Inside Joke ...

... or "Things that only make sense to me" or "Soundbites of a Semester".

I've had so many posts rolling around in my head that I've decided I better get a couple out before my carefully planned eloquence dribbles out my ears while I sleep. This one came to me while studying for finals in December.

I took out my binder that houses all the readings we had for "LDS Perspectives in Psychology"- a class about how LDS thought and mainstream psychology collide and sometimes fight with each other. When I say that, the next question is usually "Like what?" Well, like... our last unit was about suffering, and how mainstream psychology generally promotes "the good life"- that is, most theoretical approaches frame suffering in the "pleasure is good, pain is bad, so therefore we must do everything to get rid of the pain" approach. So we read about that. And then we read other things. Usually articles from church people or at the least, BYU professors, which say things like "Our suffering can bring us closer to God" or "sometimes there are important lessons to be learned from our trials." Point being, we shouldn't just be looking for ways to eliminate struggling because it means something; we're meant to have hard times.

I think my professor would be ashamed of my simplification of the unit, but there it is. We had a unit on Psychology as a hard science (or not), the idea of human agency, identity and relationships, sexuality, and psychotherapy and psychopharmacology. So yeah. It was kind of a class of opposing viewpoints. Or, a classic "find similarities and differences between x and y" kind of thing.

In class, I tried to take notes to keep myself occupied (the class met for 2.5 hours on Thursday nights) and to help myself remember material. While I was studying, I came to quite a few pages, covered in notes scrawled in various colors (I use one color for when I read it at home before class, one color for class notes, and one color for when I review for a test. I am a little ... overzealous that way.) Anyway.

Most of my notes make sense. Things like "The values of psychotherapists impact clients." Some make sense if I or you try hard enough to understand. Like: "Truth should inform method- but we have developed our method and then sought truth. What kind of truth is that? A thermometer cannot measure height."

Then there are several notations that don't make sense to the outside world, or at least not the sense the class wanted you to get, when taken out of context.

Things like:
"You can both follow the gospel, but your relationship is screwed up."
"Streams- you and it are different, and a non-moving stream is a pond."
"There are no immaterial truths in Hebrew"
"Psych is picture thinking- learning is picture management."
"Hebrew time is the chord of Dr. Talbot"
"Events are parts of rhythms, people do not independently exist."
"Do we treat everything as a nail?"
"Empirical studies affirm the consequent."
"Self-confidence postpones the decision between faith and despair."
"Moral schizophrenia = immorality."
"Lettuce lady- didn't eat salad until she forgave mother."

And then there are the things that don't make sense even to me. Things that I wrote, but I don't remember why. Like:
"A dalmatian is a type of dog, dog is a type of dalmatian."
"To Christ, you are the neighbor, not the other guy."
"Heroes go to bed together- except for 3rd parties."
"What syllogism is it the conclusion of? (Turtles!)"

And my personal favorite: "Prostitution pays for cheeseburgers."

Prostitution pays for cheeseburgers? I spent like 20 minutes racking my brain trying to think of what our professor could possibly have been referring to when he said that. And I still have no idea. So there you have it: prostitution pays for cheeseburgers, and if you want the unabridged version, you'll have to take Psych 353. And then explain it to me so I can stop wondering. K, thanks.

-mollie

p.s.- just for the record, I really did learn a ton in this class. Or at least it made me think a lot.