We are all storytellers and we are the stories we tell The above is a quotation (in fact it’s the opening line) from a book I’m reading called Identity and Story Creating Self in Narrative by McAdams Josselson and Lieblich (2006) APA Washington.Why do we tell stories about ourselves?There are always at least two people involved the storyteller and the listener. I like to think about a self-story as a type of connection between two points in time and place. A bridge between two sets of events the narrative and the present -the moment of telling.Self-stories are constructed in the telling and they are an important fabric in the perpetual…

Some notes Carl Jung and Motivation Jung and others emphasise the unconscious.The suggestion is that we need to question the contribution of the unconscious to motivation. Jung uses the terms psyche and psychic rather than mind and mental.Jung sees the unconscious aspect of the psyche as different but complimentary to the conscious. Jung sees the psyche as a dynamic system, in constant flux and self-regulating . He calls the psychic energy libido acting out a form of opposition and compensation. Forward (progression) and backward (regression) movement of the libido -think of adaptation (to one’s environment) and accommodation (change in mind). Some idea of flow between the conscious and the unconscious.…

Went to see No Country for Old Men http://www.nocountryforoldmen.com/ with J. Quite a good film typical Coen brothers. Lots of open country and murders. Yes murders! But what of the plot. Well quite a story really and a puzzling ending. We talked about it afterwards always a sign of a good film. What else can be done on a wet day. What about the ending. I think it’s courageous for a box office type movie to take on such a creative ending.The sherif Bell tries to sort out his world as he begins his retirement. Here is a section from the script: LORETTA (CONT’D) … How’d you sleep? BELL I…

Cognitive theories of learning have evolved from experimental psychology and find their roots in the study of behaviour. The early emphasis was on measuring responses to external stimuli and the so called behaviourist approach was the dominant paradigm up until the latter part of the last century. Much pioneering work in experimental learning psychology was based on observing results from animal and human experiments typically involving the quest to understand relationships between stimuli and observed responses (Hilgard & Bower, 1966; Mackintosh, 1997; Travers, 1967). These insights into learning focused only on external observable behaviour. Early workEarly exponents of behaviourism such as John B Watson, Edward L Thorndike and B. F.…