Philosophy
Dreams to Plato
Plato thinks that dreams come from the individual to express his hidden desires, fears etc. Dreams reflect Psychological processes in which a person goes through while sleeping. This is very close to what Freud thinks about dreams which leads us to think whether he actually cited it from him.
Interestingly, Plato specifies which kind of desires we dream. He teaches that in dreams we lose our gentler part of soul and logic is withdrawn. The beast of us takes control to satisfy our instincts. It will isolate any kind of shame or reason and it will not restrict any kind of thing to its maximum limit. In every one of us there are desires which are revealed in our dreams, horrible in their essence.
Dreams to Aristotle
Aristotle (pupil of Plato) tried to specify dreams as connected to Physiology according to his account of it. Aristotle denied the thought that dreams are visits from God, arguing that stupid people and animals dream. He states that sleep is crucial to keep our common sense (as an organ) restored. Aristotle attributes sleep to evaporation of food and liquid to pass to our head. Dreams are reflected on raging waves and when they are great, nothing can stop them. Dreamers are less critical about their dreams and more sensitive to stimuli. He clarifies how we are more sensitive when we sleep. In the day time, we face stimuli which we do not notice if they were light because of the strong waking impulses but when we sleep, any small stimuli seems powerful and the opposite happens.
Aristotle thinks that it is a good method to diagnose diseases as diseases start small when they visit our body and they are clearer when we sleep because we are more sensitive at night rather than day time.
Aristotle was asked what he thought about prophesies so he noted the need to distinguish between dreams and prophesies saying that dreams are signs of events which occurred. He goes back to the Physiological aspect of it saying that dreams may reflect what is going in our body. He rejected the idea that dreams could mirror prophesy.
Aristotle writes his thesis on dreams by using common sense where he analyses and classifies dreams. One class of dreams is dreams which are affected by past events and have not future importance. The second is dreams which tell about the future and they are divided to three categories:
-Direct prophecies
-Previsions of future events
-Symbolic dreams that need to be interpretated in order to be figured out.
The difficulty in dreams is how to interpret them. If dreams have meanings, then how come we can not see their importance at once, the way we see importance of things when we are awake.
The Psychoanalytic Approach
Dreams to Sigmund Freud
Freud's most basic idea about dreams is that dreams are infantile wish fulfilment. His writings about The Interpretation of Dreams in 1900 tell about his belief that dreams all seek to fulfil one wish which converted to others and that is the wish to sleep. We dream inorder not to wake up because we want to sleep.
But Freud's Theory of Dreams is different completely. Freud believes that dreams are connected to typial characteristics of neuroses so he relates symbolism of dreams to neurosis forms. On a Physiological level, Freud explains why dreams are connected to wishes and experience: he makes significant difference between two mental processes. Primary and Secondary. Primary is the unconscious and the secondary is the conscious. Freud says that the primary process controls dream life while at the same time, the Ego in the process of dreaming is almost none moveable. He mentions that if there was no Ego, then we would not be able to dream.
Freud was trying to find out why dreams are not logical when they imply to our deep nature of the individual. This led him to differentiate between Manifest and Latent contents of dreams. Freud asks also, if we are able to explain why a thought of something wished is reflected in a visionary form. He argues that a thought in dreams is transferred to an image and speech in a direct manner.
In dreams, the excitation moves in a retrogressive direction. Instead of moving towards the motor end of the dream, it moves backward to the sensory end and in final stages, it gets to the perceptual system. It is opposite to what happens in waking life where the direction is progressive in physical terms. In dreams, the direction is regressive. This regression gives us the opportunity to exploit dreams to uncover content of our unconsciousness. In such process, fabric of our dream-thoughts is being converted to its raw material.
It is right to say that when we are sleeping, our physiological state changes and so our excitations to lead to regressions as mentioned before but, in some cases this may occur also in waking state such in patients who suffer from hallucinations, for example in Hysteria. In such case, waking regressions that is of thoughts are converted to images which are connected to oppressed and unconscious memories. Freud believes that in dreams we may be able to retrace our experience as infants. Dreaming is a revival of our childhood, impulsive instincts, methods of expression which were available to us at that time. This would reveal the development of ourselves and circumstances which dominated us.
Freudian Symbols refer to dreams as symbolic accounts of unconscious mental activity with great importance. To him, symbolism in the Theory of Dreams is translation in which allows us to interpret the dream, some times without the need to ask the dreamer. If we are familiar with dream-symbols, the dreamer's personality, the conditions he lives, and the impressions he faced prior to the dream then we will be able to interpret it immediately. Freud Says that this symbolic relation is a comparison though it is a limited one. We can not compare every object or process in a dream as a symbol of it and at the same time, a dream does not symbolize every element of it but certain ones. The idea of a symbol can not be decided completely because it could be a replacement, a representation or a hint. It is a number of symbols that we use to compare but at the same time we may ask: if the dreamer uses them in his dream then how come he does not know their meanings? as mentioned before, the number of things which are symbolic in a dream is not big:
- The Human Body As a Whole
- Parents
- Children
- Brothers and Sisters
- Birth
- Death
- Nakedness
A house represents the human body as a whole. Houses with smooth walls are men and houses with projections and balconies are women. Some times you see yourself climbing a house or holding to it.
Parents are represented as Emperor and Empress or King and Queen or other respectful personalities.
So they represent in this case the good male and female. In case they treat their children brothers and sisters less gently, the parents are represented as small animals and vermin. Birth is represented almost all the time as something to do with water. One is either falls into the water or gets out of it. Dying is replaced in dreams by departure, being dead by unknown and timid hints. So we can see here, the unclear boarders between symbolic and allusive representation.
Freud talks now about the sexual symbolism and its significance saying that male genitals are represented in dreams in various ways called symbolic where the common element between them in comparison is obvious which is the similar shape of objects such unbrellas, posts, trees, weapons etc. Among the less easily understandable male sexual symbols are certain reptiles, fishes, and snake. It is certainly not easy to understand why hats and over coats or cloaks symbolize the same but it is not questionable of their importance. Female Genitals, which are less likely to be symbolized by them, are ships, cupboards, stoves, rooms. Rooms overlap in a certain amount house symbolism so it is more likely to represent them. Apples, peaches, and other fruits symbolize breasts. Jewels and treasure are used in dreams to reflect someone who is loved.
After all, Freud says that dream symbolism should not be taken for granted and that such thing is not that simple especially when we try to practise it on both sexes.
Psychology could never be accurate and there will always be a place to question it and Freud's thinking is not completely original as if we were to review history of Philosophy and Psychology then we could see that older generations of Philosophers and Psychologists have written similar theories such Plato, Aristotle, Albertus Magnus (thirteenth century), Thomas Hobbes (1651), but it seems that Freud developed them to a more advanced level.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Beauty is in the Eye of the Gene!
Social Psychology
This article concentrates on the Biological-Genetic role for human behavior and in contrast to previous articles; it will not concentrate on Psychological aspects of it. In fact, it will want to convince you of its correctness. As I can not debate all sorts of human behavior, this article will discuss specific human behavior.
So for example, beauty, what is it? It is obvious and visible that beauty is connected to health. Would you prefer to kiss a person with symptoms of disease rather than a person with healthy clear skin? The answer derives from common sense but we do not need our mother to teach us that runny noses are disgusting! Healthy people are universally attractive and better genes live in better bodies and we choose healthy partners. So is beauty genetic? Is our decision for beauty genetic? In this respect we are not different from animals; some species of female rabbits chase males in high speed and for long periods of time so that they would mate. Same like when male and female snakes need to wrestle before they engage in sex. Many male monkeys need to balance themselves acrobatically when they are having an intercourse with a female monkey and no sick male monkey will be allowed to carry out such act. Though, a culture where skin infections are common, appreciates clear skin more than other.
But attracting genes are not limited to skin quality but to others as well. One is Physical Symmetry. Humans have a single genetic blueprint which instructs how to build left and right sides of the body such hands, legs, breasts. Each human's genes work for both sides of our bodies but none of us is completely symmetrical, and there will always be a deviation between both sides such length, width and size. Usually, they are minor and hard to notice. In nature, there is a strong connection between organism symmetry and health, for instance, symmetrical horses run faster than more lopsided horses, symmetrical flowers produce more nectar. Symmetrical animals are found more attractive and sexually desirable than asymmetric animals which grow slowly, die young, and engage in less sexual intercourses. Humans are no different to animals in this respect, they are more attracted to symmetrical humans, men with symmetrical bodies have more lovers as twice, they experience sex 3 - 4 years earlier, their partners are more likely to reach orgasm and different orgasm rates improve the chance to have a symmetrical child. There are many studies which prove the biological connection to attraction where people from different cultures rated attraction in similar ranks when photos of other people were shown to them. Even babies were found to stare at photos of attractive people for longer time.
So to whom do we get attracted to? Mostly, siblings are not supposed to be our spouses! And this is universally agreed and it is biologically orientated. Turn to animals; they also avoid mating with their brothers and sisters because it is not good for their babies. Humans who mate with their siblings bring babies who are likely to die, or survive with serious disorders. This avoidance to fall in love with our siblings derives from the awareness that such act could lead to unhealthy offspring and from our instinctual, unconscious refusal to have a relationship with a person we grew up with from a tiny young age. So brother and sister may fall in love one with another if they never met before but otherwise, they would not fall in love. We aspire to have genetic diversity when we want to mate and mostly have children and it may spread beyond not having an affair with our siblings but even overseas. We are mostly to be attracted to people who are not from our environment and very different from us. Biologically, it is called MHC or HLA and the result is mixture of genes to bring healthy offspring. So we as humans, men and women seek good genes, healthy, symmetrical and non related spouses. We contribute as parents to raising up our children so both sexes look for spouses who could form good parents but the biological difference between male and female affects our behavior as a woman produces four hundred possible fertile eggs in life time while a man brings three hundred million sperm per ejaculation. Because of this difference, men and women behave differently when they engage in a sexual intercourse.
What about men, what are they looking for? Miss America these days has feminine looks; twenty years ago she was thinner, while in the twenties she was fat. So they varied during these years but still waist measures did not deviate drastically. It turned out that shape is more important to us rather than size. Men from all cultures find women with 0.7 ratios are most attractive, but women with such ratios are most fertile so it seems that our genes are attracted to the fertility ability. Men prefer younger women because fertility decreases when they are older and women are more beautiful as a common concept when they are feminine, have thinner jaws, larger eyes, and have a shorter distance between mouth and chin. Makeup and cosmetic surgeries try to increase desirable features such lipsticks and collagen injections to turn lips bigger and youthful, skin products to let the skin look clearer, breast augmentation though larger breasts do not increase milk neither bring healthier children but these techniques have been used since ancient times for example the Egyptian Pharaohs. It seems that these desirable features are genetic. Men like women who show interest in them but how do they know? Poorly, they realize this by trivial signs but actually, when a woman is turned on by a man her pupils dilate and some times with eye drops and this is an involuntary reaction. In addition to better sexual life, beautiful women enjoy higher salaries according to studies but acquire hostility from other women even those who are beautiful as well so they have less female friends.
So women, what are they looking for? Marilyn Monroe dated John F. Kennedy but had sex with him only when he became a president. Status helps humans and studies learn that women who marry better educated men are more successful, their marriage lasted longer, had more children and had happier life. Women use their beauty to join high status men to develop their interests and money is a big attraction to them to a degree that they would prefer ugly rich men to handsome men working in Burger King. Women search for men with secure finance and status but they are not interested in old men. In the States, 40 years old men earn an average of $21000 more than twenty years old guys so the result is that women mate in the end with older men though amusingly, women do not get attracted to older men for their older age. In fact, women avoid old men because of genetic reasons as when a man becomes older; his sperms become copies of copies of copies leading to DNA errors. Women also do not like short guys and in general society goes for tall men. In business, an inch of height is worth more than $1000 a year. 39 out of 41 American presidents were the taller during a campaign for presidency and in general, tall men benefit a lot from this quality. Women prefer men who can provide good resources such food, clothing, shelter, and other goods that money can buy and women who earn more money take into account her partner's finance more seriously and this is the reason why women marry older men. It is reflected in personal ads as well where women mention money ten times more than men. In animal life, many female species mate only with strongest males where for example, cocks fight with other cocks to impress hens before they could mate with them.
Our perception of mates, friends, co-workers, and politicians derives from our animal heritage and our perception of beauty is genetic and so I can not change my genes to be more attractive. One solution is our awareness of our beauty biases so that we control our behavior. Humans unconsciously hold preferences over specific qualities. A study learns that teachers rated good looking pupils as more sociable, more popular, and more intelligent. Some exploit their good looks to manipulate others to get what they wanted and worse than that when they disconnect themselves from them when they get the thing. The phenomenon to favor attractive women is universal and even babies stare at beautiful faces longer. This preconscious beauty filter affects our behavior towards people and some would call us bad because we do this, but can we help it? It seems that it could be possible if we follow some techniques such setting up preventive systems for example the request to put it in writing when we are asked to amend marks bearing in mind that verbal - facial confrontation could be influenced by our subconsciousness. It is unfair to be judged by symmetry and other uncontrollable similar elements but luckily, there are other elements which we can control and which our potential friends would take into account such kindness and understanding which were ranked at top of the list in a study about attractive attributes people seek when they are looking for friendship. Another study shows that men and women seek same traits when they are looking for mates including personality, adaptability and creativity yet men seek good looks in a higher degree. Women, who go to sperm banks, read about donors but usually there is no photo though a lot of details are provided. In a study, it was reported that Canadian and Norwegian women chose their sperm donors for their physical and health attributes though honesty, dependability and consideration were included. These features can be taught and if we see the beauty glass as half empty rather than full and we are considerate and fit, how desirable can we be? So beauty is in the eye of the gene. Beauty is as much in the gene of the beholder as the eye. We are attracted to people who are different from us.
One the other hand, other theories in social psychology claim that we are attracted to people who are similar to us rather than different from us, so self seeking like and this is the reason that there is a lot of narcissism and this is the reason there is some thing that is called nation so we look the same.
This article concentrates on the Biological-Genetic role for human behavior and in contrast to previous articles; it will not concentrate on Psychological aspects of it. In fact, it will want to convince you of its correctness. As I can not debate all sorts of human behavior, this article will discuss specific human behavior.
So for example, beauty, what is it? It is obvious and visible that beauty is connected to health. Would you prefer to kiss a person with symptoms of disease rather than a person with healthy clear skin? The answer derives from common sense but we do not need our mother to teach us that runny noses are disgusting! Healthy people are universally attractive and better genes live in better bodies and we choose healthy partners. So is beauty genetic? Is our decision for beauty genetic? In this respect we are not different from animals; some species of female rabbits chase males in high speed and for long periods of time so that they would mate. Same like when male and female snakes need to wrestle before they engage in sex. Many male monkeys need to balance themselves acrobatically when they are having an intercourse with a female monkey and no sick male monkey will be allowed to carry out such act. Though, a culture where skin infections are common, appreciates clear skin more than other.
But attracting genes are not limited to skin quality but to others as well. One is Physical Symmetry. Humans have a single genetic blueprint which instructs how to build left and right sides of the body such hands, legs, breasts. Each human's genes work for both sides of our bodies but none of us is completely symmetrical, and there will always be a deviation between both sides such length, width and size. Usually, they are minor and hard to notice. In nature, there is a strong connection between organism symmetry and health, for instance, symmetrical horses run faster than more lopsided horses, symmetrical flowers produce more nectar. Symmetrical animals are found more attractive and sexually desirable than asymmetric animals which grow slowly, die young, and engage in less sexual intercourses. Humans are no different to animals in this respect, they are more attracted to symmetrical humans, men with symmetrical bodies have more lovers as twice, they experience sex 3 - 4 years earlier, their partners are more likely to reach orgasm and different orgasm rates improve the chance to have a symmetrical child. There are many studies which prove the biological connection to attraction where people from different cultures rated attraction in similar ranks when photos of other people were shown to them. Even babies were found to stare at photos of attractive people for longer time.
So to whom do we get attracted to? Mostly, siblings are not supposed to be our spouses! And this is universally agreed and it is biologically orientated. Turn to animals; they also avoid mating with their brothers and sisters because it is not good for their babies. Humans who mate with their siblings bring babies who are likely to die, or survive with serious disorders. This avoidance to fall in love with our siblings derives from the awareness that such act could lead to unhealthy offspring and from our instinctual, unconscious refusal to have a relationship with a person we grew up with from a tiny young age. So brother and sister may fall in love one with another if they never met before but otherwise, they would not fall in love. We aspire to have genetic diversity when we want to mate and mostly have children and it may spread beyond not having an affair with our siblings but even overseas. We are mostly to be attracted to people who are not from our environment and very different from us. Biologically, it is called MHC or HLA and the result is mixture of genes to bring healthy offspring. So we as humans, men and women seek good genes, healthy, symmetrical and non related spouses. We contribute as parents to raising up our children so both sexes look for spouses who could form good parents but the biological difference between male and female affects our behavior as a woman produces four hundred possible fertile eggs in life time while a man brings three hundred million sperm per ejaculation. Because of this difference, men and women behave differently when they engage in a sexual intercourse.
What about men, what are they looking for? Miss America these days has feminine looks; twenty years ago she was thinner, while in the twenties she was fat. So they varied during these years but still waist measures did not deviate drastically. It turned out that shape is more important to us rather than size. Men from all cultures find women with 0.7 ratios are most attractive, but women with such ratios are most fertile so it seems that our genes are attracted to the fertility ability. Men prefer younger women because fertility decreases when they are older and women are more beautiful as a common concept when they are feminine, have thinner jaws, larger eyes, and have a shorter distance between mouth and chin. Makeup and cosmetic surgeries try to increase desirable features such lipsticks and collagen injections to turn lips bigger and youthful, skin products to let the skin look clearer, breast augmentation though larger breasts do not increase milk neither bring healthier children but these techniques have been used since ancient times for example the Egyptian Pharaohs. It seems that these desirable features are genetic. Men like women who show interest in them but how do they know? Poorly, they realize this by trivial signs but actually, when a woman is turned on by a man her pupils dilate and some times with eye drops and this is an involuntary reaction. In addition to better sexual life, beautiful women enjoy higher salaries according to studies but acquire hostility from other women even those who are beautiful as well so they have less female friends.
So women, what are they looking for? Marilyn Monroe dated John F. Kennedy but had sex with him only when he became a president. Status helps humans and studies learn that women who marry better educated men are more successful, their marriage lasted longer, had more children and had happier life. Women use their beauty to join high status men to develop their interests and money is a big attraction to them to a degree that they would prefer ugly rich men to handsome men working in Burger King. Women search for men with secure finance and status but they are not interested in old men. In the States, 40 years old men earn an average of $21000 more than twenty years old guys so the result is that women mate in the end with older men though amusingly, women do not get attracted to older men for their older age. In fact, women avoid old men because of genetic reasons as when a man becomes older; his sperms become copies of copies of copies leading to DNA errors. Women also do not like short guys and in general society goes for tall men. In business, an inch of height is worth more than $1000 a year. 39 out of 41 American presidents were the taller during a campaign for presidency and in general, tall men benefit a lot from this quality. Women prefer men who can provide good resources such food, clothing, shelter, and other goods that money can buy and women who earn more money take into account her partner's finance more seriously and this is the reason why women marry older men. It is reflected in personal ads as well where women mention money ten times more than men. In animal life, many female species mate only with strongest males where for example, cocks fight with other cocks to impress hens before they could mate with them.
Our perception of mates, friends, co-workers, and politicians derives from our animal heritage and our perception of beauty is genetic and so I can not change my genes to be more attractive. One solution is our awareness of our beauty biases so that we control our behavior. Humans unconsciously hold preferences over specific qualities. A study learns that teachers rated good looking pupils as more sociable, more popular, and more intelligent. Some exploit their good looks to manipulate others to get what they wanted and worse than that when they disconnect themselves from them when they get the thing. The phenomenon to favor attractive women is universal and even babies stare at beautiful faces longer. This preconscious beauty filter affects our behavior towards people and some would call us bad because we do this, but can we help it? It seems that it could be possible if we follow some techniques such setting up preventive systems for example the request to put it in writing when we are asked to amend marks bearing in mind that verbal - facial confrontation could be influenced by our subconsciousness. It is unfair to be judged by symmetry and other uncontrollable similar elements but luckily, there are other elements which we can control and which our potential friends would take into account such kindness and understanding which were ranked at top of the list in a study about attractive attributes people seek when they are looking for friendship. Another study shows that men and women seek same traits when they are looking for mates including personality, adaptability and creativity yet men seek good looks in a higher degree. Women, who go to sperm banks, read about donors but usually there is no photo though a lot of details are provided. In a study, it was reported that Canadian and Norwegian women chose their sperm donors for their physical and health attributes though honesty, dependability and consideration were included. These features can be taught and if we see the beauty glass as half empty rather than full and we are considerate and fit, how desirable can we be? So beauty is in the eye of the gene. Beauty is as much in the gene of the beholder as the eye. We are attracted to people who are different from us.
One the other hand, other theories in social psychology claim that we are attracted to people who are similar to us rather than different from us, so self seeking like and this is the reason that there is a lot of narcissism and this is the reason there is some thing that is called nation so we look the same.
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