http://hugoschwyzer.net/2008/03/19/no-break-from-the-heavy-beast-on-teaching-the-body-and-the-danger-of-triggering/ Thu, 08 Jan 2009 02:01:13 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 http://hugoschwyzer.net/2008/03/19/no-break-from-the-heavy-beast-on-teaching-the-body-and-the-danger-of-triggering/#comment-278430 Mark Sat, 22 Mar 2008 15:47:06 +0000 http://hugoschwyzer.net/2008/03/19/no-break-from-the-heavy-beast-on-teaching-the-body-and-the-danger-of-triggering/#comment-278430 The point of therepy: "I have been to some counselors that I feel like I am just pouring information into them and nothing comes out... When I started doing things for myself, though, that made all the difference." The point of therepy:
“I have been to some counselors that I feel like I am just pouring information into them and nothing comes out… When I started doing things for myself, though, that made all the difference.”

]]> http://hugoschwyzer.net/2008/03/19/no-break-from-the-heavy-beast-on-teaching-the-body-and-the-danger-of-triggering/#comment-275726 One Utah » Blog Archive » Don’t rush past the body to Easter Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:51:43 +0000 http://hugoschwyzer.net/2008/03/19/no-break-from-the-heavy-beast-on-teaching-the-body-and-the-danger-of-triggering/#comment-275726 [...] a wonderful confluence, Hugo wrote a great post - No break from the “heavy beast”: on teaching the body and the danger of triggering.  Hugo wrote: I’ve been talking about everything from Western mind/body dualism to the Mosaic [...] […] a wonderful confluence, Hugo wrote a great post - No break from the “heavy beast”: on teaching the body and the danger of triggering.  Hugo wrote: I’ve been talking about everything from Western mind/body dualism to the Mosaic […]

]]> http://hugoschwyzer.net/2008/03/19/no-break-from-the-heavy-beast-on-teaching-the-body-and-the-danger-of-triggering/#comment-274262 Angiportus Wed, 19 Mar 2008 22:52:55 +0000 http://hugoschwyzer.net/2008/03/19/no-break-from-the-heavy-beast-on-teaching-the-body-and-the-danger-of-triggering/#comment-274262 Making people feel bad about their bodies is a great way to keep them under your control. You can get them to pay you for cosmetic surgery, deodorants, hair restoral, and thst stuff someone keeps spamming me about, etc., etc. Or you can do it just to make yourself feel better by makiing them feel worse. Case in point, parents in the early 60's who had absorbed so much hysteria about digestive functions that they felt compelled to clean out their kids, in between grilling said kids on said functions, in some cases inflicting psychological damage that lasts for decades. (Freud had it wrong. The crucial time isn't when you are a baby, it is when you are in middle school and the person who feeds you won't leave you alone about things you don't want to talk about.) Seems to me, someone is in a pretty bad way if the only way they can feel right is to dump on someone else, but anyway. The same ignorance that keeps the offenders from even knowing clearly how they are really hurting their kids and so on, keeps them from realizing how pathetic they are and finding a more wholesome pastime. And then there's the host of dentists and eye doctors and so on who find all manner of things wrong but never point out anything better than normal to make up for it...and don't even let me get started on the p.e. teachers. I don't think anyone is born hating themselves, but some kids don't even get out of kindergarten before they start hearing about flaws, flaws, flaws. Hysteria about fat--which is nothing new, it is just louder now or something--is just the latest form of it. Dissatisfaction with nature's work probably goes back a lot farther than we know, and the interesting idea of Platonism, the Gnostics and so on, ideals and better worlds, got hijacked by those who set up unattainable ideals in regard to the bodies of anyone who crossed their paths. At least I think that's what happened. In the old days, before medicine got going good and so many people died in the cradle, the frailties of the flesh were obvious, but when medicine made it possible to overcome some of these problems, it got hijacked by industries bent on sustaining insecurity, and parents obsessed with the complexions and bathroom functions of their young. So instead of finding a cure for obesity, the medical profession is inflating starlets, growing hair on cue-balls and so on. "Regularity" is not such a fashionable obsession as it once was, so dieting and cosmetic procedures have taken its place. Then when you grow up and complain about your body, someone up and tries to stop you; they totally dismiss anything you say or tell you not to think about it so much, but by that time you are so sick of being told what to think or feel that you blow up and tell them to get lost, and no one is helped. That's part of the story of the historical origins of hating one's body, but only a small part. Some folks like to blame organized religion for it all, but that isn't strictly true I guess... You are right that the talking cure isn't enough for this, and same for other problems. I have been to some counselors that I feel like I am just pouring information into them and nothing comes out. They should have been paying ME. When I started doing things for myself, though, that made all the difference. Triggering...yes, that happens sometimes and I'm working on finding ways to be ready for it. Is this related, do you think, to some folks' complaints about TMI?? Making people feel bad about their bodies is a great way to keep them under your control. You can get them to pay you for cosmetic surgery, deodorants, hair restoral, and thst stuff someone keeps spamming me about, etc., etc. Or you can do it just to make yourself feel better by makiing them feel worse. Case in point, parents in the early 60’s who had absorbed so much hysteria about digestive functions that they felt compelled to clean out their kids, in between grilling said kids on said functions, in some cases inflicting psychological damage that lasts for decades. (Freud had it wrong. The crucial time isn’t when you are a baby, it is when you are in middle school and the person who feeds you won’t leave you alone about things you don’t want to talk about.) Seems to me, someone is in a pretty bad way if the only way they can feel right is to dump on someone else, but anyway. The same ignorance that keeps the offenders from even knowing clearly how they are really hurting their kids and so on, keeps them from realizing how pathetic they are and finding a more wholesome pastime.
And then there’s the host of dentists and eye doctors and so on who find all manner of things wrong but never point out anything better than normal to make up for it…and don’t even let me get started on the p.e. teachers. I don’t think anyone is born hating themselves, but some kids don’t even get out of kindergarten before they start hearing about flaws, flaws, flaws. Hysteria about fat–which is nothing new, it is just louder now or something–is just the latest form of it.
Dissatisfaction with nature’s work probably goes back a lot farther than we know, and the interesting idea of Platonism, the Gnostics and so on, ideals and better worlds, got hijacked by those who set up unattainable ideals in regard to the bodies of anyone who crossed their paths. At least I think that’s what happened. In the old days, before medicine got going good and so many people died in the cradle, the frailties of the flesh were obvious, but when medicine made it possible to overcome some of these problems, it got hijacked by industries bent on sustaining insecurity, and parents obsessed with the complexions and bathroom functions of their young. So instead of finding a cure for obesity, the medical profession is inflating starlets, growing hair on cue-balls and so on. “Regularity” is not such a fashionable obsession as it once was, so dieting and cosmetic procedures have taken its place.
Then when you grow up and complain about your body, someone up and tries to stop you; they totally dismiss anything you say or tell you not to think about it so much, but by that time you are so sick of being told what to think or feel that you blow up and tell them to get lost, and no one is helped.
That’s part of the story of the historical origins of hating one’s body, but only a small part. Some folks like to blame organized religion for it all, but that isn’t strictly true I guess… You are right that the talking cure isn’t enough for this, and same for other problems. I have been to some counselors that I feel like I am just pouring information into them and nothing comes out. They should have been paying ME. When I started doing things for myself, though, that made all the difference.
Triggering…yes, that happens sometimes and I’m working on finding ways to be ready for it. Is this related, do you think, to some folks’ complaints about TMI??

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