Intimacy & Interiority Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Intimacy & Interiority - Essay Example This blend is what makes the narrative unpredictable and full of suspense. Sometimes, these characters which are of paranormal and unknown existence tend to make themselves more real in the readers eyes, than fictional characters of novels from various other genres because of the attractive combination of paranormal beings in bizarre settings such as dungeons, eerie forests, labyrinths, crypts and catacombs, and even sinister ruins and evil omens that erupt mysterious events. In this paper we would be discussing two stories from Gothic Literature, and attempt to shed light on the nature and intimacy within the narrative. The first is a short story titled â€Å"The Damned Things† (1898) by Ambrose Bierce and the second being ‘The Willows’ (1907) by Algernon Blackwood. The paper attempts to investigate how and why the untamed Gothic relies on intimacy to suit its needs 2 The human mind accepts only what is sees and perceives as reality whereas in the story of Ã¢â‚¬Ë œThe Damned Thing’, a paranormal existence is brought to light. Human beings are trained to shut away what they cannot see and cannot hear as it being non-existent. However, this story drives the reader to that level of terror to believe that the character Morgan is being tormented by something dreadful that he cannot see or hear, but which does exist. The story starts out with the protagonist Hugh Morgan being dead lying on a table with eight people surrounding it, conducting an inquest into the matter of his death. William Harker is a fictional writer, who is the only witness to Morgan’s death. Thus he is called in to relay his account of what he saw that night while he was with Morgan in the place with the wild oats. Hugh Morgan had been a victim of torture at the hands of something that he knows exists and feels but cannot see. He is scared and even considers himself going mad as he is torn between what his mind and senses are feeling and what is considered reality . The line between his reality and the ones of the normal world blurs into oblivion and that is when he decides to get the help of William Harker. The Gothic seems to be of a silent nature when Morgan speaks about it in his journal. He experiences its closeness in many instances but is never harmed. Initially, the Gothic is a mere shadow passing far away from the realms of Morgan’s house but still close enough for his dog to sense it. The dog barks and goes in circles when the Gothic passes and finally hides in the bushes until it leaves. The way the journal entry 3 is written suggests that this was not the first time that they encountered the Gothic. The first example of intimacy between the Gothic and the protagonist seems to take place on the previous night of Morgan’s journal entry, on Sept.2. He writes about how he stared into the night sky and was admiring the stars ‘above the crest of the ridge east of the house’ (Bierce, 1898) when his vision of th em was blurred and almost blotted out by something that seemed to pass between him and the stars. He could feel it and experience it but could not see it. The next entry of the Gothic suggested that it was more tangible as the intimacy with the protagonist increased, making its presence felt by way of fresh ‘footprints.’ (Bierce, 1898) According to him, the more encounters he experienced, the more closer the Gothic drew towards the real Morgan. The next two entries in his journal suggest that he is tortured by the presence of the Gothic not

Stop and Frisk Essay Example for Free

Stop and Frisk Essay The Stop and Frisk program employed by the New York Police Department, gives police officers the right to initiate a stop of an individual on the street allegedly based on reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. Stop and frisk has been an NYPD tool for decades, but in recent years it has generated an increased amount of criticism and debate due to the alarming rate in which they occur communities of color, who often feel under attack and harassed by the police. Minorities even make up the majority percentage of people searched in predominantly white neighborhoods, which is why I believe that either some kind of quota or limit system should be implement where only a certain percentage of people stopped cane be of a specific race or from specific neighborhood, or New York City should just get rid of the program all together. In 2011 alone, 700,000 New Yorkers were pulled over for stop and frisk searches. Approximately 87 percent were Hispanic or Black and of that percentage 90 percent were deemed innocent (Huffington Post). In comparison, from 2002 to 2011 Hispanics and Blacks made up 90 percent of people stopped, and 88 percent of those stopped were innocent New Yorker (New York Civil Liberties Union). If racial profiling in this case was effective that would be one thing, but there has yet to be any published research that has proven the effectiveness of this program, which is shown in the lack of arrests produced. Violent crimes in New York have decreased by 29 percent between 2001 and 2010; however, other major cities, such as Los Angeles and New Orleans, have experience larger declines without the use of stop and frisk (New York Civil Liberties Union). This is a clear example of why this program that causes more harm than good, should be abolished. This issue is similar to the racial profiling tactics used by Transportation Security Administration officers at countless airports across the United States. Since the September 11th attacks there have been countless claims of racial profiling in airports, particularly against those who appear to be Muslim or Middle Eastern. While it is the TSAs job to keep airports safe and travelers minds at ease, as it is the NYPDs job to accomplish similar goals, this does not give them the right to stop those who are profiled due to their race, religion or simply because their physical appearance is suspicious. However, unlike the random search tactics used in New York, there is evidence that exhibits that the majority of Americans are in favor f racial profiling in airports. According to a 2010 poll conducted by USA Today, 75 percent of Americans polled favored subjecting airline passengers, who fit a profile of terrorists based on age, gender and ethnicity to more extensive security searches. Although airport security is extremely important, I would be in favor of a more random method of searching rather than specifically targeting a certain demogr aphic on the basis that they â€Å"fit a profile. For example, Mexican airport utilize a system where every traveler has to push a button that displays either a red light, which signifies that they must stop for further inspection, and green, which indicates that they are free to pass. Such a random system almost eliminates the possibility of racial profiling. One may argue that although, as a result of this program, only 10 percent of the people stopped and searched are actually arrested, that still means that there are less criminals roaming the streets making the city a safer place. The Police Commissioner of the NYPD, Raymond Kelly, has gone on the defense against critics, saying that neighborhoods, such as Harlem, have grown, population wise, and become safer. Kelly said that the program helped expose 8,000 illegal weapons in 2011 and that it is â€Å"a life-saving measure. † Still, the program faces judgment from local politicians and organizations, such as the New York Civil Liberties Union, who strongly believe that is useless, except in its targeting of residents of â€Å"high-crime areas† and makes them feel like second-class citizens.

African American Artists Essay -- essays research papers

The multi-talented Camille Billops has found many different ways to express her artistic ability throughout her career. Her works that were done throughout her career was an expression of her life. Throughout the life of Camille she had many influences leading her into the art world. This paper has the artist going through her life coming up through the world as a student to a teacher then artist, and her works making her a legend. The way she met her husband and worked together to make the Hatch-Billops Collection. In her time as an artist she changed her work a few times. She started doing printmaking then changed to sculpture and film making. Throughout her life is what made her films. The trilogy of films makes her life public for everyone to see. From Suzanne Suzanne to Finding Christa and then to String of Pearls. Camille Billops is an artist representing her culture through her works of printmaking, sculpture and film. She has made her mark in history by doing so. Because of this she will always be remembered. Camille Billops was born in Los Angeles in 1933 to Alma Gilmore and Lucius Billops. She attended City College of Los Angeles, Associate of Arts and graduated in 1954. Then changed schools to the University of Southern California and studied occupational therapy. After that she changed schools again to the Los Angeles State College and received her Bachelor of Arts. After her schooling she met her future husband writer and playwright James Vernon Hatch, who is white, and traveled to Egypt and had a one person exhibit for Camille. After her exhibit in Egypt she came back to the states to go back to school. Billops moved to New York and received her Masters in Fine Art from the City College of New York in 1973. While attending the City College of New York she also had begun to teach ceramics. After graduating with her Masters in Fine Art she went and taught ceramics at Rutgers University, Newark, N.Y. Also in 1975 she founded the Hatch-Billops Collection with her husband James Hatch. Th e Hatch-Billops Collection is an archive of African American cultural history that includes oral histories, slides, books, photographs, and other historical materials. Camille’s husband and filmmaker James Hatch was born on October 25, 1928 in Oelwein, Iowa. After earning a B.A. in English and Speech in 1949 from the University of Northern Iowa, Hatch taught high sc... ...winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 1992, told how Camille's unwanted pregnancy led her to put Christa up for adoption and how Christa returned twenty years later to confront her mother. And A String of Pearls turns the camera to four generations of men in Camille's family and considers why their fathers died so young. The camera turns to the grandsons, Michael and Peter. Both are without education, jobs or skills to earn a living and both have children that they cannot support. They want them to live, but two doctors from the local hospital trauma ward describe the streets of Los Angeles as a war zone where the US military sends its doctors to learn about gunshot wounds. In A String of Pearls Camille takes a hard look into the hearts of the black men in her family. In this film, love blooms. The multi-talented Camille Billops has found many different ways to express her artistic ability throughout her career. This makes her one of the most exceptional artists of our time. Camille Billops is an artist representing her culture through her works of printmaking, sculpture and film. She has made her mark in history by doing so. Because of this she will always be remembered.

Otherness

Cheyanne Easter Processor: Temple English 066 1 October 2012 Otherness Everywhere you go you catch yourself either stereotyping or being stereotyped just by the simple she lives in a big house she must be rich or he’s Asian he must be good at math. Stereotyping is usually a negative habit on all human beings but it somehow weasels its way into social acceptance. Now, more than ever and somehow we end up accepting it with no concern.Allport (1954) theory was that thinking ill of others without warrant that people make their mind u' without any personal experience. This pre judgment is worldwide it happens everywhere including every race white, black, Hispanic to what gender female or male. We are all human we all do it. One group we tend to target the most, our middle aged black men, we pracive them to be a gang member or drug dealers by their own appearance. But would it be wrong to say that hip hop may have an effect on the way people look at African American men in our socie ty.While watching an episode of the Tyra Banks show rerun an episode about stereotypes happened to be on where Tyra did an experiment where she put a group of people from all backgrounds showed them a picture of different cultured individuals and asked what and how you felt about them just by their appearance. The first picture appeared of a middle aged tall black man wearing baggy jeans, boots and an oversized jacket. People assumed right off that bat that he must not be educated, he must be on welfare trying to support his kids and baby momma was some white female’s exact words.These comments were even coming from the same race â€Å"that he must be strapped with guns and running the street as a gang banger† one African American women stated. It was sickening for people to make all these assumptions just based on their theory of stereotypes by a certain individual. He was later brought out face to face with these people to find out that he’s a very successful antrapranoer and has already earned 4 degrees. He says it the same reaction he gets from individual all the time, â€Å"it’s hard on me and that everything I’m hearing today I have to carry the weight of every African American male out there†.He explains that those type of stereotypes are the ones he has to live up to on a daily bases. You could relate this man’s experience with a young African American boy that was murdered because this man thought he was being â€Å"suspicious†. Trayvon Martin a 17 year old teenage that was shot for the simple fact that he was a black male wearing a hoodie walking through a gated neighborhood. Federals say this could indeed be a hate crime. What went through George Zimmerman’s head to shoot this innocent boy was it the first time Zimmerman’s done such type of prejudgment on black males, no.At the very least, a situation of 46 emergency calls made by Zimmerman over the past six years documents his at tentiveness about keeping his neighborhood safe and orderly. The calls include complaints about unruly people at the pool, potholes, dumped trash, and kids playing in the street. In recent months as the neighborhood saw an uptick in crime, including burglaries and a shooting, Zimmerman's calls had focused on specific suspects, the majority of them young black males.Zimmerman assumptions about these people made them his target. Some people say that this doesn’t exist in current day society but this right here is a prime example. To willingly kill a young black kid due to the fact that he walked into this residence or for the simple fact that he was cutting in-between houses, walking very leisurely for the rainy weather and looking at all the house gave Zimmerman the right to shot this innocent kid that caused death by his own prejudgment it devastates me to the bare bone.This problem will never stop. People tend to fill their head with what they want to believe. Is it wrong to say that maybe† hip hop† had a little influence on the killing of Trayvon Martin, editor in chief of GlobalGrind. com, a site about the â€Å"hip-hop† side of pop culture said â€Å"Even if I have a black hoodie, a pair of jeans and white sneakers on, in fact that is what I wore yesterday, I still never will look suspicious.No matter how much the hoodie covers my face or how baggie my jeans are, I will never look out of place to you,† he wrote. â€Å"I will never look suspicious to you, because of one thing and one thing only,  the color of my skin. † Thus, clothing lines and particular clothing items popular within the hip hop culture are Stereotyped and ignoring simplistic understandings of hip hop culture lead people to assume the role of a ordinary African American that lives day to day in our society , as drug dealers, gang bangers or want to be rappers.Do hip hop rappers influence people to assume that black men aren’t safe to be arou nd if they portray the image of rapper, is it all about getting money, smoking and having a gun. It’s sad to say these stereotypes can just come from material clothing you not only see it in hip hop fashion but in the holocaust people could see right through you that you were a Jew, during this semester we’ve been reading a book called Maus were it takes you into the life of one Jewish man valdeck spingleman that survived the worst externmation of 11 million people.

The Comparison Between Psychodynamic and Humanistic Theory

The Comparison between Psychodynamic and Humanistic Theory There are very distinct differences between Psychodynamic and Humanistic Counselling but both ultimately offer the help and guidance to discover why we act the way we do and why we make certain choices in our lives. Throughout this essay, I will endeavour to explain those major differences and you will see that despite these completely different methods of therapy, depending on what the problem maybe, they can both work very effectively in their own way. Carl Rogers, born in 1902, was the originator of the Person Centred Approach or Humanistic Theory.His work was influenced by his experience of being a client and a counsellor (Casemore, 2006) and he believed a trusting relationship was essential in helping the client to grow and develop in order that they could cope with difficulties in a more effective manner and to function more effectively. There is a strong emphasis of the need for counsellors to think of their clients as people rather than impersonal bodies. Characteristics important for effectiveness in the counsellor/client relationship are congruence, where the counsellor must be genuinely themselves, a complete and whole person.Empathic, which is the ability to understand and appreciate the clients perspective. To ‘live’ in their world and accept who they are unconditionally and unconditional positive regard which involves accepting the client completely and in a non-judgemental way. Rogers believed that all humans have a natural desire for personal growth and potential so that they can take responsibility for their own actions and the way they live their lives. This view is called the Actualising Tendency. He believed that everybody had an inner need to wholeness.The self-concept is also important in Person Centred Counselling. This relates to the individuals perception or the way in which they see themselves based on life experiences and attitudes from those important people arou nd them when they were young. Abraham Maslow is another theorist whose contribution to the Person Centred Approach is very significant. He proposed a hierarchy of needs which he believed were responsible for human motivation and drive. They are as follows: Physiological Needs – These are biological needs.They consist of needs for oxygen, food, and water. They are the strongest needs because if a person were deprived of all needs, the physiological ones would come first in the person's search for satisfaction. Safety Needs – When all physiological needs are satisfied and are no longer controlling thoughts and behaviors, the needs for security can become active. Needs of Love, Affection and Belongingness – When the needs for safety and for physiological well-being are satisfied, the next class of needs for love, affection and belongingness can emerge.Needs for Esteem – When the first three classes of needs are satisfied, the needs for esteem can become domi nant. These involve needs for both self-esteem and for the esteem a person gets from others. Needs for Self-Actualization – When all of the foregoing needs are satisfied, then and only then are the needs for self-actualization activated. Maslow describes self-actualization as a person's need to be and do that which the person was â€Å"born to do. † According to Maslow it is possible for people to work towards self-actualisation by practising behaviours which encourage the development of confidence and openness.These include; trying new experiences and to challenge oneself, to assume responsibility, strive to be honest and to develop a capacity to trust onself, Both Maslow and Rogers had very similar views. Maslow believed that the most basic drive was to become the person that one is capable of becoming and Rogers believed that the basic drive was to become the person that one truly is. Gestalt Therapy is a psychotherapy, based on the experiential ideal of â€Å"here and now†, and relationships with others and the world, and was co-founded by Fritz Perls, Laura Perls and Paul Goodman in the 1940s-1950s (Wikipidia 2004).Perls did not belive in a single particular theory. He thought you should always just go with the flow and work with what you have and what is happening in the now. He placed great importance on the client becoming self aware and thus developed the Gestalt theory. This therapy focuses more on process (what is happening) than content (what is being discussed). The emphasis is on what is being done, thought and felt at the moment rather than on what was, might be, could be, or should be.Perls believed in minipulating the client, bringing them out of their comfort zone and challenging them. To own what you say and do and to be aware of unconscious actions/words. In the 1950's Eric Berne began to develop his theories of Transactional Analysis. He said that verbal communication, particularly face to face, is at the centre of hum an social relationships and psychoanalysis. His starting-point was that when two people encounter each other, one of them will speak to the other. This he called the Transaction Stimulus.The reaction from the other person he called the Transaction Response. The person sending the Stimulus is called the Agent. The person who responds is called the Respondent. Transactional Analysis became the method of examining the transaction wherein: ‘I do something to you, and you do something back'. Berne also said that each person is made up of three alter ego states: Parent – This is our ingrained voice of authority, absorbed conditioning, learning and attitudes from when we were young. Child – Our internal reaction and feelings to external events form the ‘Child'.This is the seeing, hearing, feeling, and emotional body of data within each of us. When anger or despair dominates reason, the Child is in control. Adult – Our ‘Adult' is our ability to think a nd determine action for ourselves, based on received data. The adult in us begins to form at around ten months old, and is the means by which we keep our Parent and Child under control. If we are to change our Parent or Child we must do so through our adult. Transactional Analysis is effectively a language within a language; a language of true meaning, feeling and motive.It can help you in every situation, firstly through being able to understand more clearly what is going on, and secondly, by virtue of this knowledge, we give ourselves choices of what ego states to adopt, which signals to send, and where to send them. This enables us to make the most of all our communications and therefore create, develop and maintain better relationships (Businessballs. com) Looking at the Psychodynamic side, Freud took the view that human beings are never free from their behaviours, thoughts and feelings.That we are governed by past events and reinact them in our present. Sigmund Freud is the fat her of the Psychodynamic Theory. This focuses on the unconscious aspects of personality. According to Freud the human mind is like an iceberg. It is mostly hidden in the unconscious. He believed that the conscious level of the mind was similar to the tip of the iceberg which could be seen, but the unconscious was mysterious and was hidden. The unconscious also consists of aspects of personality of which a person is unaware. The conscious on the other hand is that which is within our awareness.The preconscious consists of that which is not in immediate awareness but is easily accessible (Himmat Rana 1997) Freud believed the personality is made up of three parts. They are: Id – the oldest part and present from birth and necessary for survival. The Ego – realistic awareness of self and of the world. Has evolved through contact with the external world and is determined by the individuals own experiences. Acts as mediator between the id and the superego and the Superego â⠂¬â€œ parental and social influences. Moral judgement and conscience.Main function is to curb he demands of the id. When anxiety occurs, the mind first responds by an increase in problem-solving thinking, seeking rational ways of escaping the situation. If this is not fruitful, a range of defence mechanisms may be triggered. In Freud's language, these are tactics which the Ego develops to help deal with the Id and the Super Ego. Freud's Defence Mechanisms include:  ·Denial: claiming/believing that what is true to be actually false.  ·Displacement: redirecting emotions to a substitute target. Intellectualization: taking an objective viewpoint.  ·Projection: attributing uncomfortable feelings to others.  ·Rationalization: creating false but credible justifications.  ·Reaction Formation: overacting in the opposite way to the fear.  ·Regression: going back to acting as a child.  ·Repression: pushing uncomfortable thoughts into the subconscious.  ·Sublimation: redirecting ‘wrong' urges into socially acceptable actions. Carl Jung was an associate of Freud who disagreed on a number of issues and finally broke away from Freud with his own ideas.He developed Analytical Psychology and it consists of the following; The collective unconscious – This is the deepest part of the psyche which contains all experiences that are inherited. The Personal Unconscious – This is material that was once conscious but has become forgotton or suppressed. Jung referred to the universal ideas and images of the collective unconscious as archetypes. These are original forms which all human beings in all societies recognise. Archetypes can also appear in shared emotional experience and these unconscious ideas and patterns of thought are likely to surface during momentous events such as birth and death.This shared psychological experience was regarded by Jung as evidence of a collective unconscious. There are four major archetypes of the collective unconscio us: The word â€Å"persona† means a mask and refers to the outward appearance which people use in everyday life. The word â€Å"anima† refers to the unconscious female quality in the male and the word â€Å"animus† refers to the unconscious male quality in the female. The shadow is the inferior being within us which is primitive and animal. It is also the personal unconscious is similar to Freuds concept of the id.The term â€Å"self† describes a state of complete integration of all the separate elements of personality (Hough 1994) Alfred Adler broke away from Freuds school and set up his own called individual psychology. He believed that personality developed through sibling order and placed emphasis on the social development of man. He viewed people as mostly conscious rather than unconscious. For Adler, it was useless to focus on drives and impulses without giving attention to how the person creatively directs the drives. Adler believed that inferiorit y feelings are the source of all human striving.All individual progress, growth and development result from the attempt to compensate for one's inferiorities. Feeling unattractive, or don't belong somewhere. Not strong enough or smart enough. So everyone is trying to overcome something that is hampering them from becoming what they want to become. The meaning of superiority is like self-realization. The striving for perfections is innate in the sense that it is a part of life. Throughout a person's life, Adler believed, he or she is motivated by the need to overcome the sense of inferiority and strive for ever higher levels of development.Everything Adler says ties into the lifestyle. For Adler, meanings are not determined by situation, but we are self-determined by the meaning we attribute to a situation. Melanie Klein had a significant impact on child psychology and contemporary psychoanalysis. She was a leading innovator in theorizing object relations theory. According to Klein, the infant's world was threatened from the beginning by intolerable anxieties, whose source she believed to be the infant's own death instinct.These â€Å"persecutory† anxieties, which were felt in the infant's own bodily needs as well as from the external frustrations to those needs, were overwhelming to the infant, and in order to combat them the infant resorted to defenses whose aim was to isolate her from them. Through these primitive defenses—projection, denial, splitting, withdrawal, and â€Å"omnipotent control† of these objects—the infant put threatening, â€Å"bad† objects, outside herself and into the external world; simultaneously, she preserved the â€Å"good† objects, both within herself and externally, by splitting them off from their malevolent counterparts.Perhaps the most fundamental of these processes were projection and introjection, which described the infant's first, primitive attempts to differentiate himself from the w orld, inside from outside, self from other, based on the prototype of oral incorporation (and spitting out) and the infant's relation to his first, nurturing/frustrating object, the mother's breast. In Bowlby's approach, the child is considered to have a need for a secure relationship with adult caregivers, without which normal social and emotional development will not occur.However, different relationship experiences can lead to different developmental outcomes. A number of attachment styles in infants with distinct characteristics have been identified known as secure attachment, avoidant attachment, anxious attachment and disorganized attachment. These can be measured in both infants and adults Attachment is an affectional tie that one person forms between him/herself and another specific one (usually the parent) — a tie that binds them together in space and endures over time.Attachment theory states that attachment is a developmental process based on the evolved adaptive t endency for young children to maintain proximity to a familiar person, called the attachment figure. Four different attachment styles have been identified in children: secure, anxious-ambivalent, anxious-avoidant, and disorganized. Secure Attachment – The child protests the mother's departure and quiets promptly on the mother's return, accepting comfort from her and returning to exploration.Avoidant Attachment – The child shows little to no signs of distress at the mother's departure, a willingness to explore the toys, and little to no visible response to the mother's return. Ambivalent Attachment – The child shows sadness on the mother's departure, ability to be picked up by the stranger and even ‘warm' to the stranger, and on the mother's return, some ambivalence, signs of anger, reluctance to ‘warm' to her and return to play. Disorganized Attachment – The child presents stereotypes upon the mother's return after separation, such as freezing for several seconds or rocking.This appears to indicate the child's lack of coherent coping strategy. Children who are classified as disorganized are also given a classification as secure, ambivalent or avoidant based on their overall reunion behavior. â€Å"The main differences between the two therapies are that the Psychodynamic Theory centres on the past experiences of the client. By using dream interpretation, free association and others, it concentrates on looking at childhood experiences and normal or abnormal development. Humanistic is based on the clients interpretation of what is happening in the here and now.It allows the client to express himself without having to look in the past†. (Wiki. answers. com) Rogers believed that the counselling relationship was based on mutuality, in which both the client and the counsellor are of equal importance whereas in Psychodynamic Counselling the Counsellor is regarded as the expert. Bibliography Person Centred Counselling by R oger Casemore, 2006, Sage Publications A Practical Approach to Counselling by Margaret Hough, 1994, Pittman Publishing Sigmund Freud by Himmat Rana 1997 www. Wikipedia/Fritz_Perls Businessballs. com