Browse Sections

Male And Female

When I fell in love a few years ago a disastrous event, since the man did not return the feelings — I searched for psychological theories of love which might help me understand my predicament. It was then that I discovered C. G. Jung’s theories on the animus (the man in every woman) and anima (the woman in every man). To this day I feel that this interpretation is a rather sexist one — why are strength, assertiveness, and rationality considered “male” qualities even when found in women? Nevertheless, Jung’s theories did offer an explanation of why we fall in love “at first sight”. Because we are essentially forbidden to express characteristics of the “opposite sex” (assuming you accept such sexist definitions of masculinity and femininity) we segregate these qualities from the rest of our soul and project them on the first pretty (or handsome) face we see. We then embark on a desperate struggle to possess the loved one, and is this not understandable? For it is a part of our own soul, without which we cannot live, that we see in the desired person.

Money

The Reality And The Ideal

Counting houses, losing a dime, joining a commune

Dreams

A horse falling from the night sky, a tree spirit, a little girl in a blue dress

Pain

Abortion, cancer, depression

Tabula Rasa

You get to have a feeling about a place as you’ve been there for a while. Like whether to lock your car doors or not, or leave the windows up or down, or your purse on the seat or not; or what to wear when you pop out to the 7-11 , shoes, shirt, tie? But this feeling, rather than an abstract attunement with the night sounds, the temperature of the air, or the personality of the people, is a probabilistic estimation of losses and gains. That is, you don’t want to be ripped off your only night in town, for example, but after you’ve been there for a while, one out of 5, say, or 9, or 59, isn’t so bad that you won’t risk it, locking the car being a hassle, especially in the summer. Many other considerations enter in, of course.