Porthole

mbti / polls and xenophobia / ghost /

October 7

I have taken something similar to the MBTI more than once. I come up ENFP ... all
the time. I'm drawn to INTJs ... all the time. I get along with fellow ENFPs. I don't obsess over the categories (they aren't black/white but scalar/vector) but they helped me understand years ago that my motivations may be different from others. ​That others don't fit into discrete categories is no surprise to me. Humans aren't Lego blocks. That others are not helped is not my problem. There are other approaches and psychology is not static. Knowledge has progressed beyond Jung/Freud.

There is no indication whether the author of the article has any education himself and his attack on Jung and 'calling him names' does not convince me that analytical psychology is worse than other approaches or that somehow Jung himself didn't have insight because he wasn't "acceptable" or made mistakes. This reminds me of facebook shit-flinging when attacking the person by calling them names discredits anything and everything that that person has ever done.

I learned from my sociolinguistic project years ago that quantitative results are crap if the wrong questions are asked and that finding the right questions takes a qualitative open-questioning attitude that mere statistics ignores.

In Quora, Liz Jarrard states:

"I am no expert. Yet. But it seems Jungian Psychology could be seen as being controversial when you value the empirical (quantitative) and the cognitive over the anecdotal, subjective, affective, and qualitative.

I like to think it’s quite like the difference between Sam Harris (a neuroscientist) and Jordan B Peterson (who is heavily influenced by Jung, and is a clinical psychologist). Or CBT vs Depth Psychology. When you want hard data that doesn’t support something that could be seen as subjective, you might tend to think it has less value. From that perspective, Jungian psychology might be seen as being “controversial.”"

So... I think the Cracked article is mostly bullshit except for the part about employers using MBTI as a short-cut in the hiring process. There are no 'ENFP-only' jobs. And although I may get along with INTJs I'm still single.

https://www.cracked.com/article_31336_why-the-myers-briggs-personality-test-is-n...

Business Insider

"Most Trump voters are 'animated by a strong anti-immigration sentiment' and worry that an increase in immigrants will threaten their jobs and pay: poll"

I'm practicing my breathing today. I'm not all here.

I'm a ghost moving among grandchildren unseen and left to my musings as I sit in the guest house, the hosts young enough to be my children, their own children full grown. I'm invisible, watching time eddy around street vendors and travelers frolicking in groups. I gather my thoughts, as if I could hold them, pretend that the movement around me could be woven into a new life, one full of the promise of tomorrow.

I'm in Bang Saen dreaming of crabs hidden in the mangroves of Ang Sila, the monkeys of Khao Sam Muk, the walk to the temple of Wat Ko Loi in Si Racha. Or I'm in Phimai taking photos among the ruins of the Khmer. A ghost with a camera. Or I'm wherever there is life ... I'm just not here.

I listen to Radio Rad (FM 89.5) in Khon Kaen to try to stay wake. The dishes are washed and I started on the refrigerator. Angie thinks I really need to get back to cleaning. So does Travis. Dalton wanted to visit yesterday; but, I said no. I'm not ready for visitors.

I just don't want to be here. My friend Ann from Washington is in Paris. Anna Maria from Estonia is there too, visiting Isla. Cecilie from Tromso is in Oslo (but I know she'd rather be in Paris). If I left tomorrow could I see them all? I'd settle for Portugal.

I'm practicing my breathing but I did eat. And I've had a couple cups of coffee. I guess I'm not going to have much trouble finding coffee in Thailand (chorreado like in Costa Rica). The culture has some passive/agressive aspects in common with Costa Rica. This isn't good news; but, at least I know from experience how important it is to not share what I think.

Do ghosts have voices? I'd love to find out. I'm in Maha Sarakham on a rainy day reminiscing about Wat Photaram and the Thai noi inscriptions as I write my name in cursive. I'm drinking coffee at Elefin in Roi Et gazing at the lake. Do ghosts drink? Do they remember their name.

October 8

50 some degrees on a cloudy day.

Making rice and turkey. A smoky paella. Turned out well.

Joann died. She'd been ill for quite awhile and her liver gave out in the end. Phil, her boyfriend, will need to be consoled.

49 degrees at 20:30. I finished two 'dark' poems. I believe there'll be over twenty entries and that's good news.

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