are you sure about that?

Sourced from this website: https://aeon.co/essays What is gender? This is a question that cuts to the very heart of feminist theory and practice, and is pivotal to current debates in social justice activism about class, identity and privilege. In everyday conversation, the word ‘gender’ is a synonym for what would more accurately be referred to as ‘sex’. Perhaps due to a vague squeamishness about uttering a word that also describes sexual intercourse, the word ‘gender’ is now euphemistically used to refer to the biological fact of whether a person is female or male, saving us all the mild embarrassment of having to invoke, however indirectly, the bodily organs and processes that this bifurcation entails. The word ‘gender’ originally had a purely grammatical meaning in languages that classify their nouns as masculine, feminine or neuter. But since at least the 1960s, the word has taken on another meaning, allowing us to make a distinction between sex and gender. For feminists, ...

  This article is sourced from:    https://theoccupiedtimes.org Socially, the dual strategies of exalting consumerism and increasing control have been central to the neoliberal project. Consumerism and control can be viewed as opposite sides of the same coin. People are encouraged to aspire to ever greater levels of conspicuous consumption, modelled after the lifestyles of a celebrity elite that is plastered all over the media and broadcast into everyone’s living room. Shopping, which was once a means to an end, has been transformed into the UK’s favourite leisure pursuit. At the same time, however, more and more people are excluded from the workforce (sometimes forever) by the movement of industry to areas of cheaper labour, and many others are stuck in low paid work with no prospect of advancement. Large portions of the population are only able to achieve the widely advertised ‘ideal’ lifestyle through illegal means. A highly unequal, consumer-oriented society ent...

This comic from the Oatmeal illustrates how we're missing the mark on happiness. I am not happy

Click on the link for more. There is a video at the end of the article that explains the philosophy of Kintsugi http://makezine.com/2015/08/17/kintsugi-japanese-art-recognizing-beauty-broken-things/

Psychotherapy, Science or Art? I wanted to add to the debate about evidence based practice (EBP) as science. I do not see EBP as a scientific approach to what works in psychotherapy, and counselling. I understand science to be a rigorous testing of hypotheses to the point of failure or repeated confirmation. This testing of hypotheses are carried out in many laboratories or situations around the world until the scientific community can predict the outcome. A simple example would be where scientists test a nut and bolt that keep motor car wheels from falling off in most motoring situation. They would also test a drug to ensure that when given to a person it will have the desired outcome. I won’t begin to tackle the lack of science in the use of psychotropic medication. Scientists will not rest on their laurels. They will continue to explore and challenge hypothesis based on changing technology and new materials. Evidence Based Practice as I understand it is based more on a na...