a DOCUMENTARY

Premise exercise for next week

A premise is a "natural law"
It is the way (you see) the world works
As a natural law, it does not need to be morally enforced:  it contains within it its own enforcement, like it or not.
It is easy to see this way:  If you do not brush your teeth, your teeth will rot.  It is a natural law.

Try this:
Good posture opens you up.  That is a natural law.
If I were to say:  "Stand up straight!" <-- that is a command.  It is not a natural law.

See the difference?

In your film (or your life), what premise do you see?  What "law" operates underneath everything that goes on.  A premise is NOT a plot.  Some people misuse the term.  They will say something like, "The premise is that the sailor came into town and met a pretty girl and they ran off together."  That is not a premise; that is a plot, a story line.  The premise is the natural law that lies under that plot.  It might be something like
"Love conquers all." or
"God pairs 'em."  or
"Chemical attraction trumps common sense."  or
"Girls like men in uniforms."  or
"Everyone has a mate." or
" ... well, you get the idea."

a premise can be negative:  e.g., "Life is unfair."  If you see through a negative premise, you see a negative world.  That is a natural law, the foundation of negativity.
a premise can be positive:  e.g., Hard work pays off.  Education is power.  Your time will come."

Think about your premise or the premise for your film.  State it, simply.
State at least two ways that you reveal it in your film:  dialog, action, resolution, costume, lighting, color, sets, symbols, music.

Hierarchy of needs

Maslow

Emotions

the wheel

Week off!

It appears we do not meet on the 24th!  Right? Right!

Assignments from Week 2 for Week 3

1. LOOKING BACK ON THIS WEEK:  You have been mailed a chart of "types" - use it for your "types" paper.  You can choose two people in your own life:  yourself and someone significant to you (parent, sibling, boss, friend, teacher) - or you can choose two "buddies" in a movie:  e.g., "Men in Black," "Shawshank Redemption," "Bonnie & Clyde", "Thelma & Louise", Beavis & Butthead" - among others.  Choose at least two "cells" from each column of each type:  see these likes and dislikes at work in the relationship.  Be specific.  Maximum 2.5 pages.
2. LOOKING FORWARD:  You have been mailed a paper on freedom.  You may get ahead and read it this week.  It will be part of the topic of next week's class.  
3. LOOKING FORWARD:  Next week, week 3, we will discuss the 8 stages of life, by Erik Erikson.  Choose a movie that you feel depicts
   a child
   a teen
   a young adult
   a mature adult
   an elder
   ANGEL GROUP ("A"):  in ONE page or less describe the challenges and goals of life as seen through that age.  E.g., a child role plays, a teen looks for identity, a young adult looks for love and work, a mature adult looks to "give back," an elder is content or in resentment.  Just give it a try.  Here is a link that may help you 8 Stages   here is anothere link
   Movie suggestions are:  "Barry Lyndon," "Mean Girls" "Breakfast Club"  "Boyz in the Hood"  "Clueless" "Rebel Without a Cause"  "American Graffiti" "Splendor in the Grass"  "Dazed and Confused"  "The 400 Blows"  "Ferris Bueller"  "Umberto D"  "Ginger and Fred."
   Now, any in group B or group C can also do this for "extra credit"

ONE assignment: for Monday 2/17

What ONE movie characterizes, for you, a non-Western or a non-patriarchal way to think.

On Magical vs. Scientific mental processes:    SEE THIS post. - there is an example of the assignment here!
On Competitive vs. Cooperative mental processes:  SEE THIS YouTube - made by a Hollywood director!

The example in the post and/or the YouTube recommended above will help you think about and get into alternate ways to think.

This paper is NO MORE THAN ONE page!

Readings for next week

ALL GROUPS:  Looking ahead to the next week, submit one page listing 2 films that seem to illuminate the topic.  This is typed, double spaced, no more than ONE page (less than 250 words)

for Monday 2/10
 Claude Levi-Strauss on The Savage Mind The distinction we are looking for is the distinction between what could be called "magical" and "scientific" thought processes.

Example of text for a paper.

"Walkabout" 1971 Directed by Nicholas Roeg.  The transformation of ways to think can be seen in the girl's eyes at the end of the movie:  after having been left as a young girl in the Outback by her father, she was found by an aborigine.  At the end of the movie she is back to civilization in a life that "makes sense" according to her native culture: indoors, behind glass, at work with all the gadgetry of a housewife.  It is civilization that belongs in a museum, behind glass--not the native who is adept at living on earth and with the earth.  The woman, now grown, has a successful husband and a house with all the amenities of modernization and the trappings of "love".  But in the Outback she had been lost--and it was then that she was found.  Nothing "made sense" in the Outback:  she could not even speak with the person who found her!  Not even a 'Hello.'  With the help of her little brother--also abandoned by their father--they created between them one word:  water.  It was all they needed.  Now that she is grown up and has all that her civilization recommends, we see in her eyes that she has inside her a world without language that provides food, shelter, companionship, and warmth.  She lost the basics when, again, she was found.

the Narcissistic Parent

http://sagaciousnewsnetwork.com/the-narcissistic-parent/

this is a wonderful series of 3

I especially like #3 for Film Students; this is #1

Adding subconscious to conscious - cycles to linearity

remember this

Movies with Abnormal Psych as topic - keep adding

Aviator
American Psycho
A Beautiful Mind <-- we will watch Nov 22	Persona
Barfly (addiction)	Prozac Nation
The Birds	Psycho
Black Swan	Play Misty for Me (Clint Eastwood)
	Pollack
Carrie
A Clockwork Orange
	One Flew Over the CooCoo's Nest
Donnie Darko
David and Lisa
Diary of a Mad Housewife	Seven
Fatal Attraction	Silence of the Lambs
Frances (borderline)	Shutter Island
Girl Interrupted
Flash from the Past
Fight Club	Repulsion
King of Comedy	Requim for a Dream (addiction)
The Joker	Ray (addiction)
Fatal attraction
	Taxi Driver
Mommy Dearest	The Three Faces of Eve
Marne (Hitchcock - kleptomaniac)	Trainspotting (addiction)
Misery	Tender Mercies (addiction)
Man w the Golden Arm	Shutter Island
Natural Born Killers	Single White Female
The Night Porter
Notes on a Scandal <-- excellent	A Woman Under the Influence
	Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?

for YOUR presentations

diseases we are NOT covering:
also shopaholic, hoarders, internet obsession, sexual predator, kleptomania, gambling . . .
SEE http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSM-5 for more detail and options

the epidemic of mental illness

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/jun/23/epidemic-mental-illness-why/?pagination=false

1. increase in # treated for MI:  2.5x betw '87 and /07 (from 1 in 184 to 1 in 75)
2. MI now leading cause of disability in children
3. 46% w at least 1 MI w/in 4 categories (1 anxiety,2  mood disorders, 3 impulse control disorders, 4 substance use disorders)
4. shift from talk therapy to drugs as dominant mode
5. 3 books which criticize the trend:  angry, sad books
   disturbing extent of selling drugs
   doubt MI is caused by a chem imbalance
6. brain has billions of nerve cells (neurons).  Multiple filament (axon and dentrites) to signal
   signal across synapse.  to signal, release a neurotransmitter.
7. drugs affect neurotransmitter levels
8. much more on whether drugs actually relate back to the source of the problem or actually create an imbalance in the brain (!)
9. placebos were 82% as effective as drugs
10. getting off the drugs can be tricky

in past couple of years, use in preschoolers is dropping http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/30/us-psychiatric-drug-idUSBRE98T03X20130930

The Illusions of Psychiatry: August 18, 2011

in response to "The Illusions of Psychiatry" from July 14

1. John Oldham, President APA says no
2. Daniel Carlat, MD Psychatry:  the drugs work
3. Richard Friedman, MD Psychiatry:  ok we don't know sources, but the drugs work
4. Marcia Angell replies:  all 3 just assume the drugs are helpful
   the psychiatry profession and pharmaceutical have strong interest in convincing us the drugs work
   Shrinks make 2X as much money prescribing drugs as providing talk therapy
   the point is to be careful until it is clear that the benefits outweigh the harms.

DSM

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/jul/14/illusions-of-psychiatry/?pagination=false

1. paragraph 1-5 in my article in the last issue - through - psychiatry became the darling of the pharmaceutical industry, which soon made its gratitude tangible.  Mauricio and  Brandon   Meds - doctors   Eisenberg and ADD got out of Freudian view.  drugs into'd in the 50s and by the 80s the focus was set .... yippie for science .... Melvin Sebastian <-- the culprit  
2. paragraph 5-9 In the late 1970s, the psychiatric profession struck back—hard. -through-
   The DSM-IV sold over a million copies.    Raymond:   re-medicalized psychiatry.  embraced the biological model ....  upped shrinks among the many who "talk" .... DSM iii radically diff from DSM ii     1980 265 diagnoses.    The "go to" book.    brings consistency.   funny part:   was to be more reliable, but none are really backed up by scientific studies.   
3. paragraph 9-13 Not only did the DSM become the bible of psychiatry - through -
   the second block quote in paragraph 13 which ends with "provided a moral authority"  Aysia   no  basis for it as psychiatry started grwoing, DSM got bigger in # and in popularity.   drug intensive.   drug co's w "hand in everything."  Key opinion leaders.   
4. paragraph 13- 15 In addition to the money spent on the psychiatric profession - through -
   As they multiply with each edition of the DSM, what are we to make of them    Kyle  $$$$ Eli LIlly  550,000    etc ....   Shrinks who use drugs = 180/hour vs. one for talk therefore they make more money    drugs vary but not much.  
5. paragraph 15 -18  As for the medications themselves - through -
   It looks as though it will be harder and harder to be normal.     Zack and steven .... handful of umbrella categories, subjective bsis ffor choosing one cat over another.    create as many cats as possible to ID as many diseases as possible .... bonanza    .
6. paragraph 18 - 22  Even Allen Frances, chair of the DSM-IV task force, is highly critical - through  - states will save money by shifting welfare costs to the federal government.-  Jesus and Gyzelle  expanding the DSM ... more $$ for bigpharma.   push for expansion was cronyism ....   juv bi polar multiplied 40x between 1992 - 2004.  Autism went from 1 in 500 to 1 in 90.      
7. paragraph 22 - 26  One would be hard pressed - through -
   just as companies are prohibited from marketing them off-label.    many shrinks RX non-labelled drugs .... .
8. paragraph 27 - 29 : Tabor
   two books are pwrful indictments of psychiatric practice
   "frenzy" of diagnosis
   overuse of drugs - sometimes devastating side effects
   many conflicts of interest
   maybe the "price" to relieve suffering is loss of brain tissue (!)
   especially need to rethink the way we treat children
   time honored medical dictum:  "Do no harm."

Alway's Loved this Speech.

It's probably just as relevant today as it was upon release. Enjoy

Line these up!

1. movies frames of reference  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id8WJSsSPZ0
   
2. James Cagney "The Gallant Hours"  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2wye37sZiQ 
3. http://www.ted.com/talks/devdutt_pattanaik.html
4. Pat Pattison - we sing in groups:  coursera
5. and for Eternal ... Spotless Mind person  http://eng.lmr.cc/essence.html 

Qs U can ask yrself for yr project Due Sept 3

1. how do we know what we know
2. how does what we know show
3. how can we learn what we don't know
4. how do patterns-of-knowing get into conflict?  who wins?
5. how do patterns-of-knowing break down and synthesize each other?  what loses?
6. do we know as scientists or know as believers?  do those methods of knowing fight?
7. what do we know when we are born?  awareness?
   is that knowing the ONLY knowing that is first-hand, i.e., not taught?
   can we return to it once we have an arsenal of instincts?
   is it innocence?
8. do men know the world in one way, women in another
9. do people of different races know the world one way, and do the gender roles transfer flipped or transfer parallel
10. do we learn as we age - or do we unlearn?  Did Jim Carrey and whatps-her-name learn in "Eternal Sunshine" or unlearn?  Can we learn to unlearn?
11. what is the difference between intelligence and wisdom?