Thursday, February 17, 2011 at 9:01AM speaking in tongues
It would appear that my new hobby is going to be paleontological speech analysis. That is a means of breaking down written communication from disorganized schizophrenics and decoding the actual meaning of the missive. It is a technique and theory that has fallen by the wayside over the past 30 years. Once upon a time, back when clinicians were trying to talk to people with schizophrenia rather than just manage them, many used it.
To say it is labor intensive is an understatement. The person (who-shall-remain-unnamed) who showed me the bare bones of doing it and suggested that I study how to do it did so because of my overweening interest in trying to study and understand the world and society around me. Because of the way that communication is being used, especially on the Internet and in emails, and because that right now - society carries the dual diagnosis of disorganized schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder, it is effecting how people communicate.
If you are familiar at all with the written communication styles of a disorganized schizophrenic, keep that in mind while you read the various posts and status updates on the various social sites. There is almost a perfect mimicry of the communication style in, I would say, about 75% of the material posted. That doesn't necessarily mean these people are schizophrenic, but they are reflecting a state of social mind, a shared social mind.
A schizophrenic society can lend to its members schizophrenic tendencies and traits because that is what is considered normal. The borderline bits come in with the social struggle for identity and roles that so many people are looking to find.
Total sidetrack.
I just got my consignment report for some of the local bookstores that carry of my books. It is just the weirdest thing that the few books of mine that are in English barely sell but they cannot keep the French and Spanish versions in stock. Then again, that is nothing unusual. Of the seven books that have been published only one has been in English and most of my audience is from the Middle East and Latin America. It's just a small bit of oddity. I wish the one collection that was in Urdu were still in print. I don't even have a copy of that one.
Anyway.
It's a pokey day. Yesterday, I was on the go from 4am to 10:30pm, of which a grand total of 45 minutes was spent in the house. MK is very unhappy with me. Unhappier still that I left this morning to go to the café because I woke up late and was feeling very sluggish and knew that if I stayed in I would get no work done at all. So here I am, coffeeing up for the day. I promised her I would be back by lunchtime so she would be able to go out in the warm weather. Of course, I didn't tell her that I have to meet someone at 5 for a checker game. Hopefully she will tire herself out and not mind too much. Particularly as I am filming on the Executioner in the studio tonight.
I am rambling.
Back to paleontological speech. The reason one engages in this analysis is that despite the fact that the hallmark of disorganized schizophrenia is disorganized thinking that leads to a style of written communication that, while it makes no sense, it carries the feeling of possessing sense. The analysis allows the other person to decode the communication and discover the logic and emotion that is contained within. From there one can also begin to deduce what the meaning would have been had the missive contained logic and order.
I forgot the term "moral maturity" last night in teaching the workshop portion that includes the discussion of evil, oh well.
Oh my god, my mind is a bit messy and disorganized today. I am in desperate need of coffee and am going to have to sit on myself a bit to get work done.
Frankly, I would rather be in a ball gown stumbling around the set and getting deeper into the filming.
c.2011 Cassandra Tribe. All Rights Reserved.





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