The Psychological States you Never Heard of
Behavior
Study: Five (Kind of) Unknown Psychological States
Normopathy:
Coined by psychiatric theorist, Christoper Bollas, Normopathy is used to
describe a person who’s obsessively fixated on blending into whatever the rest
of the crowd is doing. We’ve all experienced a little of it at one point, but a
bad case of Normopathy is extremely unhealthy. Someone with Normopathy will
break themselves down until they have no unique personality, and will almost
shape-shift to conform to whatever surrounding they find themselves in. This is
obviously very difficult and hard on the esteem of the person, so a violent
outburst once in a while isn’t too uncommon.
Repetition
Compulsion: This one’s courtesy of Sigmund Freud, so you know it’ll
be a fun one. A lot of us have a habit of repetition; maybe you like watching
one movie over a couple of times, or make yourself the same lunch for a few
days. That’s not too weird. But Freud was more interested in analyzing the bad
choices that we choose to compulsively repeat. One article mentioned bad dating
choices as an example, and that’s a perfect comparison. Why do you date the
same type of person over and over if it keeps ending badly? According to Freud,
this method of going back to an old decision is us secretly wanting to go back
all the way before we were alive. You know, when we were dead. It’s part of his
“Death Drive” theory.
Aporia:
This is basically that really weird, almost empty feeling you get when you find
out something you thought was completely true - is not. This theory was put
together in the Greco-Roman days, but is still relevant today thanks to this
giant ball of information constantly giving us facts that may or may not be
true: the internet!
Sublimation:
Here’s another theory by Sigmund Freud. It’s no secret that Freud placed a lot
of importance on the human sex drive; and Sublimation is pretty much the most
famous of his sex-driven theories, though it’s name isn’t too well known.
According to this, everything that you do is fueled by your desire to ~*~
procreate ~*~. If you dedicate an hour or two to painting an awesome portrait,
it’s because you were really sexually frustrated, not because you love art.
Sublimation means to transfer that desire and take it out on something else,
something productive and usually artsy.
Enthrallment: W.
Gerrad Parrot, a professor in Psychology, put together a list of categories
under which human emotions fall. He ended up adding one in there, one he hadn’t
seen addressed before: Enthrallment. What this is, is a feeling of powerful
emotion, almost like love or lust, but not either of those things. It’s the
kind of feeling you get while watching an amazing performance of something
you’re passionate about, or listening to someone with a great voice sing live.
It’s exhilaration + inspiration without it having to be intimate.
Image Source: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1359713
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