work is on the motivational aspect of game playing: why people play games and how some games satisfy their intrinsic needs better than others. The basic argument is that "fun" or "engagement" are outcomes of need satisfaction.

Other than that though I think there's not much work applying psychology to game design directly. A Theory of Fun is based on pop-psych and (in my opinion) a questionable understanding of cognitive science, but it's a fun read at least.

In terms of blogs this one is good:www.psychologyofgames.com although it's mostly focused on phenomena around games (sales, reception, player attitudes) rather than the act of playing itself. This blog reviews recent academic literature in psychology (and a few other fields) related to games.

If you're really interested you'd probably be best served picking up an introductory psych textbook (I like Gleitman's) and picking out the sections that are most relevant to what you're interested in. I could give you more specific topics or books to look into if you have a particular part of player psychology you're interested in.

Mythology is awesome - most box bookstores (like B&N) have at least a small mythology section where you can get your hands on original sources like The Prose Edda and such. Joseph Campbell is pretty popular and whoever owns the rights to his work keeps cranking out reprints of his lectures, so those are usually good too (sometimes they sound too "self-helpy" though). Anthropology (particularly folklore) dips into the same vein, so people like Ruth Benedict are good to read too. I'll mention a couple of things that might pique your interest as well, since you won't usually find them on reading lists.

• If you like the theme of universalism among myths and how those symbols reverberate in the human psyche, try Anthony Steven's Ariadne's Clue. Steven's draws from Jung to make an analysis of mythological symbols and tropes in those stories.
  
  
• Some scholars feel like myths embody a prehistoric awakening of sentience and intelligence - basically that these stories are early blueprints for what makes us human. If you're interested in that, try The Origins and History of Consciousness (Erich Neumann, the author, was also a Jungian and heavily relies on archtype theory in this book).
  
  
• For just a good read, try The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin.
  
  
• If you're curious about myth construction, try Roland Barthes Mythologies. It's actually pretty accessible compared to the stuffiness of other academics and philosophers, and focuses on modern myths.
  
  
• Oh yeah! If you like Grail lore (the holy grail and Arthurian studies, which is more about legends than myths I suppose), Jung's wife wrote a book about it. Which I still need to finish. (ugh)
  
  I love mythology so I'm always excited to hear people talking about it.

Hello! I majored in psychology in college (and loved it!), and here's what I've gleaned from my schooling as well as my own personal research:

• Cognitive science, more specifically cognitive psychology is a good field for understanding how that thing between your ears works. Pay special attention to the [Atkinson-Shiffrin model] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atkinson%E2%80%93Shiffrin_memory_model#Summary), but understand that it's not completely accurate. It is, however, a useful place to start when learning the basics.
  
  
• You may benefit from learning the tricks associated with mnemonics, which have a rich and fascinating history. I recommend "The Art of Memory" by Francis A. Yates.
  
  
• Just for fun, check out memory sports! If you like what you see, check out this awesome book, Moonwalking with Einstein, which covers Josh Foer's journey from being a complete novice to the realm of memory sports to a champion.
  
  I hope that this helped!

First off, read anything by Carl Jung. His theories on archetypes and the collective unconscious form the groundwork upon which not only games, but the entire modern entertainment industry are built.

Basically Jung argues that there is a collective set of symbols and ideas that all humans, regardless of culture or upbringing will respond to. Understanding these symbols, and building your game around them - either as mechanics or story - allows you to influence how the player will respond.

Jung: A Very Short Introduction is a pretty easy way to get started. After you read that I'd suggest getting into the meat of Jung's own words with The Portable Jung (coincidentally edited by Joseph Campbell)

And with that, you should also read The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. He takes Jung's ideas, and shows the specific symbols used in the Hero's Journey - one of the most common story types. People talk about the Hero's Journey all the time - but it's a really important concept to understand if you're doing any sort of creative works. Here are two quick video primers on it:

A more serious one: Ted Ed: What Makes a Hero

A more awesome one: Glove and Boots: The Hero's Journey :)

If you want to go further on the narrative route I'd also suggest The Seven Basic Plots by Christopher Booker. He takes the Hero's Journey and shows how it is just one of several different plot archetypes, all of which have their own internal path, rules, and idiosyncrasies.

Now, in case you're thinking "Why are you sharing these books about narrative with me? Games are not stories!" remember that people have been responding to stories for all time - and good storytellers are masters at making people feel the desired emotion at the desired time.

Therefore I'd also direct you to Story By Robert McGee as well as Poetics by Aristotle. Both of these books look at story in a mechanical sense, and explain the precise methods storytellers (both ancient Greek ones and modern Hollywood ones) use to evoke emotions in the audience. These principles almost directly translate to game design.

After that I'd suggest looking at Chris Crawford's list of books all game designers should read. Unfortunately I can't find a copy of the list on the internet, but it's at the end of his book Chris Crawford on Game Design

Well done on getting your diagnosis, I hope it's at least some weight off your mind to know that some of your 'odd' perceptions/experiences are 'only to be expected' (if you see what I mean). I felt relieved when I got my AS diagnosis at 29 since I too was really struggling with anxiety/depression, and I found out how 'normal' it was for undiagnosed Aspies to feel the same.

1. With your first question I can only say "Stay relaxed. There is a 'right person' for you out there somewhere." I was in an on-again off again relationship for six years, and I found that one by getting chatting to a girl in a pub one day. If you're on dating sites and/or go to pubs/bars/coffee shops, then you're half of the way there already. It's a huge cliché but you can cut out a lot of pain/effort/anxiety by not pretending to be someone else in order to get a GF. "Be yourself", and talk to people you like. Oh, and if you're worried about people taking certain things the wrong way, try your best to communicate with them as much as possible. Explain that 'I really like you, and don't want you to feel [X, Y, or Z], so please can you let me know if you ever feel worried about this.'
   
   
2. (I posted this the other day):
   I'm happy I got an Aspergers diagnosis because (amongst other things) I was able to identify causal links between particular situations and personal responses/outcomes that had not occurred to me previously (e.g. - social events make me really tired really quickly, and interpersonal communication problems were causing me to drink more than I should).
   It also (crucially) gave me a 'solid reason' why I want to be on my own a lot of the time. This stuff was making me feel really guilty, because I was concerned that others would think I hated them. I was beating myself up, depressed and anxious. Since I got the diagnosis I can say "I'm sorry, I just need to take some time out here", or "I'm sorry, I'm going to take a rain check on that, but I'll message you later".
   TL;DR: It makes me feel less guilty to know there is a structural difference in my brain that makes me think/feel/need certain things.
   I would recommend starting out by reading Steve Silbermann's book 'Neurotribes'. If you're female, there are books like 'Aspergirls' by Rudy Simone which may be of particular interest. I'm a big fan of Prof Tony Attwood; he's got a huge book out called 'The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome', which is a great reference guide. I'd also recommend checking out some of his talks on YouTube, especially 'Could it be Aspergers?'.
   
   
   
3. Other than using online forums, I'd recommend having a look for local meets/support groups in your area. I can't be sure about the U.S./rest of the World, but here in the UK there are council initiatives/free workshops/discount services run in most places for people on the spectrum. Either pop into your local Citizen's Advice Bureau or check online on your council's website.
   
   If you want me to expand on any of this info, please let me know and I'll see what I can do. Good luck with everything; it sounds like we're in a very similar situation :)
   
   EDIT: I wrote some general stuff about coping with anxiety in this thread over on r/anxiety.
   
   
   

two years ago things had built up to a point where i felt completely lost. i had gone to therapy before, when things where less dramatic, but had no idea what i was looking for and felt underwhelmed by the results, to say the least. the thought of going through various therapists to find something that would work, seemed ridiculous to me, even more since i had no idea what was going on in my head. i just knew there was a whole box of issues, but didn't know where to start.


i did a lot of research on how to affect my mood and mental calmness and changed a lot of habits. meditation, exercise, outdoor activities, healthy food, active social life (the hardest part) and tons of reading on mental health (shows you're not alone), philosophy (shows people have battled these issues since, like, forever) and whatever interests there may be (shows the world doesn't revolve around you and your shit) all played their part.

at the same time, a friend offhandedly mentioned ayahuasca and i extended my research to the vast field of psychedelic "therapies", a topic i had incidentally been interested in since i was a kid, even with no real exposure up to this point. as a decidedly non-esoteric person i was put off by a lot of the lingo and out there-themes being discussed, but i also found a lot of medical, historical and scientific material on the use of psychedelics. i ended up going to peru and did four sessions with ayahuasca in a center dedicated to "healing". i won't bore you with another tale of "amazing" tripping and puking in the jungle, so to cut a long story short, it helped me a lot and in unexpected ways. biggest thing was probably that i came back to several weeks of positive mental clarity, which helped me find the kind of therapist that would get me ahead.




the most important thing when attempting to go down this road is to do your research. it's still almost impossible to legally use any psychedelics (i'm including mdma here) in an officially controlled setting, so extra care has to be taken to insure the right environment and quality.

i discussed the experience with my therapist and while she readily took it into account as something that had opened some doors for me, i was surprised to learn, that her knowledge of psychedelics seemed stuck in the 1950's. this isn't like homeopathy or some other old remedy that is based on esotericism, superstition or lack of knowledge. there is a huge body of serious scientific work on the topic and in growing numbers.


reading recommendation:

http://www.amazon.de/The-Psychedelic-Renaissance-Reassessing-Psychiatry/dp/1908995009

You might try

• Joseph Campbell's Power of Myth
  
• Joseph Campbell's Hero With a Thousand Faces
  
• this Carl Jung Reader is pretty good
  
  Technically these deal with mythology, but they're sufficiently enlightening on the meaning of myth symbolic myth content to serve you for literature.
  
  One other thing worth reading: the Bible. Particularly a literary Bible like this or this.
  
  Much of the symbolism in literature hearkens back to religion or mythology (which is just old religion). So it's never a bad idea to study the most read religions in their own right. Snake, Apple, Water, Flood, Rain, Fire, Smoke. These are all fairly omnipresent symbols with a wealth of genesis in books like the Bible.

I'm partial to Jungian psychology so I recommend anything dream-related by him or those he worked close with, namely Marie Louis Von Franz (IMO). A simple—and I mean simple—and good intro would be the book 'Inner Work' by Robert Johnson. It addresses a four-step approach to dream interpretation and active imagination. After that, I'd just read as much of Jung's writings about dreams as you can. Start with Dreams (from the Collected Works). Since Jung's psychology is so much about the unconscious, virtually everything you read will be relatable to dream interpretation in some way. There is a nice compendium edited by Joseph Campbell called The Portable Jung that features a great and mind-blowing essay called something like 'Relation Between the Ego and Unconscious,' and actually, now that I think of it, excerpts from the 'Dreams' book as well. 'Man and His Symbols' by Jung was the last thing he wrote and was intended to introduce the general public to his psychology, so you can also start there if you haven't checked out any Jung before. Get the one with pictures.

The first definitive book on the matter: Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation

Another book I love is The Witch in the Waiting Room: A Physician Investigates Paranormal Phenomena in Medicine

They are both written by doctors with a skeptical but open-minded view of the unexplained. The first I haven't read (just summaries and through reputation) but it is referenced by the second. The second has a bibliography which is great. The second is great and covers a whole bunch of things. Also if anyone can recommend similar books (or books the scientifically refute these experiences) to me I would appreciate it.

The Story of Psychology by Morton Hunt perfectly covers history of psychology from Ancient Greeks to German Psychophysicists to Behaviorism to Cognitive Psychology. It's some 600 pages, but very entertaining, easy to read and accurate at the same time.
The Other Side of Psychology by Denise Cummins gives a nice overview of cognitive psychology - memory, learning, emotion etc., plus famous experiments such as those of Milgram. Very interesting read.

I would definitely not start with Lacan if you’re a complete beginner. I would start with later Freud, work my way back to earlier Freud - so that you can see how his thinking changed -, definitely take a dip in the cool waters of object relations, definitely read up on the British Independent Group, and then start with Lacan. When starting Lacan, I’d strongly recommend this book , and then Écrits.

Be warned though. Lacan is not a simple read. Almost all of his publications were transcribed versions of his lectures, and translations from French. French has a vastly different structure from English, and Lacan spoke academic, psychoanalytic French.

I don’t say this to discourage you. Lacan is one of the single most interesting authors I’ve ever read. He’s why I want to become a psychoanalyst. But with that said, he is very challenging, and going in without preparation significantly undercuts your understanding and enjoyment of what you’re reading.

A conservative/reactionary reading list:

Jean Bodin - Six Books of the Commonwealth (1576)

Robert Filmer - Patriarcha, or The Natural Power of Kings (1680)

Edmund Burke - Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Joseph de Maistre - Considerations on France (1797) and Essay on the Generative Principle of Political Constitutions and other Human Institutions (1809)

Thomas Carlyle - The French Revolution: A History (1837) and On Heroes and Hero Worship and the Heroic in History (1841)

Friedrich Nietzsche - Beyond Good and Evil (1886) and Genealogy of Morals (1887)

Oswald Spengler - Decline of the West (1918)

Ernst Jünger - Storm of Steel (1920)

Jose Ortega y Gassett - Revolt of the Masses (1929)

Julius Evola - Revolt Against the Modern World (1934) and Men Among the Ruins (1953)

Bertrand de Jouvenal - On Power: The Natural History of Its Growth (1949)

Leo Strauss - Natural Right and History (1953)

Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn - The Menace of the Herd (1943) and Liberty or Equality (1952)

I'd go with this lil book, it'll give you an idea of the man and the basics of his ideas http://www.amazon.com/C-G-Jung-Speaking-C-G/dp/0691018715

His work can get pretty fucking dense but never fear, a man named Edward Edinger or a woman named Marie Louise Von Franz did immense work communicating the ideas in more understandable ways.

Also there's this one, it was the one book he approved for the layperson - http://www.amazon.com/Man-Symbols-Carl-Gustav-Jung/dp/0440351839/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404996952&sr=1-1&keywords=man+and+his+symbols

but if you do find that his ideas are worth further reading there's a great compilation http://www.amazon.com/Portable-Jung-Library/dp/0140150706/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404997014&sr=1-1&keywords=the+portable+jung

If you're just getting started researching Church History, I'm sure you've stumbled across the CES Letter. It didn't have enough footnotes for me, so I started my own essay as I was doing my research. Lots of references. Thought it might be helpful.

On another note, I just finished the book, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, by Julian Jaynes. In it he makes the case that as recently as 4,000 years ago, humans had a bicameral mind ("two-chambered") where "cognitive functions were divided between one part of the brain which appears to be 'speaking', and a second part which listens and obeys," a mind, in short, which would exhibit an internal life much like what a modern day schizophrenic might experience. Although we might say the ancients were hallucinating, when ancient Greeks, Egyptians, and Hebrews said that a particular diety spoke to them, they meant it literally.

A "god" was simply that voice in your head compelling you to act a certain way. Maybe that voice sounded like your tribal elder, or if you were the tribal elder, your father. Ancients assumed people kept on living after death because the voices in their head kept speaking even after the bodies they were originally attached to stopped moving. Idols, iconography, etc., were basically hallucination inducing artifacts. To them, the idols did speak. According to his theory, all of this occurred prior to humans being conscious, in much the same way that a dog will respond to commands, ants and bees will organize, but none of them are "aware" per se.

Jaynes posits that Bicameralism developed as language developed (language being an efficient way to transmit complex instructions from one side of the brain to the other) and as groups of humans (tribes, cities, civilizations) became more complex and clashed as cultures, the rigid nature of command-by-hallucination broke down.

He claims that consciousness is a byproduct of this collapse in the two-chambered mind; a function of the intersection of language, culture, and the neuroplasticity of the brain. If you've seen the movie Arrival, the underlying theme is based on the idea of linguistic relativity, which "holds that the structure of a language affects its speakers' world view or cognition." Kind of like Orwell's essay, The Principles of Newspeak, at the end of his book "1984,".

This all fits in the current discussion because if his hypothesis is true, there is still part of our brain that wants to be told what to do, to compulsively obey, to accept the existence of gods. We seek the certainty of religion, government, and (sadly) the daily grind at work. Although consciousness, the ability to break free of these voices in our heads, is thousands of years old, that is a flash in the pan speaking in evolutionary terms. We are still new at this, still growing out of old ways of thinking.

Taking a cue from where Jaynes left off, his analysis implies that as our culture and language evolve, so will our consciousness, our ability to perceive and understand our reality (whatever that means).

As far as Church History not being as bad as it seems, I guess it depends on what you expect. If you are expecting fear mongering, war mongering, misogyny, fraud, oppression, repression, manipulation, theft, attempted murder, and censorship, then yeah, it's probably better than you expected. Or at least not worse.

TL;DR Our brain is wired to accept authority and the existence of a "god." A lot of cultural puzzle pieces (religion, politics, business) fit in that spot. Good news is, we're growing out of it.

Edit: the part about where religion came from.

The Story of Psychology is, in my amateur opinion, the best history of Academic, Western, Empirical Psychology that I have come across. I would encourage you to read the source material of the great clinicians and theoreticians, because for whatever reason, it isn't mandated in schools. Read Freud, and Adler, and Jung, and Rogers, and Maslow, and Piaget, and Fromm. Don't worry if it is incomprehensible at first, you will learn the language as you go.

Here is where my opinion deviates from the normative: if you really want to understand psychology, study preliterate cultures, mysticism, religious scripture and psychedelic experiences. These cultures, to whatever extent, never lost contact with the unconscious and needed to "discover" it, as with our Western cultures.

About the two lives with the shared personality traits, yes. There were some written notes somewhere about the two women. Call it a "family history", if you will.

About the third life, with the physical resemblance: no. I recalled only a small fragment of that life, and didn't have enough info to go looking for an evidence.

If you want to learn about cases with compelling evidence, do check out this book:

Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation - The author is Dr. Stevenson, a professor in the University of Virginia School of Medicine. As you would expect, he is trained in the scientific method. Apparently, he performed a very methodical research on the subject, and compiled a list of 20 cases which, to him, strongly suggest reincarnation as the best explanation for what he observed.

If you are interested in exploring your own past lives, find out a reputed past-life regression professional, preferably one who was trained as a psychologist / psychiatrist (and therefore has a rational, scientific background).

Edit: Changed "our own past lives" to "your own past lives".

I just picked up this book, The Story of Psychology, by Morton Hunt and this was, appropriately, the first bit of information in the prologue. Luckily, Wikipedia had an article on the subject that described the event relatively well.

> The Greek historian Herodotus conveyed an anecdote about Psamtik in the second volume of his Histories. During his travel to Egypt, Herodotus heard that Psammetichus ("Psamṯik") sought to discover the origin of language by conducting an experiment with two children. Allegedly he gave two newborn babies to a shepherd, with the instructions that no one should speak to them, but that the shepherd should feed and care for them while listening to determine their first words. The hypothesis was that the first word would be uttered in the root language of all people. When one of the children cried "βεκὸς" (bekòs) with outstretched arms, the shepherd concluded that the word was Phrygian because that was the sound of the Phrygian word for "bread." [OP's source: "Psamtik made inquiries and learned that becos was the Phrygian word for bread."] Thus, they concluded that the Phrygians were an older people than the Egyptians, and that Phrygian was the original language of men. [OP's source: "He concluded that, disappointingly, the Phrygian's were an older race than the Egyptians." I think this is an important inclusion, as Psamtik was not open to the idea that innate language did not exist, but rather, those who spoke the innate language first must have led to the first establishment of race. This must have been very disappointing to find out that his experiment disproved the commonly held belief that "they were the most ancient race on earth." This now discredited assumption must have had interesting sociological implications

Edit: Added Amazon link and Jesus, don't buy this book at Books-A-Million unless that's the kind of book store you want to support. Its half as expensive on Amazon. God damn I could've gotten the used hardcover for $.10... I'm only in the prologue since I took time to post this, but I can assure you, its certainly worth 10¢.

I was told that the link had been submitted, but I searched "Psamtik" and nothing but my post came up so I left it.

I don't think you realize how big a question you are asking. It's not only incredibly difficult to answer, but fiercely political.

Ideas about what has been the important new results and methods of the last few decades and what will in time prove to be dead-end fads or flat out mistakes obviously informs what research to pursue further. Different research groups champion different programs, justified by different answers to your question and crucially, they compete for funding.

Don't expect an unbiased, cold-blooded rational answer from anyone.

That said, the last chapter of A History of the Brain: From Stone Age surgery to modern neuroscience surveys the last 5 decades. You'll probably enjoy the rest of the book too.

yes, kind of correct, but at some stage of evolution the bicameral mind will come into play. Animals haven't reached the same stage of Consciousness as humans, so they don't have religion forming as a result.

If you're interested I highly recommend reading The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind.

but be warned it's a big, heavy book, but well worth the read.

We know that Arnold attempted to simulate the bicameral mind. The canonical reference for that theory is "The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind". This theory in a nutshell suggests that in prehistory humans were literally "of two minds", with one hemisphere being creative and intuitive but unable to speak or control the body, and the other hemisphere in control of the body and communication but limited in what it would do without direction from the other hemisphere via auditory and visual hallucinations. Dolores is having both.

We have now seen the ruins below the operational center of the park twice; once the extended scene where Bernard descends into the "cold storage" area and is given the nonsense story about malfunctioning air conditioning (by the way, those ruins are an abandoned arrival hall), and the second when Ford is having another discussion with Bill (and water is running/dripping on the autopsy table continuously during that conversation - air conditioning still not fixed?) The park is filled with amazing technology and every room we see is clinically clean, yet they have allowed some huge portion of their facility to become a waterlogged bog that stinks?

We know the hosts have been upgraded at some point from clockwork robots to biomorphic chassis (and apparently functionally organic enough to get MSRA infections when not properly sanitized after being shot), which are capable of having their "blood" transfused. And according to the MiB this was not done to make the experience "better" for the guests. It was done to "save money". This sounds like a retcon to me, something patched into the human minds to explain any discrepancies they may encounter between "old" first generation robots and "new" second generation androids.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure that there's a big twist coming next week. They've gone about as far as they can go without revealing a secret or two now; the pump is fully primed to start letting us see behind the curtain.

uptoke for the prophet - that book was very inspiring for me. if you're down for some more "standard" (i.e. not poetry) hippie/beat/whatever-era lit/philosophy, look into alan watts. I've only read The Wisdom of Insecurity , but he's written a bunch of other stuff.

Oh, and happy rolling :)

While my Spirit Twin is Pinkie Pie for her unwielding goofiness and friendship-magic, I think my favorite fictional character is Kenneth from 30 Rock. He somehow sneaks in some incredibly dark comedy in between his "aw shucks" moments on the show. Plus, despite how small it seems, he's pretty much living his dream life.

I'd like a used copy of [The Portable Jung] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0140150706/ref=wl_it_of_o_pC_S_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=36FKHTABECFGT&coliid=IOXMVP4MRSFBE&condition=all), which has a handful of under a buck copies, from my Books WL. Or any of the used books on that list that fits the price criteria.

Sure. Without anything to go on, I'll just recommend some of my favorites. :)

• Godel Escher Bach - Mindbending book that delves into connections between art, music, math, linguistics and even spirituality.
  
• Code - The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software - Ever wondered how the black box you're using to read this comment works? "Code" goes from transistor to a fully functioning computer in a sequential way that even a child could grasp. It's not at the "How to build your own computer from Newegg.com parts". It's more at the "How to build your own computer if you were trapped on a desert island" level, which is more theoretical and interesting. You get strong intuition for what's actually happening.
  
• The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind - An intriguing looking into the theory that men of past ages actually hallucinated the voices of their gods, and how that led to the development of modern civilization and consciousness.

PBS did an amazing biography on one of the last transorbital lobotomies, by Freeman himself. The patient is Howard Dully, and the This American Life episode is available on Youtube, as well as their site (I think). It was turned into a great book called My Lobotomy.

This site is hands down my favorite. I have so many great books to recommend, but if you want it right now, that's where to go.

Edit: But seriously, you should go read a book. The Lobotomist is fantastic. If you want to read about a procedure that actually developed in the way lobotomy supposedly did, checkout Madhouse: A Tragic Tale of Megalomania and Modern Medicine. It really did work like that, just not for lobotomies.

These are some of my favourites:

1. The Psychedelic Renaissance (talks about different psychoactive drugs) http://www.amazon.com/The-Psychedelic-Renaissance-Reassessing-Psychiatry/dp/1908995009
   
2. Be Here Now (hippie, buddhist/hinduism peace and love vibes with wonderful illustrations) http://www.amazon.com/Be-Here-Now-Ram-Dass/dp/0517543052/ref=sr_1_1_ha?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411704494&sr=1-1&keywords=be+here+now
   
3. Why Does The World Exist? (more scientific and metaphysical) http://www.amazon.com/Why-Does-World-Exist-Existential/dp/0871403595/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411704588&sr=1-1&keywords=why+does+the+world+exist
   
   That's apart from Timothy Leary's "The Psychedelic Experience" and Huxley's "Doors of Perception" thought, those are must-reads.

I've actually done a fair bit of research into this subject. If you want to read more about it, check out The Art of Memory, Yates 2001

1q2w3e94 has explained the process of constructing a memory house pretty well. In a world before printed words (forget the internet), people really needed to remember everything they knew. It really wasn't feasible to just look stuff up all the time.

The art of memory was largely used in the realm of public speaking, as a way for you to memorize long speeches with a series of bullet points or key ideas to keep you on track as you recited. 1q2w3e94's example might be useful if you needed to make a big speech on the attractions that should be included in this year's Spring Carnival or something.

If you'd like to read up on the use of psychedelics for creative and technical problem solving, check out:

• AMAZON: LSD, the problem-solving psychedelic
  
  
• Great study that needs to be redone involving professionals within hard-science fields: "Psychedelic agents in creative problem-solving: A pilot study" doi:10.2466/pr0.1966.19.1.211
  
  
• Also check out this textbook published by a pioneer in drug-assisted psychotherapy: AMAZON: The Psychedelic Renaissance

You're right on. I'm starting by talking about memory palaces (also called "the method of the loci"), which are apparently first referenced in Rhetorica Ad Herenium a book attributed to Cicero. If you're interested in the Medieval revival of the memory palace arts, check out Frances Yates, especially her book The Art of Memory.

Matteo Ricci used the method of the loci to help Chinese students study for their imperial examinations. If you're interested in learning more about him, read Jonathan Spence's The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci. Also, for something more contemporary, Jonathan Foer's book Moonwalking with Einstein discusses how memory palace techniques are still used to win memory competitions.

This is just some of my collection, any one of which would get you started, but I'd start with Dr Stevenson's stuff first:

Dr Ian Stevenson

https://www.near-death.com/reincarnation/research/ian-stevenson.html

https://www.amazon.com/Twenty-Cases-Suggestive-Reincarnation-Enlarged/dp/0813908728/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Twenty+Cases+Suggestive+of+Reincarnation&qid=1563082984&s=books&sr=1-1

https://www.amazon.com/Where-Reincarnation-Biology-Intersect-Stevenson/dp/0275951898/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Where+Reincarnation+and+Biology+Intersect&qid=1563083023&s=books&sr=1-1

Dr Loell Whitton

https://www.amazon.com/Life-Between-Joel-Whitten/dp/0446347620

Neville Randall

https://www.amazon.com/Life-After-Death-Neville-Randall/dp/0552114871/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=life+after+death+Neville+randall&qid=1563083067&s=books&sr=1-1

Dr Raymond Moody

https://www.amazon.com/Life-After-Bestselling-Investigation-Experiences/dp/006242890X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=raymond+A+Moody&qid=1563083118&s=books&sr=1-1

Helen Wambach

https://www.amazon.com/Life-Before-Helen-Wambach/dp/0553254944/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=life+before+life+helen+wambach&qid=1563083173&s=books&sr=1-1

Dr Edith Fiore

https://www.amazon.com/You-have-been-here-before/dp/0698108833/ref=sr_1_7?keywords=Dr+edith+fiore&qid=1563083204&s=books&sr=1-7

Plus I'd check out this four part Documentary

Special Thanks to u/malibunyc for finding a low res 640x360 version of the show on YouTube, here are the links:

ep 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9bcNeLJTv8

ep 2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycwZTYHqqoM

ep 3 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkcljsaaFXs

ep 4 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5URv5xxSFpo

Hope these help. I am looking into the possibility of uploading my personal HD copies of it somewhere but DRM is a bug bear.

Try "The Psychology Book: big ideas simply explained" I got it as a gift a while back and it's pretty awesome. It's actually simplified and not dumbed down and it's really colorful so maybe it'll keep his attention.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0756689708/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1450027180&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX118_SY170_QL70&keywords=the+psychology+book

Got this for my dad for the same reason. It's a great book and I like to joke that reading it is more or less like getting a bachelor's in psych

>Where do you recommend to study symbols??

It depends on what symbols you seek clarity and understanding of? Symbols are replete in myths and fairytales, in the occult, religion and art, mysticism and metaphysics. Immersing yourself in material from those regions will give you access to a comprehensive collection of symbols and symbolic content.

This relates to what Jung called amplification, though in his case that was employed in a therapeutic context.

There's an essay on the Purpose of Amplification here,

an archive of symbols here,

and their publication in a book here. Perhaps the archive and book in particular could prove useful for your needs?

Alternatively there's Anthony Steven's book Ariadne's Clue: A Guide to the Symbols of Humankind?

I have a 3 year old son who was recently diagnosed. Uniquely Human sounds like a great read. I just finished Neurotribes by Steve Silberman and it was a game changer for me. I highly recommend it!

Second this. His influence on my life and reality is beyond explanation. The Book was my first read, but my favorite is The Wisdom of Insecurity.

It hasn't exactly changed my life, but The Wisdom of Insecurity messes with you in a good way.

With Jung you have his collected works, but this is like taking acid when you haven't even tried weed so its best to start with another persons perspective and work your way in: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0192854585/ref=cm_sw_r_fm_apa_9UjhAbJA5Q2C3

It also helps to look into the context of his life, he was alive during both world wars and a friend (sort of) of Freud. He was really on board with the East-West exchange of philosophy much like Aldous Huxley and the rock artists of the 70s. I think he is the epitome of what hippies would call "far out, dude".

This one. It's not super in-depth or exhaustive but it's a nice "intro" to the philosophy of consciousness. I'm enjoying it.

This might not be exactly what you're looking for, but if you're new to the world of Asperger's it might be helpful: Neurotribes by Steve Silberman. There's a lot about the history of autism and character sketches of autistic people. It's a good read.

the portable jung has a section on the shadow and many other bits that JP speaks about like 'the relations between the ego and unconscious' ...tis a good starting point that covers alot.
https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Jung-Library/dp/0140150706

I recommend The Portable Jung. It's on my bookshelf, and it's your best bet.

Perhaps books like The Art of Memory, The Logic Of Failure, Prometheus Rising, Finite and Infinite Games could offer some new perspectives.

Edward De Bono's work on lateral thinking might also be of interest.

You might be interested in some of oliver sack's various books, such as this. Regarding the schizophrenia, you might enjoy this in case you haven't read it or read about his theory.

You would find this book very interesting:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009MBTRHA/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Julian Jayes hypothesizes that our minds, at one point in human development, were bicameral- two independent halves. He states that the right hemisphere would give orders to the left through hallucinations or commands. It's some seriously fascinating stuff.

I am not familiar with "The Story of Philosophy" so I am not sure what is most similar, but my undergraduate history of psych textbook was "A Brief History of Modern Psychology" by Ludy T. Benjamin Jr. (lastest edition here-- https://www.amazon.com/Brief-History-Modern-Psychology/dp/1118206770/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=a+brief+history+of+psychology&qid=1556658138&s=gateway&sr=8-2 ) and my graduate level history of psych textbook was "A History of Modern Psychology in Context" by Wade Pickren and Alexandra Rutherford (here-- https://www.amazon.com/History-Modern-Psychology-Context/dp/0470276096/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=pickren+psychology&qid=1556658105&s=gateway&sr=8-3 ; FWIW you may be able to track down a free pdf.) The former is very much a broad overview and the latter is much more in depth.

Still looking for recommendations, but since posting, I've pulled together a list of books that seemed interesting. Wondering if anyone has any opinions?

MBTI Manual

Jung: A Very Short Introduction

Psychological Types

The Archetypes and The Collective Unconscious

Jung's Map of the Soul: An Introduction

If you're getting into reincarnation you need to check out Ian Stevenson from the University of Virginia. Started studying it in 1967.

Here's his book
Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation: Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged https://www.amazon.com/dp/0813908728/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_tOJNzb72SRGD6

Top15s could do the best 15 cases. Mind blowing stuff.

The Portable Jung, edited by Joseph Campbell is a great start. https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Jung-Library/dp/0140150706/ref=pd_sbs_14_4/138-0390382-5034008?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0140150706&pd_rd_r=22352824-6871-4d67-9ff9-b86df902f665&pd_rd_w=qcbN7&pd_rd_wg=3sR8D&pf_rd_p=43281256-7633-49c8-b909-7ffd7d8cb21e&pf_rd_r=M0SP543AFA7CVB5CA533&psc=1&refRID=M0SP543AFA7CVB5CA533

----

 

 

 




If you /u/blueishwings or /u/bulbabutt find this stuff interesting, understand that Joseph Campbell the author of the hero with a thousand faces is a scholar that studied comparative religions, comparative stories, and comparative mythologies / aesop fables, etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hero_with_a_Thousand_Faces

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell

Joseph Campbell is also one of the big editors / summaries of Carl Jung (MBTI is not Carl Jung, but MBTI is based off Carl Jung's theories) in fact one of the most famous Carl Jung works is the essays that Joseph Campbell assembled various Jung essays and put them into one work known as The Portable Jung

https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Jung-Library/dp/0140150706

According to George Lucas the most influential work on Star Wars was The Hero with A Thousand Faces. If you look at the ROTJ Emperor and Vader vs Luke scene that is a perfect example of the transcendent hero that has mastered all aspects of the psyche ("You failed your highness, I am a Jedi like my father before me.")

The Joseph Campbell stuff was so influential on Lucas he allowed PBS during their making of a documentary series explaining Joseph Campbell work known as The Power of Myth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Myth Which is 6 interviews between Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers. Bill Moyers actually died after the interviews were filmed but prior to the documentary being aired on PBS. Note in the various vhs and dvd releases the interviews with George Lucas with Bill Moyer and Leonard Maltin were trying to re-emulate the power of myth interviews with Joseph Campbell. ^(Bah I am getting side track) George Lucas is an extreme recluse (almost to the point of being a shutin), but during the filming of the Power of Myth he allows Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers to do some of the filming at Starwalker Ranch in the 1980s.

I am a child who got the 1995 VHS trilogy box set of Star Wars before understanding what star wars was. I was 9 at the time. So I remember the movies but I also remember the Leonard Maltin interviews which I watched several times, even though most of the times I watched the movies at the age of 9 I fast forward through the interviews with Leonard Maltin and George Lucas.

 

 

 

Oh one of my favorite Gilmore Girl References, note there were multiple Power of Myth references in the Spring Break episode.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/34/f2/d2/34f2d221d94d7902d4bb22f29bc6c4f6.jpg

http://foreveryoungadult.com/2013/11/13/the-gilmore-girls-rewatch-project-29/

Neurotribes by Steve Silberman. The author goes through the history of autism and discusses not only how history impacted autism research but also talks about the controversial idea of neurodiversity and the idea that maybe autism is less of a 'thing to be fixed' but maybe more of a different way of thinking and analyzing the world. Fascinating read.

https://www.amazon.com/NeuroTribes-Legacy-Autism-Future-Neurodiversity-ebook/dp/B00L9AY254

I've been working my way through the works of Frances Yates recently, since I'm especially interested in her unique approach towards the occult traditions and their effect on prominent Renaissance figures and their ideas.

I'm currently reading The Art of Memory and one of the main themes that accompany the book is the notion of a forgotten body of knowledge/ability that was lost to humanity throughout the ages.

Do any of you have any similar examples of some kind of knowledge or ability humanity has lost from the past?, or maybe some of you have any thoughts on her works in general and can direct me to current researchers that expand her work in some way.

I encourage you to start out with “The Portable Jung”, which is edited by Joseph Campbell.

The Portable Jung (Portable Library) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140150706/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_aPU4CbVD7J8S3

I read "Jung: A Very Short Introduction" which was quite good.

https://www.amazon.com/Jung-Short-Introduction-Anthony-Stevens/dp/0192854585

Beyond Good and Evil

She just looked at me, they chattered and then left.

This book gives a good historical and theoretical overview of Psychology (all its various subfields) both within North America and the rest of the world.

I would suggest this as a good intro.

Check out Alan Watts' "The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety". He explores some aspects of eastern philosophy and psychology in a very straightforward, non-preachy manner, addressing the anxiety we experience lamenting the past and planning for the future, making it hard to find pleasure in the present . It's a quick read and you'll know as soon as you pick it up if it's something that might help.

I'm assuming that you have the revised version of Psychological Types from the Collected Works of C.G. Jung (Volume 6). Myers' quotes in Gifts Differing are from the original English translated publication in 1923.

Here are the CW6 version's page and paragraph numbers: Pg 340, Par 575 & Pg Pg 387, Par 637.

The Anthony Stevens diagram can be found in:

http://www.amazon.com/Jung-Short-Introduction-Anthony-Stevens/dp/0192854585/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1457802826&sr=8-1

or

http://www.amazon.com/Jung-Anthony-Stevens/dp/069101048X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1457802890&sr=8-1

To see the excerpt from the latter, go here:

http://personalitycafe.com/cognitive-functions/431786-jungian-analysts-take-jungs-functions.html

(if you don't have an account, the pic in that forum post is the same in my reddit post above.)

Jung's diagram was taken from:

http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Jungian-Psychology-Analytical-Bollingen/dp/0691152055/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1457803325&sr=8-1

Pg 137

I can't say exactly what's going, but I can offer some recommended reading. If that or the advice of other redditors doesn't help, don't be afraid to try and get professional help.

Just want to make sure, this is it right?

He's known for things like this.

Relevant reading material: The Wisdom of Insecurity by Alan Watts

I'm partial to the Very Short Introduction series that Oxford publishes, including this one on Jung.

http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Gödel,_Escher,_Bach - experimentations on meaning, consciousness and thought

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009MBTRHA/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 - the theory (since debunked) that our ancestors were hallucinating actual gods telling them to do everything

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/zen-art-motorcycle-maintenance/id360625670?mt=11 - About a man on a motorcycle going cross country with his son...he's a philosophy professor though, so it's about so much more.

Here is the mobile version of your link

This is a very quick and super-understandable (1-2 sittings) overview of current thought on consciousness.

http://www.amazon.com/Introducing-Consciousness-Graphic-David-Papineau/dp/1848311710?ie=UTF8&qid=&ref_=tmm_pap_title_0&sr=

Here you go: Neurotribes by Steve Silberman https://www.amazon.com/NeuroTribes-Legacy-Autism-Future-Neurodiversity-ebook/dp/B00L9AY254

I haven't read it but Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation is supposed to be a go-to resource.

Julian Jaynes - The origin of Consciousness in the breakdown of the bicameral mind.

Impossible to ignore

Free Play

On Repeat

Improv Wisdom

Just read this book, you'll know a lot more than from any Google search

https://www.amazon.com/NeuroTribes-Legacy-Autism-Future-Neurodiversity-ebook/dp/B00L9AY254

There isn't incontrovertible proof and probably never will be, but there is some good evidence presented by Ian Stevenson (a professor from the university of Virginia) and his team of researchers. They found a lot of cases of children who seem to remember details of a previous life. Details they couldn't have known from experiences involving their five senses.

If the Hannah Monsour/Suzanne Ghanem case is to be believed, that's as close as we'll get to proof, but there are lots more cases. One case allegedly led to a murderer being exposed ad confessing his crime.

Ian Stevenson wrote a few books (UK Amazon link - US link here) you might be interested in if you want more info. He has videos on YouTube as well.

Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0521779138/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_Q1SaBbYVM9MCT