Confessions of a Book-a-holic

My name is Kara, and I'm addicted to books. I seriously have a problem... if you want to call it that. Truthfully, my only problem is finding a place to put them all XD For Christmas I got some of the Barnes and Noble hard cover classics, they're beautiful. They have leather covers, gold or silver lettering, designs on the front and back cover, and gold or silver pages. I also got a rather interesting book on victorian England called What Jane Austen ate and Charles Dickens Knew, and I got a gift card to Barnes and Nobles, so I went and got 3 more books XD I'm waiting for my room's floor to collapse under the weight of all my books. Anyone else have this problem?

Is Empathy built into the human psyche?

I think the most plausible cause of empathy is that it is something that is hardwired into our brains from birth. Many psychologists believe that many higher mammals possess the ability to empathize with another of the same species. It seems that when we see another person in pain several parts of the brain respond. Not only do we recognize that the person is in pain, but the part of the brain that responds to personal pain becomes active. It means that we are somewhat reliving that type of pain vicariously through the other person. This phenomenon is called mirroring, and is has been documented in both kids and adults. A study done by Jean Decety, a neurologist, showed kids from seven to twelve pictures of people getting hurt, and the part of the brain that responded the strongest was the area that related to feeling pain within their own bodies. The doctors also showed the kids pictures of people purposely inflicting pain on others, and when the kids saw these, additional regions lit up that the doctors believe pertain to morals and self-control. This study shows that empathy, by activating a variety of regions, involves a variety of emotions and factors.

Some people believe that empathy is mainly a taugh emotion and something that isn't inately within us. Now, we must turn to the animal kingdom to prove them at least partly wrong. In the 1960s, a series of studies based on emotional and psychological responses were done using rhesus monkeys (such as the famous bonding study where a wire monkey replaced the mother). In this study fifteen monkeys were placed in cages next to each other with two chains; everytime they pulled a chain, food came out, but one chain gave twice as much food. The scientists tweaked it, so that the chain that gave more food also shocked the monkey in the next cage. The monkeys that could possibly deliver the shock, could see the other in pain, and soon, most of the moneys began to take the lesser food amount and some starved themselves, so they wouldn't need to pull the chain with more food. Another study gave mice a chemical that made them have stomach pains, the unaffected mice in the cage with them began to become aggitate and respond to the other's pain. Does this show that animals can be empathetic without ever "learning" it? Beings that are considered lower than humans, can experience empathy without being taught, so are we born with the same wiring?

There is a psychologic disorder called conduct disorder that basically causes the kids to lash out, commit criminal acts, lie for no reason, and act severely aggressive while not showing remorse or empathy. According to recent studies, this may actually be the opposite; they may react aggressively because they feel another person's pain too strongly and don't have the tools to behave appropriately. Dr. Decety repeated his study with the pictures on older teens who had conduct disorder, which should have shown that the areas of the brain that lit up with normal kids wouldn't with kids with CD. The area of the brain that felt the person's pain from a first-person point of view, lit up, but much stronger than the normal kids. A major difference was that the part that was linked to morals and self-control were dim. A possible scenario resulting from these results may be that the kids with CD act aggressively because of the strong negative response they get from seeing others in pain, but lack the self-control and moral reasoning to react like normal children.

It seems that even people who lack the ability to "learn" and act on morals are able to feel empathy even though they can't express it. Animals who aren't told by their parents what empathy is or how to express it, seem to show it towards others of their species. Kids, who are young enough to not be severely affected by society, have the part of the brain that feels pain as well as the moral reasoning area light up upon seeing others hurt. Does this show that empathy is hard wired into our brains through our evolutionary development? Or do we still need to learn how to deal with these emotions to be able to truly feel empathy?

My cause.... Proteus Syndrome

This is a movie I made for my chemistry final project back in sophmore year of high school. I saw a show about the elephant man and felt that I needed to tell more people about this condition. My video is a little long, but I've had over 20,000 hits, so I know that I've reached 20,000 people.

Why Feel Empathetic?

Empathy, as stated a few posts back, is the ability for one to feel/understand the pain of others without experiencing it themselves. The debate over what causes one to feel empathy has been going on for years. Do we learn to be empathetic or is it an instinct? Many psychiatrists believe that empathy is something that is hardwired into our brains. Our brains have a mechanism built in that allows us to control and express our emotions without becoming violent or overly emotional, the ability to understand one's pain without feeling it comes from this area. They also believe that because we have nerves that signal how we react to pain as well as being able to understand what pain is. These duel purpose nerves allow us to understand how another person feels. http://www.parentingscience.com/empathy-and-the-brain.html Some people believe that empathy is moreso a moral concept. Though we have feelings and can understand what the other person may feel, we don't act on it. As young children, when we do something bad like make a friend cry, our parents or teacher says, "Think about how they must feel." Does this cause and effect cause us to develop the emotion empathy? Do we learn how to feel empathetic by having mean things done to us? How can we understand how it feels to get shoved by your friend unless you've been shoved? http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam032/99029669.pdf

Frans de Waal has a simpler explanation for empathy. You know how when you hear hysterical laughter, you begin to laugh too? Or when someone yawns and the whole class begins to yawn? De Waal basically says that empathy is a social concept that stems from the herd instinct. We are able to feel what others feel to ensure our survival. Sensing someone else's sadness or anger may help us when we are later in that situation and be able to survive and come out unscathed. It may sound a little far fetched, but it seems that animals and humans are able to sync their bodies to ensure survival and maybe learn from another's experience. (I got this off Academic Search Premier, the article is called "The Empathy Instinct" by Frans de Waal from Discover Maganzine's October 2009 issue)

All You Need Is Love

The other day I was delighted to hear that the Marriage Equality Bill had been approved by the NJ committee and is going to move to the senate. I'm straight, but I have quite a few friends from high school who are gay. On facebook, I'm a fan of Garden State Equality. I would love to see this come into law, and finally see all of my friend marry who they feel is the right one. People say that they don't understand it and that's why they oppose it, but I just don't understand that. To me, love is love. If you can understand how you love your spouse or you girlfriend or boyfriend, you can understand how they feel. It doesn't matter what gender you love, it matters that the love is there. Some people think that gay couples shouldn't be allowed to adopt, I think that's wrong. If a straight couple can adopt and love it, a gay couple can adopt and love the child. They may even love them "more" because they can't have their own with their partner like a straight couple possibly could. It may be odd to some now, but how can we begin to breed tolerance and bring up our own children that way if we still tell those people that what they think or feel is wrong? Everyone should open their hearts and minds to love, and realize that no matter how it manifests, it's the same.

Empathy

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, empathy is a noun that comes from "the Greek empatheia, which means passion, and the word empathes, which means emotional. Around 1850 it gained its modern definition, which is "the imaginative projection of a subjective state into an object so that the object appears to be infused with it" or, the more common definition, "the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner; also : the capacity for this". http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/empathy

Encyclopedia Britanica has a slightly different definition, but it sounds a bit more like the normal definition: "the ability to imagine oneself in another’s place and understand the other’s feelings, desires, ideas, and actions. It is a term coined in the early 20th century, equivalent to the German Einfühlung and modeled on 'sympathy.' " http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/186011/empathy

Basically, it is the ability for a person to feel what someone else feels without necessarily experiencing what they have. What I find interesting is that both sides have a different origin for the word even though both are rather credible sources.

"I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another." -Thomas Jefferson

I'm never really sure why people do good things for others. Some people believe that it's their duty as a "good christian" to do good things for others as Jesus did. Others are raised knowing that they should do good things for others and will automatically help someone carrying something heavy. Some people selfishly help others, how selfishly? They do good things because they like the feeling they get from doing good, not for the other person. Some people seem to do it for the recognition and glory of being the humanitarian. Others quietly donate to causes they believe in and genuinely just want to make life better for others. Some people donate or get involved with a particular cause because it's personal to them. One of the main examples I can think of is Michael Jackson, he donated and got involved with helping kids because he had a crappy childhood. Occasionally, there are die hard believers in karma who do good things because they believe it'll come back to them in the future. There are an infinite number of reasons for people to do good.

Creative Constipation

I have writer's block to the extreme. I have several blog entries left to do, comments to write, an essay on German Mathematicians, and two personal stories to work on that I've put on the backburner since school started. I'm not sure what to do as of now. I'm going to do the German mathematicians thing over the weekend, but the stories I'm having issues with. Work on an old one or continue with the newer one? I sent in a sniplet from the newer one to the school's literary magazine, Calyx. I don't know if they'll accept it though, it's kinda long and kinda depressingly dark. Oh well, I like it, and I guess that's what matters. Any ideas as to how to get past writer's block?

Their Faces on Christmas Morning

Ah, Christmas time. Everywhere you go people are putting up the Christmas Tree and decorating the house. At school they've begun to decorate as well by putting up wreaths and trees in pretty much every building. On my morning freedom run from calculus the other day, I discovered that the tree by the cafeteria actually had paper ornaments with names and information on them. I quickly realized it was a giving tree, so I plucked one of the ornaments off and took it home. It was for a little girl age 8, who wanted a toy for christmas. All the kids on the giving tree are from West Caldwell (if I remember correctly), and it's so close to the school, it's depressing. I came back a few days later, and a whole bunch of the paper ornaments are gone. I'd like to think people took them to buy the gifts for the kids and not blown away by the wind. I brought the paper home to my mom and of course she was happy to help supply a kid with a good Christmas and actually wanted to buy multiple toys and some clothes for her as well XD.

I went to church on Sunday (chewing through the restraints as they dragged me inside) and low and behold there was ANOTHER giving tree. I was excited. My family and I have always taken a tag from the tree and bought something for a kid without a christmas. I had to wait until after church was over to pick up a tag because we were running late (blame my mom's uncooperative hair). I came out after it was over, and it was a mob scene! There was a huge swarm of people around the giving tree grabbing tags right and left. I stuck my arm in and grabbed whatever I could get, and I got a tag with a 4 year old girl who wanted a Best Friend's Club Doll for Christmas. It's amazing how around the holidays people give even if they may not normally have the means for it. My mom bought a ton for those 2 kids, so I hope they have a good Christmas. If possible, who ever reads this, pick up a tag from the giving tree in the cafeteria or academic building and help make someone's Christmas special.

Welcome to my blog =3

Hey, I'm Kara Jorgensen. I'm a freshman at Caldwell College. I started this blog because I had to make one for an assignment for Writing Power (aka English). My first few posts are probably just going to be this writing power assignment, but after that, I'll probably get into posting about daily life and my writing. Okay... well. Yeah, that's it. Enjoy