Quote from tv last nite: "The bigger the crowd, the smaller the mind."
(Noon) Quotes:
This morning's reading project was to go through my library for information on phobias:
Sigmund Freud-"...the anxiety is only
superficially attached to the idea that accompanies it; it originates from another
source."
Calvin S. Hall and
Gardner Lindzy-" Anxiety is a state of tension;
it is a drive like hunger or sex but instead of arising from internal tissue conditions it
is produced originally by external causes."
R.D. Laing-"... the self's isolation is, as we
said, its effort to preserve itself in the absence of an assured sense of autonomy and
integrity."
Jesse Gordon, "Personality and Behavior"-"Because he avoids them, he cannot learn that most girls would not pain him or reject him, and so he gives himself no opportunity to lose his fear."
"Through repetition of the pairing of pain and the distinctive stimuli, these stimuli acquire the capacity to elicit motivated avoidance behavior in the absence of pain."
W. Edward Craighead, Alan E. Kazdin, and Michael J. Mahoney, "Behavior modification"-"… appropriate social skills have never been learned. Because of these deficits, the individual has great difficulty obtaining the kinds of social reinforcement that are required."
I went to the library and got two books on phobias, so I can study them some more.
I got a rejection letter from the publisher I sent my poems to. (This one says my style is "lightweight" and not worth sending to editors. (He suggested a bunch of poets to study, so I got books by them. (He says to learn to write "real poems" before I bother anyone else. (F him.) (I will study, but I am going to keep bothering editors.))))
(3pm) Good workout.
In both "Love me" and "On sex" they say the longer one waits to get back to the stage of being open to love again, the harder it is to get there. (That seems to be true.)
(8pm) Quiet day of reading.
This book on intimacy was interesting, but it wasn't really what I was looking for. (He focuses on physical intimacy and right now I am more interested in studying emotional intimacy.)
Quotes:
Desmond Morris, "Intimate
behaviours"-"Every human body is constantly sending out signals to its social
companions. Some of these signals invite intimate contact and others repel it."
"Under the influence of strong emotions of a pleasant kind, our pupils dilate to an unusual degree, the small dark spot in the centre of the eye becoming a great black disc." (Maybe the dilation of the eyes caused by some drugs is part of why they often are considered to enhance the chances of sexuality?)