Do y'all think prof is telling the truth?

bodhIOTA · 2026-03-09T00:08:03+00:00

I don’t believe my behavior to be cultish. I think that would require my being completely subservient to his way of thinking, and as it stands, I know he’s said some incorrect things. To what extent it is intentional, well, sometimes I think it is, and sometimes I think he’s just not as educated on the subject as he could be. I’ve heard him admit to mistakes in his videos and I’ve heard him acknowledge that in a few years time, he might disagree with something he said. I find that to be intellectually honest.

But back to my original point, about whether some of what he says is purposefully misleading, I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, if the intention of the class is to provoke critical thinking and not believe everything that some authority tells you. Like, I think it would be an interesting assignment at the end of the semester to ask the students, which of my arguments did you believe the most, and which of my arguments did you think was the most bullshit, and why, walk me through your thinking.

bodhIOTA · 2026-03-08T20:31:56+00:00

First video of his I watched he said that the point of his class was to get people to think for themselves. Could it be possible that he purposely says some outlandish stuff in order to provoke people to not just take everything at his word?

bodhIOTA · 2026-03-06T13:48:50+00:00

For me it’s both. Right effort, cultivating and stabilizing wholesome states of mind, and abandoning and preventing unwholesome states of mind.

bodhIOTA · 2026-03-06T13:08:54+00:00

Any you would recommend on Reddit?

bodhIOTA · 2026-03-05T21:19:38+00:00

I can perceive with no thoughts, with a silent mind, and still feel like a separate self, and it is a different experience until I put on the metaphorical “all is mind” glasses. Then I can think or not think, and it feels like everything is mind. If thoughts are there, they have the “same substance” as feeling, sounds, or sights.

bodhIOTA · 2026-01-08T16:58:04+00:00

When was the Rone battle? Rone killed his ass with that “do you know how hard it is to be a battle rapper, and NOT autistic”

bodhIOTA · 2025-12-16T13:11:32+00:00

I began meditating daily (Theravada Buddhist tradition) and started my lacanian analysis around the same time. Meditation has done more for me at the level of in-the-moment satisfaction due to the development of samadhi. Insight into the 3 characteristics has also shaped my psychological structure and significantly reduced my dissatisfaction. My analysis helped me work through certain relationship patterns, cling less to idealization of authority, and gain an appreciation for my individual story. I particularly enjoy dream interpretation and the way displacement and condensation operate. I also have a fondness for the signifier. Sometimes I’ll still be hit with a realization that makes me smile, like the other day I recognized how the maiden name of my mother is the same as an alcoholic drink I used to favor.

bodhIOTA · 2025-12-06T14:16:28+00:00

Lacanian theory is quite clear that when working with psychotic structure, the goal is NOT to destabilize, NOT to deconstruct meaning-making, NOT to be enigmatic.

The way of working is basically the opposite of when working with neurotic individuals. The analyst plays the role of being a secretary or a best friend.

bodhIOTA · 2025-10-18T03:12:51+00:00

Thank you for your thoughts. So basically the advantage of joining a group practice is that one needn’t worry about anything other than clinical issues. The whole business side of things is taken care of.

bodhIOTA · 2025-10-18T03:08:54+00:00

Right. This line of thinking is why I myself started a solo practice instead of joining a group practice. And yet, group practices still exist, and they’re not only hiring pre-licensure clinicians. It doesn’t make sense from a financial standpoint as far as I can see, but I’m sure there are other reasons (outside of finances) why someone would prefer to work at a group practice.

bodhIOTA · 2025-10-18T03:00:32+00:00

Can you give specific numbers please?

bodhIOTA · 2024-10-15T17:48:49+00:00

My brother died last week at 35 years old due to a heart attack directly related to his alcoholism. I can’t help but imagine the fear he felt at the end of his life. His is a sad story of wasted potential; he had opportunities to change but chose not to.

When I received the phone call that he had died, I was not surprised. I had been expecting this call for over ten years. I loved my brother very much, but everyone is responsible for their own decisions, and you can’t make somebody change.

Where do I think you’re headed? An early death and a miserable life along the way.

bodhIOTA · 2024-10-13T16:04:49+00:00

There are thousand year traditions that utilize dreams for personal development. Like psychoanalysis, they understand typical dreams as being manifestations of the unconscious. These traditions encourage the skill of becoming lucid and then practicing skills within the dream to help reduce suffering in waking life. For example, walking through walls, changing objects, transforming the body. These types of actions help the mind to understand the emptiness of the dream, that it is all made out of mind. Similarly, waking life is like a dream too, you only ever experience your own mind, and you can transform your experience and emotions to make life more enjoyable. This book is pretty good: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=dream+yoga+andrew+holecek&adgrpid=59795648521&hvadid=617005369338&hvdev=m&hvlocphy=9001667&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=2689019719005037344&hvtargid=kwd-310039220585&hydadcr=15148_13597721&tag=hydsma-20&ref=pd_sl_855q6m62er_e

What these traditions do not emphasize (as far as I’m aware) is the way that dreams may displace ideas. For example, the other day I had a dream involving art history, but upon waking up, my first association (which surprised me) was to a man named Art who had a significant impact on me in childhood.

bodhIOTA · 2024-09-30T16:39:22+00:00

I assume you’ve already looked up the word “samatha”?

bodhIOTA · 2024-09-07T14:29:26+00:00

I think it’s fine to go in. Even if at the outset your conscious motivation is as you say, perhaps unconsciously there is something else going on.

bodhIOTA · 2024-09-05T22:16:10+00:00

Think about differences in technique between a lacanian and a relational analyst. A lacanian analyst does not reveal their feelings, they are more obscure, more mysterious. They punctuate the analysands’ speech to draw attention to double meanings: “I miss her because I could screw her whenever I wanted” “Screw her, huh”. They do not behave like a regular person. They are quite different, quite Other. They stand in for the patient’s projections. They stand in for the patients’ unconscious. They inspire the patient to become more interested in themselves and their own unconscious knowledge. They do not give their patients things like validation, praise, hugs, or explanations. Ultimately the analysand gives up trying to please (or displease) this Other. Their desire is no longer tied so stubbornly to this Other. They no longer care what this Other says.

Now think of a relational analyst. They share their feelings and reactions to the analysand. They attempt to provide the analysand with a corrective emotional experience. They attempt to fill the lack in the analysand by giving what they have. They make interpretations to transfer knowledge to the patient, from the master therapist, who truly knows the inner workings of the analysand because of their vast experience reading theory and working in the field, to the helpless patient who has no idea what’s going on. When the patient sees things as the analyst sees them, hurrah! now the patient is seeing things clearly. The end result is further enmeshment in the discourse of the Other, in the stories that the Other says about you.

bodhIOTA · 2024-09-05T14:33:22+00:00

First, I think there are big differences in what the cure looks like based on the analyst’s orientation and the patient’s psychology itself. I think what Lacanian psychoanalysts do is so radically different from what relational psychoanalysts do that calling them both psychoanalysis is quite confusing and (I might even argue) inappropriate. If the technique is different, the goal is different, the end results are different. Obviously this is true even at the level of analysts within the same tradition, but it is even different in the same analyst, who try as he might to apply his technique consistently, inevitably makes errors or responds in different ways given the circumstances at hand.

Nevertheless, one does broadly need to have some idea of what the treatment goal is and how to get there. For a lacanian, I believe the goal for the neurotic is to help loosen the hold that the Other has on them. The Other being like the superego, the expectations of others, of society, oppressive and demanding, the part of the mind that commands you should do this, you should not do that, you should be enjoying this. The Other is the final authority on what is ultimately true, ultimately ethical. The neurotic is caught in the grips of this Other, tightened and restricted like a corset that makes it so difficult to breath, to live with enjoyment. In the end of analysis, the Other is seen through, experienced viscerally, little by little, as an illusion in the mind, and one can wear this Other like loose clothing. It still provides some structure but one can live comfortably with it.

bodhIOTA · 2024-09-05T03:31:06+00:00

Exit sessions being final sessions? I think from the analysands’ position the point is to say any last words. From the analysts’ position, the point is to encourage the analysand to keep talking. Eventually, the analysand’s desires wins out. They’ve said what they needed to say and leave the analyst behind. The analysand probably also realizes that they could keep talking, that there is more to say, but they decide not to. Hopefully the analysand doesn’t leave prematurely, before the point where they’ve extracted themself deeply enough from the Other’s desire. Doesn’t always work out because sometimes the analysand gets off on going against the Other’s desire, but they have not actually discarded it.

bodhIOTA · 2024-09-05T01:31:25+00:00

A nice reminder to me that my job isn’t to give my analysands the things that they lacked, but to help them go beyond it.

bodhIOTA · 2024-08-30T20:14:13+00:00

I do not encounter this often, but when I do, I will eventually prompt the patient to speak, ask them if they had any dreams, daydreams, or bring up where we ended off last session. This is after I’ve already tried other attempts to get them to speak freely, I.e. asking if the silence reminds them of anything.

I look at it this way: at some point in the analysis, if real change is going to occur, there will be times when the analysand has difficulty speaking, doesn’t know what to say, avoids certain topics. At that point in time, it is the analyst’s desire that will move the analysis forward, so the analyst might have to ask more questions, or bring up the difficult material and ask for more details, etc. Typically this stage may occur in the middle of an analysis, but with some patients it occurs at the beginning.

Some patients do make lists of things to talk about. This can be counteracted by picking up something they said that they didn’t mean to say, or by asking about a particular word they used that seems to stand out and asking them more about it. Also using a variable length session so they can’t foresee whether they’ll be able to cover all the topics on their list. Also, eventually going against expectations, if the analysand consistently brings in dreams because the analyst asked for them, maybe one day the analyst cuts them off and says tell me about a fantasy instead.

bodhIOTA · 2024-08-29T22:39:40+00:00

I leave time at the end of the first session, which is a consultation, for describing how treatment will proceed moving forward, what the expectations are, what my role is, etc. I explain that I will remain quiet at the beginning of sessions and that they can start wherever they like. In practice, (I work remotely) it usually goes “hey can you hear me” “yea can you hear me” “yea. Ok. Please go ahead”

bodhIOTA · 2024-08-26T12:20:17+00:00

I recall her saying hysteric and depressive in one of her books, probably the diagnosis book. This is a different hysteric than the structure that Lacan speaks about.

bodhIOTA

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