Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Psychology and Personality Typology

  • The Philosopher as Luftmensch

    Steven Pinker, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature (Penguin, 2002), p. 11: Philosophy today gets no respect. Many scientists use the term as a synonym for effete speculation. When my colleague Ned Block told his father that he would major in the subject, his father's reply was "Luft!" — Yiddish for "air." And then there's…

  • The Wild Diversity of Human Types

    The wild diversity of human types never ceases to fascinate me. There are people like Hugh Hefner who live for their own pleasure. And then there are those who live to sacrifice themselves for causes that transcend themselves even unto literal self-immolation. Man on Fire will hold your interest.

  • Defense Mechanisms as Psychic Calluses

    Some defense mechanisms are in aid of mental health and adaptation to life. They are distortions of personality, but beneficial, like calluses. To modify the metaphor, in a warped world, the warpage of which is Original, the timber of humanity is correspondingly crooked and knotty, but more resilient in consequence.

  • A Modest View of Oneself

    A modest view of oneself may reflect self-knowledge or lack of self-confidence. But to know which requires self-knowledge.

  • Don’t Pathologize Political Differences

    This is the excellent advice of Alan Dershowitz (emphasis added): But psychiatrists and other mental health professionals have no more right to pathologize a president or a candidate because they disagree with his or her political views than do prosecutors or politicians have a right to criminalize political opponents. I have been writing in opposition…

  • Trump’s Alleged Insanity

    Liberals playing the 'mental' card is nothing new. You may recall the Johnson campaign's smearing of Barry Goldwater with "In your guts you know he's nuts." That was in 1964. So forgive me for not being impressed when sufferers from Trump Derangement Syndrome pronounce Donald Trump unfit for office on the ground of insanity. Just…

  • How to Know You are in a Mass Hysteria Bubble

    Scott Adams: The most visible Mass Hysteria of the moment involves the idea that the United States intentionally elected a racist President. If that statement just triggered you, it might mean you are in the Mass Hysteria bubble. The cool part is that you can’t fact-check my claim you are hallucinating if you are actually hallucinating. But…

  • Trump Derangement Syndrome

    A case study.

  • Old Mountaineers and Bold Mountaineers

    I'm no climber, but I love walking in the mountains. On a solo backpacking adventure in the magnificent Sierra Nevada some years back I overheard a snatch of conversation: There are old mountaineers, and there are bold mountaineers, but there are no old bold mountaineers. Ueli Steck, the great Swiss climber, is dead at 40,…

  • Nicholas Kristof on the Origin of Trump Derangement Syndrome

    In the piss-poor pages of the Rag of Record's op-ed section, for today's date, I found this: ". . .Trump's craziness is proving infectious, making Democrats crazy with rage that actually impedes a progressive agenda." It is true that the Dems are crazy with rage and that this impedes their agenda. But of course such…

  • Why Are Lawyers So Unhappy?

    Martin P. Seligman explains. Seligman! Now there's an aptronym for you. Selig is German for happy, blessed, blissful, although it can also mean late (verstorben) and tipsy (betrunken). So Seligman is the happy man or happy one. Nomen est omen? Give some careful thought to what you name your kid. 'Chastity' may have an anti-aptronymic effect.…

  • Trump Against the Pussycons

    'Pussycon' is a crude moniker for those I have variously described as milquetoast conservatives, yap-and-scribble do-nothings, and bow-tie boys. Esther Goldberg: The hanky-clutching, cluck-clucking, tsk-tsking faction of the Conservative movement is in for a rough and bumpy ride over the next four to eight years. They’re the ones who wanted a Republican president who looked…

  • Political Oikophobia and Trump Derangement Syndrome

    Oikophobia is an irrational fear of household items, surroundings, and the like.  Political oikophobia is an irrational aversion to one's own country, culture, traditions, and countrymen.  I suggest we call the opposite political oikophilia, an irrational love of one's own country, culture, traditions, and countrymen.  This distinction 'cuts perpendicular' to the xenophobia-xenophilia distinction. Thus, Political…

  • What Explains Trump Derangement Syndrome?

    Glenn Reynolds points to status anxiety: Our privileged, college-educated left — what Joel Kotkin calls the gentry liberals — feels that its preeminent position in American society is under threat. And people care a lot about status. What’s more, the people who seem to be lashing out the most are, in fact, just those gentry liberals: academics,…

  • Poor Barry Manilow

    Here: In an experiment published in 2000, the psychologist Thomas Gilovich and his colleagues asked undergraduates to wear a piece of clothing that they found embarrassing—a t-shirt with a picture of singer-songwriter Barry Manilow on it. After putting on the shirt, the undergraduates had to spend some time in a room with other students and…