Quote Of The Day

" The Statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans is suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they are okay , then its you."

-Rita May Brown

Quote Of The Day

"Sanity is a little box...The world of madness is as wide as the universe " - Charles Manson

And Now, Presenting Hollywood's Take on Mental Illness . . .

A recent headlining story in the celebrity realm spurred me to speculate the media's portrayals of what is  normal versus what is dysfunction.
Last night,the bright eyed child star of the 90's Amanda Bynes was handcuffed, brought to your local psych ward to be evaluated, and then proceeded to the next stop ; the local jailhouse.

Amanda Bynes Mugshot picture after her DUI

I'm sure this is not what Amanda meant when she said she wanted to have an 'exciting night out'.
Some would say , 'We saw this coming' after a string of bizarre events that Amanda has reportedly found herself in lately.
But after reading the reportedly 'bizarre behavior', I asked myself honestly ; when does behavior become so out of the norm that it is deemed 'disordered'?

In Amanda's case,she is a 27 year old woman with enough money in the bank that one would hope to win in the upcoming lottery , hence , her perception of responsibilities and priorities are not the same as the average member of society's.
Additionally,when reading about the events and actions that were accounted for as 'bizarre', I realized that for the upcoming generation of teens and young adults these actions are in fact quite common.
 Some actions that led to an inquisition on Amanda's mental health status were ; smoking marijuana, taking pictures of herself in various degrees of undress, showing off new piercings and collecting a small collection of DUIs.

The columnist must have had her daughters raised in a convent if the said behaviors were perceived as outlandish!
Silly press,
The truth is that many of these actions are the usual Friday night for young women and girls across America, to utter a 'nay' at such an opinion would warrant one to consider
 that they might be naive or operating with blinders on.
As for Amanda posing with her breasts jammed into a push-up bra and posting the tacky deed on an online forum, it might be provocative but so is our standards for the average celebrity.
Hollywood is the land of the Playboy Mansion in which reside women with breasts the size of car bumpers , and other generally exaggerated states of being ... so why is such behavior being added up as ill when isolated in the case of one woman? Perhaps you have forgotten to account for the entire ill society?

Twitter,Tumblr and Facebook are swollen with provocative imagery from young women who post pictures of themselves while attempting their best Rhiannas.

Of course, if push-up bras on twitter and smoking marijuana from a bong- then driving the family Sedan home afterwards are decent behaviors from young adults,the answer would be no! But I wouldn't venture to call them particularly devious and disordered, or behavior reserved for women with felonies.

Another story that seemed on the cusp of exaggeration by the press was Amanda's outing at her local gym. Amanda was in a cycling class when she decided to hop off her machine, waltz over to the mirrors and touch up her makeup for a whole dozen minutes.
Coined as outlandish and reportedly proof that this young woman is in a downward descent into madness, the magazine fails to outline that perhaps Amanda does not feel the urge to commit to the class because she can afford it, and for her it is a mere pastime and not a commitment. Or perhaps the class did not suit her expectations, at the very least maybe Amanda needed some attention? She does not have the average person's sense of responsibility and priorities , if she spends money on a class she is not dedicated to it wont scorn her budget, partying and smoking marijuana will not get her immediately fired if she is a no-show at the assembly line the next morning. Amanda 's family will not go hungry if she chooses hedonistic activities over priorities and work. Secondly, one must obviously consider the gaggle of paparazzi outside the gym who are clocking her and waiting to take her picture. Hell, eight out of ten girls would be powdering their noses in front of those mirrors as well if a group of ten men with high resolution cameras were waiting for them in the parking lot. Can one blame Amanda for not fully concentrating on her Spinning Class?

And let us consider for a moment the possibility that Amanda was indeed mentally ill ,what role would we be playing by constantly taunting her and publishing articles dubbing her 'mentally ill'?

Hollywood ; The Western Holy Land

Hollywood is the land of often botched attempts at creating a simulated empire of perfection. The Hollywood society is overexcited with the idea they are the debauched elite of this Western Holy Land, and they are continuously obsessed with symbols that represent this ; the glamour , festivities, beauty, fashion ect..

Survival of the Fittest theory dictates that the weak will perish , even Hollywood abides by this law.
Hollywood subsequently shames and dehumanizes those members which fall short of the 'elite' status.

Credit :britneyspearsgifs.tumblr.com 

It is as if those not glamorous enough or those who fail to meet the standards of Hollywood are seen as misrepresenting the pack.

What happens to them is the systematic shaming and assault on their integrity. We love to watch them fail and pick them apart, relishing the idea that they are 'imperfect' in the valley of perfection.

Contemporary victims of Hollywood shaming are Britney Spears,Lindsay Lohan,Christian Bale, Catherine Zeta Jones.

And now Amanda Bynes.

I am not trying to push the idea that Amanda is ever knowing and flawless in her actions but the press jumping on this celebrity mental illness campaign and magnifying this woman's every 'wrong move' is in part driven by their capitalist thirst, all the while throwing this individual under the bus.

Like all of us, Amanda might be going through hard times but since when are hard times a call for everyone to shout from the rooftops that you are suffering from a severe bout of mental illness. Like someone wise once said , "The only time you should be looking down on someone, is when you are helping them up."

Quote of The Day

" What horrifies me most is the idea of being useless: well-educated, brilliantly promising, and fading out into an indifferent middle age. "

Guns and Lilacs

I thought I would be crossing my fingers while typing my very first blog, in all honesty I haven't read a blog in months and at first I readily tried to recall a blogger's first post- or at the very least if there are any protocols, or customary 'rights' and 'wrongs' to starting off a blog.

Then naturally,my own personal philosophy chimed in;
Hell,if there is no right or wrong way to lead one's life ,then I shouldn't be sweating it over a blog,right?
That made me think ; a blog imitates life, and there goes the clich-ay saying art imitates life.

One's opinion,philosophy or one's blog in this case-is a mere device intended to 'sample' one's state of mind, which one could liken to a Breathalyzer Test. It's function is to sample one's alcohol levels and therefor,one's state of mind, internal functionings and judgment.

I do not have a clear and well-rounded mental picture of what I will write about but the general thesis of my blog may orbit around Pop Psychology and issues of deviance and other dimensions of non conformity (I hope so or else I would be doomed and forced to change my blog title . . .)
In all honesty I am cultured in the mediocre sense,as I am still a budding traveler,academic,adult and member of society,but at least I am not a hipster.
Whether they are complex or elementary I do not pretend to know issues, or plan on giving politically correct or fundamentally computed answers to certain issues.I just discuss snippets of topics,research, and theories are perceived by myself or effect my environment. Hence the term of the blog 'Pop Psych', I do not assume the identity of a schooled psychologist; as I am a passionate whole hearted student of psychology (along with 100,898,000 other girls my age across America) without a valid  PhD,Masters or Bachelors under my belt. As much as I feel I have a  certain poise for writing and studying the complex mechanics of the human psyche my liberal spirit overpowers my ability to shackle my mind,determination and motivations to my books and hence and I have been rejected from a university Psychology program twice. Grades too low,they say. Apply again next semester, they say. That won't keep me from writing,researching,bearing new concepts and thinking critically about topics in psychology,no academic institution can strip me of my constant hunger for the topic of the human psyche!

I would describe myself as driven by the constant and nagging need to seek novelty and new sensatio

ns,I am forever bored, forever seeking greener pastures and forever changing my goals,identity and ways to innovate my lifestyle. Whether a personality trait ,dysfunctional or low level case of ADD, I  would rather avoid the need to label myself, for labeling should be kept for useless items in storage only. Although my parents deem me 'ahem..special', my grandparents deem me 'uneducated and spoiled',my bosses deem me 'unemployable' and my exes deem me 'absolutely nuts',  I consider myself a dishihibited non -conforming flower child with wide eyes reflecting a colorful soul. I see the world as a living fantasy and achieve my dreams because I don't believe in dreams, I only believe in a limitless reality with no boundaries. I decided that since my philosophy dictates that I do not account to 'dreams and hopes' and I must not adhere to fussing for the future but live for today without concrete expectations. I am also met with the feeling that I must up and go - seize the moment! Clinicians call this impulsive living , if I am not mistaken .Or irresponsible living.

But to further illustrate my point with my self as the protagonist I will carry on. I was goggling pictures of the desert last July, 'how romantic is the desert' I thought, with its ruddy and rigid texture, its malevolent heat and glum cacti peppering its surfaces. I wished I was cavorting in cut off shorts among the snakes of the desert. That 's a dream,is it not? And a nagging little motor inside me was fussing, pushing me. What am I doing in this cold climate called home? Punching the clock in my stale and superficial work environment ,trapped in the prison of the four walls! I would qualify for living a meaningless existence if I dare to punch in one more day in this concrete consumerist nightmare, sitting here dreaming of the desert while I smile meekly at customers, meanwhile the digital clock laughs at me overhead . I was like a flower in a concrete prison cell, sitting on the widow ledge looking out at nature's beauty but too immobile and helplessly far to reach it. I detested the greedy and sneaky grin of my master -ie my boss-  as he watered me , only sparingly giving me a glimmer of hope and only enough to survive.
 I booked my ticket to Nevada for the following week, this was one of the beginning phases of my flight from 'prison' and into free thinking and the active personifications of my mental philosophies. Yes- I proved to myself,you can recreate your wildest dreams,philosophies and metal imagery in the boring dullness of the rational realm- otherwise known as reality.  I see myself as not only impulsive,but living spontaneously. I love that I am living closely to my animal whims and  instincts, that the conformist drones who are more 'successful' than I in society's terms are much poorer than I am because all the have are tokens that represent success to OTHERS and to society. The classic trap is money , a bit rougher in texture than Kleenex and a bit more pliable than cardboard but people will spend all their lives comparing themselves to other people's cardboard stashes and never realizing that the real world is ticking away. Imagine if all you had was hours punched into the system, a nice sports car to drive around the block, and a fancy watch that ticks away the real dreams that you never lived? Imagine being that poor?

My biggest wish is to find more free souls like myself ( I say 'free' for lack of better term) to interpersonally collaborate with, people who are so shameless and unembarrassed to be ourselves that we tend to embarrass others around us in the process. Once united I figured we can take over the world. The truth is I am not sure if I am 'hell bent' because I am an artist or if I am missing a few bolts, but people tend to either call me special , in the sense of one having a flare for uniqueness or abnormal in the sense that you better book an appointment with a psychiatrist. But I have noticed that the people most drawn to me are the ones who live in their shells,mediocre and average conforming souls,scared and anxious to be looked upon with disapproval  They see me as a flirty party bag of color and tinsel and they don't understand how I cannot possibly be plagued by the need to beat my drum to the tune of the others' ,and how I glimmer with adrenaline when given the opportunity to 'live on the edge', or forging that opportunity of course because such is not always given . I will stop self analyzing before sounding too self involved as this is an issue for me , but the problem with these types of people is that rather acting as a symbiotic agent of insurgency , they are acting as an audience or rather, admirers. I should have probably stopped typing after the warning that I was inclined to sound grandiose,but carrying on...

I do,once in a dozen blue moons find a soul that is akin to mine. Nothing makes me feel more proud to be myself like finding a fellow member of the Black Sheep club, a brother in soul anarchy, a baby misfit like me! I can smell the fragrance of his eccentricity like a hound sniffing out cocaine from the new Colombian arrivals lineup. We can spot each other across the room and the bond forged is the one that stems from those lovely, 'you had me at hello...' stories. It is more often than not romantic, but friendships born from this cohesion of personalities is something that I have also experienced and never forgotten. The problem with these types of relationships is that as much as I crave them,our labile and extremist natures bring about an intense and unhealthy clashing. The initial infatuation and 'hooneymoon' stage, also pegged as idealization by the psychological community is so magical and out of the ordinary, that the eventual transition into reality and realizations of natural disappointments sometimes severs the relationship. Sometimes the relationship's rollercoaster has too sharp turns,but none the less meeting a soul akin to mine is one that leaves an imprint-or scar and reminds us that as 'unique' as we think we are, we are never really alone.  But interpersonal relationships are a whole other topic and one that I have ruminated over for too long lately so I will put an end to it here.

In short,I managed to depict an otherwise sparkly and colorful image of 'me', through this micro-biography of myself, and I also managed to outline why my blog was titled 'Pop Psych and Baby Deviants', so hopefully I will also have some consistency in delivering other posts and outling other topics which are fermenting and seething in  the deep fibers of my brain . In fact, I quite enjoyed this process! How utterly therapeutic.
 My boss once said , "I will ask you to do something before the hour is up that might be impossible for you to do,"
To which I answered , "Impossible? What do you want me to do?"
" To actually finish a task that I gave you."

Fueled by spite, I proved her wrong that day, and hopefully will prove her wrong again by keeping this blog going and finishing this 'task' that I have given to myself.

Until next time!