Claiming to be having an OCD moment seems quite common, but what is OCD and how has evolution selected for this particular trait? Ms.Svoboda answers the question and provides a great deal of background information on OCD defining it through her own struggles with the psychological feature. “In people with
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Dead Wild Roses: Meritocracy – A Few Downsides
The hardest ideology to examine critically is your own. Meritocracy is a social norm in Canada and the United States, woven through the fabrics of our societies. It is a belief that supports much of the status quo and reinforces some of the harmful myths that cause suffering in society.
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The Neurobiology of Sexual Assault – Why Do We Have ‘Unnaturally’ High Attrition Rate for Sexual Assault?
Watch the presentation or read the full transcript here. Now watch what happens when we bring an empirical fact based approach to understanding why our justice system is broken when it comes to sexual assault. So, now we have some evidence of what is happening to people who have experienced
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Women Die More From Heart Attacks Than Men – Unless the ER Doc is Female
Fancy that, eh? Just another way the system known as patriarchy in our society expresses itself. Women are not listened to or taken seriously, even in life and death situations. Kinda hard to be successful in society when your words are taken, by default, as less than face value.
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Syndrome “E” – The Neuroscience of Evil
Why do people do evil actions? How does one get from being an ordinary citizen to someone who oversees the genocide of their neighbours? What are the psychological states that premeditate acts of violence on the personal and societal level? Noga Arikha is a historian who has looked into
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Loneliness and extremism
The need for social connection and community support for the people of our society has never been greater. Being alone, atomized, and unable to relate to the rest of society and those inhabit it opens people up to harmful ideologies and an movemet toward totalitarian thoughts and impulses. Nabeelah Jaffer has
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Why Does He Do That? – Lundy Bancroft – On Freud and Incest
Ever find a spot where you could pinpoint where something went wrong and broke-shit on such a massive scale that the damage is still being undone? See Freud on incest… “THERAPISTS AND EVALUATORS We need to take a large step back in time for a moment, to the early
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: When is Speech Violence? – Wittgenstein’s Language Game
Interesting article from the folks over at JSTOR. “According to Willinsky, “The schooled representation of meaning sets language in the hands of those who hold the proper definitions.” In other words, appeals to the dictionary serve a political purpose; they preserve existing power structures, and fortify the
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Trees and Crime
Trees on streets and boulevards reduce crime. Do we know the how or why of this particular correlation, nope. But we do know that trees on private lots also tend to reduce criminal activity, with the proviso that they are over 42 feet high. The studies linked are quite fascinating and most definitely worth […]
Dead Wild Roses: Your Brain Makes You A Sucker – Cognitive Biases We All Share
Don’t feel bad about this, we are all in the same boat when it comes to making bad decisions or being unduly influenced. The science behind advertising and persuasion has come a long ways, and knowing how they manipulate you and the rest of the public is valuable knowledge. James Garvey lists three of the […]
Dead Wild Roses: Mechanical Bike Doping – We Compete, We Cheat.
The competitive cycling world is being shaken as riders during competitions have be discovered using mechanical assists to help them perform better. From the AP: “Caught using a hidden motor at a world championship race, cyclo-cross rider Femke Van Den Driessche of Belgium has been banned from cycling for six years.The sanction imposed Tuesday […]
Dead Wild Roses: Lateral Discrimination Or, “No No No, take your other left!”
Lateral awareness, or the ability to discriminate left from right is an acquired skill. Most people have it by age 10 and most people start to lose in after age 50 (good times). Lateral awareness, of course, falls on a spectrum and here are the results so far: “A recent survey of 800 people […]
Dead Wild Roses: Socialization & Patriarchy
Tatsuya Ishida creates the internet comic Sinfest. Sometimes his insight hits the proverbial nail on the head. Filed under: Culture, Social Science Tagged: Gender Roles, Patriarchy, Sinfest, Socialization
Dead Wild Roses: “Eloquence” is, essentially, Code for Values Associated with Masculinity.
-“We harbor an ideological bias against the feminine voice, rooted in positive primal associations with masculinity.” Some highlights from the JSTOR article On Men and Women’s Public Speech. “Gunn uses speeches delivered by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in their 2008 contest for the Democratic nomination to illustrate how gendered norms about speech create a […]
Dead Wild Roses: The DWR Writing & Reflection Post – Adolescence and Socialization
Greetings fair readership, it is time for a new foray here at DWR. A recent comment by JZ and gentle prod by RoughSeas are the inspirations for this post. The idea that JZ had was that a comparative essay looking at the differences and similarities between adolescent experiences would be an interesting read. I […]
Dead Wild Roses: Ruth Hubbard – The Political Nature of Human ‘Nature’
Clearing up some of the confusion about socialization and being ‘born that way’, Ruth Hubbard in this excerpt tackles the nature/nurture question head on. Read the whole article here. “We can visualize this kind of interaction or transformation by thinking about the interplay between biological and cultural factors that affects the ways boys and girls grow up […]
Dead Wild Roses: Addiction – Now with Animation.
Here at DWR we’ve already talked about how our theories about addiction are quite flawed. However, this is such an important topic that we’ll cover it again, but now in an animated format that is quite appealing and easy to understand. Many social problems can be addressed by ‘changing the cage’, however, recognizing that […]
Dead Wild Roses: The Gendered Viewing of Dirt
Think you’re immune to social constructs? Think again. “Let’s examine that a bit. “Men don’t see dirt the way women do.” That’s a pretty common assertion. And it’s bullshit. Vision problems aside, we’re all seeing the same dirty house; we’re just interpreting it differently. You and your boyfriend both walk in, see the pile […]
Dead Wild Roses: On Resentment – Gabor Maté
“A therapist once said to me, “If you face the choice between feeling guilt and resentment, choose the guilt every time.” It is wisdom I have passed on to many others since. If a refusal saddles you with guilt, while consent leaves resentment in its wake, opt for the guilt.
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: On Blame – Another RSA Short by Dr. Brené Brown
This sorta stuff is what makes or breaks relationships. Have you ever caught yourself doing the actions they just mentioned in a video like this? I just did. Let me tell you a story, but first watch the video . Pretty high on the useful emotional educational chart if
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