Thomas Ramey Watson

teaching

Bannon, Deconstruction, v. meaningful readings of texts and life

Steve Bannon’s love of Deconstructionism has got me thinking that a good dose of traditional sign theory, which dominated Western culture for centuries, would be in order, even if people are not believers. It argues that we can make sense of texts by careful readings, believing that they–and by extension, our lives–have meaning. When I …

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Our Brains Are Guided More By Empathy Than Selfishness

As the year winds to a close, gifts and giving are foremost in many people’s minds. And now, two new neuroscience studies suggest that our brains prompt us to act more like Santa than Scrooge. In one study, researchers scanned participants’ brains to identify connections between generous behavior and brain activity. In the other, scientists …

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What Sex Therapists Tell People Whose Partners Don’t Want Sex

Being in a relationship with someone who’s disinterested in sex can feel incredibly lonely. A discrepancy in desire is more common than most people realize, though. What’s the best way to address it with your spouse? Below, sex therapists share the advice they give people with higher sex drives than their partners. More.

New Year’s Thought

A big culprit in so many thorny issues facing us is religious dogma that keeps people from really seeing and from there getting ourselves and others in balance. As long as we remain dogmatic, locked in manacles of the mind, as the poet William Blake termed it, we make everything worse, not just for others …

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The Just World Fallacy Says People Get What They Deserve

If a friend told you his wallet was stolen from his back pocket while he was in a strange city, what would you think? You might feel sorry for him and offer him sympathy, but you may also think, “He shouldn’t have been carrying his wallet in his back pocket in a strange place.” Though …

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This Yogi Is Discussing Mental Health In The Most Stunning Way

Williams started practicing yoga after she was diagnosed with a constellation of mental health disorders that she believes stem from an incident in 2013 in which her infant son, Silas stopped breathing and had to be revived. “He basically died and came back to life,” Williams told The Huffington Post. Though her son returned to …

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