Here's a post summarizing the original versions of seven popular fairy tales. Some gory stuff, indeed: What is creepier than kids, parents, evilness, sorceresses, wolves, and cannibalism? Before the stories were ripped from their horror roots, they were just right for scary, gory films. The early days of fairy tales…
Here's a heartwarming story about some of the insanity that followed in the wake of 9/11. We see this kind of thing all the time, in the news, on tv shows, in movies. A mistake compounded into tragedy by the utter fear and panic induced under extreme conditions. One could…
I understand that we are all a bit nervous now that a persona named "Mark Tiedemann" has seemingly come out of nowhere to take over Jason Rayl's body. I'm hoping that Jason didn't go down without a fight because I did enjoy many of Jason's posts. Actually, I've known Mark…
But what’s puzzlin’ you is the nature of my game... That’s about the only song I can stand to listen to the Rolling Stones do. Musically, thematically, it all comes together for them. It’s perfect. Beyond that, while I certaiinly like a lot of their songs, I cannot abide listening…
I recently met a person who just can’t shut up. She chatters endlessly, which wears me out. I have discussed her tendency to dominate conversations with other people; they have noted the same way about her. She rarely allows other people a chance to take a turn speaking during conversations.
All of us dread this woman’s invitations to spend time with us. Perhaps she suspects that we don’t like something about her personality, which is not true: she is truly an intelligent and kind-hearted person. The problem is only the manner in which she presents herself through conversation. She has issues related to a sub-field of speech therapy called “pragmatics.”
Pragmatics refers to both non-verbal and verbal aspects of communication – volume, turn taking, eye contact, attention, asking and answering questions and understanding social boundaries during conversation.
I can’t imagine anyone else spending much time with this person. Perhaps, someday, she might (if she hasn’t already) seek out a therapist as a result of her social isolation. It also occurs to me, however, that she might benefit much more from seeing a speech therapist than a psychologist. I wonder whether psychologists are even trained to identify this serious problem in the artificial confines of a therapist’s office. It’s out in the real world where this woman seems to express every thought occurs to her, driving others away in the process.
While she is unintentionally driving others away with her chatter, this woman seems to put her energy into ever higher …
