Social skills

bo0li5eumx12kp

I've been, how you say, "deeply contemplating" the historical contention of what good social skills are in actual fact comprised of.

It's a pretty big issue.

The entire benzodiazepine industry almost lives off it.

There was a really nice statement, made under tragic circumstances, musician - went to the effect of, "it's not a sign of good health to be well adapted in a sick society".

What I get from that is, your "social skills" may be the norm for your subculture, but that does not necessarily mean they lend themselves to optimal quality of life/living - dramatically compromised in some instances.

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I have further thoughts on the matter but, I guess, maybe get some perspectives on the topic in general first...?

SuperRabbit

I think some cult leader or other said that quote, the musician you speak of may have been quoting? But then Thomas Satz (of anti-psychiatry fame) wrote lots of books that made that point, he must have said it with that level of conciseness at some point.

I guess this is social psychology meets sociology that you are pondering. I wonder what the sociologists would say

Then there is that phrase, which is out of fashion now thankfully, to be "well-adjusted", which was supposed to mean you had mental health. As if your mental health is just defined by how well you fit in

Ahh here look:


“Insanity is the only sane reaction to an insane society.”
― Thomas Stephen Szasz

bo0li5eumx12kp

SuperRabbit wrote: »

I think some cult leader or other said that quote, the musician you speak of may have been quoting? But then Thomas Satz (of anti-psychiatry fame) wrote lots of books that made that point, he must have said it with that level of conciseness at some point.

I guess this is social psychology meets sociology that you are pondering. I wonder what the sociologists would say

Then there is that phrase, which is out of fashion now thankfully, to be "well-adjusted", which was supposed to mean you had mental health. As if your mental health is just defined by how well you fit in

Ahh here look:


“Insanity is the only sane reaction to an insane society.”
― Thomas Stephen Szasz

I guess these quotes DO get recycled as I'm sure R.D. Laing used to tout that expression.

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Point I was REALLY trying to make is probably a little more inflammatory in that, one usually "adjusts" themselves socially, I suppose ultimately in whatever way optimally assists them in - frankly - getting laid.

So what I was saying was, optimal social demeanor is theoretically simply an extrapolation of being, really really really, ridiculously good in the sack.

BUT - as to the phrase, "well adjusted" - you see, as humans, we're not predisposed to being, really really really, ridiculously good in the sack.
Even with optimal genetics, I firmly believes it's a process of "cultivation", as it were.

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Concisely, we don't really have any idea what optimal social skills even means and certain behaviour in certain subcultures which is accepted as the "norm", is often times, quite frankly - a f**k up.

So I guess the benzo industry is set to keep on thriving, for the foreseeable future at least.

PS - I heard this other awesome quote on, I think it was Season 5, episode 11 of the X-Files which was, "most profound leaps in evolution happens dramatically in concise time periods, not drawn out of decades or more, as has been historically believed".

SuperRabbit

Hormone levels change and sex drive tends to calm down and not be your motivation for doing basically anything as you get older, not true for everybody though (Freud would certainly disagree with me!). Benzodiazepines tend to reduce sex drive, so I'm not sure what you are getting at

bo0li5eumx12kp

SuperRabbit wrote: »

Hormone levels change and sex drive tends to calm down and not be your motivation for doing basically anything as you get older, not true for everybody though (Freud would certainly disagree with me!). Benzodiazepines tend to reduce sex drive, so I'm not sure what you are getting at

Hormones, yes yes.

I had conventionally focused primarily on excitatory cellular activity in terms of functional influence - I still consider that the primary denominator.

But do CNS activity implicate hormonal discharge, regulation, etc etc?

It would certainly make sense it does (fight/flight response - kind of emotion based, given that emotional response is coded in the CNS).

HPA axis etc.

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Hormonal function slowing down, as a result of cellular function slowing - could that be the very definition of aging?

So, state/condition of the nervous system itself, can influence hormonal states.

Hormones - kind of 2nd messengers to CNS code/function itself.

.....

BUT, CNS activity and condition, is the overarching control mechanism.
However, subsequent influence on hormone levels can implicates sex drive, weight gain perhaps (gaining weight as one gets older, "cell function slows")?
Other physiological effects.

bo0li5eumx12kp

Stress response - affects neural activity but characterized by hormonal activity.

Stress/anxiety hormones.

But overarching determinant is CNS activity and response.

And given the CNS is based on electromagnetic (E.M.) impulses - the actual primary denominator is, WAVES.

E.M. waves.

Characterized in theoretical physics as, quantum mechanics.

Maladaptive wave interaction with ones environment may results in nervous system stress - hormonal flux and accordant physiological response (example - hair loss, implicated by DHT, often associated with "stress").

I contend fundamentally governed by waves.

E.M. waves.

So, stress management (thus nervous system and hormonal management) may well be a case of wave "syncing" accordant/efficiently with ones environment.
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If psychology implicates the nervous system (given our thoughts, memories etc, everything, is coded in the CNS - it clearly does), then perhaps in part at least, a psychological adaptation is responsible for this "E.M. wave syncing" with the environment.

i.e. the functionality of the nervous system is, in the long run - determined by psychological process (if we define "psychological process" as, optimal cognizance perhaps?)